435 Digital » Christy Grant

Mobile Content = Web Content

Christy Grant — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:06:18 +0000

So you need to provide a good experience of your site on all devices, including mobile. Where do you begin?

Somewhere you’ve heard the idea that you should provide different or less content on your mobile view than on your full site view. That misperception stems from the idea that people going online on a mobile device must only be trying to accomplish a specific task. They are on-the-go, in a hurry, and just want to accomplish one or two specific things. The reality is that people go online using a mobile device in all kinds of situations, frequently in a relaxed setting when there is a PC with a much larger screen size available.

People are choosing to do all kinds of online searches using mobile devices because it is faster and more convenient – not because they want different information. The web is not a laptop or a mobile device; the web is content.

The most notable thing about this chart from comScore is that people clearly are using multiple devices to access all kinds of content. People may start on one device, get interrupted, and go back to the same site or search on another kind of device.

3 of 4 mobile searches trigger follow-up actions – additional research, visiting a store, calling a business, making a purchase, or sharing.* When people use mobile search to help make a decision, they are more likely to follow through – including 57% more likely to visit a store and 39% more likely to call a business.*

Without content, the web would not exist. Without good content, you cannot have a good website. Sure, there are many elements that constitute a good site, but it’s all moot without good content. This is true regardless of what kind of device or size of screen someone uses to view your content.
So you need content – period. You need the same content on your site no matter what kind of device accesses it. Content that is not needed for a mobile user, is not needed for a desktop user, either. Get rid of it altogether. If you make assumptions about anyone’s context while they‘re visiting your site or what kind of information they seek or what they are trying to accomplish based on what kind of device they might be using, you will be wrong.

77% of mobile searches occur at home or at work – both locations where someone likely has a PC available to use. Only 17% occur “on the go.”*

Why? Speed and convenience. Why search on your phone instead of your PC with a bigger screen? You don’t have to get up, go to the PC, and wait for it to boot.

The best browser is the one that someone has. You don’t get to decide what device or browser someone uses. It’s your responsibility to clearly define your business and provide the same content all the time and let your users take care of their device choices.

If the experience your website provides is a bad experience, what are the chances someone will give you a second chance and come back to your site? Not much. If you’re there for them, they’ll have a great experience; that’s good for them and for your business.

One of the best benefits of the proliferation of mobile devices is the evaluation and cleaning out of extraneous and useless content.

*Google study, in partnership with Nielsen. March 2013.

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SEO Specialist

Christy Grant — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:21:38 +0000

Overview:

435 Digital needs an experienced SEO expert to join our team. If you enjoy working in an entrepreneurial environment, you’re a self-motivator, enjoy getting your hands dirty to solve SEO issues but also want to interface with the clients themselves…this may very well be the job for you!

About 435 Digital
435 Digital is the consulting division of Tribune Company that specializes in SEO, social media strategy and monitoring, web design and development, and customized seminars for businesses. They develop solutions and meet the needs of small local businesses and large national companies.

Responsibilities:

Achieve SEO results using ethical marketing practices on multiple websites for multiple clients which may vary widely in size, online experience, content, industry, visibility, etc.
Develop strong professional interpersonal relationships with multiple clients at multiple levels within their organization to assure success with their SEO objectives and recognize new opportunities
Attend sales calls with Tribune and 435 Digital specific sales teams to be a technical resource to the prospective client and resolve concerns that may arise during the sales call
Utilize and interpret industry reporting tools to provide detailed feedback to the client on a weekly basis about the SEO successes and continued opportunities
Take on a project management role with each client to progress the SEO initiatives and handle customer service related issues

Qualifications:

1 – 3 years of SEO experience
High School Required, Technical College Degree Preferred
Passion for the search industry and the ethical improvement of SEO for all client websites regardless of subject matter, size, notoriety, or advancement
Decisive personality but not a stubborn personality; can recant a poor decision in favor of a decision that is more effective
Creative problem solver with a logical approach that’s easily communicated to team members and clients
Great at prioritizing tasks for themselves and projects; self-starter, self-motivator, contagious positive attitude

Apply for this position

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New Business Development Manager

Christy Grant — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 20:28:09 +0000

Overview:

435 Digital is expanding in 2013 and looking for a new business executive to increase revenue streams. This person must be a self starter and comfortable talking/selling Web Development, Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search and Social Media and most importantly not afraid to cultivate new business.

Focused on developing new business through non-Tribune outlets, this position offers a huge opportunity for someone who has proven they can find solutions for businesses needs.

