What Is the Value of Good SEO (vs. Bad)?

June 15, 2018/in Marketing /by Laura Perdomo

If you operate an online business, then you probably know how important it is to have good SEO. But what distinguishes good search engine optimization from bad? And, how do you know that your online marketing company is doing everything it should to earn you a top spot in the organic search results?

The fact is that Google is constantly updating its search algorithm, and marketers that neglect to keep up with the latest changes can easily see their good SEO efforts turn bad. Here are some ways in which SEO plays a vital role in your company’s success or failure:

Improved User Experience

Good SEO is an essential element of a site’s user experience. Along with impacting a site’s position in the search results, SEO can affect whether or not a site is easy to navigate, readable, and mobile friendly. The latter quality is especially important in light of the fact that approximately 60 percent of searches now occur on mobile devices. By utilizing an effective and modern SEO strategy, you show customers that you care about their experience and that you are always learning to make it better.

Superior Brand Reputation

Using the most cutting-edge SEO techniques can help position your business as an industry leader. After all, searchers tend to view the first few results on a page as the most authoritative. When you target the right keywords in your web content, you ensure that your business is seen by the ideal customers and clients and that they begin to view you as a trusted name in your field. Bad SEO? Well, ineffective practices won’t get you anywhere near the top.

Affordable Marketing Solution

SEO’s greatest value might just be its affordability. Unlike pay-per-click advertising, SEO lets you grow sales without stretching your budget too far. In fact, businesses often find that SEO offers better ROI than other types of online marketing. Now, this is true for good SEO practices. Bad SEO practices, while perhaps cheap, may only land your site in a troubling spot by getting your site flagged or banned from top search engines.

Contact Energyhill for a Consultation

As your SEO and Google Adwords partner, Energyhill is a complete solution for search, mobile, video advertising, and more. To learn more about what we can do for your business, call today or contact our team today.

Top 10 Reasons To Use Google Advertising

May 10, 2018/in Marketing /by Dr. Ryan Lowe

Whether you’re building a business from the ground up or simply looking for ways to increase quality traffic to your website, Google advertising offers an effective solution that’s also surprisingly affordable. Here are the top 10 reasons to use AdWords in your marketing plan, if you haven’t already done so:

1. Scale Advertising PPC Budget

Unlike other advertising strategies, PPC lets you adjust your budget based on leads and profits.

2. Measure Results

With many forms of advertising, it’s hard to determine how many customers are actually being impacted. With Google advertising, you can easily view metrics to determine what ads and keywords are most effective and how much traffic is being driven to your page.

3. Engage Your Audience

New ad formats mean businesses can engage with web searchers in different ways. For example, Google now allows advertisers to highlight their in-store promotions.

4. Reach More Traffic

An increasing amount of research shows that paid search traffic converts better than organic traffic. If you’re not taking advantage of Google advertising, you might be missing out on valuable leads.

5. Learn About Your Market

Google AdWords provides business owners with invaluable information about their target audiences, including the devices they use and what keywords they’re searching. As a result, companies can create more desirable products and services.

6. Save Money

You don’t have to worry about spending money without seeing results. Google Advertising with AdWords allow you to choose a cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-acquisition (CPA), or even a cost-per-thousand (CPM) viewable impressions approach. If your head is spinning… no worries we can help.

7. Target Certain Areas

With Google advertising, you can target specific geographic regions rather than advertising to everyone online.

8. Utilize Remarketing

Thanks to remarketing, your Google advertising campaigns can follow searchers around the web, offering more opportunities for them to buy your products. Also, utilizing some of Google’s great features allows you to set how long to follow a searcher. Remind searchers… don’t stalk them!

9. Reach Page One

AdWords lets you showcase your content in a place where searchers are more likely to see it. Because searchers view first page results as the most authoritative, there’s value to appearing on page one of Google.

10. Keep Up With Competitors

Reaching your target audience means utilizing all the advertising methods at your disposal. Remember, if you don’t advertise on Google, your competitors will almost certainly take advantage of the traffic you’re leaving behind.

Looking for a better online marketing strategy? Contact Energyhill to realize all your business goals without breaking your budget.

Shopping: The Role Of Mobile Sites And Apps On The Path To Purchase

March 1, 2018/in Marketing /by Dr. Ryan Lowe

Mobile technology has changed the social world. Not only has it altered the way we communicate and interact with each other, it has also greatly affected consumer behavior. In order to capture sales, retailers have created a dual path on mobile devices via sites and apps; thus, no matter how consumers prefer to purchase, they have an easy solution. Understanding consumer behavior and how shoppers use their mobile devices is now critical in conquering the path to purchase.

