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Category: Industry Insights

Fake News, Audience Targeting, and the Death of the 4th Estate

Content marketing. Political marketing. Fake news. Content amplification. These are all instruments in providing pertinent information to audiences who will become newly inspired and be provided with valuable takeaways. What happens when you elevate content? Your audiences increase, consumption rises, and you essentially engage and “steal” influencers. Here are 3 key ways to leverage more devoted and more precious followers.

1. Understanding the Traditional Media Tailspin

Though traditional media has been effective throughout the history of marketing, it is important to realize the descent and, in some cases, collapse it has experienced in the last few years. Newspaper advertising looks to take the hardest hit with a decline in revenues between now and 2020, falling from $18.8 billion to $14.9 billion. (Source: Marketing Charts) While print dropped, digital advertising soared. As consumer behavior shifted online, this new media rose and grew tremendously over the years. Digital advertising has demonstrated continued growth where revenue rose 6 percent last year to $209 million. (Source: NYT) Surviving the tailspin and crash of traditional media and understanding digital marketing is essential to getting re-established as a marketer and to attracting audiences.

2. Attach Yourself to Amplified Content

Seek audiences floating by in the online and social media currents and latch onto them by serving them pertinent, targeted content. You will need to learn what interests your targeted audiences and how to keep them engaged at the right time. Once you know your audience, have and maintain a large online presence.

To obtain online existence that lasts, you will have to create valuable and amazing content. Venture into using infographics, videos, memes, guides, reviews, etc. These are all great ways to persuade and capture. But, you must realize your wonderful content will need help.

Though your content is at it’s highest quality, it is competing with countless information out there. To wean out the competition, you should look into Content Amplification Tools. Taboola, Polar, and Nativo are some tools to name a few. These resources all strive to streamline the creation of producing ads, optimize ads in real time, deliver ads across devices, and drive traffic to your content.

3. Learn from Political Marketing and Fake News

Want to “steal” and keep influence and get away with it? You can!

We’ve seen “fake news” in the news in the last year and a half and the tremendous amount of influence it’s had on audiences worldwide. We’ve seen it influence the 2016 presidential election, and we’ve witnessed big brands such as Pepsi and New Balance endure its pitfalls when their statements were misconstrued as political biases that went viral. What is the lesson here? Though brands should be careful not to get involved in sticky situations, it’s vital to realize what has made audiences so enthralled and how to keep them.

When we revisit the 2016 presidential election, we remember just how loyal audiences were to the candidate they supported. They were essentially brand loyal, and the victory of their candidate was the product they sought and trusted. How can other big brands gain such loyalty and following? It’s using social media, like Facebook, to promote content. It’s considering sponsored posts to reach even more audiences and raise awareness. More importantly, it’s big brands considering and creating a plan of action to think more strategically and to elevate the truth of their brand. The big lesson here is, “Will our audiences believe us?” If they believe, “How do we build and keep their trust?”

Brands will, more than ever before, think critically, keep demonstrating authenticity, and share valuable insights while taking back what fake news has stolen.

March 8, 2017
Google’s Ascent With User Experience

Being found on the internet is essential to any business. We all know it, but few understand what it takes to be found. Luckily, there is an easy approach to beginning your own online marketing journey.

Start by looking at Google, not as a search engine where businesses tirelessly compete to appear at the top spot, but as a user tool. Back in the ancient times of the internet, Yahoo had a $125 billion market cap, and Google was hoping to be acquired for $1 million. As time marched on, Google surpassed Yahoo as the number one search engine because of one key difference between them: the user experience. Google didn’t provide results promoting Google brands or its own material. Instead, it happily delivered the most relevant search results to the user. Results that took the user to a different website.

While this may seem counter-intuitive—helping users leave your site and go to another—it has proved successful. Sure, users temporarily left Google by clicking on a third party’s link; it also guaranteed their return. Such a great user experience will entice anyone to return time and again for a similar experience. This is how Google surpassed Yahoo as the leading search engine, and it’s the best way for you to start your online marketing process.