Responsibilities:

Develop new business opportunities through non-traditional means
Identify niche categories to expand our reach
Focus on 435 Digital’s website as a lead generation
Work with 435 Digital team to develop new revenue streams
Close new business

Qualifications:

2-5 years experience in new business development
Strong understanding of web development, search engine optimization, paid search and social media.
Ability to close new business development opportunities
Strong interpersonal skills needed
Self starter
Some travel may be required
A vehicle and valid driver’s license is required for this position

Apply for this position

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Website Prototypes: Blueprints of the Web

Christy Grant — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:13:44 +0000

Creating website prototypes is just as critical to the process of building a website as blueprints are to building a house. Without a blueprint, the plumbing from your shower might end up creating a pond in your front yard, or more likely, will cost three times what it should have in order to re-do it correctly. Working out a blueprint is the least costly way to make changes to your floorplans, rearrange your plumbing and electrical design, and play with ideas to create what will become a house you love.

It is much the same with building websites. It often seems to people that the first step in creating a website would be to design how it looks. It seems at first that it might be obvious what goes on the page, what goes where, and how the content flows. However, once you dive in, you’ll discover that there is a lot of thought, planning, and testing that needs to be done to figure out those basic things first – before doing any design or build.

Here is how one thing leads to another.

This is the prototype we used for our 435 Digital website, showing the desktop view.

This is the prototype we used for our 435 Digital website, showing the mobile view as seen in an iPhone. We had additional views and full smartphone layouts, as well. However, this is one example.

This is the final design that you see on the site today, in the desktop view.

And this is the final design in the mobile view, as a screenshot captured on an iPhone.

It brings the prototype to life. The designer was free to focus on font and color and overall look – all the elements of design – without getting distracted by changes to the actual elements that would appear. And our business and web development teams were able to work together to decide on specific elements and placement in an efficient and cost-effective way.

There are multiple ways of doing prototypes. They can be simply sketches, they can be online and interactive, they can even include some design. The most important thing is to do the prototype early in the web development process – before the design and before the site development.

If you begin building your new kitchen without a blueprint, you are going to make many more trips to the store for wood and tile and cabinets than you would if you had everything specified ahead of time. For building websites, the designer needs to know the layout and flow, and the developer needs to know the layout, flow, and functionality in order to write clean code efficiently. All of this means a reasonable cost for the business and a better website in the end.

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Meet Austin Brown – New Business Account Manager

Christy Grant — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 17:16:47 +0000

Austin Brown moved to Chicago and joined 435 Digital on January 7 as our New Business Account Manager. He brings all the expertise gained through building a social media agency from the ground up while in Kansas City. He is a proponent of stand-up desks and pours all of that kind of energy into helping grow 435 Digital and helping to make our clients successful.

One of the first things Austin did here was answer our 435 Digital Team questions.

How’d you get to where you are today, working at 435 Digital?

I arrived at 435 Digital after working as a partner at a social media marketing agency back in my hometown of Kansas City. My background in Finance, Business Development, and Digital Marketing fueled my passion to explore opportunities in the Windy City. Fortunately, I now help Chicago businesses large and small understand the business opportunities of the digital world from the Tribune headquarters.

What is your favorite YouTube video?

Everyone needs to watch and follow Eric Thomas. His career as a motivational speaker exploded a few years ago after his Secret to Success video went viral. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NQREuc7JX8

Who is your favorite person to follow on Twitter and why?

As a University of Kansas Jayhawk graduate, I’m a die-hard KU basketball fan. I thoroughly enjoy following the parody account an assistant coach; @FakeJoeDooley. If I’m allowed a second favorite, I would say @SeinfeldToday is a must follow by anyone who has enjoyed Seinfeld.

What is your favorite thing about Chicago?

The energy of the city is hard to beat. It is motivating to see people at all hours of the day working and being active outside.

Twitter/LinkedIn Info

Twitter: @Austin_Brown_
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/brownaustin

What do you love about your role as the New Business Account Manager at 435 Digital?

Working with a diverse team of talented individuals makes my job easy. I get to help businesses understand how digital marketing can grow their business, and then explore how the team at 435 Digital can make it happen. The collaboration and resources provided by the Tribune are unmatched in producing successful results.

Contact us to learn more about our search engine optimization, paid search, web development, and content services. You might just meet Austin Brown along the way.

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Responsive Design is Good SEO

Christy Grant — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:06:02 +0000

You’ve heard of responsive design. You’ve heard about businesses going mobile. You know you need a great mobile site if you don’t have one already. You may have heard many reasons for all of this, as well. Have you heard that one of the huge benefits of responsive design is the mobile SEO value you get from having your entire site and content all under a single URL?

There are many published reasons for going mobile. One that is not mentioned as frequently is the clear benefit you get from simply having one website that lives under one domain name. All the searches that people have done in the past and all the bookmarks and backlinks will still be valid and will count towards your website’s ranking power in search engines. With the focus you’ll need to pour into good mobile design and determinations about how to display content on smaller device screens, you can at least be assured that your entire history of your site will continue to be valuable.

