What’s more, when a Contact Us page has been completed, a good web designer and web marketing company will create a Thank You landing page as well, which is indispensible for information. Through Google Analytics, they will then be able to see how many people have landed on that page, which translates to the number of people that contacted your company through the website. Goal funnels should also be set up to determine the worth of each person that fills out the Contact Us page. Through these Analytics, the web marketing team is also able to track how much money you should be seeing as a result of the website, and if that number is not very high, they can also use it to determine how best to modify the plan to increase it.

The leads created through a website turn into prospects, and many of those turn into sales. It is a handing off of the torch from SEO finding the lead, to the web design enticing them to call, to your sales team to close the deal. SEO and web design can get it 2/3 of the way there, all you have to do is take these qualified leads and convert them to a sale, sales which you would not have gotten without proper SEO and web design. The money put into implementing a proper web marketing strategy pays itself back, so really, it is an investment in a company’s future and success. Again, it’s worth it (literally!).

From an SEO perspective there are two main reasons to have a blog: Page Indexing & Keyword Targeting.  Search engines love content- in fact, content is king. If one horse saddle site has 5 pages about horse saddles and the other has 55, which one would you assume knows more about the topic? So every time your site posts a blog, you get a new page indexed to your site and you have the opportunity to get ranked for a host of new keywords. It’s a good deal really.

From a regular business marketing perspective there are also two reasons to have a blog: Industry Credibility & Actionability. When your horse site (keeping with our stable equestrian metaphor) posts a blog about the top tips for new horse riders or an article on improving conditions for the horses in your region, your audience learns to trust you. They learn to rely on your for information about things that are important to them- in this case- horses. This also gives your company the opportunity to give your customers access to the new classes you are offering on “horse riding for beginners” or a petition you want signed to change animal treatment legislation. All this from a blog? Absolutely.

Now that you’re sold (or halfway there) what does it take to write a good blog?

TOP 5 BLOG WRITING TIPS

Be Topical (this blog is about SEO and blogs, so far we are good!) Don’t write things that have nothing to do with your company. The best business blogs do not stray from industry related topics. Remember your target market (marketing 101) and serve up things that they need/want to learn about.

Be Interesting (you are still reading, our evil plan is working!) Content is important because it shows you are an expert at your business. It shows that your company does it better than the rest. But instead of getting bogged down in the details of your business and talking a ton of industry specifics, spice it up- turn it upside down. There is a ton of content out there- make yours worth reading! Pictures, videos and clear headings help!

Be on Brand (DMG takes SEO “nerd talk” and translates it into “human”!) Remember who you are and what you represent. If you are writing the content yourself, make sure to make the voice of the content consistent. If you are hiring someone to do it, make sure to give them information about your brand. A few important questions to ask: formal/familiar, informative/participatory. If you are writing a site about balloons and teddy bears, you probably don’t need to write it on the graduate level.

Be Optimized (my keywords are in BOLD HERE, nifty eh?) Blog optimization is easy if you have a plan before you start writing. One of the best blog tips we can give you is to create a topic outline to avoid the inevitable uncertainty: “Oh god, do I have to write another blog today?!” Before you start writing or before you hire someone to do your professional blog writing for you, you need to have an idea where you are going with it. By deciding this in advance, it is easier to optimize your blog by picking out the key terms you will be targeting. Use the Google’s free AdWords tool to search your ideas. The best way to SEO your blog is to make sure to use those terms and to tag your blog with them.

Be Actionable (your mission is to use this info to write a blog, and to think we’re awesome!  Contact Us for more info on SEO and Blogging) Providing free content is fun and all, but there are really two main outcomes you seek: 1) Becoming trusted as an expert in your field, 2) challenging people to take action- “click here”, “do this thing” etc. Try to think of topics that create calls to action or at least give your readers something to take with them so that they won’t forget having read your content 5 minutes after that are finished. You want your audience to be motivated to, at the very least, share what they just read with someone else.

I’ve seen a troubling increase in the number of people who are being called by businesses who claim to be working for Google… the problem is, they don’t. Small businesses are being led to believe they are working with a Google rep, and instead are being taken for a ride (and usually a very expensive one, at that!)

Common Misconception – working FOR Google vs working WITH Google.

Google’s ‘Agency’ program (which we are an authorized member of) allows a company to certify that they know their stuff and that they understand the Google products like adwords to a degree of proficiency. Every couple of months these companies get cool swag and some adwords coupons for their clients (I am currently drinking from my Google insulated water bottle, wearing my Google cap and my Google jump drive is holding my presentation materials… it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s uber-geek!) This does not mean Larry Page pays our salaries. Google Agencies don’t work FOR Google anymore than we work for Yahoo, Bing or any other search engine. We work WITH the search engines to help YOU, our clients to increase business revenue online.

When you get a call from someone claiming to be ‘with Google’ ask this simple question:

“What’s your extension at Google? I’ll call the main number and call you back.”

They will
a. Give you the phone number 800-838-7969 and a 5 digit extension along with their name
b. Curse, hang up, and try and look for an easier mark
c. Backtrack and say, well this is CompanyY, we work with Google to (insert promise here)

option A is GREAT, you now know someone who works at Google, this person is your ally, be kind to them.
option B is less great, but you’ve caused a scammer heartache and pain, which is a good thing.
option C means you have some research to do… It’s wonderful that SEO/Internet Marketing is held to the same standard as all of the businesses we work with – ONLINE REVIEWS MATTER!

