Google is changing the name of its business profile management system from Google My Business to Google Business Profile. Google stated that its intent behind this change is “to keep things simple” and to extract more of the business profile from the GMB app and insert it directly into Google Search, Google Maps and other…
When companies design or update their websites, most often the focus is on how the website will look, in terms of layout or images. Frequently overlooked in the process is the site’s underlying structure. Site structure is important for user experience and, as such, improving it will impact a website’s SEO and increase traffic and…
Though the web has only recently celebrated its 30th birthday, designers and developers have seen a number of revivals in terms of web page construction and maintenance. For the curious or nostalgic, here’s a quick timeline of milestones in the life of web design: Early 1990’s The first publishing language of the Web was introduced:…
In 2020 with all of the challenges COVID-19 threw our way, every business looked to their website to communicate with their customers for a number of reasons. They needed to let them know their updated hours, product updates and availability, any new policies with regards to the pandemic, and, most notably, they needed to market….
Very soon Google will have completed its update of Page Experience. This update began in mid-June, and the tech giant expects it to be fully operational by the end of August. Google began preparing the public in advance so they would have time to make adjustments to their websites to avoid experiencing problems with their…
For the most part, SEO has been based on the same principles and methods. However, all of those principles and methods have been refined and altered again and again by Google’s algorithm updates. So, which SEO factors are most important now and which will stay important for the foreseeable future? SEO is a lot like…
Recently I shared some information about the many file formats for digital imagery. If you missed it, check out The Alphabet Soup of Image File Formats. Today, I’ll share some industry secrets about where you can find these file types for use in your digital marketing projects – and many of them are absolutely free….
Hardly a website project crosses my desk without the question of, “Squarespace vs. WordPress? How should I build my website?” being asked. Let’s take a look at two of the most popular ways to build your website and the pros and cons of each. Squarespace…or, the Nissan Altima of Website Builders When I was first…
When we think of online searches, people automatically think of Google. It is true that Google has captured the largest percentage of search engine results, but Bing should not be ignored. It still gets a decent share of searches. To make sure you aren’t missing out on potential customers, you should claim the Bing Places…
Some time ago, we wrote about the need for improved digital accessibility across the internet. In this blog we’ll explore why your company or organization should be interested in incorporating greater accessibility on your website. You might need an accessibility audit and not even know it. Why Incorporate Digital Accessibility? There are multiple reasons why…
If you’re looking to have a website for your business or organization, and you don’t know where to start, there are two popular options for companies that do not need or want a fully custom-built website: Squarespace and WordPress. In this blog we will compare the two and list the pros and cons of each…
There are many platforms for Pay Per Click (PPC). Some familiar platforms include: Google ads (AdWords), Microsoft ads (Bing ads), Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, and retargeting services like AdRoll. Which ones should your company use in order to achieve greater PPC success? Many companies Corporate Conversions works with have tried to manage PPC in house…
We’ve discussed the importance of content for developing websites and improving SEO. Every company should be creating original content for its website regularly, and that content should be interesting, entertaining, or useful in order to engage their audience and drive sales. Some of that content will be topical based on what is happening at a…
Does your website have an SSL certificate? You may not know what this is, why it’s important, or if it affects your website’s search rankings. If that is the case, read on. We will explain. What Is SSL? SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, is an encryption-based internet protocol used to verify the identity of servers….
