Google+ and SEO: What’s the Relevance?

Google+ and SEO: The RelevanceGoogle+ is the social solution to the unification of all Google’s services. From possible rank increases in organic searches to a higher level of community engagement, all businesses should take the steps to create a Google+ account now.

According to Casey Newton of C|Net, Google+ and its 400 million active users are taking the social community by storm. Google+ greatly enhances the user experience by combining multiple accounts (such as gmail, Google+ personal & business pages, YouTube, etc.) and making it easy to share information with users within your circle. Other Google+ users can easily follow you and the information you share publicly, and if they’re searching for something related to your industry, you may be more likely to appear in their searches.

In addition, you can become an author to your website by using a simple rich snippet in the code linking your site to your Google+ profile page. This builds trust in users searching for services or items related to your industry. It also increases your chances in getting found by users who are already in your circles or communities.

So, how does Google+ relate to organic search engine optimization?

-Users can +1 your posts, photos, links you’re sharing. It gives Google signals of what those users’ interests are, and can send relevant paid ads and organic results tailored to them. The more user engagement on Google+, the higher the relevancy and customized experience, which keeps those users coming back to you.
-Google+ helps build personal and brand influence. Create a custom cover to match your Facebook, Twitter & YouTube accounts. It builds a strong online presence that is cross-platform and generates trust and transparency.
-Google+ profiles and pages are considered high-ranking. You should treat your pages as separate entities and optimize the pages for SEO. Fill out the profiles completely, add your URL (it even appears in the cover photo), and post stories, blogs and relevant photos often.
-When someone +1′s content on your website, it creates a backlink to your site. Backlinks are still prominently used by Google in search results and could increase your overall ranking.

For a more in-depth discussion, read Mark Traphagen’s article here, and Casey Newton’s article here. Also, view Maile Ohye’s video about Google+ and the benefits here.

Remember, good organic Search Engine Optimization is something that doesn’t happen overnight. Creating relevant & fresh website content, meta tag optimization, authorship linking and paying attention to your backlinks should always be a part of your SEO campaign. Google is setting the stage to become a powerhouse in social media so it’s time you create your Google+ profile and business page here.

tovo Google+
Sandi O Google+ 

 

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Loyalty and Client Retention

Loyalty and client retention are crucial to a business’s ongoing success. However, in many industries, the average business loses 20% of its customers due to failed relationships. At most, 80% of its customers. The costs can be staggering. Few businesses don’t truly understand the implication of lost customers. The result effects long-term profit and business growth. Keeping existing clients satisfied should never be underestimated.

Most businesses spend much time and effort to gain new customers. Ironically, once the sale has been made, few companies measure and gauge their client relationships. The customer is left unattended, or even worse, abandoned as soon as a problem occurs. The company then loses a client, potential referral clients, and is now spending a small fortune to gain a new one.

Once the initial sale is made, companies tend to get complacent, ignoring the customer while they chase new business. Since the majority of customers are susceptible to buyer’s remorse, it’s imperative to show your customers you care by answering questions quickly and calming your client’s fears. Remind them why they made the right decision to go with your product or service and why they can trust you.

Keep customer service exemplary. Follow up quickly, resolve problems swiftly, and go above and beyond what the customer expects when delivering the service or product. Poor service will always drive customers to your competition.

Communicate with your client on a regular basis once the initial sale or project has completed. Schedule a time to follow up via phone, email or visit. This personal touch shows your customer that you care, and that makes them feel valued and important.

According to the UBM TechWeb State of Loyalty and Retention Strategies survey, “… successful customer retention requires that companies turn their regular customers into satisfied customers and then into loyal advocates. Proactively reaching out to customers before they defect to a competitor requires effective Customer Analytics capabilities”.

Take the time to nurture your existing clients. If you increase communication, control issues properly, and truly value their business, they’ll become a wonderful advocate for you, your company and your product.

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TOVO: Your 2013 Marketing Plan!

Happy New Year from TOVO!

