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Five for Friday: Twitter Trends, #Mobilegeddon, the State of Moz, and More!

1. Twitter Is Rolling Out Trends with Descriptions on the Web – Marketing Land

In an effort to improve engagement with its more casual users, Twitter has made multiple changes to its platform. The most recent has just rolled out on mobile and web, offering descriptions and metrics on trending topics. Now, you can see what a trending topic means and how many other users have shared it.

2. Moz’s 2014 Annual Report – Moz

SEO authority Moz has just released their annual report for 2014, showing “many ups and downs.” Despite a few challenges this year, CEO Sarah Bird still proudly showcases the decrease in cost-of-revenue, increase in workplace diversity, and interesting work perks like charity donation totals and paid vacation. In this bid for transparency, we see another interesting example of tech company work culture.

3. Mobilegeddon Is Here: Google’s Mobile-Friendly Algorithm Is Live! – Search Engine Journal

Wondering what all the hubbub is about with Google’s new update? Normally, Google doesn’t give much warning ahead of its changes, but this one has been on the SEO world’s radar since last October. Google’s major mobile-friendly push will affect more sites than either Penguin or Panda. But don’t worry: if your site is already mobile-friendly, your ranking won’t be affected. If not, Google’s Webmaster Tools feature will tell you how to fix it.

4. How Mobilegeddon Impacts Paid Search – PPC Hero

Speaking of #Mobilegeddon, it’s very likely Google’s Ad Rank formula will be affected by the new mobile criteria. With the changes leading up to the algorithm rollout, we saw both organic search results and AdWords ads labelled with the “mobile-friendly” tag. So it’s not a stretch that AdWords ads will also be affected by how mobile-friendly a website is, both as a factor in the ranking formula and as it affects ad extensions and formatting.

5. Game of Angels Maps Tech Influence Networks – Tech Crunch

Developer Pierre-Jean Camillieri is trying to answer the question “who influences the influencers” with his new tool, Game of Angels. Though the program is in its early stages, it could help entrepreneurs connect with industry leaders who have the most online clout.

The tool gives a visual map of influencers and their major connections based on the number of interactions they have. However, it’s currently limited to those Camillieri himself deems major influencers and industry leaders.

Image Sources:

Twitter Trends

Influence Map

May 1, 2015
Optimize Your Commute: Influencers Caught Ridin’ Sweaty

At Search Influence, biking to work is not a passing fad (and that’s not just because this is how our CEO Will Scott gets to work). Search Influence riders braved rainy weather conditions last week to ride in support of the 2015 NOLA Bike to Work Week, finishing among the top businesses citywide along the way.

Bike Easy’s 2015 Nola Bike to Work Week included a total of 35 New Orleans businesses participating, with more than 1,015 trips logged over the course of the eight-day challenge, according to Bike Easy.

Out of the 35 participating workplaces, Search Influence placed in the top five for two of the three pillars of the challenge. Though the team was small, we came in third place for the total number of trips our riders logged as well as fourth for the most new riders (first-time participants in NOLA Bike to Work Week).

For many members of the SI family, biking extends far beyond just one week a year—it is the way they commute to work daily. Some ride from Mid City, Central City, and Treme, while others come from as far as the Ninth Ward to get to the CBD. Influencer Mattie Kenny said her favorite part about biking to work is “connecting with my environment while I have ‘me time.’”

NOLA Bike to Work Week is one of many events throughout the year put on by Bike Easy, whose mission is to “make bicycle riding in New Orleans easy, safe, and fun.” To find out more about what Bike Easy is and how to get involved, you can check out its website here.

April 30, 2015
New Influencers Put a Spring in our Step

Recently, we were lucky enough to welcome a few new faces to the team here at Search Influence. Say hello to our three newest Influencers!

Kiersten Kampschroeder – Junior Internet Marketing Associate

Kiersten has been enjoying the laid-back New Orleans lifestyle for almost two years, having previously worked in IT and social media from home. Originally from Northern Virginia, she went to school in New York for anthropology and has since put her degree to great use observing cafe culture around the city. She’s a serial dabbler and uses her free time to try every hobby known to man (the current obsession is gardening/landscaping).