In a previous blog we answered questions about how to identify your domain registrar and host. This is important if you are planning to update your website, change hosting providers, or connect to certain web services. Domain registrars manage domain name system services and the DNS records of those domains. One very popular domain registrar…
It’s no secret that many of us learn simply by looking. In fact, studies have found that 65% of us are primarily visual learners. On your website and in your marketing efforts, visuals and support graphics are a must-have if you’re hoping to engage your users. Photographs attract attention, trigger emotion, and create a human…
If you are planning to redo your website, change hosting providers, or connect it to certain web services, first you must figure out where your domain is registered. It may seem strange that people would not know where to find their domain, but it’s quite common. Many people bought their domain name years ago and…
2020 was a year of challenges for all of us worldwide, but at Corporate Conversions we are grateful for having the opportunity to serve our clients this past year. As so many businesses and organizations transitioned to being online more, we were very busy. However, it’s safe to say we all hope 2021 is much…
The internet has been an amazing tool for disseminating information which has been both good and bad for businesses. While it can get you noticed and bring you traffic (and subsequent sales), it can also be used as a cudgel by customers who are disgruntled or even vengeful. Consumers, annoyed with substandard telephone customer service,…
We are moving into the height of the holiday season this week with Thanksgiving and Black Friday. For many businesses this part of the year is crucial to their bottom line. 2020 has been a challenging year for all of us, but small and medium-sized businesses have been at a disadvantage because of COVID restrictions….
Are you annoyed by websites that take forever to load? You are not alone. No one appreciates slow websites. If your website is slow, be aware that this can affect your traffic and your conversions and make it harder for your business to succeed. How Fast Is Your Site Speed? Fast and slow are somewhat…
What Is a Landing Page? We’ve talked before what a landing page is and how it works, so here’s a quick summary of what specifically “landing page” refers to in the context of this post. While any web page that a user lands on can technically be deemed a landing page, this post will focus…
One simple way you can increase the effectiveness of your website’s SEO and gain more traffic from search engines is to update your website’s old content. If you take the time to go over content that is outdated and give your site a content facelift, this will improve your website’s freshness score. What Is a…
At Corporate Conversions, it’s our goal to write timely, even seasonal, pieces on often googled topics for our clients’ blogs. An interesting, regularly updated blog builds a network of readers over time. These readers can easily become new customers for our clients. Adding fresh content to a website also increases its SEO value which results…
Website owners who focus on optimizing their landing pages may not be aware of its importance to SEO. Google ranks landing pages based on how much time a user spends on average on a page. Landing pages that have a high bounce rate may signal to Google that this page does not have any useful…
When it comes to content, your website is not one and done. While it’s wonderful to invest in creating a website that reflects what your company does and the products and services it offers, you can’t leave it just as it is and expect it to continue to perform the same for you over time….
Are you concerned that your company’s website isn’t ranking effectively for important search terms? Are you not getting the traffic and conversions your company needs for success? Corporate Conversions offers free website analysis to our potential customers, and we would be happy to do one for your site. We will let you know where you…
Companies that either do not have social media or have not optimized their social media posting wonder if there’s a secret to being successful in this marketing arena. There are a number of helpful strategies for improving engagement on social media, but the most important one is this: Be consistent. Without consistency, even the most…
In a previous blog piece we talked about what Google Search Console is and why website owners should be interested in using it. In this blog piece we will go over how to set up Google Search Console so you can get it up and running and begin to improve your website, your SEO, your…
Google Search Console is a tool that anyone who has a website should be aware of. It can be a big help in optimizing your website and your marketing and content creation efforts as well as making you aware of any site errors or problems. If you don’t know what Google Search Console is, read…
Creating a landing page is one way businesses attempt to quickly engage with their customers online. But what exactly is a landing page and how do you create an effective one? Technically, any web page is a landing page because by clicking on it, you land there, but for marketing purposes, landing pages are standalone…
Businesses that wisely use social media to interact with their customers and drive conversions will want to use those social media channels as effectively as possible. One of the ways to do this is to optimize social media profiles so they will make an impact and convey the right and intended messages to their online…
Phone calls are often an essential source of leads for many businesses and are important to track to determine the effectiveness of ad clicks. Call tracking allows advertisers to see which keywords, ads, ad groups, and campaigns lead to phone calls and helps with understanding the return on investment for a company’s ad spend. The…
Search Engine Journal recently posted an interesting article about why people visit websites. Anyone who has a website knows that it’s worth knowing exactly why people visit it. That’s why tools like Google Analytics are so useful because you can take the data that they collect and extrapolate it to understand patterns of user behavior….
