If small and medium size companies want to stay competitive in today’s marketplace, they need to understand this new shift, embrace it, and start spending time and money within the industry. If you want a free consultation on how to do this, please call 970-731-6325.

Here is an article that reviews the last 10 years of inbound marketing from Find and Convert:

As Find and Convert celebrates its 10th anniversary this month, I reflect on the lessons we’ve learned of inbound marketing. The phrase “inbound marketing” isn’t 10 years old. But, the concept is at least that old. Here’s a look at the last 10 years in under 1000 words.

Although the SEO (search engine optimization) landscape has certainly evolved quite a bit over the past 10 years, getting found in organic search listings is still the most desirable outcome for most businesses seeking to have inbound marketing success.

As Google continually evolves their search algorithm one constant that will always remain is Google’s interest in delivering results that are relevant to a user’s search. To that end, the number one factor in determining relevant search results is relevant content. Businesses often struggle with this, often delivering a limited content experience on their website. Brands who value and prioritize a relevant content marketing mindset enjoy the most inbound marketing success.

Since SEO still rules it’s important to recognize that your content assets have two audiences. The most important audience is the ultimate consumer of your content. The other audience is search engines. Don’t misunderstand this point. I am NOT suggesting SEO trickery to game the search engines. No! However, your website must be easy for search engines to crawl. Your content must be well represented in a search engine listing with a well-written title and description tag. Your website’s architecture should be organized so it passes muster with Google’s more than 200 variables in its search algorithm. Any marketer that favors one audience over the other will yield limited inbound marketing results.

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As a consultant, it is very rewarding to provide websites for other consultants. We are all in the business of finding out needs from our clients, empowering them, and becoming a “part of their team” for a project or long-term relationship. Additionally, many consultants wear multiple hats in their business from accounting to marketing and sales. This can be a bit overwhelming when you are trying to also stay up to speed on your industry.

One of the biggest issues with consultants is balancing out the time and money to market themselves. Word of mouth will always be the most effective, but today’s world of social media and Internet also demand that consultants market, even casually, and spend additional time updating their messages and brand online.

People today research you through search engines, connect with you on Linked-In and Facebook, tweet about your company on Twitter, and visit your website to get a sense of who you are and what you can offer…many times before picking up the phone or sending an Email. If your website, blog, and social media profiles are not being updated, then you don’t look current or as professional as you could be. You could potentially lose a sale.

It is not that uncommon anymore than a potential client has “liked my Facebook page” and connected with me on Linked-In before I even meet them. What if I was not online at all? How many meetings would I have lost?

MTECH recently created websites and blogs for a few business consultants. Please click on the images to see the live website:

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Here is the Powerpoint presentation:

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First, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Would I like to maintain it instead of having to pay for a webmaster to do it?

2. Am I getting enough leads from my site or is it just an online brochure?

3. What is my budget?

4. Do I have good search engine ranking? Could it improve?

5. How are most people finding my site now?

6. Am I doing (or planning on doing) social media? Is the site integrated with Social Media?

7. Is my site integrated with my Email marketing efforts?

8. Does my site visually and verbally match my unique value proposition (UVP)? Do I even know what my UVP is?

Here is another resource from Hubspot that can help explain even more:

10-step-checklist-website-redesign

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Here is a great infograph from Hubspot illustrating the point:

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Schiavone site uses Flash for unique branding

So, for the past year, I have been designing new slideshows in WordPress. Thanks to the open source platform and millions of programmers around the world, there are quite a few slideshow plugins to select from. Here is an example of a mobile-friendly slideshow:

Mobile-friendly slideshow in WordPress

If you currently have Flash on your site and want it mobile friendly for iPads and iPhones here are a couple of suggestions:

1. Convert the site over to WordPress and install mobile-friendly slideshow plugins. This may cost you a bit since the site has to be redone, but it also will allow you to add photos and make changes yourself. Previously, you had to have Flash and therefore go back to your web developer to change your slideshow. Now, if you can crop photos to a specific size, you can change out the photos yourself. Pro: You will have the ability to not only change your slideshow photos at will, but also add pages and edit your content. Con: Upfront cost of conversion and learning curve.

2. Create a mobile version of your site – Mobile sites are not only formatted to fit the mobile screen, but they load faster and make it easier for mobile users to view your site. By directing iPad and iPhone users to your mobile site automatically, they don’t have an issue with Flash. Pro – not only do you solve the Flash issue, but you also have an easier way for mobile users to view your site, find directions, produce QR codes, and call you easily. Con – set up fees and monthly hosting fees apply.

MTECH Internet Marketing has been helping existing clients do one of the above suggestions. If you would like an estimate, please contact us at info@mtechbd.com or call us at 970-731-6325.

