Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing | Social Media

Top Reasons Why Businesses Need Social Media

social media

The concept of social media came about back in 1997. The first social media platform, along with the subsequent others that followed, was initially designed to bridge the communication gap between friends, family, and acquaintances who lived cities or even countries apart. The idea of this digital channel that could connect people hundred or thousands of miles away was met with equal parts acceptance and concern.

However, with the growing popularity of the internet, social media soon began to gain traction and more and more people began setting up their accounts and profiles on social media platforms. The number of social media users kept growing by the minute, and, soon, this concept evolved into something far beyond just a communication channel; it became the world’s largest marketplace. Soon, marketers realized the benefits of social media for businesses which led to the birth of social media marketing.

Recent reports show that there are about 4.62 billion social media users in the world, that’s more than half of the entire world’s population. Furthermore, the average daily usage time is two hours and twenty-seven minutes. With such a large audience distributed across just a few dominant online platforms, all of which are just a few clicks away, social media is the world’s largest and most potent marketplace to date.

Philly Online Marketing, an industry-leading digital marketing firm in Philadelphia, also presently ranked as the 34th best in the city, advises its clients as well as all Philadelphia business owners to incorporate social media marketing strategies in their advertising campaigns. In order to assist local business owners in gaining momentum and expanding their operations and profits, the agency also offers some of the finest Philadelphia social media marketing services in town.

To help you gain better insights as to why is social media marketing important, this article will walk you through some of the major benefits of social media for businesses.

Why Is Social Media Marketing Important – 7 Major Advantages of Social Media for Businesses

 

benefits of social media for businesses

 

1. Increase Brand Awareness

Seeing as how more than half of the entire world’s population browses through social media at least once during the day, social platforms and applications such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube are essentially an ocean of consumers and, therefore, an ideal avenue to reach new and relevant customers.

Looking from the consumer’s perspective, social media platforms are not only great places to connect with brands you already know and are familiar with, but they are also ideal for discovering new products and brands as well. According to a survey, 83% of users on Instagram admit that they also use the platform to find new products.

All in all, the massive audience that social media platforms have amassed makes them the perfect channel to provide your business with the public exposure it needs to grow and increase the brand awareness of your company.

2. Establish Yourself as a Thought Leader

While there has been a recent shift towards mistrust of NGOs, government, and the media, owing to the pandemic, the business sector still enjoys a 61% level of trust, according to the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer.

This entails that the consumers are now looking toward businesses and brands for information and insights, and there is no better platform than social media to communicate the insights and information that consumers are seeking from them.

Regardless of which industry your company belongs to, social media allows you to position your company as a thought leader and the go-to authority on issues pertaining to your respective field.

When looking to establish yourself as a thought leader and authority, you should focus your efforts more on LinkedIn and Twitter, which are excellent platforms for sharing thoughts and insights, especially the LinkedIn Publishing Platform. This is because these platforms are generally perceived as informative and business-oriented channels.

3. Humanizes Your Business

One of the main benefits of social media for businesses is the opportunity it provides you to form genuine and meaningful human connections with your audience. For instance, you could showcase how current clients are using and profiting from your products or introduce your followers to the team of the individuals that make up your business and the products you offer.

This genuineness and humaneness fosters trust, which, in turn, enhances the receptivity of your audience to your marketing strategies and promotes new business. When it comes to cultivating this authenticity and genuineness, there is no better place to start than on social media.

You can use social platforms to show how you’re living up to your brand principles, how your product actually performs, and how you’re prioritizing the needs of your staff and customers. Additionally, you can use social media to display your efforts in tackling certain social or environmental issues, in doing so, garnering the admiration of your audience as well as other institutions that are fighting against the same issue.

4. Boost Web Traffic

Some of the primary methods for increasing website traffic include regular and consistent social media posting and advertisements. An effective strategy to gather new viewers and viewers, and readers are to share all your newly posted content from your website and blog to your social media profiles and handles. You can even gather information about your click-throughs using UTM tracking tags.

Partaking in social chats is another effective strategy to gain visibility, attract new followers, demonstrate your subject matter expertise, and promote your website. However, you should keep in mind that these strategies only work if you offer genuine value rather than just self-promotion.

Moreover, you should also link all your social media posts and content back to your website to ensure that people can easily look up your business if they wish to learn more about you.

5. Collaborate with Influencers and Other Businesses

Consumer decisions are greatly influenced by reviews and recommendations from friends and family. Every time people talk, post, or share content about your business or product, you enjoy free marketing, which can help you establish trust for your brand and increase sales.

One effective way to encourage word-of-mouth marketing on social media is by partnering with social media influencers who have a sizable social media following and can direct that following’s attention to your brand.

For instance, you could partner with an influencer such as a Youtuber, Instagram model, etc., and have them make and share an unboxing video of your product on their social media accounts. Adore Me, a lingerie brand adopted a similar approach when they collaborated with influencers for a series of unboxing videos of their products. According to Instagram, the brand witnessed a 7% higher conversion rate, and its click-through rate almost doubled. This rapid boost in business testifies to the effectiveness of social media and is one of the biggest benefits of social media for businesses.

