marketing tips | Advertising Is Simple Delaware

Why Every Business Needs a Website Audit

June 27, 2022 by Advertising

photo of hourglass with text "site audit"

There are many reasons a business should get a periodic audit of their website, but the main purpose is to give a complete view of the health and wellbeing of your website. Just as all of us should go in for a yearly medical exam, your website should have its annual exam too. This will let you know the health of the website and show you any problems or issues that have arisen since the last time your website had been tested.

There are a few different audits you can do your website, but the types of audits we are going to focus on is the technical, SEO and social media.

The technical website audit is the basic and essential one to make sure the website is working properly. A technical website audit would test for a few key points which would let you know if anything was mechanically wrong with the website. These would be things like broken links, load time, mobile friendliness, indexing, txt errors, https status and crawling. This would be the basic things needed for the website to work properly.

The Search Engine Optimization audit can let you know how your website more visible to users. One thing that really will help with examining this would be to install Google Analytics on your website. Google Analytics will allow you to see many key performance indicators such as site traffic, new visitors to the website, time spent on site, pages visited, devices used and much more.

You can set up goals and conversions in the analytics to assess how your KPI’s are doing. Things you should be looking for on your SEO audit are making sure your meta data is correct, detecting any duplicate content, looking at internal links, keywords chosen and headings optimized.

Finally, you may want to looks at your social media channels and make sure they are optimized. Organic social media is the electronic version of word of mouth advertising. Make sure you have your social media icons on your website. You should claim all your social media channels whether you are using them right now or not.

When surveying a social media audit some of the key factors you would want to look at are how many fans you have, the consistency of posting, engagement with fans and interactions with customers and prospects. Also, a major factor in elevating your electronic word of mouth is getting reviews. People would much rather see what others are saying about you opposed to you tooting your own horn.

In summary, there are many more audits you could do, such as competitor analysis, conversion, content analysis and user experience. These are all great audits to examine as well, but the technical, SEO and social audits to lay the foundation for a good web presence.

If you have and questions or would like to find out more about how Advertising Is Simple can help you with a website audit, get in touch! We are running a 40% off sizzling summer special. Now till Labor Day we will run a technical, SEO and social media audit for only $299. Click on the graphic to fill out our form for the deal! Just use our contact info below.

Sizzling summer deal! 40% of website audit until labor day! now $299! Improve visibility in search engines, know what elements are broken, become more competitive

AdvertisingIsSimple | 302.407.0431 |info@AdvertisingIsSimple.com

Manage Your Directory Listings Before They Manage You

October 19, 2021 by Advertising

Using directory websites to effectively develop a 5-star digital reputation is one of the most important things you can do to digitally market your business. Getting your house in order (your website, your social media accounts and online business directories) is a good place to start. Having a consistent and diverse reputation management plan will keep your business and brand on topic and on the positive side of your audience.

However, ending there is not going to help you create the lead generation that will help you to grow your online presence. The key to marketing success is constantly updating, adapting, measuring, analyzing and tweaking your strategy to better optimize your results, and this includes your online directories.

Let’s discuss business directories and how they play a huge part in getting your business a strong online presence.

Business Directories

If you want your company to rise in rankings on search engine results pages, take the time to claim your business directories as soon as possible (Like yesterday, soon). Think of it as yellow pages in a phone book. You want potential customers to know everything about your business in the most accessible way to get more leads. That’s why online directories are so important for your business, because they are the online phonebook.

Things like your company address, phone number, email address and website link should be consistent and updated regularly so any potential customer or client can find your business right away. Some popular websites to list your company information include Google My Business, Manta, Yellow Pages, Yelp, Facebook, Bing Places and Better Business Bureau.

Taking the time to claim your local business listings comes with many more benefits for your company. Besides helping your customers find you, you are also able to reach more people who are looking for specific services. How’s that for a FREE advertising opportunity? Yes, you read it right FREE, business directories are one of the most cost-effective marketing tools ever.

