A Haunted Mixer—The Halloween Happening Presented by the Clovis Chamber of Commerce

A Haunted Mixer—The Halloween Happening Presented by the Clovis Chamber of Commerce

Posted by in Digital Marketing, Event Marketing

We had so much fun last year that we had to do it again.

Moore than SEO is sponsoring the October mixer again for the Clovis Chamber of Commerce. A Haunted Mixer promises to be the best Halloween-themed business networking event in the Fresno area.

Materialize wearing an ingenious costume at Bitwise Industries’ South Stadium, the state-of-the-art downtown Fresno tech campus, from 5 to 7 pm on Wednesday, October 18th. Boogie on down to the Monster Mash and enjoy a playlist of tunes that go bump in the night. We’re adding fabulous prizes for best costume, door prizes, and more to our cauldron of fun. Costumes are encouraged—Come as yourself and you may scare everyone away!

No freaky foods. No tricks. Fresno’s own Tree of Life Café & Bakery is serving only the yummiest treats at A Haunted Mixer. Make an appearance and be pleasantly surprised.

Don’t be spooked by the haunted theme—this Clovis Chamber of Commerce mixer is the best way to meet local colleagues and start lasting professional relationships. Assemble your own powerful business referral network while bringing credibility to your company. And have fun doing it.

Learn more about the Clovis Chamber, geek out at Bitwise Industries, and discover how we can up your game when it comes to brand recognition. Moore Than SEO supports our local business community by putting you on the map using natural search engine optimization strategies. We never stray to the “dark side” with practices that are punishable by Google penalties. Our content writing and SEO experts create relevant information for your websites, blogs, and social media posts—We are impervious to brain-eating zombies. Call us at 559-978-4096 (we promise not to bite).

Come as you are or terrify us with a costume. Rev up your batmobile, take to the sky with your broomstick, emerge from your crypt, and arrive as if by magic. We’ll conjure up a great time for you at A Haunted Mixer. We look forward to seeing you October 18th!

Shows manufacturing machinery

Manufacturers: How to Increase Your Bottom Line Using an Integrated Marketing Approach

Posted by in Digital Marketing, Industrial Marketing, SEO: Search Engine Optimization

You’ve seen it work across non-technical industries—Retailers grab social media by the horns and get the word out about their products and services, connecting with customers and creating a dialog to drive up sales. But when it comes to industrial marketers, they lag behind. Why is it that only 30% of manufacturing marketers say they are effective at content marketing? (Source: ContentMarketingInstitute.com)

Creating engaging material to attract your target audience is one of the biggest challenges to content marketing. Technical writing that takes an integrated marketing approach meets this challenge by engaging both new and existing customers.

Which marketing strategies have the potential to increase your bottom line in the manufacturing industry?

Deliver meaningful documents into the hands of your target audience

Do you possess a wealth of content in a hard copy format and/or have content hidden on non-searchable, private areas of your website? Put these archived materials to work for you to attract interest in your brand and solidify your reputation. Content development professionals transform old documents, papers, and sales resources into online marketing fuel for increased outreach and awareness.

Ensure your website is as technologically sound as your company’s products

Is your website up-to-date? Is it mobile friendly, viewable on all the latest digital devices? Expert content marketers understand that obsolete website technology puts you at a disadvantage against your competition. Work with technical content marketers to leverage modern tech to fully integrate online marketing tactics.

Create a meaningful, cohesive, quality message across all platforms that resonate with your audience

Are you sending out different messages on different platforms? Solidify your brand by understanding the key phrases that potential customers use to find you online. Create your niche with powerful technical writing, and spread that message across your website, social media, blogs, emails, and beyond. Take that message offline, too, building a one-two punch against your competitors.

To bring this integrated online/offline marketing strategy to full realization, put the technical content writing into the hands of experts. Using effective methods of SEO (search engine optimization), graphic design creation, and social media know-how, you’ll see an uptick in your sales bottom line.

Here at Moore Than SEO, our senior staff has decades of experience understanding and conveying technical concepts. We are attuned to writing for the manufacturing sector to build that competitive edge. Give us a call at 559-978-4096 or drop us a line for your complimentary, no-obligation evaluation of your current marketing presence.

