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The post Mastering the art of SEO is crucial for online success first appeared on Philadelphia - South Jersey Marketing Company.

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The post The Power of Google First Page SEO and PPC first appeared on Philadelphia - South Jersey Marketing Company.

Site speed is an important factor in SEO because it can directly affect the user experience and engagement on a website. A fast-loading site can lead to better user engagement, increased time spent on site, and lower bounce rates. These positive signals can indirectly impact the site’s search engine rankings.

Search engines, such as Google, aim to provide the best user experience possible. As a result, they consider site speed as a ranking factor. Google has even explicitly stated that site speed is a ranking factor for mobile search results.

In addition to ranking factors, site speed also impacts user behavior. Research shows that users are more likely to abandon a site that takes too long to load, and this can lead to a higher bounce rate. High bounce rates can signal to search engines that the site is not providing a good user experience, and may result in a lower search ranking.

Therefore, it’s essential for website owners and SEO professionals to prioritize site speed in order to improve user experience, decrease bounce rates, and ultimately improve search engine rankings.

To increase your site speed, there are several steps you can take:

1. Optimize images: Large image files can slow down your site. You can optimize images by compressing them, reducing their size, or using a content delivery network (CDN) to serve them.
2. Use a caching plugin: A caching plugin can help your site load faster by storing frequently accessed data in the user’s browser cache.
3. Minimize HTTP requests: The more HTTP requests your site makes, the slower it will be. You can reduce the number of requests by combining and minifying CSS and JavaScript files.
4. Use a content delivery network (CDN): A CDN can speed up your site by delivering content from servers that are geographically closer to your users.
5. Reduce server response time: Slow server response time can cause delays in page loading. You can improve server response time by upgrading your hosting plan or optimizing your server settings.
6. Use a fast-loading WordPress theme: A lightweight theme can help your site load faster by reducing the number of unnecessary elements.

By implementing these strategies, you can improve your site speed and potentially improve your SEO performance.

The post The Importance of Website Speed and 6 Steps To Increase Speed first appeared on Philadelphia - South Jersey Marketing Company.

Every internet surfer is familiar with a search engine. Whether it is Google or Bing, search engines are handy tools that can pull answers quickly from around the web. Many use them, but a lot less understand how they work their magic. If you can understand how search engines work, you can browse even faster throughout the web and leverage your knowledge by using it to benefit your business. Here is a brief summary of how search engines work according to South Jersey SEO companies and the developers themselves. 

What Is Search Engine Crawling? 

Search engines crawl the web constantly. Where does crawling fit into the search engine’s process? Crawling is the first step to keeping the search engine up to date and on top of any changes on the web. Simply put, crawling means traveling through the internet to scan over code and content. Crawling is done by various systems of bots and cookies that ping URLs to check how their content will fit into the overall rankings for particular search terms. 

What Is A Search Engine Index? 

After the crawling process is completed, a search engine will store all the information in an index. An index is a database that houses all the content they discovered that is worthy of showing to searchers. The search engine index is essentially the list of results you see when you enter a search query into the search bar on Google or another search engine site.

Search Engine Rankings

After the index has been filled up and cleared out of any invaluable content, the search engine will rank the pieces of content for each search query in order. The top spot is obviously the most lucrative and trusted. As you go down the list, the quality of URLs, in the search engine’s eyes, will decrease. There are many different ways search engines assess where a piece of content should rank. Algorithms are designed with certain principles in mind such as user-friendliness, design, and the amount of content on the page. The goal of a search engine is to have the most relevant information appear when a keyword associated with that information is searched. The search engine rankings are where digital marketers get their hands dirty. Digital marketing companies learn the algorithm so they can develop content for their clients that will boost organic traffic. 

If you have any questions or concerns about your company’s search engine optimization practices, reach out to Accularis Marketing Solutions at 1-856-793-9440! 

The post How Do Search Engines Work? first appeared on Philadelphia - South Jersey Marketing Company.

Email is one of the most effective ways to directly communicate with your current and potential clients. There are many reasons why your organization should use email marketing. Email marketing is cost-efficient and has one of the largest audiences alongside social media channels. Emails can help form relationships with leads, improve brand awareness, and spread promotions. Here are some tips from marketing companies in South Jersey on how to design an email marketing campaign. 