The lesson for you to take away as you embark on your journey is to put user experience first. When creating your website or content, don’t try to be overly fancy or technical. Start by making it simple and convenient. Websites become popular when users can easily navigate and find content that is relevant to their search. Don’t try to force your consumer into a Corvette when they are really looking for a minivan. Your customers will thank you when they can easily access your website, it loads quickly, and the information they are searching for is plain for them to see and understand.

Going forward, as you build out your website, keep the consumer in mind each step of the way. How would you want to interact with the website of a business like yours? If you don’t know where to start, talk to the friend who doesn’t quite understand what you do. They can be your guide, explaining how they would want to navigate your site and their desired outcome. Use this to cater each step of the user experience to your actual users.

December 29, 2016
5 Things To Know About Online Marketing Before Starting Your Own Business
With 2017 quickly approaching, there are many people who are dreaming about starting their own businesses. Before jumping in, here are five things you should know about online marketing as an entrepreneur just getting started. Three tips are from guests Mike Blumenthal, David Mihm, and Greg Sorenson, and two are from yours truly.

1: Scale Is Everything

Mike Blumenthal runs an amazing blog that keeps up with the most recent changes in online marketing and Google in particular. As a founding partner of GetFiveStars.com (a reputation management platform), Mike is known by many as “Professor Maps” due to his wealth of knowledge around the local search ecosystem. He was one of the first people I thought to interview for this blog.

According to Mike, he doesn’t necessarily consider himself an “entrepreneur,” but “rather, someone that is trying to find their way through life by helping others be and do better AND not have to work for someone else. That ethos, which evolved over a number of years in business, helped me be clear about what I am doing and why.”

I asked Mike what’s something he wish he knew before getting started in our industry, and he had the following to say:
- I grew up in a family business and all I knew was family as partners. That was true well into my career. I wish I knew that family doesn’t always make the best partners as they may not be flexible enough in this new age of constant change.
- Find and work with partners that not only share your core values but also have skills you don’t yet have. You can help each other out and make the enterprise more effective for all.
- Recognize that we are in a market economy and, as such, any company is at the mercy of that economy. It takes thoughtfulness and hard work to succeed but never for a moment delude yourself that your success is controllable or fully due to that hard work and thinking. It is just as easy to fail as succeed in today’s world, and often, you are but a passenger (victor or victim) in a much bigger exercise that is not of your own making.
- Scale is everything. You can scale with people or you can scale with software. But realize that if it is just you, there are concrete limits to what you can do and can continue to do in a given period of time. But scaling, while easy to say, is not as easy to do. It has taken me several tries to even get close.
- In the end, there is nothing special about being an “entrepreneur.” It is just a different way of moving through the world, putting food on your table for the ones you love and hopefully helping others.
2: Address Online Reviews, Good and Bad

Responding to reviews online is crucial when it comes to showing that you’re engaged and active with your community and customers. As I mentioned in my blog on “4 Tips To Manage The Reputation Of Your Online Business,” it is often assumed that large franchises and multi-location businesses are too big to handle the relatively large amount of feedback they receive. While it’s much easier to respond to positive reviews, responding to negative reviews gracefully and respectfully can also lead to an improved reputation for your business.

3: Pay Close Attention to Google Updates

David Mihm is a co-founder of GetListed.org (now Moz Local) and a leader in Local search engine marketing. When asked what he wish he knew before going into online marketing, he said:

For one thing, Google’s a huge company with many different departments, not to mention a crazily complex algorithm, and it’s unlikely that the statements made by the webmaster team are infallibly correct. More importantly, statements that come from Googlers are not designed to serve webmasters’ interests; they’re designed to serve Google’s interests. So, take every comment Google makes with a grain of salt, and to the extent that you can, test their statements (and your hypotheses) with what you actually see happening in business decisions on a big scale, and in search results on a small one.