Mallory Richardson – Account Associate

Originally from Mandeville, La., Mallory graduated from Louisiana State University in May 2014, earning a bachelor’s degree in mass communication with a concentration in public relations. She served as the Publications Editor in Chief on the 2013-2014 Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) National Committee during her senior year, leading more than 11,500 pre-professional public relations students nationwide. After graduating, she moved to her birthplace of Chicago to begin her career in social media marketing, serving as an account manager at Blueye. While Mallory loved her time in the Windy City, she knew that Louisiana was too special of a place to leave for long (plus she really hated the Chicago winter). In her free time, she enjoys reading, playing soccer and planning trips to faraway places.

Brennan Schexnaydre – Junior Account Assistant

Brennan is a sophomore at the University of New Orleans working toward a bachelor’s in marketing and a minor in hotel, restaurant, tourism. She is a member of Sigma Kappa Epsilon Beta sorority and worked at Pier One Imports for three years before coming to Search Influence. She is originally from Destrehan, but moved to the Westbank in fifth grade. She cries over television shows and sometimes can’t finish watching a show if there is too much conflict (reality shows on Bravo that overwhelm her). She loves watching random documentaries on Netflix.

We’re always excited to welcome new energy and talent to our growing team. Will you be next to jump on board? Visit our careers page and apply! We look forward to hearing from you.

April 29, 2015
Making Patients & Customers into Fans: Are Facebook Fan-Building Campaigns Effective?

Looking to connect with your ideal patients and customers online? Facebook fan-building campaigns are just what the doctor ordered for creating the perfect online experience for your audience as well as building your community of followers.

But before we delve into the specifics of Facebook fan-building campaigns and how this online marketing strategy can win you customers and patients alike, let’s briefly go over what fan building is. Fan building is a way for businesses to acquire likes on Facebook and to connect with all the people that matter to them. While a business can acquire fans organically, paid ads are more effective and efficient at increasing a business’s fan base and amplifying the rate of fan growth.

Part 1: Are Page Like Ads Effective at Fan Building?

Short answer: Yes. Facebook page like ads are effective.

Case Study 1:

Let’s look at Client A. Client A is a well-established business specializing in reconstructive surgery. Search Influence started a fan-building campaign for Client A toward the end of 2011 and have been actively managing it ever since.

In order to maximize the client’s budget, we focused ad copy around the authoritative nature of our client in the field of reconstructive surgery and targeted these ads to users we identified as most likely to convert (in the form of a page like) based on their interests and online behaviors.

Prior to the Facebook fan-building campaign, Client A had around 550 page likes from various organic sources. Not a shabby number to begin with, but we were able to get that number up to 21,000 within a year. Within two years, Client A had more than 30,000 fans … within three years, more than 65,000 fans. And likes acquired from our fan-building advertising campaign made up of a majority of the fan growth:

Page Likes By Source (Daily):

The above segments the daily page likes gained by source. As you can see, likes as a result of fan-building ads made up more than 85 percent of the likes gained.

Case Study 2:

Client B is a multi-location addiction treatment and recovery facility. We started running a fan-building campaign for Client B toward the end of 2012. The campaign lasted two years and increased Client B’s fan base by more than 6,000. For Client B, we focused on grabbing the attention of users by including encouraging and supportive language within our ad copy, and we targeted users that we identified as most likely to be interested in the services offered by the client or to know someone that could benefit from the services offered.

One of the main roadblocks was getting users to like a page that focused on such a sensitive subject. After all, why would anyone want to publicly like a page about addiction treatment and recovery? Well, if you fill your page with interesting content that is relevant to your business and engaging to your audience, users are more likely to follow and interact with your page. So with Client B, we first got users’ attention with our page like ads, and we kept their attention with the content on the page!

Once we stopped running Client B’s fan-building campaign, we noticed that while the fans gained from the campaign were still there … the rate at which new fans were coming in has stalled. Take that as you will, but we came to the conclusion that fan-building campaigns are, in fact, effective. Moreover, fan-building campaigns are sustainable (more on that next).

Part 2: Is Fan Building Sustainable? YES!

Fan-building campaigns are a sustainable way to increase your fan base. If you create an effective campaign with the right message and proper targeting, page likes gained from fan-building campaigns don’t just disappear once the campaign ends. Users like pages because they’re interested in the product, the business, or the brand, and they want to know what’s going on and to get updates.

