Gulf Coast Local Blogdescription...https://gulfcoastlocal.com/Blog-Details4 Ways Duplicate Content Hurts Your Sitehttps://gulfcoastlocal.com/Blog-Details/PostId/154/4-ways-duplicate-content-hurts-your-siteContent Marketing,Digital MarketingWed, 25 Sep 2019 02:23:00 GMT<p>The words ‘duplicate content’ strike fear into the hearts of marketers everywhere, something akin to cavity search or TV Reruns. Actually, it’s pretty similar - who wants to watch the same show over and over again? It’s the same with content - users don’t want to read articles that just repeat information and don’t bring anything new to the table. More than that, duplicating content hurts your reputation as a website and as a business. But what exactly is duplicate content? And why is it so bad?</p> <h3>What Is Duplicate Content?</h3> <p>Duplicate content can be a variety of things, and not all of them are bad. Google defines duplicate content as “substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar.” Google actually distinguishes duplicate content by two types: non-malicious and malicious duplicate content.</p> <p>Non-malicious duplicate content includes instances such as syndication - when a website publishes your content on their own website - or when your website has multiple URLs, such as when you have pages optimized for different browsers, among others. These types of content duplication are not penalized by Google and are actually common, if not unavoidable.</p> <p>Duplicate content that is malicious is done to manipulate search results. The short of it is that duplicating content occurs when a website recycles old content in an effort to rank higher for keywords or tags (more keywords = higher results). This is not always their intent. There are many other reasons that a website might reuse its own content - one example would be an e-commerce store that struggles to write hundreds of product descriptions, so they reuse what they’ve already created. The distinction here is the intention behind the content, but Google is not all-knowing and can often misconstrue it, so it’s better to avoid duplicating your content as much as you can.</p> <p>Note: It’s important to distinguish duplicate content with outright plagiarism, which is not only seriously bad form but can carry legal penalties. We know you would never plagiarize, so we’ll keep our definition of duplicate content to the reusing of your own work. Additionally, if someone else has plagiarized your work for their own site, you should report the site to Google.</p> <p><strong>Of course, you own the rights to your work and are free to reuse it in any way you see fit. But if you’re looking to bring your website high SEO rankings and an engaged audience, it’s a bad choice for a number of reasons. Let’s take a look at them.</strong></p> <h3>It Hurts Your Keyword Rankings</h3> <p>Duplicate content hurts your keyword strategy. Keyword placement is a staple of good SEO practices, and getting your content keywords just right can take a lot of time and effort. That’s why some websites recycle old content that has successful keyword rankings - you know they work, so why not use them again? It’s faster and cheaper than writing new, original content!</p> <p>While this may seem smart, it’s actually counter-intuitive. Because when you recycle your content and keywords, you’re actually giving yourself competition. As Google algorithms crawl the internet, they collect keywords and index them for searches. So, if you post content that uses the same keywords multiple times, Google is going to crawl both articles and pit them against one another. See the problem? Your original content will now suffer because of increased competition, essentially making all of that time you spent doing keyword research a waste. It’s a lot like hobbling yourself before the big race - just not smart.</p> <h3>It Hurts Your SEO</h3> <p>As we’ve noted, search engines crawl websites and index the results for users. Because they want to give users the best possible experience, they rarely post multiple websites with the same content on their result pages. For you, this means that if multiple websites online have your content, Google may not mark your original page as the best page to show. If your duplicate content is on a different URL that has a higher domain score than yours, this can lead to them getting higher search results for your content. Plus, you don’t want your printing pages showing up as the landing page for users, or your mobile site ranking higher for desktop users.</p> <p>Syndication is an important part of marketing, so you shouldn’t avoid it. But, be sure that any websites that publish your content link your site as the original page so Google knows which one to index first. Also, there are plug-ins and other technical ways to note your own website pages as the original pages and remove other pages from indexing altogether. If you aren’t sure how to do this, contact us for a consultation. We’re here to help!</p> <h3>Google May Penalize You</h3> <p>Google’s algorithm is constantly learning and evolving, and it can now separate duplicate content that is malicious or non-malicious - to an extent. If Google decides that you are copying or “scraping” old content to increase your search results, it will do a manual audit of your site. If you’re found guilty, they can penalize you stiffly - even so far as removing your site from their results altogether. And getting back into Google’s good graces is no easy feat - it requires that you address and fix all of your duplicate content and then request a new investigation, which can take some time. You don’t want to get called into the proverbial principal’s office, so avoid posting duplicate content when you can.</p> <h3>Your Audience Will Get Bored</h3> <p>Setting the technicals aside, duplicate content will negatively affect your audience’s interest in your site. As we said earlier, nobody likes reruns. Publishing old content that doesn’t add any value to your readership will ultimately lead to a decrease in your website traffic by itself. If you’re posting duplicate content across landing pages, this will negatively affect your click-through and bounce rates as users leave your site for something more interesting. If your published content is stale or repetitive, you may lose user loyalty and sabotage your chances of return visitors.</p> <p>If you’re having trouble keeping up with your content marketing - or just need some fresh ideas - let us help! We can create a content marketing strategy that’s perfect for your business and then help you implement it!</p> <h3>What do I do?</h3> <p>Publishing content that is new and original is the best way to avoid the negative effects of duplicate content. Be sure that anything you’re posting on your website is authentic, adds value to your readership, and introduces new keywords and ideas. If you have an article syndicated by another site (go, you!), be sure that they are appropriately linking back to your website as the original version so that they don’t beat you in the search results. And be sure to use the correct URLs and tags when creating duplicate pages to make sure that Google indexes the correct one.</p> <p><strong>Need more help? Contact us today! BIS Designs can handle all of your content marketing and website design needs.</strong></p> 154The Top Website Design Trends For 2019-2020https://gulfcoastlocal.com/Blog-Details/PostId/152/the-top-website-design-trends-for-2019-2020Digital Marketing,SEO,Web DesignTue, 03 Sep 2019 20:50:56 GMT<p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Website design trends are as fluid and changing as the sea (or the internet). What is popular today may be a website faux pas tomorrow, and what was deemed uncool two years ago can make an unexpected comeback. Staying on top of the day’s trends can feel like a full-time job. Luckily, we’ve done it for you!</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">We’ve scoured the industry’s top leaders for the day’s most popular website design trends. The ones that can make or break your website. The ones that will set you apart from your competitors. The ones you can be sure will stick around for 2020. Check them out below!</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b>Mobile-First Designs</b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b><b> </b></b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">The days of desktop dominance are gone, and mobile devices are the undisputed king of screen time. <a href="https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations-and-Whitepapers/2017/2017-US-Cross-Platform-Future-in-Focus?"><span style="color:#3498db;">Users spend an average of 69%</span></a> of their media time on smartphones, so if you want to reach your audience then you’ve got to optimize your site for mobile use. Also, Google now ranks mobile sites ahead of desktop sites in search rankings, so focusing on a mobile design will help make sure your site is seen. And studies show that users are <a href="https://designadvisor.net/blog/web-design-trends/"><span style="color:#3498db;">67%</span></a> more likely to buy a product from your site if it is optimized for mobile use. See the pattern?</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Mobile devices aren’t exactly new, and they’ve taken up a big spot in web design for a few years. But the new focus on mobile-first designs means that website designers are focusing on mobile templates <i>first</i> rather than creating websites for desktops and then making them responsive to other devices. Because users expect a website to load in under 3 seconds, optimizing a website for mobile loading also means you’ll decrease your bounce rate and increase your user engagement.</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">What does that mean for you? Well, it means a focus on layouts that can be compressed to fit a smaller screen without losing content. It’s also important to keep in mind that mobile screens are touched rather than clicked, so you’ll need to adjust your designs to be accessible by various fingers. In short, simple and direct navigation, adaptive designs, and responsive frameworks will reign supreme.</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b>Speedy and Trendy Designs</b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b><b> </b></b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b></b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">We’ve already discussed optimizing your website for load speed (recap: you should), but doing so involves more than just technical work. The design of your website also plays a big role in how quickly it loads. Keep your design simple but trendy to stay on top of your speed and your relevance. Be generous with your white space - it helps guide users down the page and keeps your site uniform, while also loading quickly. You should also reduce clutter by ridding your site of unnecessary graphics and complex designs to make your site quick and scannable.</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">For the trendiest site on the web, use a good mix of contrasting colors, large and playful fonts, and high-quality images and videos. Grid patterns are becoming especially popular - a good example of this is the block layout of Pinterest pins. Grouping your content and related pages into easily scannable squares keeps your users attention while looking sleek and modern.</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b>Video is King</b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b><b> </b></b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b></b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Unless you’ve had your head in the sand, you’ll know that video content is the name of the internet game. Today’s users are more concerned than ever with immediate gratification, and information is often easiest to access and digest in video form. In fact, static pages (those without any animated or video content) are likely to be obsolete by 2020. That’s why the top websites have shifted their content focus away from text graphics and articles and instead use full-screen or embedded videos to boost their site traffic.</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">One of the top ways to do this is to place videos in the header of your website to immediately gain the attention of visitors. Or, you can place multiple related videos along your page to entice users to scroll down. Some websites even choose to display looping videos as the background of their homepage. Whatever method you choose, video content should be your prime focus as we move into 2020.</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Don’t have video content? Jump on the motion bandwagon with GIFS or animation to keep your page from looking static.  </span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b>Chat Bots</b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b><b> </b></b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b></b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Chat Bots are a new feature in AI that have taken the internet by storm in 2019 and show no signs of slowing down. A chat bot interacts with users on your website through chat ‘conversations’ to provide automated customer service, saving you time and money. They also allow users to access information and engage with your site much more quickly than traditional methods. Chat bots use assigned ‘rules’ and information along with really cool artificial intelligence to allow users to do a multitude of tasks. They can do things such as ask questions, file complaints, make online orders, book flights, buy tickets, and more.</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">There are two types of chatbots: simple and advanced. Simple chatbots use pre-filled keywords to process and respond to customer queries. This type of bot is much simpler (and cheaper) to implement on your website, but it isn’t as good at engaging with your users; it often responds to difficult or unanticipated questions with an ‘I don’t understand’ message. On the opposite side of the coin, advanced chatbots use artificial intelligence to learn customer preferences and enhance conversation. They are able to make jokes, understand sarcasm, and answer complex questions.</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Artificial intelligence is not yet an art, so there are still bugs in the system. Plus, chat bots can be extremely expensive and they require technical knowledge that many companies may not have on the payroll. However, we anticipate that as technology advances, chat bots will become much more streamlined and accessible for all.