Collaborating with influencers and coming up with an agreement that is mutually beneficial for both, however, can be challenging and requires the knowledge and expertise of a professional marketer. That is why we recommend enlisting the help of a professional Philadelphia social media marketing service. Doing so will help ensure that your social media strategy is effective and does not exceed your marketing budget.

6. Better Lead Generation and Conversion Rates

Social media platforms have been optimized and updated over the last few years in order to make them more business-centric. What this means is that social platforms such as Instagram and Facebook now offer dedicated inbuilt tools and features that allow businesses to navigate the platforms better and use them to promote their products and services in a more effective way.

Using these tools and features, a business can configure its social media marketing strategy in a way that their ads, posts, and all other content are displayed only to those people who, based on their social media activities, might be interested in what the business has to offer.

Thanks to these tools, social media allows for a very highly targeted marketing strategy meaning that you can filter out the irrelevant audience and market your business only to those users who are already interested in your products or services.

This targeted marketing means higher-quality leads and a better lead conversion rate. This is because any consumer that is directed to your website through social media will already be interested in your product, and so you have a better chance of turning that lead into a sale. According to reports, social media marketing, compared to outbound marketing, has almost twice the lead-to-close rate.

Consider McCarthy and Stone, for instance. The company used Facebook lead ads to allow interested visitors to learn more about their real estate projects with only a few taps. For a cost that was two times less than that of conventional digital real estate campaigns, the ads ended up generating 4.3 times more leads than the previous year.

7. Gain Insights about Your Audience

One of the best ways to grow your business and boost your lead generation and lead conversion rate is to tailor your social media marketing around the behavior and the likes and dislikes of your targeted audience. The only way to do so, however, is to first learn about your audience and the marketplace.

Fortunately, one of the biggest benefits of social media for businesses is that it generates an enormous amount of data and information about the marketplace and your potential customers in real-time. As such, it can serve as an excellent forum for learning more about the marketplace and your targeted consumers. You can learn about the type of content your target audience likes, what they look for in a brand, current market trends, and much more.

Tracking how users engage with your content and that of your competitors, for instance, by reading comments, taking surveys, chatting, etc., you can learn where your products or services might fall short and what you can do to improve them.

Additionally, the analytical tools available on most social networks can provide you with information such as the age and location of your target demographic as well. Having this knowledge will enable you to enhance your products and better customize them to the requirements and tastes of your target market. This can give you an advantage over your competitors and boost your lead conversion rates.

Philadelphia Social Media Marketing Manager – Why Do You Need One?

Philadelphia social media marketing

If you’re a Philadelphia-based business who’s just starting out with social media marketing or have been doing it for some time but are struggling to get it right, it’s time you hire a professional Philadelphia social media marketing manager. There are several reasons why you should enlist the help of a professional manager. Here are some of the main ones:

1. The Social Landscape Keeps Changing

Social media algorithms are always changing, with programmers and designers rolling out new features, security measures, and updates once every few days or weeks. A professional Philadelphia social media marketing manager will be able to anticipate and track these changes and modify your marketing strategy accordingly so that it retains its effectiveness and keeps generating results.

2. Engagement via Social Media Is Necessary

Infrequent, unplanned, and carelessly posting on your social media profiles would be doing a disservice to your business and brand. If any of this reminds you of your current social media marketing strategy, we urge that you go back to the drawing board since such an approach can do more harm than good.

To exploit the marketing potential of social networks, you need to focus on user engagement. A social media manager will be able to assist you in planning your content and guide you in posting it in a way that maximizes your engagement.

The manager will also know how to react and respond to consumer feedback, negative and positive, which can be a key factor in deciding whether you retain and acquire new customers or lose your existing ones.

3. Reporting and Tracking

No marketing strategy can guarantee a 100% success rate. That is why we rely on analytical tools to discern whether our marketing strategy is bearing any fruit or if it is just wasting our resources. A marketing manager will use analytical tools to monitor and report whether or not your marketing strategy is effective. Doing so allows them to continuously improve your marketing, ensuring continuous and improved results.

The manager will also be able to create strategies based on your monthly and annual goals for the business and will make sure the goals are met.

Philadelphia Social Media Marketing – Need Assistance?

Now that you know why is social media marketing important for businesses, it is crucial that all Philadelphia-based companies integrate this marketing strategy into their marketing plans. To help you develop a personalized and optimized social media strategy tailored to the needs and targets of your business, Philly Online Marketing offers the finest social media marketing services in town.

Their team of experienced and specialized marketers can cater to the needs of any business, no matter how large or small. To learn more about how they can help you, click here!

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Digital Marketing

Overview of Services Offered by a Digital Marketing Agency

Digital marketing is the foundation of the marketing strategies of modern-day Philadelphia-based businesses due to its vast potential and effectiveness. However, digital marketing is an enormous realm that can be difficult to navigate for people who do not have a marketing background. For this reason, it would be wise for you to hire a professional digital marketing agency in Philadelphia. Below are some of the most common services that a professional marketing agency would provide you with:

The 4 Most Common Services Offered by a Professional Digital Marketing Agency

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is one of the first services that any digital marketing agency in Philadelphia will present you with. This is due to the fact that almost all of your marketing strategies heavily rely on how good your SEO practice is. A great SEO practice ensures that your webpage gets ranked higher up in online searches, thereby making sure that prospective clients become aware of your business.