If you are a business owner, it’s likely that you have wondered what attracts your customers to your website. You might question which keywords you should be focusing on in your copy or what people are actually searching for. If you are concerned about your website rankings, Google Trends can help you learn which keywords…
Corporate Conversions is ten years in the making, ten years in the business, and excited to move forward with our new brand into our next decade of service.
Alexandra Samuel recently wrote an interesting article entitled The Social Cost of Bad Online Marketing in which she discusses how clickbait articles, email spamming, and other practices businesses have adopted in an effort to compete in the much flatter market the internet has created and how it has affected the online environment itself. We’ve discussed…
If you’ve ever wondered what is involved in graphic design or what it is a graphic designer does exactly, here is Corporate Conversions’ Creative Director Christa Blackman sharing what her daily schedule and responsibilities involve: I’ve often heard people ask the hypothetical question, “What would you do if you didn’t have to work?” I never…
User experience is important for a number of reasons, but what is most important to business owners is conversion optimization. A great looking website is nice. Without a purchase, call, email, or contact form filled out, though, is your website doing what you need it to do? Ultimately, you need your customer base to interact…
The COVID-19 lockdown measures that states have enacted have created significant challenges for businesses. They are struggling to find ways to maintain open hours and deal with burdens like closing early for cleaning or only being able to sell their products curbside. All companies should keep up-to-date information flowing via their social media. They should…
In a recent blog, we mentioned that it’s often a mistake to cut your marketing budget during a recession or economic downturn. One important reason for that is that the cost of marketing is cheaper because there is less competition for those dollars. During the coronavirus pandemic, the market for some types of advertising, such…
For the last month or more Americans have been trying to survive the coronavirus. Political leaders are beginning to discuss the eventual end of quarantine and opening up the economy. For business owners this is good news, but many of them have questions about how they can get help for the damage the shutdown did…
The United States is experiencing the unprecedented combination of a pandemic and widespread business closures that are causing most people a great deal of stress. For business owners in uncertain times like these, it’s difficult to know what expenses to keep and which to cut. This is never an easy decision, but some sacrifices must…
The COVID-19 virus has made a huge impact on American society and business in a very short period of time. State and local governments are restricting the size of gatherings and closing schools while businesses are trying to decide which workers to keep on site and which can work remotely. While people often say they…
We’ve written before about keyword usage, but as Google has changed its goals and its algorithm over the years, it’s important to revisit the issue. In 2016 we said: “At the present time RankBrain will not be significantly more important than the other parts of Hummingbird, but Google intends to see how it works and…
For most small and medium-sized businesses, local reviews are going to be important for attracting new customers. Previously we’ve covered what to do when your business gets a negative review, but in this blog we will talk about how you can increase the number of customer reviews your company has online. We know that customers…
If you’ve been online looking for specific products, you may have noticed Google Shopping directly displaying product photos and information in your search results. Are you unsure of what the difference between Google Shopping Ads and Google Search Ads is? Read on. What Is Google Shopping? Google Shopping has been around since 2002 in some…
Businesses in the current online climate must pay attention to the reviews their customers leave. It’s not just for feedback, a bad review will discourage other customers from trying out a company’s products or services. Another aspect of local reviews that too many businesses don’t consider is their local SEO value. If you want your…
When most people think of SEO or search engine optimization, typically they think about keywords. Proper keyword use and website placement is a great place to start with SEO. Keywords definitely still have a place in SEO today, although the search industry and best practices for SEO have changed quite a bit from the early…
Advertising is a crucial way to get your audience to click into your website. Unfortunately, it doesn’t guarantee that once they get there, that click converts to a purchase or other desired outcome. A customer may be interested in what your company has to offer but gets distracted or doesn’t have enough time to make…
We all use our devices to do searches to find local businesses, products, and things to do. Do you primarily access the internet using a mobile device or a desktop computer? Whichever type of device you’re using, odds are that you have noticed that Google and other search engines are getting more targeted with local…
Business owners invest in SEO because they know that it will bring more of their customers to their website where they can interact with them directly and convert clicks to sales or other intended outcomes. Not all SEO is the same, however. If you do not hire a trustworthy and reputable company to do SEO,…
Website owners looking to track and increase conversions have several free and very useful tools available to help them achieve that goal. One is Google Analytics, and the other is Google Tag Manager. Here we will talk about what Google Tag Manager is and how it works. Tag Manager is Google’s free tag management systems…
When website owners build or overhaul a new website or begin to make forays into digital advertising, they have questions. Are these actions having an effect? Is it worth spending more money on this strategy or is another one preferable? No one wants to throw money at solutions that don’t result in greater business success….