</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b>Sticky Elements</b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b></b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Sticky elements is a very descriptive name, as they “stick” to your webpage. In other words, as users scroll down your page the sticky elements scroll with them. It’s a great way to keep navigation simple and keep your users engaged.</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Sticky elements can be a variety of things. Newsletter sign-ups, contact information, and promotions are all good sticky element materials. Many websites create sticky “floating” menus to make navigation easier for a better user experience. Perhaps the most important one is social media links, which allow users to quickly link to your accounts or share your material on their pages. Which is important, because social media attracts billions (with a b) of internet users every day. That’s a huge audience!</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">But, be careful not to over-saturate your site with too many sticky elements. Doing so can make them seem spammy and intrusive, plus they’ll cover your other content. Stick to the sweet spot - no more than two or three at a time.  </span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Well, there you have it. The top website design trends for 2019-2020 focus on increasing speed, keeping your designs simple but engaging, and using technology to stay ahead of the game. Trends evolve, but we’re confident that keeping these in mind will help keep your website relevant and modern through the New Year and beyond.</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Need more help? We do <a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Website"><span style="color:#3498db;">website design</span></a><span style="color:#3498db;">!</span> From consultations to complete overhauls, BIS Designs can transform your website into a stunning reflection of your business. <a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Contact-Us"><span style="color:#3498db;">Contact us today</span><span style="color:#3498db;">! </span></a></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b></b></span></span></span></p> 1524 Reasons Why Your Business Needs A Bloghttps://gulfcoastlocal.com/Blog-Details/PostId/151/4-reasons-why-your-business-needs-a-blogInternet Marketing,SEOWed, 14 Aug 2019 15:26:00 GMT<p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Once the gem of personal or lifestyle websites, blogging has taken the business industry by storm and is now a highly effective marketing tool, especially for small businesses. Blogging has so many benefits for your company - it can increase your website traffic, widen your target audience, and help create and promote your business brand, among others. Still not convinced? Let’s take a look at the top benefits of a business blog - and how to make them work for you.</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b>A Blog Benefits Your SEO</b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b></b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b></b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Let’s start with the obvious - as a business, you want people to find you. The vast majority of consumers find products and services through search engines, but 75% of them never move away from the first page of results. That’s why paying close attention to your SEO strategy is crucial to achieving your marketing goals. Blogging is one of the easiest ways to boost your Google rankings, and if you want to be found via search engine then Google is king. Each blog post that your site publishes is another page for Google to crawl and “index” in its search algorithm, which increases your website authority (and thus your rankings). Adding new and regular content is also an indicator to search engines that your site is active and current, which increases your visibility factor. In short, blogging is an essential tool if you want to rank highly on Google or any SERP.</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Be sure to do thorough research and include relevant keywords and topics in your blog content to maximize your SEO success. For more advice on successful SEO, check out our article on <a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Blog-Details/stay-on-top-seo-in-2019"><span style="color:#3498db;">the best SEO tips for 2019.</span></a></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b>A Blog Increases Your Website Traffic</b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b></b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">You’ve got your website up and running, your business is front and center, and you’re ready to start helping customers! But all you’re hearing is crickets. How do you get people to visit your website?</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">A blog is a great way to help increase your website traffic. Blog content is more shareable than traditional website copy, making it a more effective way to reach your audience. If your content is engaging, solves problems, and focuses on relevant topics, related websites may link to it in their own posts or readers may share it across their social media accounts. You can also cross-post your articles on your own social media accounts, which will increase your business exposure, drive traffic, and help take some of the strain off your marketing department by reducing the need for new content.</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">It’s important to make sharing and linking your content easy. Include social media widgets or hyperlinks in your content, and format your blog images to translate easily across platforms. For even more exposure, try collaborating with related websites or pitching your articles to them for publishing on their site.</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b>A Blog Widens Your Audience</b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b></b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b></b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">A carefully crafted business blog will widen your available target audience. Users who are searching for your services will find them easily if your website is SEO-friendly, but what about those who can benefit from your business but may not know it? Through careful blogging, your website can appeal to this untapped section of your audience. This may sound confusing, so let’s look at an example:</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Say your business sells automobile transmissions. Obviously, you’ll get a great deal of traffic from local users who search “where can I buy an automobile transmission”. But this is a small audience, and those are all people who have already diagnosed their problem and are seeking a solution. What about people who know their car has a problem, but they aren’t sure what it is? This is a much larger audience, and it is one that your business can’t ignore if you want to maximize your profits. By writing a blog post about how to diagnose transmission problems, you’ll reach consumers who need your services but aren’t actively searching for them, and you can help guide them towards purchasing your product. This is called “top of funnel” content, and it’s essential to maximizing your website conversions.</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Don’t be afraid to vary your content across all of your industry’s challenges, trending news, and current topics. Remember - the goal is to drive a new audience to your site and promote awareness of your business. Once you’ve got their attention, your services will speak for themselves.</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b>A Blog Establishes Your Business Brand</b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b> </b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b></b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><b></b></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Online consumers are increasingly concerned with where (and with who) they are spending their money, and businesses who have an identifying brand consistently outperform those who do not. Blogging is a great way to establish and promote your business brand because it gives your business a voice. Whether you want to promote your brand as knowledgeable, caring, quirky, or even humorous, your blog should showcase your company’s values and help engage with your audience on a personal level. As a business you’re likely to be competing in a large market. Establishing a brand through blogging will set your company apart and distinguish you from the competition.</span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">If you’re new to business blogging or need help with other areas of your marketing strategy, let <a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/"><span style="color:#3498db;">BIS Designs</span></a> help! We can provide consulting services, help design your content strategy, or even manage your business blog for you. If you’re unsure about outsourcing your business blog (can an outsider <i>really </i>capture my brand?), we’ve got you covered - here’s why <a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Blog-Details/should-you-outsource-your-business-blogging"><span style="color:#3498db;">outsourcing your blogging is a great decision</span></a><span style="color:#3498db;">.</span></span></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></span></span></p> 151Stay On Top: SEO in 2019https://gulfcoastlocal.com/Blog-Details/PostId/147/stay-on-top-seo-in-2019Digital Marketing,Internet Marketing,Mobile Marketing,SEOThu, 24 Jan 2019 15:01:52 GMT<p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></b></span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""></span></span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span><span style="color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"></span></span><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><b></b></span></span></span></span><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"></span></span><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span new="" roman="" times="">Hello, 2019! It’s a New Year, which means it’s time to get ahead of the competition and on top of your search engine optimization (SEO). In the next few minutes, we’ll cover these five topics to get you thinking about improving your SEO strategy: Mobile-first indexing, page speed, thought-provoking content, featured snippets, and RankBrain. </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="color:null;"></span></p> <p><span style="color:null;"></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></span></p> <h1 style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><b><span new="" roman="" times="">1. Mobile-first indexing </span></b></span></span></h1> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></b></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span new="" roman="" times="">As of March 2018, Google started rolling out what they call “mobile-first indexing”. In 2019, this concept will become even more relevant as mobile users rise and Google adapts mobile-first indexing to more and more websites. </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span new="" roman="" times="">Searches on desktops are declining, driving the pressing need for appropriate indexing based on the mobile versions of websites. Due to this, mobile-first indexing was created with the intention of helping mobile users easily find what they’re looking for. So, what does this mean for you? Should you completely disregard the desktop version of your website and solely focus on the mobile? The simple answer is no. Both your desktop and mobile versions will come into play in the New Year. This is why Google’s new strategy is called mobile-first indexing, not mobile-only indexing.</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span new="" roman="" times="">In order to avoid negatively impacting your rankings, ensure your mobile and desktop versions are developed with quick loading times and optimized images and content. It’s important not to sacrifice your desktop version for your mobile version, or vise versa.  </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></b></span></span></span></span></p> <h1 style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><b><span new="" roman="" times="">2. Page speed</span></b></span></span></h1> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></b></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span new="" roman="" times="">In the new mobile-first index, page speed has become a huge ranking factor, primarily impacting pages that deliver the slowest experience to users on mobile versions. Slow loading speeds cause users to bounce from 32-90% as page load times increase from 1-5 seconds. Research has shown, consumers don’t like to wait for content, especially while on their mobile devices. </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span new="" roman="" times="">How can you increase your page speed? There are three easy steps you can take to increase your speed. First, you can conduct a page speed test using <span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="text-decoration:underline"><a href="https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/" style="color:blue; text-decoration:underline">Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool</a></span></span>. Next, take into account the size of your pages; many sites are loaded down with too much information, making it difficult to process. Cutting down on the bulk will help your speed improve. Third, contact your web/SEO expert, like us! We can help determine what steps you should take to improve your page speed (and overall SEO).  </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></b></span></span></span></span></p> <h1 style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><b><span new="" roman="" times="">3. Thought-provoking content </span></b></span></span></h1> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></b></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span new="" roman="" times="">It’s time to stop creating content for the sake of creating content. Focus on creating content that solves a problem by offering advice, motivation, and engagement for your customer. Creating exceptional content shouldn’t be forgotten and will likely always be an important key to improving your SEO. Exceptional content keeps people wanting more, bringing them back to your site. </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></span></p> <h1 style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><b><span new="" roman="" times="">4. Featured Snippets </span></b></span></span></h1> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></b></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><span new="" roman="" times="">A featured snippet is a short summary to a user’s search displayed on top of Google search results. The image below is a snippet, and trust us, it’s where you want your website to appear when consumers search for a service or product. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><span new="" roman="" times=""></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><span new="" roman="" times=""><span style="background-color:null;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><span new="" roman="" times=""></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color:null;"><span style="background-color:null;"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><span new="" roman="" times=""><span style="color:#222222"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt;">By using snippets effectively, you can maximize your authority, prove that Google chooses your page over competitors, and increase your traffic. You can earn a featured snippet by analyzing keyword opportunities and implementing them into your site, creating strategic content, having a Q&A section on your website, clearly outlining your subheadings, lists, tables, etc., and polishing up any existing snippets.</span></p> <h1 style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><b>5. RankBrain</b></span></span></h1> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"><b></b></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif">RankBrain is a machine-learning algorithm that works alongside Google’s current algorithm, Hummingbird, to improve Google’s search engine by learning and identifying patterns and interpreting unknown search strings. Machine learning is what happens when a computer learns by experience, and that’s exactly what RankBrain does. It intelligently gathers users habits and needs to direct them to the most useful content for their search. It works by taking segments of the entire search and relating them to the most popular searches with those related terms, and as people click on their desired result, RankBrain grows in its search knowledge. RankBrain affects how Google ranks search results. It learns which results are relevant and pushes them to the top.</span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif">According to Google, RankBrain is the third most important factor in SEO, after content and links. The key to overcoming RankBrain is to provide users with a positive experience through easy-to-navigate, detailed, and quality content to optimize your site. </span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif">If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the slough of information and ever-changing world of SEO, don’t stress! We’re here to keep you abreast of the changes, and help you implement them into your website structure. </span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"></span></span></p> <table style="border:undefined"> <tbody> <tr> <td> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="color:#ffffff"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif">RELATED: </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Blog-Details/responsive-web-design-and-why-your-business-needs-it"><font face="Cambria, serif"></font></a><font face="Cambria, serif"><a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Blog-Details/responsive-web-design-and-why-your-business-needs-it">Mobile-Responsive Web</a></font><font face="Cambria, serif"><span style="font-size:16px"><a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Blog-Details/responsive-web-design-and-why-your-business-needs-it"> Design and Why Your Business Needs it</a></span></font></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"> </p> <p style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"></span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"></span></span><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria,serif"></span></span><br /> <img alt="" src="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Portals/0/plong_1.jpg" style="height: 75px; width: 75px; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; margin: 5px 2px; float: left;" title="" />Phillip Long - CISSP, CEO of BIS Technology Group, along with his team of marketing and information technology experts, will walk you through an overview of  what your business should be doing to protect your data and plan your digital marketing strategies.</p> <p>About BIS Technology Group</p> <p>BIS Technology Group is the technology leader on the Gulf Coast and is comprised of four divisions: Information Technology, Web Design & Digital Marketing,  Office Equipment and Business Consulting. Together these divisions help local businesses exceed expectations and allow them to group to their full potential while minimizing risks. To learn more about BIS Technology Group, visit <a href="http://bistechnologygroup.com/">bistechnologygroup.com</a>.</p> <p>You may reach out to us at:<br /> Phone: 251-405-2527<br /> Email: plong@askbis.com</p> 147Should You Outsource Your Business Blogging?https://gulfcoastlocal.com/Blog-Details/PostId/144/should-you-outsource-your-business-bloggingContent Marketing,Digital Marketing,Web DesignWed, 03 Oct 2018 16:37:31 GMT<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">You may have noticed the blog trend that is ruling the cyber world from Google to social media.  Whether it is fashion influencers or tech gurus and travel enthusiasts, blogging is a trend that continues to grow each year. </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">How does this relate to your business? Blogging is a way to share your expertise and knowledge with your target audience.  In doing so, you are 1) helping to provide information needed by your potential customer and 2) demonstrating your expertise on the subject which in turn keeps the customer coming back to you for further assistance.  You are building trust with your potential customers/clients and this results in more leads for your business. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">Having well-written and updated blog content on your website also strengthens your relationship with Google which boosts your rankings in search results.  </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">Now that you know<b> why</b> you need a business blog, let’s talk about <b>how</b> you’ll find the time to add this task to your agenda. </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">It is common for small and medium sized businesses to outsource business functions like payroll, human resources, accounting and more to keep the organization lean and flexible.  Outsourcing blog writing? This might seem more challenging – after all, your blog is the voice of your business and a critical part of your content marketing strategy. </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">It is definitely possible to outsource blog posts, and do it well.  Below are two of the most common questions we get here at BIS Designs about blogging: </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></p> <h1 class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">Question 1: Can an outsourced blog writer really capture my tone/style/business personality? </span></span></b></span></span></h1> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> </span></span></b></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></b></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">Writing is personal and every business feels like they have a unique tone or style they’re looking to capture in their blog.  The very concept of outsourcing might feel like it will cause you to lose some of your business’s personality. </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">Solution:</span></span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">  Take time to educate your writer.  We’ve all heard it, “you get what you put in”, and in this case, it is definitely true. A good writer will research and educate themselves as much as possible but to keep your business personality/style/tone the same, you’ll need to give some details on what makes your business stand out from your competitor. </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></p> <h1 class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">Question 2: Where will the blog content come from? </span></span></b></span></span></h1> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> </span></span></b></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">If you give your writer nothing to work with, you get nothing in return worth reading. It’s that simple. You are the subject matter expert for your business. A good outsourced writer will bring your expertise to light in a readable way.  If you’ll provide more information and direction, you’ll get more of what you expect from your writer and overall blog content strategy. </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">Solution:</span></span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> Make a list of topics.  Whether you do this once a month or once a quarter – take the time to send a few topics to your writer. Once your blog writer has a list of topics, he/she can now get started on the time-consuming part of the project - creating engaging content.  The few minutes that you spend concentrating on topics will help to keep your business personality/tone/style alive on your website.</span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">A big perk of outsourcing your business blog writing is that your new writer will bring fresh ideas to the table.  This simply adds new insights that can make your blog better. </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">Fun Fact: The average blog post takes 3 hours 20 minutes to write and the most engaged blog content on the web now has 41% more words than it did 3 years ago.  </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">If you have a blog on your website that you simply don’t have time to keep up or you would like to add a blog to your website but aren’t sure where to start, give us a call! Outsourcing to a local company who can meet with you face-to-face to discuss your marketing goals is a great way to start the new season. </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> </span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">RELATED: </span></span></b></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Blog-Details/5-benefits-of-business-blogging" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><span style="color:#ffffff;">5 Benefits of Business Blogging</span></a><span style="color:#ffffff;"> </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"> </p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"> </p> <p><span style="color:#66ff33;"></span></p> <p><span style="color:#66ff33;"><span style="color:#ffffff;"></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"></span></span></span></p> <p><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/plong_1.jpg" style="height: 75px; width: 75px; float: left; margin: 5px;" title="" />Phillip Long - CISSP, CEO of BIS Technology Group, along with his team of marketing and information technology experts, will walk you through an overview of  what your business should be doing to protect your data and plan your digital marketing strategies.</p> <p>About BIS Technology Group</p> <p>BIS Technology Group is the technology leader on the Gulf Coast and is comprised of four divisions: Information Technology, Web Design & Digital Marketing,  Office Equipment and Business Consulting. Together these divisions help local businesses exceed expectations and allow them to group to their full potential while minimizing risks. To learn more about BIS Technology Group, visit <a href="http://bistechnologygroup.com/">bistechnologygroup.com</a>.</p> <p>You may reach out to us at:<br /> Phone: 251-405-2527<br /> Email: plong@askbis.com</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px;"></span></p> <h1 class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""></span></span></span></h1> 1444 Basic Tips of Blogging Search Engine Optimizationhttps://gulfcoastlocal.com/Blog-Details/PostId/139/4-basic-tips-of-blogging-search-engine-optimizationContent Marketing,Digital Marketing,Internet Marketing,Mobile Marketing,SEO,Social Media,Web DesignWed, 07 Mar 2018 20:56:22 GMT<p>Here&rsquo;s a quick illustration of how SEO works&hellip;</p> <p>Google has developed automatic algorithms that rank your website.&nbsp; They send out what are called &ldquo;spiders&rdquo; to &ldquo;crawl&rdquo; your site and check it for over 100 indicators that determine whether the<a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Website"> </a>website is valuable or useless.&nbsp; These indicators include things like backlinks, domain age, traffic, fresh content, etc.</p> <p>SEO can be considered the art of making&nbsp;sure those crawling spiders are happy with what they find.&nbsp; It is a very complex field that is always changing but in all that chaos there are a few constants that have remained the same since the beginning.&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="color:#ffffff;"><strong>1. You need your own domain and hosting.</strong></span></p> <p>One thing that beginners need to know is that you need your own domain and hosting.&nbsp; Free blog set ups don&rsquo;t do any favors for your SEO efforts.&nbsp; Why?</p> <p>People tend to speculate that if you were serious about your website you would get your own name and host it yourself.&nbsp; Google only wants to point to <a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Website">websites that are considered serious and trustworthy</a> and so this is a basic signal.</p> <p>Starting your own website, hosting and a business blog can seem intimidating but that&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;re here.&nbsp; We offer multiple packages to meet your needs, which saves you a lot of time.</p> <p><span style="color:#ffffff;"><strong>2. Problem solving with original content.</strong></span></p> <p>Keep in mind that Google&rsquo;s entire purpose is to provide their customers with relevant and useful search results.&nbsp; Everything they do is built around this goal.