That being said, just having an active fan-building campaign isn’t the be-all and end-all to building and maintaining fans. As demonstrated in Case Study 2, an effective fan-building campaign only starts with knowing who your target audience is, how to reach them, and what message will speak best to your target audience. From there, the campaign flows into what is actually on your page.

You can get page likes by having the most interesting and enticing messaging in your ads and by targeting the exact audience that should be interested … but if your page is boring and dry, you’re not going to be able to sustain the page likes you gain and maximize your fan-building campaign’s potential.

Lagniappe: Likes For Lives

A relatively recent tactic used for fan-building campaigns is called “Likes For Lives.” The concept behind Likes For Lives is that for every like a business receives on its page, it will take some sort of action to save a life. The action is usually a donation of some sort.

Below is an ad from our most recent Likes For Lives campaign we ran for a client of ours during October 2014. October happens to be breast cancer awareness month, so we decided to incentivize Facebook users to click like by pledging to give a $1 donation for every like. This particular Likes For Lives campaign gained our client 748 likes from October 10 to October 30, 2014. The average cost per like was 48 cents.

The Likes For Lives campaign generated more clicks in the 20 days that it ran compared to this client’s monthly average of 150 likes from its regular fan-building campaign. Therefore, a Likes For Lives campaign for this specific client was very successful.

One of the best ways to stand out and speak to users, no matter what type of advertising campaign you’re running, is to have a unique and attention-grabbing ad copy. And Likes For Lives campaigns provide just that. If you know who you’re trying to reach and how to create the targeting needed on Facebook to reach them, why not utilize the Likes For Lives incentive to build your fans and help a cause? Likes For Lives campaigns are a great way for all businesses, especially those with a health care focus, to gain positive brand awareness and to strengthen the fan base.

April 28, 2015
Survive Google’s ‘Mopocalypse’ with these Tips for Your Mobile Strategy

Google’s new mobile-friendly update, which I originally discussed in my Search Engine Land column, is rolling out this month, and it’s time to put the focus on mobile. But with all this buzz about mobile websites, you may be thinking, “My website looks fine on my smartphone when I pinch and zoom, so what’s the big deal?”

Well, there’s much more to it than that.

Step 1: Get a Mobile Website

Just because your Web developer tells you your site is mobile doesn’t necessarily make it true. Make sure you’ve used Google’s handy mobile-friendly testing tool to check your website. In Google’s eyes, businesses have three main options for becoming mobile-friendly: responsive website design, dynamic serving, and separate URLs.

So what option is right for your business? The bottom line is this: for businesses with growing mobile traffic that has not yet reached a critical percent of site traffic, a purely mobile version on a separate URL is a viable option. But for businesses with mobile website traffic pushing 50 percent or more of all site traffic, it is time to invest in a responsive website. While a responsive website typically requires a complete overhaul, your customers will probably thank you when your website can display differently based on the screen size.

Step 2: Use ‘Barnacle SEO’

Even before your mobile website is in action, your business needs to attach itself to large, fixed objects, and then wait for mobile customers to float by in the powerful current. I like to call this Barnacle SEO, also known as the “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” strategy. Basically, this means identifying large, high-ranking online directories such as Yelp, for example, and adding your information there in the hopes of “borrowing” some of their page one rankings. And there are many trusted online directories like Yelp out there you can barnacle up to: Angie’s List, Foursquare, Google+, Avvo (for lawyers), HealthGrades (for doctors), even TripAdvisor.

This strategy works well in mobile because these websites are optimized for the mobile experience—providing the targeted information that local customers searching on their smartphones really need. When you perform a Google search for “hair stylists New Orleans,” for example, the top results are mostly from Yelp:

Step 3: Focus on Location, Location, Location

Let’s face it: when mobile matters, location matters. Consider this: 50 percent of consumers who performed a local search on a smartphone visited a store within a day, according to a recent study from Google. So that’s good news for brick-and-mortar businesses with a mobile-friendly website. Those businesses will enjoy the additional ranking factors from the upcoming mobile-friendly algorithm, getting these small businesses in front of their target market at the time and place searchers are looking.

