SEO will increase your sales without proportionately increasing your marketing costs, thereby growing profits exponentially and over time. SEO can further all your business goals at a better ROI than most other comparable forms of online marketing because of this fundamental effect of better conversions and more sales at little incremental cost.

Getting a #1 ranking for your site name is not SEO. That’s called having a website with a unique site name. You really don’t have to do anything to rank for those keywords. Real SEO is designed to help you get people to know you exist, not by already knowing your brand name but by searching for things, interests and needs that you meet.

Why Your Business Should Use SEO

Clicks are Free – Compared to Pay Per Click or other types of paid advertising efforts, the top 10 links on the search results page are free every time someone clicks the link.

SEO Builds a Better Website – While designers and website developers are great at creating sites that look and work well for the user, it’s most important to dive deep into search architecture and algorithm nuances.

SEO Extends Your Reach – Many people think they already know what two or five keywords they need to rank for. While these may (or may not) turn out to be the best keywords that drive the most targeted traffic to your site, there are likely dozens, if not hundreds of keywords that can drive traffic just as well.

SEO Improves Brand Recognition – Every time your site ranks in a search, it’s a branding opportunity. In fact, it’s branding in action. The more keywords you are optimized and ranking for, the more branding you are actively doing.

SEO Produces Targeted Traffic – SEOs help you reduce untargeted traffic while increasing targeted traffic. Eliminating traffic that you can’t help gives you more time to assist those you can.

SEO Speaks to Your Audience – If searchers do not find the content on your site that resonates with their searches, wants and needs, they will likely quickly leave the website. It’s the SEOs job to speak to the searcher’s intent by optimizing the content of your pages. If you speak your visitor’s language, you’re more likely to build trust and get a sale.

SEO Increases Clicks - When you perform a search, what makes you click on one site over another? You may not even know other than that feeling that one site is more targeted to what you want. This is SEO.

SEO Generates Sales – By optimizing a site, the SEO helps the visitor move from search to site to answers to conversion. This is done through a number of on-page optimization strategies, including the use of solid architecture and implementing calls to action. Any good SEO-er knows that SEO without sales is useless.

Google is testing yet another user interface change. But this time, it’s by not showing the page URL of the search results on the search results page.

Check out the images below for an example of what the search results will look like. You won’t see the URL, which is currently in green followed by an arrow, under each title on the search results.

Here is an example of the search results without the URLs.

Here is an example of the current search results with the URLs.

The Internet is taking over… Everything. As Mr. Tortoise knows, slow and steady wins the race. But do you remember phonebooks and directory lines?  Renting movies? Buying CDs? Arguing with friends about the validity of their “true facts?” All of these things and more have been squashed by the internet, and more are on their way to being engulfed as well.

Now even our beloved shopping malls are dwindling at the ever-growing presence of online shopping. We aren’t just talking about Amazon and eBay, either. From members-only deal shops to boutiquey Internet hole-in-the-walls, you can get the things you never thought possible delivered straight to your doorstep, then ship them back just as easy if it doesn’t fit or you don’t love it.

So why, besides maybe for some Panda Express and a Mrs. Fields cookie, would you need to go to the mall?

It is highly doubtful that tangible stores will ever stop existing, but they definitely do not hold the status they once did. Seriously, who doesn’t love waking up to a package from their favorite retailer? It feels like your birthday every time it happens. Plus, with the boom of mobile marketing, people can shop for whatever, wherever.

Don’t let your business fall behind in mobile. This awesome tool could help you out.

If you’ve been waiting for Google to come up with a way to track ROI on mobile ad spending for your business, today is your lucky day.

Straight from the minds behind the ever-popular Google AdWords, this tool, aptly called the Full Value of Mobile Calculator, lets marketers follow sales leads through app activity, phone calls, mobile site visitation and cross-device interaction.

Google says that in just about 30 minutes, businesses can upload AdWords data from their mobile sites and come up with some pretty important estimates. These valuations come in the form of value per click, ROI and total value, all stemming from those five different paths.

