June 2020 - Big Bold Thinkers

Optimize Your Website for Google in 3 Easy Steps

Posted on June 9, 2020August 26, 2021 by Alice Momo

SEO optimization is one of the least understood pieces of the digital content puzzle. If you’ve looked into options and automation for it you’ll find an almost intentional mystification of the whole SEO process. The truth is that it’s not mysterious, but it does require skills and creativity to master. And there are some pieces that you can do yourself, quickly, that will make a big difference.

Anyone who has a website or a blog has heard the terms: optimize, Google, search engine optimization (SEO) and keywords. There is a great deal to know about getting your website up and running and a well-optimized site helps ensure your business is easy to find in organic searches, increasing the likelihood that potential customers find you and further boosting your sales. Let’s dig into three ways you can optimize your website for the Google search algorithm:

Step 1: Know What Your Customers Are Searching For

You are an expert in your industry. You know all the words associated with your products and services. However, customers might not. Using empathy to put yourself in their shoes is a powerful tool to use throughout your marketing strategy.

First, uncover what your customers are searching for. Keywords are critical. These are the terms potential customers enter into Google. You want to be the result. For example, if we are looking for a company that plans birthday parties, keywords might be:

Birthday
Party Planner
Parties

To find keywords, do market research by asking your audience, testing out different keywords in Google yourself or by working with a team, like ours, to analyze the terms your competitors are using and those that will deliver the best results.

Long-Tail Keywords

Keyword phrases or “long-tail” keywords are also needed. Following our example, long-tail keywords might be:

Party planners in the UAE
Birthday event planning company in Dubai

Integrate these words and phrases into your website copy and blog articles. Google will recognize your website as something searchers using these words will want to click on – increasing your site’s visibility.

Trending Topics

Use social listening to learn what’s important to your audience right now. You can also search for trending topics on social media to generate ideas for relevant topics and keywords. YouTube and Twitter have a “what’s trending” section. Or you can join Facebook groups to see what people are talking about.

Step 2: Create Pages Optimized For Search

Now that you have keywords and content topics, it’s time to optimize your webpages for search engines.

Create ‘Search Intent’ Content

Creating search intent content is similar to finding trending topics. Your goal is to write articles that people want (and need) to read using those keywords. Strive to include one keyword or phrase in every paragraph.

Branded URLs

How URLs look makes a difference. Depending on your website hosting and platform, you might be able to change your URLs. We recommend using short, easy-to-remember URLs without dates.

An example of our birthday party event planning, the URL could look like:

birthdayplanning.com/birthdays-done-right

Though the average consumer doesn’t look at the URL that carefully, Google likes them to be short and straightforward.

Meta Descriptions

A meta description is a short blurb underneath your site title and link, telling what that page is about. If allowed by your hosting platform, edit your meta description to display your information in the search page accurately.

Adding your keywords to the description is also a good idea. For example:

Birthday Planning – Home

We make birthday party event planning easy for all ages, from toddlers to elderly family members …

Step 3: Make Your Website Accessible to Search Engines and Humans

You want to be picked up by search engines. However, that will do no good if your site is not user-friendly. These three things are easy fixes to make sure actual people want to hang around and return to your site.

Ensure Your Site Loads Quickly

Think about your own experiences with websites. A slow-to-load webpage is annoying. Your search engine rankings will suffer if your page loads slowly. Things that can affect site speed include large files, videos and too many plugins.

Mobile-Friendly

Some people rarely touch a computer but have a phone in-hand all day. Setting up your website to be mobile-friendly and perhaps even mobile-first is a good idea. The goal is to make your site as comfortable as possible for consumers to hang out for as long as possible.

SSL

Have you clicked on a site and a warning appears telling you that it could be unsafe? This is a site lacking security certification. Usually, your website hosting platform covers this for you. But if not, you’ll need to get SSL to prevent users from turning away.

SEO is complex, ongoing and requires both a creative and technical eye to master. The most successful websites have a team working on their SEO. If expert-level optimization is what you are after, let’s talk. We will optimize your site and explore additional SEO benefits with you – taking out the mystery while adding in the profits.

Wishing you light and love. ~Hema

5 Tools to Get Your New Website Up and Running Quickly

Posted on June 4, 2020August 26, 2021 by Alice Momo

Which is better for business: A DIY website builder or a customized website?

48% of people cited a website’s design as the number one factor in deciding a business’s credibility.
94% of people cited web design as the reason they mistrusted or rejected a website.