Search engine algorithms rank web pages relevant to the searched keyword by weighing in certain factors. A good agency will know in detail about the algorithm, and the factors and so will cleverly make use of those factors to optimize your content so that it appears in the top search results whenever a keyword relevant to your business is searched.

Although it may seem simple, do keep in mind that there are thousands of other businesses that will be aiming for the top spot as well, and so that’s why hiring a professional agency instead of doing it yourself would be a smarter choice.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

SEM has the same primary goal as SEO, to rank your web page higher in the search results, but the approach is quite different. Paying a search engine to place your web page higher up in the results page is the basis of SEM methods.

The first step in SEM is always to choose a relevant keyword for your business, followed by designing advertisements tailored around the keyword. In order to get your ads up into the search results, you bid on the keyword of your choice. The rank of your ad is decided on factors such as how much you’ve bid on the keyword and your ad’s score quality. A capable marketing agency will handle all aspects of SEM for you, ensuring an effective marketing strategy that will bear fruit in a few days.

Social Media Marketing

Social media platforms have the largest amount of traffic, with millions of people surfing through these platforms each day. This essentially makes social media platforms the biggest market for you to pitch your products or services to. Therefore, this marketing tactic is a key part of any business’s marketing strategy.

This marketing strategy usually entails creating and managing social media profiles, running campaign ads, tracking online traffic, graphic designing, copywriting, and much more! Of course, a professional agency excels in all of these aspects with dedicated team members for each stage of the strategy.

Web Designing

A great marketing strategy will be futile if you don’t have a great webpage to route your traffic to. Your webpage is where potential customers know and learn about your services, how to contact you, your certifications, and more. A competent marketing agency will create an effective web page for you; the agency will deal with everything from the coding to the content that goes onto the web page, ensuring a user-friendly and appealing site.

Wrapping it Up!

Philly Online Marketing Philadelphia-based professional digital marketing agency that provides all of the aforementioned services and more! Their team has dedicated specialists for each aspect of digital marketing, ensuring top-notch services. To know more, head on to their website.

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Digital Marketing

The Best Digital Marketing Services for Your Philadelphia Business

 

The marketing strategies of businesses located in Philadelphia rely heavily on digital marketing to boost their effectiveness in reeling in more online and offline traffic, thus establishing a solid brand image for the business in question. Furthermore, statistics reveal that 78% of internet users search for products online rather than going out to shop for them.

Philly Online Marketing – a professional digital marketing agency, ranks as the 34th best digital marketing agency in Philadelphia out of a 115 competitors. The team describes digital marketing as an entire world unto itself, consisting of hundreds of different sub-strategies, many of which you may have already put into use when developing your existing marketing strategy. Nevertheless, navigating this complex and comprehensive marketing world can be very difficult if you do not have the necessary expertise.

To survive in such an uncertain world, it is important to anticipate future variations in the marketing trends and adjust your strategy accordingly. However, the skill, knowledge, and experience required to do so make it unsuitable to be accomplished by most business owners in Philadelphia.

For this reason, it is crucial that you seek the assistance of Philly Online Marketing, one of the top digital marketing agencies in Philadelphia. The folks at Philly Online Marketing have been in the industry for many years and therefore have hands-on experience dealing with the volatility of digital marketing trends.

They provide an extensive set of marketing services that accommodate all types and sizes of businesses regardless of how new or old they might be. Below are the top digital marketing services they offer:

The Top Digital Marketing Services Offered by Philly Online Marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Digital marketing agencies in PhiladelphiaSEO is the one of first and top digital marketing services offered by Philly Online Marketing for Philadelphia-based businesses. With approximately 68% of online searches being done through search engines, the importance of SEO has never been higher. To say that SEO is vital for your marketing strategy as the quality of your SEO writing might very well be the factor that determines whether or not your business succeeds.

To put it simply, SEO entails optimizing your content to increase its SERP ranking. This means that when a consumer looks up a keyword on a search engine related to your business, your business website is among the first few results on the user’s screen. This is important because the top search results get the most traffic. Research shows that 67% of clicks go to the top five search results.

Search engines use complex algorithms that look for websites relevant to the searched keyword. Once all the relevant website links have been compiled, the algorithm uses several rank-determining factors to establish a SERP rank for each website. It then lists the websites on the results page according to their respective SERP ranks.

SEO writing essentially focuses on optimizing the content of your websites in such a manner that your website scores as high as possible for each of the rank-determining factors making it easily discoverable for the search engine, thereby allowing your website to secure a high SERP rank. Following are some of the factors used by search engines to determine a SERP rank for a website:

  • A Secure and Accessible Website
  • Page Speed (Including Mobile Page Speed)
  • Mobile Friendliness
  • Domain Age, URL, and Authority
  • Optimized Content
  • Technical SEO
  • User Experience
  • Links

SEO strategy consists of several elements that work in conjunction to grant your website a high SERP rank. All of these elements are crucial in their own right and works to improve your website’s standing regarding at least one of the factors mentioned above. Therefore, each element has to be optimized properly to build an overall solid SEO strategy.