How to Make Video the Hottest Tool in your Marketing Mix

How to Make Video the Hottest Tool in your Marketing Mix

Posted by in Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, Social Media

By Anne Roos, Content Development

There’s no question about it—The business world has gone gaga over reaching consumers through video marketing. It’s easy to see why:

 

U.S. Internet video will account for over 80% of all U.S. Internet traffic within the next two years.

Native videos—videos created or uploaded on social networks to appear in feeds—are seeing even faster growth. (Source: Recode.net)

Native videos, available on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and now Pinterest, make it easier for business to target specific customers on different platforms.

For instance, the majority of videos used on Facebook are native videos, and 90% of profiles and business pages utilize Facebook native videos (Source: Quintly.com)

What was only found on YouTube is now available across most social media platforms.

Video generates more shares than any other type of post on Facebook, tweets containing videos generate 9 times more engagement than text-only tweets, and video ads on Snapchat outperform video ads on all other social media platforms. Video content is also on the rise on Instagram, and Pinterest is jumping on the bandwagon to offer in-stream auto-play video ads. (Source: SocialMediaToday.com)

Consumers click the video “Play” button far more than they click on image ads.

Furthermore, they tend to watch more than 2/3rds of the video, on average. (Source: Dynamic Logic Data)

Over 70% of businesses confirm that videos produce more conversions than any other content marketing format.

Most experienced improved ROI on their video marketing expenditures. (Source: Demand Metric)

The average Internet user spends 88% more time on websites with video than without.

Some 64% of customers are more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it. (Source: codefuel.com).

Besides boosting sales and conversions, videos are great for improved SEO.

Here’s another fabulous statistic: Your company is 53 times more likely to show up at the top of Google search engine results when you have a video embedded on your website (Source: Forrester).

Despite all of these statistics, only 24% of brands currently use online videos to market to customers—A surprising fact given that 65% of Internet users are visual learners. (Source: Forbes)

Videos grab the attention of even the laziest buyers, and they encourage social media sharing. So besides making profits, your videos enhance your brand’s online recognition and reputation. You can easily measure the success of each video, or test run multiple videos on different platforms, to determine which message is most attractive to customers.

This is the obvious opportunity to target your ads to specific demographics, personalizing them for maximum engagement. Entice viewers with interactive content—videos are not just for watching, they are for participating.

Shows photo of lady creating video marketing content by talking in front of professional video camera

How can you ensure that your videos will strike a bond with potential and loyal customers?

Ensure that they touch viewers on an emotional level to set your company apart from your competitors. Here’s how:

  • Show a preview of products and services yet to be released—Reveal them slowly, letting viewers in on the big secret over a series of videos. Invite viewers to subscribe to learn more about what’s next on the horizon for your company.
  • Let viewers in on the behind-the-scenes action at your company—Show how products are made, introduce viewers to your staff, and take customers on a tour of your facility. Open the doors to your company on a virtual level.
  • Demonstrate how products work, right from the box—How-to tutorials display the easy of using your products, helping those who’ve recently purchased and those who are thinking of making a purchase. You’ll be viewed as an expert, in comparison to your competitors.
  • Capture clients singing your praises—Filming reviews and testimonials from satisfied customers is a powerful way to attract buyers away from your competition. According to Inc.com, testimonials are more meaningful when viewers can see people delivering them, rather than just reading text reviews.
  • Respond to customer questions—Record your detailed answers to questions received via social media. What better way to demonstrate your commitment to prompt customer service?
  • Reveal industry news and upcoming trends—Educate your viewers on what’s hot and what’s not. Show them how your company is riding the wave of the newest developments. Customers will choose to buy from you because your company considers the newest innovations in your products and services.
  • Amaze your viewers—Have fun, and your viewers will enjoy your videos. Keep this in mind, and you’ll increase the likelihood that your videos will be shared across the social networks. Show something surprising that only your company does. Take your viewers on a trip to your next expo, giving them a peek at what happens in your exhibit booth. Film an employee on a delivery run adventure. Give your video a cliffhanger ending, leaving viewers to wonder, “What’s next?” Demo novel uses for your products that most buyers might not consider.

