Google has released more details on their upcoming Mobile First indexing change that will see the search engine rank the mobile versions of webpages. Currently, Google indexes the desktop version of a page, but will serve the mobile version for those who search from a mobile device. Many webmasters had plenty of questions about this change, especially as it pertains to ranking and indexing websites that currently serve different versions of the same content ...
Read MoreThe website for your non profit organization is at the center of your digital marketing strategy. Therefore, it deserves the maximum effort to create a user-friendly website that works to fulfill all the goals of your organization. Here are 10 must-have features that can make a successful non profit website: User Registration User Registration is an excellent feature for your non profit website. It enables serious visitors to establish a long-term ...
Read MoreGoogle Analytics (GA) provides valuable detailed statistics about a website’s traffic and traffic sources but they can only be seen in Googles backend interface by the admin and shared users of the account. Is there data from GA that would be valuable to display on your actual website? Those of us in the industry for the past 20 years remember the “visitor counter” everyone displayed on their site similar to Facebook “likes” ...
Read MoreWith CloudFlare and Amazon CloudFront content delivery networks are becoming affordable for everyone. What are CDNs and should you be using one? For a majority of small to medium sized websites your site is hosted on a single server somewhere. If your website host management is with Five Technology this is either in Minneapolis, Chicago, or Dallas. All your customers, regardless of their location in the world, connect to this server to request ...
Read MoreHave you been noticing some website design and content trends substantially changing in the past couple of years? With the exponential growth of different devices accessing the Internet and keeping pace with best SEO practices Ilya Posin with Forbes points out a few that stand out: Goodbye: Mobile Versions of Websites Instead of building mobile-switched sites (i.e. m.websitename.com), many innovative designers and developers are now focusing on ...
Read MoreDanielle Wiley, column writer for MarketingLand.com shares how important social media and blogging can be for powerful CTA (Call-To-Action) marketing. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and many more are the places people are talking about goods and services. Technorati’s 2013 Digital Influence Report shares that growing trend of consumers turning to blogs and social media when looking to make a purchase, thanks to the trust and clout carried by online ...
Read MoreAfter its beginnings in 2005, YouTube has become more than just a place to watch cat videos. Now in 2014, YouTube has become the world’s second largest search engine, a driver of online culture, and a springboard for Internet fame. YouTube has expanded to bigger and better ideas than cat videos. YouTube marketing is a great way to visually connect with audiences. Key Statistics & Demographics YouTube sees over 1 billion visits each month ...
Read MoreI’ll just qualify post this as a bit of a rant right off the bat. Cheap hosting is killing small businesses by tricking them into thinking that their $5 or $10 is such a good deal, they don’t need to do anything else online. I have had meetings with numerous small businesses that basically brag on how cheap their hosting is. However, not one of them brags about how much business, leads or sales their website is bringing in. Do you see the ...
Read MoreJayson DeMers, writer for MarketingLand.com, a website on all things Internet marketing related, shares five goals for us to consider when implementing our content marketing strategy . As the Internet content marketing trend continues to rise, businesses are spending more time and money on it. DeMers says that a third of B2B marketing budgets already are spent on content marketing, and more than half of B2B marketers say they plan to increase it even more. ...
Read MoreErin Everhart, writer for SearchEngineWatch.com clearly lays out an effective way for businesses to prioritize their website SEO efforts. Everhart says that the most successful SEOs — the ones who get the most links, garner the most traffic, and reap the benefits from outlined and specific updates — are the ones who’ve mastered it. Here are three ways to prioritize your own SEO efforts, given by Everhart: 1. Define Your Goals When ...
Read MoreIt’s no lie that creating and posting blogs on your website is a great way to engage with your audience and frequent visitors. However, do you know what it takes to make an effective blog post? Neil Patel, Co-Founder of KISSmetrics, tells us that from your blog, you can send out a voice that effectively engages your audience. From your unique voice to even the design of your blog, there are many factors that affect how well your blog post will do. Patel ...