4: Your Website Needs to Load Quickly

In my presentation on “10 Ways To Improve Traffic To Your Site,” I mentioned the importance of good site speed. Site speed is the amount of time a page on your website needs to completely load. This matters not just for search engine visibility and ranking users and search engines, as users are less likely to stay on a website that takes a long time to load and search engines will penalize your website for being too slow. Google’s PageSpeed Insights Tool is great for analyzing your site for ways to improve your site speed and it will provide you with detailed information on how to fix each issue.

5: Start with Concrete Marketing Goals

Greg Sorensen, vice president at Baker Maid Products, Inc., works with retail customers to help conceptualize new products and bring them to market. He works with a production staff to ensure they are producing quality products efficiently by trying to improve our production infrastructure. Greg also manages all of their accounts directly and seeks out new retail customers such as grocery chains, specialty food stores, and online food retailers. Last but not least, he helps steer the direction of their marketing efforts with the help of their social media associate and their operations manager.

When asked what he wish he knew about online marketing before going into his current field, Greg said the following:

Anything. Honestly, I knew nothing about online marketing when I was starting out. Partly because we had no budget, but also, at the time, online marketing seemed somewhat mystifying. I wish I had known more about crafting a strategy as opposed to just doing a hodgepodge of ideas and hoping it worked out. It is easy to waste money that way. You must have concrete goals and a well-researched plan to achieve them.

Hopefully, these five tips will help you in starting your own endeavor with a few less roadblocks or missed opportunities.
December 1, 2016
#NOLATech Week 2016: How To Drive More Traffic To Your Site

In conjunction with NOLATech Week 2016, Search Influence hosted a workshop to help support small businesses in their online marketing efforts. Paula Keller and Mary Silva presented on how to boost your local search rankings and ways to drive traffic to your website respectively.

Paula Keller’s “How To Boost Your Local Search Rankings”

Paula’s “How To Boost Your Local Search Rankings” presentation took the audience through what types of businesses benefit from local SEO efforts. It also detailed the different types of Google My Business pages and how to use them. With the insight from Paula’s presentation, business owners can better understand how to optimize their business both onsite and offsite to gain better local search rankings.

Mary Silva’s “10 Ideas To Drive Traffic To Your Website”

Mary’s “10 Ideas To Drive Traffic To Your Website” presentation tackled concepts that influence your site’s user experience and actionable ways to help improve traffic to your site. It covered topics ranging from highly technical concepts like Schema markup and Google Search Console Analysis to less laborious efforts like directory and authoritative link earning. She explained how to use Schema.org rich snippets to create more engaging search results for your website on Google. Her presentation also went into detail on how to use social media efforts effectively to not only post but also promote engaging content like infographics. “Think of your online marketing efforts as a service,” said Mary, Internet Marketing Team Lead at Search Influence. “We know our users, and we’re getting them closer to their end goal faster. Make your overall goal to give users a cleaner, better experience and make users lives easier. ”

In utilizing some of the tips and tools explained in these two presentations, guests could help increase their business’s online success in many ways including, but not limited to, improved visibility in local search results and increased traffic to their sites.

For more information on the event, visit townsend.bunksite.com/ or contact the office directly at 504-208-3900 or Search Influence, 935 Gravier St #1300, New Orleans, La. 70112.

October 12, 2016
Nothing More Local Than My Pocket #pubcon 2016
Today I’m presenting at Pubcon on Mobile PPC. We all know mobile phones are ubiquitous, but there are a bunch of great stats which show how important they’ve become to us.
- 33% of Americans would rather give up sex for a week rather than their cell phones.
- 70% of Americans would rather give up alcohol for a week than their cell phones.
Clearly this poll was not in New Orleans.

And now the presentation.

