435 Digital » SEO

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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What We’re Reading: Mobile Holidays, Defending SEO, and Fearless Felix

Julie DiCaro — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 15:34:57 +0000

We’re kicking off another week at 435 Digital by hanging out and watching the filming of a Bollywood action flick outside our headquarters here at Tribune Tower. Our lives are glamorous indeed.

Here’s a quick look at what the team at 435 Digital is reading this morning:

Our Web Development department will be happy to see that Mashable has begun beating the drum on mobile development for small businesses:

With increasing numbers of consumers using mobile devices to make their holiday purchases, smartphones and tablet computers may be elbowing aside elves as Santa’s helpers this year, experts predict. But small businesses remain woefully unprepared to attract and engage these holiday shoppers, several new studies show. They’ve yet to climb aboard the mobile bandwagon.

Last year, consumers spent more than $20.7 billion shopping using mobile devices, according to a report from Javelin Strategy and Research. That figure is sure to swell this year, experts said.

Though a mobile or responsive design site seems like a no-brainer in the age of the smartphone, most small-to-medium-sized businesses continue to plod along with sites that are not optimized for mobile viewing. So does your business need a mobile-optimized website? The answer is probably “yes.”

Getting pushback from the higher ups on the importance of search engine optimization? You’re in luck. Search Engine Watch tells you how to prove the value of SEO in ten minutes:

Convincing others of the importance of organic search and the need for SEO management has admittedly become easier over the years. Many have followed suit with competitors to jump into SEO endeavors to keep pace and many are coming to see that online organic ROI often times is much better than traditional marketing, is better targeted and easier to measure.

However, there remains a skeptical, more “old school” crowd, that still needs to be shown the need for organic search devotion. Whether you work for an agency trying to make a sale or on an in-house team tired of not drawing leads, taking a look at your Google Analytics data with this 10-minute drill down on what organic is doing for you can make a great impact.

This terrific piece goes on to instruct the reader on how to answer all the usual and predictable arguments against SEO, including why organic search is important, why direct traffic isn’t the answer, and how to discuss conversion. And if YOU’RE not sold on SEO, you will be by the end of this article.

Finally, if you were rained in like we were yesterday, you undoubtedly spent part of your day glued to your television or laptop, watching a guy jump out of a really, really, really high balloon. Apparently, everyone was watching it, because Felix Baumgartner not only broke three freefall records yesterday, he also broke one of YouTube’s record:

It’s official: Felix Baumgartner’s jump from the edge of space broke a record for the “live stream with the most concurrent views ever on YouTube,” according to the video-sharing website.

At peak, there were more than 8 million concurrent live streams, YouTube said in a Sunday blog post. The jump was broadcast on Red Bull’s YouTube channel.

What’s maybe most amazing about this particular record is that there were 8 million concurrent live streams on YouTube while the entire event was being shown live on the Discovery Channel. It looks like we’re quickly approaching the age when people are just as likely to click on a live stream as they are to flip on the TV.

Happy Monday!

The post What We’re Reading: Mobile Holidays, Defending SEO, and Fearless Felix appeared first on 435 Digital.

What We’re Reading: SEO friends, magazine clippings, and Facebook hugs

Julie DiCaro — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 15:09:54 +0000

We’re hitting our mid-week work groove here in downtown Chicago, as the weather gets cooler and our thoughts turn to all things Halloween. And digital marketing, of course.

Here’s a quick look at what the team at 435 Digital is reading this morning:

SEO specialists are making a lot of new friends lately:

In a joint study recently completed with Search Engine Watch and presented at Conductor’s C3 conference, 616 Search Engine Watch readers were surveyed about the state of the SEO industry. Our primary goal was to gauge the extent to which SEO is maturing in the organization.

Knowing how significant an impediment to improving natural search visibility organizational support has been, among other questions we asked respondents whether they were more or less enabled to make changes in the organization now compared to 12 months ago.

The data revealed that 71 percent of search marketers report they are “more enabled” or “much more enabled” to make changes or influence people to improve natural search visibility than they were 12 months ago.

Other than the fact that we’ve started letting our SEO gurus become more actively involved in deciding where we go for lunch, there are other reasons for this perceived empowerment of SEO experts. For example, the study indicated a much higher level of executive buy-in to the importance of SEO in recent years.

