Category: Blog

Digital Takeover

The floodgates have opened when considering the amount of advertising that is on the Internet. Over half the population (55%) of the world uses the Internet on a regular basis. Advertisers have followed audiences into the digital realm and now over $240 billion of all ad money is spent digitally marketing on the Internet’s 1.94 billion websites. With over 7 billion Google searches performed each day and ecommerce rapidly gaining ground in overall retail sales, Search Engine Optimization is absolutely critical for any business’ digital marketing strategy. It’s where the people and the money is, and where your business should be, too.

Mobile’s Edge Has Been Noticed

The landscape of digital marketing changes rapidly, with many new elements being introduced every year and immediately having an impact. One of the major shifts in Internet use this decade is the rise of mobile devices. Mobile traffic has surpassed that of desktop computers, with 48.2% of all online traffic coming from mobile and tablet devices. Google and other major search engines have started to reorientate their whole operation to reflect this new trend in data consumption. Businesses need to reflect Google’s changes in their own digital marketing strategies.

All Signs Point to SEO

One strategy that has come into even more prominence with the rise of mobile devices and search engine’s subsequent adjustments to better present data for mobile consumers is Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of your business’ web traffic by improving the visibility of your business’ website on search engines. SEO is an Internet marketing strategy that your business should consider because it is an efficient method for positioning your brand as an authority that will be highly recommended to web users searching for information relevant to what your business does.

Why Choose SEO as a Digital Strategy?

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO takes into account how search engines operate, their behavior-determining, computer-programmed algorithms, what people terms and keywords people search for and which search engines are the most popular. Peak optimization is achieved through editing and adding site content, increasing backlinks, modifying HTML and another coding to both increases a site’s relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. A website will receive higher traffic because a search engine ranks a site higher in the search engine results page (SERP). These visitors can then be converted into customers and put revenue in businesses’ pockets.

Trust and Credibility

SEO builds up trust and credibility for your brand. Google will analyze your site based on its standards for web site quality and place it in its corresponding ranking on its search results pages. Because Google is such a behemoth of the Internet, it’s standards are used to unofficially determine the standards for the rest of the Internet. For instance, Google’s rankings reflect a pleasant user experience and strong, relevant information from backlinks. High-quality backlinks reinforce your brand’s trustworthiness by linking your page to other strong web pages. The more strong backlinks you have, the better your information and the higher your rank on Google search results. Users see your high ranking and automatically know that your site is legitimate because of Google’s standards.

Smooth User Experience

Google has learned to analyze the experienced user’s go through looking for the information they’re searching for. If it takes a lot of clicks to find that information, Google will reflect this inefficiency with a lower search ranking. Customers know what they want and know how long it should take them to find it. The right SEO leverages this to work in a brand’s favor.

Local SEO Strengthens Your Site in a Local Market

Local SEO helps your company stand out in local searches. With the rise of mobile traffic, local SEO means increased engagement, traffic and conversions for local small and mid-sized businesses. It’s absolutely necessary for local businesses to employ SEO because it optimizes a business’ digital presence for a specific area. Brands must be visible in places where people need them to make a worthy connection. Local SEO enhances visibility and lets potential customers find the answers, and the businesses providing those answers.

And, Finally, SEO is Cheap!

SEO budgets are as flexible as the businesses managing them. SEO is a long-term investment that will improve with more time, effort and attention put into it. While the cost of SEO is cheap, the payoffs are tremendous and can lift your business into a new phase of brand recognition, trustworthiness and local visibility.

Video Marketing is soaring towards becoming the strongest marketing trend of 2019. Video Content is getting the attention of all the major social and tech media giants because of media consumption trends by the general population, because creating video content has gotten cheaper and offers a greater ROI and because new video format allows for many different placements for ads. If your business or brand has not bought into video marketing yet, maybe these reasons will convince you to start recording and sharing!

 

More People are on Mobile and Streaming Than Ever Before

The rise of mobile data consumption is the overarching media trend of the past decade. Mobile traffic has now surpassed that of desktop computers, with 48.2% of all Internet traffic coming from mobile users. The display format of mobile devices naturally trends towards playing videos horizontally, matching up very closely to film and video’s preferred 1.85:1 or 2.39:1 aspect ratios. US consumers are watching videos more than ever before, and streaming accounts for 15% of their 40 hours a week spent watching videos digitally. More people are cutting the cord with cable providers, preferring the content online in skinny bundling packages like Spotify Hulu. Audiences are no longer watching commercial rotations on cable and broadcast en masse like they were just 5 or 10 years ago.

