In the world of digital marketing, even the smallest details can have a significant impact. One such detail is the favicon—a small icon that represents your website in browser tabs, bookmarks, and search results. Recently, Google updated its guidelines to recommend higher resolution favicons, emphasizing their role in enhancing brand recognition and user engagement.
Favicons are the tiny icons displayed next to your website's name in a browser tab. They serve as a visual identifier for your brand, helping users easily recognize and navigate back to your site among multiple open tabs. Originally introduced to improve user experience, favicons have become an essential part of a website's branding strategy.
Google now recommends using favicons with a resolution of at least 48x48 pixels. This ensures that your brand is represented clearly across all devices, from desktops to smartphones. A high-resolution favicon enhances the professional appearance of your site and contributes to a consistent and recognizable brand presence.
Real-World Impact: Consider a local business that revamped its online presence by updating its favicon alongside other branding elements. This small change led to a noticeable increase in user engagement, as customers could easily identify and return to the site.
A well-designed favicon can significantly improve click-through rates (CTR). When users search online, visually appealing results naturally attract more attention. A distinctive favicon makes your website stand out, encouraging users to click on your link over others.
Designing for Impact: Think of your favicon as the face of your brand in the digital space. A vibrant and reflective design not only captures attention but also conveys the essence of your brand, making it memorable to potential customers.
To ensure proper display, favicons must maintain a 1:1 square aspect ratio and be crawlable by Googlebot-Image. These technical requirements are crucial for correct indexing and visibility in search results. Ensuring compliance with these guidelines helps maximize the SEO benefits of your favicon.
Staying Current with Standards: Keeping up with Google's evolving standards is vital for maintaining an effective online presence. Regular updates ensure that your site remains compliant and takes full advantage of new opportunities for visibility.
Consistency in branding builds trust and recognition among users. A favicon that aligns with your brand identity reinforces this connection each time users encounter it in their browser tabs or search results. This consistency aids in brand recall and strengthens user interaction.
Emotional Connection: Familiar logos evoke emotional responses from consumers. A well-designed favicon is another tool to ensure your brand remains top-of-mind, fostering loyalty and encouraging repeat visits.
For business owners and marketing professionals, understanding the role of favicons in SEO is crucial. While they don't directly affect rankings, their indirect benefits—such as improved CTRs—are invaluable. Optimizing favicons enhances online presence without overwhelming audiences with technical details.
Integrating into Broader Strategy: Favicons are part of a comprehensive marketing strategy that includes various digital touchpoints. They contribute to a cohesive theme that enhances overall brand recognition.
Creating high-resolution favicons involves more than resizing an image; it requires thoughtful design to ensure recognizability at smaller sizes. Our team guides businesses through this process, ensuring favicons meet Google's guidelines while enhancing branding strategy.
Guided Implementation: We offer step-by-step support from concept to implementation, helping you design a favicon that reflects your brand and resonates with your audience.
In today's competitive digital environment, every detail counts. Adopting high-resolution favicons can enhance your website's visual appeal and SEO performance. Reach out today to start improving your brand's online presence and stay ahead of the competition.
Favicons play a crucial role in the technical ecosystem of your website by contributing to overall metadata and ensuring brand visibility across platforms. In our multi-device world, having a high-resolution favicon ensures consistent brand representation on desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
Mobile Optimization: With increasing mobile traffic, it's essential that favicons look great on smaller screens. Users expect quick, visually appealing results; an optimized favicon enhances professionalism across all devices.
User experience is critical in web design. The favicon is one of the first visual elements users notice; it appears in tabs, bookmarks, and browser histories. A high-quality favicon makes it easy for users to identify and revisit your site among numerous open tabs.
Navigating Digital Noise: In a crowded digital landscape, a memorable favicon helps users navigate back to your site easily, driving repeat visits and increasing engagement rates.
Real-world examples highlight the benefits of high-resolution favicons. For instance, a tech startup revamped its favicon during a website redesign. The modern icon improved user recognition and engagement significantly compared to competitors.
To gauge the impact of favicons on SEO and branding efforts, track key performance metrics using tools like Google Analytics. Analyzing user engagement related to favicon updates allows businesses to refine their digital strategies continuously.
Data-Driven Decisions: By tracking how favicons influence site interactions, you can make informed adjustments across your entire brand strategy, fostering continuous improvement aimed at increasing engagement rates.
Favicons contribute to the broader SEO picture by influencing user engagement metrics like CTRs and repeat visits—signals that indicate value to search engines. An optimized favicon can positively impact these metrics, benefiting overall SEO performance.