Read MoreJon Ball, writer for SearchEngineWatch.com, a website on all things search engine and marketing related, explains what exactly Link Building is for SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) purposes. Although to web developers, this term may be like second nature. However, Ball points out the fact that there isn’t really a specified definition for this term. For Ball, link building isn’t just the process of acquiring backlinks that point to your website. ...
Read MoreAlthough we typically associate SEO (Search Engine Optimization) with on-site factors, such as meta tags and page content, off-site factors are equally important. Off-site factors such as backlinks continue to play a significant role in a page’s search engine rankings. Irresponsible tactics, however, have turned off-site SEO into a minefield of link penalties and backfire-prone schemes. Jason Ferguson, writer for Volusion.com provides a few tips for ...
Read MoreWith 90 percent of American adults owning a cell phone and almost 60 percent owning a smartphone, the mobile marketing field is a force to be reckoned with. This is about 240 million people marketers can reach through mobile marketing efforts. Smartphones allow people to be constantly connected through social media and apps, which makes marketing blunders and fails very fast-moving stories. 60SecondMarketer.com provides four mobile marketing mistakes that ...
Read MoreCall it organic marketing, call it inbound marketing or even content marketing — the practice of creating useful information to generate demand and attract an audience of buyers vs. buying ads to push messages out to them is one of the highest impact, low cost approaches to Internet marketing a business can take. The practice of optimizing content for better search visibility goes hand in hand with the broader approach of inbound marketing. SEO ...
Read MoreIt’s no lie that blogging is a great Internet marketing and content marketing strategy to engage with your audience. What is the first step you take as you begin writing a blog post? Lots of people just like to start at the beginning — they stare down the blinking cursor until they’re suddenly inspired to write a clever introduction. However, this isn’t always the best way to start a blog post. Instead, it can be much better to ...
Read MoreStarting and marketing a new business is not the same today as it was twenty, or even ten years ago. It’s important to take initiative on your business idea by setting up your website and social media accounts. Execution is what differentiates a great thinker from an entrepreneur. Everyone and every business starts somewhere — and your top priority right now should be building and growing your online presence. To help get your marketing efforts ...
Read MoreLinkedIn is truly a unique and upcoming social media platform. LinkedIn is a source for professionals to marketing themselves or their company to make connections with others. LinkedIn should be viewed as a great tool for marketers to connect with other professionals or companies in a meaningful way, not a platform for shouting your marketing message at unsuspecting people. For example, you wouldn’t approach a table full of professionals at a ...
Read MoreLooking to spice up your posts and better engage with your audience? Grace Turner, column writer for The 60 Second Marketer, a marketing communications firm, provides ten easy steps to enhance the user experience on your Facebook page for improved social media marketing . Use Images and Videos that Engage Your Audience Many readers are drawn to visually appealing messages. ‘Rich’ media such as photos and videos will grab the ...
Read MoreSam Kusinitz, Editorial Assistant from HubSpot.com, a website for all things Internet Marketing related, defines the term “social selling” in under 100 words. Social selling isn’t just a fancy buzzword — rather it’s become a crucial way for successful sales and marketing teams to communicate to their audiences. Here’s the simplified definition by Kusinitz: Social selling is when salespeople use social media to interact ...
Read MoreWe’re all familiar about responsive web design . But as a marketer, we are typically only focused on specific tasks such as creating content, developing email campaigns and updating social media networks. However, if you or your clients do not have a responsive design in place, then all of the Internet marketing strategies you implement will not bring the full potential of results. Today, over 60% of Internet access is made on a mobile device, and ...
Read MoreThe phrase “content marketing” is all over the web these days. Content has become a mixture of many things: webinars, blog posts, videos, social network shares and more. If done right, a well-executed Internet marketing campaign will yield considerable benefits for your business. Content marketing can be just what your brand needs to reach out to your audience and get them interested in your company. Marsha Collier, column writer for ...