Now that 2012 is behind us, it’s time to reassess your marketing plan for 2013. We’ve provided the most important marketing tips to help you have your most profitable year to date!

 

Search Engine Optimization and Website Maintenance:

-Create infographics, videos or similar at least once a quarter. Then distribute to bloggers, industry sites and strategic partners.

-Optimize your website for smartphones and tablets. Mobile is the future- make sure your potential customers can find your business while on their phone or tablet.

-Send yourself an email from your website to ensure your forms are working correctly. If the form isn’t working, contact a web developer to troubleshoot the issue.

-Review your website’s links and images. If you find broken links or images that are not loading, get them fixed asap. Users don’t trust websites that don’t function as expected.

-Keyword review/ meta info: Review your keywords periodically. Update your meta tag information accordingly. Review your website’s copy for accuracy if needed.

 

Social Media Marketing

-Be more interesting on Facebook. Facebook should do what your website can’t: get personal. Your fans what to see the softer side of your business. Permission to let your guard down and start casual (but polite) conversations with your fans? Granted.

-Review your social media outlets. What’s working? What isn’t? Also, try some of the new(er) social media trends (Pinterest comes to mind).

-Network more on LinkedIn.  500+ is the magic number. Create a LinkedIn business page (if you don’t have one already) and hire a graphic designer to create beautiful cover photos for your business profile and services/products pages.

-Directories. Sign up with as many directories as possible, such as Google+ Local page, Manta, MerchantCircle, etc. Directories help build your backlinking base and will guide users to your website.

 

Email Marketing

-Commit to send more marketing emails

-Don’t forget to change the copywrite date on your enewsletters to 2013

-Review past campaigns and check your bounce rates. Edit contact information if needed.

 

Personal Growth:

-Read more books on building client relationships and leadership. Try to commit to 2 a month.

-Take an inventory of your perfect customer. You must know your target audience before you can change your marketing focus.

-Network more. Find your local Chamber of Commerce, Meetup groups or similar. People do business with people they trust.

2013 is YOUR year for personal and business growth! We’d love to be a part of your success- please contact TOVO for a complimentary marketing consultation.

Posted in Ad Agency, Branding, Website Design Stuart | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Navigating the News Media with Confidence

Muses & Visionaries, West Palm Beach FL Last week, we attended “Navigating the News Media with Confidence” and listened to Lauren LaPonzina Saver of Headlines Consulting present to the group. Lauren showed excellent examples of media situations and gave great advice to help businesses navigate gracefully though the media.

The event was held at the beautiful Muses & Visionaries co-working space in downtown West Palm Beach. Erin Rossitto, cofounder of Muses & Visionaries, has had great success with the co-working concept. Women from any industry can become a member of M&V and use the space for conferences, client meetings, or just for an inspirational day of working.

We are happy to support these local businesses!

Headlines Consulting
Owner: Lauren LaPonzina Saver
e: lauren@headlinesconsulting.com
p: 561 316 7117
w: headlinesconsulting.com

Muses & Visionaries
Cofounder: Erin Rossitto
e: erin@musesandvisionaries.com
p: 561 366 1206
w: musesandvisionaries.com

Always remember to Think Big!

The TOVO Team

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Digital Media Event II

Digital Branding + Website Design: 12/14/12

We are honored to be a keynote speaker for TreasureCoast.com‘s Digital Media Event II on Friday, December 14, 2012. Our SEO and Social Media expert, Sandra O’Brien, PMP,  will be letting you in on some valuable insider secrets to what makes a website great!

Visit TreasureCoast.com for more details.

 

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Responsibility in Social Media

As more companies build a dialogue in their social media outlets, social responsibility to their audience increases.