Nothing more local than my pocket #pubcon 2016 Mobile PPC from Search Influence
October 11, 2016
Here’s How to Capture Mi Corazón This Hispanic Heritage Month

Hispanic Heritage Month kicks off on September 15 and runs through October 15. These dates are actually quite significant because the 15th marks the independence days for several Latin American countries. For those who still believe that Cinco De Mayo is Mexico’s independence day, well, it’s actually September 16. And trust me, those parties put Cinco De Mayo to shame.

For me, my Hispanic heritage can’t be confined to a month. My heritage is in the food I eat, the music I listen to, and the way I speak. At times, it can be exhausting! But I wouldn’t trade my culture or traditions for the word! The Hispanic experience is so interesting because there are 21 Spanish-speaking Latin countries, each with their drastically different accents, slang, food, national dance, and their own unique way to translate the word, “banana.”

Hispanics are a growing population within the United States. According to Hispanic Marketing Blog, in 2015, a total of 22.7 million Hispanic Americans are millennials. Not only do we represent 42% of the total U.S. population, but we also make up 27% of the U.S. Generation Y. Such a large representation requires different marketing strategies to reach a Latino heart and its dinero. Here are just a few to keep in mind.

1: Biculturalism

Latinos are fluid. Since birth, we learn how to effortlessly weave in and out of our American and Latin identity. Many of us still uphold our culture’s traditions, but we also believe in the American dream. Don’t ask us to choose one over the other; we are simply both. Lovers of tacos and pizza, fútbol and football, telenovelas and Scandal, Don Francisco and, well, you get the idea.

2: Family Focus

Latinos are extremely family-oriented people. Which is why some of us don’t move out of our parent’s house until we get married! Many of us don’t do this because nothing beats mami’s cooking, and you know she’d go into meltdown mode at the thought of her niño bonito leaving. But, we genuinely love to be around crazy Latino families. Who understands you better then them?

3: Speak Our Language (Both of Them)

I can’t tell you how excited my Papi gets when he hears someone speaking Spanish on an English channel. Unlike the French, we love it when you speak Spanish, even if you butcher it. Our language is an essential part of life as it connects us to our roots. But there is a confusing exception because some Millennial Latinos don’t speak Spanish. Even the ones that are bilingual almost always consume media in English.

4: Cater To Us

If you want our business, you need to cater to us. I must admit, a lot of companies already have marketing campaigns directed towards Latinos. My favorite commercials are from Allstate. Our version of Mayhem, known as La Mala Suerte, is way better.

5: Be Careful Not To Offend

Last but not least: Be careful not to offend Latin Americans. If you don’t want to unleash the fury known as La Chancla, don’t refer to a Spanish speaker as “A Mexican.” Not every Hispanic is Mexican. As I said before, there are 21 dramatically distinct Latin American countries. Just like the US, we are a melting pot with influences coming from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. There is a whole lot more to us than Hollywood’s misguided stereotypes.

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September 7, 2016
How to Leverage Pokémon Go to Drive New Sales for Your Business

From the first time I booted up Pokémon Blue in my Gameboy Pocket way back in ‘98, I dreamed of being the very best—like no one ever was. Fast-forward to July 7th, 2016, and we all actually live in a Pokémon World. Once Pokémon Go was released, it quickly smashed the previous records of most downloads in a week, fastest app to ten million downloads, and in less than a month after its release, it has topped over twenty million downloads. This is great news for Nintendo. Prior to the release of Pokémon Go, their market share was showing a strong downward trend. The Wii U console was not keeping pace with the powerful technology of the PS4 and Xbox One, they had to liquidate most of their majority share of the Seattle Mariners due to new management, and they had not released a new handheld system (or even talked about a new one) since November 2014.

How Does This Affect Me?

After a little more background, I’ll make this relevant to the business world, I swear. In addition to the 151 unique Pokémon that people are running around trying to catch, there are two very important structures that have been placed in this game — Gyms and Pokestops.