How much exactly does digital marketing cost? People often wonder what the cost of good digital marketing is, and the answer is: It depends. Unfortunately, that’s not a very helpful response for any company on a budget, so in this blog we will break down the different aspects of digital marketing into ballpark numbers. At…
If your company is new to online advertising, you may find that there are terms and strategies involved that can be confusing for the uninitiated. Here we will talk about three terms, PPC, CPM, and CPC, what they mean, how they differ from each other, and how advertisers use these concepts to create effective, successful…
There are many ways to measure a website’s success. Every business has its unique goals, key performance indicators, and ideas of what success means for that business. If you have an ecommerce website, success is measured largely by the number of sales completed on the site. If your business is a wholesale supplier, you may…
On October 28, Ellen Doornbos, a local web developer and Certified Professional of Accessibility Core Competencies, gave a presentation about the importance of digital accessibility. This presentation was called HTML + A11y, and among the attendees was our own web developer, Mike Reed. Here are some highlights from this presentation. What Is Digital Accessibility? Digital…
There are multiple steps to building a website, and many of them are better done by a professional developer, but one step is critical, and it must be done by the website owner: assembling content. You can hire the best website designer you can find, but without the content that is specific to your business,…
If you have started a business or have an old website that you built by yourself to get something that would represent your company online, you may be unfamiliar with what goes into professional website building, front to back. It’s more complicated than it looks, especially if you want to capture all the traffic possible…
When business owners think of redesigns, for the most part they focus on their website. This makes sense because a website is the online face of their company. A website redesign or facelift can give customers the assurance that the company is still active, growing, and improving. The website is not the company’s only representation,…
Previously, we’ve discussed how manufacturers can utilize social media and drive leads through their websites. Creating a presence and a brand for your company on social media can be challenging, especially for manufacturers or companies that sell business to business. How can you boost awareness of your brand and attract customers? How do you promote…
Get started with online advertising by learning how to create your first Google Ads account.