@KitchenAidUSA’s twitter team posted this tweet:

photo

The KitchenAid employee sent the tweet via KitchenAidUSA’s twitter account and it reflected on the company’s core values and political stance. It was quickly deleted, but the damage was already done. Their tweet was re-tweeted several times and the comment went viral.  KitchenAid’s social media manager stepped in to rectify the situation. After publicly taking responsibility for her team, she mentioned how that particular user will not be posting tweets on behalf of KitchenAidUSA. Most users appreciated that she took accountability and that she worked swiftly to resolve the issue. Remember, users don’t need perfection- they’re more interested in a company’s response to negative social media situations such as this.

The quality of your social media conversations must be held in the highest. If your company has a blog, twitter account, Facebook page or any other form of media that encourages user-generated comments, you have a responsibility to moderate the conversation, including but not limited to monitoring posts published by your team, approving or trashing inappropriate comments, and performing damage control when needed.

Can you recall when a large brand had a social media blunder that went viral? Leave your comment below!

*TOVO is not affiliated with any political party, and used the image above as a relevant example to the story.

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Ideas to Help Boost Online Sales

Even if your website launched last week, there’s room for improvement.

TOVO_Website_Designer_Stuart_PalmBeach_FLIf your new or redesigned product-based website has been live for 3+ months, and you haven’t seen a significant increase in online sales, then we recommended trying a new approach. It’s imperative to test your website on a consistent basis to find a variable that may boost your online sales.

Specials: If you’re offering free shipping or a 30-day guarantee, then by all means CALL IT OUT. Don’t wait until the buyer’s in their shopping cart to inform them of your special. A badge on the home page will suffice- it just needs to really stand out.

Do Your Research: Find out what your competitors aren’t doing, and do it. Then call it out on the homepage.

Call to Action: If someone has a question about your product, do you have your phone number and email to your customer care department on every page? Don’t frustrate your customer by making them client more than once to email you.

Copy Review: Is your copy engaging enough? Are you calling out the correct keywords and phrases on the page? Most people skim over the copy and search for images on a product website. Bold the keyword or keyword phrase, not the entire sentence. Also, generate interest in your copy by using bullets, subheadings and even blockquotes.

Find Your Focus: Does your home page have more than one product? Entrepreneur.com recommends focusing on a few products and adding more copy about those products. “Fewer products in one place with more copy describing those products always translates into higher sales”.

Any other ideas you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below.

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Cause-Based Marketing Campaigns

Have you heard of Brandon Cook, the man whose grandmother had terminal cancer and wanted clam chowder from Panera Bread (and ONLY from Panera Bread)? Brandon called on a Wednesday. Panera Bread only makes clam chowder on Fridays. However, the store manager was happy to help, and even packed some cookies for his dying grandmother. It will be the last solid meal his grandmother will enjoy, and it was a great opportunity to see how a little goodwill can go a long way.

Cook shared his experience via Socia Media and since then, Panera Bread has received an outpouring of social media love, and righteously so.

Web Design, Logos, Marketing, Branding in FloridaOften, companies pair up with non-profit organizations to increase their own brand awareness while donating much-needed funds and awareness to the non-profit’s cause. In this instance, Panera Bread as a whole is getting national brand recognition for a good-hearted gesture from one of its employees. But can a company plan for this type of community result? The answer is yes, and in our industry we call this cause-based marketing campaigns.

The use of this type of marketing works. Review the following numbers noted in Retail Online Integration (retailonlineintegration.com, July/August 2012):

  • 47% of consumers have bought a brand at least monthly that supports a cause, representing a 47% increase from 2010
  • 39% increase in consumers saying they “would recommend” cause-related brands to friend
  • 34% increase to consumers who “would promote” cause-related brands
  • 9% increase in number of consumers who said they would switch brands if a similar brand supported a good cause
  • 55% of respondents believe CEOs need to make a long-term commitment to address societal issues.

On a personal note, we will be completing our donated work for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society this month. Man, it feels good to be a part of something great!

 

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Google Analytics: Simplified.