As you work through the exercise, you’ll see these three figures – value per click, ROI and total value – as they are tracked along all mobile paths, not just the mobile website. Basically, this tool lets you see how efficient your mobile costs-per-action are.

Get Help with Mobile Advertising in Michigan

This tool was made to help out small businesses and large corporations alike. For those interested in learning more about calculating mobile ROI, AdWords and mobile advertising, contact us today!

Royal Oak, Mich–On March 5, 2013, Google announced local advertising agency and Google Engage partner, SS Digital Media LLC, as a host for Engage Connect. This free seminar will highlight the use of online marketing tools to help businesses of all sizes master the art of online marketing; a must-attend event for businesses looking to leverage online presence and improve brand performance.

Engage Connect will provide premier training, tools and resources to help businesses with search engine marketing and online advertising for businesses that use Google AdWords. As a selected member of the Google Engage for Agencies program, SS Digital Media invites small business owners, entrepreneurs and corporations to take advantage this free advertising seminar in Royal Oak, Mich. on March 5 from 1-3 p.m. Lunch will be provided.

Google speakers will include Lisa Gevelber, Google’s VP for Americas Marketing, discussing how businesses can grow in this digital age. Other speakers John Nicoletti, and Bickey Russell will provide inside information regarding website marketing and online advertising.

“We are proud that Google chose us as one of the few agencies in the country to host this event,” said Nick Skislak, owner of SS Digital Media.

If you would like to attend the Google Connect seminar at SS Digital Media, please register here or call SS Digital Media at 877-755-5710. Space is limited, so reserve your spot today.

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About SS Digital Media

SS Digital Media is a full-service local Detroit advertising agency. As a member of Google Engage for Agencies, SS Digital Media helps provide better strategies, optimization and insights for success, while maximizing return on investment using Google AdWords. This team of designers, artists, writers and thinkers has helped companies build great brands, lead and innovate using a combination of research, strategy, marketing, technology and design. SS Digital Media’s main focus is on maximizing visibility in the digital realm, making a positive impact on the bottom line for a variety of clients. For more information about SS Digital Media, please visit ssdigitalmedia.com.

Foursquare is continuing its efforts to monetize its services with a new app, Foursquare for Business, aimed squarely at the business side of the market. The app is an extension of Foursquare’s additions to its merchant tools updates from mid-2012, which allowed business owners to better control special offers to nearby customers using a more robust desktop dashboard. The recent additions allow businesses to manage specials and view analytics.

Foursquare also promises to get businesses to attract more customers by allowing them to post photo updates, view recent check-ins to their establishment, share Foursquare updates on Facebook and Twitter, drive traffic to their store and learn more about their customers.

The new app comes at a time when Foursquare faces questions about the long-term sustainability of its business. The startup is facing more competition in the space, as Yelp already handles many local discovery queries, and Facebook’s Graph Search seems to push into the discovery space. Only time will tell.

July 27 is the start of the 2012 Olympics held in London. If you’re like most people, you’ll be curious to see how some of your favorite athletes are doing in their events. With help from Storify, viewers will now be able to get real-time Olympic content by NBC journalists. NBC is excited to announce that this is one of the many things they have attempted to do by using social media. Hundreds of NBC journalists that will be in London will be adding content from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other social media sites into Storify to create a continuous running narrative. This is the first time that journalists from local stations will work with the NBC News team in something like this.

Storify uses social media to help tell its users a story. Their website launched in September 2010, and by September 2011 it was winning awards at South by Southwest. Their vision to make everyone a reporter. Whenever something important happens, experts, celebrities and eyewitnesses can share whatever they see and react on all social media platforms.

The collaboration with Storify is one of the bigger, public moves being made by NBC. This year, the games will be more social media friendly than ever. Using Storify will help capture stories coming out of Olympics and relay the messages to viewers. Sites like TODAY.com, NBCNewYork.com, NBCWashington.com and many more will be featuring the Storify stream. With NBC using Storify to cover an event as huge as the Olympics, it has the potential to be recognized by mainstream audiences. NBC hopes this social media platform can help organize and tell a story since so many updates, photos and stories will be shared across the internet. The goal is to make sure that with so many things being talked about, the amazing content won’t be lost.

