Every month we send out Google Analytics reports to our website SEO & maintenance plan customers. These reports make it easy to see at a glance how your website is performing. But some clients may be unsure about what the various terms mean, so here we’ll outline some of the most common terms and buzzwords from our website reporting system:
Visits: A visit to your site is when the Google Analytics tracking code is triggered on a user’s entrance to the site. Everything they then do on your site is tracked within that visit, until they leave or the session expires after 30 minutes of inactivity.
New and Returning Visits: Through the use of cookies, Google Analytics will know if a user has been to your site on that browser before – and if so, will track them as a Returning Visit. If no information is available in the cookies, the visitor is tracked as a New Visit.
Visitors: The number of visitors will always be lower than the number of visits to a site, this is because some visitors will visit more than once. A visitor will be New and then Returning, but as above, if a visitor comes to the site from another computer or browser they will be seen as a different visitor.
Bounce Rate: A confusing aspect for many people, simply put, a ‘Bounce’ is a visit to your site that exits having only looked at one page. The ‘Bounce Rate’ is the percentage of visits that only viewed one page before leaving the site.
Pageviews: A pageview is a view of a page, simple huh? But think about how you navigate websites – do you often go to the same page several times while moving around? This means you are triggering multiple pageviews of the same page in a single session, which is why Google Analytics offers you an extra statistic: Unique Pageviews. Unique Pageviews are the number of visitors to a page, rather than the number of visits to that page – notice the subtle difference?
Pages per Visit: This is how many pages a visitor makes in one visit. This data is used in the Depth of Visit report that shows you how deep most visits to your site are, taking deepness as the more pages you visit the deeper your visit is.
Traffic Sources: Traffic is another word for the visits to your site but is usually used when referring to groups of visits. The source is the specific place that sent the visit to your site. Sources include Google, Twitter, Facebook, paid advertising, display ads, and loads more.
Organic: Non paid search traffic.
Referral: a visit through a link to your site from another site.
(none): This includes any visits where data cannot be passed on from the entry source.
Direct: this is usually all visits that come direct to your site, through users bookmarks for instance, or if the user types the address in to the browsers address bar manually.
CPC: This stands for Cost per Click and refers to paid advertising, Google AdWords visits can automatically be tracked within this Medium and you can manually set up any other advertising to also be grouped under this Medium.
Content: This refers to the pages of your website. Within the Content Reports in Google Analytics you can find out how many times your pages have been seen, how many have had unique views, the bounce rate, how users got to each page and even which links were clicked most on each page.
Goals: Goals are something that you have to set up yourself. It is within this section that you can measure conversions to find out how well your site is performing.
URL Destination: the measurement of how many people see a specific page, form or payment confirmation, or thank you page.
Time on Site: a measurement of the length of time any one user spent on your site’s pages.
Pages/Visit: Used to track how many pages users view per visit.
Ecommerce: This is an area of Google Analytics that is most beneficial to websites that have an online shop. Using Ecommerce tracking allows you to see data for which products you have sold, how much has been spent and more.
Marketing is a very broad field, and many smaller business are easily overwhelmed when it comes to marketing their services and products. Where do I start? What channels do I use? When do I market my products? These questions get asked frequently, and the answer varies according to what field of business you’re in, what your services and products are, where you operate, whether you’re online or offline, what your customer base is, whether you’re a seasonal business or not.
This short post attempts to guide you through this marketing maze!
First things first; the 4 ‘P’s’ of Marketing
The product, price, promotion, and place ‘silos’ form the four ‘P’s’ of the marketing mix. These are the key factors that are involved in introducing a product or service to the public. They have been taught in business classes for many years and are considered to be the core of a good marketing program. They include topics that should be included within any marketing program or promotion; let’s outline them:
Product – This includes topics such as include delivery, technology, quality, services, and product availability.
Price – The topics in this part of the mix include product & service cost to users & resellers, subscriptions, payment periods, arrangements and terms.
Place – this covers strategy, support, distribution channels, coverage, locations, logistics and e-services.
Promotion – The most known and used part of marketing, topics include promotional strategies, advertising, logos and brand identity, product and service promotions, fundraising, communications, events, and public relations.