For your videos to be effective, your video content strategy cannot be separate from you marketing goals. And the video must be professional, or else your company may be viewed as “amateurish.”

This is where Moore Than SEO comes in. Our video marketing service includes a full analysis of your online presence, including a snapshot of how your company fares against your competitors. We’ll assist in developing your video content with a preferred partner for video production with a consistent marketing focus. Finally, we’ll utilize the videos to your advantage, posting them on the social media platforms where your target customers hang out. We aren’t done once the videos are posted—We analyze the performance of your videos, tweaking your customized video marketing strategy to improve results.

Take advantage of this hot social video trend. It only takes one call to our experts at 559-978-4096 to get started. We look forward to helping your company stand out online with video branding.

Enhance Your SEO and Digital Identity with a Mobile-Friendly Website

Enhance Your SEO and Digital Identity with a Mobile-Friendly Website

Posted by in Digital Marketing, SEO: Search Engine Optimization, Website Development

By Anne Roos, Content Development

Make the most of your digital identity for improved SEO appeal and connection with target audiences!

Shows a lady viewing her smart phone and talks about enhancing digital identity with SEO.The Scenario:

You’ve spent countless of dollars and hours getting your gorgeous website up-and-running just the way you like it. It looks great on your office desktop and your business laptop. Then, something fishy happens: You’re on the road and you receive an email, “I can’t see anything on your website beyond your homepage.” Or, “I click to subscribe to your newsletter, and nothing happens.” Or, even worse, you check your web stats and discover that you have few online sales because customers are abandoning their shopping carts.

Hmmm. Your website looks fine on Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and other browsers.  But when you pick up your smartphone or tablet, your website doesn’t appear, it looks terrible, or it doesn’t work.

The Hard Facts:

  • Google’s research found that 61% of mobile device users are unlikely to return to a mobile site that they have trouble accessing, and 40% will go to a competitor’s site instead.
  • Conversation rates for smartphones are up by 64% compared to conversion rates for desktops. (“Conversions” are when website visitors complete an action, such as subscribing to a newsletter.) (Source: CMS Report)
  • 57% of mobile users respond that they do not recommend businesses with poorly designed mobile websites. (Source: CMS Report)

In the end, when you aren’t visible, barely visible, or give a poor impression of your business on digital devices, you’re missing out on business. New customers can’t find you, and your existing customers quietly jump ship and go to your competition.

These hard facts are reflected in Google’s mobile algorithms. Mobile friendliness figures significantly in Google determines website rankings. Therefore, even if a customer is surfing on a desktop or laptop, your site may not be visible in search engine results if it isn’t mobile friendly.

The Solution:

Enhance your SEO (search engine optimization) and your digital identity (online brand awareness) by going mobile. This does not mean that you need to trash your current website and start all over again!

Research your website’s mobile friendliness.

Check how each page is viewed on a mobile device, looking at it on both tablets and smartphones. Verify that META information is entered on each page to enable the Google bots to find your site. View each individual page of your site, confirming that navigation is working. Click on all actionable buttons to confirm they are in working order.

Use the fast and easy Google Mobile-Friendly Test Page for a free analysis. Just plug in a URL and go. Better yet, receive a free website health assessment to delve into mobile-ready issues and other website hiccups that may be stunting your online competitive edge.

Hold off on making tweaks to your website until you have the whole story about your website’s performance.

Think about how your customers use mobile.

How does it fit into their lives? Which devices are they using? Think of how your website information can be adapted to the small screen. Take advantage of geolocation technologies, such as GPS-enabled apps, to increase engagement with local customers and discover where your customers roam. Mobile-ready websites are about design as much as they are about creating content that is viewable and actionable across all devices.

Reconsider your website content.