Email Contact List 

Before sending out an email, you want to make sure you have a strong and relevant email list. If you are looking at generating new business, break down your leads based on their industry, revenue, or their current relationship with your organization. If you are trying to nurture current clients and customers, consider building your list through newsletter sign-up forms on your website. You can drive traffic to your newsletter forms through social media or by adding an incentive to sign up like a coupon. A strong email list will go a long way when you start to measure your interactions during your campaign and what you really get out of the email campaign. 

Email Design

Your email should grab the attention of the reader in many different ways. Everyone can make useful content, but it is important to make it look good as well. First, make sure you apply your organization’s branding to the email design to make it consistent with the rest of the brand materials. Second, add white space to break up your content on the email. A lot of written and visual content on line after line can make the email hard to follow. Use white space to break it up. Lastly, your emails should be responsive and friendly on all devices. Nowadays, many people use varying devices to view their emails such as phones, tablets, and other mobile devices.  

Follow-Ups

Never settle for just one email per email campaign. Follow-ups should be done based on a few different metrics and actions. A single email very rarely does the trick. If your email campaign’s goal is to gain new business, send a follow-up email to contacts that opened your initial email. This second email may offer more details or feedback about the initial email. If your email campaign is associated with an action, don’t be afraid to send them multiple emails from time to time. A lot of companies have emails that send out routinely if customers have abandoned their cart. Always keep follow-ups in mind and look for ways to segment your email campaign down. 

A/B Testing  

One of the best ways to test out your email design quality is by A/B testing two sets of emails. The purpose of an A/B test is to test different parts of an email on a selected audience. It is important to only change one or two things about each email so you still have an idea of what actually benefits and what is just compensating. If you send out two completely different emails for an A/B test, it will be hard to tell what is actually driving the performance up. 

If you have any questions or concerns regarding direct marketing channels, reach out to Accularis at 856-793-9440 

The post How To Design Your Email Marketing Campaign first appeared on Philadelphia - South Jersey Marketing Company.

Social media is one of the biggest pillars to foster your digital brand with. Not only is social media a powerful tool, but can elevate your brand without expelling a lot of money. Like other digital marketing strategies, a lot of data is analyzed and passed through the channel. Like search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertisements, a social media strategy requires monitoring and drawing conclusions from the data it collects. What data is important? Here are the important metrics that social media companies in South Jersey look at the closest. 

Engagement

Engagement is an important metric to keep track of when rolling out a social media strategy. Engagement is a metric that measures the amount of user engagement for a given piece of content. Engagement is considered likes, comments, shares, and clicks. Engagement lets you know how your audience feels about your content and how much they interact with it. Low engagement can be a side effect of poor content management or social media strategy. Every social media channel has different forms of engagement. For example, Twitter has retweets and mentions while Instagram has reposts and tracked direct messaging. Based on the channel, your followed metrics may look slightly different and have different weights.

Awareness  

Awareness is another important metric to follow. Awareness is a metric that outlines how many users have or can potentially view a particular piece of content. There are two main types of awareness metrics. These two types are impressions and reach. Impressions are how often a post appears on someone’s page. Reach is the potential viewership a post could receive based on the follower counts of people who follow your account as well as accounts that follow people who shared the post. Impressions and reach help illustrate how far your content can really go on the web in terms of viewership. If getting your name out there is the goal, awareness is an important metric to follow. 

Return On Investment

Return on investment (ROI) is an important metric to keep track of if you have a paid social media strategy that involves running advertisements or sponsorships. ROI is measured by looking at referrals and conversions of a piece of content over a specific time period. Referrals are considered users that land on your website or landing page from a piece of social media content. Conversions are when someone purchases an item from your website. A social media conversion is a person who has visited from a social media channel then proceeds to purchase an item during the same visit. To go along with conversions and referrals, click-through rates should be measured as well. A high click-through rate reflects on a strongly made advertisement. A click-through is a ratio between clicks and impressions. Generally, if you have a lot of impressions, you want to have a certain benchmark for clicks based on your impressions. If you have a high amount of impressions and no clicks, it could show a poor advertisement is being shown. If you are running paid social advertisements, return on investment is extremely important to keep in view to ensure your money is being well spent. 

If you have any questions or concerns about your company’s social media presence, reach out to Accularis Marketing Solutions at 1-856-793-9440!  

The post Important Social Media Metrics To Follow first appeared on Philadelphia - South Jersey Marketing Company.

Now that your digital presence has a heartbeat with a functional website and social presence, it is time to move on to content marketing and how your content helps with search engine optimization (SEO). Early on, it can be tough developing your content style and figuring out what is the most valuable in terms of boosting your search engine ranking. One of the most valuable forms of content marketing is onsite blog writing. Whether you do it in-house or hire one of the many South Jersey marketing companies out there, here are some best practices for blog writing. 