 

More and More Social and Tech Brands are Concentrating on Video

The giants, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, have been closely monitoring how their users have been consuming data in this new digital age and have appropriately implemented changes in their platforms to reflect data consumption habits. Mark Zuckerberg explicitly stated the futures of Facebook and Instagram is in video, and that he will spend as much as he needs to accelerate the move. His plans focus on initiatives like Facebook Watch, and native ads playing before, during and after video streams. Facebook encourages brands to post videos around three minutes in length based on their studies on audience viewing habits, for example. Instagram is following its parent company, naturally, expanding beyond its original still image format with minute-long video posts and the longer IGTV video format. Twitter even relented and now allows videos to be posted along with tweet captions. Amazon is barreling along with its streaming services for Amazon Prime members. And, most impressively, Google has announced that it will have its AI programs search for video snippets relevant to search queries and will autoplay them on that query’s results page.

 

 

Video is Cheaper to Create Now, Ad Spend is Performing Better Than Expected

For a long time, it was hard to make interesting videos quickly, cheaply and efficiently. Creating videos took too long, the tools were hard to learn and everything and everyone involved were too expensive. Nowadays, everyone can record videos and edit them with ease if they have a smartphone. So we now have a situation where across the field, online video is getting better at an amazing rate. And going hand-in-hand with this information is the return on investment now enjoyed by marketers on digital video. Digital video is costing less to produce, generates more interest in a brand, product or service and is more effective at conversions than non-video advertising. People watching video are more likely to act. Viewers retain the information from videos much better than receiving it via text. For example, marketers using digital video had their revenue grow 49% faster than those who didn’t.

 

Video Changes with the Times, and Often Reflects Progress Easiest

It seems like the days of your typical 15-second and 30-second pre-roll spots are a thing of the past. Marketers have gotten extremely creative in where video can be placed, creating more opportunities for brands and services than ever before. Video can be put wherever there are eyes on screens. Now it’s no strange thing to see an ad play natively before a video stream, mid-stream or after. Instagram has video ads between users’ Stories, YouTube offers its TrueView streaming ads and Twitter plays videos between every couple of tweets.

 

Video is Able to Tell and Show a Story in Vastly Different Formats

As mentioned earlier, people retain information much easier via video than any other format. Makes you wonder why I’m writing this all down then, huh? While blogs definitely have their purpose and benefits, video is easier and quicker to consume. Your message is more likely to be heard and understood the way you meant it to. Your message can now be told via 10-second stories on Facebook and Instagram. You can host live video sessions like a Q&A or an Ask Me Anything. 360-Degree and VR videos allow you to transport audiences into immersive settings and scenes. And people are wanting to learn more about products and brands in paid video classes and tutorial videos. The way you want your video to share your message is now only limited to your imagination!

In the past several years, we’ve gone through a behavioral shift in how we interact with the internet in our day-to-day lives. Over 78% of Americans use the Internet and there are over a million new internet users logging online for the first time every day. Our time is spent balancing being present in the digital world and the physical one. Our eyes and time are directed towards screens more often than not. Marketing reflected this change in where people’s attention was held. Since then digital marketing underwent seismic changes, culminating in mobile Internet usage finally surpassing that of desktop computers for the first time last year. With the Internet being available in people’s pockets for most of the past decade, several forms of digital marketing became critical for a business’ success.

 

Social Media

 

Social media is instrumental in developing a brand. Each post creates depth, personality and opportunity for businesses to interact with current and potential customers and clients. There are plenty of social media platforms to facilitate these interactions like Facebook and Twitter. However, Instagram and LinkedIn are two social media sites on the rise with their unique applications for marketing, sales and brand development. A majority of people use social media to reference and brief themselves on a brand they’re interested in, with businesses not active on social media losing credibility.

 

Google Ads

 

Google Ads is the tech giant’s online advertising platform where advertisers allow Google’s servers to place brief advertisements, offers, product listings, etc. for key search words people are entering in segmented market shares. These bids successfully place a business’ ad in a place where their target audience is looking. It’s a brilliant method of making sure your dollars are spent to place ads in relevant locations. And Google Ads is extremely cost-efficient, with bids costing pennies and your budget is determined only by your business.