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Posted from Find and Convert

In today’s digital marketing environment, search engine optimization (SEO) has a negative connotation for some marketing teams while others understand it is a necessity in order to achieve long-term successful organic SEO results. To be fair, the digital marketing landscape is constantly evolving, especially with the use of social media in business, and sometimes it’s hard to keep up with all of these changes. But SEO should not be downplayed as some may think. Where I see most marketing teams miss the boat is in a lack of understanding that SEO should be one of the main components in their overall digital strategy, not the only component.

Three ways marketing teams can improve organic SEO results are through interlinking content, website architecture design and social media for overall digital marketing success.

Content Strategy

I say this to my clients all the time… content is king and queen for being discovered online. The reality is that your content is your marketing. The meat and potatoes of your digital marketing plan is your content strategy. A content strategy can include static website content, blog posts, downloadable e-books and white papers, videos, still photos, customer-contributed content and recorded webinars and podcasts, just to give you some examples. Say you have a white paper on the “Top 10 Pain Points for XYZ.” Write a blog post on each pain point with a call-to-action to download the entire white paper. If you recently created a video or on-demand webinar, write a blog post specifically about the video or webinar with a direct link to view it on demand. Ask your partners to contribute guest blog posts. Take photos at your next event, some can even be entertaining and funny, and post them to your Facebook company profile and one of your Pinterest company boards. As you can see, the possibilities are endless.

Where does SEO play into all of this? SEO flows from all your content. However, having lots of content is not enough. Your content must be optimized in order to increase your chances of being found, thus improving organic SEO results. Keyword and persona research are key when it comes to your overall content strategy and SEO results.

Website Architecture Design

In addition to having lots of optimized content, it’s important that your website (and blog) are designed to be search engine friendly so you can reap those positive organic SEO results. Several important website architecture design details in combination with overall SEO efforts include:

• Keep web pages as close to the root as possible
• Text navigation is a must
• Proper use of static instead of dynamic web pages
• Use meta tags in this order: title, description, keywords
• Create both XML and HTML sitemaps
• Create a custom 404 error page
• Meaningful URLs, preferably separated with dashes, 100 characters or less
• No frames or session IDs
• Java scripts should not be embedded into content
• Should be able to edit images and include ALT titles and text per image
• Should be able to include header tags to content
• Make use of 301 redirects only when redirecting to other web pages
• Add social media share buttons to all web pages
• Validate website using w3c validator

Social Media

While social media marketing is rapidly increasing, these efforts aren’t always coordinated with SEO or aligned in terms of search benefits. But they should be. Every time one of your blog posts goes live, post it to your company social media profiles with a comment. Don’t just slap it up with the blog post title. Ask employees to post the blog posts to their individual profiles as well for increased SEO benefits and reach potential. In addition to posting content, engage with your audience as they comment or share your blog posts. Let them know you are listening to them and that you care about what they have to say.

By your marketing team working together and integrating these efforts with SEO, your business can maximize the direct effects of a content strategy, website architecture design and social media activities for improved organic SEO results. And think of the business benefits from all these organic SEO results… more quality leads and new business opportunities… the ultimate goal in SEO.
-Michelle Berdeal, Find and Convert

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How does your time compare?

Created by: MBA Online

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The steady growth in the number of web shoppers is helping to boost e-commerce sales. Forrester says that 192 million U.S. consumers will shop online in 2016, up 15% from 167 million in 2012. But the bigger factor in driving e-commerce growth is that each shopper will spend more on average, the report says. U.S. consumers in 2016 will each spend an average of $1,738 online, up 44% from $1,207 in 2012.

Other factors contributing to the growth of e-commerce cited in the report include:

• Aggressive merchandising and discounting from flash sale and daily deal retailers
• More online loyalty programs, including shipping clubs such as Amazon Prime that offer free two-day shipping for a $79 annual fee. The report says that 12% of online shoppers belonged to such programs in 2011, up from 9% in 2010. Of those consumers who belonged to such a program last year, 61% said they bought from the retailer that operated the program
• The increasing popularity of smartphones and tablet computers among consumers, which leads them to spend more time online, including shopping. Mulpuru suggests that “… the tablet shopping experience… likely encourages shoppers to purchase more products in an impulse fashion.”

To view the article, please visit InternetRetailer here.

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To see how it works, just click on the following button for MTECH Internet Marketing:

How does the Follow Company button work?
Click on the Follow Company button and, as long as you are logged onto LinkedIn, you will automatically “follow” the company. If you are not logged on, a box will appear asking for your LinkedIn credentials. Just type those in and you will automatically begin to follow the company. Companies will engage with you from their Company Page on LinkedIn and through status updates. Status updates will appear on your LinkedIn homepage – so check back frequently to see what’s going on.

LinkedIn has over 2 million companies in its network – representing all industries, company sizes, and geographies. It is especially important for B-to-B companies in terms of networking and making professional contacts.

To put a follow button on your own company website, just CLICK HERE!

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