8 Ways Responsive Design is Good for Business and Good for SEO

You keep your current domain name, and your entire site continues at the same URL.

You do not purchase additional domain names or add subdomains.

All SEO value you currently have will continue; you will not have to start over.

You’ll have just one site you’re promoting.

Using CSS, HTML5, and perhaps javascript, your website will flexibly respond to every user’s screen size, regardless of whether it’s a desktop, tablet, or smartphone.

Users will have a better experience with your site, and will like your business better for that.

When users share links or bookmark pages on your site, those links will always work – with anyone on any device.

If your current desktop site has links from other sites, blogs, Facebook posts, tweets, Google+, and more, those will all continue to work, as well.

The benefits are clear. Maintain the SEO quality of your site even while you go mobile by using responsive design. So don’t wait on either improving SEO or going mobile.

435 Digital’s SEO Director, Carolyn Shelby, is presenting all the SEO basics in the 312 Digital Marketing Class on January 22, 2013. Start the new year by improving your SEO, and go mobile while retaining all of your SEO efforts. It’s a win-win.

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SEO Your Content: 7 Tips to Boost Rankings

Christy Grant — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:55:19 +0000

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for any website content involves many factors beyond the words on the site. There are coding standards, tags, the architecture of the site, navigation, and page titles — many components. Yet when it’s time for you to write a piece for your site — whether it’s a blog post, an update to the About Us page, or any other collection of words — you need to know how to SEO your content so that people will find you.

7 SEO Tips To Improve Your Website’s Search Engine Ranking

Original Content
The number one important thing is to write unique and relevant content. Put the most important content near the beginning. Remember that your words sometimes appear out of context, so be specific. For example, instead of writing “snow shovels,” say “North Pole Gear snow shovels.” That helps search engines identify you and helps people know you.

Also, be sure not to duplicate content from other pages of your site or from any other site. Google is highly suspicious of duplication and will penalize your site for this. Always write something original and valuable. Search engine optimization helps people find your content. Providing something of value keeps people on your site.

Keywords
This part goes into the content that you write. After doing your keyword research, use your chosen keyword throughout your content as it naturally fits. You can vary it to use singular and plural versions of the words, use acronyms or abbreviations. Just use it as relevant and as it fits. Those keywords will help Google find your page and display it in the search results, and it will help people click through to your page when they see you have the subject they’re searching.
Page Title
This is the title that the search engines read and that people see when searching a relevant subject. Most likely, you are using a content management system and a portion of the page title will be automatically created. As long as it sounds good, frontload your page title with your keyword or keyword phrase. The page title should be a max of 66 characters, including spaces. Be sure to write it so that it sounds like a title written by a person, rather than a machine-generated string of words.
Meta Page Descriptions
This is the brief description that appears with the page title in search results and helps people decide whether to click the link to your page. It’s a great idea to include keywords, but more importantly, it needs to be compelling. The max length should be 156 characters — or slightly longer than a tweet — with no quotes or non-alpha characters since Google removes those. So write a slightly long tweet and include information not already in the page title.
Article Title – H1 Tag
This is the title of the actual piece you write. This is your heading to alert people to the main subject matter of your article. Be sure it is brief and clearly conveys the main point of your writing. Use your keyword one time within the header and be sure this is in the H1 tag in your page code.
Internal Page Linking
This is your chance to take advantage of all the other content you have on your site, to share relevant information, keep users on your site, and show search engines that your relevancy is strong. It is a great opportunity for users to explore other areas of your site, so definitely offer that.

Be sure to use real and relevant words as the actual links. The words “click here” are generic and not relevant to your subject matter. See the links in this post as examples of relevant words to use as the links to other relevant content. All you need to do is link a phrase that is naturally part of your writing.

Images
Almost all content benefits from having images along with it. Just be sure to always include alt attributes within the image tags. Search engines read alt attributes, and anyone who uses a screen reader can hear the alt text.

Image names are also valuable for having your images — and therefore, your site — found in image searches. Accurately describe each image in the file name and alt attribute. Use a keyword if at all relevant. Use dashes between words, rather than underscores. And do not use non-alpha characters.

SEO Your Content: In Conclusion

So go write about what you know. Write unique content. Be compelling and provide value. With the tips above, you can include the pieces that help search engines show your excellent content to the world, helping people find it and choose to read it.

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Making Your Website Mobile Friendly Helps Focus Business Goals

Christy Grant — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 20:57:18 +0000

You want your website to be mobile. You want it to work well on desktop monitors, on tablets, and on smartphones. You want it to shift in layout and design so that all of your customers get a great experience no matter what device they happen to use.

This seems overwhelming. Why?