</p> <p>To be realistic, the most important thing you can do for your <a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/SEO">SEO</a> is create the most useful content that solves people&rsquo;s problems. If you are solving problems that people are searching for then it is likely that you are going to get shared on social media and ranked higher in Google.</p> <p>And &ldquo;original content&rdquo; means so much more than just blog posts these days.&nbsp; You can expand into:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Videos&nbsp;</strong></li> <li>Make tutorials or video posts.&nbsp; This builds links and traffic from YouTube and does well on mobile devices.</li> <li><strong>Photography</strong></li> <li>Original images and photos can boost your rankings as well as add value to your blog posts. Adding your own logos and sharing to social media is an extra layer of marketing, too.</li> <li><strong>Podcasts</strong></li> <li>iTunes has grown fast as people get better smart phones and spend more time plugged in.&nbsp; Adding a <a href="https://internationalpodcastday.com/what-is-podcast/">podcast </a>to your blog will ensure a unique and original addition for SEO. You want to build a relationship with your customers and readers by helping them out.&nbsp; This will mean more sharing and faster results in your search engine rankings.</li> </ul> <p><span style="color:#ffffff;"><strong>3.&nbsp; Make sure your theme is SEO optimized.</strong></span></p> <p><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/blog3.png" style="width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;" title="" />Think of SEO as having two components: the off-site stuff like social media and backlinks and the on-site stuff like optimizing your theme.</p> <p>Optimizing your theme is important because it helps give Google indicators that you are a trustworthy site.&nbsp; It also helps Google find your content.&nbsp; Some of the things to keep in mind when optimizing are:</p> <ul> <li>Mobile Response</li> <li>Cleanly coded</li> <li>Fast loading</li> <li>Secure domain</li> <li>Original theme (rather than a pre-made template)</li> </ul> <p><span style="color:#ffffff;"><strong>4. Build your social media profiles constantly.</strong></span></p> <p>You want to have a big focus on <a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Social-Media">social media</a> for SEO purposes as well as traffic building purposes.</p> <p>Why?</p> <p>Because Google is now looking to social media as a signal of an article&rsquo;s authority and relevance.&nbsp; If people are sharing on Facebook or tweeting about it, you must have written something pretty good.&nbsp; The best way for this to happen is to build a strong following, <a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Blog-Details/PostId/134/12-reasons-why-your-business-needs-a-content-marketing-strategy">keep them engaged</a> and they&rsquo;ll see your blog posts as they are shared.&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/blog2.png" style="width: 51px; height: 75px; float: left;" title="" />Commenting and sharing other business blogs is always a great way to build a community and possible cross-promoting opportunities&nbsp;for the future as well.</p> <p>Are you now ready to get a blog started and make sure your SEO is on the right track? <a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Contact-Us">Schedule a meeting</a> and we&rsquo;ll handle every detail from writing, optimizing your website and sharing to your social media!</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Author: <a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Social-Media">Stephanie May</a>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>RELATED: </strong></p> <p><a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Blog-Details/PostId/136/5-benefits-of-business-blogging">5 Benefits of Business Blogging</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Blog-Details/PostId/134/12-reasons-why-your-business-needs-a-content-marketing-strategy">12 Reasons Why Your Business Needs A Content Marketing Strategy</a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/2026496073.jpg" style="float: left;" title="" />Phillip Long - CISSP, CEO of BIS Technology Group, along with his team of&nbsp;marketing and information technology experts, will walk you through an overview of&nbsp;&nbsp;what your business should be doing to protect your data and plan your digital marketing strategies.</p> <p>About BIS Technology Group</p> <p>BIS Technology Group is the technology leader on the Gulf Coast and is comprised of four divisions: Information Technology, Web Design &amp; Digital Marketing,&nbsp; &nbsp;Office Equipment and Business Consulting. Together these divisions help local businesses exceed expectations and allow them to group to their full potential while minimizing risks. To learn more about BIS Technology Group, visit&nbsp;<a href="http://bistechnologygroup.com/">bistechnologygroup.com</a>.</p> <p>You may reach out to us at:<br /> Phone: 251-405-2527<br /> Email: plong@askbis.com</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> 139How Is Voice Search Affecting SEO?https://gulfcoastlocal.com/Blog-Details/PostId/133/how-is-voice-search-affecting-seoDigital Marketing,Internet Marketing,Mobile Marketing,SEO,TechnologyThu, 14 Dec 2017 22:15:31 GMT<p>Have you talked to Siri, Alexa or Cortana lately? You probably have, and you wouldn&rsquo;t be alone.&nbsp; According to Google, more than half of teens and 41% of adults are using voice search daily.&nbsp; For users, voice search is basically the best thing since sliced bread and now marketers are racing to optimize their content for it.</p> <p>Why is voice search hailed as the next big opportunity? Let&rsquo;s break down what voice search is, how it&rsquo;s impacting search, and some quick tips on how to optimize for these new types of queries.</p> <p><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/voice-search-app-ss-1920.jpg" style="width: 267px; height: 150px; float: left;" title="" /></p> <p><span style="color:#ffffff;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>What is Voice Search? </strong></span></span></p> <p>People tend to use voice search when they are multi-tasking, like asking for directions, dictating texts, and getting quick information.&nbsp; And because voice search is a drastic new medium to perform searches, the types of queries and ways in which people are searching are changing immensely.</p> <p><span style="color:#ffffff;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>What&rsquo;s Its Impact? </strong></span></span></p> <p>Voice search is making long tail, colloquial keywords more relevant.&nbsp; People are now having conversations with their devices, whether it&rsquo;s a smartphone or voice assistant, so preparing for longer, more descriptive terms is imperative.&nbsp; Also, searchers are using more interrogative words within their searches.&nbsp; Imagine you&rsquo;re driving around town, jamming to your favorite song and realize that your gas light just turned on &ndash; chances are you might quickly ask Siri, &ldquo;Where&rsquo;s the closest gas station?&rdquo;, and voila! In a couple of minutes your tank is full, you&rsquo;re back on the road downing a Dr. Pepper and pretending to be Britney Spears.</p> <p><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/voice-search.png" style="width: 270px; height: 150px; float: left;" title="" /></p> <p><span style="color:#ffffff;"><span style="font-size:larger;"><strong>How Do I Optimize For It? </strong></span></span></p> <p>An easy way to begin optimizing your site&rsquo;s pages is making sure you&rsquo;re tracking voice terms, which include long tail keywords and searches with question terms attached &ndash; like who, what, where, when and so on. Once you have a benchmark, you&rsquo;ll be able to track your improvements.</p> <p>Next, create or update an existing FAZ page predicting relevant voice searches.&nbsp; This page can include questions like, &ldquo;How much is shipping?&rdquo; or &ldquo;How does it work?&rdquo; so when people are searching questions that might relate to your business, you have a page ready for them to land on.</p> <p>And lastly, make sure your site passes the mobile-friendliness test.&nbsp; People using voice search want quick answers to their pressing questions, so if your landing page doesn&rsquo;t load fast enough, your user might bounce right off your site and get answers from elsewhere.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Author: <a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Social-Media">Stephanie May&nbsp;</a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>RELATED:&nbsp;</strong></p> <p><a href="https://www.askbisdesigns.com/Blog-Details/PostId/125/emerging-trends-in-digital-marketing">Marketing Trends for 2018&nbsp;</a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt="" src="/Portals/0/plong.jpg" style="width: 100px; height: 100px; float: left;" title="" />Phillip Long - CISSP, CEO of BIS Technology Group, along with his team of&nbsp;marketing and information technology experts, will walk you through an overview of&nbsp; &nbsp; what your business should be doing to protect your data and plan your digital marketing strategies.</p> <p>About BIS Technology Group</p> <p>BIS Technology Group is the technology leader on the Gulf Coast and is comprised of four divisions: Information Technology, Web Design &amp; Digital Marketing,&nbsp; &nbsp;Office Equipment and Business Consulting. Together these divisions help local businesses exceed expectations and allow them to group to their full potential while minimizing risks. To learn more about BIS Technology Group, visit&nbsp;<a href="http://bistechnologygroup.com/">bistechnologygroup.com</a>.</p> <p>You may reach out to us at:<br /> Phone: 251-405-2527<br /> Email: plong@askbis.com</p> 133Three Effective Marketing Strategies for Your Businesshttps://gulfcoastlocal.com/Blog-Details/PostId/119/three-effective-marketing-strategies-for-your-businessCustomer Relationship,Internet Marketing,SEOWed, 10 May 2017 18:30:54 GMT<h1>Three Effective Marketing Strategies for Your Business</h1> <p>There are many marketing strategies for anyone running a business or promoting a product. New and improved strategies may become global trends, however most will become a thing of the past before you even read about it. These three marketing strategies will help keep your business fresh and credible.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>1.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Content marketing</h3> <p>Why content marketing? Content is king. Search engines love content. Content helps to spread the word about your business and your products. Customers are searching for what you offer online. Their search engine searches bring them to videos, blogs, and social media posts.&nbsp;</p> <p>Videos, blogs, and social media gives you a platform to show your prospective customers how you can help solve their problem or issue. Hang up the idea of having to constantly pitch and start showing the world how you or your product are relevant to their needs.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>2.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Search Engine Optimization (SEO)</h3> <p>Gain a better reach to your prospective customers with search engine optimization, known as SEO. Once you have produced your content, your next step is to make sure that it is optimized for search engines. Having a SEO specialist optimize your content &ndash; website, blogs, and videos &ndash; will help you get an advantage over your competitors. This can be accomplished on a local and national geographical level.&nbsp;</p> <p>SEO is a very important process in a customer&rsquo;s research and purchasing cycle. While it may not be easy to find out exactly how a customer decided to walk into your store, SEO tools can help you gather that data for online shoppers. SEO is a very effective tool for learning how to continually target and retarget the customers that actually buy.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>3.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Customer Relationship Manager (CRM)</h3> <p>A CRM is a Customer Relationship Manager. This database keep a list of your customers and prospective customers (also known as leads) contact information that you ask for such as: name, phone, address, birthdate, and/or email address. People willingly provide this information in order to find out more about your business via a contact form on a landing or capture page. Their information is kept in a CRM for you to maintain and follow up with them.&nbsp;</p> <p>CRM&rsquo;s are the lifeline for your business. The size of your business has no relation to whether or not your need a CRM. You can use a CRM to send out newsletters, informational emails, email marketing of sales/promotions, follow up after a sale, or even generate a winner for a contest.&nbsp;<br /> These three effective strategies will help you to drive more traffic to your business and website, increase sales, and keep customers coming back. Content, SEO, and a proper CRM are things that must be continually updated and monitored.&nbsp;</p> <p>This can be a lot of work for someone who is trying to run a business. Fortunately, there are companies like BIS Designs who can help you manage these things effectively. BIS Designs is a small, but powerful firm with some of the top specialists on the Gulf Coast of Alabama, Mississippi, and the Pensacola panhandle.&nbsp;</p> <p>Contact us for a consultation to find out the best marketing strategies that will be the most effective for your business and niche.&nbsp;<br /> BIS Designs is an internet marketing company serving the Mobile, Alabama area. Our content, development, social media marketing and search engine optimization specialists have years of experience in targeting custom audiences for the B2B community and would welcome the opportunity to help your business grow.</p> <div>&nbsp;</div> 119SEO Interview with Phillip Long and Sean Williamshttps://gulfcoastlocal.com/Blog-Details/PostId/104/seo-interview-with-phillip-long-and-sean-williamsVideoTue, 17 Jan 2017 18:27:48 GMT<div>If you're a business owner, you'll want to watch this interview between Phillip Long, CEO, and Sean Williams, SEO specialist, to learn more about search engine optimization.&nbsp;</div> <div><br /> </div> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W4RuzWOmi_k?