Here’s a few techniques to investigate a company:
- Google “CompanyY Reviews” “CompanyY Complaints” and “CompanyY Scam” This is a great way to see how many people have had problems or successes with a company. Scammers can add fake ‘good reviews’ but they can’t make the bad ones go away easily.
- Check the BBB website! This is one of the most searched categories on the BBB’s website, you will be able to see how many complaints they’ve had, and how many they have closed this year and previous years. This is an invaluable resource and one that is not as easily ‘gamed’ as other sites, because it goes through a verification process for complaints.

If you have any questions about the company that’s calling you and pitching ‘working with/for with Google’, do some research, and if you still have questions, give us a call.  Beating up on scammers (and on incompetent AT&T PPC reps) is one of my favorite pass times!

We love meeting with our clients, potential clients and partner companies, so come on by and say hello…

2329 W. Main Street
Suite 209
Littleton, CO 80120

Stop by for a FREE SEO report and some coffee!

Being a part of the Friday morning meetings is like half networking, half comedy hour, half rocky horror picture show (not kidding, audience participation is a HUGE part).  Anyway part of what we do is support each other…  So when we found out one of our members was going through a rough patch, what do we do?   Throw a huge party/fundraiser for him!   Below I’ve put together step-by-step instructions on how to rsvp and forward facebook cause invitations (in super easy to understand, facebook for dummies simplicity for those who don’t use facebook) .  You can scan through this or download the PDF walk-thru here.

First let’s see the screen you will see when you enter in this URL

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=180431525346256&ref=ts

Yet another nail in the coffin for this obsolete dinosaur of advertising.

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/16/136368752/san-francisco-moves-to-ban-yellow-pages

We’ve brought the head writer of the Berlin office over to Denver to meet people and see the sights (and sites) we’ve been involved in the Denver market.  Now I am over on the other side of the world getting to know the fantastic people I’ve only known via 2 dimensions on the other end of a teleconference on skype.  The creative talent here is amazing!

Paris, London, Los Angeles….  I’ve spent large amounts of time in some of the worlds largest cities, but nothing I’ve seen compares to Berlin.  The most amazing energy, creativity combined with a truly bohemian feel that hasn’t really existed in Paris or London in a century.  Have you tried living on $10 a day in Paris?  Good luck.  Here you can eat like a king for 5 euros, good beer for one 1.5 euros and find music on every street corner.

Berlin is at once a very old and very young city, a city in rebirth if you will.  The population is young, lots of open air parks filled with young couples with small children of every ethnicity, kids shriek in a melodic babble of German, English, French and Arabic – there seems to be a universal language by which they communicate the most important concepts:  ‘cool’, ‘gross’ and ‘tag, your it!’   Most everyone seems to be multilingual, and I haven’t yet found a child unable to speak in at least 2 and usually 3 languages – very humbling to have a 3 year old explain to a cashier what you are looking for when trying to explain the difference between a ball point pen and a gel pen.

Sitting here in a small cafe where they are blaring the soundtrack to Pulp Fiction and enjoying one of the best croissants on the planet while blogging and reading ‘Web Designer UK’ – life is pretty damn awesome.

After our DMG meeting this afternoon I’m heading over to the ‘Island of Museums’ (for the 3rd time in less than a week) and enjoying the wealth of galleries, museums and stunning architecture.   I will try and find more time and update as international adventures continue, but rest assured, if you don’t hear from me I’m just happily riding my (borrowed) bike down the cobblestone streets and having a blast.

-Ariel Davlin

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/feb/25/google-search-results

Game:  TD Green Bay – touchdown dance!

Rango – website

cars.com – once again, no website, but it would have been silly to list one

bud light – facebook, website

Game: whole lot-a-nothing

hyundi – website

pepsi max – website, facebook

Game: Steelers TD – Boo Hiss

Mercedes Benz – website

fox – website, facebook

house – funny, website

Game:  Green Bay almost manages to get a TD, has to settle for a FG – exciting game

Camero – website

verizon – website

Game: People throw AND catch the ball

Limitless – flashed too quickly to see, think it’s a website

sketchers – website

terranova none

Fox – website

Game:  good till the last drop – Green Bay wins in a VERY tight game!

I wish there had been more social media campaigns this year…  but I foresee nothing but more of these types of commercials in the future.  Cheers -A

Game:

cars.com -no website, but really, why would it need one?

etrade -none… ironic, no?

best buy – website

Chicago Code – website

American Idol – website

Game:  cameraman makes a great off field tackle…  he seems unhappy about it.  Steelers TD, suddenly it’s a game again.

Pirates 3 – none

mini – none

HomeAway.com – website

Game:  Green Bay does a whole lot of nuthing

Elantra – none

Groupon – website

coke – none

stella artois – website

carmax – website, social media icons

xfactor – website

Game:   whateves – 2nd round of apps just arrived, some sort of swiss cheese and bacon dip – pure heaven

Chrysler – the return of big E, selling us the replacement for one of the crappiest models in the chrysler lineup, the sebring – website mentioned

Game:  lot of time eaten up by challenge – GB looses the challenge.  Have I mentioned the swiss bacon dip may be my favorite thing ever?!

local ad…  seriously crap.  southwest motors website mentioned

insurance – progressive insurance

jack in the box – website for spring break promo