Your Untapped Goldmine

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Lauren Santucci

Most Companies have a website with information about who they are and what they do. However, most Companies do not continually grow the content on their website. It remains stagnant, unchanging. Yawn.

Website content or onsite SEO has always been important. But today, more than ever, it is vital that you are creating quality content that speaks to your target audience. Furthermore, it is essential that you are using email marketing and social media platforms to get that content in front of your target audience(s).

Customers ask me: “How is this really going to help get more leads from the Internet?”

If you examine the leads from a typical website, you will find most of the leads come from hundreds of long-tailed keywords. Long-tailed keywords are phrases that are three or more words in length that describe your products and/or services. Adding content to your website is the best way of building hundreds or even thousands of long-tailed keywords into the content of your website.

The next question I get from customers is: “How can we add stuff to our website?”

It is best if you have a blog attached to your website that allows you to quickly and easily add content to your site. For example, you would create the following URL: blog.YourWebsite.com. Here at Spectrum, we attach a blog to every customer website. Additionally, our customers have web browser access to their blog, and we work together with our customers to help them publish and market industry specific, rich content on their blog.

Now that you understand how to start adding content to your website easily, the next step is equally important, getting the word out to the world. It can be argued that just adding content to your site will help with rankings, traffic and leads, as the search engines crawl your site, find the content and index it.

However, the best way to speed up this process is through email and social syndication. Writing teaser copy and posting it to your social sites like, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter will help spread the information quickly. Additionally, using email marketing to send to customers, previous website visitors and prospects will reach different members of your target audiences.

Here is another thing I hear from customers: “We don’t have an email list.”

And here is the gold mine you didn’t even know you had:

Your website
Email forms on your website, including a request form or a quote form

You have been collecting email addresses for many years that you have not taken advantage of. It’s time to take advantage now! The list of email addresses from your website is a perfect place to start syndicating quality content that speaks to your target audience(s). Another great source for email addresses is your email software, i.e. Outlook. You can build an email list from the received and sent email addresses. Now all you need to do is get started!

10 Tips to Make You a Better Googler

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Adam Barrett

On a daily basis, many people will use a computer, and of those computer users, almost all of them will surf the internet. Of those internet users, the vast majority uses Google for their searches on the web. The question I ask you is: Do you know the best search practices for Google? A study at Illinois Wesleyan University was recently conducted and found that fewer than 25% of students could perform a “reasonably well-executed search.” The researchers of the study wrote that, “The majority of students — of all levels — exhibited significant difficulties that ranged across nearly every aspect of the search process.”

Google has developed many tools to aid in searches for everyday things. Below is a list of operators you can use in Google to get search results for exactly what you are looking for. Learn how to perform well executed searches on Google with these useful search operators. These operators are designed to help refine your search to find exactly what you are looking for.

Search Operators to Use on Google to Make your Life Easier

1. Either/Or Operator
Normally Google searches for everything in the search query. If you want to search for web pages that have one or both terms you can use the “OR” operator; represented by using“ | “ or “–“ symbols.
2. Quotes Operator
To get Google to find an exact phrase, it’s best to use quotes. An example, “Spectrum Internet Marketing” will only return results with that exact phrase. You can use an operator on only part of a search query or use more than one if you want.
3. Similar Terms Operator
This operator uses Google’s dictionary to search for synonyms for terms in a search marked with “ ~ “ in front of it. An example is: Spectrum is a ~great marking company. Google might show results for: “Spectrum is a magnificent marketing company. “
4. Wildcard Searches Operator
A wild card is represented by an asterisk or * to match one or more words in a phrase. The pharse needs to be in brackets [] and can be a very powerful search asset if you are looking for something specific but can’t remember exactly what it is. An example of this would be: [Spectrum Communications & * is an internet marketing company]. Google would probably return: “Spectrum Communications & Consulting is an internet marketing company.”
5. Definitions Operator
When using this operator you are asking Google to define a term for you. Use “define:” followed by a word want a definition for. Example: “define: SEO” Google should return a definition for SEO and Search Engine Optimization.
6. Calculator – Unit converter Operator
One of the most convenient tools and also the least well known is the calculator/unit converter operator. For this operator all you need to do is type in the calculation For example: 12 inches to feet. Best to keep it simple; for advanced calculations you might want to use the calculator.
7. Site-Specific Searches
Looking for a specific item or page on a website? Use the “site:” operator, which only searches a specific site for your query. An example would be: site:www.spectruminc.com website development. This will search for the terms “website development” only within www.spectruminc.com.
8. Movies – Music Searches
There is a movie operator to search for a specific movie title along with a location. Google will return a list of theaters playing the movie and the times. Google’s music operator returns search results for music only related to the search terms. Type “movie:” and “music:”for the operations.
9. Daily Life Searches – Sports, Stocks, Weather, etc.
Want to check the score or the weather without having to search the internet or wait for the weather on the news? Just ask Google; it’s as simple as: “weather Chicago IL” for the operator.
10. Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything
Search for that exact phrase, in lower case, and Google will give you the answer.

