by Scott Meadows | Nov 30, 2021 | Info Article
You May Be Asking – How Does Website Speed Affect SEO? People ask us all the time, “Does Website Speed Affect SEO”. When an individual uses Google to search for something, they want their question answered quickly. They don’t have time to wait around on a website that takes forever to load. Instead of waiting, they’ll typically go on to the next website, meaning you’ll lose that potential customer to a competitor. How do you rank your website on Google? Is it good enough to just post content or should you be doing something else? You might not believe how much page speed affects SEO. Google’s Panda update was designed to weed out sites with thin content and poor usability, but the other side of that coin is how page speed affects SEO. Page load speed (and overall site speed) is a crucial component of user experience. When does page speed affect SEO? Google tends to reward websites with faster load times with higher rankings on its search engine. Higher rankings equal more traffic. More traffic equals more conversions. More conversions equal more revenue for your business. What is Page Speed? While it is pretty self explainatory, Page Speed is how quickly your website page completely loads onto a device, whether that’s a laptop, mobile phone, or tablet. Each page of your website can load at a variety of quickness due to several different factor including server load, network latency, amount of content, scripts, plugins, the size and number of images used on the page, just to name just a few. A slow website can have a huge impact...
by Scott Meadows | Mar 9, 2021 | Info Article
Reputation Management Checklist First – Watch This Video for an Overview Why Do You Need To Pay Attention to Your Online Reputation? The online reputation of your business can’t be overestimated! Any time consumers are trying to make a purchasing decision they check for reviews online for products and services they are interested in across multiple resources. 90% of consumers say online reviews impact their decisions! That means even if your business is listed first in search engine results but your competitor has a higher reputation rating, 56% of consumers would prefer the business with a better rating than yours! Moreover, there is a 6.5% increase in sales for every 0.5 a point increase in business reputation star rating! If your goal is to get more sales, your reputation growth strategy should be the main focus of your marketing efforts! What Steps Should You Take? We will help you make sure that you have a good grip on your reputation with this comprehensive step-by-step checklist! BONUS: It includes actionable links to get the things done! Know What Your Customers Find About Your Business Online ⬜ Google Your Business Name to Find All The Mentions About Your Business Online ⬜ Check Google Maps for Directions and Details About Your Business ⬜ Search Your Business Name + Reviews on Google, Yahoo, Bing to find all the reviews ⬜ Review Major Directories That Show Feedback For Your Business like Better Business Bureau, Yelp, YellowPages, SuperPages, InsiderPages, CitySearch, Foursquare, Yellowbook, etc. ⬜ See What Reviews or Recommendations Are Visible Across Social Media For Your Business: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. Track...
by Scott Meadows | Nov 3, 2020 | Tips
You’re Losing Potential Customers and It’s Not Your Fault!!! Let’s face it, when you own a business, you’re going to miss some calls unfortuntely. What’s unfortuante in today’s world is that a missed call is a missed opportunity. Prospects today EXPECT you to answer your phone when they call. When they can’t reach you, they’re calling your competition….You’ve just lost this potential sale. Well we’re here to tell you there is a way to reengage those callers who don’t leave a message or who call and hang up after too many rings. Watch the short video below to see how we’re doing it....
by Scott Meadows | Mar 6, 2019 | Tips
For small business, having a professional website is non-negotiable. A website is your single most valuable tool for establishing your brand, capturing leads and nurturing customers to the point of conversion. As a small business, there’s a lot riding on the quality and performance of your web design. Unfortunately, there are still many small businesses out there who are attempting to tread water without the benefit of a well designed website. This is a mistake, but it’s easy to see how it happens. Web design is complex, overwhelming and if it’s not your area of expertise, you likely have no idea where to begin. So, where do you start? Take a deep breath, take it slow and develop a web design strategy that includes these 4 tips for creating a small business site that your audience will love. Breathing Room A mistake that some businesses make with their web design is that they try to accomplish too much. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t have high expectations for your site, but you don’t want to cram your web pages so full that it leaves the visitor without a visual point of focus. Instead, choose web design that has a clean, fresh appearance. Avoid clutter and include enough “white space” to provide your visitors with a clear visual path to follow around your page. Clean design is also best from a mobile perspective, which brings us to our next point. Responsive Design It’s important for both user experience and search engine optimization that your site be able to meet the demands of the mobile consumer. Responsive...
by Scott Meadows | Feb 11, 2019 | Uncategorized
If there’s one thing that the past few years have taught us, it’s that every business needs a strong, effective digital strategy to survive. Most business owners realize this, and it has become even easier for them to piece together a strategy on their own, without the help of a digital agency. While those of us in the industry know that the services of agencies are important and still very relevant, the challenge has become communicating this to an audience that has become increasingly independent. The most important things that an agency can promote for overcoming this hurdle are the personalized service, value and innovation that they bring to the table. In order to accomplish this, agencies need to be client focused, with a keen eye on what matters most to their clients. Here are a few things for agencies to keep in mind when they want to win over clients and establish themselves as valuable members of their teams. Rethink the End Goal As an agency, you know firsthand how important it is to constantly monitor campaigns, measure their success and make changes where needed. Metrics like customer engagement and UX mean a lot from your perspective, but your clients are probably more focused on the larger goal of boosting their bottom line. Agencies can help keep the focus on their clients by providing them with the information that is most likely to influence their decision making processes. For them, knowing their engagement rates is great but what they really want to know is how the digital strategy that’s been created for them is impacting their bottom line...