Elements from each of these marketing silos should be created and used as part of a campaign, and then marketed through your marketing channels.
What are Marketing Channels?
Marketing channels are the areas where you advertise and market your business, products, and services; they fall into 4 broad categories:
Free marketing channels: these include any marketing service that’s free to use, such as social media apps like LinkedIn, Q&A platforms like Quora, and directories like Yellow Pages.
Paid marketing channels: these are paid ads and commercials. Be aware that some marketing channels can be free and paid, such as Facebook is a free marketing channel but Facebook Ads are paid.
Digital marketing channels: All marketing done online is digital marketing, including social media, organic search (SEO – Search Engine Optimization), paid search, blog posts, and email marketing, so again, Facebook is both free and digital.
Traditional marketing: Any marketing done offline is traditional marketing, and includes direct mail, broadcasting, print advertising, signage, vehicles, and billboards.
So what’s the best way of using ‘marketing channels’ and ‘marketing Ps’ together?
The 4Ps and marketing channels models can be used whenever you are planning a campaign, whether its a product launch, running a promotion for your existing services, or optimizing sales for an existing product.
By looking at the product, price, place, and promotion factors as they relate to your product and service, and by creating content from those factors, you can create a marketing campaign across multiple channels that successfully shows your services and products to the public, created sales opportunities.
This may seem complex, but its actually far easier than you think; for example, if you have a tech support company that’s expanding into a new field, you can create a campaign where you run a promotion for the new service (Promotion ‘P’) at a great price (Price ‘P’), with content showing it’s advantages (Product ‘P’) in your core regions of operation (Place ‘P’), and you can deliver this content via email marketing to your existing customers and by social media (free marketing channel), Google Ads (paid marketing channel), on your website (digital marketing channel), and by new signage on your company vehicles (traditional marketing channel).
Another example could be a local artisan who wants to promote their new range of crafts. They could create a promotional offer (Promotion ‘P’) for the new range with a detailed description (Product ‘P’), with a great introductory price for buying multiples of the product (Price ‘P’) from the local farmers market (Place ‘P’), and the new product range could be marketed by Facebook and Instagram posts (free and digital marketing channels), and those posts could also be boosted (paid marketing channel) to the target market location, and put up posters around town in key locations (traditional marketing channel).
As you can see from these examples, the frameworks outlined by the ‘Marketing P’s’ and ‘Marketing Channels’ make it easy to develop your marketing campaign however you choose, where ever you are, and whatever your product or service is. The combinations are endless!
Gleneden Ridge Design would like to take this time to remind everyone of malware emails. There are a whole host of emails recently that are scam and phishing emails. We’d would like to remind you of a few things in the event you receive those emails:
Be very cautious of emails that appear to come from someone instructing you to do something, especially purchase something or click a link. If it is not something that is part of your normal everyday activities, please confirm with the “sender” via calling them, do not reply back to the email.
Be very cautious of emails that are asking you for contact information or any confidential information. Colleagues and businesses should not ask you for this information. Please confirm with the “sender” via calling them, do not reply back to the email.
IT systems should not email you about expiring passwords or needing to reset a password, neither should they email you about a secure document that needs to be downloaded. Again, if you receive emails like these, please confirm with the “sender” via calling them, do not reply back to the email.
Do not open an attachment within an email you are not expecting and can clearly validate the sender of the email.
In most cases, a random email appearing in your inbox that you do not usually receive as a matter of your day to day activities is likely a scam. In today’s rapidly evolving computing landscape, there are a plethora of harmful threats to computer systems and users that are loosely categorized as “malware”. The list below attempts to explain these at a high level, as well as what to look for to protect yourself from becoming a victim of malicious software.
The term “malware” broadly encompasses the following types of malicious software:
Viruses and Worms: Viruses can make copies of themselves, spreading to other computers by infecting applications, documents and files and starting malicious code. Typically a user has to open these infected programs and files for the virus to run. Worms are a type of computer virus that can replicate and spread across computer networks by exploiting operating system vulnerabilities (for example, an out of date Windows installation). Unlike viruses, worms can run undetected in the background, replicating and spreading themselves autonomously. Both viruses and worms can be destructive, designed to damage or disable the systems they infect. When integrated with spyware, they can steal credit card, banking or personal information by logging keystrokes and sending that information back to the malware authors.