After reading this list did you know Google had all of these operators already? Most people think of Google as a quick and easy search engine. People count on its extremely complicated and advanced search algorithm for good search results. Now you can take searching the web to the next level with these powerful and useful search operators. These tools can cut down your time spent searching for the right website dramatically.

Google does much more than just a rudimentary search for some words you type in a box. Google has the ability to perform advanced searches to help you find precisely what you are looking for. By creating all of these operators Google is securing its place as the world’s dominant search engine.

Google: April’s Search Quality Highlights

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Chuck Turack

Each month now Matt Cutts posts some information about the changes to Google’s search algorithm. You can visit the blog here. This is a great resource and helps us in the SEO world determine if we need to make any changes to our SEO strategy. However, for those of you that are not experts, here is the important stuff and what it means to you:

1. “Improvements to local navigational searches.” – This is an attempt to get better results for searches that include location information(city, zip, etc). This will affect business that rely on ‘local’ traffic from web searches to get local leads. Key factors to help determine if a site will be effected are: site navigation, ‘location’ pages, maps/address data.

2. “No freshness boost for low-quality content. ” – Freshness of content has long been a factor in Google ranking algorithm. This update takes the quality of the content into account when evaluating new content. To comply with this, make sure all new content you add to any of your web properties is not only unique, make sure it is accurate and valuable as well.

3. “Keyword stuffing classifier improvement.” – Keyword stuffing is using a key term many time within a document to try and manipulate the results. Say, including the term ‘Chicago movers’ on a page 50+ times in many different areas on the page; title tags, alt tags, main navigation, body, anchors, footer, etc. This has been a SEO topic for a long time, but Google is basically tightening the belt here. Actively looking for more keyword stuffing while diminishing the value of those key words in certain places. make sure your not using any one key word to often. If you us standard grammar, write quality content, and have a company like Spectrum to handle the website code, you’ll be in good shape.

The 49 other updates in the article, while important, don’t have a large impact on SEO as a broad topic, most will only effect a small set of results. Have any questions? Ask me on Twitter @SEOesq .

Google Puts a Freeze on Web SPAM

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Lauren Santucci

Local search is changing the way consumers find and purchase products. Google is an ever evolving animal with the most recent change being Google’s algorithm adjustment referred to as the Penguin Update (Previously known as the Webspam Update). This update is Google’s way of cracking down on search engine manipulation to maintain a quality web experience for users – cleaning up the spam in other words. Google’s quality guidelines explain what features are needed to create a good website from the viewpoint of their engineers. The SEO engineers at Spectrum make sure to follow these quality guidelines to prevent the Penguin update from affecting your website. We stick to these ethical SEO best practices:

Make your site’s webpages for your readers, not just for search engine optimization. Quality content is crucial when creating and maintaining a solid web presence, and is even more important when trying to gain good SERP(search engine results page) real estate.
Don’t use black hat SEO techniques because they are used to get higher SERP rankings in an unethical manner.
Avoid link building shortcuts. Do not participate in paid link building or link building exchange schemes to increase your website’s page rank.

With the Penguin Update, penalties will be given to those website’s practicing unethical SEO techniques, and in the case of Google’s 2011 Panda Update – praise for good techniques. Quality content is a fundamental rule when it comes to creating a web presence.

With these rapid changes, parent companies have more difficulty keeping track of their vast network of dealers/members to see if their network is keeping up with local search and ethical SEO techniques. Would you like to learn more about Google algorithm changes? Tips on how to produce great websites with quality content and white hat SEO techniques? Connect with us!