Is magazine clipping making a return?

Maz, a startup that helps publishers design magazine apps for the iPad, recently launched a new feature to make it easier for readers to virtually cut out part of a page and share it to Pinterest, in addition to Twitter, Facebook and email.

With the new feature, called Clippings, readers can pinch any part of the page to select part of a picture or a chunk of text and post it directly to one of their Pinterest boards, without ever having to leave the magazine app. Some publishing apps on the iPad do let users highlight text and share it to social networks like Twitter, but Maz is the first to seamlessly integrate with Pinterest.

Chalk up another victory for Pinterest. As more and more people move to pinning articles, rather than just images on Pinterest, a feature like this was a complete no-brainer. Once again, Apple is ahead of curve in figuring out how the iPad can integrate with other platforms.

Seeking a more tactile experience when your Facebook post gets “likes?” Do we have the perfect Christmas present for you:

There’s nothing like a bear hug from a loved one at the end of a long day. But if you live far away from your family, you now have a man-made alternative. Scientists at MIT have created a vest that inflates when your Facebook friends “Like” your posts, mimicking the sensation of a hug.

Dubbed “Like-A-Hug,” the puffy vest inflates so its wearer can “feel the warmth, encouragement, support or love that we feel when we receive hugs,” according to designer Melissa Chow‘s website. To return the hug, the wearer wraps his or her arms around the shoulders to deflate the vest, symbolizing the act of sending the hug back.

Admittedly, this item does not come immediately to mind when thinking of inventions that would make the world a better place, but is it really any worse than the KC Double Down? Boxes of wine? Jersey Shore? After all, when you’ve posted something truly amazing, who DOESN’T want 200 hugs? It could have been worse, is all we’re saying. For example, it could have been a vest that slaps you in the face whenever someone “unfriends” you.

Have a great day.

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Integrated Digital Marketing: SEO and Web Development

Alex Bruner — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 17:34:02 +0000

SEO and Web Development:

Part One of a Three Part Series on Comprehensive Web Development

We’ve been talking a lot at our 435 Digital Meetings about the overlap between various departments of our Digital Marketing team. One of the things that became apparent in these meetings is that it can be hard to describe under what circumstances your particular discipline, be it web development, SEO,PPC or Social Media, shines brightest.

Since I work as an SEO, my viewpoints are oriented accordingly.

As I’m also a nerd I feel that the most entertaining way to describe the interplay between SEO, Social Media, and PPC is via an uber-nerdy analogy.

I have also been re-reading the Hobbit and anxiously awaiting the November release of the Peter Jackson film adaption, so we will use a Tolkien-esque analogy to break down the interactions that should occur during the initial stages of website development.

Our story begins….

Let’s imagine that Bilbo Baggins, a stout hobbit fellow, is preparing for a long, arduous web marketing campaign.

In our campaign, Bilbo wishes to set up a website whose primary function is selling large quantities of Lembas, or Elvish Waybread.

In a perfect world, Bilbo would have access to a skilled web development team that is well prepared. to use search engine friendly practices when helping him design his site. Since this is a hypothetical, we will assume that the Shire has such a firm and Bilbo has a great relationship with them. Let’s call this company “Underhill Design and Development”.

Initial Web-Dev Meeting

Bilbo visits with the owner of Underhill Design, Mr. Underhill at the Prancing Pony in Bree to discuss Bilbo’s wants and needs. Through the course of the meeting it becomes clear that Mr. Underhill and Mr. Baggins get along splendidly and the two agree to work together.

Mr. Underhill suggests that Bilbo first carry out a consultation with local search engine expert Optimizus the White for SEO, at least for preliminary keyword research to help Bilbo decide which key phrases most represent his business. Mr. Underhill believes that this consultation will help Bilbo understand what his goals should be with the new site, and Bilbo recognizes that some honing of his focus would be very helpful indeed.

SEO Consultation Stage

Optimizus meets with Bilbo and the pair become fast friends. Optimizus educates Bilbo on the basics of SEO, and provides a brief summary of how a typical individual browses the web, and inevitably ends up at a site from a specific keyword search.