In our last blog we talked about the benefits of using content management systems when designing your website. One of the perks of using a CMS like WordPress is that these systems are designed to be friendly to search engines. In order to properly index a website, search engines continuously crawl the internet and include…
When a company makes the decision to build or redesign its website, one decision the owners must make right away is whether the website should be built custom or using a content management system (CMS) to power it. There are pros and cons for both options, but for many companies, a content management system has…
We’ve discussed before how essential good SEO is for any company that wants to be competitive online. Unfortunately, many people have unrealistic expectations of how SEO works and also how fast it works. SEO isn’t magic. There is no SEO authority who can guarantee that a site will go from no internet traffic to a…
For most small businesses, getting local customers to notice your company is imperative. Creating multiple business listings on online directories is very helpful for this goal. Google and other search engines use these multiple business listings within their ranking algorithms to determine search engine results. While these listings often do not include backlinks, the information…
In May, we touched on on-site and off-site SEO, or commonly referred to as on-page and off-page SEO. One of the most overlooked areas in off-site SEO is local directory listings. This area of SEO is frequently overlooked because most of these websites crawl the web in a similar way that Google does in order…
In our last blog we talked about on-site SEO practices that can help a website that isn’t ranking well when users search for products and services a company provides. The other half of SEO concerns developing references and links to that website from other websites. This is off-site SEO. We will explain what that means…
One vital goal for websites is that they rank well on Google and other search engines when people search for their products or services. If your website isn’t ranking well, it doesn’t matter how eye catching its design is or informative its content is because your customers won’t see it. Addressing problems with on-site SEO…
Google My Business is a game changer for local search. It’s something all businesses should be utilizing. We have talked before about why Google My Business is a valuable (and free!) local search tool, and we’ve detailed what you need to do to claim your company’s Google My Business listing. Optimizing and updating your listing…
Google My Business is one effective way small and medium sized businesses can improve their local search rankings and traffic to their sites. Creating and optimizing a Google My Business account is simple and free. It puts your business on Google Maps and helps differentiate your company from your competition in searches as users will…
It’s not uncommon that a business will redesign its website a few times over the years. There is always new technology to improve certain aspects of the business’s online presence. A business may rebrand or have new products or services that need to be showcased. A company may invest in a redesign to improve user…
In our last blog we talked about why user experience is important. While there are many variables at work in how a person interacts with a website, everyone agrees that user satisfaction, or UX, has a huge impact on whether customers stay on or return to a website and eventually buy anything. Good web design…
Having a website is considered necessary for most businesses to be competitive. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to throw a website together and hope for the best. Your website is a very important communication tool for you to reach your customers. If it’s not designed to present the right information and guide customers to what they…
Many businesses feel like the success of their website is determined by how their website ranks on Google. This is not necessarily wrong, but it is also not entirely correct. There are thousands of search terms that your customers can search in Google that will send them to your business’s website. Which keywords and phrases…
In our last blog we talked about content marketing and why businesses need to incorporate it into their marketing strategy: When content marketing is done correctly, your company’s website answers the questions people are searching for. This makes your website the most relevant. In turn it will turn searches into sales as your web presence…
You may have heard the phrase content marketing but not understood what it means. This is unstandable. Content marketing didn’t exist 10 years ago. It’s only because of Google’s unflagging commitment to the creation of more and better content on the web that it exists now. If you don’t understand what content marketing is or…
Corporate Conversions is pleased to announce that in June of 2018 we acquired SLB Networks, a digital marketing company based in Belmont, Michigan. Ryan Duba, owner of SLB Networks, will be partnering with Corporate Conversions to make sure that his clients will continue to get the same professional and responsive service they always have. He…
In our last blog we talked about what managed hosting is and why it’s so important for your website. In this blog we will talk specifics about what you get when your company has a managed hosting package through Corporate Conversions. In general, the most obvious benefit of managed hosting is a website that is…