As digital standards evolve, so will favicon guidelines. Businesses must remain adaptable to these changes. Future designs may trend toward interactive or dynamic favicons that engage users more effectively.
Staying Informed: We are committed to ongoing education about these trends, ensuring strategies reflect best practices to keep businesses at the forefront of the industry.
High-resolution favicons play an essential role in digital strategy by enhancing brand visibility and user experience. Investing in an optimized favicon improves online presence amidst growing competition in Reno and beyond.
Consider how these updates can benefit your business through improved visual branding. Start with small steps that define larger strategies for success—partner with us on this journey toward remarkable online achievement.
In the ever-evolving world of search engine optimization (SEO), staying ahead of the curve is crucial for businesses looking to maximize their online visibility. One of the most powerful tools in an SEO professional's arsenal is structured data, implemented through schema markup. This article will delve into what structured data is, its history, and how it can be leveraged to influence how Google displays your website listings in search results.
Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying its content. It's a way of organizing and labeling content on websites so that search engines can better understand and interpret the information. By implementing structured data, you're essentially speaking the language of search engines, helping them to comprehend the context and meaning behind your web pages.
Schema markup is the code used to implement structured data. It's a collaborative effort between major search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and Yandex to create a common vocabulary for structured data. This vocabulary, known as Schema.org, defines a set of standardized types and properties for describing various entities, actions, and relationships on the web.
The concept of structured data for the web isn't new, but its widespread adoption and importance in SEO have grown significantly over the past decade.
In the early 2000s, microformats emerged as one of the first attempts to add semantic markup to HTML. These were followed by RDFa (Resource Description Framework in Attributes), which provided a more flexible way to embed metadata in web documents.
In 2011, Google, Bing, and Yahoo! jointly announced Schema.org, a collaborative project to create a common vocabulary for structured data markup. This marked a significant milestone in the evolution of structured data, as it provided a unified approach that was supported by major search engines.
While microdata and RDFa are still supported, JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) has become the preferred format for implementing schema markup. Introduced in 2014, JSON-LD offers a more flexible and less intrusive way to add structured data to web pages.
Implementing structured data through schema markup offers several benefits for your SEO strategy:
Schema.org provides a wide variety of schema types for different content. Some of the most commonly used types include:
While there are various ways to implement schema markup, JSON-LD has become the preferred method due to its simplicity and flexibility. Here's a basic example of JSON-LD markup for a local business:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "LocalBusiness",
"name": "OCG Creative",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "6100 Plumas St., Suite 100",
"addressLocality": "Reno",
"addressRegion": “NV",
"postalCode": "89519",
"addressCountry": "US"
},
"telephone": "(775) 324-1644",
"url": "https://ocgcreative.com"
}
</script>This code would typically be placed in the <head> section of your HTML document.
To maximize the benefits of structured data, follow these best practices:
While basic schema markup can significantly improve your search listings, there are advanced techniques that can further enhance how Google displays your content:
1. Nested Schemas
Nested schemas allow you to provide more detailed and interconnected information. For example, you could nest a Product schema within an Offer schema to provide comprehensive details about a product and its availability.
2. Aggregate Ratings
For businesses with multiple reviews, using the AggregateRating schema can display an overall rating in search results, potentially increasing click-through rates.
3. Breadcrumb Markup
Implementing breadcrumb markup can help Google understand your site structure and may display the breadcrumb path in search results, improving navigation for users.
4. Sitelinks Searchbox
For larger sites, implementing the Sitelinks Searchbox schema can enable a search box directly in your Google search listing, allowing users to search your site without visiting it first.
5. Speakable Schema
As voice search continues to grow, implementing Speakable schema can help identify sections of your content that are particularly suitable for text-to-speech applications.
As search engines continue to evolve, the importance of structured data in SEO is likely to grow. Here are some trends to watch:
Structured data and schema markup are powerful tools in the modern SEO toolkit. By providing explicit, machine-readable information about your website's content, you can significantly influence how Google and other search engines understand and display your listings. While implementing structured data requires some technical knowledge, the potential benefits in terms of improved visibility, click-through rates, and overall search performance make it a worthwhile investment for any business serious about its online presence.
At OCG Creative, we understand the nuances of structured data implementation and its impact on SEO. We don't just generate and paste code; we strategically implement structured data to maximize its benefits for your specific business needs. By staying ahead of the curve with advanced techniques and best practices, we ensure that your website takes full advantage of every opportunity to stand out in search results.