The challenge? Local businesses must break into the top three local results—the ones typically seen on your smartphone. For example, if I search for “dentists,” Google is going to give me dentists near me … and I see only the first three results:

To wrap it up, these are three steps you can get started on now. But remember, as with all Google algorithm updates, stay calm and give it time. April 21 was not the end-all-be-all date. This rollout will likely be a period of rollouts rather than a single-day launch. We usually recommend giving an update 60 days to see the full impact. And even then, there are revisions and updates and you just don’t know.

So what’s your next move? Keep an eye on your website traffic to see if the update is impacting your mobile traffic. If you need help, give us a call at 504-208-3900. We’re here to help ease your “Mopocalypse” fears.

April 24, 2015
Googleplasty: How to Reshape Your Search Results (Part 2)

As more businesses begin to take efforts to improve their online presence, standing out in search results of highly competitive markets and areas becomes even more difficult—and nowhere is this perhaps more true than in the cosmetic medicine industry.

In order to reshape your search results through the art of “Googleplasty,” you must know what factors make your business rank high in a Google search. Since we now know all about the different types of search results from part one of this two-part blog series, let’s talk about the most important factors that play a role in how high your practice ranks.

The following three “Top 5” lists of factors are from from Moz’s 2014 Local Search Ranking Factors survey. The information came as a result of surveying 40 industry experts to determine what had the most influence on ranking in Google search results.

As you can see, all of the factors that are integral in competitive markets also play a part in either localized organic or maps pack results. Due to their repeat importance, I think they’re the five factors most worthy of discussing in detail.

1. Domain Authority of Website

First up on our list as the most important factor in competitive markets is Domain Authority, which isn’t much of a shocker. Domain Authority is a proprietary measurement (created by Moz geniuses) of a domain’s power within a 100-point scale. This score can be used to predict if a site is likely to rank in Google’s search results and can also be used to track a site’s growth and increase in strength.

It is a metric that combines other metrics such as age, number of links, and quality of links, so it’s not easy to manipulate through singular or direct efforts. As it is directly put on Moz’s site, “The best way to influence this metric is to improve your overall SEO.”

Using Moz’s MozBar to see domain authority of pages in search results, you’ll see that the top five business sites in the localized organic results for “plastic surgeon albany ny” have Domain Authorities of 31, 32, 22, 21, and 26, respectively. As you can see here, having a score that is higher by a single point won’t guarantee that you rank above your competitor, but in this search example, business sites past the first page of results tended to have Domain Authorities lower than 20.

2. Consistency of Structured Citations

While this factor isn’t as high ranking for localized organic results, it is third for the top maps pack factors and second here in the top factors for competitive markets. One reason for this is that in many competitive markets, such as plastic surgery or cosmetic dermatology, you’ll find maps packs in search results.

To start, a citation is a place on the Web where a business’ name, address, phone number, and often website can be listed (sometimes referred to as the NAP of a business – name, address, phone). Any combination of the NAP, with or without all parts, listed on a site is considered a citation. A structured citation in particular is a listing of business information found on a directory website (e.g. YellowPages.com and Yelp.com). On the other hand, an unstructured citation can be business information on non-directory sites like newspaper sites, press release sites, and blogs, to name a few.

By increasing the number of matching information sources (and therefore matching signals) to Google, you also increase your chances in having Google match this information to search queries, according to a recent webinar with Google’s Heather Wilburn. So if you want to be matched with potential patients searching for businesses like yours in your area, consistent business information across the Web is one of your best bets, especially in competitive industries like cosmetic surgery.

3. Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to Domain

An inbound link to your domain (aka inlink or backlink) is exactly what it sounds like, a link leading to your website. The relevance to your industry or location and the authority of a website linking to yours in and of itself are the two best traits for quality links. Buying links or having links from random, spammy sites will hurt, not help you. Links from local sites and popular sites are a pretty safe bet. You can seek out local sponsorship opportunities as a good link-building effort or help other sites clean up their broken backlinks by using your working ones.

To differentiate between natural link building versus spammy link building, remember that it’s all about user experience and what makes sense to the user. If your efforts don’t uphold the ideal of providing the best user experience possible, then they’re probably not good.