Managed hosting is a concept people get confused about. They don’t understand what it is, why their website might need it, or why it costs more money than hosting. Since we get a lot of questions about managed hosting at Corporate Conversions, we will go through these questions and answer them to help you understand…
It’s Christmas time, and we at Corporate Conversions wish our clients and you great 4th quarter sales. This year looks very promising for businesses. eMarketer is predicting that total retail sales in the U.S. will be $1.002 trillion as a result of the Christmas holiday, with ecommerce sales growing by 16.6 percent. Here we’ll go over…
One important means that small to medium sized businesses can use to improve their local search rankings is to create and optimize a Google My Business account. This is a simple and free way to establish your presence on Google. It also puts your business (literally!) on the map – Google Maps. If Google authenticates…
Last March, after it experienced an unfortunate data breach, Google announced that Google+ would be changing. The data breach wasn’t the reason. Google+ never really took off as a social media alternative to Facebook as Google had hoped. For a brief period, people were using it as a sort of professional LinkedIn before they decided…
Previously we’ve discussed why it’s useful to add hashtags to your company’s social media. A lot of people in business don’t really see the point of Twitter. It’s a medium that only allows for short statements, after all. What exactly is the point of screaming into the void? That is a good question. Here we…
U.S. businesses are becoming concerned about the General Data Protection Regulation that the European Union Parliament approved in April of 2016. The GDPR comes into effect next month on May 25, 2018. Even though the GDPR is a privacy policy for the EU, U.S. businesses will be affected, and they need to know how to…
Google has long been in the business of using incentives and disincentives to bribe websites into conforming to Google’s vision for the web. 2018 looks to be the year that a secure web moves to the top of Google’s list of priorities. Account hacking and data breaches are an enormous problem with long range consequences for…
With the proliferation of new social media, every business must consider its audience in choosing which platforms to use for marketing and communication to their customers. There are too many of them to do justice to them all, and some of them will not give a good return on investment for time spent. Facebook is…
In our August blog post we discussed how net neutrality is crucial for small businesses. Since then, the chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai, has announced that the FCC will be voting on whether to roll back the net neutrality regulation that has been in place since 2015. The current regulation prevents “[i]nternet access providers…
Back in May when we discussed how Google’s mobile-first indexing may affect your company’s search rankings, we said that if your company’s website was designed to be responsive – that is, to accommodate both desktop and mobile devices – then your website should not be hurt by this shift in the way Google indexes. If…
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is something most people have heard of, but many do not understand well. There are many myths about what SEO is and what it can do for a website. Today we’ll dismantle three terrible SEO myths, so you don’t have to. Myth #1: SEO Experts Can Guarantee Your Site Top…
For many years now the issue of net neutrality has been a topic of discussion and then a realized fact. As defined, net neutrality is “the principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites.” This essentially ensures…
Social media can be intimidating for many small business owners who know how to do their jobs and run their businesses but don’t necessarily know how to explain or promote it to other people. Maintaining a profile on preferably more than one social media platform is important for reaching your audience and for ranking on…
In our last blog we discussed responsive web design and why that’s important for companies that want to have their websites continue to have good search ranking in today’s internet climate. This is because Google is changing its algorithm from desktop-first indexing to mobile-first indexing in 2017 and beyond. What is mobile-first indexing? The first…
Have you ever wondered about what this term means? Mashable dubbed 2013 the Year of Responsive Web Design, so it’s not a new concept, but many business owners do not understand what it is, why it’s important now, why it will be even more important in the future. First, what is responsive web design? It’s…
Previously we discussed three ways manufacturers or owners of industrial companies could be more accessible to their audience and clientele. These included registering their companies on local and industry listings, adding contact forms in useful places on their company websites, and making sure that those websites are optimized for mobile use. Here we will discuss…
It’s relatively simple for companies that make or market trendy products to use social media and other internet tools to drive leads to their websites and generate sales. Facebook users love to share Etsy goods or natural/organic products with their friends. There are so many products that manufacturers produce, however, that are not easily marketable…
As a business owner do you know what people are saying about your company and what its online reputation is now or is becoming? The old saying, “No publicity is bad publicity,” is just not true today. With name recognition comes consumer awareness, for better or for worse. When small business owners start out, they…
