Crest Media Internet Marketing, Inc.

Recapping & reblogging featured stories from crestmediainc.com/blog & a select few other Business, Web Design and Internet Marketing sites.

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Achieving Ranking Diversity with SEO and PPC (w/VIDEOS)

Having served a diverse client base in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas, we consider ourselves very fortunate for two main reasons when we get to speak with small and medium sized business owners about search engine marketing. The primary reason we are fortunate, is that even if business owners don’t sign up with us, we still use these meeting opportunities to educate business owners on some details about digital marketing they may not have previously understood. The second reason we consider ourselves fortunate for these opportunities, is because it gives us a chance to learn about what the average business owner knows about strategies like SEO and PPC. Some perceptions we hear are pretty much what we’d expect, some of what we hear is a little funny and even some of it is downright shocking!

Possibly one of the most surprising things we hear from business owners, is the false notion that organic Search Engine Optimization and PPC is an “either, or” proposition, meaning they can only do one or the other, but not both. Turns out that this line of thinking couldn’t be further from the truth, and is also dangerously shortsighted for anyone looking for long term successes with their internet marketing campaign. At the very least, for businesses that are relatively new to internet marketing, its actually preferable to do both, because immediacy and diversity in a business’ search engine presence ultimately will net them more traffic and a better conversion rate. But established brands can benefit from doing both as well.

Why SEO?

One analogy we like to use when speaking with Los Angeles area business owners is to think of their business like an Olympic athlete and the industry in which the business functions is like the sporting event in which the Olympic athlete competes. Regardless of the event in which the athlete is entered, that athlete still trains for relying on quick bursts of energy, as well as endurance. SEO is like endurance exercises that keeps the business competitive in the digital world over their rivals for an extended period of time. If you stop doing SEO, your competition eventually surpasses your search engine rankings and ultimately gets your customers.

Related Video: https://youtu.be/WhMQSgFTqkU

Ideally, a business owner should plan to do SEO for as long as they plan to stay in business. Surely, how SEO is done for business websites will most definitely change over time, but the fact that it needs to be done consistently, is very much an unchanging rule for successful digital marketing.

Why PPC?

The biggest misnomer we hear about pay per click, is that when the business owner already understands the need and importance of doing SEO, the idea of paying for a Google search results listing seems almost wasteful. When an SEO campaign is working well for a long time and little needs to be updated within the campaign, this may be true. However, the business world in general is ever-changing in many capacities and meeting customer needs is a very dynamic process as well.

Related Video: https://youtu.be/jyVfz2iWS1E

Its been our experience that sometimes, Orange County business owners don’t build their websites with SEO in mind, but are depending on marketing results right away. Sometimes, they’re offering seasonal & time-sensitive deals to their customers that may not work within an SEO campaign where time is among the biggest variables. And sometimes, a more saturated presence in search results by way of listings in the paid and organic sections, establishes more trust among a company’s prospective customers. Needless to say, PPC can quickly and easily enhance most SEO campaigns by diversifying search results presence.

Now that you can see how SEO and PPC can actually work well together, it might be time to consider updating your digital marketing strategy to include both, if you haven’t already. Of course, there are no rules that dictate this will work for every business, but as we ask all of the Los Angeles and Orange County area business owners we meet, if you see room for improvement in your strategy and flawed strategies don’t work for you, why not consider doing something different?

Originally Posted: http://www.crestmediainc.com/blog/achieving-ranking-diversity-with-seo-and-ppc/

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Beyond SEO: How To Engage Potential Customers With Viral Marketing [w/VIDEOS]

For anyone who’s done even the most cursory of research into digital marketing, the power of SEO as a lead development resource is indisputable. Nearly everyone in the business world knows that ranking well in Google, Bing & Yahoo for competitive and industry-relevant search queries is of paramount importance for getting your firm in front of potential clients. But one thing that thoughtful and forward-thinking internet marketers have learned from savvy consumers over the last few years, is that it takes more than being in front of potential clients in order to earn business from them.

The simple fact of the matter is that due to this realization, webmasters and business owners have to go beyond simply obtaining good rankings, in order to turn increasingly social media-savvy consumers into actual clients & eventually, brand advocates. A word of caution: we don’t advise shifting your company’s marketing focus away from SEO, but rather suggest how to use trusted social media agency guidelines for SEO and viral marketing to their full potential.

Starting With SEO

As we stated above, SEO is critical to obtaining good rankings & the initial push in visibility to your company’s prospective clients. For businesses still looking to establish their brand in the regional and national marketplace, having strong placement in search engines is as crucial now, as having a yellow pages ad, 40 years ago. For established brands, poor or no SEO means no visibility for consumers who are searching for a product or service, as opposed to the brands providing those products & services.

Related Video: https://youtu.be/s4XYKsVPBuk

The main difference between phone books of 40 years ago and present day search engines, is that visibility now starts with and depends on the quality of website content relating to your product & service, as well as your website’s “digital reputation” among search engine-trusted resources. Yes, its a new layer of complexity, but imagine how much better a phone book would have been, had they graded businesses based on expertise, instead of ad budget.

Incorporating Viral Marketing

Now that you’ve made your prospective customers aware of who you are, where you are and what you offer, by way of some thoughtful & lasting SEO techniques, its time to tell them why they should come to you for the products & services you offer. This happens by way of engaging consumers on various social channels with content of various types that goes above & beyond what your website already offers.

Related Video: https://youtu.be/WpY1tmy71Eo

If you’re strapped for new content ideas, they can vary greatly from the essential details of your firm and what it offers. Viral content can include anecdotes about previous customer experiences, breaking news in your industry, videos & graphics that show expanded information on your products or services and posts that include a little humor related to what your company does. At the forefront of this content strategy, should be some creativity, cleverness & wit not fully utilized by your competitors. This defines a piece of content’s “virality” or its potential for how frequently and how fast it gets liked and shared.