Needless to say, being properly listed in directories and using adaptive search engine optimization can be a game changer when trying to grow your business. Your business needs to be found!

Putting in the Work

Claiming, creating, updating, and monitoring your business listings can be a time-consuming task. At Advertising Is Simple, we offer directory listing services for you to take advantage of. We ensure your business listings are correct, up-to-date, spread across all channels, and optimized for maximum SEO to market your business to the right audience, making it incredibly easier for your clients to find you!

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If you need help, get in touch with Advertising Is Simple. We have quality solutions and products that can help improve your brand’s SEO and make a notable increase in your number of leads.

At Advertising is Simple, we consistently stay up-to-date on the most effective methods of SEO, that’s why we call it Adaptive SEO. What works today, may not work a few months down the road. We monitor your advertising results through A/B testing and in-depth analytics to get you the highest rate of return on your advertising dollars.

Advertising Is Simple | 302.407.0431 | info@AdvertisingIsSimple.com

YouTube Shorts Are Your Business’s Next Social Opportunity

September 9, 2021 by Advertising

Young female blogger and vlogger and online influencer live streaming a cooking show on social media using a smartphone

YouTube Shorts are the newest way for you to market and create content for your business. This social media platform is already connected to YouTube, so it’s that much easier for existing businesses to integrate Shorts into their social media marketing strategy if they are already YouTube users. Here’s why YouTube Shorts are the newest social opportunity for your business.

What are YouTube Shorts?

YouTube Shorts are YouTube’s effort towards short-form video. Similar to platforms like TikTok, short-form video has gained popularity in recent years due to it’s lightweight and catchy nature. Users also prefer this type of experience since it provides instant satisfaction and doesn’t require as much commitment when compared to longer video content. Shorts videos are 60 seconds or less, vertical (mobile 9:16 ratio), and show up in the designated YouTube Shorts app or on the “Short Shelf” within the existing YouTube app.

In the Shorts environment, YouTube shows an endless loop of videos to you that YouTube thinks you would like. YouTube bases this loop on your interests, searches, and watch history. The appeal of this short-form video loop is its “stickiness”. Each 60-second clip is immediate gratification after the next, which keeps users swiping.

How to Create Shorts

You can create a YouTube Short by uploading a video, filming the video within the App, or sampling available content from other YouTube creators, then using the Shorts editor to add music, text, and more. Keep in mind, if you sample content or music from another creator and that creator deletes that video, any Shorts that sampled the deleted video will automatically be set to “unlisted” and scheduled for deletion in 30 days.

You can add Shorts as another content hub on your existing YouTube page or create an entirely new YouTube dedicated to Shorts. The ladder is what is recommended if you believe adding Shorts will disrupt your current audience. For example, if your existing audience enjoys the way your content is already set up on YouTube, they may be turned off by Shorts, and that is when you would want to create a new YouTube page for your Shorts. On the other hand, keeping your Shorts connected to your existing YouTube page creates a home base for all of your content for watchers to enjoy.

YouTube Shorts for Businesses

Businesses have already begun using Shorts in creative ways to market them and their businesses, and it’s time for you to start now! The earlier you start adding content to Shorts, the more likely you are to show up on someone’s loop. This is because YouTube is doing everything they can to promote the new short-form video platform, and will reward creators who are attempting to share their content through it.

Another great thing about Shorts is that users don’t actually search for you to find you. YouTube puts your content right in front of people they think would like it, which adds viewers to your page organically and increases your potential for leads and new customers. Once they see your Short, they have the option to subscribe.

Shorts Best Practices

With Shorts, you only have 60 seconds (sometimes less) to grab the attention of your audience. The great thing about Shorts is that users can decide within a few seconds if they want to keep watching, but this is vital for creators to keep in mind. To combat this, creators must make the first few seconds of their Short captivating and keep the rest of the content shared in the video snappy. To add, Shorts loop if the user doesn’t swipe next, so when creating Shorts, pace the video accordingly and optimize it for replayability.