Remember, in the ever-changing landscape of SEO, structured data is not just a nice-to-have feature – it's becoming an essential element of a comprehensive and effective search engine optimization strategy. By embracing structured data and schema markup, you're not just optimizing for today's search engines, but also positioning your website for success in the evolving digital landscape of tomorrow.
In the forward march of progress, online presence has become a critical cornerstone for businesses of all sizes. However, crafting this presence is a task that demands commitment, dedication, and a wealth of resources. This is where OCG Creative steps in. As a Reno digital marketing team, we are here to ensure your business shines brightly in the digital arena, allowing you to focus on the heart of your operations.
In this ever-evolving world, keeping pace with marketing trends can be an uphill struggle, and crafting an effective marketing strategy can seem like an impossible task. This is where our team, armed with expertise and creativity, stands ready to make a difference for your business. Partnering with us means having a dedicated team of marketing specialists, wholly committed to driving real outcomes, not just ticking boxes.
Small businesses often grapple with a host of digital marketing challenges. From lead generation and sunken costs to grappling with the intricacies of marketing technology and managing time effectively, the hurdles can be overwhelming. Few business owners have the resources, bandwidth, or keen interest in digital marketing to achieve the level of effectiveness offered by a skilled team like ours. By outsourcing to OCG Creative, your business saves valuable resources including time, money, and staff.
As a marketing agency in Reno, our primary role is helping businesses generate leads. Our approach begins with assessing your market and competitive landscape, and then devising a strategy that elevates your business above the rest. Despite the complexities of web design and digital marketing, our role is to unravel the technological knots and build and execute a plan to meet your goals.
Our team of experts, assembled specifically to match your business needs, includes strategists, designers, SEO specialists, social media experts, and photographers/videographers. We’re the engineer you need on call, the designer, the copywriter, and the social media specialist, all packaged in an a la carte fashion. Partnering with us provides the perks of a full-service marketing team without the expense, frustration, or risk of hiring several full-time employees.
OCG Creative is rooted in providing technical expertise alongside creativity. We not only deliver a sleek, aesthetically pleasing website but also dedicate our efforts to maintaining that site and boosting its rankings on Google's algorithm. Our team excels in implementing unique web designs, expert Reno SEO, curated content, and specialized strategizing that align with your business needs.
The magic of web design comes alive in our meetings with clients. This is where we collaborate to understand your vision and translate it into reality. Our designers craft custom pages and design elements that not only ensure your business stands out but also make your website user-friendly and enticing to new visitors.
SEO and social media are invaluable tools in making your online presence felt. Our copywriters and SEO specialists employ critical keywords to bolster your online visibility and drive the right traffic to your site. Additionally, our social media experts adeptly generate leads through targeted social media posts.
Account strategists at OCG Creative serve as the backbone of your marketing strategy. We assess your business needs and goals, using this information to craft a marketing plan that truly delivers. Alongside generating outcomes, we provide backups, CRM, and server network disaster recovery, as well as SSL and security monitoring.
In the end, we're not just about checking off tasks; we're about making a difference to your bottom line. Our goal is not just to generate outcomes but provide the KPIs that lead to those outcomes.
Experiencing our dedication to your success is only a phone call away. Don't just take our word for it; reach out and experience firsthand what it's like to work with a Reno digital marketing team that's committed to your business goals.
Contact OCG Creative today and let us guide you to a prosperous digital future.
In the digital realm, the first page of Google search results is often considered a holy grail for businesses seeking online visibility. Such was the aspiration of Reno Pro Services, a company offering a comprehensive array of professional furniture services. The challenge? The digital sphere is crowded, making visibility a steep mountain to climb. However, they chose not to navigate this complex landscape alone – they turned to the experts at OCG Creative, and the rest is an SEO success story.
In today's bustling online marketplace, standing out from the crowd is no easy feat. Reno Pro Services recognized that a robust digital presence was critical for growth. However, capturing the attention of potential customers amidst a sea of competitors was an uphill battle. The mission was clear: to increase their website's visibility, drive more organic traffic, and ultimately, convert this traffic into loyal customers.