Spam has been a problem almost since the beginning of the internet; it’s created by hackers and distributed various ways in order to either create a nuisance, introduce viruses, or scam unsuspecting internet users. Of late, website owners have noticed a different kind of spam when they’ve gone through their Google Analytics accounts: records of…
Every business with a website would pay a great deal for the answer of how to get hits to convert to sales. That’s what a website is there for, right? It’s not a sign post, it’s a way of connecting your products and services to your customer base. One of the ways that some businesses…
Is your company’s website out of date? Does it function they way you want and need it to, or is it failing to bring in traffic or actually turning away customers because of its poor set up or lack of compatibility with current tech? How can you tell when an updated website is no longer…
The hashtag has become a mini phenomenon due to the internet and social media. In fact, some people say that you can correctly differentiate between older and younger generations by showing them its symbol (#) and asking them what it is. Supposedly, Boomers and Generation Xers will call it a pound sign and Millennials and…
If you’ve been following this blog for awhile, you’ll know that SEO has changed quite a bit in the past three years, and small to medium-sized businesses that want to make sure their companies show up in Google searches have had to navigate the changing criteria by which Google has determined what shows up in…
Previously we’ve discussed link building and how Google’s algorithm rewards or penalizes different types. To review, Google wants to create an internet full of interesting and original content accessed organically. Essentially, it wants to mimic the way people socialize in real life – which means directing traffic to items of general interest and not to…
A truly effective blog post will engage the audience and either educate, entertain, or otherwise enlighten. Remember, not everyone who reads the post has to be educated or entertained. On a company blog, you’re trying to appeal to a specific audience – either your customers or people who might search for the terms or keywords…
For business owners and SEO professionals, every time Google changes things around in terms of how it evaluates websites and ranks them in its search results can be nerve wracking. This is true even for companies who pay attention to Google’s mission statement and the resulting changes that have come down the line. In the…
Google’s PageRank revolutionized the internet. Without this specific meter for measuring how important Google considered web pages, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) would have a completely different history. How did PageRank work? In an effort to change and influence we content, Google created an algorithm to measure how useful a specific page was, and this rank…
All kinds of businesses are getting more familiarized with social media today. It’s not just big brands who have a Twitter and an Instagram anymore. Your local plumber might have one, and the library around the corner has probably integrated all of its accounts for better exposure. That’s because using social media well is one…
Enter your text here We’ve previously discussed the fact that producing garbage content for your website will, at best, not help build traffic or an audience, but what is effective for those goals has changed over the last few years, so we need to talk about better content marketing in the present – in 2016. First…
Many small companies have been slow to take advantage of social media or content marketing to generate business, relying either on their website alone, a Facebook page, person-to-person networking, or individual referrals. Some business owners have assumed that if the products or services they offer aren’t visually arresting or Pinterest worthy, there’s little point in…
Corporate Conversions is pleased to announce that it is now a Google Certified Partner. Perhaps you’re wondering what it means to be a Google Certified Partner and how exactly it benefits businesses to work with one. In order to become certified with Google, a partner must have their employees go through the certification process and,…
Recently Sharon Tanton, the creative director of Valuable Content, wrote an interesting piece called “Stop producing rubbish online marketing that even you’re not interested in.” It’s some worthwhile advice for business owners who understand the value of online marketing and interaction but dread or procrastinate actually doing it or pawn it off on someone who…
Recently New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman settled with 19 different SEO companies over a lawsuit brought against them by Yelp, a local search website that allows readers to leave reviews about the companies listed: “NEW YORK — Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced that 19 companies had agreed to cease their practice of…
The Internet is filled with countless web pages, each vying for a spot at the top of the most popular search engines: Google, Yahoo! and Bing, to name a few. In order to properly optimize the search engine ranking of a business, keywords and metadata must be used. Producing quality updates and content on a…
First, there is deciding which platforms are important and current. This has obviously varied over time. Is it Facebook or is Facebook passe now, the last refuge of retirees with too much time on their hands? On the other hand, perhaps marketing to retirees would be profitable for your company. Is your business or your…
It’s no secret that accomplishing good SEO is a continuing challenge. Google, in an effort to create a more interesting, authentic, and “truthful” internet, keeps throwing new wrenches into its own algorithm in order to thwart manipulation. What this has meant for websites is that what worked amazingly well as SEO three years ago may…