Have a more specific question? Contact us here.

Social Media Engagement, It’s all about Timing

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Ashley H

The big question that daunts a company’s social media poster is WHEN they should post.

When should you post to the "Big 4" in social media?

It’s all about timing on the “Big 4″ social media platforms in America – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and a company blog. In a recent PRSA webinar on April 24, 2012, Ann Wylie of Wylie Communications Inc. summed up the best times to post to Facebook and Twitter. LinkedIn is based on my own experience, and Sharaholic conducted excellent research on when to post blogs.

When to Post to Facebook

Saturdays and Sundays, when Facebook users are most engaged
Wednesdays
Morning, when Facebook users are checking their email
At the top of the hour between :00 – :15
Every other day; don’t inundate your followers with constant updates

Twitter Time

Tuesdays and Fridays seem to have the highest engagement
Weekends during the afternoon
At the top of the hour, best time is :01 so that your post is at the top – ahead of those that post at :00

Posting to LinkedIn

This social media network also has different times and days. Since this network is geared to only business professionals, the best time to post would be before people begin their work day – dependent upon the time zone you are reaching out to. Posting at lunch, and just before the end of the work day are also great times for engagement. The best days to post to LinkedIn is Tuesday – Thursday, and also on weekends when business professionals catch up on their social networking. On Monday, professionals are just getting into the work week grind, and on Fridays many may leave early to begin their weekends.

If these times don’t work for your specific target audience, research what time they are actively using LinkedIn. Then update your status shortly before that time frame, so your content will be ready to be viewed by your target audience.

Blogging, the Here and Now

Always make sure your content is fresh and updated. However, only blog when you have valuable information to share – whether it is a couple of times a week or every day. Always make sure to answer this question before you post: What will this content help my audience do? Always give your audience value. With that being said, according to research conducted by Sharaholic, they have data supporting the best times of day to blog to get shares and traffic.

Thursdays have the most shares for blog posts
8 a.m. – 12 p.m. EST is the best time of day to receive social shares
Monday – Thursday are the best days for pageviews
7 a.m. – 1 p.m. EST is the best time of day for pageviews

A key point to take away is to publish in the morning on all social media platforms before people head into work. Another great time to post is on the weekends when people are catching up on their social networking. Social media engagement isn’t just about timing though, creating informational, shareable content is just as important. Sometimes you may have to use analytics software attached to your social media platforms to discover what times and days are best to post. Your target audience may be engaged in social media on slightly different days and times than discussed in this post.

Maintaining and Building Your Online Reputation

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Chuck Turack

Let’s look at one of the biggest topics in search marketing today… reputation management. Total online reputation management is a crucial and time consuming part of online marketing. It can be done by a small business owner in their spare time or by a professional SEM agency for a large corporation. This article will go over some of the fundamental topics when dealing with total online reputation management.

The Social Update

It is vital for businesses today to be up-to-date and active on major social media outlets. The 3 main players here are:

Facebook
Google+
Twitter

Of course there are many others, but at bare minimum a business needs to be involved on these social mediums.

There are two core actions for each of these social sites that can get your business up-to-speed.

The first thing is to set up your page. You’ll need to add or claim your page. Each site will have a different procedure, but getting through the process is relatively easy. Make sure to fill out all information completely and accurately. Twitter, Google+, and Facebook all have ways to customize your page, I highly recommend this, the reason i it will make your page stand out and also potentially increase conversions. All of these social media sites also have tools to help you connect with people and share information. All businesses need and individual or agency that can administer these accounts.

Next is to STAY ACTIVE! Just making sure you have your page secured with contact information isn’t enough. Google is actively integrating social content into it’s organic search algorithm, so your search ranking will be effected by this as well. Make sure to post updates a least once a week. You can use tools like HootSuite and SproutSocial to make it easier. The key is to make sure you’re posting quality content that informs your users and generates value. From local charities, to office parties, to the holiday weekend, you want to interact and inform your audience. Give your social media accounts individual personality.

Google Places and Other Business Listings

Local business listings with reviews are huge for getting positive business exposure. Yellow Pages has been replaced by the internet, so everyone finds businesses online. Identifying and claiming all of your local business listings is crucial to successful online reputation management. If you don’t control the information that is out there about your business, someone else will try to.