The image above is a Pokémon Gym. Once a player reaches Level 5 in the game, they join the blue Team Mystic, the yellow Team Instinct, or the red Team Valor, represented by the “legendary” birds Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, respectively. These three teams constantly battle their Pokémon for control of these locations and can train with their teammates to help their gym gain more prestige, which allows more teammates to add their Pokémon to it.

This image is a Pokestop. These locations were selected as landmarks to add the travel aspect of the game. By tapping on a Pokestop, a detail screen pops up which has the name of the location; a photo of the location; and in some cases, a brief description of the location. Swiping the image causes it to spin, which makes it drop a few items and gives the player 50 experience points towards leveling up their avatar. Pokestops can only be activated every five minutes so, under normal circumstances, it is beneficial to collect your items and continue moving on towards the next Pokestop. However, even the most seasoned Pokémon Trainer needs a break every now and then. Unfortunately, to be the very best, training can’t stop. Niantic, the developer of Pokémon Go, thought of this and included an item called a Lure Module in this game.

When a Lure Module is set at a Pokestop, Pokémon are attracted to its location and appear without having to walk around constantly. With enough trainers present, it is even rumored that rare Pokémon show up to the Pokestop. Lure Modules are very seldom given to players as they level up but they are also available for 100 Pokecoins, which is equivalent to $0.99. They only last for 30 minutes, so players are constantly purchasing them and placing them at their favorite Pokestops.

Okay, So How Does This Actually Affect Me?

Yes, there is actually a point to all of this, but it requires a little bit of creativity. Businesses that normally serve as gathering places for large groups of people make ideal candidates for utilizing Pokémon Go to bolster their business. First, you need to see if there is a Pokestop near your business. If a player can stay at your business with the Pokestop active, you’re golden. At the base level, it costs a Trainer a dollar per half hour to keep a Lure Module active on a Pokestop. Once the Lure Module is set, other trainers will be attracted just as much as the Pokémon. The Lure Module owner is the particular subject that you want to collaborate with.

Offering the owner of the Lure Module a small discount is one way to attract business. The chance of getting more business increases as long as you continue to have Lure Modules active. If your business is a coffee shop, maybe consider offering a pastry with a coffee if a customer shows you that they set up a Lure Module. If your business is a bar, maybe consider offering the Lure Module owner a $1 discount on a well drink or domestic beer if they decide to set a Lure Module. The potential is limitless. Some larger locations, such as zoos and parks, can have multiple stops. A zoo, for example, could advertise all of their Pokestops and offer a discount for Pokémon Go players.

Pokémon Gyms may seem harder to work around than Pokestops, but once you consider that every player has already pledged feverish allegiance to their team, a Pokémon Gym all of a sudden becomes the best thing that could’ve happened to your business. In this case, there’s really nothing that you actually have to do. People will eventually migrate towards your business to try to maintain control. It would be worth mentioning that your establishment is a Pokémon Gym on your social media profiles to help spread the news. Maintaining team neutrality would be a good idea; no one really goes into a New Orleans Saints bar and proclaims the Atlanta Falcons are the best team in the league.

That’s a Lot to Poke-think About

Though this may seem very straightforward, any sort of campaign, especially those that involve online presence, is oftentimes left up to the pros. Here at Search Influence, we offer a full suite of online presence options, one of them being Social Media Optimization, which would allow you to relax and let us create your PokeAds for you.

Image 1 Credit | Image 2 Credit | Image 3 Credit | GIF 1 Credit

August 9, 2016
10 SEO Blogs You Should Be Following

SEO is one of the most important aspects of a business’ online presence. Everyday, we start to see traditional marketing approaches becoming more and more obsolete as new trends are discussed and new strategies go into development. In this post, I’ve outlined 10 of the industry’s most informative, entertaining, and essential SEO blogs you should be reading.

1. The Google Blog

It should go without saying that if your business uses any of Google’s products or its many services, this should be one of the top blogs for you to follow.