Mobile Shopping Frequency

According to a study by Google Marketing Insights, nearly half of U.S. consumers with mobile phones use their devices weekly to shop. One in ten people states that they shop via mobile daily. These are huge numbers, especially when coupled with the fact that 60% of consumers use a mobile website to shop. Despite the proliferation of apps, it seems that a user-friendly mobile website is preferred by shoppers.

Information vs. Convenience

In general, mobile shoppers find that mobile websites offer more information. While 64 percent agree that shopping apps load quicker and 60 percent say they are easier to navigate, the path to purchase seems to flow more easily through a mobile website. This makes a strong case for all retailers having device agnostic or responsive websites. Having a website that scales based on device is key to capturing a majority of shoppers.

Incentives Make Apps Attractive

If a retailer is interested in making sure their app is part of the path to purchase, including special discounts or exclusive deals via the app seems to be the way to go. Thirty-five percent of mobile shoppers state they download apps specifically for discounts. Additionally, making sure the app is secure will also ensure more consumers use it; more than 70 percent of smartphone owners who download apps cite security as a deciding factor.

If you’re looking for ways to streamline your path to purchase or simply want to learn more about mobile- and app-based shopping trends, please contact Energyhill today. Our team of expert marketers is ready to help you capture and cash in on this mobile revenue stream.

Is Your Site Ready For The Holidays?

November 15, 2017/in Marketing /by Dr. Ryan Lowe

Sure they fall at the same time every year, but the holidays always seem to sneak up on us. For a business, that can be problematic. If you sell primarily to consumers, raising your profile during the holidays could greatly impact your annual sales. Even if you are primarily a B2B vendor, staying in customers’ minds during this time of year is important. Your first weapon to combat the holiday haze is your website. It is typically the first stop for many customers to find out more about you, your products, and your offers. Below are some ways to ensure an increase in website traffic for the holidays.

Google Shopping Feeds

Google is the world’s largest search engine and the cornerstone of many business’ marketing plans. You can make their reach work for you by using a trio of services that will put your product images front and center during relevant searches. You will need your shopping feed, Google Merchant’s Center, and your Google Adwords account working in tandem to take advantage of the added exposure of these feeds.

Holiday-Specific SEO

Effective search engine optimization is a marathon, not a sprint; but you can optimize some pages on your site specifically for the holidays. Consider adding a few landing pages specific to your holiday offerings and make sure the SEO on these pages is targeted to holiday shoppers. Also, spend some time clicking around your site to test for things like load time, image quality, and calls-to-action. You don’t want a consumer to have any reason to leave before making a purchase, so be on the lookout for areas that might hinder a conversion. Slow load time is often the key culprit to consumers clicking out of the site, ultimately resulting in less valuable website traffic.

Pay-Per-Click Holiday Campaigns

Similar to shopping feeds, PPC campaigns can put your products in front of consumers who are searching for specific keywords. This gives you a direct line to consumers who are ostensibly looking for your product. Remarketing campaigns are also highly effective during the holidays. Customers who have previously visited your site, but haven’t purchased, will see ads for your products while they’re clicking around the Internet. It’s a good way to stay top of mind.

Make Social Work For You

Lastly, don’t forget about your social media feeds. These channels can pump up your promotional efforts with interesting content and clever community building campaigns. Just make sure that your site is ready to handle the traffic from a social media push.

No matter what tactics you use, the holidays can be a huge opportunity for you and your business, and they can generate website traffic you don’t normally see throughout the year. If you have any questions regarding how to make your site holiday-ready, please contact us at Energyhill today. Happy Holidays!

Google To Roll-Out Mobile-First Index Sites: What Is A Mobile-First Index?

September 13, 2017/in News /by Dr. Ryan Lowe

It’s no secret that Google holds the purse strings when it comes to online indexing and search results. After all, the ubiquitous search engine has become a noun and a verb. However, online search activity migrating from desktops to mobile devices is bringing about a change in Google’s initial search assumptions. Here is a quick rundown of what Google’s result announcement regarding the implementation of a mobile-first index says:

How Google Determines Search Results

This definition is going to require a little explanation. Currently, when a consumer searches Google on their mobile phone, the search result order is based on an index. The index has been developed by Google through a combination of search crawlers, indexing, and ranking. Google ranks different websites based on keywords and content. Part of the search algorithm decides how relevant a site is to the search terms based on these characteristics.