4. Quality/Authority of Structured Citations

As mentioned above, a structured citation can be any directory site that lists any variation of your business’ NAP or website. While consistency is most important, you also want to make efforts to build high-quality, authoritative citations in directories.

Just like there are many factors to improve your own site’s authority, there are also many factors to determine the quality of a directory. You can delve into Whitespark’s blog on how to identify quality citation sources for a detailed breakdown, but basically a good rule of thumb is to look for high domain authority and human moderation in directory sites. Examples of human moderation include how DMOZ requires submission review by its team before a link goes live or how Google Plus, Yelp, and Bing listings all require verification via phone call or a postcard sent to the business.

Google also considers niche directories highly authoritative. A niche directory is an industry-specific or location-specific directory. Since the Pigeon algorithm update, this kind of citation building has become especially important, and searching for your industry’s keywords will often help you identify these niche directories. If you search for “plastic surgeon columbus oh,” you’ll see that the directories healthgrades.com, vitals.com, and smartplasticsurgery.com appear on the second page of search results. Often, these types of directories require either verification or payment for those seeking to be listed on their site. If you understand the concept of barnacle SEO, you know that being listed on these types of big, authoritative sites is a great way to improve your own visibility to potential customers. Use your discretion to decide if the opportunity cost of getting on a directory isn’t too high to be worth the effort.

Warning: If a site ever requests a “reciprocal link” to its site on your site in order to be listed, this is NOT A GOOD practice, and they are not worth your time.

5. Proper Category Associations

Having proper category associations is another important factor for ranking in the maps pack that can set you apart from the rest in a competitive market. It’s a pretty simple concept, and it basically boils down to the part of the guidelines for representing your business on Google that tells businesses to “Choose categories that are as specific as possible, but representative of your main business.” A cosmetic surgeon with the primary category on the Google Plus local listing set to “surgeon” is less likely to rank above one with a primary category set as “plastic surgeon” in the maps pack, for example.

Though this is a lot to grasp and take action on all at once, having the foundation and understanding of best practices to improve user experience and to better your business online will greatly improve your successes online in the long run.

April 23, 2015
YourCompany.Sucks – Dealing with the Future of Domains
When I first read that .sucks domains would be launching in 2015, I chatted with a friend of mine about it. This friend is not in the search engine optimization industry, but he does have a website for his established local business. The whole .sucks conversation boiled down to this: it is a big money grab, he told me. How is he supposed to build his local brand and defend it online when really, he has to focus his marketing budget on offense, not defense?

I can imagine a lot of small businesses having similar reactions, and I assured Angry Friend that this is not a priority for him as a small, locally owned business. If he buys the .sucks of his domain, then he has to invest in domain-squatting for all negative versions of his domain, and he has better things to do with his limited marketing dollars.

Who are “They?”

After repeating a few different variations of “they are just creating a money grab,” Angry Friend asked “and who the hell are ‘they?!’”

The mysterious “they” are the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. It is responsible for the domain name system, among other things. This means ICANN establishes policies for the domain system and for introducing new top-level domains (TLDs) like .com, .net, .info, .org, .sucks, etc.

Management of most top-level domains is assigned to specific organizations by ICANN. In the .sucks controversy, Vox Populi Registry Ltd. is the manager and registry of the .sucks domains. It set .sucks domains at prices that are being denounced as exorbitant and predatory. It is a subsidiary of Momentous based in Canada.

.Sucks Domains are Rolling out Now

ICANN will have introduced 600+ new TLDs slowly, a few each month, starting in 2013 and going through 2015. This is a pretty cool interactive infographic that allows you to see which TLDs have rolled out/will roll out each month.

Some of the more controversial TLDs are .porn and .adult and .xxx. And .fail and .wtf. You can imagine the scramble by brands and celebrities to grab their names with these extensions as a defensive measure against slam sites.

Per Vox Populi Registry (nic.sucks), these domains are already registered:
- burberry.sucks
- tommybahama.sucks
- eharmony.sucks
- urbanoutfitters.sucks
- beats.sucks
- hersheys.sucks
- tupperware.sucks
- hyatt.sucks
- mac.sucks
- internetexplorer.sucks
According to CBS, these .sucks domains have also been claimed:
- Youtube.sucks
- Bing.sucks
- Visa.sucks
- Yahoo.sucks
Obviously, these corporations and brands have deep pockets and a significant advantage in controlling these domains themselves.