Another best practice is to keep your content relevant. Make sure to keep up with trends on the App. Whether it’s a popular song, moment, event, or practice, keeping up with the times is extremely important on a platform like this. Lastly, make sure your videos are rewarding. This could mean that your Short provides a solution, teaches the user something new, or simply entertains them.

All in all, the Shorts you create for your business on YouTube need to execute a promise to be successful. Viewers need to be shown a reason to keep watching within the first few seconds of a video, and then by the end of the video, they need to feel that reason was fulfilled. Start using YouTube Shorts for your business today to stay socially relevant and attract more leads to your business. Need some help with YouTube Optimization and setting up Shorts? Call Us Now! (302) 407-0431

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If you need help, get in touch with Advertising Is Simple. We have quality solutions and products that can help improve your brand’s SEO and make a notable increase in your number of leads.

Advertising Is Simple | 302.407.0431 | info@AdvertisingIsSimple.com

Google… (aka the Electronic Yellow Pages)

August 12, 2021 by Advertising

The Yellow Pages were once the fat book of solutions to many people’s problems. Whether it was a locksmith, a contractor, a seamstress, or a dog sitter you needed – The Yellow Pages were the primary business directory you depended on for finding help when you needed it, but not anymore.

Nowadays, you’ll probably only find one being used as a spider smasher or a makeshift “squatty potty”. Ask a millennial what the phonebook is and they’ll say, “You mean my contacts list?” Why is that, you ask? Because… Google, that’s why.

The search engine arrived and solidified its place as the most popular means of finding information through the Internet. Google had essentially swept the legs out from Yellow Pages, making all of this information (that would normally come out once a year) available with a single search and click.

One In The Same

Google and The Yellow Pages accomplish the same task, they help you find a business or service. The Yellow Pages made businesses pay to be featured in their directory, and that made all of the difference.

So, why wouldn’t you invest time and resources into the search engine that is now responsible for getting you to your customers in today’s day and age? The facts speak for themselves – 86% of people rely on the Internet to find a local business and 46% of Google searches are for just that – local businesses.

The difficult part can be having your business show up first on a Google search – which is what matters most. Legend has it – if someone has it out for you, they bury your business on the second page of Google, because who actually ever scrolls past the first?! You would think that if someone searched your business’s name, that you would automatically be the first to pop up. Surprising to most, this is not the case at all.

Pay Per Click

In order to show up first on Google, businesses need to invest in what’s called Pay Per Click, also known as PPC. Pay Per Click is the quickest and easiest way to show up at the top of a Google search. With PPC campaigns, businesses display ads that show up on a Google search using keywords related to their business and advertisers pay a fee anytime their ad is clicked. Costs per click usually range between $1-$200 dollars.

By marketing this way, you are “buying” website visits rather than relying solely on organic traffic. Coming up organically on Google can take major time and effort, so PPC ads can be a great head start to creating a solid organic presence and gaining leads. Google Ads is the most popular and effective PPC system used today, and if you are not using it for your business, are you sure your business even exists?

Search Engine Optimization

Google has an algorithm called Pigeon that is aimed at producing better search results for local businesses that have a strong organic presence, but in order to obtain that organic presence, you need to constantly be working on and monitoring your SEO.

SEO is now a very popular buzzword in terms of marketing and technology, but it’s as simple as this: Great SEO makes it easier to find your business through a Google search. Even if your business is not local, failing to invest in SEO is a big no-no and could be potentially costing you lots of business. Check out this article that shares 7 SEO tips for local businesses to try.

To Conclude

With the start of the Internet & the age of information, the tides of the business-world waters have drastically changed, and if you aren’t keeping up to speed, your business may get swept away and lost in the current. Your business may not be one that involves technology, but regardless of what you do, Pay Per Click, SEO, & Google are essential parts of the marketing machine that you need to be utilizing today.