The Google Blog is the company’s official blog. Although purely for the latest in company news, it provides insight into topics such as product updates, developer challenges, and code snippets.

2. HubSpot

HubSpot attracts over 2 million monthly visitors and is gaining fast popularity among those especially interested in marketing and sales. The HubSpot blog is divided into two groups: the marketing blog and the sales blog. You’ll find all SEO-related content in their marketing blog, however, I definitely recommend looking into their sales blog too. By separating the two into different categories, readers can browse content and search specific topics by relevance.

3. KISSmetrics

KISSmetrics is known to focus on more of the analytical aspects of SEO, but this blog also covers other topics such as marketing and testing. Blog posts typically examine statistical trends to help businesses determine different ways for improving online performance. Their content is usually pretty thorough and almost always supported with corresponding metrics and factual reasoning.

4. Moz Blog

The popular SEO consulting company has been devoted to the practice of website optimization since 2004. It is undoubtedly one of the best resources out there. Moz’s online blogs (Moz Blog, YouMoz, Rand’s Blog, Dev Blog) feature some of the industry’s top experts offering their best advice, research, and how-tos.

The Moz blog covers everything you need to know with just the right amount of detail to make things comprehendible without being overwhelming. So whether you’re an SEO novice or expert, Moz will provide you with exceptional value about the best SEO practices for your business.

5. Search Engine Watch

Similar to Search Engine Land, Search Engine Watch offers detailed information about SEO and paid search. Blog content is updated frequently and provides readers with great information, tips, and tricks for improving online visibility.

6. SEMrush

As one of the best in competitive research services for online marketing, SEMrush focuses on generating valuable content for digital marketing. Posts are both informative and detailed and will sometimes feature posts written by well-known industry experts.

7. Search Engine Roundtable

Rather than just simply publishing original blog content, Search Engine Roundtable adds a unique twist by providing readers with a one-stop shop for reading the most popular topics covered in SEM. Search Engine Roundtable offers a single source for visiting and locating the most interesting threads covered on various forums and then provides greater detail into those threads. The website has won numerous awards and covers several search topics.

8. Search Engine Land

Search Engine Land is considered one of the leading digital publications for online marketing. Their blog examines many elements in the industry and is typically one of the first to introduce breaking content. Posts cover a wide variety of topics, including daily news, industry trends, and product changes on popular platforms.

In addition to its editorial news coverage, the blog also features articles by subject matter experts across all digital marketing disciplines, filled with practical tips, tactics, and strategies for running successful marketing programs.

9. Content Marketing Institute

Content is an essential component for SEO success. With that said, the Content Marketing Institute is a great resource for content marketing. Blog posts will also include discussions related to SEO strategies, social media, analytics, and more.

10. Search Influence

Being a full-service search engine marketing company, it should come as no surprise that our internal team blog about online marketing and SEO practices. We publish a few articles each week and offer great information and advice for improving SEO. So, if you’re looking for great content that is both easy to understand and focuses on the most effective strategies, our blog is not one to miss.

The rules of SEO are constantly changing, and it’s important for businesses to lay a solid foundation for growing their organic traffic. By keeping up with the most recent industry news, you’ll be able to determine the most valuable information and useful advice for improving your SEO. Don’t see your favorite? Leave a comment below and let us know which blogs should have made the list.

July 12, 2016
12 Things You May Not Know About Online Marketing

While some aspects of online marketing may seem straightforward, some things might surprise you. Here are 12 things that surprised some of our team members when they started working at Search Influence.

1. When listing your business location anywhere online, you should use the USPS verified address.

“I worked at traditional ad agencies for over 10 years. It shocked me to find out that, when developing a website for a client, it is best practice to use the exact address that the USPS has on file for a business. And that same address should be used on all social media profiles, as well, to enhance a website’s search engine ranking. In my former life, we would simply use what looked or fit best.” – Melissa

2. Gain traffic to your website through local search results with industry specific directory listings.

“I was surprised to learn how many industry specific directories exist. Also, surprised to learn how valuable those can be for businesses to gain traffic to their website through local search results.” – Mary

(Note: Don’t have a physical location? Check out this blog about ways to improve the local search ranking for a service area business.)