Ransomware: Typically known as “crypto malware”, it locks a system by encrypting the hard drive and all user data. Users are unable to access their computer or any of the files on it. The ransomware demands payment (usually in bitcoin) to unlock their system. Some ransomware can spread like a worm does, using already infected systems or it can be delivered to the target system inside a Trojan horse. Other types of ransomware exist such as “Scareware” and “Doxware”. See the links below for more information.
Adware and Spyware: Adware is typically embedded into free “ad-supported” software, and usually displays ads within that software or your web browser. Spyware can gather information about a user by taking actions including but not limited to collecting keystrokes, watching screens, harvesting login information, and other monitoring activities. It is often used by adware to display targeted advertising. When used maliciously, spyware is bundled together with other malware such as viruses and worms to perpetrate theft and/or fraud.
Rootkit: Typically embedded with viruses, Trojans and worms, the rootkit attempts to conceal its host malware from detection by security programs such as antivirus software, while providing the malware with continued administrator/root level access to the infected system. Rootkits can remotely execute files and change system configurations without the user knowing.
Trojan Horse: This type of malware attempts to disguise itself as a helpful piece of “freeware” – for example, a free antivirus program, “system utility” or “office productivity” program. Once installed, it simultaneously installs malware – viruses, worms, spyware, ransomware, rootkits, etc.
Phishing email: Used heavily by Trojans to entice users into opening an email attachment or clicking on a link in the email’s body that downloads malware onto the user’s system.
Bots and Botnets: Bots are software programs that are used to automate specific functions over the Internet, typically by using scripts. In the malicious context, they can be used to perform DDoS (denial of service) attacks, spread spam email, deliver ads on websites, create accounts on websites and more. Malicious bots are delivered and spread as part of a worm or virus. A botnet is a collection of systems that are all infected with the same bot, allowing the bot author to use the collective processing power of many systems for malicious purposes.
More information about various types of malware can be found here:
Many attacks are automatically mitigated on a daily basis by online, office-based, and computer-based security systems. Please be mindful of links in emails and the various different types of content that comes to your inbox.
Malware Symptoms
These conditions can be indicators that your machine has been infected with malware:
Consistently high CPU utilization.
Hard drive constantly busy.
Programs open and close automatically – For example, unexplained Windows Explorer or command prompt windows opening up and then closing.
General system instability – blue screens, hard crashes, lock ups, unresponsiveness, etc.
Unexplained emails being sent from your email account without your consent. Often, people in your contacts list will email you asking you to stop sending phishing or spam emails.
Files getting modified or deleted.
New unknown files, shortcuts, etc being created.
Inability to change system settings that could be changed before.
Unwanted pop-ups, programs or web browser based toolbars.
Keep your operating system and software up to date.
Ensure your antivirus / antimalware softwareis updating itself.
Watch for suspicious emails.
These can be made to look like they came from a known source or it may be obvious that they are coming from an unknown source.
Such emails typically contain a malware infected document or links to “dropper” sites. Do not open any email attachments or click on any of the links in them. Always check to see if the sender’s name matches the sender’s email address.
In Outlook, you can check the message header of an email by going to “File” → “Properties”, where you can see the “From:” field.
For links, you can hover over them with your mouse to see the actual address they go to without clicking on them. Checking where the links go is usually a clear indicator as to whether or not an email is legitimate.
Examples can include:
Messages containing a “too good to be true” offer such as free money in exchange for bank account numbers.
Messages that purport to be a bank or PayPal sending financial statements, or an online service such as Apple, Amazon, or UPS sending an attached invoice or purchase receipt that is actually a Trojan.
Messages that claim to be an online service such as Gmail sending a password reset request that contains malicious links or a Trojan attachment.
Messages that look to come from a fellow employee asking you to purchase something (typically a gift card).