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0" frameborder="0"></iframe>104Top 6 Tactics to Convert Visitors into Customers on a Landing Pagehttps://gulfcoastlocal.com/Blog-Details/PostId/103/top-6-tactics-to-convert-visitors-into-customers-on-a-landing-pageInternet Marketing,SEO,Web DesignTue, 10 Jan 2017 14:57:24 GMT<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" src="/Portals/bisdesigns/Landing%20Page%20Elements.jpg" style="text-align: center;" /></p> <p>A landing page can be your business&rsquo; biggest advocate. By creating high-converting and SEO-optimized landing pages, these pages can effectively run your business while you&rsquo;re away by having the convincing power to appeal to your customers in your absence. </p> <h1>In marketing terms, a landing page is any web page that a visitor can arrive at or &ldquo;land&rdquo; on that is focused on a main objective, or website conversion goal.</h1> <div><br /> </div> <p>Typically, it is a standalone page not available to access from the navigation menu. It&rsquo;s created to fulfill a single purpose to get visitors to take a particular action on the page. </p> <p>&nbsp;<br /> <strong>Example goals for landing pages include:</strong><br /> &bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Capture email addresses for future leads<br /> &bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Get attendants to an event or seminar<br /> &bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Promote a special offer<br /> &bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Make an announcement<br /> &bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Build your brand&nbsp;<br /> &bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Make a profit</p> <h2>We believe that every marketing promotion needs its own landing page.</h2> &nbsp;<br /> <p>Since landing pages are separate from your website&rsquo;s visible pages, they are the perfect platform to send all campaign traffic. This separation makes testing and measuring through web analytics incredibly easier to track.</p> <h3>Here are the top 6 tactics for landing pages that experts across the globe value as instrumental in turning ordinary website visitors into actual customers:</h3> <h3>1.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Find the perfect headline.</h3> <p>Headlines serve the most important purpose on a landing page: to convince a visitor to stay. &nbsp;There&rsquo;s a famous quote by advertising legend David Ogilvy that says, &ldquo;On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy.&rdquo; Since your headline is the first thing people see when they land on your site, it&rsquo;s imperative to make a good impression. That&rsquo;s why we always suggest A/B or split testing to figure out which one will get higher engagement.</p> <p>Some elements you can test for are: (This is something we love to do!)<br /> &bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>A short versus long headline<br /> &bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>A headline that states benefits versus features<br /> &bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>The color scheme of the headline<br /> &bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Headline transposed over a background image versus negative space<br /> &nbsp;</p> <p><img alt="Landing Page Vivino" src="/Portals/bisdesigns/Landing%20Page%20Vivino.JPG" style="width: 600px; height: 333px;" /><br /> Source: <a href="https://www.vivino.com/" target="_blank">Vivino</a></p> <p>This wine news and review site uses an appealing solution-oriented strategy in their captivating headline.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>2.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Create a compelling, clearly stated value proposition.</h3> <p>A unique value proposition (UVP) should be the first thing your visitors see when they land on your landing page. It is not a slogan. It&rsquo;s a promise you&rsquo;re telling customers about what your product/service will do for them while also conveying how it is better than the competition. It can be a single statement or 2-3 lines that hit home with your target audience.&nbsp;<br /> &nbsp;</p> <p><img alt="Landing Page Karma" src="/Portals/bisdesigns/karma%20Landing%20Page.PNG" style="width: 600px; height: 283px;" /></p> <p>Source: <a href="https://yourkarma.com/?gclid=CjwKEAiA17LDBRDElqOGq8vR7m8SJAA1AC0_-KcV9STYYxJhHdP6rUXszJiodgTr6GrIhWmnqy3XZhoCV5rw_wcB" target="_blank">Karma Mobility, Inc.</a></p> <p>&nbsp;The unique value this brand offers is clearly stated in the byline letting viewers know they can get online anywhere with their product with affordable data plans.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3>3.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Reinforce your value with an effective Call to Action (CTA)</h3> <p>Even though you now have a compelling UVP and an impactful headline, visitors often still need that extra push, and a CTA form or button can be exactly what gets them on board. An effective CTA should be prominently placed, not too small, and placed above the fold so visitors won&rsquo;t need to go searching for it.&nbsp;<br /> <span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 14px;">Our client <a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/Our-Work/Portfolio/agentType/View/PropertyID/408/Magnolia-Dental--Website">Magnolia Dental</a> was looking for web design services in Mobile, Alabama and their home page illustrates how sometimes depending on your service, it&rsquo;s beneficial to use multiple calls to action on one page.&nbsp;</span></p> <p>&nbsp;<img alt="Magnolia Dental Call to Action" src="/Portals/bisdesigns/Magnolia%20Dental.png" style="width: 600px; height: 363px;" /></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <h3></h3> <h3>4.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Include benefits and/or features in digestible chunks.&nbsp;</h3> <p>Because web visitors are scanners by nature, your text should be simple and minimal, using images as much as possible while ensuring the relevant features or benefits are succinctly highlighted.&nbsp;<br /> &nbsp;</p> <p><img alt="Landing Page H. Bloom" src="/Portals/bisdesigns/h.bloom-landing-page.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 456px;" /><br /> Source: <a href="https://www.hbloom.com/ResidentialSubscriptions/" target="_blank">H. Bloom</a></p> <p>This flower company does a lovely job in illustrating the simple process for their subscription service.<br /> <br /> </p> <h3>5.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Provide social proof&nbsp;</h3> <p>Potential customers want to know they&rsquo;re making a good choice in choosing your business. Social proof can help seal the deal by reinforcing trust and establishing credibility. This can often create an emotional response, ultimately turning visitors into customers. Examples of social proof can include:<br /> &bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Testimonials from clients (with images and names)<br /> &bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Social media share buttons (showing the number of shares)<br /> &bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Logos from well-respected businesses that use you<br /> &bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Business or product reviews<br /> &bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Trust seals, i.e. BBB, VeriSign, TRUSTe (see image below)<br /> &nbsp;<br /> <img alt="" src="/Portals/bisdesigns/trust-seals.png" /></p> <p>One client of ours in Daphne, Alabama does a great job of providing social proof on their landing page for a new program they&rsquo;ve launched. <a href="http://markeegroup.com/eAutoTraining/90DayBootCampSalesTraining" target="_blank">The Mar-Kee Group</a> uses testimonials, video demos, and social media icons that play well with their call to action sign-up forms and buttons.</p> <h3>6.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Make sure the message matches the promotion</h3> <p>This is especially important when using PPC (Pay-Per-Click) ads as the link associated with your Google ad will need to direct users to a page built specifically for that service or promotion being offered.&nbsp;<br /> &nbsp;</p> <p><img alt="Landing Page Promotion" src="/Portals/bisdesigns/Frankandoak.com-Landing%20Page.png" style="width: 600px; height: 303px;" /><br /> Source: <a href="https://www.frankandoak.com/" target="_blank">Frank &amp; Oak</a></p> <p>If someone who clicked on an ad in Google that advertised a &ldquo;30% off your next purchase promotion&rdquo; but ended up on the home page, they likely would get inundated with way more information than they wanted, get a bit overwhelmed that they didn&rsquo;t see that coupon, and leave the site out of frustration.<br /> <br /> </p> <h3>Conclusion</h3> <p>By no means do landing pages need to include all of these elements, and in some cases, the more minimal a landing page is the more results a site can see. Figuring out what kind of landing page your marketing campaign needs will depend on many factors. Above all else, research into what types of personas make up your target audience should be the first step. This article is meant as a general overview, as there are many more components to a successful landing page that are not mentioned here, such as the need for an integrative design (see <a href="https://www.beoplay.com/products/beoplaya1#introduction-main" target="_blank">BEOPLAY&rsquo;s</a> experiential design) or adding video, which can lead to <a href="http://www.eyeviewdigital.com/documents/eyeview_brochure.pdf" target="_blank">86% more conversions</a>.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>At BIS Designs, our goal is to create a website and subsequent landing pages that will support your goals and accurately reflect your brand for businesses not just in Baldwin County and Mobile County, but also extending to Biloxi, Gulfport, and Pensacola, Florida. From our pre-project meeting to content development and design, we keep your website goals at the forefront of everything we do. Through combining <a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/SEO">search engine optimization</a>, <a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/Internet-Marketing/Social-Media">social media marketing</a> and cutting edge <a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/Website">web design</a>, our integrative approach for your business provides successful results. <a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/Contact-Us">Contact us</a> today to hear more about our new comprehensive packages!</p> <div><br /> </div> <p>&nbsp;</p>103Top 11 Mistakes To Avoid When Using SEOhttps://gulfcoastlocal.com/Blog-Details/PostId/86/top-11-mistakes-to-avoid-when-using-seoInternet Marketing,SEOTue, 13 Sep 2016 14:24:54 GMT<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="/Portals/bisdesigns/bigstock-Search-Engine-Optimization-For-63641755-sm.jpg" alt="search engine optimization SEO graphic" style="width: 600px; height: 400px; text-align: center; margin-bottom: 2px;" /><br /> </div> <p>What good is a website if no one can find it? Today, most businesses recognize the need for a website and the importance of ranking well in search. But how can you be sure your website gets top listings in a competitive marketing world? The answer is strategic&nbsp;<a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/SEO" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857;">search engine optimization (SEO)</a><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.42857; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">.&nbsp;</span></p> <div> <h1>Well-deployed SEO helps cut through all the noise to get your website found by its intended audience.&nbsp;</h1> <div><br /> </div> <div>While optimizing for search engines is a crucial component to your business&rsquo; success, there are several mistakes that must be avoided. Otherwise, you could actually end up hurting your SEO efforts. <h2>Here&rsquo;s a quick overview of the top mistakes to avoid when leveraging SEO for your company&rsquo;s best success online.</h2> </div> <h3>1.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Keyword stuffing</h3> <p>a.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>This used to be a regular technique in search engine optimization where a webpage had &ldquo;keywords&rdquo; (popular words used in search queries) placed all over the site in metatags or in the content. However, Google soon &nbsp;realized that the number of keywords on a site did not necessarily equate to a valuable resource for the web user. Currently, keyword stuffing is viewed as a black hat technique and an attempt to manipulate a site&rsquo;s <a href="http://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors">rankings in search results</a>. This can potentially cause a site to be banned or penalized in search engine rankings.</p> </div> <p style="text-align: left;">b.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>An example of keyword stuffing is below:</p> <p style="text-align: center;"> &nbsp;<img src="/Portals/bisdesigns/Keyword-Stuffing-Example.jpg" alt="keyword stuffing - bad SEO" style="text-align: center;" /><br /> <span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Image source: <a href="https://www.inklyo.com/seo-mistakes-to-avoid/" target="_blank">Inklyo.com</a>&nbsp;<br /> <br /> </p> <h3>2.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Keyword research or lack thereof.&nbsp;</h3> <p>Many companies these days are telling people to just write naturally and not worry about keywords, but there is a deep value in using the <a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/Blog-details/cid/64?Category=seo">search algorithms</a> to your advantage. Having quality content on a website is the leading factor for making a website useful and popular for visitors. Keywords need to be researched and selected first before any writing begins in order for the content to read naturally.&nbsp;</p> <h3>3.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Not Using Long Tailed Keywords.</h3> <p>Long tail keywords, or descriptive phrases, are keywords too. They are much more likely to rank well in search results than short tail keywords. Why? Because people are getting much more specific in their searches, and keyword optimization should follow suit. You may get fewer hits, but the hits you get will be from web users that are much further down the road towards taking action than those that were only searching for one general word. It&rsquo;s also much more achievable to get a webpage to rank highly on the search engine listings for long tail keywords because the competition is not as high as it is for general one word terms. Just think about the intention difference between someone searching for &ldquo;Mobile Bay&rdquo; versus &ldquo;Mobile Bay charter boat tours Fairhope AL&rdquo;. The specific search query is more likely to reflect a shopper who knows what they&rsquo;re looking for and is closer to a purchase decision.