 

Website

 

Your website is your business’ chance to present itself in the best light possible. It’s an opportunity to create a unique identity for your brand, inform visitors about your business, position your brand as an expert in its field and finally convert visitors into returning clients and customers. Consumers hold businesses that have websites with short loading times, a pleasant color scheme and intuitive interfaces in the highest regard.

 

Digital Display Ads

 

Digital display ads is the new term to identify what used to be called banner ads, or the small ads that take up the empty space on a business’ webpage. They’re a form of pay-per-click advertising and don’t just come in banner shape and size anymore. While paid search ads appear on a search engine like Google’s results pages, display ads appear on the sites that are shown in those results pages. These web pages are ones relevant to your product or service, and a more effective placement for your ad. For digital display advertising on the Google Display Network, display ads appear on various types of websites like blogs, news organization pages, Gmail, YouTube and others. A digital display ads effectiveness is measured in impressions and clicks, telling you how many people have seen and interacted with your digital display ad.

 

SEO

 

Search Engine Optimization is the process of strengthening the quality and increasing the quantity of your website’s Internet traffic by increasing its visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). It’s an improvement of free, organic results. SEO involves modifying a site’s code, adding content like a blog with backlinks and other adjustments in UX to improve the site’s rankings. A significant portion of SEO also involves integrating key search terms into your page’s copy to increase its relevance in search engines’ ranking algorithms. SEO requires an extensive knowledge of many areas in digital marketing in order to be successful, but offers a high return on your investment.

 

If you need help with promotions or advertising, contact Southern View Media to find out how we can help with your business’s marketing goals. For a free consultation to formulate a strategic and affordable plan, call us today at 251-583-2605 or visit www.SouthernViewMedia.com. We are a Google Trusted Agency and will be happy to answer your questions.

The Google Core Update took the team about five-days to roll out. They began Monday, June 3, and finished up on Saturday, June 8. These updates take time to roll out due to Google’s myriad servers and data centers around the world. For an update of this size, five days actually isn’t that long of a wait. We’ve compiled a list of FAQs that will help you sort out what you need to know from the recent Google Core Update.

 

So, Were There Any Hiccups?

There was early data presented regarding the size of the update as it was still rolling out. Large publications like Daily Mail stated publicly how badly the update affected them. Google hasn’t released any data on how big of an impact the updates made like they did previously with the Penguin and Panda updates. However, Google did say they announce these core updates because they are noticeable.

 

The Google Core Update did overlap with the diversity update. On June 3, the Core Update began and lasted through June 8. While the Diversity update started June 4 and ended on June 6.

 

How Will This Affect My Business?

When Google releases large updates, it’s important to note when they began and when they ended. If you notice website traffic increases or decreases in your analytics, knowing the timestamps of the updates allows you to track if your website was affected by a specific algorithm update, technical issue or a separate issue that is completely unrelated. Overlapping updates make it a little more difficult to judge a website’s impact; but if you work with a good SEO, you should still be able to get accurate data.

 

Southern View Media SEO Services

When you’re ready to see your business show up in search results, call the digital ninjas at Southern View Media. If building a site from the ground up is what you need, we can help. What about a site that already exists? Don’t worry, we have you covered. Our team will perform an in-depth inspection of your current website and uncover any issues there may be. Following our site audit, we provide an extensive report including the problems we found and the opportunities we recommend that will positively impact your business. At Southern View Media, We Put You Online So You Don’t Get Left Behind.

 

Contact us to find out how we can help with your business’s digital presence. For a free consultation to formulate a strategic and affordable plan, call us today at 251-583-2605 or visit www.southernviewmedia.com. We are a Google Trusted Agency and will be happy to answer your questions.

Over the last 15 years or so, social media has grown tremendously. It allows us to stay in touch with family and friends that have moved away, and is also a great source for news. While social media obviously has its uses as a free service for one’s private life, it had to find a way to make money to grow. Businesses stepped in to capitalize on where everyone was spending so much time online. While large corporations that are easily recognized eagerly joined everyone on social media, smaller businesses were slow to seize social media’s impressive reach to new audiences. If you own a business and have yet to utilize any of the social media platforms available at your disposal, then it’s time to get started. Here we’ll discuss with you the advantages of social media for your business that will have you wanting to create accounts for your business as soon as possible.