On small, mobile screens, your website copy needs to be clear and actionable. Simplify navigation. Avoid Flash and JavaScript to ensure graphics appear as clear on smartphones as they do on desktops. Ensure font size and style are easily readable on both the big and small screens. Post contact info prominently on every page—Make it easy for mobile customers to get in touch with you. When

On small, mobile screens, your website copy needs to be clear and actionable. Simplify navigation. Avoid Flash and JavaScript to ensure graphics appear as clear on smartphones as they do on desktops. Ensure font size and style are easily readable on both the big and small screens. Post contact info prominently on every page—Make it easy for mobile customers to get in touch with you. When design isn’t in your wheelhouse, rely on a professional to get it right the first time.

Satisfy the Google mobile requirements first, and continue to reshape content.

Get a WordPress or an HTML-5 mobile plugin if you aren’t ready to update your existing website.

Many website themes are viewable on all devices. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they look good, though. Before your new or refurbished website goes live, view it on as many devices as possible, and then make final adjustments. Once your site is launched, review your online listings.

Update your SEO strategy

Websites are not “set it and forget it”. They are dynamic because customers’ tastes change and your competition changes. Create a game plan for the use of social media marketing with the hottest keyword phrases that turn on your customers. Regular monitoring of your website’s performance puts you apart from your competitors, and together with social media marketing, develops your digital identity niche. Best of all, it increases your profits, because your audience can find your business wherever they roam.

Here at Moore than SEO, we specialize in website and content development that satisfies Google’s best practices and increases brand identification and reputation.  Not mobile-friendly? Get started by contacting us at 559-978-4096 for your complimentary website health assessment.

Shows iPad with speaker, Shel Moore.

Co-founder, Shel Moore, To Talk Search Marketing at Clovis Chamber of Commerce Leads Club

Posted by in Digital Marketing, SEO: Search Engine Optimization

We’re excited to share that our co-founder and CMO, Shel Moore, will be speaking at today’s Clovis Chamber of Commerce MAP Leads Club. Search marketing is a broad subject, and for today’s topic, Shel really wants to hone in on the most actionable tips. So, we’ll stick to some basics in this post and also provide some deeper links to more detailed educational resources. The topic of today’s discussion is, “10 Minute Local SEO Tips.” We hope you’ll find value in the additional resources listed below. We thought a quick blog post summary would be the perfect way to share this talk’s highlights with the Chamber Leads Club.

Top Takeaways from This Afternoon’s Talk:

Always start by installing Google Analytics on your website. Without Analytics you are operating blindly and without any data to guide yoshows laptop screen with presentation title, 10 Minute Local SEO Tipsu. There is a detailed walkthrough that includes a video tutorial on Google’s website here. (Now, we fully understand that this one can’t really be completed in 10 minutes, however it’s well worth the time invested.)

Take the time to setup your business on Google My Business! Without this step, your business will not show up on Google Maps in search results. It’s easy – get started at Google.com/business right now. Complete your profile – include your hours, location, phone number, email, website, photos, about us text and more!

Go through the process to verify your listing with Google. You can choose between two methods of verification – phone call & by mail. If you’re hoping to complete this step in 10 minutes or less, we recommend the phone, but you’ll need to complete this during Google’s open hours. If you choose verification by mail, you will receive a postcard in the mail at your listing location that contains a code you enter into your account to prove verification. This step must be completed before your Google listing & map are fully completed. Click here & scroll down to access the portion of Google’s page that steps you through the verification process

Is your website truly mobile friendly? If you’re not sure you can check through Google’s Mobile-Friendly test. Mobile-Friendliness is about so much more than simply viewing a website on your phone. Today, Google evaluates a website’s attributes and how they relate to overall readability and navigation ease-of-use. (How big is the text, how long do pages take to load, where are navigation prompts located, etc.) If your website doesn’t pass Google’s test then you need to do some serious thinking about how to update your website – it’s critical for improved search ranking. Are you considering a website refresh? If you are, read our white paper for extra help in navigating this process.

Looking to Dive Deeper? Here Are Some More Great SEO Tips and Explanations:

Read 5 Fast and Easy SEO Growth Hacks to Improve Your Website In 2017

How to Remove the Cobwebs from your Website

Why Are Google Analytics Important for Web Development?

Top SEO Tips for Successful Website Promotion in 2017

Life After Penalty – What’s the Prescription for Restoring Website Health?

