President Obama has declared June 16-22 as “Small Business Week” in America. It’s a way to recognize the small businesses that drive the American economy. This isn’t the first Small Business Week – it goes back to 1963 – but this one is particularly important because of the impact the recent economic downturn has had on small businesses. In the current economy, small businesses need to use every tool necessary to stay ahead of larger competitors.

If you are a small business owner, one of the ways you can do this is to leverage the Internet. Small business Internet marketing can help your small business reach customers throughout the world. However, if you are in a competitive market, you’ll need help to make sure that people can find your website. eVisible specializes in helping small businesses gain visibility online by using a variety of proven of tactics including:

SEO: Getting your website to rank highly for specific keywords is about more than just luck. You need to research which keywords will be the most effective to target and have a dedicated game plan for how to increase your page rankings. By doing search engine optimization correctly, your site can rank higher than larger competitors and get more clicks from curious customers.

Social Media: Establishing a strong social media presence is a highly effective online marketing tool for small businesses. By leveraging outlets such as Facebook and Twitter, you can make a personal connection with potential customers that makes you stand out from larger competitors. A strong social media campaign lets happy customers spread the word about your company to their friends, one of the most powerful forms of marketing.

Directory Submissions: Local directory submissions help to ensure that potential customers have all the information they need to choose your business for their needs. Customers want to know as much as they can about any small business, including positive reviews, pictures and contact information.

eVisible wants to help take your small business to the next level. Find out more about our small business services <https://www.evisible.co/small-business-solutions/> and contact us today for a free consultation.

When it comes to content creation, finding the right balance of information and effective marketing of your business is difficult. One of the driving factors of your content is to get customers, but the best way to do this is to present them with intriguing and useful content that will help them in their business lives. eVisible has years of experience with content marketing services and we’ve learned some of the most common mistakes that businesses make when they create their own content.

Here’s what to avoid when it comes to your own SEO copywriting or any content written by an outside agency:

Unreadable content: When it comes to online content, writing that is crisp, focused and to the point always has the best chance of catching — and holding — the reader’s attention. You want to avoid run-on sentences or using “purple prose.” One way to avoid this is by using the Content Readability score provider offered by eVisible. It will give you an idea of how easily the average reader can process your content.

Diminishing returns: Many content creation campaigns start out with a bang, as companies are brimming with information they want to share with their customers. But in many cases, the quality of the writing quickly declines as the well of immediate story ideas runs dry. Combat this by thinking of questions your customers might be asking, reviewing your competition for story ideas and adding a personal touch to your writing.

Not involving the customers: The best corporate blogs and other online marketing campaigns feel like a conversation between a company and its customers. You can encourage your customers to get active and involved to keep it from feeling like you are simply spitting marketing copy at them. Have them submit pictures of them with your product at famous tourist attractions or unusual sites. Invite customers to write guest posts explaining new or interesting ways they’ve used your product or service. Make sure you make it clear to customers that you own the content they submit to you in order to avoid any legal headaches down the road.

Reaching customers using smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices is valuable for any website. Mobile customers are often looking for products in a hurry and are ready to make a purchase. To respond to the needs of mobile web users, many websites have “mobile” versions of their website that are text-heavy and meant to load quickly on web browsers. While this help improve loading times and the customer experience, it also makes it difficult to optimize a page to increase conversion rates.

One solution to this problem is creating a responsive design. This involves the implementation of a flexible code structure that allows the design elements to adapt to the parameters of a mobile device. How the on-screen elements are presented to the reader will depend on the type of which type of device the person is using. A smart website conversion for mobile devices using responsive design also incorporates elements that work well on smaller screens (such as video and audio) and eliminating elements that will distract people reading the page on a phone or tablet.

What are some of the elements that you might want to consider during a conversion to a mobile site using responsive design?

Minimalism is a key element to mobile webpage design. Create a scrollable slideshow of product images instead of having them all appear on the screen. Smaller thumbnails are great for touchscreens.

Enhance the call to action by making it a prominent part of the display. Create a large button or banner that is easy to find and clearly states what the call to action on the page is. Doing this avoids customers not being able to click through to the sales point on your site.