Messages that appear to be SpeedLine services regarding inbox limits, voicemails, etc.
If you think an email is suspicious or it came from a source you are not expecting, chances are good that it is malicious in nature. Any email that looks suspicious should be deleted immediately without opening anything inside. Talk to the sender via the phone or other communication channel.
Openyour security software periodically to see if anything was detected in the last scheduled scan.
Be skeptical of freeware. Supposed “free” useful utilities such as “systems optimizers” and “cleaners”, free games (such as online poker applications) and free “downloaders” often include Trojan horses or other malware.
Do not click ads on websites. Often, it is difficult to determine whether such ads are legitimate. If not, they can redirect your web browser to a page (dropper site) containing malicious code that can infect your system.
Do not open joke or funny emails. Sometimes, these can be used to spread Trojans, viruses and other undesired malware.
If you think that your computer may be infected, or if you’re unsure whether a particular email is safe or not, talk to your IT department, your IT support company and they’ll be able to advise you. Or contact Gleneden Ridge Design and we’ll be happy to point you in the right direction.
Many clients ask me about online business listings, like Yellow Pages, trade websites, and social media pages. Are they worthwhile or just a waste of time and/or money? To put it plainly, the vast majority of online directory listings are generally a waste of time, especially if you are looking for traffic to your website.
If you go back a few years, businesses would willingly list their websites in any and every directory listing service out there in the hope that it would boost their SEO. But these days Google and some other search engines do not always count these listing services as a ranking factor.
Google does recognize some external links (also known as backlinks) as an appropriate listing metric, but Google really wants to see only the most relevant and trustworthy websites linking to you, and most online listing directories do not fall into this category. So which ones do?
Established, well trusted directories are always worth listing your business on. You may not get much traffic to your site, but they will provide a reference to your business. Many directories dominate the top positions on Google for search phrases, so if you are listed on those trusted directories, there is a small chance of earning traffic.
Automate Your Listings
You can use an online tool such as Brightlocal to acquire backlinks from business directories automatically. The system will check your existing directory listings and manually add you to new ones, and it will also allow you to correct any incorrect listings. Service like these can save lots of time for only a few dollars a month.
Free Directories
Generally a waste of time and effort, the monthly traffic of free directories is very small and their Domain Trust Score is always zero, meaning that Google will ignore them.
Paid Directories
Directories that charge fees really need to be avoided. Google advises that you should NOT pay for links to gain rankings, and this may negatively impact your positions.
Some Directories can be worthwhile
Google looks for a healthy ‘backlink profile’ when deciding how far up the search rankings your website shows. Links on trusted directories will add positively to that profile. Below is a list of websites where you should list your business, but make sure that your basic information – business name, address, email, phone, opening hours etc. are all perfectly correct as this information needs to match across all directories that you choose to use. Any differences in spelling or format may confuse Google.
Google My Business
A Google My Business listing is the first place where you should list your business. Note that you often need to verify your listing, which can take a few days to a few weeks, but it’s worth the wait. You can use your ‘My Business’ listing to create news posts, add images, create special offers, get reviews, and much more. Read more here.
Facebook Business Pages
A Facebook Business Page is free and easy to set up. You can use it for free and paid promotions plus you can regularly link to new articles or pages on your website to drive traffic.
Yellow Pages
Yellow Pages is a free listing service that can be worthwhile, but you can expect sales people to call you regularly to upgrade your account!
Hotfrog
Hotfrog is another online directory that’s worth taking time to create a free listing.
Chamber of Commerce
Your local Chamber of Commerce should have a directory of local trusted businesses. There is normally a fee to list your business, and they may have other advertising programs and events that you may be interested in. Great for local tradesmen and businesses.
Supplier ‘Where To Buy’ Listings
Draw up a list of your suppliers and investigate if they have a ‘where to buy’, ‘approved installers’ or another such directory on their website. Some may not even provide a link to your website, but still very worthwhile for traffic to your site.
Professional Memberships
If you qualify for these types of organizations and memberships, or have the prerequisites to join, they will definitely add credibility to your business as well as a possible backlink.
