Monday, 25 June 2018

SEO Site Tools: Get the ‘411’ on Title Tags

Whether you are a small business owner looking to get the basics with a DIY (do-it-yourself) approach or you’re a professional firm doing on-page search engine optimization marketing and looking for effective SEO site tools, you need to make sure you have the Title Tag at the top of your list of things to optimize correctly for proper SERPs (Search Engine Results Page). For ideal results, you will need to look at various other additional pieces, but for the most out of the gate movement, let’s look today at this one, very important aspect of on-page SEO. There are some do’s and dont’s for Title Tags that will help you increase your inbound traffic and get solid results for your business’ growth this year. This is an SEO site tool you won’t want to miss out on.

Our SEO Site Tools Guide for Title Tags

1. One at a Time: As with many things in life, if you focus one thing as a time, the results are inevitably better; Title Tags are no different. If you choose to stuff your keywords into the Title bar, you will only dilute the power of each of the seo_site_tools_2words you put after the first one, which obviously gets the most focus. This includes not only checking the Title tag in your CMS (Client Management System – an example would be WordPress), but also verifying that your site was built correctly and there are not mutilple Title tags (they would look like this <title> in the HTML Code). There should only be one line of Title tag per page and it should be in the head section of the page (this section falls after the <head> and before the </head> tags in the HTML).

2. What’s in a Name: Some companies may choose to use the brand or company name with their keywords. This is really only suggested for a company where the name would be something that would sway users by simply seeing your brand displayed in SERPs. Health care industry companies with great reputations like the Rothman Institute prefer this method as many people know their reputable name and this would direct traffic to their site. The format for including a company name is usually alongside the keyword chosen, separated most typically by the ‘pipe’ (this would appear in the SERPs as such, “Knee Replacement | Rothman Institute”).

3. Space for Rent?: Knowing how much space to use, especially if you are going to add multiple keywords or long-tail keywords in your Title tags, is ideal so you don’t waste usable space or go over the limit of space provided. If you include too many characters, that makes your time adding extra keywords a waste as they will not appear in the SERPs (some even argue that text found after the search engine limit are null and that Google will not even read them). The best way to make use of each page’s real estate in the Title Tag would be to stay under the 70 character limit, though some search engines have played with setups that cut-off at 65 characters.

4. Keyword Alienation: If you find that you have words that have made their way into the Title Tag, but that don’t show up in the H1 tags or in the page content, you will need to correct that. These terms exist to tell the Search Engines what your page is about. If the Title Tag is the only place that keyword appears on the page HTML, you will be losing out on a great deal of muscle from the words you are trying to use to drive interested clientele to your site.

5. Deja Vu Anyone?: Don’t get lazy and try to duplicate or copy your keyword data between pages. If you have a solid, optimized website design, each page has a different purpose and therefore it should be very easy to have different keywords and, in turn, different Title Tags on each page. If you know your SEO news as of late, you know that duplicate content in any fashion, especially in the Title Tag, H1 tag, page content, meta keywords, meta descriptions, etc., can be kryptonite to how your site is indexed by the various engines. So, no copying!

 

The post SEO Site Tools: Get the ‘411’ on Title Tags appeared first on Farotech.



source https://farotech.com/blog/seo-site-tools-get-the-411-on-title-tags/

Sunday, 24 June 2018

Philadelphia Inbound Marketing Company Delivers the Honest Truth

Interruption marketing is a dying breed. Thanks to the power of inbound, you can reach the right client at the right time, and you can stop annoying people who don’t care.

According to Mashable, “84% of people report having left a favorite website due to intrusive advertising.”

Nobody likes to be interrupted. That’s common sense. So, why then, as marketers do we resort to what is in social circles considered impolite behavior when there is a much more effective method out there? Cybereason CMO, Mike Volpe, probably said it best when he stated, “Don’t interrupt what your buyers want to consume – BE what they want to consume.”