</p> <h3>4.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Not adding fresh content to your site.</h3> <p>Okay, so now you have a stellar website with dynamic content and optimized keywords ready to rock the socks off of users. But before you expect to be listed on that first page of search results on Google, and ideally the top three listings, you need to understand the importance of updating the content on your site regularly. If you&rsquo;re not regularly updating your website, search engines are not going to continually notice you. Each time you add something new to your site, it&rsquo;s a beacon calling the web crawling search bots to come back around to index your site, which in turn gives you better chances of higher search rankings.&nbsp;<br /> How can you add new content to your site? Writing blog articles, providing downloads and adding new web pages are good examples. But these content updates need to be on a regular basis, and the content needs to be reliable and valuable information in order to have a better chance of your site ranking higher with each update.&nbsp;</p> <p>How often is often enough? Typically, a frequently updated site is considered one that is updated once a day, or at least two to three times a week. These updates can be as simple as making minor changes on your site, but the easiest and most effective ways to get noticed are to add blog articles with images that will get the attention of your viewers. As a bonus, if users comment on your blog, this counts as an update on your site too.&nbsp;</p> <h3>5. Weak Content</h3> <p>Search engines have begun devaluing the ranking in search results of websites that have don&rsquo;t have much content. It used to be a common goal to keep blog posts around 300 words, but now the world&rsquo;s leading brands and marketing analysts agree that longer form content actually boosts SEO rankings because of its added value to the readers. Thus, somewhere on your website, a strategy should be to include content that goes up to 1,500 words, with of course, the necessary optimization of meta descriptions, image tags, and other text formatting.&nbsp;</p> <h3>6.<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Duplicate Content</h3> <p>Duplicate content refers to content that appears on the Internet in more than one place. This can be text that copies verbatim content found on other parts of your own web page, but more importantly, found on other webpages. Obviously, plagiarism is highly frowned upon, and the search algorithms are engineered to penalize sites when duplicate content is found. It&rsquo;s completely okay to quote or insert a block of text from another source as long as you attribute to it in a link, like we do on our blogs all the time.&nbsp;<br /> Another situation that creates red flags is when you publish guest posts on other sites. For the most part, it&rsquo;s okay to use the majority of the content, but you need to make sure that some of the content is altered to make what <a href="https://blog.kissmetrics.com/myths-about-duplicate-content/" target="_blank">Kissmetrics calls</a> an &ldquo;evil twin.&rdquo;</p> <h3>7. Broken Internal Links</h3> <p style="text-align: left;">Internal links are places on your website where you can have content from one of your web pages link to other content on another page on the same website. It should only be used if there is a real connection between the two pages. When done correctly, internal linking is considered good SEO practice. It helps keep users on your page longer by linking to the internally referenced pages, but mainly it is a routine step in SEO because it helps the search engines crawl your sight and verify that your content is valuable to readers because of the linked connections.&nbsp;<br /> However, when internal links are broken and users and web bots get a &ldquo;404 Error&rdquo; page, it&rsquo;s a red flag that the content lacks value. &ldquo;404&rdquo; pages are damaging to your website&rsquo;s credibility, and search engine crawl interruptions can lower your site&rsquo;s ranking and decrease its visibility. You can check for broken links on your webpage by using this <a href="https://validator.w3.org/" target="_blank">web validator tool</a>. No one, users or web crawlers, like to see this message:</p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <img src="/Portals/bisdesigns/error%20404%20message.png" alt="webpage error 404 meessage" style="font-size: 14px; text-align: center;" /></p> <h3>8. Black Hat Backlinking and Lack of Link Building.</h3> <p><a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/Blog-details/PostId/22/the-importance-of-backlinks-in-seo-for-a-website">Backlinks</a>, or inbound links, are links on outside websites that link to your webpage. &nbsp;It&rsquo;s an important SEO strategy to acquire these links that point back to your site, but not so long ago, this practice was tarnished with people buying low quality links to get listed on sketchy website directories. Link farms, as they were dubbed, became so popular that Google made algorithm changes to specifically penalize websites that did this. Finding quality web directories and acquiring citations and reference links from websites in the same industry are the smart way to go about doing this. Search engines can tell if you&rsquo;re trying to trick them into promoting your website. While it&rsquo;s better to have no links than bad links, there are still many tools, time consuming as they may be, to help get your site the <a href="http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/32479/32-White-Hat-Ways-to-Build-Inbound-Links.aspx?__hstc=128727251.eb9fdd5030a90ac6f94d82a8e280dee3.1423175309121.1434633108944.1434639998492.262&amp;__hssc=128727251.13.1434639998492&amp;__hsfp=2766612684#sm.00000t84uav30xes9rwre0rti1gb9" target="_blank">quality backlinks</a> Google values. But remember, content first, links later.</p> <h3>9. Incomplete On-Page SEO&nbsp;</h3> <p>On-page SEO refers to items like keywords, quality content, and fresh updates added regularly, as mentioned earlier, but it also includes the technical aspects of filling out the meta descriptions, title, and image tags with a chosen keyword, as well as including your keyword or keyword phrase ideally within the first paragraph. Ensuring you have consistent brand messaging throughout the webpage is also important.</p> <h3>10. Not Utilizing Social Media</h3> <p style="text-align: left;">For a business to maintain credibility these days, it needs to be online on social media. It&rsquo;s a great avenue for building brand awareness, <a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/Blog-details/cid/12?Category=internet-marketing">retaining loyal customers and fans</a>, and sharing all those wonderful webpages and blogs you&rsquo;ve optimized on your website. By sharing your website content on <a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/Internet-Marketing/Social-Media">social media</a>, search engines discover there are more places to find that content, thus boosting the number of listings that pop up when people search for products or services matching your content.&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <img src="/Portals/bisdesigns/Social%20media%20icons.jpg" alt="Social media icons iPhone" style="text-align: center; width: 500px; height: 334px;" />&nbsp;</p> <h3>11. Not tracking or measuring your progress.</h3> <p>It&rsquo;s important to know how your SEO is performing. Using <a href="http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/why-google-analytics-important-your-website" target="_blank">Google Analytics</a> or other software is essential to monitor the rate of change so steps can be made to amend any low-performing webpages. Conversion goals, keyword monitoring, and weekly reports are invaluable tools to determine if you&rsquo;re making progress or not.</p> <h3><em>Customizable SEO Services That Deliver Results<br /> </em></h3> <p>Search engine optimization may seem daunting at first, but the benefits far outweigh the cost to your business versus not using SEO. If your business is not seeing the results you need from your website to stay successful, then it&rsquo;s time to <a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/Contact-Us">contact our BIS Designs team</a> for your <a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/Request-Quote">free quote</a> on our SEO services. Our SEO &amp; Online Specialist will collaborate with you to create the most effective search engine optimization strategy possible, customized to your individual needs. Bring your website into the modern competitive arena with strategic <a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/SEO">SEO services</a> from your local digital marketing experts at <a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com">BIS Designs</a>.</p> <div><br /> </div>86BIS Designs Educates Local Pensacola Businesses on Digital Marketing Strategies to Grow Their Client Basehttps://gulfcoastlocal.com/Blog-Details/PostId/82/bis-designs-educates-local-pensacola-businesses-on-digital-marketing-strategies-to-grow-their-client-baseCompany NewsThu, 25 Aug 2016 12:53:00 GMT<h2 style="text-align: center;">BIS Designs Educates Local Pensacola Businesses on Digital Marketing Strategies to Grow Their Client Base</h2> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Robertsdale, AL (August 25, 2016) - BIS Designs,&nbsp;<span style="color: #222222;">experienced digital marketing firm on the Gulf Coast, will host an educational presentation on &ldquo;How to Develop and Implement a Successful Digital Marketing Plan to Increase Company Revenue&rdquo; at their luncheon seminar on Thursday, September 22<sup>nd</sup> from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM at The Fish House in Pensacola, Florida. Reservations are required and can be made at </span><span><a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/seminar"><span>www.askbisdesigns.com/seminar</span></a></span><span style="color: #222222;"> or 251.410.7601.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #222222;"><br /> </span></p> <p><span style="color: #222222;"></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">This free event will help organizations in Pensacola and Gulf Breeze learn about the different components of a successful digital marketing strategy including email marketing and search engine optimization. The CEO of BIS Designs, Phillip Long, will discuss topics such as how to use your website to convert visitors into leads, what you can do to optimize your website for search engines and how to incorporate email into your marketing campaigns.</span></p> <br /> <p><span style="color: #222222;"></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><em><span style="color: #222222;">The Verge</span></em><span style="color: #222222;"> reported that more Google searches take place on mobile devices than desktops. During the seminar, BIS Designs will discuss mobile websites and Google updates with the new Penguin 4.0. &nbsp;</span></p> <br /> <p><span style="color: #222222;"></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><em><span style="color: #222222;">Who Should Attend?</span></em></p> <span style="color: #222222;">Business owners and marketing managers who are interested in growing their company through digital marketing.</span><br /> <p><span style="color: #222222;"><br /> </span></p> <p><span style="color: #222222;"></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><em><span style="color: #222222;">"Social Fresh</span></em><span style="color: #222222;"> stated that the first organic listing on Google receives 33% of clicks,&rdquo; said Phillip Long, CEO.&nbsp; Long continues, &ldquo;In order to drive traffic to your website, businesses need to optimize their websites for mobile and search engines which will lead to an increase in ranking on search engines like Google and Bing. I&rsquo;ll be discussing this along with three other digital marketing strategies that will put your business on the map.&rdquo; (Photo: Phillip Long)</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">To learn more about this event, visit </span><a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/seminar"><span>http://www.askbisdesigns.com/seminar</span></a><span style="color: #222222;">. Additional business updates are planned throughout 2016. For more information, </span><a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/"><span>http://www.askbisdesigns.com</span></a><span style="color: #222222;"> for details. &nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="color: #222222;">About BIS Designs</span></strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span>BIS Designs provides web design and digital marketing services to hundreds of small and medium businesses in the local market. With the solid understanding that marketing is vital to the success of your business, BIS Designs is de-bunking the &ldquo;if you build it, they will come&rdquo; myth by providing the highest quality web design and digital marketing solutions available. Headquartered in Robertsdale, Alabama, BIS Designs has been serving Gulf Coast businesses for over 6 years. Learn more at </span><a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/"><span>www.askbisdesigns.com</span></a><span>. </span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="color: #222222;">About BIS Technology Group</span></strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">BIS Technology Group is the technology leader on the Gulf Coast and is comprised of four divisions: information technology, web design &amp; digital marketing, office equipment and business consulting. Together these divisions help local businesses exceed expectations and allow them to group to their full potential while minimizing risks. To learn more about BIS Technology Group, visit bistechnologygroup.com. </span></p> <p><span style="color: #222222;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222;">###&nbsp;</span></p>82ReTargeting Ads: A Quick Explanation and Its Top Two Benefitshttps://gulfcoastlocal.com/Blog-Details/PostId/65/retargeting-ads-a-quick-explanation-and-its-top-two-benefitsInternet MarketingMon, 23 May 2016 16:57:49 GMT<h1 style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Retargeting SEO concept" src="/Portals/bisdesigns/Retargeting-Concept-Resized.