Why Its Important to Do Both

If, thus far, you’ve invested a fair amount of time in internet marketing and you’re not producing the leads your business needs in order to accel past the competition, its likely time to consider a new approach. Even if competitors are not using social media and viral content to market to prospective customers, its dangerous to assume they never will. And if they already are, they’re engaging segments of your market that you aren’t.

Beyond that, consumers now are smarter and more well-informed than they ever have been before. With nearly the entire internet being as close as their smart phones, telling them you’re the best doesn’t cut it anymore. You have to show them evidence as to why you’re the best on the channels where they most frequently engage new business and lead them down the path from general consumer to brand follower, to dedicated customer & finally, an advocate for your brand.

If this sounds like a massive undertaking for your company, or you simply don’t know where to begin, take comfort in the fact that you & many other businesses are not alone. Utilizing a forward-thinking social media agency like ours can put your business on the path to engaging digital content that produces real leads, so why not contact us for a free consultation? You could find yourself quite surprised by what we have to offer in terms of viral content strategy.

Originally posted: http://www.crestmediainc.com/blog/beyond-seo-how-to-engage-potential-customers-with-viral-marketing-wvideos/

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Facebook Home For Android: Our Full Recap

Yesterday, Facebook held their highly anticipated Facebook Android event.Social media marketing gurus and mobile app developers alike were excited to see what Mark Zuckerberg & Co. had to announce. Most were speculating that the event would at least reveal some sort of noteworthy update to their mobile app, or possibly even a Facebook-specific phone, as has been the assumption for previous Facebook Android events. As it turns out, the event revealed both, but left some observers still feeling a little underwhelmed.

Facebook “Home” For Android

The initial announcement of the event focused on a mobile app upgrade called Facebook Home, a new way for Android users to fully integrate Facebook into their mobile experience, by incorporating a family of timeline, chat, check-in and event apps into the Android interface. Android users will be able to access & use Facebook’s key mobile components as if it was part of the phone’s operating system and within other running applications, as opposed to only within the Facebook app. By all accounts, the new version of Facebook mobile for Android is clean, seamless and very fluid in its integration with other Android apps and functions, but poses some obvious challenges to users who want to use their device independent of Facebook. (More on this, below.)

Facebook’s “Almost Proprietary” Phone

Secondary to the announcement of Facebook Home for Android, Zuckerberg announced the release of the first device to be preloaded with and optimized for Facebook Home (as well as Instagram), the HTC First. The device (as well as the app update) will be available on April 12th and will be exclusive to AT&T. Zuckerberg also sought to clarify that something like the Facebook Home experience would eventually be available to iPhone/iOS users, but noted that the open environment of the Android platform lent itself to a launch there first. While its not a truly “Facebook-driven” device, anyone familiar with the Touch, HTC’s previous Facebook-centric phone, could regard this as the next logical phase of evolution towards such a device.

Criticisms and Summary

While it is impossible to contest the influence of Facebook on both social media and mobile app development, most industry pundits have mixed reviews on the announcements. The app update seems to be little more than a highly stylized Android Launcher, that poses functionality issues for Android users who wish to use apps and components of their devices independent of Facebook. Some have noted the additional steps that would be needed to perform once 1-touch commands, like a Google search.

While the possibilities of using Facebook ads independent of the Facebook apps sounds appealing to social media marketing experts, the prevailing criticism on the user side is that it creates new privacy issues, as Facebook Home would be tracking all activity on the device in order to serve up ads anywhere within the platform. Some are saying that the new collection of apps is “too much Facebook” unless you really like Facebook, while others are saying that the app collection only being on 6 supported Android devices isn’t really making Facebook a “Home” to all Android users. Primary criticism of the phone is that its still not a true “Facebook phone”.

Regardless of where Facebook takes their mobile strategy next, the true test of their successes will always lie with the creativity of marketers, developers & most importantly, their users. One thing to be sure of, is that as mobile app development and social media evolve, finding the middle ground between user intent, marketing needs and mobile development advances will be where all parties find the most shared success. What are your thoughts on the Facebook Home for Android announcement? Let us know in the comments section, below.

Originally posted: http://www.crestmediainc.com/blog/facebook-home-for-android-recap/

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3 Tools Designed to Grow Customer Relationships - Crest Media Inc

Looking at the statistics for new company start-ups can be a little depressing. The sad truth is that most new companies never stick around for the two or three year anniversary and there are many different reasons for this unsettling fact. The most common reasons for new business failure are not having the proper resources be they financial or human based and not having a strong market. The latter of the two being even more difficult in some of the more crowded industries.

Being able to stand out amongst the crowd and get those much needed customers is often much more difficult than originally perceived, but building customer relationships is one challenge that new businesses must be able to conquer if they want to survive.

Building Customer Relationships In the Modern World

In most industries, a business must be able to establish trust before customers start lining up to buy. This often sought after trust can easily be attained by creating relationships with your current and future customers. Luckily there are quite a few great tools that will help you do just that in today’s fast paced digital world.

Bringing Social Media Into Your Corner

There is obviously no doubt that social media has become a huge marketing potential. Businesses who are taking part in social media are seeing nice returns on their social media investments, but there is one common problem with the way social media works. It happens outside of an Internet property that you control. Being able to bring social media to your own website can have huge advantages in building customer relationships. Your visitors will be more likely to stick around and visitors who stick around are often more likely to make a purchase.

Spot.im is just one example of how businesses can apply the basic social media structure to their entire website. It brings all of the popular social media offerings like: news feeds, chat, comments and private messaging right to your website.