That’s exactly what inbound marketing allows you to do – to produce exactly what your potential clients are looking to consume. The only problem is that inbound requires a couple of important things. You know…things like time, money, experts, a strategic plan. Those kinds of things.

Laying it All Out

Well, this blog just got really honest really quick. But that’s how we roll. We always want to keep things practical and be really honest with you…even if that honesty is the brutal kind. So, here goes. The brutally honest truth is this:

Marketing is moving fast and clients expect more than ever. …And chances are, you can’t keep up.

You’ve probably already felt the pressure. Your potential clients or customers are making some serious demands. And if you’re going to do inbound marketing the right way, the things that used to be luxuries are now considered straight expectations.

Your clients want you to:

  • Prove that you can be a thought leader in your field
  • Entertain them on social media
  • Keep them posted with updates right to their email
  • Constantly produce unique, helpful content for them to consume

Can you really meet these rising client expectations?

Unfortunately, the answer is probably no. (Sorry- we told you there would be some bad news.)

Here’s Where the Average Company Goes Wrong

The first mistake many companies make is assuming that their one-man marketing team can do it it all. The CEO puts a ton of pressure on the CMO and lists out dozens of marketing goals that he/she wants accomplished, and within a few months, the company is looking for a new CMO because – let’s be honest – nobody wants that job.

The first mistake is a personnel issue.

The other thing that we see happen is companies will try to hire their way towards solving the problem. First, they’ll bring on a smart, efficient marketing manager. Then, they add a young, creative graphic designer. Of course, they’ll be a social media manager and a content coordinator to add to that mix as well. And each of those individual employees comes with their own preferences, style and agenda… and, of course, their own salary.

So, you can easily see how this second mistake is a financial issue.

Time to Wake Up!

If what we’ve been describing so far sounds like your company, then you’re probably here looking for answers because you feel like you’re just spinning your wheels when it comes to marketing.

The sad thing is, if you keep going at this rate, one day you’ll wake up and realize you’re in wayyyy over your head – either in overhead costs (see what we did there?) or in items on your to-do list (or both). You’re super busy and your budget is maxed out, yet somehow you’re still not meeting client expectations.

So, we’ve laid out the bad news pretty clearly at this point, but don’t worry – there’s some good coming, so hang in there!

What’s the Alternative?

Here’s what we recommend: look for an agency that has a team-based approach. What does this mean? Well, in how it boils down for you, it means two very important things:

  1. It solves your personnel problem. How? A team-based agency will have every specialist you need to fulfill all of your marketing goals. They seek out the best talent, they hire, they all keep up with the latest trends and tools, and they work together cohesively as a unit.
  2. It solves your financial problem. How? Because a team-based marketing agency has the people, skills and tools to reduce operational costs, save time, and refine processes, they can keep their product efficient and do all your marketing for you at a fraction of the cost.

Sound too good to be true? Check out Hubspot’s ROI report to see how that’s all possible.

So, if you’re a CEO with big dreams with no time to execute, you need an agency that has a full range of resources and can spend their time to do what you can’t. And you need them to do it at a price you can afford. Right?

Here’s where the good news comes in…

Our Promise & Our Process

Here at Farotech, we pride ourselves on being a Philadelphia inbound marketing company that can solve your marketing dilemmas, but do it in a way that feels much more like an in-house job than an outsourced project. Here’s how:

  • You get 1 point person, but access to dozens of specialists: One of our project managers will basically dedicate their entire existence to getting to know your company in detail. They will always know your KPI’s and will understand your audience inside and out. That PM will then coordinate all the other moving parts to put our entire team to work for you so that the process is seamless and always works cohesively toward your goals.
  • We work with what you’ve got: If you’ve been used to running your marketing through a marketing manager or a CMO, that works for us! We’ll have our team connect directly with that person in your office and they can continue to quarterback your efforts while we do all the work behind the scenes. Or, if you’d rather us take over the whole process entirely ourselves – from goal setting through execution – we can do that too.
  • We never chase silver bullets: Instead of always being distracted by the latest marketing trend (and you know they are a dime a dozen), we just got really good at what we know works and we duplicate a proven system for our clients that has been shown by an MIT study to get pretty ridiculous results.
    • Interested in tripling your site visitors?
    • Wondering how you can increase sales revenue by the end of the year?
    • Want to reach 3.5 times more leads?
    • Ready to join the 83% of customers who’ve seen an increase in conversion?
  • We believe in having a system, not just stand alone services: We’ll never just throw a handful of individual services at you and tell you to hope for the best. All of our efforts are carefully planned and calculated, and they all work together in a system we’ve developed that uses lead scoring, drip marketing, social media and more to:
    • Generate leads
    • Nurture leads into clients
    • Encourage clients to become brand ambassadors
  • We track, measure, and monitor every step of the way: We combine the art and science of marketing into a unique approach that stays true to who we really are. We are artists, but if we’re honest, we’re also nerds. We love analytics. We study our industry like you wouldn’t believe. In fact, we might actually annoy you with how much we care about the science behind what makes marketing effective.

Even our growth-driven design (GDD) process for web development allows us to constantly test, measure, and make improvements. Learn more about GDD and how we implement A/B testing and multivariate testing to ensure your site actually gets better and better as the years go on.

  • We don’t outsource design or content development: It’s all under one roof, including video production (yes, we have our own studio), which if you haven’t noticed, is one of the most effective tools in modern marketing. Not only does video create a great user experience, but it has been proven to increase engagement. According to EyeView Digital, including video on a landing page can increase conversion by 80%! Since conversion is what we care about most, we invest a ton of time and resources into creating awesome videos for our clients.

Why Trust Us?

Experience Speaks for Itself

We’ve been in this business doing what we do for over 16 years! Along the way, we’ve been privileged to win some prestigious awards in web development and work with some of the biggest brands in philly – amazing clients like:

The Proof is in the Partnership

As a leading Philadelphia inbound marketing firm, our gold partnership with Hubspot has transformed our ability to get our clients sustainable results. If you haven’t heard of Hubspot, there’s so much we could tell you, but we’ll save that for another conversation. What you need to know right now is that:

Nearly 80% of Hubspot users see a significant increase in sales revenue within a year’s time, and of that number, 67% see that increase within 7 months!

Action Items & Take Aways

You may be sitting there thinking, what can I actually do with this information?

We’re glad you asked. Here’s what!:

After we’ve run these assessments for you, we’ll come in and walk you through where you’re succeeding and where there is room for improvement. This is a totally customized marketing analysis for you. It’s no risk and it’s an opportunity to get information that could truly change the future of your business.

If your head is spinning and you wish you could just have the contents of this article in a bite-sized version, we’ve got that for you too:

  • Marketing is moving fast, so be ready to meet rising client expectations
  • If you have CMO, don’t wait to find out the hard way that one person can’t do it all
  • Amplify your output with a team-based marketing approach
  • If your website feels constantly outdated, find out how you could you benefit from GDD
  • Replace isolated marketing strategies with a cohesive system

And lastly, remember to request a marketing analysis so you can identify the areas where you might have room for improvement in your strategy.

If you’re looking for ways to reach the right client, with the right message, at the right time…then you’re in the right place! We are looking forward to helping you succeed in this fast-moving and ever-changing world of online marketing.

The post Philadelphia Inbound Marketing Company Delivers the Honest Truth appeared first on Farotech.



source https://farotech.com/blog/philadelphia-inbound-marketing-company-delivers-honest-truth/

Calls to Action: The Secret to Websites that Convert

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to convert all of the visitors to your website into valuable clients? The good news for business owners is that conversion is indeed possible, but a few things need to be addressed on your site. For today, we’ll look at offers and calls to action (CTA’s) to see how you can use them to funnel your targeted website visitors through the buying process. After all, your primary goal should be to have a website that converts.

First, we’ll discuss the call to action.