OCG Creative accepted the challenge with a clear plan: to leverage SEO best practices and transform Reno Pro Services from an invisible entity into an invaluable service provider in the eyes of search engines and customers. The agency identified keywords relevant to the client's business that held the potential to drive meaningful traffic and conversions. In this example, we will focus on the 5 following keywords:
"Furniture assembly reno"
"Reno furniture relocation"
"Furniture repair reno"
"Furniture assembly and repair reno"
"Reno commercial furniture installation"
OCG Creative's SEO approach was both technical and creative. They curated keyword-optimized content, focusing on relevancy, engagement, and quality. The agency also built high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites, boosting Reno Pro Services' domain authority. Additionally, they meticulously crafted metadata to ensure that every webpage communicated effectively with search engines. This blend of techniques ensured that the website was not only search engine friendly but also compelling and intuitive for its visitors.
The impact of OCG Creative's work was nothing short of transformative. Their expert strategies propelled the targeted keywords from obscurity to prominence. "Furniture assembly reno," initially with zero ranking, saw a significant rise in just a few months. "Reno furniture relocation" experienced similar success, climbing from zero to an impressive ranking of 48. This pattern of exponential growth was mirrored across all the targeted keywords, cementing Reno Pro Services' robust online presence.
OCG Creative's contribution to Reno Pro Services went beyond mere SEO. They played a crucial role in shaping their client's marketing strategies. Through their consultancy, they provided insights into customer behavior, identified market trends, and advised on effective promotional strategies. Their expertise enabled Reno Pro Services to refine their marketing efforts and establish a strong brand presence.
Furthermore, the agency ensured the website remained updated, user-friendly, and secure through regular maintenance. By prioritizing the site's health, they not only improved user experience but also furthered the SEO efforts, as search engines favor well-maintained, user-friendly sites.
The collaboration between Reno Pro Services and OCG Creative is a tale of digital transformation. By leveraging advanced SEO strategies, comprehensive marketing consulting, and continuous website maintenance, OCG Creative transformed their client's digital landscape. This case underscores the power of effective SEO, the role of an expert digital marketing agency, and the profound impact they can have on a business's online visibility. Whether you're a business owner seeking to enhance your digital footprint, a prospective client of OCG Creative, or a reader fascinated by digital marketing triumphs, this success story offers compelling insights and inspiration. Come to the Reno SEO experts for all your digital marketing needs.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has emerged as a critical element in the digital marketing landscape. With an ever-increasing number of websites competing for the attention of users, businesses are investing heavily in SEO to improve their visibility and drive organic traffic. However, achieving success in SEO is not an overnight process, and it can often be a long and challenging journey. This article delves into the various factors that make SEO challenging and explains why it requires time, patience, and consistent effort.
The algorithms that govern search engine rankings are constantly evolving. Search engines like Google continuously update their algorithms to provide the most relevant and high-quality search results to their users. These updates can have a significant impact on the SEO strategies that businesses employ. To stay on top of these changes, marketers need to monitor search engine announcements, industry trends, and best practices, and adapt their strategies accordingly. This requires a considerable investment of time and resources.
SEO is no longer solely about optimizing your website with the right keywords. Over the years, the number of ranking factors has grown substantially, making the task of SEO more complex. Some critical factors that impact search engine rankings include site speed, mobile-friendliness, content quality, user experience, and backlinks. To be successful in SEO, businesses need to optimize their websites holistically, addressing all these aspects. This multi-faceted approach demands time, expertise, and consistent effort.
Creating high-quality, relevant, and engaging content is one of the most crucial aspects of SEO. However, content creation can be time-consuming and requires ongoing effort. Moreover, the content must be optimized for search engines, incorporating relevant keywords and ensuring it is easily accessible to search engine crawlers. Additionally, with the growing importance of voice search and natural language processing, optimizing content for conversational queries is becoming increasingly important.
Backlinks, or links from other websites pointing to your site, are a key factor in determining search engine rankings. They signal trust and authority to search engines, which in turn improves your website's visibility. Acquiring high-quality, relevant backlinks is a challenging and lengthy process. It involves outreach, relationship building, and crafting valuable content that other sites would want to link to, which can take months or even years to achieve.
As more and more businesses recognize the importance of SEO, the competition for the top search engine rankings intensifies. Depending on your industry, you may be competing against established websites with strong domain authority, making it harder to outrank them. Analyzing your competition, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, and developing a tailored SEO strategy to outperform them requires time, expertise, and persistence.
For sure, SEO plays a pivotal role in the realm of digital marketing. However, it is crucial to recognize that attaining success in SEO is a long-term endeavor rather than a quick win. The constant evolution of search algorithms, the increasing intricacy of SEO factors, the ongoing necessity for content creation and optimization, the significance of backlinks, and the highly competitive landscape all contribute to the challenges and time-consuming nature of SEO. By exercising patience, adopting a strategic approach, and maintaining consistent efforts, businesses can progressively enhance their search engine rankings and ultimately benefit from increased organic traffic and visibility.