Read MoreNo matter how many blogs you write for your company, it can be challenging to actually gain readers. Alexandra Skey, blog writer for Getspokal.com, an Inbound marketing company, writes, “The 3 Essential Ingredients You Need To Attract Qualified Leads From Blogging”. Even if your company follows a solid Internet marketing strategy including blogs, promote your content on a regular basis and captures leads via email campaigns, how do you make sure ...
Read MoreEntrepreneur.com’s Jim Joseph discusses ways that small to medium businesses can create compelling content for their customers to generate breakthrough business results. It can be very challenging to create good content for your brand that appeals to audience members. There are no standard rules because it’s every brand for itself. However, if your company would like some guidance to create appealing content for your Internet marketing ...
Read MoreWe’ve got some news for you: Your company’s website will never be finished. If you believe you are completely finished with your website, then perhaps you’re not doing all you should with it. And this adds up to some good news because if you’re constantly updating your company’s site, you’ll develop an advantage over your competitors who aren’t. Here are three reasons why you should never stop improving your ...
Read MoreWhen you think of the most vital asset for your company, what is it? Hopefully you would say your audience because it is your customers that ultimately determine the success of your company. Jayson DeMers, writer for MarketingLand.com, a daily blogging website for all things online marketing, wrote the article, “Why Your Audience Is Your Company’s Most Valuable Asset: Develop It”. In the column, DeMers discusses the importance of developing ...
Read MoreThe Internet marketing industry obviously needs a strong hold on content marketing, and it’s important to understand the motives and goals marketers want to achieve with content, the chief obstacles in their way, and how successful they feel they are. Demand Metric recently published a content marketing bench survey where they asked 521 marketers about their company’s content marketing efforts. The survey used both small and medium sized ...
Read MoreDanielle Wiley’s article from MarketingLand.com, an online marketing publication website, would argue that social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, blogs, etc. are the places where people are talking about your company’s goods and services. According to Technorati’s 2013 Digital Influence Report, there is a growing trend of consumers turning to blogs and social media when looking to make a purchase. We ...
Read MoreOne of the most difficult aspects of learning about Internet marketing is that you have little ability to distinguish cold-hard facts from marketing fluff. You want to absorb as much information as possible without having to fact check every article you read on new marketing techniques. Unfortunately, in the social media marketing space, you’ll find a lot of “get rich quick” type schemes — but some of those “tips” ...
Read MoreSearch engine optimization, or SEO, is an Internet marketing term that is tossed around daily in conversations with clients. In most cases, clients have some idea of what SEO is and what stands for. However, in some cases, it seems like business owners and marketers merely know that it is important for online success, but do not really understand what it is Recently, HubSpot, an inbound marketing company, released a short blog post defining this Internet ...
Read MoreBusinesses are investing a lot of resources to establish a presence on social media networks like Google+, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. However, funneling all of your time and money into social networks should not be your only form of Internet marketing . Some companies assume that optimizing their social media networks is enough to boost their online presence, but a blog can also play a vital role in engaging potential customers. Here are ...
Read MoreWhy is local SEO important? Let’s start by defining what local SEO is exactly. Local search engine optimization (SEO) is a specialized kind of online marketing that increases visibility for businesses interested in ranking for geographically-related keywords. In other words, when a customer types in your business type (product or service) and your local area (city, state, or zip code) you want your business listing and website to pop up as high as ...
Read MoreYou may or may not have heard of the social media platform Google Plus. It is not very popular, yet, and it is highly under-used, for now. However, most Internet marketers believe that it could hold very special powers for Internet marketing in the future. Google Plus has the capability to get your logo to appear next to your search result listings in Google Search and the offers the opportunity to network with thousands of similar brands and ...
Read MoreChurches are needing quality websites more now than ever before. They face a problem where they need to reach out to younger generations in different ways. The way to effectively do this is through the Internet. Churches can use their website to attract new members and then communicate with members to keep them updated and informed. They can even use the website to receive donations, promote events, and collect forms for volunteer opportunities and sponsored ...