Getting Your .Sucks Domain Is Expensive

A “Sunrise Claim” is an early registration of any new TLD by holders of registered trademarks. Sunrise Claims are usually a few hundred dollars; however, the money grab is afoot with .sucks. Some would say the shakedown has started. The .sucks TLD starts at $2,499—that’s right, starts at.

If a trademark brand opts to not claim anything in the Sunrise period, it may still have to pay the $2,499 or more. Vox Populi has created a “premium” list for trademark brands, and those will have to pay the premium even during the general availability period. For “premium” brands, Vox Populi has ensured the .sucks price will be $2,499 or more no matter when the registration is made, and domain renewals will cost the same as the Sunrise prices.

The .sucks Sunrise period is March 30, 2015 – May 29, 2015. General availability (or the land rush), which is on a first-come, first-served basis, starts June 1, 2015.

Then, when the land rush starts, an average business .sucks domain will cost $249/year. You can get a blocked domain for $199/year, which means it won’t resolve, you can squat on the domain, and no one else can register it either. EasyDNS says, “It is quite the controversy and our advice to anybody on the verge of getting caught up in all this is quite simply not to play. ”

Really, anybody who wants to complain about a brand or a business has plenty of opportunity to do so already with the variety of legitimate ratings and reviews sites, complaint sites such as ripoffreport.com, the ability to create sucks domains such as yelp-sucks.com, and the availability of .fail and .wtf. If you really felt passionate about defending your brand, you would need deep pockets to defend on the domain front. Those dollars would be a much better investment if used for quality online presence strategies.

Fighting Back

ICANN approved .sucks when it announced the plan to introduce the 600+ TLDs from 2013 through 2015. Big brands such as Verizon and eBay make up an advisory panel that has recently complained about the .sucks availability. Trademark lawyers for Intellectual Property Constituency sent ICANN a forceful letter describing the .sucks scenario as “predatory” and requested a halt to the rollout.

The IPC letter calls into question Vox Populi’s plans to (this is quoting from the letter):

(1) categorize TMCH-registered marks as “premium names,”

(2) charge exorbitant sums to brand owners who seek to secure a registration in .sucks, and

(3) conspire with an (alleged) third party to “subsidize” a complaint site should brand owners fail to cooperate in Vox Populi’s shakedown scheme.

Under pressure, ICANN has now asked the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Canada’s Office of Consumer Affairs to comment on the legality of the high-priced process used by Vox Populi. If the Vox Populi pricing strategy is found to be illegal, ICANN will be able to declare them in breach of contract, request changes to its policies, and breathe a sigh of relief with the public eye turned to Vox Populi as the bad guy.
April 22, 2015
Getting Vocal About Buying Local: How Small Businesses Give the Big Easy its Charm

Some of Search Influence’s online marketing clients are small, local businesses that serve a neighborhood, town or region. To find out how small, local businesses impact a city as well as more about the trendy “buy local” movement, we talked to Mark Strella of StayLocal!.

Power to the SMBs

The real impact of locally owned, independent businesses in New Orleans became known just days after Hurricane Katrina struck the city. While Wal-Mart and Starbucks waited for New Orleans to recover, local bars, venues, and hardware stores reopened without hesitation.

Ten years later, the predominance of small, local businesses can be seen on nearly every street in the Greater New Orleans area. And the biggest advocate for preserving New Orleans’ cultural singularity is StayLocal!.

StayLocal! is the Greater New Orleans’ Independent Business Alliance, a non-profit, member-supported organization that connects local New Orleans business to customers, resources, and each other. StayLocal! works to foster the culture of the city by helping local businesses—and subsequently, New Orleans—thrive.

Project Manager Mark Strella tells us more about StayLocal! and its efforts to support locally owned, independent businesses in New Orleans:

So what exactly does “locally owned, independent business” mean?

To us, it means a business in which majority ownership resides within the five-parish New Orleans region. That means the business is owned by New Orleans residents, and decisions about the business are made here, by locals. Or in plain English: not a chain.

Who are some of the locally owned independent businesses you work with?