What makes a website page SEO-perfect?
(Infographic for visual-learners.)

There are a large number of factors to be certain, however, we’ve made the breakdown easy as pie in our “Anatomy of an Optimized Web Page” infographic. Follow along & start improving your website right away!

Infographic shows website optimization basics

 

 

 

 

Shows website navigation with title, Top SEO Tips for website promotion

Our Holiday Gift to You—Top SEO Tips for Successful Website Promotion in 2017

Posted by in Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, Industrial Marketing, SEO: Search Engine Optimization

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! Happy Chanukah! Happy Kwanza! Happy Festivus! And Happy New Year from the entire staff here at Moore Than SEO!

No matter how you celebrate the holiday season, this is the perfect time to regroup and dive into successful website promotion strategies to get ahead of your competition in the New Year.

Our gift to you is…drumroll please…Our New Years top SEO Tips! This list is designed to increase brand awareness of your company across the internet.

1. Stay current on Google analytics trends.

What keeps your website in good favor with Google, and what can cause your website to drop off the first page of search engine results? Find out about Google’s cast of characters and the latest Penguin update. Review your present site and make corrections to avoid Google penalties, and take note of how to skirt penalties before launching a new site.

2. Take the temperature of your present online competitive climate.

Know how your business can create a niche in your industry. This measurement of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT assessment) is the starting line for low and high tech SEO alike. Even if you completed a SWOT assessment this year, check your business climate again to lay claim of your product niche for the New Year.

3. Create or update your buyer personas to remain relevant to your customers.

Your customers’ wants, needs, and regular hang-outs change according to your industry’s competitive climate. Having an understanding of your target customers, beyond simple demographics, helps you target content to attract them to buy. Use our Developing Buyer Personas DIY Worksheet to improve online engagement, and thus, improve your website rankings.

4. Get to work using our 5 Fast and Easy SEO Growth Hacks.

Have you installed Google Analytics on your website? Are you regularly refreshing META information for each of your pages? Are links to your social media profiles integrated throughout your site? Is your site free of duplicate content? Is your location and contact info plainly visible throughout your website? If this is all new to you, or you’re just getting started with your new website, download our free white paper to get SEO right the first time.

5. Refresh your content.

Double-check to ensure your website content is not duplicated elsewhere on the internet, or duplicated within you’re the pages on your website (use copyscape.com to check your web page content for free). Duplicate content has a negative impact on your website’s performance in search engine rankings. Update your content to make it fresh and unique. Not a writer? Use our tips for online writing and formatting. Create content that leads your target customers to your website, delivering a visible digital identity for your company, your products, and your services.

These five steps form the launching pad for improved SEO results in the New Year.

It’s a lot of material to digest. No wonder savvy business owners elect to turn to SEO experts to avoid taking missteps and incurring Google penalties. We’re here to help. Our SEO team steers you in the right direction, creating a sound online reputation for your brand. Our goal is to drive your target customers to your website where you can close the sale.

Get started with successful web promotion in 2017 and beyond. Contact our SEO experts today for a free website health assessment, and give us a call at 559-978-4096 to discuss your SEO goals for the New Year. We look forward to hearing from you!

How to Remove the Cobwebs from your Website: Use the Best SEO and Social Media Marketing Practices

Posted by in Digital Marketing, SEO: Search Engine Optimization, Social Media

Shows cobweb with note on how to remove the cobwebs from your website

 

By Anne Roos, Director of Content Development

Google is all over the Internet—Their robots scan websites like modern-day body snatchers. Google’s search engine can send your website ranking to the grave with penalties, or it can have the power to resurrect your website from an untimely death.

Yes, we’re talking in Halloween terms, as Google updates can be scary. Google just announced their newest character in their core algorithm this fall season.

You may have heard of Penguin, which was first launched in 2012, and the newest update is now in real-time. What does this mean for you? If you haven’t resorted to SEO tricks, you’re safe from Google’s wrath. But if you don’t understand search engine optimization, you may be in for a frightful surprise in the way of Google penalties.