Make pricing clear and don’t force people to search through the site to find it. Because of the small size of the screen, customers might get frustrated and leave your webpage if they can’t find the pricing information they need. This includes sales offers and deals such as free shipping on products.

Highlight reviews and ratings to give customers a sense of confidence before purchasing one of your products.

Make content expandable with one-touch rather than forcing people to click on tabs with small text in order to find out more information about your products.

It wasn’t that long ago that quantity was the king when it came to creative content writing. The general feeling was that search engines only tracked the sheer volume of SEO-driven content that a site was producing – regardless of the quality of the writing. This led to an explosion of online content, much of which was lacking in quality or in informative substance.

Eventually, this became a kind of online scourge, as web searchers would frequently have to fight through page after page of “spam” content in order to find useful links. Users were upset, and eventually Internet search engines listened. Updates to search engine algorithms such as Google Panda were implemented specifically to place an emphasis on the quality of the writing. Specifically, content marketing services and individual companies were forced to consider if their content would be considered both useful and relevant to someone searching online.

In today’s search engine world, content can mean a lot more than just words. Infographics, FAQ sections, videos and social media content are all important parts that can add up to powerful SEO content. It’s important to analyze what your competitors are doing to determine the gaps in your content strategy. Here are three steps that you can take during this process:

• Visit a site such as SEMrush (https://www.semrush.com) to determine useful information about the URLs of your competition. Focus on individual rankings for major search terms rather than overall search traffic or sheer volume of ranking keywords. Take a look at the URLs beyond the homepage to see which ones rank highly and what type of content they have.
• Next, go to OpenSiteExplorer (https://www.opensiteexplorer.org) to see the top destination links for your competitors’ high ranking URLs. Find out which supporting content pages are getting a high amount of links back to them.  These pages typically have content that resonates with users and they want to share with others.
• Finally, visit MutualMind (https://www.mutualmind.com) to assess the social landscape. You can use this site to determine which social media sites are the best fit for the type of content that your competitors – and you – are likely to produce. You are looking for content that other people will want to share and become evangelists for.

SEO practices can go a long way in impacting your Search Engine Results Placement (SERP). Producing the right content and using best SEO practices such as authorship, site links and social signals can improve the SERP display of a website page on a search engine query. But this is only part of the battle. In order to profit from a high SERP, you need to be able to get people to click through to your link. With higher SERP conversion, your high-ranking link is as worthless as one that is at the bottom of the search engine rankings.

SERP conversion is often an overlooked element of search engine optimization. However, it should be an important part of any SEO conversion strategy. Organic clickthough strategies are proven to lead to an increase in highly targeted and motivated visitors to your site who are ready to make purchasing decisions. Ultimately, that’s the goal of any online marketing campaign – get qualified leads ready to buy to your site.

Over the years, we’ve developed many different strategies to improve organic clickthrough rates. The right strategy for you will depend on your unique position, but these five strategies have been proven to work over time:

Rich snippets such as ratings, number of total reviews, price range and contact information can go a long way in getting people to click on a link. This is even more powerful when combined with strong calls to action to “see pictures” or “read unbiased reviews.”

Building a brand through offline tactics can help your SEO strategy. Google rewards links associated with known brands. Running contests and offsite promotions are some of the ways that you can create positive association with customers and get them interested in clicking on your link.

Harness multimedia by going beyond text. Create videos and use attention-grabbing images. Make sure to caption and tag them for full optimization.

Optimize your site by reviewing your internal linking strategy and site structure. Research how customers are viewing your site so you can create breadcrumbs in your search results.

Take ownership of your content by attaching your company’s name – or your name – to the great content you are creating. It establishes credibility with searchers and helps with your Google ranking.

Organic search results are one of the most powerful tools in online marketing. But even if your search engine optimization leads to your results being at the top of the Google rankings, users might overlook them if the listing doesn’t grab their attention. Here are seven ways to improve your rates of SERP conversion for organic listings.

1. Title tags and meta tags are what tell users what to expect when they click on a link. Spend time on developing these with your audience in mind.