Social Media
You should ensure that your business has a profile on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and such. They won’t necessarily boost your SEO profile, but your posts on these channels can be linked back to your website, and having links here will add to your website’s authority.
At a time when rising costs and interests rates are making it difficult for many to get by, it’s really tough for businesses to survive, especially small ones. Here we’d like to give small businesses a few ways they can market their products and services on a budget.
Create a Google Business Profile
For local businesses, a Google Business Profile is one of the most effective free marketing strategies available. It allows your business to appear on Google Maps, the local section of Google Search. But for your Business Profile to appear higher on Google Maps or in local results, it needs to be optimized, which means you need to have verified ownership of it, which is done through your Google My Business account, which can take a little time and patience.
Create a Facebook Business Page and Post on Social Media
Increasing social media engagement and building an online community is a free and effective way to grow your small business. While social media doesn’t always contribute to your website’s SEO profile, it does grow your brand’s visibility and creates trust with your audience. Create business pages for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, etc. and start posting about your services, products, and experiences:
Promote your blog posts, which drive traffic to your website.
Interact with followers to gain engagement, interest, and trust.
Request feedback and info from clients and prospects.
Post excerpts from more detailed content, to create interest and drive more traffic.
Video is also very popular, and you don’t have to hire a professional. Create your own information and instructional videos with your personal devices and use social media apps like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
Make sure you are regularly active and proactive on the social media accounts you create.
A basic website doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive; just a four-page site is enough to get you going online. And you can add additional features as you go along, such as a blog, web store, or portfolio. But you do need to make sure that your content is good – content is king!
Content marketing is highly effective that’s fairly inexpensive. It serves to demonstrate your authority, expertise, and genuine desire to benefit your audience and contributes greatly to your website’s Search Engine Marketing (SEO) profile. Additionally, Google prioritizes high-quality content that answers the questions its users are asking. When you have great content, Google makes your website more visible on search listings, bringing your site more traffic.
Good content helps educate your audience through simple, easy-to-understand language. Avoid industry jargon where possible and focus on terminology that your audience uses to get information related to your products or services.
Remember that many things that are second nature to you are often foreign to your customers. Useful content is vital: use how-to’s, bulleted lists, hints & tips, etc. to engage your readers and boost your SEO.
Local SEO is free, but can take some time, so keep working at your content, keeping it local where you can; Here are some local SEO tips:
Add location-based keywords (i.e. Salmon Arm Physio, Kamloops Auto) to the titles, headings, and body content of your main website pages.
Get listed in online directories.
Create pages and blog posts specific to the areas that you serve.
A great way to build website content and boost your online marketing is to start a blog.
Small businesses use blogs to drive traffic to their website, increase user engagement, boost online visibility, and strengthen SEO. It’s a free way to promote your business online, with useful information that existing and potential clients are looking for.
Posts don’t have to be long and complex; keep it simple and target a different topic with each post. Make sure you incorporate keywords you’re targeting into each post in a natural way to contribute to your website’s SEO.
Partner with Other Companies
Team up with other businesses related to your company for joint events. This can locally offline (like a special event) or online (with a webinar or promo).
Partnering with other businesses means twice as much exposure and access to a new audience.
Industry partnerships are a great marketing tactic because they allow small business owners access to marketing know-how, technology, and customer bases that they could not have achieved on their own. But make sure that you clarify expectations and assess how you can work together that’s profitable for both companies to avoid getting taken advantage of.
Promotions and Special Offers
Running promos and offers is an effective marketing strategy to gain new or repeat business. You may need to offer a product or service at at a cut rate, but the number of new potential leads you get will be well worth it.
Pay Per Click Ads with Facebook or Google Ads
If you only have a tiny advertising budget, it might still be enough to run some Facebook ads! The cost per click for Facebook advertising can be very low.
For many small businesses, word of mouth is one of the best marketing strategies there is. Research shows that customers are more likely to buy a product or service if they get to know about it from strangers; Friends & family, and Google reviews are great too. So always to a great job and people will remember it!
Business Cards
Get some really nice business cards designed and printed professionally, then give them to every person you meet! The more people who find out about your business, the better – even if it’s just a quick glance at a business card or logo.