Read MoreSocial media is a great way for people to engage with one another on the web. Peer to peer networking has in fact been around since the birth of the Internet. However, it has really taken off and gone main stream in the last ten years or so. It is called social media for a reason. Users communicate and interact on the Internet in a social context. These interactions can include engagement as deep as spilling a 1,000 word blog post about your personal life or ...
Read MoreA lot of us at Five start our mornings with a strong cup of coffee and a good article. Being online marketing consultants we naturally replaced the newspaper with blogs. We try to incorporate a variety of blogs on a variety of topics, including website design, Internet marketing, and website development. Reading blogs daily, or even weekly, can be a great way to stay on top of the latest trends in Internet marketing and get great advice to improve your SEO ...
Read MoreOver the years, there has been a dramatic shift in the content that companies publish as marketing material. The advancement in technology with the Internet and social media has played a part in this. However, there is something more to it. There has been a shift in the buyer persona. The traditional marketing technique was to publish content related to promotional updates. While this is still a part of your content marketing strategy, you need to focus on ...
Read MoreInternet marketing is a must for businesses these days. It’s going to be your most effective marketing effort for generating new leads and creating more revenue. Billboards are out, online marketing is in. It can be hard to get started, but we are here to help. Below are 5 quick tips to get started on some Internet marketing of for your business and when you have questions or want to get started, you know where to find us. Set Goals for Internet ...
Read MoreGenerating fresh and relevant content can be time consuming, frustrating, and sometimes just plain boring. Wouldn’t it be nice to have some sort of plan behind content generation? Content marketing has taken the Internet marketing industry by storm, but it’s no easy task. Having a content marketing strategy is a must to stay on track and generate the fresh and relevant content that will boost your website’s search rankings. ...
Read MoreThere are a variety of social media management tools to enhance your social media marketing efforts. These tools will help you better manage your social media sites and improve your overall Internet marketing strategy. Managing your social media can be time consuming and requires a lot of guess work. Use these tools to make your social media marketing more efficient and effective. Here’s a few of our favorites that have really boosted our social media ...
Read MoreAccording to Rich Gorman, a serial entrepreneur and a visionary Internet marketing leader, business owners should constantly be focused on improving business operations. This includes marketing, and let’s be honest, most small business owners have a little room for improvement in terms of marketing. Gorman created a small business marketing checklist , that started with a good website design . Small businesses need a website, but just having a website ...
Read MoreThe ever expanding role of social media in search engine marketing has changed the game for search engine optimization (SEO). These things used to be completely different marketing strategies, but we have seen more and more how they need to work together in order to achieve online success. Businesses must begin incorporating social media marketing into their SEO strategies and vice versa. It is more important now than ever before to do this. According to ...
Read MoreNow that you’ve recovered from your New Years Eve hangover and caught up on some sleep from the busy holiday season, it’s time to start thinking about your Internet marketing strategy for 2014. Here are five New Year’s resolutions you should take to improve your Internet marketing strategy for 2014: 1. Use social media marketing more. Social media marketing is becoming a big part of businesses’ Internet marketing strategy. ...
Read MoreHave you ever tried to design a website for your city internally with a limited staff? If so, you will know that it is difficult because of minimal programming knowledge, lack of time and resources, and small budgets that lead to limited functionality. Your staff struggles to manage and edit essential community content, and you are left without a useful operations tool you had hoped would streamline less efficient tasks. So what do you do? Many ...
Read MoreEvery morning I sit in front of the computer with a bowl of cereal and fire up my RSS feed. Lately, my feed has been buzzing with big changes and updates from Google themselves. Here is a summary of three big changes. Penguin Algorithm Update Over a year ago, Google launched the Panda algorithm update . The Panda update was an adjustment to the rankings algorithm that placed a greater emphasis on high quality content. Sites with low quality or ...
Read MoreOnline reviews can be seen on your Google Places page and other website profiles such as Yelp and Urban Spoon. When someone is using a search engine to find restaurants, hotels, or other local services, they will likely find some of these online profiles and will use what they learn from these profiles to choose where they spend their money. How important are the reviews? Let’s take a look at some of the ways they can impact your business. Reviews are ...