The above statistics cited in the article, Why Having A Bad Website Hurts Your Business (Even If Your Company Is Referral Based), reinforce the importance of your website’s design.

To maximize your success online, your website must confirm your credibility, showcase your expertise, position your business as unique, and stand apart from your competitors. It must instantly capture and hold your visitor’s attention and convey that they have landed on the right spot.

Which leads to today’s question… Is it better to go with a DIY website builder or a customized website?

Here are three key issues you should consider (that you might not immediately think about) when doing your research.

Templates. DIY Website builders like Wix, Squarespace and GoDaddy use templates. Many are included in their monthly rate, while additional templates can be purchased for $100 or less. It’s important to note that templates are not designs. They are rules that determine how the various elements (headlines, images, text, videos) sit together on a page. This means that you must make your content work within the rules of your template.

Pros
The advantage of using a template is that you can get your website up and running quickly.

Cons
The problem with templates is that they are not unique, which may give your site a “sameness feel” about it. Using a template limits your flexibility with design and how your content is presented to the world. Plus, it can be extremely frustrating to find the right template for your business.

Summary
With a customized site, you have more flexibility in terms of how you want your website to look. Plus, if done right, your site will look more professional, which will enhance your credibility among your target audience.
Add-ons. Many talented programmers are developing innovative add-ons to make your visitor’s website experience more fruitful and your website more effective. A few notable ones are Boast, which helps you collect testimonials; Olark, a popular tool for chatting with your prospects and customers; and AddThis, a social media integrator.

Pros
DIY Web builders offer add-ons you can use for your website, which may satisfy your needs.

Cons
Because you’re working within the guidelines of a template, it can make the integration of third-party features into your site difficult (or impossible). You are dependent on the capabilities of the add-ons offered by the DIY web builder, which could lead to a reduction in choice and having to settle for an add-on that has fewer features than what’s hot in the marketplace.

Summary
A customized website gives you access to a greater variety of apps that can potentially increase flexibility and heighten the user experience.
Site ownership. With DIY website builders, instead of a more substantial fee upfront, you pay a smaller monthly fee. This means, while the content is still yours, you don’t own that original version of your website, you’re merely renting it.

Pros
Less expensive in the short term (and potentially in the long-term).

Cons
When you use a DIY website builder, you rent your site and are married to that company for a long time or until you get a divorce (which could get messy). Should you decide to switch services, it’s essential to know what is transferable and what is not. From the Wix site: “Your Wix site and all of its content is hosted exclusively on Wix’s servers, and cannot be exported elsewhere. Specifically, it is not possible to export or embed files, pages or sites, created using the Wix Editor or ADI, to another external destination or host.”

Summary
When you go the designer, proprietary website route, you own your site and its design, content, and so on. (There might be individual elements exclusive to your designer. It’s best to clarify upfront what part of your site may be proprietary to them.) Owning your site outright means that all content is yours and you don’t have to fret if you change suppliers (due to poor customer service or whatever)—your site will remain intact, avoiding any disruption or downtime.

Even though online DIY website builders are advertised as easy-to-use, they take time to master and require a lot of tweaks and patience to get your site the way you want it. When you invest in a customized website, you leave the technical stuff to the pros to focus on what you do best.

If you’re currently planning to launch (or redo) your website, let’s talk. We will help you choose the best option for your business.

Wishing you light and love. ~Hema

Digital Marketing Executables and KPIs

Posted on June 1, 2020August 26, 2021 by Alice Momo

Welcome to the last article in our seven week series, “The New Digital Marketing.” Over these past weeks I’ve lead you through the steps of developing your own online marketing strategy from start to finish. Whether you’re a traditional brick and mortar business getting online for the first time – or have had your digital ducks in a row for years… the world has changed and we are adapting. Let’s do it together. This is the fun part – let’s look at your “Digital Marketing Executables and KPIs.”

If you’re just joining us, don’t miss the first six pieces in this series:

Week 1: Realign and Get Online

Week 2: Virtual Meetings and Conferences

Week 3: Engage to be Engaging

Week 4: Digital Strategic Planning

Week 5: Empathetic Marketing

Week 6: Organizing Your Digital Presence

———————

Wasting money on marketing.

It’s a common problem many businesses face. Not because marketing doesn’t work, but because their marketing efforts are often more reactive than proactive.

They put out a Facebook ad here and a Google ad there, without even tracking how effective each campaign is or if they are even getting a return on their investment. Without a sound marketing strategy in place, your business might be missing out on great opportunity after great opportunity. When this happens, your revenue and profit can dry up, and you may even go out of business.