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 367px;" /></h1> <h1 style="text-align: center;">Heard of &lsquo;retargeting&rsquo; before, but not sure how it can benefit your business?</h1> <h2>Retargeting levels the playing field for small business owners to be able to reach their target audience on a much larger scale than ever before.&nbsp;When used in conjunction with search engine optimization (SEO), retargeting can:<span style="font-size: 30px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; color: inherit;"></span></h2> <h3> &bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Drive traffic to your website through increased brand recognition.&nbsp;</h3> <h3> &bull;<span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>Maximize a company&rsquo;s return on investment (ROI).</h3> <div><br /> </div> <p> In a nutshell, retargeting is the process of targeting and serving ads to people who&rsquo;ve previously visited your website, used your mobile app, or in some cases, visited and bought something from a physical retail location.&nbsp;</p> <p> You&rsquo;ve seen it before: you search online for &lsquo;shoe stores Mobile, AL.&rsquo; You visit the first website that pops out and you browse around for a while, but then something else needs your attention so you leave the site. The next time you go online, whether it&rsquo;s watching a YouTube video or scrolling through Facebook, you see an ad for that same shoe store company showcasing the exact pair of shoes you were last looking at earlier.&nbsp;</p> <p> Many people have mixed feelings about this, and numerous blogs have been written about the overall ethics involved in this type of marketing. Needless to say, it&rsquo;s here to stay, and over the years marketers have refined the practice to include better targeting and less intrusive messaging to avoid creeping people out. As a side note, web users always have a way of opting out from being marketed to through retargeting by regularly erasing what cookies have been enabled in their browser history.</p> <h3 style="text-align: center;"> Studies have shown that close to 98% of website visitors leave a website without completing some form of conversion (i.e. finishing a purchase, submitting a form, or downloading something being offered).&nbsp;</h3> <p> Therefore, it is not uncommon for a web user to take numerous steps before being ready to seal the deal. If a company&rsquo;s brand name is not well established, users won&rsquo;t be searching specifically for a company&rsquo;s brand name and associated branded keywords. That&rsquo;s when companies often invest in <a href="http://askbisdesigns.com/About-Us/FAQs#357731-search-engine-optimization" target="_blank">SEO</a> or <a href="http://askbisdesigns.com/Pay-Per-Click-Marketing">Pay-Per-Click</a> (PPC) marketing to help drive traffic to their website or store. In time, they may see their website out rank their competitors on the search engines, and typically see a healthy influx of website clicks. However, if there is no brand recognition to go along with such prominent placement on search engines, users often forget what site they visited once they have left.&nbsp;</p> <p> Retargeting can successfully bridge that gap, especially when combined with SEO. Through building your brand&rsquo;s familiarity with your target audience, you are increasing the opportunity for specific company branded terms to be entered into a Google search or an organic site visit.&nbsp;</p> <h3 style="text-align: center;"> <a href="http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Retargeting-Used-by-Marketers-Cost-Effective-Brand-Lift/1007948" target="_blank">Comscore</a> found that retargeting campaigns led to a 1046% increase in branded search and a 726% lift in site visitation after four weeks of retargeted ad exposure.&nbsp;</h3> <p> By specifically marketing to people who are familiar with your business, retargeting ultimately will move them closer to a sale and improve your overall ROI.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> </p> <p> Learn how BIS Designs can increase your search engine ranking and drive traffic to your website <a href="http://askbisdesigns.com/SEO">here</a>.<br /> <br /> </p> <p> <span style="font-size: 10px;">Sources:&nbsp;<br /> <a href="http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Retargeting-Used-by-Marketers-Cost-Effective-Brand-Lift/1007948" target="_blank">http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Retargeting-Used-by-Marketers-Cost-Effective-Brand-Lift/1007948</a><br /> <a href="http://searchengineland.com/3-surprising-benefits-of-retargeting-181164" target="_blank">http://searchengineland.com/3-surprising-benefits-of-retargeting-181164</a><br /> <a href="http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/retargeting-campaigns-beginner-guide#sm.00000t84uav30xes9rwre0rti1gb9" target="_blank">http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/retargeting-campaigns-beginner-guide#sm.00000t84uav30xes9rwre0rti1gb9</a></span></p>65What do you need to know about voice search?https://gulfcoastlocal.com/Blog-Details/PostId/54/what-do-you-need-to-know-about-voice-searchInternet MarketingThu, 10 Mar 2016 23:17:35 GMT<p><span style="font-size: 32px; color: #00b050;">As of 2016, there are almost 3 billion smartphone users across the globe. And research expects a whopping 6.1 billion smartphone users by 2020</span><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #00b050;">. </span></p> <p>That&rsquo;s a huge number&hellip; Think of 10 of your friends, family members or colleagues that have a flip phone or brick phone&hellip; Now, how many people could you actually think of? Probably not many. That&rsquo;s because we are living in a tech savvy age. &nbsp;Statistics illuminate the vast amount of technology the average consumer is using. As of May 2013, 63% of U.S. adults use their smart phones to go online. Whether it is through a search engine, email, or app, smartphone users access the internet on their phone constantly. </p> <p><strong>Here&rsquo;s one last statistic for you:</strong> &nbsp;As of October 2014, approximately 55% of U.S. teenagers and 41% of U.S. adults were using voice search on their smart phones. Whether it is Apple iPhone&rsquo;s Siri, Microsoft&rsquo;s Cortana, or Google Now, almost all smartphones come with an option for voice search now. </p> <p><span style="color: #00b050;">Voice search enables the user to perform searches quickly and easily with the press of the button</span>. The answers to their search queries are fast and reliable. This is extremely helpful in situations like driving a car or multi-tasking or when you&rsquo;re on the go. Since it is a popular feature and useful tool, what do businesses need to know about voice search?</p> <p>Well, it all comes down to <a href="http://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo">SEO, or search engine optimization</a>. <span style="color: #00b050;">SEO ranks websites and businesses on keywords, backlinks and a plethora of other factors. The end result is your website coming up at the top of a search engine query. </span></p> <p><em>For example,</em> say you searched for &ldquo;clothing boutique, Mobile, Alabama&rdquo; using voice search on your smartphone. Well that would bring up a list of boutiques in the area that rank high in <a href="http://askbisdesigns.com/Internet-Marketing/SEO">SEO</a> or are using Google&rsquo;s local business feature. If you&rsquo;re a boutique in Mobile, Alabama and your website does <em>not </em>come up in the listings or on the map, you probably need to work on your SEO a little bit, and register your company on <a href="https://www.google.com/business/">Google My Business.</a></p> <p>How voice search effects <a href="http://askbisdesigns.com/Internet-Marketing/SEO">SEO</a> is a little unknown currently. There are suggestions that phrases used in voice search differ from typed search queries. This means that people are speaking differently than they are writing when they search for a topic, which makes sense if you think about it. <span style="color: #00b050;">Most people don&rsquo;t talk the same way they type something out, or else it would sound robotic and strange. </span></p> <p>SEO for written search queries is dominated by keywords, so keyword optimization for companies just contained the keywords and not the sentence structure that accompanies those keywords. <span style="color: #00b050;">In contrast, Voice-Search SEO uses more sentence-like, conversational phrases with keywords to mimic what someone would ask during a voice search.</span></p> <p><strong>Example: </strong></p> <p>Voice Search SEO: &ldquo;What are good restaurants to eat at in Gulf Shores, Alabama?&rdquo;</p> <p>Typed SEO: good restaurants gulf shores, al</p> <p><strong>See the difference?</strong></p> <p>Google has recently launched a new SEO update called <a href="http://searchengineland.com/google-hummingbird-172816">Hummingbird</a> that incorporates voice search into their new SEO algorithm. This Google updates makes it easier for searchers to find what they are looking for without having to use short, terse keyword search phrases.</p> <p>With the shift from searching using awkward keyword phrases such as, &ldquo;Subaru Spanish Fort,&rdquo; and instead using a conversational tone like, &ldquo;Subaru dealerships in Spanish, Fort,&rdquo; you can expect the SEO landscape to change with it. Though currently not many SEO experts are investing too much time key wording for Voice Search yet, it won&rsquo;t be too long until it will becomes a larger player in the SEO realm.</p> <p><strong>A tip to consider:</strong> Try adding a Q&amp;A section to your website. This will help Google pick up natural, conversational keywords and phrases within your website that will be used to influence your company&rsquo;s SEO ranking.</p> <p><strong>If you need help with your business&rsquo; SEO strategy, give us a call. Our </strong><a href="http://askbisdesigns.com/Internet-Marketing/SEO"><strong>SEO experts</strong></a><strong> at </strong><a href="http://askbisdesigns.com/Internet-Marketing/E-Mail-Marketing"><strong>BIS Designs</strong></a><strong> can great a plan and take proactive stance for your business&rsquo; SEO ranking. Call: 251-923-4252</strong></p>54Tips for Marketing to Tourists Digitally https://gulfcoastlocal.com/Blog-Details/PostId/41/tips-for-marketing-to-tourists-digitallyInternet MarketingThu, 17 Dec 2015 16:00:58 GMT<p><strong>Ah, life on the beach.</strong> It&rsquo;s many people&rsquo;s dream retirement destination. Luckily for us, and everyone else that calls the Gulf Coast their home, someone else&rsquo;s dream <em>is </em>our life. But as great as it is living by the water, for businesses in our area, it can be extremely profitable. Living in an area where tourism is a main profit-generator, businesses can be either very successful marketing their brand, or sometimes miss the mark. </p> <p>As tourism fuels our economy here, local businesses look forward to times of the year when tourists are most abundant. Summer, as you can imagine, is the peak-season to travel to the beach for vacations. Spring break and winter getaways are also very popular. But the times of the year people visit the beach play into their demographics too. Fall and winter yield a higher number of elderly visitors, seeking refuge from the harsh winters in the northern parts of the United States, while spring is when many college students vacation for their Spring Breaks. </p> <p>Local businesses prepare for tourists year-round and adjust their marketing programs based off of the season and the common demographics of visitors for each season. At least <em>most </em>business do. <span style="color: #548235;">Now that digital marketing is here to stay, and is an important player in the marketing sphere, make sure your tourism marketing includes digital.</span></p> <p><strong>Facebook Advertising</strong></p> <p>Targeted social media advertising lets you select <em>exactly </em>who you want your ad set to reach. Whether its adults aged 55 + whose interests are traveling and shopping, or adults aged 18 &ndash; 25 whose interests are water sports and the beach, you can determine your exact audience with <a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/?campaign_id=838271292900675&amp;placement=exact&amp;creative=90874684149&amp;keyword=facebook+advertising&amp;extra_1=d4b26380-1cd7-4d67-9b60-91fe61dbf94e" target="_blank">Facebook advertising</a>. This lets you get your message out to the people that are most interested in your product. </p> <p><strong>Social Media</strong></p> <p>Facebook represents one of the largest online communities in the world. You can connect with friends, groups, and business pages. Set up a business page to engage with fans and followers, inform them of yours services and products, specials and discounts and create a two-way conversation with them instead of just spitting out promotions. Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest are just a few others that have excelled for businesses. Travelers will look up businesses on social media channels to see if they are still in business, check out user reviews and what the business is posting about. Check out <a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/LinkClick.aspx?link=%2fInternet-Marketing%2fSocial-Media&amp;tabid=1957&amp;portalid=21&amp;mid=3043" target="_blank">BIS Designs' social media</a> services.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>SEO </strong></p> <p>Provide travelers with the information on destinations they are looking for at every stage of their planning process. When deciding upon a destination location, internet users go to search engines, with Google dominating the market at 67%. Google is the key search engine that you should focus on because of all the applications Google owns, such as Google Maps and YouTube, which aids in SEO. The higher your business ranks for your specific keywords, the easier it will be more tourists to find your shop, restaurant or whatever your business may be. Google Maps is now becoming a fast and easy way to search for businesses in the user&rsquo;s location. There is a lot of SEO works that goes into making your business searchable. Page titles, great content, meta tags, backlinks, and HTML code are just some ways to use SEO to increase your ranking. If you feel overwhelmed with the task of <a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/LinkClick.aspx?link=%2fInternet-Marketing%2fSEO&amp;tabid=1957&amp;portalid=21&amp;mid=3043" target="_blank">SEO</a>, that is what BIS Designs is here for.