A CTA is a button or a link on a website that grabs a user’s attention and directs that user to another page on the site called a landing page. On the landing page, the user is prompted to complete a form and submit contact information in order to receive the offer (more on this later). By submitting that information, the visitor can then be converted into a lead and passed along to a salesman. Although this sounds easy, there are a few things to keep in mind:

websites-that-convert-1 1. YOUR CTA MUST INCLUDE A LINK: CTA’s can be text, images, or html code, but if it is to be effective, it must link to a landing page with a substantial offer. If the link is broken or non-existent, it will show in your results.

2. PLACE YOUR CTAs STRATEGICALLY: Place your CTA’s where visitors will want to click. Some good spots to try are the bottom of blog posts, blog sidebars, homepage, a thank you page, or the most visited pages on your site.

3. CTA’s NEED TO ATTRACT THE EYE: Use accent colors from your site’s design to draw attention to your CTA’s. Make them stand out so that they can be seen.

Next, you must have an appealing offer.

It doesn’t matter if you have the most attractive, well-placed CTA button ever created, people won’t click on it unless they see an exciting offer. Having a website that converts depends on your ability to generate great offers. Typical content offers include:

  • research reports
  • how-to ebooks
  • slide downloads
  • archived webinars

Other offers might include a free trial or demo of your product, discount coupons, or a personal consultation. Of course, there’s no reason to be constrained by what’s typical. Use anything you think will work for your target customers. (Also keep in mind that the offer form is a conversation starter for the sales team, so it should be designed to start a conversation that will lead to a sale.)
With a dynamic offer and a well placed CTA, you should start to see new leads coming in from your site. Keep in mind that this is a gradual process. Don’t be discouraged if you only gather one or two leads from your first CTA. Keep creating more and more and rotate offers as you see fit.

Good Luck!

The post Calls to Action: The Secret to Websites that Convert appeared first on Farotech.



source https://farotech.com/blog/calls-to-action-the-secret-to-websites-that-convert/

2 Keys to Great PPC Campaign Management

SEO, when it is done right, it truly a powerful tool. But sometimes the average utilization of keywords and other SEO marketing strategies aren’t quite enough to get clients in extremely competitive markets to the top of SERPs. When this is the case, a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaign can be invaluable to a well-rounded marketing campaign. Mastery of the art of effective PPC campaign management lies in the understanding of two keys that, while being simple ideas, are delicate and intricate processes. PPC campaigns can be an amazing source of revenue for companies, but they can also be completely ineffective if not understood. In this article, we’ll break down the basics so you don’t waste any time or money on your PPC efforts.

But What Exactly is a PPC Campaign?

Setting up a pay-per-click campaign is different than the process for implementing SEO marketing strategies. As the name implies, you pay the search engines to put your ad up on their site – this can be through bids or a flat rate, but the amount of your owed payment is always conditional upon the amount of actual clicks your ad receives. Because your ads are seen only by those who searched for certain keywords, this is a form of truly targeted advertising. Generally this means that your efforts in PPC will reap a greater conversion rate of viewers to customers than a general advertisement would.

ppc campaign managementThe Keys to PPC Campaign Management:

1. Keyword Research

Like SEO, the most essential part of a good PPC campaign is the keywords being targeted. The keywords you choose to pay for ads for determine which customer see you and get access to your business. The matching keywords that you write into the ad itself and onto your landing page draw those viewers in as your potential clients. Much of the setup for a PPC campaign therefore boils down to determining the keywords you will use/target. In order to do this properly, you must analyze your customers as well as their interests, circumstances and preferences. Use that information to form your campaign. You need to know what keywords they will type while searching AND what times of the day they are most likely to be typing them! That is how well informed you must be.

2. Campaign Analysis

The second key to proper PPC campaign management is really two major processes grouped together – analysis and correction. Once you start receiving results from your original keyword choices, you must be able to determine whether your actions were profitable or not. You can then adjust your campaign to fit your analysis…whether that means focusing on a particularly profitable time period and keyword or cancelling other keywords that are not drawing viewers. It is all about finding that perfect balance of keywords in your search parameters, advertisements and landing pages, and being willing to tweak the grouping of the keywords in these areas until you get the balance right.