This real-time Penguin update means that your search engine rankings can change whenever Google updates info about your site, making any updates quickly noticeable. The trick: Google is now more focused on toxic links on your site. The treat: You can recover from Google penalties faster.

The hair-raising thing about real-time Penguin is that you won’t necessarily receive word that your site is penalized—You’ll only know by a sharp decline in website traffic and a downturn in rankings for your keywords.

If all this talk of Google’s Penguin Algorithm makes you go brain-dead, we’re here to save you from the Google zombies.

You can use the newest Penguin update to your favor:

• Follow organic SEO practices—Quality content that is relevant to your target audience is key in both your website design and your social media marketing strategy. Outgoing links to other pages must add value to your core audience. Incoming links from social networking profiles connect customers to pages embedded within your website, not just your home page. And always avoid duplicating content from other pages within your site or form other sources on the Internet. Visit our primer for avoiding Google penalties for more specifics.

• Incorporate smart website design practices—Consider revamping your page layout to optimize the placement of text, meta titles and descriptions, select great keywords, and develop a graphic and content niche to stand out from your competition. Redesigning your current site? Discover how tweaking your graphic design and text can make a difference. Launching a new website? Read our white paper to get it right the first time.

• Perform regular audits of your entire website—Monitor your ranking positions in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), and track keyword performance for all of your pages, not just your homepage. Audit the backlinks on all of your web pages, too. Learn the importance of Google Analytics to developing a Penguin-proof website.

If casting the cobwebs from your website still puts the fear into your soul, we have the magic potion. Here at Moore than SEO, we offer a complimentary, no-strings-attached website assessment, based on comparison with your online competition. We’ll flag any Google infringements, and we’ll recommend a customized strategy to meet your particular objectives. Contact us today at 559-978-4096 to rid your site of the warts that cause Google’s penguins to put an evil spell on your website.

Creepy artwork highlighting Halloween themes in Mixer and a Movie

Moore Than SEO Presents a Haunted “Mixer & a Movie” Night

Posted by in Digital Marketing, Event Marketing, Social Media

Event marketing is fun, not scary.

That’s what we’re out to prove this month with a Halloween-themed mixer with the Clovis Chamber of Commerce. It’s part of our integrated marketing mix that combines online social media marketing and offline networking. Get into the spirit of building business connections and referrals, and win fantastic door prizes, too!

The festivities unfold at Bitwise Industries South Stadium on Wednesday, October 19th, from 5-7 pm, with appetizers, refreshments, and popcorn ahead of movie night! Sample brews from Tioga-Sequoia Brewing Company. Enjoy some delicious specialty sandwiches from the newest Deli Delicious location in downtown Fresno. And make sure to wear your spookiest costumes to strike your most frightening pose in the photo booth provided by Foto Fabulous Photo Booth Rentals.

We’d also like to give a very special, “Thank you,” to the many local companies that helped us put this mixer together, including:thankyou3


Help us celebrate our official Ribbon Cutting at 6:15. Then stick around—Don’t return to the dark just yet. Settle in to a screening of the classic Alfred Hitchcock movie, “The Birds,” in the new John W. Dodson Theatre. (Please note: Due to the special screening of, “The Birds,” our event will provide extended hours to ensure those who participate may finish the film.)

Photo of John W. Dodson theatre inside Bitwise South Stadium.
Enjoy a luxurious & festive theater experience inside the John W. Dodson Theatre inside Bitwise South Stadium.

Bitwise South Stadium is located at 700 Van Ness Avenue in Fresno. Bitwise is our home office for all our SEO activities and more. We encourage you to attend our Mixer & a Movie, and strike up a conversation with our team while promoting your business and engaging with local professionals. Not only will this be an evening of fun—It’s also an evening to make new business connections.

As with all proven social media strategies, you can’t attract customers when you are invisible as a ghost. Make an appearance and attend our October 19th Mixer & a Movie. We look forward to seeing you, in the flesh!

Searching for more information about our social media management strategies? Find out how to reach your customers wherever they roam—We even provide our own short movie (not scary) to introduce you to what going social is all about. Meet our team of social marketing experts ahead of the mixer. Then give us a call at (559) 765-6651—We take the fear out of attracting new clients to your brand.