</p> <p><strong>Pay-per-click </strong></p> <p><a href="http://www.askbisdesigns.com/LinkClick.aspx?link=%2fInternet-Marketing%2fPPC-Marketing&amp;tabid=1957&amp;portalid=21&amp;mid=3043" target="_blank">PPC marketing</a> uses search engines in a different way to help market your business. PPC is paid advertising that shows up at the top of the search results. Say someone searched &ldquo;water activities in Gulf Shores.&rdquo; You can use PPC to have your water recreation business show up at the top of the search results for a <em>limited time</em>. This does not take the place of organic SEO, but helps to showcase your business quickly. </p> <p><strong>Websites</strong></p> <p>Make your website responsive on mobile devices. This is a MUST. The majority of travelers, and online users in general, use their mobile devices to search locations and business. In 2014, <a href="http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketing-old-statistics/" target="_blank">one half of all local searches</a> were performed on mobile devices. This number is higher in tourists because they are on the go and don&rsquo;t have a desktop readily available when they are traveling. Use landing pages attached to your website that redirect searchers to coupons or discounts on your products. </p> <p><strong>Travel Blogs and Review Websites</strong></p> <p>Reach out to travel bloggers. These bloggers are followed by thousands of people and are opinion leaders online. Pitch your business to a well-known travel blogger and if they agree, these bloggers will come visit your business and write about their experience. User reviews on businesses hold more sway than traditional advertising. You can manage your online reputation through blogs and business review sites, such as TripAdvisor. Review website are a key component to reaching travelers and helping make their decision whether to visit your business, or not. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="color: #548235;">These suggestions are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to digital marketing designed for tourists. </span>There are many different outlets and methods to help communicate your message to your target audiences. At <a href="http://askbisdesigns.com/" target="_blank">BIS Designs</a>, we have a highly-educated staff that understands digital and how to effectively market your business. Give us a call today! 251-923-4252</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>41Digital Marketing Trends for 2016https://gulfcoastlocal.com/Blog-Details/PostId/33/digital-marketing-trends-for-2016Internet MarketingWed, 21 Oct 2015 20:36:00 GMT<p>As 2015 is winding down&mdash;with only a couple more months left until the New Year, we want to discuss some marketing trends to look out for in 2016.</p> <p><strong>One main theme we can expect is the continuing evolution of technology and how it will affect our marketing strategies.</strong> We can expect that 2016 will only become more wrapped up in the latest apps, social media platforms, and the mobility of the internet. </p> <p>We&rsquo;ve seen a rapid growth in the amount of internet users getting online via cell phone and tablet as mobile devices have advanced. And as mentioned above, with technology only becoming smarter, faster and more portable, it&rsquo;s clear the majority of internet users are leaving the desktop computer in the dust.</p> <p>But just what exactly can we expect for 2016 in terms of digital marketing? Well no worries, don&rsquo;t expect something completely foreign. Actually, there will be many marketing strategies from the past few years still taking the limelight, but just progressing more. For example social media.</p> <p>Social media has been around for the past decade, at first attracting only a few pioneers and internet savvy-users, but now everyone and their grandmothers have a Facebook account. Social media and the terms we use to describe social media are growing at a light-speed pace. Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat, are some social media channels are just a few out there. Everyone is searching for the next social media app. And businesses can make great leaps in their marketing as they embrace social media.</p> <p><strong><span style="color: #00b050;">So without further ado, here are the predicted marketing trends we should expect to see in 2016:</span></strong></p> <p><strong>1)<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></strong><strong>Social media is becoming a main resource for articles and information.</strong></p> <p>Facebook and Twitter particularly have seen a big increase in users reading articles and watching videos on their platforms as opposed to reading articles and videos on the actual publisher&rsquo;s website.</p> <p>This means <a href="http://askbisdesigns.com/Internet-Marketing/Social-Media" target="_self">social media marketing</a> will become even more important for your brand. If users are getting a brand&rsquo;s information straight off social media and rarely going to its website, that means you need to be active in social media if you want to be heard. The more social-media centered our society gets, the more people will be looking for brands on social media to get their information from. </p> <p>Note: This does NOT mean you should not have a website.&nbsp; Websites should be a mandatory tool for a company. Websites help in <a href="http://askbisdesigns.com/Internet-Marketing/SEO" target="_self">SEO rankings</a> as well as provide necessary information to customers that you just can&rsquo;t put on a social media channel.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>We all know social media is key to creating two-way communication with your customers, as well as creating meaningful relationships with them. A.k.a. not just spitting advertisements and promotional material in their faces. <strong>Refresher: social media should be used to engage and entertain your customers and potential customers, not directly promote your brand:</strong> Think that more PR and less marketing.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>2)<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></strong><strong>Desktops are being left behind.</strong></p> <p>Mobile usage has gained rapid popularity and will only gain more traction in the future. In fact, it&rsquo;s looking like the desktop may never go back to what it once was. As of this year, roughly 2,000,000,000 global internet users get online on a mobile device, which has surpassed the number of global users that use a desktop computer. </p> <p>Google even decided that in order for a company to be ranked in SEO, the company has to have a mobile-friendly website, but doesn&rsquo;t have to have a desktop-compatible website necessarily. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Put simply, if your company&rsquo;s website is not responsive to different devices, then expect to be hidden from a majority of your potential customers.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>3)<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></strong><strong>Video Advertisements will grow.</strong></p> <p>You&rsquo;ve seen them in many places already- on websites, before your video on YouTube and in social media, but in 2016 video has the chance to become a mainstream digital advertising component. Currently, Google Search is testing out video advertisements. So instead of just those sponsored ads you see at the top of the search results page, embedded ad videos will live there too. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>4)<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></strong><strong>Personal, meaningful content will be more important than ever.</strong></p> <p>As mentioned above, digital marketing needs to be relevant and useful for a company&rsquo;s target audience. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>It should be about providing interesting, relevant information that is within your business&rsquo;s industry. For example, social media is where people want to read about topics that are important to them &ndash; not read about why they should buy your product. <span style="color: #00b050;">Entertain them, provide them with information they are interested in, but don&rsquo;t try to directly sell them. </span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><em>When it comes to a <a href="http://askbisdesigns.com/Websites/Our-Proven-Process" target="_self">website&rsquo;s content</a>, make sure it remains meaningful and interesting to your visitors</em>. Give them targeted messages that appeal to their interests and preferences. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>This is true when it comes to content and digital advertising too. There are so many ways to collect consumer insights: what they use, what brands they like the most, what products are of most interest to them. <strong>By finding out these insights you can target your content to appeal specifically to a certain group of people. </strong></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>If you walked onto a car lot and told the salesperson exactly what you wanted and they showed you cars that were completely outside of your preferences, you would be confused and probably aggravated, right? </p> <p><strong>Create content that is purposeful and specific to your target audience.</strong></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>We can expect to see more than just these four trends in 2016, but the trends listed above will be more important and influential. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The only question is: is your business ready for the change? We know digital, that&rsquo;s why we are in the digital marketing business. Our goal is to help businesses get the most out of their marketing efforts and help them navigate effectively through the digital world. <a href="http://askbisdesigns.com/" target="_self">Let us help you</a>!</p>33The Importance of Backlinks in SEO for a Websitehttps://gulfcoastlocal.com/Blog-Details/PostId/22/the-importance-of-backlinks-in-seo-for-a-websiteInternet MarketingWed, 26 Aug 2015 21:23:00 GMT<h2>SEO? What does that stand for?</h2> If you are not sure what the term &ldquo;SEO&rdquo; stands for in today&rsquo;s digital marketing landscape, you have some homework to do. SEO, standing for search engine optimization, is a pivotal function that helps get traffic to your articles, blogs, posts, websites and practically anything you want to get noticed on the internet.<br /> When users search for a specific topic in a search engine, a list of related articles and links are displayed. But how do you get a user to see your article above the thousands of others in a search result?<br /> Well, search results are based on a ranking system that is created using Google&rsquo;s search algorithm.<br /> That&rsquo;s where the backlink comes in.<br /> <h3>The Backlink</h3> If you have a basic understanding of SEO, you&rsquo;ve probably heard of the backlink. But although it is a common term in the SEO world, they can be difficult to understand.<br /> <br /> When you read an article online that has links to other webpages embedded in the article, like this, you are seeing a backlink. When another page or article online is linking to your webpage, it&rsquo;s helping your article increase its SEO ranking. In turn making it easier to be found. Get it?<br /> <br /> Any article with links to other webpages create a higher SEO ranking, i.e. search engines will pick up webpages with backlinks more than webpages without.<br /> <br /> But just understanding the definition of a backlink is just skimming the surface. Backlink terminology is wide and varied. <br /> Here are a few:<br /> <br /> <strong>Link juice:</strong> When another page links to your website, or vise versa, this creates "link juice." Link juice aids in producing a higher ranking for your webpage, domain and article. But take note:Link juice is connected to the quality of the website's link "power," so to speak. An example: If a well-known website such as Huffington Post were to backlink to your webpage, the link juice would be more powerful than if a lesser-known website backlinked to your page. Having a quality website backlink to your webpage is valuable because it increases the power of that backlink in relation to SEO. <br /> <strong>No-follow links: </strong>If an article creates a link, but doesn&rsquo;t want to pass the link juice around, they can create a no-follow link. These types of links don&rsquo;t improve the article&rsquo;s ranking, but they prevent link juice from being passed to webpages that are not reliable sources.<br /> <strong>Do-Follow Links:</strong> By default the links you put in your article are do-follow links and pass on "link juice." <br /> <strong>Anchor text:</strong> the text you click on that re-directs you to a link. It is important the text a user clicks on pertains to what the link is actually about.<br /> <br /> Recently, Google Search switched up its search algorithm to prevent webpages with unreliable or questionable links to be pulled up in the search engine. Your article needs to have links to RELEVANT and credible sites backlinking to it, not spam-y bogus sites.<br /> Don&rsquo;t forget to incorporate specific and relevant keyword out-bound links in your articles.<br /> <h3>Quality over quantity</h3> Having credible websites and articles linking back to your webpage is key. You don&rsquo;t need to have hundreds of links directing users to your webpage to obtain a higher SEO ranking though. Many times if you pay for questionable or non-relevant pages to create links to your website, Google&rsquo;s search algorithm will penalize you. Quality webpages linking back to your page is what is important- not a million different websites you pay to link, but have nothing in common with what your article or webpage is about.<br /> <h3>Review</h3> OK, so we talked about some technical terms, some do&rsquo;s and don&rsquo;ts of backlinking, and quality vs. quantity, but let&rsquo;s summarize:<br /> <br /> <strong>Backlinks</strong> refer to the webpages that are creating links to your webpage. Having substantial, quality sites link to your page is better than having thousands of miscellaneous, irrelevant websites linking to your page (plus you may get penalized by Google).<br /> Create<strong> anchor text </strong>that is relevant to the hyperlink&mdash;this will help raise your SEO ranking instead of creating a link that says CLICK HERE to read more. <br /> <br /> Backlink knowledge is a lot more complex than just these few suggestions, but with an overall understanding of what they do and why they are useful you are already ahead of the competition.22