2. Brand awareness encourages people to click on a link. Offsite promotional tools can be a factor in increasing the number of clicks on your links.

3. Rich snippets such as ratings, reviews, photos and videos attract immediate attention. Make sure you are using the tools Google supplies to markup your content.

4. Authorship of content looks great in the eyes of Google. Along with a bio, consider linking stories to an author’s Google Plus account.

5. Multimedia elements such as videos and images are powerful ways to improve SERP conversion. Make sure you properly tag, caption, organize and promote your multimedia content.

6. Core optimization is at the heart of any search engine optimization campaign. This extends beyond linking your keywords and performing code tag optimization. You need to make sure that your entire site is optimized so that Google and other search engines can easily find and index your content. eVisible can help you to review your site architecture, internal linking and more to make your site ready for indexing.

7. Review your SERP results and tweak your content frequently. Old content is stale content. Using technology to track the performance of your SEO content can give you clues on how to improve your SERP conversion rates.

A press release about your company and its products serves multiple purposes. By working with a company like eVisible for press release optimization, it can help your overall SEO strategy. But it’s easy to forget that a press release is ultimately a marketing tool to promote your goods and services. If you want to craft more effective press releases, here are five tips to consider:

1. Make Your Content Newsworthy. Remember that there is a difference between a press release and an advertisement. Reporters and editors want to feel like they are passing on useful information to their readers rather than simply acting as a press release distribution service and providing free marketing for companies.

2. Avoid Buzzwords. You’ve probably read press releases that talk about “synergy,” “shifting the paradigm” or any other number of buzzwords and phrases. The truth is that it just makes your press release sound forced and dated, and readers might miss the point. Professionals at press release writing services know that it’s best to speak down-to-Earth with readers, using plain English that’s free of jargon.

3. Speak to Your Audience. This doesn’t just apply to the readers. Reporters hate getting press releases relating to topics they don’t cover. It wastes their time and gives your company a bad name.

4. Don’t Oversell. Reporters can tell when a press release is trying too hard to hype a product as the “greatest” or “world’s best.” Stick to the facts and what your product does, and a reporter can tell if it’s worth writing about.

5. Format Your Press Release. The best type of press release gets all of the relevant information out in the first few paragraphs. A press release submission service like eVisible can help you to craft a release that immediately grabs a reader’s attention.

When you are in the middle of a search engine optimization campaign, it’s easy to lose focus on the big picture because you so concerned with managing every minute aspect of your optimization. It’s great to be focused on details; this focus helps you stay on top of your rankings and make changes as needed. But it’s just as easy to get so concerned with the smallest features that you forget about the reason you are doing optimization in the first place — driving business to your site through an improved search engine ranking.

Over the years, eVisible has learned some valuable lessons about how to maintain the proper focus while undertaking a search engine optimization campaign. Here are three things to keep in mind as your campaign progresses but before you get overwhelmed with every little detail:

ROI, ROI and More ROI

The reason that businesses undertake an SEO campaign in the first place is to increase their visibility and get more customers and sales. After all, if you aren’t making money, why do SEO in the first place? As you progress through your campaign, make sure that you and your online marketing services provider stay focused on the tactics that will give you the greatest impact to your bottom line for the least amount of money.

Don’t Just Focus on Content

Content is an important aspect of search engine optimization. But if it’s the only thing that you are doing as part of your online marketing, you are missing out on a lot of potentially valuable tactics. Improving your site’s architecture will make it easier for search engine spiders to find your pages and for you to receive inbound links. In addition, working with a viral marketing agency to improve your social media platform or start an ad campaign can increase your visibility along with boosting your SEO rankings.

Be Flexible with Your Campaign

Developing a solid game plan is critical to having success with your SEO campaign and achieving higher search engine rankings. However, you need to look at it as a starting point rather than a script from which you can never deviate. The world of online rankings is extremely fluid and you need to be able to adjust on a regular basis as well. Major search engines tweak their ranking algorithms hundreds of times each year and you need to be open to change as well. Your provider of SEO services should be able to stay on top of any movements in the ways that search engines rank sites and make recommendations for updates to your tactics.