Keeping Track of Multiple Social Media Accounts

These days it seems as if there is a new social media outlet popping up every single day and most businesses already have multiple active social media accounts. Keeping track of all these accounts can be a little hectic to say the least. Nimble, a popular service helps to combine them all into one easy to manage place making it much easier to keep track of every active social media account.

Keeping Bounce Rates Low

Bounce rates are simply a way of measuring when a person leaves your website. They will typically tell you how long a person has been on your site but they don’t always tell you why they leave. Knowing this type of information is very important. If you know why people are leaving, then you can correct what is causing them to leave. An easy to use tool called Bounce Exchange can help you determine why people are leaving your website.

See Also: 5 Excellent Ways to Convert Lookers Into Buyers

These three tools are the perfect example of how you can keep people on your website for longer periods of time. This alone can help any new start-up business build customer relationships and survive those first few years.

Read This Article on CrestMediaInc.com

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Overcoming Difficult and Common Content Marketing Problems - Crest Media Inc

There once was a time when the right brand would grow on its own. There was little to no marketing needed and businesses who were lucky enough to experience this type of brand awareness were catapulted to overnight success. Those times are long gone, and today a business must work hard to increase brand awareness through means like SEO, social media ads and content marketing.

There are two things that the consumers of today are looking for in a brand. Consumers are looking for transparency and interaction. Consumers want to know exactly what is going on and they want to be able to share their voice, opinion or personal message with the rest of the world.

The real problem most businesses face is providing consumers with the ability to do these two things, but they are very easy to achieve with content marketing.

Where Do You Begin With Content Marketing?

Creating a content marketing strategy that provides transparency, interaction and good content is not the easiest task in the world. Many businesses quietly sweep the idea under the file cabinets because they simply do not know where to begin. That blank whiteboard that is glaring at you under the florescent lights does not need to be intimidating. You can start by answering the two very simple questions.

Who?

Where?

The who question refers to identifying with your target audience. Choosing the right audience to target is crucial and makes the whole process much easier.

The where question is a little more difficult to understand. It refers to where the majority of your audience is spending their time in the digital world. It could be a web forum, a blog or a social media platform. Finding out where who and where your audience is, is the key to creating a strong content marketing foundation.

Create A Content List and Schedule

The next important step is creating a list of content that needs to be created and a schedule for creating it and finally, releasing it into the wild. The schedule will help you ensure that your content reaches the masses on a continual basis.

Creating the Content

You should now have an excellent foundation for a successful content marketing strategy. The next step is creating the actual content. You are going to need to come to grips with this part. You will need to either pay someone to create the content for you or you will have to dedicate some of your valuable time to make the content yourself. Decide which is more important to you: your time or the cost of hiring a content creator.

The Secret Weapon Against Content Marketing Problems

Regardless of which method you choose to create your content, focus on one thing only: quality. While it may seem like a great idea to get as much content published as humanly possible, this method of mass marketing content usually generates lackluster content that goes nowhere.

High quality content has a huge impact on people and they are much more likely to share it with others. This is exactly what you want to happen and it only happens with quality content that inspires people.

See Also: Effective Content Curation In 4 Easy Steps

Creating the perfect content marketing strategy isn’t that difficult if you apply the previously mentioned ideas to your content marketing pipeline.

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3 Business Website Essentials - Crest Media Inc

Is there a magical formula when it comes to company website essentials? Is there a winning recipe for success? While every single business will have very different needs when it comes to their company website, there are a few essentials that every single business website should have. You could consider these three business website essentials the formula for success and if your company website doesn’t have them, then it is time to add them.

Start With the Message

Every single business website must have some sort of message. Not only is this extremely crucial but the message must also be very clear and concise. Consumers have enough being thrown at them on a daily basis. It can be very difficult to stand out amongst all of this white noise.

Your business website must have a very simple, clear and concise message that is prominently displayed throughout the entire website. The message could be what differentiates your business from the competition or it could be a simple tag line that helps increase brand awareness. Either way, make sure the messaging is clear and concise.

Don’t Forget the Call to Action

Your business website could be the best in the world but without a direct call to action, consumers are not going to know what to do. It may seem silly, but a lot of consumers need a little push to sort of guide them along. Here is a list that highlights some of the more common call to actions that have been proven to be extremely effective.

Request A Quote

Buy Now

Contact Us for More Information

Call Now

These are simple examples that generate proven results time and time again. If your website does not have a call to action, then it should.

Add Some Social Media Integration to Your Business Website

Social media has quickly become a huge part of our world. Just over two billion people not only have social media accounts, but they are very active on those social media accounts as well. This is a huge amount of potential that should not be ignored. Simple social media buttons that allow your visitors to share your content can go a very long way. Without them, your company website is a stagnant place with no social media pulse. Give people the ability to share your content and get more eyes on your message and your call to action.

See Also: 5 Annoying Website Design Practices You Should Avoid

These three simple ideas are often missed. Add them to your website today and watch your traffic grow.

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Why Creating Great Content Should Be the Backbone of Any Link Building Campaign - Crest Media Inc

There are literally thousands of search engine optimization strategies out there, but relatively speaking, only a handful of them have been proven to gather worthwhile results for nearly every website and industry. One of the single most reliable methods to not only build up the reputation of your website but to also improve search engine rankings is commonly known as link building.

Link building can definitely be extremely advantageous when done correctly and it can also become extremely detrimental to the overall livelihood of your website. This brings up the question: What is the single best way to build links that will help push your website to the top?

In the Beginning

Back in its infancy, link building was a fairly simple and straightforward process. You could build links anyway you wanted to. In fact, the more the better. People quickly learned how to build thousands of links in a matter of minutes using automated processes.