Pay-per-click campaigns are a great way to draw in revenue for your company beyond what you would get from your other average marketing efforts. By specifically studying the target group and then patiently tailor-making the campaign to suit them, the costs of the campaign can be made up for in full with money still pouring in. Farotech can aid in this process by maximizing the efficiency of your campaign from both an economic and informational standpoint. By studying your clients, Farotech can determine the times and places most of your customers will hit your site and then ensure they see your advertisement by predicting their most likely search terms. Being able to effectively implement the keys to proper PPC campaign management can revitalize your business prospects. Let Farotech can help you succeed in PPC!

The post 2 Keys to Great PPC Campaign Management appeared first on Farotech.



source https://farotech.com/blog/2-keys-to-great-ppc-campaign-management/

How to Keep Your Business Open 24/7: Ecommerce Web Development

In a world where everything and everyone is linked to the Internet, brick-and-mortar storefronts are losing business to online suppliers. If you are a retailer, there is real money to be made in Ecommerce because shoppers are shopping…and they’re doing it online! By building your brand’s Internet presence and learning to use your site to generate sales, you can actually gain access to a broader clientele base and in essence, you can keep the “doors” to your business open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! Once your Ecommerce web development is complete, you can continue to build on that foundation and expand your online store at minimal maintenance costs.

ecommerce_web_developmentBest Practices for Ecommerce Web Development

  1. Offer Full Disclosure-

    Customers shopping online want to know what they are buying and they prefer to have details. One of the best ways to assure them in their decision to buy a product is to tell them every detail about it. Showing its size, weight, functions, colors, etc. will show the buyer that they are making the right choice and the added assurance they get from shopping with you may also bring them back to your site in the future for new orders.

  2. Confirm All Costs with the Customer-

    People are very sensitive when it comes to matters of money. They need to know exactly how much money they are going to owe and exactly what they are paying for before they confirm an order. One of the greatest ways to drive people away is to hide costs from them (such as shipping or taxes). Ask your Ecommerce web development company how you can make these extra costs clearly visible as early as possible in the checkout process.

  3. Make Your Customers Feel Secure-

    Security is one of the most important factors of successful Ecommerce web development. Your system should ensure the security of your customers’ personal and financial information. The use of SSL (Security Socket Layer) is a good practice and will give potential customers the peace of mind they need in order to shop on your site.

  4. Make Life Easy for the Customer-

    Forcing customers to jump through hoops to buy from you is only going to frustrate people and deter business. Modern buyers are turned away by any difficulties they have to endure during a transaction or even by extra steps they have to take in order to complete an order. Anyone should be able to buy from you with ease and without having to provide any information that is unnecessary to the process. Unless you are a membership site, in which case it is justifiable to have a few extra steps, make life easy for your customers and they will willingly shop!

Ecommerce web development is certainly a necessity for retailers in this modern age. People want to buy online, so why not let them? They are going to buy from someone and it might as well be you! As long as you make the process simple and secure for them, they will buy from you and probably return again in the future as well. If you need help implementing a professional and affordable Ecommerce web development project, Farotech can help. Our web design team can create a custom site to match your brand and proudly display your products!

 

 

The post How to Keep Your Business Open 24/7: Ecommerce Web Development appeared first on Farotech.



source https://farotech.com/blog/how-to-keep-your-business-open-247-ecommerce-web-development/

Tapping into the Trends: How to Use Current Events to Fire Up Your Social Media Campaign

Marketing on trend in 2018 means stepping up your social media game!

It isn’t just enough to have a social media platform for your business — you have to know how to use it effectively. And no, we don’t mean just learning how to say how awesome your business is in 140 characters or less (although that’s not a bad thing to learn!).