 

Quick, Easy Communication

Social media provides you with the opportunity to connect to customers in a quick, easy manner. You can read reviews left by customers and can respond to them accordingly. Direct messaging on social platforms is now one of the primary ways customers reach out to businesses with questions and feedback. It is faster now than it has ever been to contact the right people, and most of the time you don’t even have to pick up the phone. As a business owner, social media gives you the ability to stay in contact with your consumers and receive feedback in real time.

 

Increases Website Traffic

Utilizing social media channels will also show an increase in website traffic. You can direct visitors on your social media pages to your website by posting your URL wherever you please on your profile and posts. Most social platforms also provide you with Insights on your posts’ reach and audience. Businesses are able to attract a visitor’s attention with posts and can capitalize on a captive audience by insisting on learning more by visiting the full company website, a crucial step in converting users into customers or clients. Let’s say you own a boutique with a brick-and-mortar location. Those local to your area know about the business because they have seen it, but having a social media presence allows you the ability to reach audiences all over through social platforms’ recommendation algorithms, putting your message on a completely new target audience’s news feeds. When done correctly, this should allow for an increase in sales on top of your improved website traffic.

 

Brand Awareness

Social media is an extremely cost-efficient form of digital marketing that can increase your business’s visibility. By adding a social media strategy to your overall marketing plan, it should increase your brand’s awareness because you are able to engage with a larger audience. It’s important to interact with others when starting your profiles. Ask friends, employees, business partners and any sponsors to share your pages and posts to increase the audience you reach. Facebook, for example, also gives businesses a leg up with their Pages You May Like recommendation tool, where pages of similar topics and mutual interests are displayed for those looking for new follows or friends. Also, boosting your posts can dramatically increase your brand’s reach and improving your brand’s awareness for a price you determine based on your company’s resources and needs. With just a few minutes of exploring a social media platform, you should be able to find the right avenue for spreading the word about your business.

 

If you need help with promotions or advertising, contact Southern View Media to find out how we can help with your business’s marketing goals. For a free consultation to formulate a strategic and affordable plan, call us today at 251-583-2605 or visit www.SouthernViewMedia.com. We are a Google Trusted Agency and will be happy to answer your questions.

You’ve spent a lot of work, time and money creating a website for your business that most likely includes a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. This approach includes optimizing pages and keywords that include terms used by your target audience. SEO is a method that can help improve your rank on Google and help drive traffic to your website. In the following, we will discuss how well these efforts are paying off.

Go Incognito

Searching for words on Google to optimize and gauge where your site shows up is not only time consuming but counterproductive. Mostly because Google personalizes a user’s search results based on factors such as history, location, social media connections and even the type of device. Using incognito mode on Google will keep your browser from storing info and using past info in your search results. Just keep in mind, it arranges results based on your physical location.

Use Google’s Search Console

Google makes it pretty easy to track your rankings by providing a service called Google Search Console (previously known as Google Webmaster Tools). Set up your Search Console profile through your Google account if you have not already done so. Now, you can view your Performance Report dashboard which provides handy organic ranking information such as:

• The results from search queries
• The number of clicks your page received
• Average location placement for a certain search or page
• Metric trends over time

However, if you have not set up the Search Console before creating your website you will not be able to view recent ranking data. Once you set up the account, you will need to verify your website.

Monitor Keyword Rankings in Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a great tool when used in combination with Google Search Console. Both can help you retrieve the data you need to better streamline your SEO tactic. Start by connecting your Google Analytics and Search Console accounts after setting them up. After following a few steps, you can enable the data in Search Console into the Google Analytics page. Add your page to the Search Console and follow a few more steps. From there you will be able to see the live data and keyword rankings in Google Analytics. By using analytics you be able to track the keywords that directed people to your page. This will give you a good idea of what parts of the page need optimizing.

Refine and Rework Marketing and SEO Methods

It takes time for your page to appear in queries and receive hits so you must check your rank often. If you feel you are not receiving the results of your efforts, you made to change things up a bit. People’s search habits can change daily and it’s important to keep up with trending words.

Know where you rank among the millions of websites on Google. By using SEO successfully and monitoring your rank data, you will have no problem standing out among the crowd.

Check us out and see how we can help with your business’s digital presence. Visit www.southernviewmedia.com. We are a Google Trusted Agency and will be happy to answer your questions. For a free consultation to formulate a strategic and affordable plan, call us today at 251-583-2605.