Below are some of the key elements of a complete SEO strategy:

Keywords

There are various keywords such as long-tail keywords, short-tail keywords, and local ones. A search engine algorithm uses keywords to look for relevant results. Therefore, it is vital to integrate well-researched keywords that have low competition and high search rates into your content.

Content

Content is essentially what a search engine identifies and ranks your website upon. This means that without content, a search engine won’t even consider your website to be listed on the results page. The content can be in many forms, some of which include:

  • Web page content
  • Videos
  • Blogs
  • Podcasts
  • Listicles
  • How-to guides
  • Social media posts

Be sure that whatever content you’re putting out is relevant to your business and does not have out-of-place keywords.

Local SEO

Local SEO helps your business become more discoverable through better SERP ranking for local search results such as searches for a business located specifically in Philadelphia. According to a report, nearly 60% of searches are made through smartphones, with more than half being local searches.

Advantages of SEO

Following are some of the main benefits of good SEO writing:

  • More traffic hence better lead conversion rate.
  • Enhanced business awareness.
  • Improved profitability.
  • Authoritative image for business.
  • Helps earn prospective clients’ trust.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Digital marketing agencies

The primary purpose of SEM, similar to SEO, is also to improve the SERP ranking of your website; however, SEM takes a different approach to achieve this purpose. SEM is generally a paid form of marketing in contrast to SEO being an organic methodology.

What this basically means is that SEM will get your website up on the higher SERP ranks, but you will be subjected to a certain charge each time a user clicks on your website; therefore, it is also known as pay per click (PPC) strategy. This is because, through SEM, your website appears as an advertisement rather than an organic result, and naturally, you have to pay for running your ad.

In fact, search results that appear through SEM have an “Ad” icon along with an ad extension which helps identify paid ads from organic results. Executing an SEM strategy is a multistep process. Following are the main steps that will lead you to successfully running your PPC campaign.

Select a Platform

Google is perhaps the best platform to run your SEM campaign on, seeing as how it has captured an 86.19% share of the global search market. Bing will be the next best option having a market share of 7%.

Research a Keyword

Selecting the right keywords is key to a successful SEM strategy. Depending on your goal, you can go with a large number of low-volume targeted keywords or a small number of high-volume varying quality keywords. It would be wise to seek the help of professionals in this step instead of doing it yourself.

Decide a Budget

As discussed above, SEM is a paid form of marketing and therefore requires you to bid on the keyword you want to use. The bid will vary depending on the quality and competition for the keyword. Therefore, it is important to set a budget for your campaign from the get-go.

Make Content

Just like with SEO, content is the element that allows you to be discovered by the search engine. Creating intriguing and compelling content will help you persuade users to click on your ad and will further help you in converting your leads into customers.

Build a Dedicated Landing Page

Your landing page is where your potential customers will be directed once they click on your ad. Therefore, having a dedicated and well-optimized landing page with relevant CTA’s will help you hook in the user, which increases the likelihood of lead conversion.

Advantages of SEM

Here are some of the main advantages of SEO strategy:

  • Allows targeted marketing.
  • Generates results much quicker than SEO.
  • Allows for excellent tracking of results.
  • Real-time monitoring.
  • Improved visibility and traffic.
  • Business appears as an authority in the field.

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

According to recent statistics, nearly 58.4% of the entire world’s population has at least a single social media account. To put this into perspective, this translates to roughly 4.62 billion people in the entire world using social media.

With social media platforms capturing such a large portion of the world’s population, it would be unwise for a business not to utilize these platforms to market their products and services. This is why all the Philly Online Marketing recommends implementing SMM into your marketing strategy. In fact, people using social media to promote their business tend to do 78% better than those who don’t.

Simply speaking, social media marketing (SMM) strategy entails the use of social media platforms and networks to advertise your business’s products and services. One of the best things about SMM is that it allows businesses to directly interact with their customers, build communities, and get almost instant feedback on their services and products. Furthermore, SMM has purpose-built data analytics tools that allow marketers to keep track of the results of their social media ad campaigns.

On the downside, to fully exploit the potential of SMM, you will need to invest in paid ads. In order to properly execute an SMM strategy, one needs to create and manage social media profiles, run ad campaigns, track results, design ads, and posters, write captions, and much more! Of course, digital marketing agencies have dedicated team members specializing in each aspect of SMM.

Following are the five key pillars of an effective SMM strategy:

Strategizing

This stage requires you and your marketing team to establish your goals and determine what social media platforms you will be using and the type of content that will be published.

Planning and Publishing

This stage involves planning, composing, editing, and finally publishing the content on your social media platforms of choice.

Listening and Engagement

Keeping track of what users, customers, and others have to say about your postings, brands, and other business assets. This can necessitate the use of a social media interaction tool.