It became all too easy to build links, but the all mighty Google quickly caught on to these tactics and penalties were unleashed upon the Internet like a hoard of biblical locusts. The penalties were designed to strip a top ranking website from its precious top five position and send it plundering down to a deep, dark pit where no human would ever find it again.

Websites and businesses suffered big time. Google is still dealing out these penalties to this day and more and more websites are suffering, but only because these websites have built links the wrong way.

Quality Makes the Most Sense

Fighting the urge to gather as many links as possible is tough, but it is the only way to successfully create a link building campaign. Google really does not care one single iota about the total amount of links you currently have. Signs have pointed to something entirely different. Google seems to prefer high quality links over quantity.

The winning equation is simple to understand. More quality links coming from more quality sources is greater than more links from the same stagnant source. One single link from a high quality source can far outweigh hundreds of links from a low quality source.

Resist the Urge to Gather Links

You must resist the urge to manually build links, but then how in the world are you supposed to build links? The answer is simple. Links will come on their own when you start creating content worthy of being shared.

High quality content that people actually benefit from is the backbone of the Internet and it only takes one piece of content to make its rounds and earn you possibly dozens of extremely high quality links. Simply put: implementing excellent content creation strategies will naturally earn you excellent links.

Avoid Spammy Link Building Practices

Google has done an excellent job on instilling a slow and steady fear into the world of search engine optimization when it comes to link building. Most of the spammy links that can easily be built today are simply ignored by Google. Penalties are not being dished out as frequently as they were in the past. Just stay far away from spammy link building techniques and you won’t have any problems.

See Also: 4 Ways to Rank Higher With Content Variety

Focus on creating great content that provides people with value and then focus on getting that content distributed through social media channels where it will earn more eyes. If the content is good enough, links will come on their own.

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How Local Marketing Works and Which Types Best Suit Your Business - Crest Media Inc

Marketing your business on the Internet has several very unique levels or areas where you could be focusing some or all of your efforts, but one area that many businesses seem to forget about, or maybe just don’t fully understand, is local marketing online. Being able to pair your local marketing strategies with online marketing efforts can wind up paying off in a huge way but that doesn’t solve the all too common problem of where and how you should be focusing this winning combination of marketing techniques.

Local Marketing Is Business Specific

Being able to determine how your business compares to other businesses within a different industry can really help you determine how much of your marketing efforts should be local. Comparing the size and capabilities of your business, relative to the rest of your industry will indicate how much effort to invest in local marketing, and also help you determine what types of local marketing tactics will work best for your business.

Let’s do a little local industry comparison to help get a better understanding of what types of businesses see the most success from local marketing efforts.

Plumbers get all of their work locally. They are locally driven and would benefit highly from every type of local marketing effort that exists. And, they benefit equally from new and returning customers. The moving industry is a little different when compared to the plumbing industry. Most people only move a few times during their lifetime. Because of this, moving companies will not get the greatest benefit from all types of local marketing because people are not always looking for a moving company, as most customers are new, but also may pick a mover based upon reviews and testimonials. Restaurants are similar to both, in that they depend on good reputation with existing customers and being nearby to people most likely to become new customers.

Types of Local Marketing Efforts

Consumers come in two basic forms. There are the consumers who are informed and ready to make a purchase. These are the consumers who need no additional information to in order to make a purchase. They are ready to buy.

The other type of consumer is very different. These are the type of people who are not yet ready to make a purchase. They still need some convincing. They might feel the need to do some more research or they might be inspired to buy with something as simple as a coupon. They may even still be deciding between buying from a national chain or a small business. If your business thrives on referrals, incentivizing those can keep new customers coming to you. Being able to determine what type of consumer your business attracts will help you determine what type of local marketing efforts are worth your time and money.

Should you be focusing on brand awareness, or should you be focusing on earning a sale? Movers can benefit more from brand awareness because when it comes time to move, a familiar brand will always be chosen over an unfamiliar brand.

Plumbers might benefit more from offering a coupon or a 24 hour service in their local marketing efforts because consumers need plumbers in emergency type situations. People are more responsive to coupons and service related marketing efforts in situations like this. This doesn’t mean that plumbers can’t benefit from brand marketing because they can. It simply means they might get better results by putting more of their marketing efforts towards a different type of local marketing.

Knowing where your consumers can most easily find you is also critical. This goes well beyond having a website that’s well optimized for local search (which should be your starting point). It also pays to not only know what platforms your potential customers are using to find brands like yours, and then establishing your presence on those platforms. Most local businesses benefit from being on Yelp, but Facebook, Google+, Angie’s List, Brown Book and many other reputable business directories are worth investigating for their potential benefit to your company’s consumer reputation on the internet.

See Also: Targeting Local Customers In A New Way

What type of local marketing should your business be taking advantage of? Let your customer base tell you.

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6 Video Marketing Ideas to Increase Sales, Brand Awareness and Profit - Crest Media Inc

If video is not part of your current marketing plan, then it should be. This is something that has been said time and time again. Video is not going anywhere. In fact, video is one of the hottest Internet mediums at the moment, and this is doubly true for brands making good use of thoughtful video marketing strategies. But where should the uninitiated businesses know first about this medium?

Gone are the days of the stuttering, jerky video that plagued the Internet in its earlier days. It is now super easy to stream high definition 1080p video to multiple devices and let’s not forget that consumers are far more likely to purchase a product after they have watched a detailed video review of the product and video is quickly taking over social media.

Yeah, it is safe to say that video can and will help your business grow significantly. Here are a few video marketing ideas to help get you started.

Get Personal

People like to feel like they are personally connected to a business and video gives them the perfect way to achieve this. It could be something as simple as introducing yourself, your staff or giving a tour of your facility. Small personal touches like this help to build trust. Trust then leads to sales.

