What is SEO?

You may be wondering what does the acronym SEO mean. Turns out, those three letters stand for search engine optimization. While that phrase sounds nice, what does it actually mean? What is search engine optimization?

Search engine optimization or SEO for short is the process of using concentrated strategies and methods in order to obtain a high ranking page placement on search engines in order to enhance traffic to a website. This kind of direction of traffic to sites through search engines is called organic traffic, whereas typing the url of the website you want to go to directly in is direct traffic.

All too often the first thing people do when they have a problem is Google it, and sometimes the winner of who gets the business is simply the first person to come up as a search result. Since so many people use search engines then, optimizing search engines or optimizing your rank on these platforms is critical for businesses.

However, how do people affect their rank on search engines? The website Search Engine Land provides a great video explaining SEO in even more detail and also goes into the different factors that affect your page rank. The creative way they highlight these factors is in their “Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors, as can be seen below.

This table simply highlights the many different factors these search engine algorithms take into consideration when determining page rank. The overarching categories of factors are content, architecture, HTML, trust, links, personal, and social. From there, these categories look at all different types of things from speed of service and answers and quality of content to number of links and the trust associated with the website.

Controlling all of these variables may seem like an immense tasks. However, by increasing your rank in search engines, you can directly increase business with zero to small amounts of money spent. The goal should be to start with enhancing one or two of these aspects, and when you finish, simply move on to two more.

For more information about SEO, see our informative infographic on the new versus the old SEO that explains why SEO is so important.

Keys to Designing a Killer Infographic

Don’t know what an infographic is, but you want to learn? Love infographics, but you’re running out of new and fresh ideas for your latest project? Never fear. Infographic help is here.

Infographics are fun creative ways to communicate information to an audience through images and graphics. The easiest way to think about the infographic creation process is as a process of data visualization. In other words, you are turning numbers and statistics into charts and pictures.

For example, instead of telling the reader that 80% of all of the people in the world love pepperoni pizza versus the 20% that love cheese more, you could put this information next to an image of pizza filled 80% with pepperonis and 20% with cheese. The visualization of this data is not only more fun, but also more engaging for the audience and thus it is more likely the audience will may attention and remember.

However, it is not always easy getting from A to B. It might feel like you are climbing a mountain without the proper equipment if you have never done this before. Don’t worry. Here are some quick tips to get you started or to ground you back in the basics if you are out of ideas.

Decide on the practical. In the stress of getting started, we are so excited to get going that we forget to start with the basics. Before you create an infographic, you need to remember to ask yourself three critical questions: Who is the audience being targeted? What do they need to know? How will this information be communicated to them?

These three questions will get you focused and help you throughout the rest of your project. You can’t start being creative until you know what you are saying and to whom. Plus, you need to know how this information will be delivered. This will determine the size, shape, and maybe even the color pallette. There is nothing like designing the perfect infographic only to realize the magazine you are printing it in has wider pages and the colors you used won’t print correctly. Make sure you figure out the quality and size qualifications and more before you start.

Less is more. Sometimes we are so stressed to be creative we over do it. Often, the most effective infographics only use two or three colors. Simplicity often allows your data to be communicated more clearly. If you are experienced with creating infographics, this is an important reminder for you. When I hit a creative block, I stop and clear the slate and start all over again from scratch focusing on the basics.

Scour the internet and world for ideas. Being creative may seem an overwhelming task, but great ideas are out there just waiting for you. The first thing I do before creating an infographic is seeing what has already been done. By doing this, I learn what I do and do not like. Then, I can come back to my work, incorporate ideas I do like, and be sure not to use the ideas I didn’t. Usually, starting by emulating others ideas gets you started, and from there, the good, pure creative ideas will come naturally as you play around with concepts.

Finally, find a program you like and learn it! At the end of the day, if you want to be successful at infographics, you are going to need to use some sort of program. Whether it is an online infographic program or Photoshop or Illustrator, you are going to need to pick one, and once you do, explore. Click buttons, try things, play around. Don’t be afraid to google and youTube how to videos.

The more you explore, the better and more creative your infographics will be. If you are familiar with infographics and out of ideas, try playing with a feature you have never used before or switching to a different type of program to freshen your perspective.

Whatever you do, the key to designing a killer infographic is just getting out there and playing around. The more experience you have and the more you have fun you have doing it, the closer you are to creating awesome infographics.

The Scoop On Content Marketing

Content marketing. We’ve all heard of it, but what exactly is it? You’ve made an educated guess about content marketing, but you’re still not sure about the ins and outs. And you’re too embarrassed to ask anyone. This post is for you!

The dictionary definition of content marketing is:

“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

The goal of content marketing isn’t to create as many ads as possible – it is to add value to the customer with the goal of encouraging customer behavior. Content marketers create the media people actually want to consume. It is not about selling the product, it is about delivering valuable information to the clients in hopes that they will use their newfound intelligence to purchase your product.

Do not think of content marketing as being a separate entity of your current marketing strategy, but rather intertwined with your current tactics. Content marketing should be involved in most all of your marketing strategies. Social media uses content marketing because it is all about making the audience connect with your brand by delivering relevant information. SEO uses content marketing because search engines look for quality content. PR strategies cover the issues customers care about, blogging delivers relevant content, and many other strategies utilize content marketing as well.

So what are some examples of content marketing?

1. Blogging: The most obvious example of content marketing is creating a blog post. Blogging fits all of the descriptions of content marketing. It delivers valuable, relevant, and consistent content to an audience.

2. Infographics: Infographics are exactly what they sound like – info and graphics. They may include statistics, charts, facts, and timelines. Infographics are extremely useful because they can be easily posted on social media and websites.

3. Videos and podcasts: These are often underutilized because it seems intimidating to create a video, but don’t underestimate your ability! Create a high-quality video that never goes out of style so you can reuse it over the years.

4. Ebooks: These speak for themselves. Lots of information in an easy to access format. Give your customers some valuable insight to make them keep coming back to you every time!

Those are just a few examples of content marketing, but the possibilities are endless. There is no cookie cutter example of what is or isn’t content marketing. The main takeaway is to always remember to add value to your customers. Think like your customers and try to imagine what information would be most useful to them. For more tips, contact us today!