Ask Your Team What Customers Are Asking About 

A blog post shouldn’t just be about throwing paragraphs together and slapping in a keyword or two. An onsite blog post should engage your target audience and give them a more in-depth look at what your company is all about. A blog post with high engagement will help blast out the backlink of the keyword way further. Topics matter. Your team is the first point of contact a lot of the time and fields the most questions from your clients. Your best bet is to ask what they see and generate topics from there. 

Utilize Your Data   

If your website and marketing campaign initiatives like email are set up properly, you should have a lot of useful data to work off of. Utilize this data to your advantage when creating onsite content. For example, your email marketing should have details on the open rate. Take a look at the products or services pushed in the emails with the highest open rates. Those are the products or services that already have proof that there is interest around them, and make the most sense to have a topic built around them. This will help with engagement and can be used as a resource to understand your offerings further. 

Understand The Power Of Google

Google is the most powerful and important search engine out there. Google has a large array of tools that can help you learn more about your audience. Google Trends allows you to take a look at your keywords and check out their volume as well as other related topics that could help with creating rich content. At the bottom of Google’s SERP, a section for related content ideas and questions appear based on what you have searched. This section can be very helpful in brainstorming some quality topics. 

Don’t Be Afraid To Use Long Keyword Phrases

A lot of the time, people avoid longer keyword phrases due to the feeling of them being too hyper-focused on a specific topic. However, a blog post can have a better click-thru rate and enhanced ability to convert if it answers a specific question that helps customers through the buying process. In this situation, longer keyword phrases are very useful if your blog answers specific questions. Longer keyword phrases can help rank for popular questions amongst potential consumers and directly answer their questions through a blog post. 

These are some of the many ways to develop keyword-enriched content for your website. If you have any questions or concerns about your business’s marketing practices, reach out to Accularis Marketing Solutions at 856-793-9440!

The post Tips & Tricks For Creating Blog Posts With SEO In Mind first appeared on Philadelphia - South Jersey Marketing Company.

When search engine optimization (SEO) comes to mind, you likely jump right to Google. This assumption totally makes sense. Google is by far the most powerful and popular search engine out, no debate is needed. Google is not the only search engine, however. Other search engines can be more powerful (for your business) than Google. Nowhere near as big or popular, but potentially just as lucrative. A search engine that gets left out and might not come up in the conversation is YouTube. 

Youtube is most definitely a search engine that can provide significant value for your organization. YouTube is a video library that utilizes a search bar similar to Google’s search bar. YouTube has its own algorithm to aid in what appears first in the SERPs. Exactly like Google. The benefit of a strong YouTube presence is managing another avenue to capture web traffic for your brand and direct them to your site. We will discuss how South Jersey SEO companies and organizations can use YouTube to help out themselves and their clients. 

The same way you would start off practicing SEO to improve your Google search ranking, you start off on the same foot for YouTube SEO as well. That first step is keyword research. Keyword research is a little different for YouTube. YouTube contains longer keyword phrases such as “how to…” or “review of…” The best way to research keywords for YouTube is to look at your current keywords for Google and see if they provide video results. Usually, your keyword list will have a decent-sized list of video recommendations associated with that keyword. Those video recommendations usually contain a couple of YouTube videos. That is where you want to be. 

After your keywords are decided, you are now able to come up with the idea of your first video and its title. Once the video is shot and ready for publishing, you will need to write your video title. The video title should include your keyword as well as a solution to the problem the keyword speaks to. If the keyword phrase is “how to install a car exhaust” then the title could look like “How to Install a Car Exhaust: A Step by Step Walkthrough.” A clear title that includes your keyword focus and an answer to the end user’s problem is important for a great video on YouTube. 

Your optimized title and video are completed. The next step is to take a look at the YouTube tags feature. YouTube’s tag feature allows the publisher to enter relevant keywords that aid the algorithm in where and when your video should appear. The tags should be super relevant to your topic to make sure the video appears in front of the right audience. Keep the number of tags under 12 and at least 6. Too many tags may hurt your search ranking on YouTube rather than help it. 

The video is ready to go. Publish away! The job isn’t entirely done yet though. YouTube, like Google, will prioritize well-received content. There is a reason in descriptions of videos and within the videos themselves publishers ask to “like, comment, share, and subscribe.” The number of likes, comments, shares, and subscribes helps YouTube place its content in a favorable position. A video with a high amount will get your video placed above other videos in the pack. The best way to increase these metrics is by your content quality and offering great pieces of information that lead to discussion in the comments or in your next video. 