Create Product Previews

It can be difficult for new products to gain the traction they need to earn sales. Creating new product previews can help build up hype around the new product and it can be done with something as simple as a smartphone. Social media networks like Snapchat, Vine and Instagram were built on this type of content and people are devouring it every chance they get.

Create Product Highlight Reels

There is no reason not to highlight existing products too. You could create individual videos for each product or you could combine several products into one highlight reel. Once again, this can all be done without the need of expensive film equipment. All you need is your average smartphone to get it done.

Make Complications Simple

If you happen to have a product or service that is often considered too complicated to operate or understand, then this is the perfect opportunity to create a video that demystifies the product or service. Break the complications down in an easy to understand way that helps everyone get a much better understanding of what’s going on.

Put Happy Customers In the Spotlight

People love seeing social proof. Several of the largest online mega-markets were built off of nothing more than social proof and happy customers who are singing praises of your products or services are the best way to accomplish this. These videos help convert window shoppers into buyers. Once again, you don’t need Steven Spielberg to help your direct this type of video content. Just let your customers say what matters most to them.

Create A Video FAQ

Almost every website has a section dedicated to the most frequently asked questions about a business. Create a video that presents these questions along with answers and watch your conversions go up. Not only will you be helping your customers by providing them with the answers they are looking for, but you will also be earning their trust. Videos showcasing customer concerns and needs work best in longer format, so look to YouTube and Vimeo for hosting and sharing these types of videos.

See Also: How to Create the Perfect Video Marketing Strategy for Success

Video is here to stay and if your are not currently using its power to help your business achieve success, then it is time you did.

Read This Article on CrestMediaInc.com

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5 Proven Strategies to Get Top Search Engine Rankings - Crest Media Inc

Having a website appear on the very first page of search results is exciting. The rush of new traffic that floods in can make you feel 100% satisfied that just being anywhere on the first page is enough even if your website is showing up in the 8th, 9th, or even the 10th position. However, these positions pale in comparison to the top five. If you can nail that number one position in search engine rankings, then you can expect as much as 30% more traffic than the rest of the sites ranking on page one.

That number one position manages to get even more valuable traffic than any other position in the search engine rankings. Here are some tactics you can use to help push your site to that gloried number one position.

Measure and Analyze

The first step towards achieving that precious number one position is understanding where you currently are in the big search engine picture. The easiest way to do this is by using a combination of free Google tools. Those tools are Google Webmaster Tool, Google Analytics, and most recently added, Google My Business.

These tools can help shed some light on what’s going on behind the scenes. You will be able to determine how much traffic your website is currently getting and which keywords are ranking the best. You will also discover other great keywords worth ranking for as well. You can also gain some insight on how Google sees your site, and what information they may not yet know about your business. These three tools can bring forth a wealth of invaluable information.

Double Check the Basics

Going back to the basics to ensure you have every possible SEO variable covered is essential. Missing one tiny detail can have a huge impact that could be preventing your website from moving forward. Double check these basics:

Page titles

Page URLs

H1, H2, H3 tags

Alt tags

All content

Metadata

All of these areas should be targeting your chosen keywords. If they are not, then it is time to make some changes that could push your website to the top.

Stop Ignoring Mobile

When mobile was first introduced, many website owners shrugged it off because the idea of having a website that somehow magically transformed to fit every mobile device was beyond their comprehension. In fact, no one really knew the right way to handle this new trend in search engine traffic. Should you have two sites? One for regular computer users and one for people using mobile? Luckily today the mobile picture is much clearer.

The right website can and will dynamically conform to a mobile device on the spot. There is no need for two completely separate websites. If your current website does not have this ability, then it is time to design and build a new website that does.

Address What’s Broken

Your website might have some problems happening behind the scenes that you are unfamiliar with. There could be broken links, missing images, bad CSS or HTML code or something that is breaking portions of your site. These are the areas you should “fix” first.

The Google Search Console provides a tool for this. It will help you identify what’s broken and once you have fixed what’s broken, you can inform Google of the changes.

Create More Content

New content generation can lead to more visitors. It also tells Google that your website is alive and well instead of a stagnant, outdated mess. Here are a few content generation ideas that will help.

Create content based around what your audience wants. Give them what they are looking for.

Create content that inspires your audience to share. Images, videos and infographics get shared the most.

Create content with internal site links to help search engines find everything on your website.

See Also: Reconciling SEO Success With Unknown Variables

These strategies will help your audience grow while pushing your website higher in the search results for current and new keywords, but just remember that search engine optimization is a long term commitment that takes time.

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Email Marketing: The Number One Tool Competitors Don't Want You to Consider - Crest Media Inc

Every business or marketer has several great tools at their disposal. All of these tools exist to help make businesses grow. From old school methods of direct mail, to the faster, instant gratification methods of today’s high tech digital world like search marketing and email marketing, there are a lot of tools for businesses and marketers to choose from.

Deciding which of these tools are going to go the longest way towards helping your business grow can be tricky. You don’t want to invest all of your time, money and efforts into just one of them and you don’t want to dedicate to little to the most successful tools. Is there one tool at your disposal that beats them all? You might be pleasantly surprised to learn that there is indeed one powerful tool that consistently beats them all. That one tool is email marketing.

How Could Something As Simple As Email Be So Powerful?

While there might be plenty of other very powerful tools at your disposal, none of them offer as much power as email, but email is only going to be extremely powerful if you manage to do it correctly. Email messaging provides so many powerful benefits that you won’t find in other marketing tools. Email offers you:

More flexibility

More control

More of a personal touch

More ownership

A fine tuned audience

How Can You Turn Something As Simple As Email Into the Most Powerful Marketing Tool?