Effective internet marketing for any business often starts with SEO, that is, Search Engine Optimization. Google is constantly updating its search algorithms in order to connect customers to the most relevant results. This can make it difficult for small, local businesses to stand out among the top pages. Local SEO services provide a way for physical businesses to improve their online website rankings. By branding your company to a specific location, you become visible and relevant to customers in your area. Targeted keywords and educational content help boost businesses among the top ranks.This roots you into a community and connects you to an ideal local customer. Local SEO services typically include the following:
Search engines like Google, Yahoo and Safari use keywords to link potential customers with websites. Keyword research is one of the most valuable steps in your SEO process. In order to have effective keywords they need to:
Consistent content like blogs can be the key to a company’s success. Targeted content or blog posts can drive shares on social media as well as traffic to your website. Here are other ways that good content can boost your business:
Ultimately, your website is where you want leads to end up. It’s where their journey to conversion continues. If you aren’t getting traffic to your website, or are seeing a high level of bounces, your website may need to be optimized for local searches. These services will help increase your traffic and conversion rates:
OCG Creative is here to help with any of your SEO and Reno web design needs. Call us, we’ll answer your questions. 775.324.1644
For those unfamiliar with local SEO services (Search Engine Optimization) it is worth taking time to define and explain the diffe
rences between local and global SEO, especially within the context of Google My Business and its relationship to local searches.
Large scale search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo perform countless searches each day, but have you ever considered how these search engines prioritize and display this information back to users? Did you know that given the right information, your local or small business could consistently appear as one of these top positions? When a potential customer searches for goods or services, your name could be made to appear at the top of list through the use of targeted keywords and relevant content designed to educate.
Local SEO is just that - local. This is important for local or regional businesses that operate within a targeted and specific city or region. Local search engine optimization allows for the use of targeted and specific keywords that focus on increasing a webpage's relevance so as to better target local customers. By comparison, global SEO (also known as international SEO) refers to the optimization for search engines on a more global or international scale. Google stores and recalls information differently from its global index than it does for local searches. Here, business and companies compete for keywords targeted to specific audiences, but without specific emphasis on physical location. While local SEO efforts center around your Google My Business profile, global organic search efforts rely on content relevance and inbound linking (backlinks), social media activity and other cues. Both forms of SEO are important, but your business size and goals will determine what resources and how much energy should be put into each.
Search engines accommodate a myriad of "near me" mobile or desktop searches. As an example, when out searching for a restaurant "near me", or similar local modifier, Google and other search engines often display convenient, mobile-optimized views of search results based not only on proximity to a given restaurant, but on its keyword and content relevance to the query. Google My Business is essentially a compact, public profile that displays your business' relevant information and is often optimized for mobile platforms. It is then incredibly important that your business interface local SEO with Google My Business to properly optimize and display information pertaining to your business's location, hours, description and relevant information. Local SEO is the process of optimizing your business' Google My Business profile, potentially drawing in more customers and simultaneously providing them with all of the relevant information they need to make an immediate buying decision. So before you do any SEO on your website, have a specific plan and strategy. Know what mix of SEO you need: global and local, what location you are targeting, who your target audience is, what your keywords and relevant information is and how all of this might be properly displayed through Google My Business. If you have further questions about local and global search engine optimization or you are unsure where to begin; we can help. OCG offers local SEO services for all types of organizations. Call us. We'd love to help. (775) 324-1644.
The best creative web design for clients all have one thing in common; image quality. Images are the number one visual way information is communicated and in the day and age of increasing demands for quick information, images do a great job at telling a story quickly for site visitors. Images are crucial for efficient web design because they break up content on pages which can be overwhelming for visitors. Essentially, people want information fast, and when they don’t get the answer to a search phrase, they leave the site (contributing to high bounce rates, low conversions, and lowered SEO scores). What better way to convey information quickly than through pertinent images paired with good keyword-heavy content aiming to match a visitor’s search phrase?
Efficient use of images can be hugely beneficial to a site and can add to a business’s branding, their tone toward visitors, their business’s image, efficiency in converting visitors, guiding efficient site-navigation, SEO, and much more. Images work hand in hand with creative web design and are increasingly recognized in their importance in conveying information:
“A common finding is an observed processing superiority of pictures as compared to words, suggesting that pictures have a faster and more direct access to meaning, while words are discussed to require additional translational activity...” -Schlochtermeier, et al. (2013).