3. Google My Business is important!

“I was really surprised to learn that Google My Business had such a large impact on website visibility. I thought, “Google Plus? No one uses that.” And that’s partially true. But having a page, verifying it, and having reviews can play a large role in ranking in the maps pack.” – Ariel

4. Google prefers location images for profile pictures on Google Plus.

“With my graphic design background and my love for branding, I was surprised to learn that Google prefers the use a picture of your business location (if you’re a brick and mortar shop) instead of a logo for your Google Plus profile picture.” – Michelle

5. Content on images cannot be crawled by Google.

“I was surprised to learn that Google could not track infographics on pages as static images, but we can help make them more Google-friendly through optimization.” – Kayla

6. Content optimization is for humans too!

“It may sound basic, but I was surprised to learn that SEO is geared just as much toward optimizing content for human users as it is for computers. When I first started hearing about SEO, I thought it referred only to technical, back-end fixes that would gain the attention of search engines. Working at Search Influence taught me that a huge part of SEO focuses on enhancing the overall user experience, not just making it easy for Google to find your website.” – Aubrey

7. Google penalizes sites from showing up in search results.

“I was surprised to learn about Manual Actions and how Google can penalize your website, removing it from search results or reducing its ranking. It totally makes sense now that I know more, but coming into the industry without much knowledge of the impact of manual actions, I was definitely surprised.” – Presley

8. Quality content can affect rankings.

“The importance of content! It makes so much sense once you actually understand how it affects your website’s ranking potential. I feel like it’s still the number one thing I harp on the most to our clients.” – Gussie

9. Meta descriptions are helpful in gaining user click through from SERPs.

“It never occurred to me that meta descriptions are something that needs to be created and are a valuable part of SEO. Now they’re one of the first things I mention when I tell people about the kind of content I work on, because who knew that could be someone’s job?“ – Meaghan

10. Schema markup can help Google locate the important information on your site.

“I think schema markup is really cool. I like how you can insert coding to “highlight” important pieces of information on a website, especially since Google is processing lots of information across the internet.“ – Jensen

(Note: Looking for Schema for Medical Clinics? Check out this blog about the recent Schema update.)

11. Online marketing best practices are always changing.

“Having worked for an online marketing company before starting at Search Influence, I was surprised to see how much the industry can change. There was about a three-month gap between my last job and Search Influence, and the environment of SEO was entirely different. Algorithm changes, social media image size changes, changes to what’s good practice and what’s not. Everything was different. Search Influence gave me the tools to navigate those changes and come out with more knowledge than I thought possible.“ – Eric

12. Attack your online marketing campaign from multiple angles for a greater impact.

“I wasn’t necessarily surprised by this, but what I love about what Search Influence does is that we fit all of the various components of online marketing together into such well thought out, comprehensive strategies for our clients. Offsite work to benefit organic search, social media marketing, onsite work + paid advertising efforts can complement each other so well and do such great things for small, medium, and large businesses when the work is synchronized with intent!” – Erica

Staying on top of your online marketing campaign can be tough. We can help! Contact one of our SEO specialists to find out more information.

June 30, 2016
These 10 Expert Tips Will Drive Traffic to Your Business’s Website
It doesn’t take a web expert to know that more traffic to your website means more business. However, researching ways to improve your online traffic isn’t always easy. We asked our in-house experts for their thoughts and came up with these ten ways to drive traffic to your website.

1: Implement Schema Markup and Rich Snippets on Your Site

Schema Markup is structured data that labels existing elements on your website so search engines can better understand the content. Essentially, when Schema.org markup is implemented into your website’s HTML source (the only place where it should be visible), it clearly defines specific parts of your content, such as your business address and telephone number.