We work with local businesses of all types around the New Orleans area. We work with a lot of retail businesses, from smaller guys who sell around town at markets and pop-up shops, up to bigger local businesses who have numerous locations, and ones in between. We also work with service businesses and folks in the food industry. Our goal is to be these businesses’ ally: we’re here to provide them with the resources they need to thrive and be around for years.

As a New Orleans resident, how can I benefit from buying locally?

There are a bunch of reasons, and everyone has a reason that is particularly dear to them. For me, it’s that one of the reasons I love New Orleans is that it looks like nowhere else. And so much of that is because of how strong our local business presence is. Most cities in the country don’t come remotely close to being so heavily populated by businesses that are locally owned, rather than the standard menu of chain stores. So when you buy local, you’re supporting that part of our culture and identity and actively doing your part to ensure it stays a part of what you love about New Orleans.

It’s also better for our economy when you spend at a local business versus a chain. That local then takes your money and re-spends it locally, whether it’s on supplies, or accountants, graphic designers, marketers, etc. So that money stays here in New Orleans, whereas money spent at a chain or online leaves New Orleans and benefits some other city. Studies show that spending locally has two or three times a local economic benefit than shopping at a non-local business.

I’ve seen quite a few television shows poke fun at the buy-local movement, specifically Broad City and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, so it must be a pretty big trend. Where does New Orleans stand in the push for staying local?

Ha, I have too, and that’s a testament to the buy-local movement’s success. It’s cool now. I think its success is a reaction to the rise over the past years and decades of chain businesses and now even online giants. People see these faceless businesses everywhere they go and they start to crave authenticity. They gain a greater appreciation for the local business down the street that’s owned and run night and day by their neighbor.

I think New Orleans is way out in front. We’ve always had a thriving local business scene. One study a few years ago showed we had one of the best local business to non-local business ratios of any city in the country. And we have such great appreciation for it as a culture. Our entrepreneurship and start-up scene is huge, thanks in large part to a number of great organizations that are fostering entrepreneurship like Idea Village and Propeller. And when we have this buy-local culture deeply imbued in our behavior as residents— that supporting all things local is simply what we do as New Orleanians—those new businesses have a huge audience to serve.

What events does StayLocal! host or promote throughout the year to encourage New Orleanians to buy local?

We do a ton of stuff. We recently put out the second of our Neighborhood Guide series, which points residents towards local businesses in a specific neighborhood. The neighborhood we did was Central City. Last year, we did Mid-City. And up next is Algiers Point. We have a constant stream of good information on our social media channels, so we definitely encourage folks to like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, yada yada, so that we can turn them on to new local businesses. We also are very active in the fall and holiday season pointing New Orleanians towards local shopping options, through our shop local for the holidays campaign, as well as Small Business Saturday.

And then in general, we spend the rest of our time working with the businesses in our network, helping them run a better business. We do workshops and run all kinds of initiatives and promotions to help our members better connect with one another and access tools that will boost their biz.

Last question: what should I tell my co-workers before they buy their next cup of coffee at Starbucks?

… it’s just important to say “everything in moderation,” and to think of the big picture and what matters to you. If you care about the economic health of the city, think about how local coffee shops re-spend their revenues locally and use local service providers and local firms, creating more jobs and opportunities for New Orleanians. If you care about living in a unique place, think about what New Orleans would be like without its local businesses. If you care about innovation here in New Orleans, we have so many coffee shops doing amazing things with coffee. Mojo. French Truck has its new spot in the Lower Garden District. Spitfire is incredible. So often, local is simply better. But if Starbucks is your thing and that’s not changing, try taking that mindset and applying it to anything else you buy and see what’s out there locally instead.

For more information and to find your new favorite local business, visit Stay Local! at StayLocal.org. Be sure to also follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

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April 20, 2015
Nix the Wix SEO Challenge: Tips & Tricks

Wix Company Timeline

Although Wix sites have been rising in prominence over the past few years, many question whether websites created through the cloud-based Web development platform are ideal for search engine optimization. Wix uses an HTML5 drag n’ drop website-building platform to provide users a simplistic website-building experience. Although Wix prides itself on providing a code-free interface, it assures us that it is SEO-friendly, even providing its very own SEO settings for users. Let’s take a look at how you can get the most SEO usage out of your Wix website.