Given the importance of images to visitors, it is good to know what constitutes as good images for a website to make the most of creative web design.
When people think of the best web design they typically only think of a site’s layout. However, most people forget that a large portion of layout is where to place high-quality images and content. The best web design is unique for each client and their business. However, there are similarities with site layouts and how images are arranged:
Simple and effective designs use layouts with images that do not confuse visitors, help them navigate the site, sell your unique message, and help convert visitors into a customers. Good layouts also use images to guide visitors toward pertinent pages or locations on their site.
There is a misconception that images need to be small for a website. Images need to be as big as possible to get high resolution, only their file sizes need to be small. Thankfully OCG takes care of all file compression so even if you give us massive photos, we ensure they are optimized on your website. Images that are too small are 'pixelated' or 'low-res' and look bad on websites and can hurt your online appearance and brand identity.
High Res Image
Low Res Image
The images need to be well lit. Avoid using a flash because it tends to wash out all images. The main source of lighting should not be behind the subject either and you should avoid highly contrasted images that add a lot of distracting patterns. This is very important because many images on a website have text over them and high-contrast images make it difficult to read the content and can be strenuous to look at on their own.
Good Lighting
Bad Lighting
Having everything in focus can make the image too cluttered and distract from what you really want to viewer to see in the image. A ‘soft-focus’ pulls the viewer’s eye toward the object you want site visitors to pay attention to while softly blurring the rest. This can also help de-clutter busy images.
Good Focus
Bad Focus
Many people think that if you want to draw attention to something it needs to be centered in the image. That can get repetitive with many images on your site. Take images from close up and far away with the subject in different places. It can be a mistake to take all of your images from one perspective using one composition, unless you are taking product shots.
Good Composition
Bad Composition
You may hear web-designers or account-coordinators talking about ‘mastheads’. Mastheads, banners, or site headers are the images that display at the top of each web page. These images need to be large (to work with a responsive website) and need to be ‘landscape’ not ‘portrait’. Additionally, because visitors only see a tiny part of the whole image, it is a good idea for the image to capture 'depth’. For example, instead of taking images from a top-down angle on a subject, try taking shots from different angles that emphasize perspective. A good way to do this is taking a series of images starting from the ground-level and moving up.
Good Perspective
Bad Perspective
Many clients find sites and ask what we can do to make their site more like the example they choose. The most common site people tend to ask for is Apple or other sites for technology companies. So what do they do that makes their layout work so well?
Imagine you’re in a library doing research for a college paper. All of the books are thrown into a pile on the floor. You basically have to swim through the books to find what you’re looking for. The best book ever might be buried in that pile. But, what are your chances of finding it? The same goes for content. Content visibility can be met through internet marketing efforts. You can write really great content, but without a solid strategy to back it up, it’s going to prove tough to compete with the big competitors. With more than 92,000 articles posted on the internet every day, the competition is tough. WordPress users alone produce over 35.8 million new posts a month. Digital media publishers, like Huffington Post, are known to publish anywhere up to 1,500 articles a day. How does your small business stand a chance? You must develop a content strategy that positions your business as an expert and gets you noticed online. Here’s how you can increase your content visibility and get it noticed:
Implementing a great content strategy increases the chances of your article or blog getting found online. Don’t let your business get buried under a pile of books. Get organized, get your key-words, in order and get in the card-catalogue of the internet.
Creativity reigns supreme right? It is common knowledge that only the coolest websites get top exposure. Part of me, as a web designer, hopes this would be true. However, creative web design only takes a business so far. Ultimately, there are thousands of terribly designed websites that get more traffic than award-winners. If you want your website to work for you beyond a cocktail party talking point, then you need to know that Web Design is a part of Internet Marketing and not the same thing.
As cleverly explained by the cartoon, you can have the most creative and interesting website in the world, but if you market it horribly, then not many people will see it and you won’t get a very good return on your investment. OCG Creative’s team of dedicated and nerdy Reno web designers and developers work hard to produce these award winning sites. We have done this for numerous clients for many years. Part of the creative web design also involves the user’s experience with the website, which is why an analogy of a website being a poster is only part-true. In reality, a website is a fluid document – it changes with input from the user and looks different on different devices. OCG works to build the coolest website imaginable for our clients, but we know at the end of the day that it is essential to market it correctly, and websites should never stop when the design is completed.