Read MoreHaving just a website is not enough anymore. Don’t get me wrong here because having a website is absolutely vital to your online strategy. But the web is getting more competitive every year and if you truly want your business to reach its highest potential you should consider the following strategies. Mobile Web Site Mobile web browsing is on the rise with an estimate of almost 100 million monthly mobile users browsing the web. This number is ...
Read MoreWithin the last year or two if you said you were an online marketing company, your elevator pitch was pretty straight forward. It all starts with a great web design, maybe a usability audit, some search engine optimization (SEO), and throw in a little email marketing and you’re on your way to online success. Those are all still very important and a cornerstone in any solution provided by an online marketing company, but the game is constantly ...
Read MoreYou may have run across a QR code ( Quick Response code) and wondered, “What in the world is that?” QR codes are similar to bar codes. You need a bar code reader or similar app on your mobile phone to read them. They can contain information like text or a URL for a visitor to view. Its most powerful use may be to send a user to a unique URL with a coupon or information they cannot receive any where else. QR codes have been in use in Japan for ...
Read MoreChoosing the right SEO company can be a daunting task. Those in the industry know the qualities of excellent SEO work. But what about those not in the industry? It can be difficult to tell the difference from an outside perspective, we want to give you an idea of what you can do to make sure to hire the right SEO company. Here are some qualities professional SEO provides. Research The cornerstone of every successful SEO campaign is research. Keyword ...
Read MoreBlogging is perfect for website owners who want to take an active role in raising their SEO profile. Its not just SEO, there are numerous benefits to blogging . If a website offers fresh and informative content that is updated often that is a site that is more likely to get bookmarked, shared on Facebook and Twitter, and maintain a higher level of returning visitors. Lets take a look at some of the SEO benefits of blogging. Fresh Content People love ...
Read MoreAsk any local search authority and you’ll find out that step one online for a small business is claiming your local listing with the major search engines. Without even having a website, your local listing like Google Places can be a great marketing tool for a business. What happens if you don’t claim your listing? Well, you leave Google to guess … and they might guess that your one location, small town meat shop is a billion dollar, ...
Read MoreAll it took was three search fanatics and a few ideas over beers to form the Minnesota Search Engine Marketing Association . That trio of search marketers was Clint Danks , James Svoboda , Lisa Raehsler who formed MNsem, hit the social channels and put together the groups first event that took place last night at FRWD . The Beginning of Something Great? When James hollered at me about MNsem launching, my reaction was ...
Read MoreLooking for a local business, service or product starts online for close to 3 out of every 4 consumers. I’m guessing that number reported by a recent Local Search Usage Study isn’t alarming to consumers or business owners these days. What continues to be alarming for me is the number of businesses that lack correct information online, multiple sources to be found by and online marketing strategies (no matter how small they might be). Inc. ...
Read MoreThe efforts and investment in your business having a well designed website that ranks well on Google, Bing and other search engines is mostly geared at generating leads and new business. Consider that you also get a bleed of other benefits when your web design is solid and your site has search engine credibility . 4 Quarters Design & Build is a Five Tech client that witnessed this bleed first hand. Their recently redesigned website earned them ...
Read MoreThe title might mislead you to think I went to a wild party, but the shots are not of the adult beverage nature. I did consume a few cheese steak sandwiches. This week I had the opportunity to speak on search engine optimization at a conference put on by the Immunization Action Coalition out in Philadelphia. The conference is called the Social Media Summit and focuses on helping the medical and health community bring awareness to vaccinations, ...
Read MoreI’m excited to have taken part of an incredible group of local search panelists for David Mihm’s 2010 Local Search Ranking Factors . For the last three years, David has sough out, compiled and published his Local Search Ranking factors that are the read in local search. In bringing together a great group of local search experts together you get more than one opinion, rating and thoughts on over 60 elements that are part of local ...