Email marketing is much more than “Dear Reader, click here for the most fantastic deal in the universe.” The right email can influence, persuade, provide and enrich the person reading it. This is why email can be so powerful and here is what you can do to make it the most powerful tool in your marketing arsenal.

It all comes down to one word and that word is power. Email has four power points or strengths that no other marketing tool has.

Audience – Email allows you to target a very specific audience that is more likely to take action.

Influence – The right email has the power to influence people to take action. Be it making a purchase, clicking a link or simply responding.

Opinions – Emails give you the chance to interact and provide your own personal opinion.

Persuasion – Emails provide the power to persuade your audience.

See Also: Email Marketing Is Still Bringing In Customers

These are four very powerful traits you simply won’t find in other marketing tools. If you are not currently using email as part of your marketing methods, then you are missing out on a great deal of business. If you are currently using email, then make sure you include the four main power points in all of your emails in order to unleash the real power of email marketing.

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Effective Content Curation In 4 Easy Steps - Crest Media Inc

Content curation is undoubtedly what fuels our hyper-fast, modern digital world. From the morning news headlines to the latest tweet or viral video to the in-depth, fact filled blog post that provides value to its many readers. The Internet would not be where it was today if it was not for the millions of pieces of content that people consume faster than a rushed morning meal.

As a content creator, you have many challenges ahead of you and one of the largest challenges is curating all of the content. You must be able to create, select, preserve, maintain and organize all of this wonderful content in a way that not only benefits your current client base but also helps your company grow all while making good business sense.

This is quite the monumental task if you think of it this way. For some, it may seem quite overwhelming but it can be relatively easy if you follow the right steps. Here is a game plan that has been proven to not only be super efficient but to also achieve excellent results.

Organization Comes First

Without the proper organization skills, none of this is going to work. You must be able to properly organize all of your ideas and content in a way that makes sense. This means you will need to speak with everyone on the team and get them all on the same page. Organize and create a strategy with a clear and concise goal.

Make sure everyone knows what type of content will be created, and where it will be published and shared. This is also the best opportunity to re-evaluate your digital presence and start blogging if you’re not already. Also, make sure that your brand is well represented on all relevant social media platforms. Put together a comprehensive list of everywhere on the web that you can publish and share your content.

Create and Understand A Schedule

Releasing all of your content into the great wide open at all of the appropriate times is going to be a huge part of your success. Releasing the right content at the right time is crucial. People respond differently to different types of content throughout the day and week.

Once you have a bare bones editorial calendar in place for all of your digital content, start looking at ways to fill in the gaps that will appear. Filling in those gaps is the key to getting the most from all of your curated content.

Set Aside Time for Content Curation

Time can quickly slip through your fingers. The next thing you know, half of the day has quietly slipped by. You must set aside time to curate all of your content. Many successful teams choose a set day of the week and curate all of their content for the upcoming week all while working to achieve their long term and short term goals.

Consistence Earns Great Rewards

Many businesses get really excited when they first embark on creating a content stream to increase their profits. That excitement quickly fades and the entire content plan slowly disappears for many brands who don’t see a relatively direct and quick return on investment. However, being consistent in your content strategy is one of the best ways to achieve success. There might be times when things slow down but don’t let this impact your morale.

Consider that the flow of news and information about your industry to your potential customers doesn’t stop just because your brand doesn’t see immediate value in contributing to that flow. You have to keep pushing in order to achieve even the smallest success, and then build on that success to see more measurable business growth.

See Also: 3 Proven Ways to Boost Sales Using Branded, Integrated Content

It has already been proven that proper content curation helps businesses not only grow but also gain valuable credibility, but only if you are doing things correctly. Organize, create a schedule and be consistent.

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Reconciling SEO Success With Unknown Variables - Crest Media Inc

The world of SEO has always been somewhat of a challenge. Challenges come from every angle possible and these challenges almost always have a negative impact on your forward momentum. It is the age old “take one step forward and two steps back” type of analogy, but why does the world of SEO do this and what can you do to prevent this all too common problem from affecting your SEO success?

Other People In the World of SEO

While the world of Search Engine Optimization deals with digital media and the Internet, there are plenty of actual physical bodies involved and many times these other physical bodies might end up being the source of your SEO troubles. From business owners and managers who expect quick results to competitors who may have made improvements to their own strategies, and all points in between, other people are among the biggest variables affecting SEO success.

Learning how to address the actions, concerns and needs of these other people while keeping the SEO train moving full speed ahead is going to be part of the challenge. Here are a few tips for dealing with other people with whom you may directly interact, who may not be in the SEO know.

Avoid SEO terminology. Keep the vocabulary simple and easy.

Dealing with people is all about compromise. Be willing to give and take.

Show them the benefits that SEO will bring.

Start At the Top

In order to get everyone involved with an SEO campaign on board, you will have to start at the top of the company and work your way down. Once you get the corporate bigwigs on board, everyone else below them will slowly fall into place. In order to do this, you will need to show them how you can increase traffic and more importantly, how that traffic can convert to revenue.

Working With Designers

Being able to speak with the designers and showing them some SEO best practices is always going to be a challenge. Design and SEO are often very difficult to mix successfully and designers never want to hear these words, “designing for SEO.” You can’t really blame them either because they are partly correct.

Internet properties should be designed with the users in mind first, but part of the problem is the simple fact that search engines are part of the user base. Search engines love content and designers argue that a huge chunk of words is bad design. The good news is this. There are ways to combine both.

Expandable DIVS

Mouse overs that reveal content

Web fonts

Small pieces of content sprinkled all over the page

The main thing is to test, test and test again until you find a magical web design formula that produces outstanding results.