As a secret confession, I used to wonder this question all the time. There are plenty of online tools to build a website, and before I became a web designer, I even built my own portfolio using one of these tools. The issue with all of them… they’re awful. Even discounting the fact that all of them stop at the end of web design, the web design itself is clunky, confusing, and very limiting. I didn’t realize this until I experienced it first hand. A website should never stop at the end of creative web design. Instead, it should be a rocket-powered branding piece pushing the client forward to more exposure and spurring the start of a comprehensive effort to convert website visits into leads. OCG custom designs each website so it is beautiful and branded, but most importantly, they are scalable and sturdy for expansion in traffic and tailored to convert site visitors into customers.
After website design is completed, many people stop and never touch it again. It’s similar to making a cool poster and then never posting it anywhere. Why? Internet marketing takes effort, DIY site builders don’t have the resources to market each site created and the sites themselves are cluttered and reject efforts to market them. A lot of this is due to lack of on-site SEO support in addition to other elements such as effective landing pages and lack of Conversion Rate Optimization. It is much easier to stop after finishing the web design part.
The point is, OCG Creative is a dedicated and experienced Reno web design and internet marketing agency that has the resources. Websites should be built to be optimized for internet marketing. The issue with DIY site builders, is the website's inability to integrate with a meaningful and comprehensive marketing campaign for individual clients. This is because DIY sites purposefully exclude any means of integrating with an internet marketing plan, it is simply too much effort for DIY site builders to accommodate these features. Internet marketing takes time and a sturdy website foundation specifically built for internet marketing. Additionally DIY site builders don't want to manage campaigns because they take time and constant tuning. Hard work with SEO, Landing Pages, CRO, and other services, take time to gain traction. OCG maintains these campaigns, constantly tailoring our client’s Internet Marketing plans to coincide with optimal conversions including tracking page visits and valued keywords to get them ranking higher. You can’t get that level of detailed attention with do-it-yourself websites. It takes significant time, specialized data collection, and informed decisions to be implemented after data collection to market a website correctly.
If you’re not sure where to go from here knowing all of this or if you still think an awesome looking website is the most important thing for you or your business, give us a call or browse our other topics. We’ve been doing this for a while and know the internet marketing world front and back.
If you want to start an email campaign for your business, you might be tempted to buy a list of leads. Before you do that, I would suggest something even better, and that's building an organic list from your website. Why? Building your email list organically ensures that your leads will actually want to hear from you. It will result in less opt-outs and getting marked as spam. If you get marked as spam too many times, you run the risk of being "blacklisted" or blocked from email servers. If you're new to this, do not fear. You can build your own list through website lead generation.
Lead generation online consists of building a list of qualified individuals who are interested in your products or services. You can collect this information through forms and calls to action (CTA) on your website. How do you get visitors to fill out forms? Offer something of value. People will exchange their contact information for something that benefits them or sparks their interest. At minimum, you want to collect a name and email address. However, for more extensive offers, you can ask for a mailing address and phone number. Make sure you don't ask for too much information upfront, as it will cause people to bounce off the page. Are you ready to start building your email list? Here are a few different campaigns you can use to start generating leads on your website:
Is your business taking advantage of offering discounts online? Now, this may seem like a no-brainer, but sometimes the best way to get somebody to initiate contact is through an old-fashioned freebie. Giving an attractive discount, free sample, or trial offer can attract leads that otherwise would have kept on clicking. How to do it: Incorporate a free offer or discount into a landing page, pay-per-click ad, or social media ad. Make sure you pick one goal for the user and focus your landing page around that. Learn more about landing pages here.
To blog or not to blog, that is the question. When you blog for your businesses, you create the opportunity to attract new leads by positioning yourself as a thought leader in your industry. You can also position yourself as an expert by creating educational videos, downloadable guides, white-papers and E-books. Offering exclusive content is a great way to build your list and generate leads. How to do it: Integrate a sign up form with your content offer at the end of a blog post or on a landing page. Blog posts are great because your audience is already reading your material and might want more information. Having trouble coming up with content? Read our tips on overcoming writer's block.
You know you love the camera. If not, that’s okay. You can still host an online class or webinar via podcast or voiceover. Do it live or send out recorded sessions—the choice is yours. There’s endless options for connecting with potential leads all over the world now, and turning your office into a virtual classroom. How to do it: Develop your content and promote your class via a landing page that can be shared through ads, social media or on your website. People will exchange their contact info in exchange for the free class. If it’s good enough, it may convert them to a customer! Alright, I have to go do some online shopping. And my coffee is cold. Cue the end of this blog post. Thanks for reading and check back for more marketing tips and lead generation ideas!