Read MoreThe dust has settled and Local University Twin Cities is in the books. Thursday was a jam packed day of Internet marketing information, tips, data, tools, how-to’s and more from a fantastic panel of local search, SEO, analytics and social media experts. Two packed sessions of Minnesota business owners, marketers, web designers and more soaked up an incredible amount of Internet marketing knowledge from leading experts as well as staff from ...
Read MoreIn less than 2 weeks, Local University will descend on the Minneapolis and St Paul area bringing a wealth of SEO, local search and Internet marketing information. You can still register for the May 13th event that features speakers from Google, Bing and other national Internet marketing experts . Who is this conference for? This has been a big question I get when talking about the event. I thought I would offer a small summary of what I feel ...
Read MoreI had a great time today sharing some of my web design and Internet marketing experience and knowledge with hundreds of real estate professionals at the Minneapolis & St Paul Real Estate Bar Camp event today. It was great to be around and interact with people truly wanting to learn, improve, share and take steps to trying new things. I met and talked with so many Realtors, Brokers and Mortgage professionals that are excited and dedicated to ...
Read MoreI had the pleasure of attending the first Local University put on by GetListed.org in Spokane, Washington on February 4th, 2010. This one day event, provided a fantastic amount of local search, SEO, social media and other Internet marketing information to over 150 attendees looking to have a better grasp on how they can be more visible online. Organized by GetListed.org co-founder David Mihm , the seminar featured a great line-up of ...
Read MoreIt’s highly accessible and tempting for anyone to create a Google AdWords account and start spending some money on pay per click search engine advertising. Unfortunately this easy access doesn’t translate to an ease in getting results. The Details Matter A successful Google AdWords campaign involves the right research, configuration and tracking to get you anywhere near the perceived pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. When done ...
Read MoreSometimes you have to go bigger, the Ranchline Network web design project is an example of that. The Ranchline brand has 4 other websites on our web platform and I have worked with them for years, including on their logo design. Ranchline Network is a national real estate listing website, focusing on high-end land and ranches for sale . The website features hundreds of listings from brokers and agents all across the US and even Internationally. ...
Read MoreI had the opportunity to talk about social media with members of the Independent Community Bankers of Minnesota on November 12th. We discussed how community banks could utilize Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other social media platforms to connect and communicate with their customers and prospects. The events other presenter, Cindy Cofer Evert offered great insight and tips on press releases and PR. Her info made for great web ...
Read MoreIt’s no secret that businesses have a lot of questions and misconceptions on how to have higher search engine rankings for their website. Search engine optimization for many is confusing and often even overwhelming. With all of the complexity in SEO , we offer this simple question to help clients get a better grasp. Is Your Website Worth Being Found? Does your website answer questions? Does your website provide service or process ...
Read MoreThe Big Omaha conference on May 7th and 8th in Nebraska was a great 2 day collection of events and speakers in web, business and creative. While many conferences in the web design world deal with “how-to” and strategy, I found Big Omaha to push theories and lines of thinking. The line-up of speakers featured some great Internet minds. Kicking off Friday morning was Jason Fried of 37signals . Jason ...
Read MoreTwo things happened last week that had me thinking about Internet marketing and the opportunity for success a business has with it. It also made me think about why companies seem to be held back from exploiting the benefits of marketing online. Number One: Who’s The Crazy One? The first was reading a great Internet marketing article from Andrew Eklund on MinnesotaBusiness.com. The article easily outlined why Internet marketing is a dream ...
Read MoreI was very fortunate to get to speak at the Buffalo, MN Chamber of Commerce Quarterly Luncheon today. I presented on some ideas to help a small business website succeed, search engine optimization (SEO) and web analytics. I think I only put one person to sleep and the group had a lot of great Internet marketing questions in the follow-up. There were some great Buffalo and Wright County businesses / organizations in attendance and I enjoyed ...
Read MoreOur last post looked at the new Google search features incorporating local search results into regular search queries. For many search terms you no longer need to apply a city and state to get local results. A New Top Keyword I thought I would update that post with how this new Google search feature has effected our search engine traffic. Prior to this local feature, our top terms of referral traffic were our company name and then ...