When planning your website, content is king in regards to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), but what about links within your content? Links are key SEO markers that are frequently overlooked by small business owners who are unaware of their value, and are unsure as to where and how to build them into their website content. All link types have an important part to play in the visibility of your site on the internet so it’s worth spending a little bit of time to go over them.
To start with, what is SEO? In a nutshell, Search Engine Optimization is the process by which your website and it’s content is made available and searchable on the internet, enabling users and businesses looking for services and products like yours to find and interact with your website and therefore with your company.
Why is this important? Website content (useful, relevant text, information and images) is of vital importance to SEO, but the three types of hyperlinks on your website – internal links, backlinks, and outbound links – also have an important part to play and getting people to visit the services and products on your website, and then become your customers.
Link Types
Three categories of links should exist along side and within the text and images of your website: internal links, outbound links, and backlinks. Lets explore each of these to see what they do and how they benefit your SEO.
Internal Links
Internal links are those links in your website content that you create to point to other related pages and content on your own website, ‘contact us now’ buttons, links to your resources pages from text on your home page, and home page ‘call-to-action’ banners that link to your landing pages are great examples.
Internal links can be built into any text or media on your website, blog post, or social media post, just by inserting the link to the page or resource you want people to visit.
Why are they important?
Well for a start, they make useful resources instantly available to users browsing your site. From an SEO point-of-view, they help Google search robots that are looking for meaningful links and content find their way around your site, mapping it out much better, allowing for greater searchability for people who are looking for services like yours.
Backlinks
Backlinks are undeniably one of the most important SEO factors, next to your website’s content. Backlinks are links from external pages, websites, and resources outside of yours that link to pages and content within your website.
In contrast to internal and outbound links, most backlinks cannot be created by yourself; they have to be either created by the owners of other sites and media, or they can grow organically if you have great content on your site, but the quality of the backlink counts too, so for instance:
If one of your partners lists you on their ‘partners’ page as a trusted associated service, that’s a good quality backlink.
If your website is listed on a local business portal, that’s also a good quality backlink.
If you website is listed on a aggregated business site, that is a backlink, but may not be a good quality one since these types of portals tend to scan everything everywhere so your listing may not be relevant.
Some backlinks you can create though, for instance, links from Facebook or from your Google Business Listing. But make sure that the links you include are relevant and point to good-quality content, otherwise they won’t have as much impact.
Why are they important?
Backlinks are of great importance to search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc. because if other websites are linking to yours, then you probably have something interesting and useful to say about your areas of specialty, which gives you a decent-sized boost to your SEO.
Creating backlinks takes time and effort; sometimes you need to talk to your partner companies and agree to exchange links within your relative websites and posts; other times you can offer to create posts on your own blog that link to your partners in the hope that they do the same, and quite often, if you website content offers great information and is relevant to what you do, it can be picked up through Google searches and linked to by other relevant sites and resources.
We’ll talk more about building backlinks in a future post.
Outbound Links
Outbound links are links that you create within your own content that point towards external sources – in other words, other websites or online services outside of your website. They could be links to a partner’s website, your Facebook page, or some other useful content.
Like internal links, outbound links can be built into any text or media on your website, blog post, or social media post, just by inserting the link to the page or resource you want people to visit.
Why are they important?
According to Google, outbound links don’t have an immediate effect on your website’s search engine optimization (SEO), however, because the internet is essentially a network of networks, those outbound links work to help search engine algorithms determine where your website is in conjunction with other similar or related sites, and because of that, you do get an indirect boost to your SEO positioning.
Links in Conclusion
As you can see, all link types have important value when it comes to the SEO of your website; making sure your content is available to those searching for your products and services is one of the reasons you have a website in the first place, so ensure that you include both internal and outbound links in your website content, images, buttons, calls-to-action, etc.
Talk to your partners about linking to and from your site, and above all, make sure that the information on your website is good, useful information, so that your content gets picked up by search engines, other companies, and by the people who want what you do!
For more information and help with your SEO and link strategy, contact Gleneden Ridge Design; we’d be only too happy to assist!