Having spent most of the last two decades planning, developing and marketing websites, I've learned a lot about what works and what doesn't when marketing your business online. For the most part, I can sum up website planning in one word: relationships. Thousands of books and articles have been written about building relationships online. In the end, it isn't any different than building relationships offline. Business relationships are often compared to dating. The metaphor works in the sense that you start by talking a little, then maybe go out for coffee... Over time, a lot of other stuff happens until, shazam! One day you get married. The point here is that beginning a relationship with a marriage proposal pretty much never works. And if it does, your odds of marrying a desperate, toxic nut-job are pretty high.
I think a better comparison is a student-teacher relationship. Outside of our marketing agency, I teach scuba. I am passionate about diving, especially deep diving, using exotic breathing gasses and hundreds of pounds of highly specialized equipment. Although a student brand new to diving has no need to understand the effects of high oxygen partial pressures on the human body, my expertise is never questioned. The rationale being that if I can survive dives in excess of 100 meters, breathing gasses I mixed myself, surely I must be qualified to teach a new diver to swim around in the top 60 feet or so. When that same diver is ready to buy equipment, who do you think he/she goes to? My students won't even consider making a purchase without talking to me first. That concept translates to virtually every business relationship and should form the basis of your website planning. Reno web design and website planning is relationship planning.
The absolute first rule in website planning is to make sure the right people see it. 7/11 stores are located on busy neighborhood intersections because people who like Slurpees live there. In today's world, 'busy intersection' means Google's search engine results page (SERP). If you stop reading right here, take away this one concept: Make a plan to reach your audience in Google search before you even think about website design. I see it over and over. Clients toil over every pixel and make countless revisions spanning months to make their websites "perfect" before allowing us to take them live.
Meanwhile, not one human being is exposed to their business online. With this in mind, website planning essentially means Google planning. I've never been comfortable with the term, search engine optimization (SEO). Partly, that's because so many of the people and agencies that claim to be SEOs fall somewhere between incompetent and crooked. I just don't want to be lumped in with that group. I also don't think SEO is as hard as it is time consuming. At least, not for most businesses.
After over a decade resisting the term "SEO," I've grudgingly come to embrace it. If you want your website to bring you customers, you have to play by Google's rules. That means the written text has to take priority over design. Yet, I'm told over and over, "people don't read online." Really? Scores of bloggers make their living writing content people read online. It is more accurate to say, "people don't read boring crap online."
The fact is, people DO read online. They read a lot. It's just that they are very choosey about what they read. If you are a sucky writer, don't expect people to read your sucky writing just because you want them to. Be the expert in your business, but hire pros to do the writing for your website. A website writer must understand how to write engaging content for humans that also supports the relevancy requirements for search engine rankings. Writing for SEO purposes is an essential website planning strategy.
The myth that people "don't read on the internet" is partly made believable because large blocks of text are miserable to read online. You can solve that problem by making content readable. Unless and until we (we being OCG Creative) bring it up, typography never enters the conversations about website planning we have with our clients.
Typography includes all the elements related to your website's written content. The creative use of headings, type styles, font choices, sizes, color, italics, bolding, lists, etc. all contribute to the readability of your website content. Website text must be well-sectioned and scannable by the reader. Online readers will scan your page for specific terms in about 2 seconds before deciding whether to read it or go back to Google and search some more. Therefore, it is essential that typography be central to your website planning.
Right from the start, accept that your website will never be done. Your planning process must include a strategy for ongoing updates. In nearly every instance, websites that are easy to update get more attention than those that aren't. Generally speaking, the more complex the website design, the more difficult it is to make changes. Plan your website for your visitors, not your designer, or worse, your ego.
It's funny. Our Reno web design team ask new clients every day to describe what elements they feel are most important to their websites. 9 times out of 10, the first word they'll use is "clean." Yet, 9 times out of 10, the same client will want everything he or she can think of thrown in once the design phase begins. At the same time, all attention shifts away from content and search engine rankings in favor of graphics.
By now, it should be clear that search engine rankings and speed win out over everything else about your website. Once you make it to the top of Google, you'll have the luxury of dialing in your website for conversions. At that point, you can make all the design changes you want. But early on, plan your website around rankings. I promise you'll thank me later.