Analytics and Reporting

Knowing how far your postings go is a key part of SMM; therefore, engagement and reach reports are essential.

Advertising

Running paid ads on social media platforms is an excellent way to promote your brand further to a highly targeted audience.

Advantages of SMM

Following are some of the advantages of SMM that make a business favorite:

  • Enhanced brand recognition and image.
  • Increased sales.
  • Analytical tools allow tracking of results.
  • Targeted marketing.
  • Excellent customer interaction.

Web Designing

Image Name: Boost your business

Image Description: A woman standing on a purple column

Image Alt Text: Digital marketing agencies in Philadelphia

 

With a majority of the world’s population having access to the internet, a business website has become one of the most important tools that a business can have. It is the first thing that a consumer looks for when searching for a business. Your SEO and SEM strategy also link users back to your website. Furthermore, most of the content you post, such as services, blogs your awards, etc., are all published on your site. Keeping this in mind, it is safe to say that a business cannot succeed in this modern era without having a great website to its name.

However, many people, although they do have a website for their business, pay no attention to the refinement and quality of their site. An outdated layout or a stuttering interface are major turn-offs for your incoming traffic and are often the sole reason for losing potential customers. Interestingly, a bad website won’t just drive away users; it will also make your website less discoverable for the search engine and hence users.

This is so because the search engine algorithm factors in the user experience and bounce-off rate that your site delivers when deciding the SERP rank for your site, be it through SEO or SEM. Poor performance directly leads to a lower SERP rank, thereby lowering the likelihood of people coming across your site.

Having said that, it is obvious that having a well-rounded site is important for your business to thrive or even survive in this competitive day and age. Following are some attributes of a great website:

Easy to Use

A complicated layout will only lead to users getting lost on your site and closing the tab out of frustration. Therefore, design your site to be simple and straightforward.

Fast Loading Speed

Nothing drives away potential leads faster than a slow-loading website. Make sure that your site is optimized for fast loading times, especially for smartphones.

Conspicuous CTAs

Without a proper call-to-action (CTA), your website will never be able to convert leads into customers. Ensure that your site has properly integrated CTA’s in the content.

Well Designed and Functional

Do not clutter your site with unnecessary options and content. Each and every feature of the site should serve a purpose.

Advantages of a Great Website

Following are some of the main advantages of having a great business website:

  • Adds credibility to the business.
  • Improves brand image.
  • Provides a means for lead conversion.
  • Brings in organic traffic.
  • Allows engagement with customers.

Is There More?

The services listed above are just some of the many top digital marketing services that Philly Online Marketing can provide your Philadelphia-based business with. They have comprehensive set of services which include a lot more than what is mentioned above. Some other top digital marketing services offered by them include:

  1. Local Listing Management
  2. In-App Mobile Advertisement
  3. ROI Tracking
  4. Social Ads Solutions

Final Thoughts

All of the services mentioned above are key digital marketing services offered by Philly Online Marketing. All these services work in conjunction to give businesses and enterprising entrepreneurs a solid marketing strategy, one that cannot be matched by any other marketing tactic. To know more about their services and how they can help out your business, click here!

 

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Digital Marketing | Online Marketing | Web Design

The Inevitability of Google’s Mobile-First Indexing

Google Mobile-first indexing

Due to the volume of people browsing search engines through mobile devices, Google created mobile-first indexing. This means Google will use the websites mobile version first for indexing on the search engine. It is part of the search engine’s best practices to help mobile users with the quality of their searches. Why this is so huge is that ever since websites were created the desktop version of a website were indexed first. Google will be announcing they are using mobile first indexing through their search console using the “for mobile” content first when indexing…so is your website ready and do you have access to your Google Search Console to get the announcement from Google?

Recently, Google released certain clarifications on mobile-first indexing to clear the confusion on how to go about preparing desktop and mobile versions of a website. Here are some clarifications you should keep in mind when designing and developing your website:

  • If you have different URL’s for mobile and desktop, Google will show them to the different devices where they are deployed to; mobile versions for mobile searches and desktop for desktop searches. For single URL websites, like Responsive Designed websites, you can sit back and relax you have nothing to worry about. Most importantly if the mobile only site(Example – https://m.website.com) has less or different content than the desktop site you are in for a ranking change.

 

  • Believe it or not it is not required to be mobile-friendly or mobile responsive for mobile-first indexing. Google continues to have one single index that they use for serving search results. They do not have a “mobile-first index” that’s separate from their main index just that Mobile is considered the priority over desktop. Just so that you are clear these are 2 different things. Ranking positions will not change due to mobile-first index. However Mobile friendliness is a ranking factor for mobile searches. Mobile-first indexing is just indexing the mobile content first.  It is highly recommended that if you plan to rank well on Google your website should always have good unique content. Updating your site with fresh new content will almost always help your rankings.  The relevance of each website pages title tag and metatag to the content on the page is a huge ranking factor.