There’s a bit of a misunderstanding when it comes to Facebook and it’s affect on your websites. May believe that by creating posts in Facebook, building in all of your keywords, and writing key business content directly into your posts can have an effect on the SEO of your website.
Sadly, this is not the case.
However, don’t despair about this; although Facebook posts have barely any impact on your SEO, they certainly have a massive impact on building your brand awareness, engaging your prospects and customers, and in keeping everyone in-the-loop of what’s going on with your business.
So why doesn’t Facebook affect Google SEO?
It’s more than likely that Google’s search bots do crawl your social media posts to some degree, but Google’s search algorithm doesn’t take a great deal of notice of certain key Facebook information, meaning that many of the social media platform’s metrics that you know and love mean nothing when it comes to Google and SEO. Here’s a list:
Likes: everyone loves it when they get ‘likes’ on their posts. Except Google that is, as the search engine cares little for likes. Why is this? Simple really – Google’s algorithm is unable to tell where a particular like came from, so whether it came from a random or spam user, an internet marketing agency, or a reputable source, so it just ignores them.
Follows: Google also doesn’t care if you have a large following or just a few people, but that doesn’t mean having lots of followers is worthless; far from it, having a large following generally means that your customers love your business and the content that you’re putting out there – it’s a great way to share quality info, offers, news and updates.
Shares: Again, Google puts little value on shares, since many will share your posts just because they’re your buddy or colleague, which means that it’s difficult for Google to attribute any type of quality to a share.
With all that said, building your following and posting your content are still a vital piece in the digital marketing puzzle. For instance, your business page undoubtedly links back to your website, contains your contact details, and clients and prospects can message you through social media. Plus, your social media platforms help your online presence, can be used in a customer service-type role, and put a more public face to your company.
Can social media affect my website SEO?
Well yes it can!
For instance, as mentioned about, your Facebook page should link to your website, and if it does, people will click the link and end up on your website. Your posts with your website URL can be shared by social media users to other people, meaning that your website links get shared around too, all of which contributes towards your following.
And the reverse is true too; visitors to your website will see the share links on your blog posts and the icons in your website headers and footers and when they click on them, they’ll end up on your social media platforms and start sharing around, again, building your online following.
And when people start reading your great content, sharing it, and attracting more visitors to your website, Google can see that you have a growing number of users who are enjoying what your doing with your website, and consequently you get a bit of a boost to your SEO rankings, which is great!
Social media search engines
All of the major social media platforms – Facebook, YouTube, PINterest, etc. – now have built in search engines, so whenever users are searching for topics, services or products, it’s more than possible that your posts will appear in the results so long as your content is good.
Remember – content is king!
Google is very aware that social media now holds a huge place in people’s lives, and a huge space on the internet which is only going to grow. And search engine algorithms are under constant development, so it’s entirely possible that at some point, they will start to take more notice of the content we’re creating on the social media platforms that we know and love.
In conclusion
Basically, keep your SEO strategies for your website and blog; don’t waste your time and energy creating SEO-friendly posts for social media. Instead, spend your time creating good content that will truly engage your audience, giving them the information they need, and leveling with em on a more personal level.
For help with your social media, your website SEO, or other aspects of digital marketing, feel free to contact us at Gleneden Ridge Design; we’re more than happy to help!
One of the best ways to boost your local SEO and digital marketing is to really use your Google Business or Bing Places profiles.
Google Business & Bing Places profiles let you showcase your business locally, as soon as someone clicks on a search listing when searching for companies like yours.
When you first setup your profile, you usually need to verify that you own the business name, which can take several weeks depending on verification method, so be patient. Once verified, you can start using your profile.
The first thing is to always make sure your business details are as correct and current as possible, but it’s easy to edit and update your details as things change in your business. Make sure you have all of these basic details correct:
Business name and description
Business categories
Contact details & address
Website
Opening hours
Service areas
Google Maps location
Also, when you’re uploading images, make sure you have your business logo in place, and a cover image that adequately shows who you are.
Now let’s Move on to some other useful features of your business profile, many of which are under used. Most people know that you can upload photos and collect reviews with your profile, but you can do lots more; you can:
Post updates: add useful information for customers, as well as business updates & notifications; great for your marketing!