Read MoreOn visiting ESPN.com the other night the main homepage ad caught my eye more than normal. How couldn’t it? The rich media ad for the iPod Touch made the ESPN website explode. As a recent Washington Post article pointed out, online advertisers are hoping that bigger and bolder ads can save display and banner advertising . There was no doubt I couldn’t miss the Apple ad as the iPod Touch device jumped out of the ad frame and exploded the ...
Read MoreLast week we launched the Blackwater Coffee Company & Cafe website. While the web design project was small in size on the surface, but its part of a very big service we are rolling out. The Blackwater web project included the following: Custom design elements over an existing CSS layout Full CMS back-end for updating of all website content Easy to use menu admin that allows for creating unlimited menus, categories, sub-categories, item ...
Read MoreI came across a great example of online marketing and offline marketing working together over the weekend. We often see traditional marketing driving people to the web, but I found something different going on. I found online marketing elements being put to use offline. I’m old school on Sunday mornings and almost always head out to buy the Sunday paper ( Star Tribune ) to read while having breakfast. As a gadget and tech guy, I usually look forward ...
Read MoreI came across a blog post recently that stated web analytics should be called business analytics (sorry I forgot where!) and I couldn’t agree more. Yes, the tool is producing statistical information from your website, but it truly is providing stats, behaviors, strengths and weaknesses of your business. I’m still amazed at the number of conversations where a business is asking for help in improving search engine rankings, but has no idea if ...
Read MoreFive Technology is very excited to announce an Internet marketing seminar to teach and discuss the basics of search engine optimization and email marketing. The seminar is on January 20th, 2009 from 9:00am to Noon in Buffalo , Minnesota . You can get the full details, schedule and register online by clicking here. Why Are We Doing A Seminar? Our philosophy is and has been to share what we know. It’s not about secret recipes, but about the ...
Read MoreGreat Internet marketing blog posts are always on my radar and I have four I’m highlighting here that can provide some great education, examples and ideas for any business working to succeed on the web. Each one has some great takeaways you can plug into your business strategy online. Better fundamentals, better content, better use and better marketing. Great reads! + The SEO Pyramid Fundamentals SEOmoz and the fabulous Whiteboard ...
Read MoreThe same way that a hot vacation spot or an amazing restaurant brings people in from a variety of sources and places, a great website should do the same. Create something of value, entertainment and enjoyment and you’ll get a faithful following, a great reputation, referral business, buzz and profits. Your website can be this same type of destination on the Internet. A solid website builds repeat users and conversions. The site’s ...
Read MoreWant to see what someone else gets for open rates and click thru’s on their email marketing? OK, I’ll share with you what we’ve experienced this summer with our small start to email marketing for our web design and Internet marketing services. Five Technology’s Email Marketing Facts: With Five Technology as a new brand/company to start 2008 we inherited a small list from our parent company Intrcomm. Our first e-letter ...
Read MoreI work with clients from time to time that are basically ashamed they have never taken the opportunity to acquire permission to market to their customers via email. It’s not a big deal, and it’s better to start today then to wait another week, month or year! Lets take a look at three tips to remember if you are just starting to build an email list to leverage email marketing for your business or organization. You can also view a quick ...
Read MoreUSA Today’s Jefferson Graham recently did a video segment on Google by interviewing Google’s Matt Cutts for their Tech Talk section . The video is great to get a base understanding of Google’s search results and and search engine optimization basics. The biggest takeaways I found: + It’s tough to be found for a term being searched if that text isn’t on your website somehere, listen to Matt’s ...
Read MoreWith tonight’s NBA Draft looming I thought I would morph it a bit into the search engine optimization world. If I had to draft a team of SEO pieces to work together as a team to achieve search ranking greatness, here is what I would draft for my five SEO starters. 1. Point Guard – Keyword Research: As the point guard is often the floor general taking care of handling and passing the ball to all of the team, the keyword research ...