Indexing means recording and Google is just recording mobile versions first as opposed to desktop versions due to an increase in mobile searches versus the use of the desktop. Google is just prioritizing mobile formats to accommodate mobile users. On a separate note coming up July 2018 while website speed has been used in ranking for quite some time, that signal was focused on desktop searches. Starting July 2018, page speed will be a ranking factor for mobile searches.

One last note coming up in July Google Chrome will be clearly showing people your website is Unsecure if you still have an HTTP site. So if you haven’t updated to a secure HTTPS site its time to get busy.Per Google – You must obtain a security certificate as a part of enabling HTTPS for your site. The certificate is issued by a certificate authority (CA), which takes steps to verify that your web address actually belongs to your organization, thus protecting your customers from man-in-the-middle attacks. When setting up your certificate, ensure a high level of security by choosing a 2048-bit key. If you already have a certificate with a weaker key (1024-bit), upgrade it to 2048 bits.

The biggest take away from all this…if you have a responsive designed website like most businesses do these days..sit back and relax you have nothing to worry about. If you have a separate mobile site just make sure the content is up to date with the desktop site and if  your website is not mobile friendly you seriously need to get busy.

These 2 tests from Google can give you peace of mind.

Mobile-Friendly Test – https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly

Google PageSpeed Insights – https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

I have found many clients are totally unaware of the Google Search Console or of its significance to their website. What is the Google Search Console and why do I need  it – Click Here

Should you need any help from a Google Certified Professional please call 215-384-4568 or inf[email protected] at https://phillyonlinemarketing.com

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Digital Marketing | Online Marketing

Why Your Business Needs Geofencing

Geofencing

 

As Digital Marketing progresses to target global markets, technologies are rising to localize, allowing for localization of marketing strategies to bring attention to local and physical stores. Geofencing is an innovation that allows you to bring customer/target market attention to your physical location/product, learn more about your target audiences, and bring in more sales in the process.

Geofencing draws a perimeter fence, virtually, so you can serve up ads to these people on their smartphones.  You can track that a person entered a target then converted as they come within your business’s perimeter. Geofencing allows you to move into your localized marketing strategy, create brand awareness, and more importantly, convert targeted advertising into sales and customer loyalty. Most of all clients seem to love the fact that they now have an effective way to target their competitors.

Geofencing allows you to track customers as they come in and out of your perimeter. While they are within the Geofence targets you’ve chosen(down to as small as 18 inches), you will populate on their smartphone for the next 30 days to get their attention. You can remind them of rewards and incentives as they visit your targets such as competitors or places you know your customers visit. This is also a good time to create customer awareness. Geofencing allows you to localize your strategy to bring in more customers and beat competitors as you entice customers with your rewards and incentives.

Geofencing works via the GPS in your customers’ smart devices. As they move into your targeted perimeters, you can serve up your ads to these people. You can review your reporting to see how your targets are performing then add and remove targets to improve performance of the Geofencing campaign. 80% of the ads get served up on thousand of mobile apps while about 20% of the ads are served up on the phones browser.

Geofencing offers a new spectrum of digital marketing that is more localized and specific to your target audience and customers. Grow your business by targeting customers that are within the prescribed parameters to ensure conversion into sales. Geo technologies are expanding towards localizing marketing for businesses to reach more of their niche markets. As the Internet enables enterprises to expand globally, smart tech in mobile apps with Internet access help you target more customers with location-based applications. This drives digital marketing strategies: to a more specific client base, to find more ways to entice customers, to get intel on competitors, and to find ways to grow customer loyalty.

 

Brian Brown

Digital Marketing Consultant
215-384-4568

Email: [email protected]

Philly Online Marketing

150 Monument Rd., Suite 207,  Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004

 

 

 

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Digital Marketing | Search Engine Marketing | Search Engine Optimization

3 Ways Combining Search Advertising + SEO Enhances Your Digital Marketing

SEO + Search Marketing

By MELISSA WOODRING

Many people look at search advertising and SEO as two separate marketing strategies. And, while they do yield different results and can help you reach different goals, there are many ways that your search advertising and SEO efforts can complement each other and lead to a more successful strategy online. Here are three ways using search advertising and SEO can enhance your digital marketing.

1. Increase Brand Awareness

Combining search advertising and SEO provides extra exposure on the search engine results pages (SERPs), which can increase brand awareness. Even if you rank in the top spot in organic SERPs, a PPC ad at the top of the page can improve traffic by 50%. If you’re dominating both the organic and paid search results page, then your website traffic is more likely to increase.

Additionally, SEO is a long-term strategy, and it can take a little time before you start to notice your efforts paying off. So, running a paid search campaign while you’re building up your organic presence can help you see more immediate results as your ad can show while you’re working to make search engines love your website.

Increases visibility and reach: Search advertising and SEO work hand in hand to increase your online visibility and reach. SEO helps you rank higher in organic search results, while search advertising allows you to place paid ads at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) for specific keywords. By combining these two strategies, you can dominate the search results page and reach more potential customers.