Mixer & a Movie flyer

Is Your Company’s Digital Identity Invisible?

Is Your Company’s Digital Identity Invisible?

Posted by in Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, Industrial Marketing, SEO: Search Engine Optimization, Social Media

By Anne Roos, Director of Content Development

What is your company’s online footprint? What makes your business stand out on the Internet? This is known as your digital identity, or how your company is perceived in the digital world. In other words, it is your online branding.

Factors that contribute to your online identity can range from your logo, your URL (website address), and even the style of fonts and graphics on your website. Social networking takes the temperature of how your company is perceived online.

With over 3 billion worldwide Internet users, your goods and services can’t afford to be invisible on the worldwide web. Build a digital presence for your business and you’ll increase sales and have power over your online reputation.

Here are 4 steps to creating your company’s searchable identity:

1. Take over the reigns—When someone performs a Google search for the kinds of products and services you sell, your website and social media profiles must be on display. Get listed as a viable choice against your competition and don’t be invisible in the search results. Establish a powerful website for your business, and utilize best SEO practices to define your company in social media.

2. Use consistent branding across the internet—Develop the logo, graphics, and tag lines to brand your company’s representation on your website and on each social media profile you create. Discover the best keyword phrases that will lead people searching on Google to your company. Single out your company’s niche–Always include tags in your blog posts and META information on your website and blog pages.

3. Mingle, mingle, mingle—Don’t be a wallflower. Discover where your target customers converse online and make those social networking platforms your go-to places to schmooze. Post regularly, and include meaningful, interesting info that attracts readers to your website and blog. Reply to posts immediately to demonstrate that your company cares about the opinions of your customers. Join LinkedIn and Facebook groups that are relevant to your company’s best interests, and chime in on topics that are in your business wheelhouse. Online mingling, or social networking, drives customers to your website and strengthens your branding. It gives you control of what people are saying about your company.

4. Keep the discussion about business—Use social media as an educational forum, sharing information about the newest trends and how-to’s of your industry. Don’t use it as a carnival barker for hard selling your products, and don’t use it for posting what you had for lunch (unless, of course, you are in the food industry). Be professional and always take the high road to help potential customers find what they are looking for.

It takes time to build a successful online digital identity. It takes a delicate balance of website, blog, and social media finesse. The process is never finished—maintaining your digital identity is dynamic and requires constant updating, because the online conversation about products and services is never static.

Rely on the content experts at Moore Than SEO to curate and create the social media posts and profiles, blog articles, and web pages that attract attention and make your company a rock star in your own niche. We’ll help you create and maintain the digital identity that makes you shine against your online competition.

shows paper and pen for writing

The Non-Writer’s Guide to Creating a Digital Identity

Posted by in Content Marketing, Copywriting Tips, Digital Marketing, Industrial Marketing, Social Media

By Anne Roos, Director of Content Development

The Internet world expects business owners to be great writers, even if it isn’t their cup of tea. Rules of grammar, spelling, and punctuation reflect on your business just as much as the information you share. And it gets even more confusing, because some of the standard rules of writing were made to be broken for social media posts, blog entries, and web pages. For creating a digital identity, a unique voice online that attracts clients and customers to your brand, you also need to mind the rules of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

SEO websites will have you believe that there are hard-and-fast formulas to follow to get on the first page of search engine results for your specific keywords. It’s a soft science, and because Google frequently changes its algorithms for ranking, no set formula is going to work.

Follow our 3 standards that apply across-the-board for anything you are writing online:

1. Write for human consumption.

Forget about stuffing keywords into paragraphs and pages—one or two mentions will do. Focus on the information that interests your customers and clients.

2. Never copy content from another source, even if that source is a page on your own website.

Search engines like original content, and they’ll drop your page in rank, or remove you from search engine results altogether, when you duplicate content.

3. Text is more important than graphics.

The major search engines place high importance on content that is relevant to your website visitors. They also pay attention to your website’s layout. Find out Why Content Trumps Design.

How your content looks on the page is important, because most people scan an article with their eyes before delving into its contents.