Bilbo grasps the concepts rather quickly and the two conjure up a list of words that Bilbo feels represent his business. They also divine the specific markets and demographics that Bilbo would be most successful targeting. At the end of their efforts, numerous reports have been generated by various software and web apps, and the research is complete.

Armed with this new keyword research, Bilbo revisits Underhill Design to begin the process of creating the website.

SITE CREATION

At this stage there are some important exchanges that should have happened or are happening between Web Dev and SEO:

The SEO team or consultant should provide the web development team with a solid list of terms to build the site around. In this hypothetical,Bilbo and Optimizus have done so.
The SEO input provided will help influence the naming of files, the internal navigation elements, etc.
SEO will also want to provide the Web Dev team with some advice on current best practices to make sure that they are up to date. Often different elements within the site code will become more or less valuable to search engines overnight, so a close relationship between SEO and web development is a major boon.
Web Dev will take this time to make absorb the research data and incorporate it into a plan that will satisfy the goals and time constraints of the client.

Once the Underhill Design team has a great looking mock up, and have decided upon a logical search engine friendly framework, they will begin their site creation process.

The Underhill team works day and night. The Web Dev staff stays up late consuming copious flagons of invigorating Entwash and Miruvor to fuel their efforts and aid their creativity.

When the toil is over, Underhill Design has crafted a website that portrays the beauty of a freshly prepared Lembas Wafer, while at the same time conveying to search engines that Lembas Cakes are the central focus of the site.

Important Interplay Between SEO and Web Development Teams

Tactics used by the web dev team here are geared towards making Bilbo’s life easier later on down the road when he needs to update site files and appearance, so the site has more than likely been created using a content management system like WordPress.

Specific Keys to Web Dev that is Conducive to SEO and Social Media Efforts:

Files like images, banners, navigation buttons etc worded with keywords relating to what they are representative of rather than random numbers and letters. EXAMPLE Lembas-Banner.jpg rather than bnr102.jpg
Links within the site between pages should be named in a logical fashion. Use GoldenLembas.com/Other-Offerings/Cram.com rather than GoldenLembas.Com/9/21/1937.com. This allows for navigation that is more easily navigable for site viewers. It also allows Google Bot and other crawlers to scan the words used in the links to determine what the focus of the site is.

These changes will positively increase the amount of keyword density within a sites crawlable text. For Social Media Efforts, it is helpful to have site url’s to tweet, like, or post that are easily identifiable to readers.

Summary of Site Creation Process

Bilbo now has a website and should be able to attract some solid business through word of mouth, branded terms, and long tail searches. This being said, he can easily reach outside the borders of the Shire for new business should he focus some time and effort on marketing his site via Social Media representation, and PPC Advertising.

Alas this post is becoming long winded.

In order to show more of the interplay between the various disciplines of Web Marketing we will need to further delve into the mysteries of PPC and Social Media.

We will visit these topics and more in future posts.

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Why Businesses Should Use Google Plus Local

Alex Bruner — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 14:15:53 +0000

Among web developers, social media marketers, and search engine optimizers, the opportunity to meet with Google reps is like Christmas come early. Since we spend our days working within the confines of their products, we relish the opportunity to pick their brains, (~~beg for~~) request functionality, and pick up clues about upcoming changes to our favorite Google services.

This week, 435 Digital had the opportunity to meet with Amy Ravit Korin Google’s Google+ Local Regional Community Manager Lead in the Mid Western US, and Ashley Glassman Google+ Local Community Co-coordinator.

Amy and Ashley visited to discuss the numerous features of Google Plus Local and what this new service means for users of (now retired) Google Places. Needless to say, there was a lot of excitement amongst the staff preceding the meeting. (Having 435 Digital pick up our lunch was also a plus. There were those among our number who had more than 5 but less than 10 sandwiches.)

By now most web-savvy business people are aware of the move Google has made away from the old Places product, but there still seems to be some confusion as to what Google Plus Local will offer over Google Places, and why it is important to adapt to the new program.