Rich Snippets are a structured data markup only recognized by search engine algorithms. When used on appropriate content, Rich Snippets can show exact content from a website on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) of search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. These snippets are the few lines of text under every search result. For example, if you run a medical practice that wants to advertise its high rate of patient satisfaction, you can markup content from patient testimonials so that your glowing reviews show up when people search for doctors in your area.

2: Improve Your Site Speed

Site speed is the amount of time a page needs to completely load. This matters for both users and search engines, as users are less likely to stay on a website that takes a long time to load and search engines will penalize your website for being too slow. Google’s PageSpeed Insights Tool is a great way to analyze your site for ways to improve your site speed and will provide you with detailed information on how to fix each issue.

3: Use Google Search Console

Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools) allows you to indicate to Google the various details of your site. A very important part of this process is submitting your sitemap so that search engines can better crawl and categorize your site—if you haven’t done this yet, you should! Search Console will give you a report on the average ranking of your website on SERPs for specific search queries. These reports will let you know what you should be improving on your site to gain a high position and click rate.

4: Publish Press Releases

Press Releases are great when you have an announcement to make or a story to tell. They’re also highly useful for helping you own your business name in SERPs. Sites like PRWeb and Cision will distribute your press releases for you and get them published on news sites and blogs. For a little extra money, they’ll also send your release to journalists and bloggers, in hopes that they’ll publish it on their sites as well.

5: Perform On-Site Link Building

Internal Linking is a link from one page to another on your website. This process fosters a great user experience, as anyone visiting your site will find themselves easily hopping from one page to another without having to really search for the information they’re looking for. Search engines like Google are very focused on user experience. Good internal link building helps googlebot understand the relationship between pages, among a set of content.

6: Perform Off-Site Link Earning

By submitting your website to online forums, specifically those that pertain to your business’ physical and professional communities, you’re naturally increasing the chances that someone will visit your website. Engaging on social platforms like StumbleUpon, Reddit, Digg, and Delicious can be more valuable than you think.

7: Perform Off-Site Citation Building

Similarly to off-site link earning, submitting business listings to niche directories (industry & categorical), data feeds, major directories like Google, Yelp, Bing, Foursquare, YP.com, and secondary directories like Merchant Circle, HotFrog is a great way to drive traffic to your website.

8: Syndicate Your Videos

It’s no secret that having a YouTube channel filled with optimized videos drives up web traffic. However, you should also syndicate your videos across other sustainable video channels, such as Vimeo and DailyMotion. Videos will earn links and citations on social sites because they’re highly shareable. These increase link source diversity.

9: Post and Promote on Social Media

This may seem like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised by how many businesses don’t actually do this. Paying for promoted posts on Facebook offers a relatively inexpensive way to get your business in front of target consumers. Facebook also offers radius-based targeting for ads, which lets you target people who are/were:
- Living in your area
- Located in your area
- Recently visiting your area
- Traveling to/in your area
Posting and promoting isn’t limited to Facebook, though! LinkedIn and Pinterest are other examples of great social media sites that are perfect for driving traffic to your website.

10: Be a Resource in Your Industry Through Sharable Content

It’s one thing to be ahead of your competition, but it’s another thing entirely to be an industry thought leader. You can do this by creating shareable content. For example, you MUST have a blog. Your blog should be on site, not offsite. If your website is hosted on a CMS like WordPress, then you can easily integrate a blog within your existing site! Not only does blogging build authority for your brand and show off the human side of your company, but according to Hubspot, businesses who prioritize blogging experience 13 times increase in ROI.

You should also start to create infographics. They combine easily digestible—but valuable—information with a visually appealing information, making them highly shareable across all social media websites. For example, this infographic, created for a medical directory, was shared more than 900 times, got more than 300 Facebook shares, and was pinned more than 150 times.

Want more information? Watch our recent webinar for more information and tips.
June 20, 2016