Lastly, be sure your video has an eye-catching thumbnail. YouTube won’t dock you directly for a poor video thumbnail. However, a poor thumbnail can affect your clicks, which will affect your YouTube rankings. Be sure that the video thumbnail stands out and explains the topic you are trying to convey in the video. These tips can help out with your business by allowing you to capture a new audience from a different search engine. 
If you have any questions or concerns about your organization’s current search engine optimization (SEO) practices, reach out to Accularis Marketing Solutions at 1-856-793-9440!

The post Best Practices for YouTube SEO first appeared on Philadelphia - South Jersey Marketing Company.

Over the years, the practice of marketing your brand and organization has evolved immensely. The space of digital marketing has grown and expanded since the dot com boom of the 90s. Within the last few years, digital marketing avenues have overtaken traditional marketing initiatives for many organizations. One major digital marketing avenue that has been popularized and practiced heavily is onsite search engine optimization (SEO). For some organizations, this could be the main focus of their marketing efforts. For others, SEO might not be on their radar. Let’s talk about how SEO works and how it benefits companies of all sizes, especially local, smaller organizations.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engine optimization is the process of improving your website to increase its visibility when people search for terms related to your business within search engines like Google, Bing, and so forth. Higher visibility brings more attention to your site that can lead to a potential or current customer interacting with your business. 

Visibility is measured by search ranking. Your search rank is the position of your page within the search results for a particular query. Each query is titled as a keyword. Each keyword has two main characteristics. These two characteristics are volume and difficulty. Volume is the overall search volume for the keyword or in other words, audience size. Difficulty ranks how hard it is to rank for the keyword and maintain a high rank for it. Certain keywords will offer more value than others depending on the organization and their industry. Keywords can be broken down into three categories. These three categories are local, regional, and national keywords.

The Difference Between Local, Regional, & National Keywords

There are three different categories of keywords. Each category has a different level of reach and difficulty to rank for. Local keywords are keywords that are local to your area. For example, if you are a restaurant in Mt. Laurel, NJ, a local keyword could be “Mexican restaurants in Mt. Laurel, NJ.” Local keywords focus on a smaller area in comparison to regional and national keywords. Local keywords are easier to rank for than regional and national keywords due to less competition. 

Generally, local keywords are a lot more specific and focused while regional and national keywords are broader and spread out. Regional keywords are in the middle of the pack in terms of difficulty. An example of this could be a mechanic trying to rank for a keyword like “car repair in New Jersey.” The difficulty increases due to the keyword describing all of New Jersey rather than one city in New Jersey. Again, the difficulty reflects the competition for the keyword. There is a lot more car mechanics trying to rank for “car repair in New Jersey” in comparison to a restaurant ranking for “Mexican restaurant in Mt. Laurel, NJ.” 

National keywords are the most difficult to rank for but have the most search volume. An example of a national keyword could be a tire company trying to ranks for “tires.” The keyword “tires” is very broad and has the most competitors due to many tire companies being present across the whole country. The differences between industries and categories of keywords make keyword research very important. Organizations will have different needs and budgets for search engine optimization as well as the services they offer. All these details dictate what keywords make the most sense for the organization to go after and rank high for.

How Does Ranking for Keywords Work?

After keyword research is conducted, the efforts begin to rank for them. Your SEO efforts are divided into two categories, on-site and off-site. On-site SEO is the practice of making changes to your own website to improve your search rank. Off-site SEO is focusing on external factors that impact your website’s rankings. For the purposes of our discussion, we will place our focus on on-site SEO efforts. 

On-site SEO encompasses many different ways to improve search rankings. One of these ways is providing valuable in-depth content on your website to ensure your audience stays on your web pages. Website content can come in numerous forms such as written content like blogs, e-books, and white papers or enticing visual displays. Your content should be informative, engaging, and consistent. 

Another great on-site SEO practice is optimizing your title tags, meta descriptions, and image alt tags. All these tags and descriptions should be filled out with unique information that suits what is being described. Targeted keywords and ideal length ranges should be followed to optimize properly. 

Website design is a key factor for on-site SEO efforts to be improved. Your website should be designed with all devices and connections in mind. Web traffic can come from numerous devices which view your site at various display styles. It is important to have a responsive, mobile-friendly website to ensure that audiences can view and interact with your website properly on any device. Secondly, your web pages’ load times should be optimized. Your audience has various levels of connection. Your website should avoid putting strain on a person’s connection and be able to load in most circumstances. Your load times can be improved by switching hosting providers, reduction of image sizes, clean coding practices, and much more. On-site SEO efforts don’t stop at these three key points, however.

