Saturday, July 14, 2018
SEO - Why Your Business Needs It
Why Your Business Can No Longer Afford to Ignore SEO
Your corporate brand is a digital representation of your business's persona, voice, mission and values. When it comes to digital visibility, nothing outperforms search engine optimization.
Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the art and science of optimizing websites utilizing both "on-page" and "off page" factors to influence Google's search algorithm to rank that site or page for specific keyword queries entered by web users. This process is an ongoing endeavor that ideally will be adjusted to keep up with Google's never-ending updates.
Google reports utilizing over 200 ranking signals and makes minor updates to their algorithm hundreds of times per year in addition to a handful of "core" or major updates. Enterprises that rely on Google to drive brand awareness, visibility, leads and sales should constantly analyze their sites, identifying both opportunities and potential optimization bottlenecks that could be hurting performance.
Just how impactful is SEO for your business?
Curious how impactful SEO is for your organization? Consider the following stats:
- 81 percent of shoppers conduct online research prior to making a purchase (Adweek)
- 97 percent of consumers research products online prior to making a local purchase (BIA/Kelsey)
- 66 percent of B2B buyers rely on blog posts to shape their purchasing decisions (Forbes)
- 71 percent of B2B buyers report starting with a Google search
As you can see from the above stats, SEO is a core driving factor. Businesses that fail to keep up with the rapidly evolving world of SEO risk losing up to 70 to 80 percent of the market that starts when consumers search online (usually through Google) for products or services.
With global competition heating up, most businesses simply can't afford to ignore SEO as a part of their marketing and branding mix. Below are four steps businesses can use to incorporate SEO into their current marketing strategy.
Social Media Marketing Strategy
Winning the Social Media Marketing Game
Thousands of years ago, clans gathered around fires to share their day’s experiences and to tell stories that established group norms and shaped social organization. Today, the fire’s embers have been replaced by the glow of internet-connected devices, but the communal exchange of stories and perspectives remains a fundamental force in social development.
From a business standpoint, a few important differences emerge from this evolution. Social media users can now publicly discuss their experiences with brands or products, forming large coalitions of interest that exert vast social pressure on brands and other organizations. From the presidential election to the newest cereal, everything is now a matter of public interest.
The essential principle, however, of shaping our world by sharing stories remains the same. The connections we build with others around us are the infrastructure of social change. Understanding how these connections are formed on social media, the purpose of these connections and how they can be leveraged is foundational to social media marketing.
Understanding social mechanics with game theory
Though the need to participate in social exchange is obvious, it has proved challenging to effectively model how social systems work, especially when considering the impact of new media and technology on societal discourse. Game theory, a mathematical evaluation of competition and cooperation between interested actors, is a promising solution.
Despite what its name may suggest, game theory has little to do with “games” as we might typically think of them. It seeks instead to understand how rational participants, bound by a set of rules, respond to different stimuli. The application of game theory to social media can help us identify the objectives of social media users, and how they work to achieve them.
The “players” of the social media “game” are clearly the users — brands and consumers alike. Brands use social media to reach new customers, build a loyal audience and respond to consumer reviews, while the private social media user wants to keep up with friends, stay current and participate in social conversations about matters large and small.
SEO For Small Businesses
Small Business Guide to SEO
SEO describes a group of practices that drive organic traffic to a business website by boosting its place in search engine results.
If you're a small business owner and you use the internet to drive customers to your business (which should be most of you), you're probably at least somewhat familiar with search engine optimization (SEO).
SEO offers an exciting possibility: If you know how to use it properly, you can boost your business to the top of the search results for your industry, which is some of the best free advertising you can get. However, SEO can also be intimidating, in part because your competition likely well aware of it, and also because SEO can seem both straightforward and mystifying if you're not an expert.
Local SEO Guide | Small Business Marketing
Optimize for local SEO and drive more customers to your business
It is estimated that more than half the searches on Google are made with “local intent.” This means that one out of two people in Google is actually looking for local products or services when they search for something. So if you don’t get your local SEO right, you’re losing out on earning more customers for your business
Successful local SEO requires putting in the effort to optimize and get your profiles and websites ranking for local searches. Unfortunately, there is no shortcut. However, local SEO is fairly straightforward and uncomplicated.
Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality | Business Strategy
5 top use cases for AR/VR in business, and how you can get started
1. Create brand awareness
The report stated that companies that are looking to create "buzz" about their products can start with implementing AR. Companies can reach a large audience by showing off the technology during events, product launches, and ad campaigns.
2. Train employees
Immersive technology has proven itself to be an effective tool in training situations, according to the report. It can be useful in employee training by providing them with a close to real life experience to learn their skills and not have to deal with the cost consequences of mistakes. The report emphasized that this use of mixed reality (MR) or VR allows employees to learn by doing rather than by reading.
3. Test and learn customer needs and preferences
Customer satisfaction remains a top priority for most businesses, but testing more complex products can be a financial and logistics issue. The report suggests that implementing AR, MR, or VR could solve those problems. An immersive technology experience can allow potential customers to interact with a prototype allowing companies better insight on consumer preferences.
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