Google’s Analytical tool can be daunting but it doesn’t have to be. You should view your Google Analytics on a regular basis in order to monitor website performance. Below we’ve listed a few major reports to pull, how to decipher them and how to start making changes to your website now.

tovo_seo_web_design_palm_beach_stuart_fl

Bounce Rate: This percentage shows how many people only viewed your home page and didn’t delve further into your website. If your percentage is above 55%, it’s time to revisit your website design. Is your content relevant? Is the layout confusing? We recommend hiring an outside agency (or honest friend!) to review the user accessibility, functionality and design to see where improvements can be made.

Unique Visitors: These numbers are important since it tallies up how many unique users visited your site within the past 30 days. The higher the number, the increased possibly of a conversion on your site, which in turn leads to increased sales and ROI. Social media is a great tool to bring new visitors to your site so review your campaigns to ensure their effectiveness.

Keywords: These are keywords that users entered into Google’s search tool to find your website. If you see that the majority of keywords contains your name, then a website revisit is necessary. The idea is to have people search for your product (white golf balls) or service (private chef) and find you. A well-designed website, relevant & frequent content creation and smart search engine optimization will deliver these results.

Traffic Sources:  This is a very important report as it shows where your referral traffic is coming from (Google, Bing, Yahoo, email, etc.). If you find many referrals are coming from LinkedIn, you’ll want to revisit your LinkedIn company page or your personal profile to ensure accuracy and optimize the company page with detailing your services or products. Similarly, if most users are coming from Google, review your Google+ Local page for it’s accuracy and review/update your meta information for relevancy.

Content: Are people viewing your service or product pages? The goal of any website is to entice users to stick around and browse through your pages. Those pages should engage users enough to want to contact you for more information (service-based) or purchase (product-based). If these pages are not getting enough pageviews, it’s time to review your home page and product/service pages to see what element may be lacking.

TOVO Advertising + Website Design: We help businesses increase their brand recognition through innovative use of in-bound marketing, website design and print collateral. If you’d like a complimentary consultation, please give us a call at 772.232.6450.

 

 

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Blogging, Tweeting & LinkedIn- How Can I Use Them With My Social Media Campaign?

There are so many social media ‘rules’ now: Blog 5 times a week. Tweet 10 times a day. 500+ LinkedIn connections. Who has the time to keep up? Well, you should, especially if you want to see an increase in your website leads and conversions.

TOVO: Advertising + Website Design in West Palm Beach and Stuart, Florida

We’ve listed a few ways to keep your social media campaign a step ahead of your competitors. Remember, it needs to be relevant to your industry. It needs to be engaging. And it must be frequent.

1) Install a blog on your website. No, not on WordPress.com- on YOUR website. If you already have a blog, terrific. Just make sure you use it! When you write a post, you are doing 2 things- a) keeping your website fresh and b) writing relevant information to entire your potential customers to learn about how you’re an expertise in your particular field. Great, right? (hint: writing blogs increases your website traffic by 55%. Want to get found by search engines? Write a blog!)

2) After you’ve written your blog, now SHARE it via Social Media. Write a Facebook post and link your blog to it. Write a tweet and link your blog to it. Update your LinkedIn status and link your blog to it. (hint: Did you know that 66% of all internet users use some form of social media? Social media is all about relating to your audience- so start engaging!)

3) LinkedIn: Aim for 500+ good, quality connections. If you’ve joined a group, seek out those within that group to connect. More business opportunities happen on LinkedIn than any other social networking website. Remember to update your status on LinkedIn as well to generate interest in your profile, your company and your website. (hint: remember to create a LinkedIn page for your company. Be sure to optimize your business page and add your services and products.)

4) Twitter: So you may not be the type of person to talk about your life in 140 characters. But, Twitter is an excellent way to learn about new technologies in your industry, watch your competitors and their approach to their customers. (hint:  if you have a business Twitter account, be sure to leave “politically correct” tweets as it directly relates to your company’s image and stance on particular issues.)

We have 3 Social Media / SEO packages that may fit your needs.  Take a look and if it looks like something that may be a good fit, give us a call at (772) 232-6450. We’d love to hear from you.

 

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