You need to develop SMART marketing goals for your business. Today, I’ll look at what SMART goals are and what you need to create and achieve them. Here is your four-step plan to set up your SMART marketing plan for your new digital marketing…

Set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-Bound) marketing goals. Before, we look at how to come up with SMART marketing goals, a quick note about the difference between business goals and marketing goals. A common business goal is to drive more sales. Your marketing goal to achieve this business goal would be to increase website traffic, drive more click-throughs from paid ads, grow your email list, and so on. Your business goal is a “big picture goal.” Your marketing goals are what you need to do to achieve your business goals. It’s important to make sure that your marketing goals are aligned with your overall business goals.

The following are the five components of SMART marketing goals…

Specific. Determine what you want to accomplish, then make it specific. For instance, don’t just say “my goal is to increase my subscriber list,” say “my goal is to increase my subscriber list by 50% by November 15th of this year.”

Measurable. Your goal itself should answer the question “How will I know when I have accomplished this goal?” When you’re able to measure the success of your goal, you’ll be able to track the progress you’re making towards the achievement of your goal. Plus, when your goal is measurable, it makes it easy to communicate success to everyone involved.

Attainable. Figure out the effort, time, resources, and skills needed to achieve each goal. Use your past performance (if available) to determine the attainability of your goal. For instance, if you average a 1% response rate on your marketing campaigns, it might not be realistic to set a goal of achieving a 10% response rate within the next six months.

Relevant. What problem is it solving? How high of a priority is the problem? What’s the expected ROI of the goal? Does it align with your other needs? Your goal must benefit your business and be important to both you and your target audience. It must also align with your overall marketing and business objectives.

Time-bound. Parkinson’s law says, “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” To avoid that happening, you need to assign timelines and deadlines to your goals. When you add set dates for completion, it creates urgency and inspires action. It motivates you to do whatever it takes to meet your time commitment. So, determine what is the most reasonable amount of time you need and then stick to it.
Determine your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs for your marketing initiatives relate to sales growth, profit, market share, lead generation, new customer acquisition, lifetime value of your customer, conversion rates, website metrics, social media engagement, SEO performance, etc. Assign deadlines, numbers, and metrics to each one you’re focusing on. These are the benchmarks you will use to determine if you are successful or lagging behind. You’ll want to continue to develop and increase your KPIs going forward. Put together 30 and 90-day KPI plans and then determine what KPIs you’d like to achieve over one year, three years, and five years. (Although I’ve listed this as Step 2, identifying your KPIs is something you’ll do hand in hand with Step 1.)

It’s often easier to determine what steps are necessary to achieve a KPI if you work backward. For example, let’s say your KPI is to generate $100,000 in new revenue in the next six months. You would then ask yourself, “Based on your average sale per customer, how many customers do you need to generate $100,000 in revenue?” From experience, you know you need 10 customers to generate $100,000. If your conversion rate is 10%, you will need 100 qualified leads to generate 10 sales. Next, determine what you have to do to generate 100 qualified leads. When you do this exercise, it will also be a bellwether as to whether each of your marketing goals is attainable.
Set up a strategy to accomplish your goals. After you have your SMART marketing goals mapped out, your next step is to put together a strategy to achieve them. Your blueprint should list the milestones you will achieve along the way and what you will do to achieve them and when. You can map out your strategy in a spreadsheet or invest in software (such as Asana) that is designed to help you plan and implement your strategic goals.
Review and change your strategy when necessary. At least once a month (or as required), you will want to review the progress you’re making on your goals. Are you on track? Are you falling behind? If you are falling behind, try to determine why and come up with a solution, and then adjust accordingly. For example, if your goal is 5,000 new list subscribers in six months and you’ve only added a few hundred three months in, it’s time to reexamine your strategy. Remember, setting and achieving SMART marketing goals is a learning experience. The more you do it, the better you will get at it.

SMART marketing goals force you to plan and develop expectations for all of your marketing actions and campaigns and prevents you from taking a haphazard approach to marketing. If you do them consistently, your business will be more successful. More importantly, you’ll feel better every day that both you and your business are on the right track.

Take your brand boldly into the new normal. Keep pushing for real, authentic interaction with your tribe and keep your brand top-of-mind. If you need more ideas or a plan to get started, let’s talk. Remember, we are on this journey together.

Wishing you light and love. ~Hema