Follow these 8 standards of formatting to entice your readers:

1. Put the good stuff at the beginning. As of May, 2015, Google announced that more searches are performed on mobile devices (smartphone, tablets, etc.) than on desktops and laptops. Therefore, you need to concentrate the important texts in the first few sentences to avoid scrolling on small-screened devices.

2. Focus on one idea per paragraph, use shorter sentences, and include 6 lines maximum per paragraph. Content is digested in small bites, not big meals. Make it easy for your readers to pick out important points. Embolden key sentences and key phrases within the paragraph.

3. Add lists and bullet points for variety. They are easy to read, easy to write, and everyone loves lists. Try to limit your lists to a manageable number of items—If you have too many items, add subheadings. Speaking of which…

4. Employ subheadings to shift topics. Lengthy blog posts and web pages are ever so much easier to read when each new topic is introduced by a cleaver subheading—Think of them as mini-chapter headings for your article.

5. Always insert links within your content. They stand out from the rest of the text, because they are underlined and highlighted. Use more inbound links (links to your web pages) than outbound links (links to other relevant websites). Use inbound links within your social media posts to send your friends and followers to your blog posts and web pages.

6. Rely on the 7-minute rule for blog posts and web pages. Each blog article or web post should take no longer than about 7-minutes to read out loud. If you’re counting words, they should be no shorter than about 300 words. Each social network has rules for maximum numbers of words or characters—Stay within those rules to avoid truncation of text. Including media with your social network posts reduces the amount of text you can use.

7. Be conversational. Unless your copy is of a highly technical nature, keep to simple sentences. Proof your copy by reading it aloud. If you find yourself stumbling as you read aloud, or each sentence is taking up more than two lines, split up sentences and paragraphs so that your information reads like a friendly chat.

8. Get to the point. Always include a call-to-action: a website to visit, a phone number to call, a product to check out. What’s the point of writing if you don’t create sales?

The entire reason for building a web presence is to increase your bottom line. You can have a gorgeous website that attracts customers, but they need to know what to do once they’ve arrived. Your content wins over customers when it engages them and moves them to buy.

How do you engage customers? Follow our 6 insights of what to say in social media and on your web and blog page and you’ll see a return of investment (ROI) in your website costs:

1. Keep both eyes on your competitors—Building a digital identity is about developing an online and offline brand strategy. See our Beginner’s Guide to Competitive Intelligence for a primer.

2. Publish consistently—Fresh content sends website visitors and social media fans back for more. Plus, Google wants to direct searchers to new, interesting content. Post regularly; at least once a month on blogs, and at least once a week on social media platforms.

3. Establish a goal for each post—Do you want to get website visitors to sign up for your newsletter? Do you want to tell your readers about your company’s next public event? Do you want to introduce customers to your newest product line? Hone in on your goal, and then answer the question, “Why is this important to write?” when you begin writing.

4. Write an irresistible headline—Touch an emotion. Draw the reader into your article, your story, and your post.

5. Activate action verbs—Can you envision what that verb says to do? This is what defines an action verb. You can visualize the words drive, hit, aim, get. You can’t visualize verbs like be, was, and were. Action verbs get readers to move, respond, and buy.

6. Use a different mode of storytelling for each post—Ask a question, tell a tale, reveal secrets, challenge assumptions, offer a different point of view, alleviate fears, disclose a mystery, educate your readers, and more. The path of storytelling is only limited by your imagination.

Is this content writing task overwhelming? Staring at a blank computer screen with no idea where to start on your content writing journey? Too busy getting your business off the ground to focus on writing for the web?

Here’s the answer: Partner with a team of professional, seasoned online marketers, and avoid cheap alternatives. Going outside the U.S. for content and SEO assistance may look like a money-saving idea, but you’ll want to stick with American SEO.

Be careful when hiring content writers. Everything you publish online reflects your business reputation. Why trust the empty promises of SEO websites that don’t take the time to get to know your company, products, and services before creating content? Here at Moore Than SEO, our writers build custom content that attracts your target audience and gives your competition a run for their money.

Contact us for a free assessment of your online content.