Google Plus Local changes and new features:

Yelp, Urbanspoon, YellowPages and other third party review sites are out. Recently acquired Zagat is in. (Side-note: it sounds like “the cat”, with the emphasis on the “gat”.) The new basic rating will combine user ratings on scale of 1-3 on various criteria and roll them into one overall score of 1-30. More on the criteria can be found here: Zagat and Ratings
Reviews from sources outside of those submitted through Google reviews no longer matter. This means businesses can focus their social media efforts around acquiring user ratings solely through Google Plus Local.
More options for conversation between businesses and customers. One of the biggest benefits to using Google Plus Local is the ability to reach out to customers through a business Google Plus page. In addition to the standard “write a review” call to action, users will have the option to follow the business, +1 their pages, and partake in “Events” and “Hangouts” through Google Plus. This is a vast improvement over the previous platform as it allows businesses and social media managers much more access to interactive customers and various methods to engage them.
A great opportunity to work with a Google-backed service. Using the number one search engine’s social media platform is a good idea. Google has been pushing for more and more personalization in the search engine results pages for a long time. Users who are logged into their Google Plus accounts while browsing have the option of viewing results customized for them based on their browsing habits; who they have “plussed” and who their friends and family have plussed. It isn’t a stretch to believe that Google will place a higher value on Google Plus results within their overarching search algorithm. Having every opportunity for your pages to be plussed and your popularity to be vetted by the big G is advisable.
Better integration with all of Google’s products, including those to come. A Google Plus user already has easy access to all of their favorite Google Apps from one user account. Analytics accounts, Adwords, Google Docs and Drive. Now Google Plus Local joins the rest. Amy suggested that we see Google Plus as the thread connecting all of Google’s services together. This leads one to believe that Plus Local will be a big part of future services like the Project Glass and other yet to be announced Google products.

The Moral of the Story

Since the meeting I have been spending much more time reviewing and reading through Plus Local businesses. Through this reviewing process it has become apparent that many companies are letting the opportunity to be an early adopter slip by.

Here are some key steps to getting a headstart with the Google Plus Local service.

Sign up for a Google Account
Register your business or intitate the verification process.
Read and review all user-submitted material
Add attractive photos and videos to your account.
Start engaging with your customers through daily communication

Taking the time to acclimate to the new platform, reaching out to customers, and adding value to your Plus Local presence will go a long way in any effort to increase brand recognition and customer engagement.

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Flickr: SEO for photos from ’30 Second Social’

AmyGuth — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:37:41 +0000

On Flickr, SEO can be improved many ways. By optimizing each photo, users improve their visibility in search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo.

In this episode of “30 Second Social,” Amy Guth explains simple ways to make your Flickr photos more visible to search engines.

Flickr: how to optimize photos for search engines

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Twitter: 10 types of tweets you should know

scottk — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:42:52 +0000

Making your message count in 140 characters or less is a vital part of your business strategy. When you use Twitter, you can either send the same types of tweets all the time and risk blending into the social media universe or you can mix things up and be that go-to person everyone’s talking about.

Your choice. Assuming you picked the second, here are 10 types of tweets that will help you be a Twitter superstar in no time.

Boring
Snore. Tweets that give Twitter a bad name such as “I am eating a sandwich.” This type of tweet is uninteresting and doesn’t encourage interaction. Twitter started this trend by asking the world a boring question: “What’s happening.” They should have started with “What has your attention?” That could be the difference between tweeting “I’m eating a sandwich” and “I need your help to find the best burger in Chicago.” Which of those tweets interests you more?

Introductory
Introduce a Twitter user to either another user or a group of people. Example include: “I’d like everyone to meet @soandso, who is new to our team here at the Tribune” and “Hey, @Suchandsuch please meet @soandso, who is also an avid golfer.” Introductory tweets are a great way to build community quickly on Twitter.

Spammer
Trust me. You don’t want to be viewed this way. Spammer tweets aren’t necessarily tweets that come from an automatic spambot feed. Sometimes, spammy tweets can come from a user who only seems to shill for his or her own projects or products. An often cited formula for avoiding being a spammy twitter user is to follow the Rule of Thirds: Talk about your own products a third of the time. Share other links and ideas in your niche for another third. In the final third, reply to people, answer questions and ask questions of your followers.

Quote
Consist of an attributed quote and that’s all. Example: “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on – Robert Frost.” This type of tweet is common, but should be used very sparingly because it generally does not encourage interaction with others.