Do you want more leads? Sure, we all do! Today, people are using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for more than just gaining a bigger audience. Business owners are turning those followers into actual sales leads. But how does this work and where do you start? Find out about the many benefits of using SEO.

Get to Know Your Customer

Researching more about your past customers will give you a better perspective on your audience. The more trends you see among buyers will allow you to target potential customers with similar interests. Once you have a clear idea of who is spending money with you, you can now develop an SEO plan. This targeted approach may leave some audience members out but the main goal is to get in front of potential customers.

Update Your Content

Now that you know your audience, it’s important to update your content to make sure it efficiently targets your followers. If you have a web page or blog post that is generating activity, consider looking at ways to update it regularly with new, beneficial content. Add a Call-to-Action (CTA) to your posts with your contact information. It should also have a clear message about your goods and services. Another benefit is that your page will populate and rank higher in Google searches if it updated regularly.

Getting the Lead

Now that you know your audience and have sparked their interest, how do you get them to reach out to you? Here’s where creativity comes into play! You can offer free resources through an exchange of their email or some other form of contact information. Resources can include: subscribing to a blog, a list of local events, helpful tips and tricks, a special report about a topic or offer to send an eBook. The door is open for you to be as creative as you want.

Get Social

Interacting with your followers on social media is another way to gain the interest of a lead. There is a multitude of ways to network in the social space: directly messaging on Instagram or Facebook, using Instagram live and Facebook live and engaging with customers by answering questions in the comment section. Remember the Call-to-Action we talked about? Here is where you could suggest a way for people to reach out to you. Due to social media having an abundance of users, it makes it an easier option for followers to reach out to you.

The benefits of using SEO for your business keep getting better and better. Use SEO to your company’s advantage by following these helpful tips. Contact Southern View Media for more ways SEO can get you the leads you need.

Check us out and see how we can help with your business’s digital presence. We are a Google Trusted Agency and will be happy to answer your questions. For a free consultation to formulate a strategic and affordable plan, call us today at 251-583-2605.

So, you have probably heard the term SEO tossed around when it comes to digital marketing. SEO, also known as search engine optimization, is constantly changing. Keeping up with the latest SEO trends is absolutely vital when it comes to staying ahead of the game. It’s important to analyze, revise, change and adapt to each change that presents itself in this ever-changing field of digital marketing. If you are wondering what’s in store for 2019 SEO trends, Southern View Media has you covered.

Meta Description

You have probably noticed the featured snippets of information when you are searching a topic in Google. When you type in a simple question or phrase, you may not even have to open the web page because the result is displayed at the top of the results. These little snippets, called meta descriptions, are vital to have on your website so they are can be optimized for a search engine result. Marking up your content will help let Google know what is on your site and help search engines display your business in search results.

Optimized Mobile Pages

A majority of people you see browsing the internet are usually doing it on their mobile phone. If your website isn’t loading quickly on a mobile device, it’s probably onto the next one for them. Optimized mobile pages help make your website as fast as possible. However, it’s important to remain mindful of the fact that AMP can strip image content from your pages so your website may not be able to use it. Have the team at Southern View Media check out your site and let you know the best route to take.

Content is EVERYTHING

This is a trend that will probably never go away. Content is, and always will be, king. If you don’t have good content, then you will probably be lost down the rabbit hole in the search engines. Make sure your content is in-depth and helpful to those who visit your website. Check the pages where viewers are bouncing to see what you can change to make it more user-friendly. Don’t get us wrong, bounce rates aren’t always a bad thing. But, if you can get users to browse other pages on your site then that’s a pretty good sign you have great content.

Brand Building

Are you not on the brand building bandwagon yet? Well it’s time to jump on before your business gets left behind! Building a brand has always been important, but it is also a key factor in SEO this year. Google capabilities have improved tremendously, now allowing them to see where your brand name is mentioned in content. These mentions will help with your brand’s ranking. In addition, Google is able to see whether the mention is positive or negative, so if you have a negative review it can hurt your search ranking.

Running a business is a hard enough task by itself. It can be hard to find the time to focus on building your brand, creating meaningful content and truly focusing in on SEO. Check us out and see how we can help with your business’s digital presence. Visit www.southernviewmedia.com. We are a Google Trusted Agency and will be happy to answer your questions. For a free consultation to formulate a strategic and affordable plan, call us today at 251-517-9425.