As a mobile journalist, it’s important to make sure you have the best technology out there. The top four iPhone apps for journalists make mobile journalism easier and more convenient.

1. Filmic Pro

The Filmic Pro improves the iPhone’s video quite a bit! Priced at $3.99, the app adds audio meters, exposure and focus control.

2. ProCamera

Many people found the ProCamera app the best for pictures! It offers lock-in features for balance and exposure are great for taking quick pictures on the go. And it only costs $2.99!

3. Camera Awesome

This free video and photo app has filters and upload capabilities for social networks. You can also edit pictures with the lock-in exposure and balance features. The features are so amazing that you’ll think you are using a pricey app!

4. Hindenburg Field Recorder

This app is designed specifically for mobile journalists. For just $29.99, you can record audio, mark points of interest and make simple edits. If you’re not 100 percent sure this app is the best for you, then start out with the free version!

The online retailer Amazon has introduced several versions of e-readers and tablets. The company is currently planning to release five or six new tablet iterations, according to Mashable.com.

Although it is uncertain when these products will be released to the public, reports indicate these new tablets will vary in size and are a means of increasing digital product sales. Products such as TV shows, games, apps and MP3s have been declining in physical sales.

There have been a variety of reports as to exactly what Amazon will be releasing in the near future. Among those reports is that Amazon will release a thinner, lighter Kindle Fire 2 sometime before September. Other reports indicate that Amazon may release two additional Kindle Fires, the 7-inch “Coyote” with a dual-core processor, and the 10-inch “Hollywood” tablet with a quad-core processor.

Amazon will announce its second-quarter earnings on Thursday, July 26 and may possibly shed some light on what the company has planned for the future.

Reddit has an ultra-simple user interface that consists of links, thumbnail images and a user policy that praises free speech. Still, this site is often overlooked by marketers.

For those who don’t know, Reddit is a social content sharing and news aggregator site. The user base of Reddit may seem to be mostly geeky and liberal, but Reddit is actually richly diverse. Though it does not seem to have the same mainstream recognition as Facebook or Twitter, Reddit is still very popular, with more than thirty five million unique visitors per month. Celebrities use it to interact with the community for promotional reasons, and it’s even known for hosting the largest secret santa program in the world. While the Reddit community is outspokenly opposed to spam and obvious promotional attempts, there are still ways that marketers can take advantage of the diverse community. Here are a few ways how:

Subreddits and Market Research

A subreddit is a user-created subsection of the main Reddit site. Anyone can create a subreddit focused on the topic of their choice, and many users have done so. As a marketer, the opportunity to observe a community that fits your demographic or is devoted to your products is extremely valuable.

There are subreddits devoted to such companies as Coca Cola, Taco Bell, Ford Mustangs and Nike. The feedback and opinions from users is a great source of consumer insight that can drive research and development, as well as future marketing campaigns. These subreddits often do their own research and share it publicly.

The culture of respecting anonymity on Reddit also plays a major role. Typically, users are more honest when they know their privacy is secure. Reddit postings cannot be tied back to a user’s real name, unless they choose to identify themselves. The level of honesty this creates often leads to more accurate postings.

AskReddit

This subreddit allows users to ask questions and receive a wide range of answers from the community. For marketers, this is a focus group on steroids. The trick to having this be successful is asking questions that aren’t all about the brand. Recently, a thread asked fastfood employees what menu items should never be ordered. Reading this kind of unbiased perspective may require thick skin, but it is extremely valuable in understanding consumer feedback.

A Journalist’s Approach

It is common knowledge that journalists read reddit. Just look at The Huffington Post or any other big web properties to see where they find their inspiration. Trying to get the Reddit community to pick up your content directly is not always the best idea, but popular questions usually end up getting a broader distribution throughout the web. This may be the best approach.