Post events: if you’re holding an event, or attending one, create a post to publicize it.
Offers & promos: create offers and promotions right on your profile to attract clients and market your products
Products & services: add your products and services to your profile so that customers and prospects can see what you have to offer
Performance: View your profile’s performance; you can easily see how many people have visited your profile, what they looked at, and how they interacted with your profile.
Messaging & Communications: Your profile can also be setup very easily to accept calls, messages, customer questions, quote requests and inquiries from clients & prospects.
Advertising: If you use Google Ads, and can connect directly to your account from your profile.
To set up most of these services and settings is pretty simple; you just click whichever button you want to edit, add, or update and follow the instructions. If you do need assistance, there is a Google Business help page:
Today we’d like to show you a few ways that you can retouch and enhance your photos to give your website images a boost, and to add a flourish to your marketing!
Some of these effects can be done with Windows image programs such as MS Paint, other’s are easier with a program like Adobe Photoshop. Whatever the case, in you need help achieving these effects, please get in touch and we’d be happy to assist!
Creative use of Photo Retouching: Some Examples:
Merging two photos together
Here we’re taking a computer software screenshot and mapping it onto a computer monitor image to show it on screen:
Computer screen image
Software screenshot
Complete image
Remove distracting objects to focus on the foreground
In this photo, we removed the distracting detail around the main focus areas to show the horses at their best:
Original image
Final image
Removing reflections and reshaping images
With this image, we re-shaped the image, cropped out the frame, then retouched the remaining image to remove glare and reflections:
Original photo
Retouched photo
From colour photos to sepia
This is a simple case of taking a normal colour image, then creating a sepia effect from it:
Original colour image
Sepia version
Flipping and fading photos
We wanted this goat image to fade into the page from the right, so we flipped it and applied a simple fade to create the effect:
Original goat
Flipped and faded goat
Removing a background and brightening an image
With this image, we removed the background to create focus, and applied brightness and contrast to give the original dull image a boost:
Original photo
Brightened image
These are just a few ways that you can edit your images to create balance, focus, and clarity with your photos.
Look out for more ideas from Gleneden Ridge Design soon!
Carrying on from a previous post where we talked about how small business owners often get a rough deal when it comes to websites and digital marketing, here we’d like to discuss some of the best and simplest ways that small business owners can get online and manage their marketing themselves – or with little help – without breaking the bank.
Where to Start with Marketing
Ideally, you should start to market before or as soon as your product or service becomes available as it can take some time to build up an audience. Here are some great ways and tools to use to start online marketing and building up your prospects and customers.
Use social media to your advantage: Facebook Business pages are the obvious choice for most companies; LinkedIn is great for professional services, YouTube is great for promos, tutorials, and ‘how-to’s’, and other services such as Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter all have something to offer.
Websites
Your website is your business face or store front online; more so than your Facebook Business page, so keep it up-to-date and current in both content and design. And make sure your SEO is up-to-scratch on your website; the internet doesn’t know that your website is there unless you tell it!
Blog Posts
Creating a blog is easy on WordPress-based websites and similar platforms. A blog allows you to share your knowledge, ideas, and services to the world, while at the same time broadening the scope of your website, and complementing your social media.
Google & Facebook Ads
Google Ads and Facebook Ads are both pay-per-click advertising systems that you can customize to your brand and your pocket. They are relatively easy to set up to start with, and they offer ‘as-you-go’ guidance, but when you get deep into them, they can get complex, so ask for help if you need to.
Computers & Networks in General
For other IT-related services for the small business, such as computer hardware, network equipment, installation, and system software configuration, talk to TechPoint Networks and Computer Services who’ll be able to offer you all the support you need.
And finally…
Digital marketing will continue to be vital to our business lives, and to how we conduct business. As time goes on, new media will appear to help with our marketing efforts; some may be easy to use, while others may be more difficult and need a certain level of technical knowledge. Whatever the case, if you need help with any aspect or your online – or offline -marketing, give us a call and we’d be only too happy to help!
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