2. Provide Insights to Help You Improve Campaigns

The data you get from your search advertising and SEO campaigns can be analyzed and applied to other aspects of your digital marketing. Through your search advertising campaigns, you can check which keywords and text ads have the highest conversion rate and use that information to improve your SEO strategy. You can also see which keywords or phrases are bringing in the most organic visits, and use those insights to refine your PPC ads. For example, if you’re a mechanic and notice that “Tire Repair Dallas” is your top-performing organic keyword phrase, you can run search advertising campaigns around that portion of your business to attract both paid and organic traffic.

Provides valuable data and insights: Both search advertising and SEO provide valuable data and insights that can help you optimize your digital marketing campaigns. Search advertising allows you to track the performance of your ads, including impressions, clicks, and conversions. SEO provides data on your website’s traffic, user behavior, and keyword rankings. By combining this data, you can gain a deeper understanding of your target audience and how they interact with your website.

3. Help You Target the Right People & Try New Things

The data you collect from your PPC and SEO campaigns can also help you uncover details about your target audience, which can help you launch an even more integrated strategy to boost your brand and reputation online. It also gives you the flexibility to try new things. Since search advertising often yields quicker results, it can be a good way to test out a new target area to see if you can draw in customers from a different location. From there, you can implement the strategy into your SEO campaign.

Increases overall ROI: Combining search advertising and SEO can lead to increased ROI (Return on Investment) for your digital marketing campaigns. By targeting both paid and organic search results, you can capture more clicks and conversions. Additionally, optimizing your website for SEO can lead to increased website traffic and improved user experience, which can lead to more conversions over time. By combining these strategies, you can maximize the impact of your digital marketing budget and improve your overall ROI.

A combined search advertising and SEO strategy can help you in many areas of your online marketing. To learn more about how using multiple digital marketing strategies can help you improve your online presence and see more results, visit our Solutions.

Brian Brown
Digital Marketing Consultant

215-384-4568

150 Monument Rd. | Suite 207  | Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004

Email: [email protected]

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Digital Marketing | Online Marketing

Free Philadelphia Internet Advertising | DIY Business Listings

Free Internet Advertising listed below can help local businesses increase visibility online.  Philadelphia business owners often ask “Where are some other areas I can gain exposure online?” Below are several FREE top local business directories…consider these DIY Business Listings!! Many businesses do not realize that the amount of listings and there accuracy will increase the ranking of their website.  It’s a good idea, if you are not already listed, to add your business to these listings. For DIY Business Listings the most important listings are the big search engines Google, Yahoo and BING. The links below will help you to CLAIM your listing as it verifies to the search engines you are a real business and will improve your website rankings. Do not duplicate a listing..if you are already listed just make sure its claimed. Accuracy of your listing is VERY important to make sure it matches up exactly as listed on your website. Once claimed you will have control to edit your Do It Yourself Business Listings.

Most Important – Add your business to the Google My Business formerly Google Places. Google My Business is a dashboard to control your business on Google. Google+ is part of Google My Business but Google+ is the social side of your business on Google. Once Logged in go down on the left to “Info” and make sure you fill out everything completely.

https://www.google.com/business/ 

Add your business to Yahoo Small Business

https://www.yext.com/pl/yahoo-claims/free-claim-checkout.html

Add your business to BING/MSN Map(BING Local Business Listing)

https://www.bingplaces.com/

The next most important places to list your business for FREE are on the Aggregators.  These Aggregators push your data out to a large amount of directories so its very important you are listed here and your information MUST be exactly as listed on your website. Many of the paid placement or paid listing companies use a consensus of this data when pushing you out to the directories. Below are the 3 main aggregators. Each of these are VERY important for the success of you DIY Business Listings. Factual is big one as well but recently stop providing a free listing and makes you use a paid service. Should you need a paid service for all your listings we charge $110/month.

Add your business to Infogroup

https://www.expressupdate.com/search

Add your business to Neustar Localeze

https://www.neustarlocaleze.biz/directory/Search

The following free business directories are many of the very best to use for your business. Quite often these directory listings will get your Philadelphia business listing found on the search engines allowing potential customers another way to find your business. The more places you are on the web this increases your chances of being found. Below are listed many of the more popular directories found to rank well on the search engines and will drive leads. We found many of these also provide an inbound link to your website which can be beneficial for Search Engine Optimization(SEO).

Add your business to YP

http://adsolutions.yp.com/advertise-with-us-page-A

Add your business to Superpages

http://my.dexmedia.com//spportal/quickbpflow.do

Add your business to YELP

https://biz.yelp.com/support/claiming

Add your business to Local.com

https://advertise.local.com/

Add your business to Yellowbot

https://www.yellowbot.com/signin

Add your business to Merchant Circle

http://www.merchantcircle.com/signup/

Add your Business to Philadelphia Marketing Directory

http://www.philadelphia-marketing-directory.com/add.cfm

Add your Business to Angie’s List

https://business.angieslist.com/Registration/SimpleRegistration.aspx

Add your Business to Manta

https://www.manta.com/add-your-company?rl=addacompany-header&add_driver=header&addCompany=1

Add your Business to MapQuest

https://business.mapquest.com/products/business-listing/

Add your Business to LinkedIn

https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/company-pages

Add your business to Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/pages/creation/