by Scott Meadows | Jan 28, 2019 | Tips
If you’ve devoted any amount of time to optimizing your online presence, you’ve without a doubt encountered endless advice about all the things you should be doing to get SEO “right”. Unfortunately, there’s not much out there about what you might be doing wrong and it could be damaging your chances at gaining any traction in the digital world. To help gain more visibility and traffic online, here are four things you should never be doing with SEO and content marketing strategies. Taking Shortcuts with Keyword Optimization Even with shifting priorities in Google’s algorithm, keywords will always remain relevant to SEO. We’re willing to bet that you already know that the right keywords help you get noticed. But, what you might not be getting right is how you’re using them. We know that at least half of search engine queries are 4 words or longer. If you’re stuck in a rut of using one or two keywords per page or piece of content, you’re not even close to optimizing your keyword strategy. Consumers today have become more savvy about how they search online. They’re using longer phrases and more detailed words to communicate what they’re looking for. The rise of voice search has contributed to this as well, to the point that longer phrases that match natural language patterns are winning out over the old standard approach to keywords. Not Going Deep Enough with Content Content is an essential delivery vehicle for your brand’s message and the value you provide to your market. Taking a wimpy approach to content marketing is like putting someone on...
by Scott Meadows | Jan 21, 2019 | Tips
You want your business to be successful and there’s one thing that you absolutely need for that to happen – customers. The problem that many businesses face isn’t a lack of a market who can be nurtured into customers, but that they don’t have a plan in place for reaching out to them. A marketing plan is the strongest tool you can have for connecting with your target audience and unfortunately, many businesses don’t have one. The U.S. Small Business Association estimates that about half of small businesses don’t have a marketing plan and nearly 20% of larger businesses are trying to navigate their way to success in the dark without a plan as well. Considering that a strong digital presence is something that’s so important today, a marketing strategy is a must. Don’t worry, a marketing agency can assist with this but there are some ways that you can help them and ensure that you’ll end up with a results driven strategy that works. Get to Know Each Other In order to create a marketing plan with an agency, the two of you need to have a relationship. If someone is promising you results based on a set of strategies that are “proven” to work but hasn’t taken the time to get to know you or your business, it’s a sure sign that they’re not going to generate the results you’re looking for. The agency you work with should want to get to know you, learn about your goals – both short term and long term, and want to know as much as possible about the audience you...
by Scott Meadows | Jan 14, 2019 | Tips
The world of digital marketing is filled with enough acronyms to make your head spin. Even if you’re new to optimizing your presence online, you’ve no doubt encountered the classics – like SEO, PPC, ROI, etc. While all these have a place in building up your business in the digital landscape, UNAP is one of the most important for also securing foot traffic through your door. Never heard of UNAP before? Let us tell you all about it and why it’s important for your business. What Is UNAP? UNAP stands for Universal (or URL) Name, Address and Phone number. It’s essentially an acronym for all of your essential contact information. Except for the URL, the UNAP sums up all the reasons why businesses loved their Yellow Pages listing in days gone by. There are multiple reasons that having easily accessible UNAP information is important for your business, but before we get into that, it’s necessary to first talk about the need for consistency. UNAP Consistency and SEO Having your UNAP information available on the top internet directories is a major step in the right direction for local SEO. The only problem is that your information might be out there in places you aren’t even aware of, and some of it might not be accurate. This is a huge ding to your SEO strategy because both search engines and your audience are looking for signals that you’re the real deal. Consistency across all your listings provides a level of trust that’s necessary for search engine approval and also for establishing validity with your local audience. Whether...
by Scott Meadows | Jan 10, 2019 | Tips
Building a presence online has become a necessity for practically every business, and there are many different components to doing so successfully. As more and more businesses flood the digital space, it’s easy to forget just how complex building a brand online can be – especially in an environment where advancements in technology and consumer behaviors spur constant fluctuations in digital trends. With all this movement, your website is the one place that stands as a consistent, reliable representation of your brand. It’s tempting to build a website that you love and call it good but if you really want to generate interest in your brand, and the traffic that comes with it, then you also need to be paying attention to the web design trends that are capturing the attention of your target audience. 2019 is almost here, and with it a new perspective on what effective web development looks like. To make the coming year your most successful yet, here are a few of the upcoming design trends that you want to pay attention to. Making the Most of Video The fact that the use of video is a leading trend is web design doesn’t come as surprise to anyone. What is changing is how video is being used to encourage engagement and longer visits on websites. Take for example, how video ties into the mobile user experience. The number of mobile visits to websites grew from 57% to 63% in one year’s time, and with that came an increase in the amount of time mobile visitors were spending on those sites and a drop...
by Scott Meadows | Jul 13, 2016 | Industry News
In this day and age, social media has taken over by storm. It’s an outstanding way for businesses such as Spark Local Marketing in Greenville, SC to gain exposure, drive traffic, obtain loyal customers, and produce leads and sales. Out of all the social media platforms, it’s no surprise that Facebook remains the platform of choice for most marketers. In fact, you’re truly missing out if you’re not already advertising on Facebook as it’s one of the cheapest and easiest ways to build your brand and increase demand for your products and services in 2016. Not to mention the billions of potential customers to be easily accessed and targeted, Facebook is too big for any business to ignore. If you’re still on the fence, check out these five reasons you need to start using Facebook Ads now to give you major success in 2016. 1. Facebook Captures Your Audience One of the reasons your business should be using Facebook Ads RIGHT NOW is that on Facebook alone, the average American spends about 40 minutes liking and sharing content. In fact, Facebook users “Like” over 4.1 million posts, comments, status updates, and photos every minute! Just imagine the amount of people that could see your advertisements and “Like” and “Share” them. Talk about a great way to reach your customers and have them spread the word for you! 2. Facebook Organic Reach is Dead, but Facebook Ads Are Alive and Surprisingly Inexpensive Unfortunately, the days of free organic reach on Facebook are dead and gone. Today, an average of less than .5 percent of your fans will actually see your...
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