The Role of Content in Your SEO Success Story

You can’t have a successful SEO campaign without good content. The two must coincide. This is where the knowledge of what people are searching for must be combined with the magical wordsmith powers of a copywriter. SEO experts should already know what search terms are hot. They need to help the copywriters by providing them with relevant hot topics and an in-depth understanding of those topics. And the same strategy for web design also applies to content: write for people, but don’t ignore what search engines are looking for as well.

The IT Team

No amount of excellent content and great design can fix an Internet property that is built on a broken foundation. You must be able to fully communicate all of your ideas to the IT team and let them know of any technical problems that might be hindering SEO. This doesn’t mean that you need to know the technical server jargon, but you must be able to clearly explain what needs to be done in order to make a website functional, easily accessible and crawlable. Without those operational components, there is no SEO success for your website and brand.

See Also: 5 SEO Golden Rules Worth Considering

No matter how advanced technology becomes, we will always need to work with and around other human beings who have expectations or requirements to be reconciled with optimal SEO strategy. Being able to successfully interact with people at every level is the key to preventing problems that will slow down forward momentum and hinder SEO success.

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6 Great Ideas For Small Business Success Online - Crest Media Inc

There used to be a time when the Internet supplied a level playing field for businesses both large and small. Those days are long gone and small businesses are finding it more difficult to compete with businesses that have what must be gigantic budgets. Because of this fact, small businesses often fall victim to extremely common SEO traps and scammers who always do more harm than good. Here are a few tips that small businesses will find very useful when competing with the larger fish in the pond.

Avoid SEO Email Offers

There seems to be an unlimited amount of SPAM SEO email offers arriving in your in-box. These offers promise the entire SEO world on a very limited budget. The first thing you should do is hit that magical delete button and never look back. The common red flags here, are guarantees of specific ranking positions in Google, or a specific number of monthly leads. Your marketing agency can’t always account for what your competitors may refine in their marketing strategy, nor can they always account for how many of your potential customers are actively shopping. For that reason, these types of offers are never worth the smallest consideration.

Claim Your Local Listings

This is one simple process that many small businesses never even think about. These are easy enough to complete on your own. Go for the big two: Google My Business and YELP. The benefits of completing this simple step is huge. Customers will be able to access driving directions to your business and all of your very important business information like: operating hours, previous customer reviews, your website and all relevant contact information.

Google My Business will also provide easy access to all local customer reviews from various sources, where small businesses can read and respond. This can be very powerful because it is believed that these local reviews have an influence on local search rankings.

Online Reviews for Your Local Listings

Once you have claimed your local listings, the next important step is going to be generating reviews. It only takes one bad egg to spoil the entire dozen. The same could be said of local reviews. It only takes one bad review to detour over 50% of your potential prospects.

You want to gather as many good reviews as possible. You can do this by encouraging your regular customers to leave an honest review. Don’t over-solicit, but make it easy and desirable for satisfied customers to let the world know about how great your small business is.

Social Media Accounts

Social media has become a huge part of online success but you don’t have to master every single social media outlet that exists. Try focusing on just a couple of them. Go for the big ones as long as they fit into your business plan. Not every social media platform works with every industry. Try out Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn to start, because those are commonly regarded as the four most important. If your business has a tangible product, expanding to Instagram and Pinterest will help tremendously. Service-based brands can make good use of YouTube, Vimeo and Vine.

Get Mobile

The question of whether or not a mobile website is a good idea is no longer a question. If you want to be able to compete, then a mobile friendly website is a must. Google now factors this into its search results. Google is now “downgrading” websites that are not mobile friendly. The move may seem harsh but it is relevant. Businesses that do not have a mobile friendly website do now show up in search results on mobile devices. That is a huge loss!

Local Citations

Internet Citations come in many different varieties. In their simplest form, they are merely just a person or a business mentioning your business. The really important part is making sure these mentions are 100% correct. This means your business name, phone number and address must appear exactly the same each and every time it is mentioned.

See Also: Small Business Owners Leverage Expertise To See Faster Growth

Longtime online success is going to take quite a bit more work than this, but these places are the perfect starting point for any business owner who wants to get one step ahead of the competition.

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Can Social Media Advertising Outperform Search Advertising? - Crest Media Inc

Advertising comes in many different shapes and forms. This is especially true for the ever so popular digital advertising that has been fueling the electronic world for quite some time now. Deciding which digital advertising method will work best for your business is always a little complicated. You want to be able to achieve the largest return on your advertising investment no matter which form of digital advertising you choose, but is there one form of digital advertising that is better than the other?

Search Advertising

Search advertising was the first real form of successful digital advertising that showed businesses a good return on their investment. In fact, many businesses grew their own little empires using nothing more than search advertising, but the digital landscape has changed and with it so has the best way to advertise a product or service.

Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising is nothing new. In fact, the businesses who jumped on the social media advertising bandwagon early have seen huge returns using minimal advertising budgets. Social media ads seem to trigger a more resounding message with its users. They often feel more inspired to answer a call to action and then share.

Sharing should be thought of as free traffic because that is exactly what it is. When you pay for social media advertising, you pay for clicks but those clicks can then be shared and shared and shared again! This is a huge advantage over search advertising where you simply pay for a click and that is the end of the line.

The idea is to create engaging ads that people want to share. The more engaging it is, the more times the ad will be shared.

Visual Products See Higher Sales

There are a few industries where sales are visually driven. A customer wants to be able to see a product in different ways before they feel inspired to break out their credit card and make a purchase. Home décor and fashion are the perfect examples. These are two highly competitive industries where proper visualization is the key to creating hundreds of sales.

Pinterest and Polyvore offer these types of businesses a new way to advertise their products all while reaching a global community of avid users who love to share the things they love. This just doesn’t happen with traditional search advertising.

Social Advertising Lives On!