Add your business to Apple Maps

https://mapsconnect.apple.com/

Add your business to the Better Business Bureau

https://www.bbb.org/en/us/get-listed

Now once you have set up your Free Philadelphia Internet Advertising check them out for accuracy at Sweet IQ

Here is a good article by Bill Connard, as it backs this up post “Local Listing Management Priorities: How & Where to Syndicate Local Data”

Sweet IQ also stresses the Importance of Listings and how they help your website to rank higher. Be sure to read the DO’S and DONT’S. https://sweetiq.com/local-search-resources-faqs/

If you need help with your DIY Business Listings or any of your Internet Advertising or Marketing contact:

Brian Brown Digital Marketing Consultant – Over 20 yrs experience.
215-384-4568
150 Monument Rd | Suite 207 | Bala Cynwyd, PA  19004

phillyonlinemarketing.com
Linkedin Profile

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Digital Marketing | Online Marketing

Choosing an Internet Marketing company for your Local Philadelphia business.

While there are many factors that can influence your decision when choosing an internet marketing company to handle your Philadelphia internet advertising. Remember to ask your rep how many campaigns have they run, how many years experience and what type of retention rate do they have in keeping their accounts.

Choosing the right internet marketing company for your local Philadelphia business can be a daunting task, but it’s essential to ensure your online presence is optimized for maximum reach and engagement. Here are some tips to help you make an informed decision:

  1. Look for a company with experience in local Philadelphia markets: A company that has experience working with businesses in the Philadelphia area will have a better understanding of the local market and what strategies work best in the area.
  2. Check the company’s portfolio: Look at the company’s past work to see if they have experience in the specific areas of internet marketing that you need. For example, if you need help with social media, look for companies that have a track record of successful social media campaigns.
  3. Check reviews and testimonials: Look for reviews and testimonials from other local businesses to see what their experience was like with the company. You can also ask the company for references from past clients.
  4. Check their certifications: Look for companies that have certifications in areas like Google Ads or Google Analytics. This can indicate that they have a deep understanding of these platforms and can help you get the most out of your campaigns.
  5. Consider their communication style: You want to work with a company that is easy to communicate with and responsive to your needs. Look for a company that is willing to take the time to understand your business and work with you to create a customized marketing strategy.
  6. Consider their pricing: While pricing shouldn’t be the only factor in your decision, it’s important to find a company that fits within your budget. Look for companies that offer transparent pricing and are upfront about any additional costs.

By following these tips, you’ll be well on your way to finding the right internet marketing company for your local Philadelphia business. Call Today for more help Philly Online Marketing.

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Digital Marketing | Online Marketing

Google Adwords – Philadelphia Internet Advertising

I regularly read the latest articles on how to improve your Google adwords campaigns for local Philadelphia based businesses. I personally am running over 50 of them now. Over the years I have learned many techniques on how to improve results for Google Adwords. I’m not ready to spill all my secrets but here are several good articles I’ve collected for improving Google Adwords.

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Digital Marketing | Online Marketing

Philadelphia Internet Marketing Consultant

Philadelphia Internet Marketing Consultant

For Philadelphia local business owners, finding the right Philadelphia Internet Marketing Consultant is a must. In today’s fast-paced age of information sharing, you can’t afford to ignore the power of the Internet for your business. Local Philadelphia business owners without a website could be missing out on business.

Philadelphia Website Internet Marketing
For those who have an existing website, marketing is crucial to long-term success. As the needs of consumers grow, your website internet marketing must be in line with your customer’s expectations. Marketing through popular social media sites and using programs like Google AdWords is no longer an option, you need these programs to help grow your business. Get a Marketing Consultant than can get the results you need.

Search Marketing Philadelphia
Think about the last time you purchased a new product or service. Chances are that you conducted your own research before you got started. This is where search marketing comes into play, as more people are turning to their favorite search engines to find out about the products they want to buy.  Finding a local Philadelphia Internet marketing consultant to help you find the most cost effective programs for your local business is the key to successful internet marketing.

Various Internet Marketing Services
Internet marketing is far more than posting a website and updating it from time to time. Today, Internet marketing involves pay per click advertising, social media advertising and Google Adwords. When used in conjunction with other forms of advertising, these programs can help grow your business.
Today, internet marketing is a must for business owners of all sizes.  No longer can business owners afford to ignore the power of the Internet, in fact, the smaller the business, the more likely that they need a strong web presence.  Social media marketing, paid to click advertising and a strong website are all components of successful business ventures.

Call or email me for more information. Chances are I’m currently doing Philadelphia Internet Marketing for several businesses right in your area. I can show the great results they receive and how you can easily get top results for your local business. My consultations are free and so far everyone has said its been very helpful. Find out how much you don’t know and get more leads and sales from your website marketing.

Brian Brown is a Digital Marketing Consultant in Philadelphia with over 20 yrs experience.

Brian Brown
Digital Marketing Consultant
215-384-4568
Email: [email protected]
150 Monument Rd | Suite 207 | Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004

Philly Internet Marketing

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