Why Should Local Companies Practice On-Site SEO?

Previously, we discussed the three main categories of keywords. A lot of the time, small and local companies feel as if they don’t have the capital to carry out on-site SEO strategies that make a difference. However, this is not the case. A proper local keyword strategy can be extremely beneficial for small businesses. Local keywords have less volume, but less competition as well. A top-five ranking for a local keyword can serve to be a lot more lucrative than simply ranking top-hundred for a national keyword. A local keyword on-site SEO strategy can allow your organization to capture an audience that is close to your service area that they may have never seen through other marketing initiatives. “Googling” your issues is the number one way to find a new organization to give your business to. The value of a local SEO campaign is endless. 

A local keyword strategy will allow your organization to not only increase visibility in their area but uncover solutions to possible operational issues as well. A strong digital presence can aid your organization in becoming more efficient. For example, optimizing your website might allow your audience to have an easier time finding your business rather than calling your store to ask for directions. You could potentially take your services or products and make them available for purchase online, which allows your organization to breathe when focusing on brick and motor sales. An on-site SEO strategy goes far beyond marketing.

How Can A Third-Party SEO Agency Help?

If your organization is on the smaller side, you might not have the manpower or time to devote to carrying out a local SEO strategy. Luckily, local South Jersey SEO companies exist that can take initiative for your organization at a lower price than hiring a full-time marketing employee. An SEO agency can provide its expertise and become a partner that teaches your organization the details of not only SEO but other digital marketing initiatives that could be valuable as well. A local SEO agency will be able to deliver more time and pivot local SEO efforts if needed while your organization can focus on what it does best on the operations side. 

If you have any questions about search engine optimization or other digital marketing services, reach out to Accularis Marketing Solutions at 1-(856)-793-9440!    

The post The Importance of Onsite SEO for Local Companies first appeared on Philadelphia - South Jersey Marketing Company.

Direct marketing encompasses many different ways of reaching your target audience. Direct marketing consists of any marketing strategies that rely on direct communication to individual consumers. This is a more traditional, non-digital form of marketing that has been around for decades upon decades. Direct marketing usually takes place without intermediaries in place and doesn’t rely on a many-to-one basis. Let’s take a look at some popular direct marketing initiatives that we see frequently with organizations and offered by some of the best marketing agencies in South Jersey.

Mailers

One of the most common forms of direct marketing is physical mailers. Mailers are physical promotional material that you send out in the mail to potential or existing clients. The popularity of mailers has a lot to do with the psychology of the consumer. Usually, consumers like receiving something that is physical to the touch. It can make the promotional message more personal which could lead to a higher conversion rate than an email that gets lost in the shuffle if done properly. Mailers allow for a lot of creativity. You can send handwritten mailers to be personal or samples of your service like a bakery for instance. Direct marketing has less competition as well. Organizations are a lot less likely to allocate budgeting dollars to their physical marketing efforts due to the rise of the digital space. Mailers can help you stand out in an interesting way.

Email

Email is the new age option in place for mailers. Email marketing allows for an exciting way to push promotions and keep current customers in the loop of what is going on with your organization. Email marketing can be done for free without any intermediaries, but intermediaries like MailChimp do exist that make it easier to organize your leads and build out an effective campaign. Email marketing is simple, affordable, and easily measurable. Usually, email marketing consists of newsletters, transaction follow-ups, and much more.

Mobile 

Mobile marketing is another great avenue that falls under the direct marketing umbrella. With the rise of smart devices, the ability to directly text out promotional items to devices is extremely valuable, especially if your product or service can be used from the device. A lot of mobile marketing messages have opt-in options that allow a customer to quickly use a promotional code or opt-in for a new service that your organization would like to push.

Telemarketing

The last and frankly the most controversial direct marketing strategy is telemarketing. Telemarketing is the idea of calling potential leads over the phone in hopes of selling specific products or services. Recently, the value of this strategy has gone down due to no-call lists and automation taking over telemarketing, which makes it way less personal and effective. In certain situations, however, telemarketing can be a great way to instantly connect with your consumer in a new way rather than through physical text.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding direct marketing, reach out to us anytime at 1-856-793-9440!

The post What is Direct Marketing? first appeared on Philadelphia - South Jersey Marketing Company.