Read MoreWe’re all aware of the KISS theory, keep it simple stupid. So I was reminded the same should apply to SEO when reading a post by Eric Enge on Search Engine Land and the power of simplicity in explaining SEO to clients . Search engine optimization can be complex with all of it’s facets and processes, but the true root can still be a simple one. For me, the most simple sentence explaining SEO to non-search types was ...
Read MoreAfter reading a story about the top newspaper websites (thanks to Ed Kohler’s Tweet ), I wanted to view the San Francisco Chronicle website since it received an “A” grade. Upon typing in “San Fransisco Chronicle” into my Google search field (bad article, no links!) I saw something I had never came across before. A search feature to search the SF Chronicle site , right from Google. As you can see, Google is ...
Read MoreI felt like I had come across some great posts and interesting articles with Minnesota roots the past few days and I thought I would pass them along to you. Maybe it’s because we finally had a weekend of 75 degree days with plenty of sunshine to get our great MN minds going. + The StarTrib had an interesting article about the private community of North Oaks asking to be removed , and actually being removed from Google Maps. Gets ...
Read MoreVideo, video ,video … it’s a hot topic. But how can your small business use Internet video ? A company overview video is a great way to bring more to the table on explaining and showing who you are, what you do and how you do it. Your website visitors are engaged with visual and audio instead of just reading text and viewing photos/graphics. Here are just a few of the basic items you can cover and include for your own company overview ...
Read MoreRand over at SEOMoz put out his Whiteboard Friday video this week on Business Blogging and offered up 5 tips if you are considering blogging for business, especially to help your SEO efforts. Rand’s weekly videos offer great SEO tutorials and education and I was excited when I saw it ventured into blogging and SEO this week. Here is the video: SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday-Blogging for Higher Rankings from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo ...
Read MoreWe all know the high cost of attracting a customer or client to use our services or buy our products the first time. It’s not cheap. So with all that work and investment, doesn’t it make sense to spend a few cents on keeping them? It sure does. Thats why Email Marketing rocks. Affordable communication with your customers – just pennies per! Branded marketing or information right to their inbox A fantastic ...
Read MoreGraphic designer David Airey , from across the pond, put out a great post today on elements your blog should contain/display to welcome first time readers and obviously turn them into long time readers. David points out that while you have been blogging for weeks, months or years; the visitor might be reading your blog for the first time ever. Since my niche in blogging is more focused to business blogging I thought I would outline David’s ...
Read MoreI read a USA Today article this week about small businesses using sandwich board signs to attract more business and the issues some city governments/councils had with them “cluttering up” the streets. More businesses are looking to increase the ways that they attract customers past their existing signage in these economic times and the sandwich board is one of the cheap basics. I’ll stay out of the politics of the article, but it got me ...
Read MoreWith search engine optimization being a process (not a trick) I thought I would post a series of updates over time on our own SEO process. We have identified the search term “ minnesota web design ” as our most sought after keyword term. With the newly re-branded Five Technology website up for just 2 months we are at least now on the radar on Google appearing on page 8 for this search. It won’t be easy or ...
Read MoreCombine veteran business bloggers, business blogging newbies and those considering blogging with good pizza and an open forum and you have the recipe for some great sharing and blogging tips. Tonight was the 2nd meeting of the Biz Bloggers Meetup group started by blogging pro Caroline Melberg and about 16 great business people attended. (photos taken with my Treo) The mix of online experience and industries represented made for ...
Read MoreInternet marketing is an easy way to help your environment and market at the same time (ah, the feel good angle). Here in Minnesota, record numbers of phone books are being tossed out , with up to 85% ending up in the regular trash according to a recent Star Tribune article. The article cites that part of the reason is from the disappearance of recycling bins for them and the increase in the number of book types printed. They step around the fact that ...
Read MoreJumping online to search out some info this morning, the Google home page (see screen shot below) made me aware of something I haven’t heard anything about. I found out about Earth Hour . Google’s Summary: On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone. On this day, cities around the world, including Copenhagen, ...
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