Last year we discussed backlink strategy and how Corporate Conversions goes about building an online profile for its clients. Of course, change is the only constant in the online world, particularly with Google. Google wants to be the most natural and organic – the best – search engine online, so it is constantly looking at…
Social media can be both a blessing and a curse. From a personal standpoint, it can be very engrossing and entertaining. In fact, the average American user spends 3.2 hours per day on social media with young people and women spending even more time. That means that average American is on social media one quarter…
Previously we discussed why your company should be marketing to Millennials, and in this blog, we’ll talk about the group of people aging into that favorable demographic with real buying potential: Generation X, as well as how to target your marketing to them. While the focus of the media for years was the Baby Boomer…
Generally speaking, the way Google and other search engines have been designed up until this point is to reward websites by their popularity. That is, the more a website is linked to, the higher its ranking is – even when the content on that site is erroneous. In a sense, this is not all that…
How mobile friendly is your company’s website? Do you know? If you don’t, in short order you will find out because next Tuesday, April 21, Google is releasing its updated algorithm which is designed to place mobile-accommodating sites higher in its search rankings. This may sound like it’s not much to worry about. After all,…
For many small businesses who focus their efforts on social media, Facebook is their top marketing tool. In fact, according to a recent survey of over 2,200 small businesses by Webs, while 63 percent of small businesses use digital products as part or all of their marketing strategy, 88 percent of businesses with social profiles…
As of July of 2014 Google changed its rankings system to give more weight to online sites like local directories, maps, and review sites. Google is continuously exploring new ways to make their algorithm produce the most organic, relevant, and original information possible, and they’ve tweaked it to produce what they believe their users will…
How much of your SEO strategy is targeted at specific demographics? More specifically, before you implement any SEO strategy for your company have you identified your target demographic and incorporated their stated needs and wants? If you have not, you are almost certainly missing opportunities or squandering resources on low ROI strategies. The Baby Boomer…
The use of SEO as beneficial for keyword searching has been established, but how can it help build a business’s brand and convert more searches to sales? Well, in a sense Google is helping to create new brands with its displayed results because its algorithm rewards relatively unknown brands if those businesses better conform to…
Has your business’s site traffic gone down over time – or even fallen off a cliff? Has your phone, the one that once rang off the hook, suddenly gone silent? Your website very likely has issues, large or small, that could be identified and taken care of so your business can go back to being…
BEFORE SEO Must Be Part of the Process If your site designer is not affiliated with your developers and SEO team, make sure they get acquainted. In fact, they should be regularly communicating because each plays a crucial role in how your website will ultimately perform. Once these three all understand your goals and ambitions,…
To give an example, the charts below show the before and after of a site that did not have its keywords properly optimized on its website. Check out what happened to the rankings in one week! (“Red” is a decrease in ranking position. Conversely, “green” is an increase in ranking.) Keywords not targeted on the…
To begin, it’s necessary to understand how Google penalties work. Google, of course, doesn’t just – poof! – make websites disappear. It makes websites disappear from Google rankings. However, since Google is the most used search engine, disappearing from Google makes your business the equivalent of invisible. You’re still there, but no one searching for…
Many people do not fully understand the value a solidly built, regularly maintained, fully optimized website provides to a business. Assume that it’s a non-essential item, something nice to have, like a new iPad or season tickets to the theater. If my parents’ small business didn’t have a website, why does mine need one, they…
Corporate Conversions takes Google seriously when they say they want well written, relevant content, and so should you. This is the information clients are looking for online, and providing it in a regular, timely, and well researched fashion will bring you to their attention. To create and publish that content, we have developed a system…
Google uses over 200 ranking factors in its search algorithm. While Google will never reveal exactly what these ranking factors are, via our own experience, experimentation and by paying attention to what expert SEO organizations are studying and predicting, we have broken the elements of the SEO pie into the following (in order of importance):…
Keyword Density and Frequency Google not only reviews how often the keyword is placed within a website’s content but where it’s placed as well. For instance, a keyword placed within a article heading and/or page title is given much more weight than those placed within content. Nonetheless, such keywords must be placed within related content….