Be Consistent

One primary factor in all of this is to be consistent. It’s very important for the information on each of the websites to match up. All websites are all somewhat interconnected these days. Google can pull data on your business from anywhere and use it in the listing…and they do. So make sure if your name is ‘ACME SEO Company’ on Facebook, make sure it’s not ‘ACME SEO’ or ‘ACME SEO Inc’ on Google Places.

Also be consistent in how often you are interacting with you social network and producing content. Starting a blog you post to once a week. Syndicating your blog posts to your social network, creating an easy way to provide consistent updates across multiple platforms. Hire an agency or assign an employee to do it each week.

Reach Out to Your Customers

Make sure you are reaching out to your customers. Feedback from customers is so valuable, and all of the online tools make it easy today. Here are 6 things you can do to start reaching out:

Respond to Negative Reviews, everyone gets them.
Include links to Google Paces in follow up emails and ask for a review.
Make sure to link to your social outlets and blogs from your website.
Start an email list and periodic email campaigns.
Start a promotion on Facebook.
Ask your customer to ‘like’ you on Facebook OR review you on Yelp! Some won’t, some will.

Create Positive Informative Content

When creating content for all these outlets, make sure you are being positive, informative, and valuable. Think of all of the good things your business does and let people know about it.

Give to a charity each year? That’s an article. Complete a special project with pictures and description? That ‘sa great blog post. Even wishing your customers and fans a “Happy Fourth of July” can be a great thing to do.

Just try to add value in each piece of content you create. Much of this can be done quickly once the accounts are set up. And remember, you can have outside sources create SEO content for you, but the best content is going to come from within. For our customers, make sure you work with us on this, we need your input. BE INVOLVED!

Monitor the Major Outlets

Lastly, make sure that someone is monitoring your online reputation. Do it yourself or have us do it for you, either way its very important. Things change so much in the online world. Every month there seems to be a change in how we are doing something involving SEO and Social, if you leave it for even a few months you can be in trouble. Take these steps and you won’t have any problems.

12 Steps You Can Take to Make your Business More Green!

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Spectrum Communications

Hey fellow Earthlings, Earth Day is right around the corner! Sunday, April 22^nd is dedicated to this giant green and blue sphere we call home. There are many “green” initiatives that companies can take to participate in protecting our environment and reducing our ecological footprint. You and fellow employees can implement most of these practices into a daily routine, replacing a less earth-friendly. In honor of Earth Day, Spectrum Communications, a Chicago based internet marketing company, devised a list of action items your company can take to become a greener business.

Have a water cooler with eco-friendly reusable water bottles or mugs for the staff. Do some self-promotion with company branded water bottles.
Use two, side-by-side computer monitors to reduce the printing of emails/documents and improve efficiency.
Recycle electronics and office equipment such as computers, desks, chairs, printers, copy machines, fax machines, ink cartridges, etc.
Create online media kits or online marketing reports to replace any mailed packets or marketing collateral.
Cut the energy-consuming florescent lights and utilize eco-friendly bulbs in desk lamps.
Have recycling bins in addition to garbage cans throughout the office.
Go greener (literally) by giving everyone a desk plant to care for.
Use Go2Meeting or similar online meeting software avoid excess gas usage and pollution from driving to face-to-face meetings.
Car pool with fellow employees who live nearby. Better yet, ride your bike to work if possible!
Use eco-friendly modular furniture or cubicles repurposed from other items.
Make use of email. Email is fast, efficient and, best of all, paper free.
Utilize online sticky notes to avoid using paper Post-Its! (Ex: Windows 7)

Pick one, a few or all of the above green initiatives to celebrate Earth Day the way it was intended: by being nicer to our home, Planet Earth. Who knows, maybe the green trends will stick and your company will be one of the many joining the progressive green movement.

Need more of an incentive? Going green not only reduces harmful waste and eliminates more of your ecological footprint, but it can save your company money. In fact, eco-friendly can be synonymous with budget-friendly! Keep this in mind on Earth Day and every day when you open your business’s doors to the world.

Double Your Lead Conversion Using Mobile

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Lauren Santucci

Mobile is making a huge impact and it is time that your internet marketing strategy supports the mobile viewers of your website.

You might be thinking, ‘yeah, yeah… I have been hearing about mobile and I know it’s important but it doesn’t affect me yet.’ Let’s take a look at some real world numbers.