How Google Determines Mobile Search Results

Currently, Google ranks sites based on desktop searches. This ranking is device-agnostic; the results still rank primarily based on desktop index, even if the search is conducted on a mobile device. However, the inclusion of additional mobile keywords that the Google search crawler is looking for may help to give some sites a bump.

How a Mobile-First Index Changes Things

So, Google recently announced that this method of determining search results on mobile devices will migrate to a mobile-first index. Accordingly, mobile search results will be returned based on mobile-focused criteria, including a responsive mobile site, a separate mobile and desktop-based site, and the lack of a mobile site.

How This Affects Businesses

If you don’t have a responsive mobile site, make one. This will have the most influence on your business’ mobile index ranking over just about anything else. Rankings will still primarily be at the page level; so do your best to make as many of your website’s pages mobile friendly as possible.

If you are interested in finding out more about mobile-first indexing or search optimization in general, please contact Energyhill today for a consultation.

Getting Social on Google Plus

April 18, 2017/in Marketing /by Gloria Lowe

The internet makes it so easy to be inventive and creative with our social media platforms. Hence snapping a selfie, posting pictures, and with instant automatic “likes” the possibilities are endless. You hear the word Google and the term “I should just Google it” comes to mind. Whether it is to learn how to do a simple task, buying a gift for a love one, or just wanting to know an answer to a question. Have you ever thought about taking your Google experience social by using Google plus? This little social gem has been opening doors to a whole new way of marketing.

Google Plus will no longer be available for consumers in August 2019! Read our updated article on Google Plus.

Getting Social on Google Plus: A new way of Marketing

What is Google Plus (Google+)?

Launched by Google in June 2011.
It has 400 million* registered users.
Users add friends to their ‘circles’ to share content and to video chat.
The top branded pages on Google+ (Google Plus) have several million followers.

What can Google+ do for you?

See an average increase of 5-10%* in search and click-through rates with Google+. (Google Plus)

Why use Google+?

Boost online marketing performance.

Get closer to potential customers when they’re online and engaged.
Increase awareness with Google+ recommendations. Customers’ circles can see the brands and companies that they are following on Google+.
Build trust – potential customers look favorably on brands if they see that people in their circles like them.

Getting started with Google+ is easy.

Get started in only 3 steps.

Create a Google+ page and get it verified. It will be the centre of your brand’s identity on Google.
Add the Google+ badge to your company website to help grow your Google+ followers.
Link your Google+ page to your ads.

This is how your page could look.

Link your Google+ page to your ads.

Expand your brand presence online.

Get more recommendations, follows, clicks and potential customers by linking your page and your ads.
Linking combines the +1’s on
Google+ pages with campaigns.
This helps to increase an ad’s
click-through rate by 5-10%*.

Measuring the impact of Google+.

Using AdWords.

By using the +1 Annotations section in Google AdWords Reporting, it is easy to see full statistics including clicks, impressions and click-through rates for campaigns linked to your brand’s Google+ page.

Getting Social on Google Plus: Makes your experience social and engaging.

Like I said, this little social gem has been opening doors to a whole new way of marketing. Google Plus is breaking the trends and making waves, if you want to know more and get some insight; take a look on google’s plus site!

4 Tips for Sensational Social Media

July 14, 2014/in Marketing /by Dr. Ryan Lowe

Angela breaks the record for quick-talking Quick Talks with her tips for sensational social presence:

Choose a social media management tool
Identify Your Target Audience
Be Where Your Fans Are
Listen, Respond, and Engage

Choose a Social Media Management Tool

To post regularly, listen effectively, and measure your performance, you want to organize your social presence using a social media management tool that suits your organization’s size and needs. You can find some great articles to help you choose here and here. Hootsuite is a crowd favorite, and Salesforce also has its own suite of (pricey) options. Or just Google it. You’ll see Hootsuite mentioned A LOT – it’s a go-to, though it has its weaknesses.

Identify Your Target Audience

Who is it you’re talking to? Learn everything you can about your audience, and then build personas based on what you learn. A persona is a fictional person who represents your typical audience member – you may end up with several – for example: a 30 to 35 year old mom, or a retired grandfather who loves to golf.

Be Where Your Fans Are

Once you know who your audience is, research popular social media channels to find out which channels they favor. Do the research – you may be surprised by what you find. Some fun facts that were true at the time of this recording: young moms love Pinterest and grandparents are the fastest growing demographic on Twitter.

Listen, Respond, and Engage

Pay attention to your audience. If they’re talking about you – good or bad – respond (don’t react). Listen to what they’re saying, and engage in the conversation with positive dialogue. If you engage them with an open, authentic presence, you can turn the worst critics into your brand evangelists.

Check out our advertising page for more information.

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