One single piece of social media advertising can continue to drive new traffic, bring in new customers and earn new sales long after the ad has expired. Here are a few prime examples.

Twitter gives users a chance to become part of the conversation and those conversations can continue for weeks.

Pinterest encourages users to pin an ad to a board where it stays in front of people for extended periods of time.

Polyvore users can save products and outfits that stay on Polyvore forever!

See Also: Staying Up to Date With SEO and Social Media

Social media advertising has the power to live on and move through far more people than search advertising and as a result, social media advertising delivers more value for every penny of your advertising budget.

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7 Proven Tactics to Make A Social Media Contest Boost Your Business - Crest Media Inc

Businesses are constantly looking for ways to increase their exposure, their audience and that audience’s engagement. One of the latest trends that has proven to massively stimulate all three is a social media contest. Not only can a social media contest perform all of these wonderful tasks but it can also provide some extremely valuable insights as well, but only if the contest is done correctly. Your social media contest could very well wind up being a flop. Unless of course you are utilizing these proven methods.

Can A Contest Help Your Business?

Not every business can benefit from having a social media contest. If you happen to offer a product or a service to a very small niche market, then a social media contest might not bring you the exposure you are looking for. Do a little research to see if other businesses within your industry have done contests in the past. Try and gauge whether or not their contest was a success.

What Is the Point of Your Contest?

Your social media contest should have one point, one set goal. The contest should be pushing this one goal and nothing else. Some of the more popular goals that work best with social media contests are:

Increase brand awareness

Increase conversions

Boost user engagement

Increase clientele

Boost social media followers

There are no rules that state you can’t tackle all of these goals within one single social media contest, but achieving each goal will require unique tactics. Choose just one goal and stick with it.

What Type of Contest Should You Run?

Not only are there different types of social media contests that actually work, but social media platforms have rules and regulations that dictate what types of contests they allow. Make sure you are not violating any of these rules or your contest might get shut down.

See Also: 6 Great Ways to Improve Your Social Media Exposure

Common contest types include:

Photo and Video

Essay

Sweepstakes

Each type of contest is a little different but sweepstakes are the easiest to pull off with the largest success rates.

Choose the Right App

Yes, you can run a social media contest without using an app and yes it will be very difficult to pull off. Do yourself a favor and use an app that has been designed for this very purpose. It makes things so much easier. Look for an app that offers: flexibility, mobile capabilities and a low price tag.

What Is the Prize?

Your contest is meant to achieve a very specific goal. The prize for winning your social media contest should be something relative to your business. It should be a product or service that your business supplies. For instance, if your business makes irresistible doughnuts that begged to be dipped into a steamy cup of coffee, then giving away an iPad won’t really help your business. Giving away two dozen doughnuts and two pounds of coffee will. Just make sure you make the prize worthwhile.

Keep Things Easy

Don’t over complicate things. Keep the entire contest as simple as possible. You want as many people as possible taking part in your epic contest. Simplicity is the key to doing this. Keep entry forms and methods short, sweet and to the point. Don’t worry about collecting useless, unneeded data.

Unleash Your Social Media Contest and Follow Up

With a little bit of careful planning your social media contest will be a huge success but don’t forget to follow up. You might want to contact everyone who entered your contest and thank them for their participation. This final contact can often lead to future sales and business growth.

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How Card Layout Design Fits Into the Internet's Big Picture - Crest Media Inc

The world of website design is full of changes and trends. Some of them stick and wind up being building blocks for better things to come while others wind up being swept under the carpet where they are never to be spoken of again. The latest trend to hit the web design world appears to be one that is set to change the way websites are designed and for the better. What is this latest web design trend? The latest trend is simply being called cards and here is why cards are going to end up being much more than some simple trend.

What Are Cards?

There is a really good chance you have already experienced cards on the Internet and I’m not talking about online gambling either. Pinterest, the hugely popular visually inspired social media giant uses a card layout. Facebook and Twitter have also adopted a card layout design on their desktop interfaces and their mobile designs as well.

When you look at a card layout design it appears as if you are looking at a bunch of playing card that have been nicely arranged in a symmetric fashion, but instead of each card revealing a king, queen or number, each card holds some pertinent piece of information.

When you fully understand the card style layout design, you realize the greater benefits this type of design brings to the table.

The Obvious Card Layout Design Style Benefit

There are a few obvious card layout design benefits that are making the design so popular. The first is having information presented to a user in small, easy to manage chunks. People love to digest information in this format. It makes it easier to scan an entire page full of content and determine which piece of content is of the greatest interest. The user can then pick the card that interests them and click through to get more detail.

Cards Are Responsive and Mobile Friendly

Having a mobile optimized website design is no longer just an idea that gets mentioned every once in a while in the office. It is now a mandatory part of the web design process. The card layout fits the mobile friendly need perfectly. Cards are both mobile friendly and responsive. This is yet another reason why the card layout isn’t going anywhere for the time being.

Types of Card Layouts

Yes, there is more than one type of card layout making its way through the Internet and not every card layout is a sure fire hit. Some card layouts don’t work well because they lack originality.

Pins – Taken from the Pinterest design, it didn’t take long for the Pin style card layout to fade away.

Metro – This is the design that shipped with Windows 8. This is also the card layout that backfired on Microsoft.

Grid – The grid layout never does seem to get old and designers who have used a grid layout with even spaced content which flows into other areas seems to work best.

Magazine – Magazines and newspapers have been using a card layout design since they were first printed and it has always been a huge success.

See Also: 5 Annoying Website Design Practices You Should Avoid

The card layout gives people what they want. It presents information in a well organized, easy to digest pattern that works on multiple devices ranging from desktops to mobile. In short, the card layout works and it works very well.

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