Mobile Marketing 2015 - What To Know

• Website
• As mobile usage has jumped, in the last few years, your website NEEDS to be mobile friendly and better yet, responsive design.
• If you are not familiar with responsive design, it's when your website fits the screen of the device that is connecting to it.  Google is benefiting sites that are responsive design because of the better user experience.  
• ReachLocal has been developing mobile & responsive design sites for over a year now.  See examples here.

• Google / Yahoo / Bing
• The area we have seen the biggest jump in marketing dollars is search engine marketing on mobile phones.
• Mobile marketing on the search engines is targeted, local and simple.
• It is getting more expensive. As more small business get out of traditional and into digital. upwards of $31 billion was spent on mobile marketing this year!
• At least 40% of your search marketing budget should be directed at mobile.
• Display
•  Display ads on mobile come in a verity of different drivers.
• Social
• In App
• Banners
• This is just like any other push marketing.  Much like radio, tv and print, it is important to get the message out of your service and/or product.  Push ads can be a great way to build your brand and educate the public.
• Each area has pluses and minuses so it's important to consult with yourmarketing rep to determine which is the right avenue.
• SMS
• SMS, or text message, marketing is going to be an area that enables you to push messages through text to customers.
• Much like you collect emails, for email marketing, phone numbers being collected for SMS marketing.
• There are many things to make sure you do if you go this route.
• It has to be opt in
• It has to be local
• It has to be short and interactive

Google Gets Callouts

• Text Ad
• Google is forever changing and testing different strategies for both organic and paid listings.  The most recent change is that Google has added an additional line of copy for advertisers to provide a callout line.
• They show when the ad appears in the top 3 spots on the search page.
• See example below.

• Why
• This additional line allows us to highlight a product or service that the advertiser would like to promote.
• It is flexible and we can tailor it to specials or seasonal events.
• The callouts are also mobile friendly so we can have searchers see it on the phone or table search result.
• Benefit
•  Those advertisers that get them added will make the ad larger and it will take up more real estate.
• How
• To have Google Callouts enabled for your campaign, or to get a campaign started, email or call me to discuss.

Keeping Up With Google My Business

What To Know:

Google recently changed their algorithm and one of the major areas that it effected was in the Google map listings.  This area, which is now called Google My Business, has gone through a lot of changes over the years.  The screen shot below is an example of these listings. With Google's newest update, it has pushed these listings down the result page.  It is vitally important to update and manage this listing to ensure that it will show in the search results.Below are some simple steps to follow: Make sure it is formatted properly. I found with a client, that use to be on top of his listing, that Google had cleared out all of his info. Be sure to proactively search yourself.  If you are not actively managing it, Google can clear it out and reset it. Review ALL of your local listings.  Be sure to look at your listings on Yelp, Yahoo, Bing and other areas to ensure that they are all correctly updated. Set up your service map.  This is going tell Google, and your potential clients, where you are willing to go to meet or conduct business. BIG TAKE AWAY - Check your listing at least once a month.  If you need help, call a professional or if you can't find one, email me.

5 Common SEO Mistakes

Welcome to our April edition of From the Desk of Team Laylon!  As we move into what will hopefully be a break from our extremely challenging winter, we are going to focus on growing your online business.  Soon the flowers will be in full bloom and with that in mind we'd like to help you grow your digital marketing presence by looking at SEO.

 
 

5 Common SEO Mistakes

SEO is, and has always been, an important part of having a solid digital strategy.  We will be looking at some common mistakes to avoid.

We have been assisting local small to medium sized businesses with developing smart and responsive websites.  Our Edge sites are conversion friendly and help to manage and monitor the leads from your marketing. The next step is to make sure that they are driving visits.  This can be done many ways but the two main are Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization.

When focusing on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) it is vital that you have a website that is a good starting point.  You would never build a house on a cracked foundation and the same is true with websites.  Below are a few important things to make sure aren't doing wrong out of the gate.

• Outdated Website
• If your website is older then 5 years, or hasn't been updated since 1999, it's time for a new one.  Everyone knows that technology is changing at a rapid pace.  Most likely the phone in your pocket is outdated.  If you have a website. that is even a couple years old, you are most likely missing out.
• Non Mobile Friendly
• The search engines will penalize you for many things and losing visitors is #1.  If your site isn't mobile friendly, then most likely half of the visitors are having bad experiences.  This is going to negatively effect your ranking in a big way.
• Faulty Meta Tags
• If you don't know what metadata or meta tags are, that's probably the first problem.  Learn more here.  Make sure that your website can speak to the search engines and it all starts here.
• Blog-less
• A blog is vital to a website.  This is the mouth piece to the search engines.  Through the blog you are telling the world what is going on with your business and you are letting the search engines know you are keeping up to date.
• Not Local
• The internet is getting more and more local.  It is important to have your website show you are local and that you service the local area.  Google is constantly changing is search page to deliver better local results and you need to target your website to grab these searchers.  You will want to claim all of your local listings and update them often.

Hopefully your website doesn't fall under any of these headings but if it does, we can help. Email or call, 610-557-4595 x112 for more information on Edge and ReachSEO. 

Full article can be viewed here