Marketing-On-TrendIn order for your business to be marketing on trend, you need to start tapping into current events for your social media campaign. If you can discuss current events and popular culture in your social media campaign, it will make all the difference when it comes to increasing your digital presence. Be it politics, award shows, celebrity gossip or national events, any current event can be used to draw attention to your business–if done properly.

So why are current events so important when it comes to social media? Because that’s the whole point of social media! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram… these are all places where the world can have a live conversation about what is happening now. And that’s why it is so popular. You no longer have to wait for the newspaper to churn out a story the next day, or for the evening news to report on the events of the day. As soon as something happens, you can know about it.

Because the millennial generation grew up with this instant reporting of their world, they crave immediacy. So if you want to catch the eyes of the younger generation, you need to tap into this immediacy of current events in advertising.

Now how do you combine these consumer marketing trends with social media to get the best bang for your buck? We have a few tips on how to use current events with social media effectively.

Marketing on Trend: How to Use Current Events in Social Media

  • Know your audience. If your company has a product or service for teens, then you probably don’t want to be commenting on Twitter about the upcoming presidential election. Keep the political stuff for the consumers who can actually vote! Know your audience, and think about what current events will be engaging to them.
  • Take a stand. If there is an issue that you feel your organization can weigh in on, consider making a public statement on your social media that can create some debate. This can be more serious, like coming out in support of a petition or policy that you feel is important to your audience, or more whimsical, like stating that The Dress really is gold and white. Tread carefully, though, if you decide to take the more serious route. You want to create discussion, not turn off your followers.
  • Have fun. You can be marketing on trend and have fun at the same time! Engage with those who comment on your current event posts, and be sure to tag those who are involved in the current event to see if you can get anyone else in on the conversation. Use your social media to create an online community, which will create a better customer response than even the best ad. For examples of social marketing that have created some great (and hilarious) responses, click here.

Combining current events with your social media posts is a great way to engage your audience and draw attention to your brand. And by marketing on trend with current event driven posts, you can be tuned into what future marketing trends are developing on social media regarding pop culture. To keep on top of the marketing research trends of 2018, as well as other ways to improve the marketing success of your business, contact Farotech today!

The post Tapping into the Trends: How to Use Current Events to Fire Up Your Social Media Campaign appeared first on Farotech.



source https://farotech.com/blog/tapping-trends-use-current-events-fire-social-media-campaign/

The Foundation of Your Marketing Research: SEO Site Analyzer

What is an SEO site analyzer, and what does it do for you? SEO site analysis is essentially a diagnosis of your website status on the internet. How many people are coming? Which pages are being hit the most? How many hits per page? These are just a few starting questions that a SEO site analyzer will answer. It will help you to detect what is actually going on with your website in the virtual world, allowing you to figure out the little changes that you can make to improve your site status. But first, let’s back up a bit….

What is SEO?

seo site analyzerSEO stands for search engine optimization. When you search something on Google for instance, many websites will come up…but they will be ordered depending on the keywords you input, your current location, and most of all…the background activity happening in the websites. Links put into the web coding help websites climb the rankings, for example. You want your website to appear more often, especially when people are looking for terms that pertain to you.

So Why Get A SEO Site Analyzer?

SEO Site analyzer is going to be your starting tool for successful reach to your clients or customers. Once you know the results, you can start figuring out how to tweak it so that people can find it easier and have a better experience when they’re on it. There are so many types of information that you can get from a simple SEO site analysis. You will receive useful graphs and reports about page analysis and domain information. From there, you can also receive help on how to interpret and act on these findings. Successful marketing is based on research.

Farotech’s SEO Expertise

Farotech is a Philadelphia-based company that conducts SEO site analysis for many of our clients. As one of the first things many of our clients do to get accurate information, SEO analysis becomes the foundation of the rest of our work. We offer website design, marketing automation, lead segmentation, content building, and much more to make your website–and company–as successful as it can be.

The post The Foundation of Your Marketing Research: SEO Site Analyzer appeared first on Farotech.



source https://farotech.com/blog/foundation-marketing-research-seo-site-analyzer/