Re-designing a site to work well on mobile devices is like moving from a 3,500 square-foot house to a 750 square-foot apartment. Do you still need a table and chairs? Sure. Do you still need a bed? Sure. Do you need cabinets, a fridge, a sink? Yes. You will need most of the same stuff. You will not need duplicates or all of the extraneous pieces that covered walls and sat on floors. It’ll likely be hard to let go of some things and to let go of that space. But what happens in the process?

You notice what is most valuable. You make choices. The things you select for the new, smaller space mean a lot. You might have a new appreciation for them. You might decide that much of the stuff wasn’t needed even in the large house. And friends who come over might find it refreshing.

Not even taking into consideration the capabilities of mobile devices that we don’t have on desktops, the space alone forces a hard look at the goals set for a website. What is the business goal? What does the user need? What is the primary activity to perform on the site? How is all of that best supported?

Mobile is an opportunity to focus. Designing a site to flow well and look good on any device size is an opportunity to improve the site even if no smartphones existed. The fact that they do, and the fact that more and more people are using mobile devices and expect sites to be mobile friendly, makes the need to improve for mobile necessary and valuable for any business.

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Mobile-Friendly Website – Why and How for Your Small Business

Christy Grant — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:41:34 +0000

Why does a small business need a mobile friendly website?

How do people find out about your business? Do they hear about you from their friends or co-workers? Do they stumble upon your storefront as they are walking down the street? Do they see an ad for your business in the local paper? All of these are fine ways for you to reach people, but if they’re the only ways, you’re missing out on a lot of potential customers.

More and more, people are out and about, and they pull out their web-enabled phones and search. One in three mobile searches have local intent, and 59% of consumers visit a local store after searching for it on the mobile Web.

When those consumers are searching, do they find you? Are you there to be found?

According to eMarketer, by 2013 the majority of mobile phone subscribers will have a smartphone. Already 61% of smartphone users search for local information, and 52% of search clicks result in calls.

That’s not only a lot of potential people searching for your business while they are out and ready to come visit, the numbers are increasing continuously. When someone searches for your business or type of business, it is critical to have a mobile-friendly website that makes your information easy to access and your phone an easy touch to call.

So how do you get that mobile friendly site?

It can seem overwhelming, of course. You have a business you know and love, and it needs your attention. So how can you go about getting an effective web presence while maintaining focus on the core of what you do?

Here are five steps in a proven process that will get you from current state to having an effective mobile web presence to help drive more customers to your business.

Identify the goal. Common goals are:

Drive both new and existing customers to your store or business.
Generate calls to your business.

Create a solution.

Layout the website structure and content in a way that provides the best user experience.
Great customer service includes providing a great user experience on your site. Happy web visitors will become happy customers.

Design and Write.

Create a design that conveys the identity and nature of your business and that appeals to your target audience.
Write content that enables people to quickly and easily find what they need. Make critical information such as your phone number, address, and operating hours easy to see at a quick glance.

Develop the site.

Code the site in the most efficient way that achieves a responsive design so that your site looks great on any size device screen – from desktops to smartphones.
Ensure a content management system that enables you to keep your content updated regularly.

Launch your site.

With good search engine optimization (SEO) and strong content, you will be found more and more over time. Remember that it does take time to build up your site’s reputation and to be found consistently high in search engine results.
Promote your site and be found in those ever-increasing local searches that potential customers are doing on their phones while out looking for what they need.

Always remember your customers. What do they want, and how can you help them? First, they want to find you and to quickly understand what you offer. More and more they want to achieve this while out and using their phones to search. Then they want to call or visit your business.

You can already provide excellent customer service just by having a mobile-friendly website that is there for people at the moment they need it.

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SES Chicago: Content-Driven SEO

Christy Grant — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 19:41:37 +0000

Evan Bailyn (@ineffable111) stands for doing what’s right when it comes to producing and publishing content on the web. At his SES Chicago presentation “Building a Massive Customer Base through Content-Driven SEO,” he frequently suggested that when you are in the middle of writing content, adding links, pursuing in-bound links, and all of the stuff that might get you noticed on the web, just imagine Matt Cutts from Google sitting next to you. Are you comfortable with what you’re doing? Is it honest, legitimate, and real?

Google’s Panda and Penquin updates over the past couple of years essentially are trying to make the web a more welcome place for real people. Shortly after the Panda update, Evan’s own company watched site visits drop. However, at the same time, they watched engagement go up. Fewer people were visiting the site, but the people who did visit were engaged. That’s both a more valuable audience for the business and a better experience for the user.

The importance of quality over quantity is consistent everywhere you go to place content. Make sure what you’re writing is genuine and offers true value to people.

Write as much as possible to the point where you are always offering high value, and don’t write beyond that. Be genuine. In the long run, the quality of interactions for businesses and customers will reflect the value of your content, and the value of your content will be validated by search engines — which leads to high-quality interactions and engagement.

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