According to the CTIA Wireless association, as of December 2011, there are over 331 million wireless subscriber connections in the United States. Nielsen media further identified that nearly half of subscribers have Smartphone devices with the ability to do a web search for local services. This is great information but what does it mean for the small to medium sized local website? Below we examine three customers and the results that they are seeing from mobile:

1^st Customer (supporting mobile) – Product and Service Provider in Midsized Market

Generating approximately 26,000 new first time visitors monthly
25% of those visitors came from a mobile device: primarily Android, iPhone, and iPad
Over 60% of those mobile visitors took another action

2^nd Customer (supporting mobile with dedicated mobile site) – Service Provider in a small market

Generating approximately 300 new first time visitors monthly
23% of those visitors came from a mobile device, again primarily: Android, iPhone, and iPad
Over 75% of those visitors took another action, WOW!

3nd Customer (not supporting mobile yet) – Service Provider in a small market

Generating approximately 250 new first time visitors monthly
15% of those visitors came from a mobile device, again primarily: Android, iPhone, and iPad
Over 54% of those visitors took another action
Furthermore, the drop off rate of these mobile visitors was double.

The evidence is clear that there are a large percentage of web visitors that are using a mobile devices and the percentage is increasing WEEKLY. If your website supports mobile you will generate not only more traffic but double the number of leads and conversions by doing so.

Google+ for Business

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Lauren Santucci

With over 90 million users Google+ is quickly becoming a competitor in the social media space. Launched in June 2011, Google+ is the search engine leader’s social networking site. With its extreme growth and effect on search, Google+ is giving other social media outlets, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, another competitor in the marketplace. It is quickly becoming an essential part of any business marketing plan.

In November 2011, Google rolled out the service to businesses after only offering it to individuals. Now the platform not only supports individuals and their followers, but helps companies grow their following and networks. With your own business page you can develop key relationships with your customers and prospects alike!

How Can Google+ Elevate your Business Above the Competition?

Google + allows businesses to build professional networks, share relevant industry information and gain vital feedback from consumers interacting with the company or brand. Individuals are able to add a company to their Google+ circle and interact with content that has been posted. Customers and prospects can share a company’s page with their network, “+ 1” or endorse updates, leave comments and tag brands in their own updates. This spreads brand awareness and gives your company essential real time feedback. A powerful marketing tool, Google+ for Business provides the tools to help you grow your audience and customer base.

Perks to Google+

Two elements make Google+ for Business stand out from its competitors.

Video chat/ conference abilities (hangout), and
How Google+ effects search.

Recently, Google’s search engine ranks Google + pages in its query results. Collecting information from social circles and networks, Google is able to crawl and enhance Google+ users positions on search engine results pages. Whether it is an article you posted, a +1 you received, or someone mentioning your brand, Google + is incorporating itself into the main Google search pages.

One perk to having a large number of individuals in a company’s circle and interacting with them frequently is Google Social Search, the idea that one personal endorsement is more powerful in search than 100 casual shares. For instance, a company site that is in position 25 in the search can jump as far as position 2 if someone in their Google+ circle shared something the company posted. If that same post was shared by someone who wasn’t socially connected to the company the jump would be much less significant.

Google + is a powerful competitor in the social and search engine results space. Businesses receive better Search Engine Results Page real estate from Google +’s authority. With your company showing up higher and more frequently in the search you are able to increase website traffic and boost lead generation!

Creating a Google+ Page is Easy

Google+ for Business makes it easy to share and be shared! Here at Spectrum we take care of setting up a Google+ page for you, and can work with you to make it an effective marketing tool for your company. Learn more about Google+ and its benefits by listening to a short introduction video presented by Spectrum Communications and Consulting.

Want more information? We’d love to hear from you! Give us a call or shoot over an email to see what Spectrum can do for you!

4 Things to Do Every Morning…

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Ty K

1. Plan a Better Day – What are the 6 most Important things you can do today that will give you positive momentum toward your goals.

2. Be Grateful – Be grateful for what you have everyday.

3. Set Goals – Set and update your goals daily. Everyday you will encounter obstacles and challenges. You constantly need to adjust course to achieve great things.

4. Visualize – It is easy to to get stuck on the day to day problems. Focus on what you what and the positive outcomes.