Update Meta Tags

Give some attention to how your site is found online. Meta tags are your best opportunity, as they are the way viewers learn what your page has to offer them and the first interaction they will have with you. The title tag will be what a user sees in Google, Bing, or Yahoo when they search for a particular phrase. The search engine result also includes a small description, usually from the meta description in the HTML of your site. This will require targeted keyword research and attention to copywriting to make sure you are integrating the best SEO practices.

To add meta titles to your Wix site, access your Wix Editor. The Wix Editor gives you options to edit in either the desktop or mobile version of your site. You will have to use the desktop view in order to make changes. Select the page icon, and when you see the page you wish to add titles to, click the settings icon next to it and then proceed to click the SEO Page Settings. Here, you will be able to update the page title, page descriptions, and page keywords. (See image below for details.)

Note: Both desktop and mobile versions of the site contain the same pages, so the title and meta description will translate to your mobile site.

Add Alt Text to Images

You might already know that viewers love to be brought in by useful, explanatory images. You might not know that search engines can read these images if they are optimized properly, allowing them to be found in image searches. As such, you can get to work optimizing pictures on your site to enhance your SEO efforts.

In order to add alt text to your images, click an image inside the Editor you wish to optimize. From there, select Settings from the pop-up menu. In Image Settings, fill in a title and alt text. Here is a detailed image of how to do this:

Get Social

You’ve invested so much hard work into your site, so isn’t it time to share it? Another great way to bring in more traffic is to effectively disseminate your message across social media sites. While you should be regularly posting informative content across your channels with relevant links back to your site, you should also make it possible for viewers to share straight from your site. In order to make this simple for your viewers, enable buttons and easy clicks on your site.

To add social icons to your site, click the plus sign to open Add in your Editor. From there, click Social. You will have a selection of different networking sites, so select the one you wish to add. Here is a detailed image of how to do this:

Once you select the type of button, be sure to include the appropriate URL (your social link for follow buttons). Here is an example using the Social Bar:

Make Your Site Visible

If you’ve just set up your site, you’ll need to give search engines a little time to find and index your site. The best way to get started is to make sure you’ve selected “Allow Search Engines to find my site” in your site’s SEO settings. Without updating this setting, you will never be found. Don’t risk losing all of your hard work. If you already have a published site, be sure to verify that this is selected.

Once you’re sure the search engines can see your site, you’ll want to help them find it. Add your web address to your Chamber of Commerce listings, note any industry associations you have, and make sure you get listed in local online directories.

Also, be sure to submit your sitemap to Webmaster Tools to help Google better crawl and categorize your website. Wix automatically generates a sitemap.xml file, and you can view it by adding sitemap.xml to the end of your domain name. (Note: If you want to use Google Analytics, you will have to upgrade your account to a premium plan.)

Optimizing on Wix doesn’t seem so bad, does it? Take heed and explore its options for yourself!

April 17, 2015
Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That: Make Social Media Fit Into Your Busy Schedule

It isn’t news that an active social media campaign is an integral part to any business model. In these modern times, simple and frequent Facebook posts can go a long way when potential clients are choosing between you and the competitor. Time, however, is also important, and budgeting out a few posts a day can take a shocking amount of it. Surprisingly, many businesses are unaware of the various ways they can solve this problem on their own.

Simple Tools

One of the best and most widely used solutions is the scheduling feature in Facebook. To use it, simply enter in the text, link, and/or image that you wish to post to your business’ profile page. Once you’re ready to publish, click the small drop-down arrow next to the “Post” button. From there, choose “Schedule,” and then pick the day and time you wish to have your update sent to your followers’ newsfeeds. Although it may take you some time to schedule all the posts you will want to share for the whole month, the amount of time it will save you overall is definitely worth it!

More Advanced

Another tool that helps companies organize their social media presence is Hootsuite. On the surface, it may not seem as intuitive and user-friendly as Facebook scheduling, but with a little practice, it becomes a lot faster. The only catch is the $9.99 per month you’ll need to pay for pro service. With the upgrade, you’ll gain access to bulk scheduling, enabling you to schedule an entire week’s, month’s, or even year’s worth of posts at the drop of a hat.

April 16, 2015