We’re going to start today’s piece off with a few statistics: One third of mobile searches have local intent – meaning 66% of people searching on smartphones and cell phones are looking to purchase something in their immediate area(one-fifth on PCs). Fifty percent of those searches lead the user to visit a retail outlet (34% on desktops/laptops/tablets).

How about a few more statistics? Overall, 74% of Internet users search with local intent. 61% of local searches directly result in a purchase. More than 100 million people a month use Google Maps to find local business information.

Suddenly, local search seems a whole lot more important, doesn’t it? Continue reading →

Search engine optimization can be pretty complicated – especially if you’re new to it. While it’s nowhere near as difficult and technical as some ‘experts’ and ‘gurus’ would have you believe, the learning curve can still be fairly steep. Truth be told, there’s a very good chance that – unless you’re some sort of seasoned expert yourself – you’ve made a bunch of mistakes optimizing your website.

Don’t get too bummed out about that, though. After all, making mistakes is one of the best ways to learn, right?  The first step, of course, is knowing that you messed up in the first place.

To that end, here are a few of the lesser-known mistakes many webmasters tend to make when optimizing their site. Continue reading →

The Old Days Of Link Building

There was a time not too long ago when link building was one of the most vital components of search engine optimization. The more links a website received, the higher it ranked. As time went on, Google tweaked and updated its link ranking algorithms. Link building became as much about quality as it was about quantity.

It didn’t take long for the SEO community to coin a new term in order to describe the process by which a link valued (or devalued, as it were) a page. Link Juice, as it’s known, became a common phrase in any discussion of Search Engine Optimization. The idea was that whenever a page linked to another, some of that page’s ‘value’ would transfer to the target. Continue reading →

By now, you’ve already had it drilled into your head on a regular basis – search engine optimization is about as far from dead as possible. Although it’s certainly more content-oriented now than in the past, its importance to one’s success on the web literally cannot be understated. If your site isn’t properly optimized, it’s not going to rank. If it doesn’t rank, users don’t find it. And if users don’t find it, well… You probably shouldn’t quit your day job. Continue reading →

A survey carried out back in 2010 found that 97% of consumers research online before purchasing at a brick-and-mortar store. I’ll admit, the world has changed a bit since then.  There’s more of a focus on digital shopping than ever before, and the number of channels through which consumers research their purchases has expanded considerably. Users now look not only to search engines and digital storefronts, but also to social media and promotional emails.

On the surface, one might think that this makes an online storefront somewhat less important than it was in the past. Continue reading →

I’ve said on several occasions that the world of search engine optimization has changed a great deal over the past few years. With the rise to prominence of social media, we’ve seen an entirely new paradigm take hold. Rather than being about the search engine, today’s SEO is far more focused on the people using it.

Let’s talk about that. Continue reading →

Like any field with a technical aspect, search engine optimization plays host to a wide range of different misconceptions, half-truths, and falsehoods.  With digital marketing in particular, this problem is exacerbated by the fluid and rapidly-changing nature of both search and the Internet itself. What held true last year might not necessarily be valid next year; this year’s tactics could end up obsolete with a single update to Google’s algorithms.

These tall tales – and there are many of them – range in veracity from “somewhat true” to “less grounded than the flat-Earth theory.” Perpetuated by well-meaning, misinformed journalists; underhanded snake soil salesmen, and unknowing laymen; the myths collected here all share one thing in common: they can be universally damaging to one’s efforts online. Don’t buy into them. Continue reading →

Although Google’s algorithms don’t seem to have much use for meta descriptions anymore, that doesn’t make them any less valuable to you as a content creator. Often, a meta description is the first thing a user will see of your site; it’s quite literally the first impression you’ll make on your readers. You need make sure it’s well-written.

Otherwise, you’re very likely to miss out on a significant amount of traffic. Continue reading →

Most of you who’ve spent any amount of time working with any form of marketing have noticed that the field is positively choked with jargon (as is virtually every industry, really).  You shouldn’t be entirely shocked by this – oftentimes, jargon is the best way to condense a relatively complex topic down so it’s easier to convey.  For that reason, I’m not entirely against its use, nor do I deny its efficacy given the right circumstances.

The problem with jargon is that when overused – or repeatedly misused – its meaning tends to grow distorted over time. It becomes a buzzword; an empty, meaningless propaganda phrase which is more a sign of laziness than knowledge. While jargon is best used sparingly, buzzwords should be avoided at all costs.

I’ve compiled a list of some of the more common buzzwords floating around the world of digital marketing. I’d advise against using any of them if you can help it. Your readers will thank you for it.

Continue reading →

There’s a good chance that you’re going to use images at one point or another, regardless of the website you run or the publication you manage. We’re a very visual society these days, after all; a few well-placed pictures can drastically improve the look, feel, and readability of a site. Of course, if you fail to properly optimize these images, you’re going to be losing out.

Don’t underestimate the amount of traffic you can draw to your page with Google Image Search. Ensuring the images you use are properly optimized from both a user and search engine standpoint can work wonders for your site. By that same vein, improper image optimization could actually cause the rating on your entire page to drop.

Today, we’re going to go over a few best practices for your website’s images.

Continue reading →