Retweet
Retweets (or “RTs”) are simply re-sharing the content sent from another user. These can be done by hitting the “retweet” button to share the original tweet and automatically source the tweet (“RT @scottkleinberg Today…”). The retweet can also be accomplished by sharing a link obtained from another user, recreating a version of the tweet, and including “MT (modified tweet) or via @username” in the tweet.

Marketing
Let’s talk about these. In and of themselves, they are harmless, straightforward communication about a product, deal or brand. For example: a hardware store twitter account could tweet “This week only: all BrandX paint and rollers 50% off” and that would be an example of a marketing tweet. The problem arises with marketing tweets when that is all or the majority of tweets posted by a given account. This isn’t likely to be a problem if the tweeter follows the aforementioned Rule of Thirds. Sticking with the hardware store example: this account could also share how-to guides and tips, relevant industry news, and address customers service and/or advice questions. Everyone buying paint wants to know how to get it out of the carpet.

Giveaway or Benefactor
Tweets giving “insidery” info on deals, freebies, contests and other giveaways. Most giveaway tweets are designed to go viral by being widely retweeted to share the information.

Link
Tweets sharing links to compelling or entertaining articles, images or blog posts. Such links can be original content from the user, or outside content he or she wishes to share with followers. Be sure to mix link tweets with other types of tweets for maximum impact.

Question and Answer
User asks a question of his or her followers and this hopefully results in answers. Question tweets can range from rhetorical questions (which can be entertaining, but generally aren’t extremely useful because they do not encourage interaction) to polling followers about product and purchase recommendations (Buying a new dishwasher. Any recommendations?)

Customer service
Can be either from the customer raising an issue with a service or product, or from a company acknowledging a widespread customer issue, or working to satisfy an individual customer’s issue.

Watch “30 Second Social,” the web video series hosted by Scott Kleinberg and Amy Guth, for more tips and tricks about Twitter and other forms of social media.

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Twitter: Search engine optimization with Twitter bio keywords from ’30 Second Social’

scottk — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:50:00 +0000

On Twitter, one easy and proven way to boost search engine optimization is to write a proper bio. When edited correctly with keywords up front, Twitter SEO is greatly improved. In this episode of “30 Second Social,” Amy Guth explains how easy this is.

Twitter: Search engine optimization with Twitter bio keywords

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Ask an SEO: What are your best SEO tips for businesses?

435 Digital — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 21:10:58 +0000

Last week we discussed how to create your own online personal brand while working for someone else. This week, we turned to our peers on Twitter and asked for their best SEO tips for business owners–in under 140 characters, of course.

The best SEO is great content.

-@BrianBoyer

I think the best SEO tip is to know how to actively listen and find out where and when you’re being mentioned.

-@JeffCutler

Best SEO tip for biz owners? Create content regularly for target customers. Search engine is but, one audience mbr.

-@RobainBinder

Hire someone who actually knows what they’re talking about and aren’t just spouting the words…

-@LucyALloyd

Include address in contact us page title (local)

-@WissamDandan

Tip, recalibrate whether you plans will actually achieve your goals with a % likelihood score.

-@FirstConversion

Have clear goals, stay focused, hustle.

-@Veezy

Avoid kw blurring by theme-ing your keywords into diff groups, on diff pages. Also target the heaviest kws on your home page.

@Grod69

Business owners need to embrace SEO and put aside a realistic budget for it if they want organic growth

-@d4nz

Claim local maps listing and ensure you feature website and contact info in the listing.

-@KevinGamache

Feature your services over your brand name, i.e. titles, h1s, etc. (unless that name is well known)

-@EJWestksu

Our SEO tip for small businesses would be to take it all one step at a time. It’s daunting, but don’t be afraid of SEO.

-@WebChamber

Sort out unique, targeted titles+200wds quality content for at least category pages. So many sites miss out on this basic 101

-@SaySomeStuff

Do your keyword research FIRST or you may be chasing after the wrong traffic. Then constantly update keyphrases from analytics.

-@BrentDPayne

What’s missing from our list? Leave a comment below or let us know via Twitter at @435Digital. Have another SEO question? Send it our way and we’ll try to answer it in a future post.

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