One of the many reasons that Fathom SEO employees love coming to work every day is the atmosphere.
Working in a fast-paced industry where each day brings new and exciting challenges can be … well, challenging. But while some companies may stick to the daily grind without rewarding their employees for their hard work, that isn’t Fathom SEO style. Here, teamwork is vital to what we do. And while it may come naturally to some, others may need a nudge to come out of their shells and mingle.
Last Friday afternoon, many of us closed our laptops for a short time to participate in “Minute to Win It, Fathom Style.” This team-building experience had us in teams competing in different events based on the popular NBC television show. Participants were challenged to stack three golf balls on a table top for 3 seconds; pull out an entire box of tissues one at a time using only one hand; move Oreo cookies from their foreheads to their mouths using only their facial muscles; and unroll rolls of streamers by moving their arms in large circular motions (see photo).
Before we finished the activities, people were already talking about more “Minute to Win It” fun for our next team-building event. But before it gets cold again in Cleveland in the next few months, we may have to finally get to that miniature golf tourney we’ve been threatening for years.
We never need trophies. Bragging rights for the winning team seem to be good enough.
See more pictures from Friday’s event here.
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »ROI & Online Marketing: Sink or Swim – Tips to Stay Afloat in the Black
So many websites rush into flashy intros, sexy graphics, keyword stuffing, bidding on competitors’ terms, and sending out newsletters – whether newsworthy or not. Does your site suffer from a bloated diet of implementation without strategic planning?
The Importance of Landing Pages for Your PPC Campaigns
Too frequently PPC campaigns are sent to pages within a client’s website that are missing the key elements necessary for a user to complete a desired action or goal. In addition, pages within your website tend to be content-heavy to help you rank organically.
2 Ways Email Can Increase Your Revenue
Your subscribers are talking, but are you listening? Segmenting and learning from your subscribers is crucial to your success. It will not only help you create better email campaigns, it will help you focus your marketing program as a whole.
A Magic Bullet for SEO: Guest Blog Posts
After years of doing SEO for clients and personal projects, I’m familiar with dozens of different tactics to help websites rank higher in the search engines for targeted keyword phrases. Onsite content optimization, link building, social media, article marketing – all of it can be effective in sending more organic traffic to a website. But there’s one SEO strategy that, in my experience, consistently outperforms all of the rest.
Nonprofits Reach Audiences with Internet Video
With dwindling donations in tough economic times, and even volunteerism down due to less free time for working adults, agencies across the country are discovering that videos for their websites and distribution across the Internet are an excellent resource – capable of providing compelling examples of why a nonprofit needs volunteers or donations and what that volunteerism and financial contribution can do for the agency.
It’s official. Online video marketing is no longer a benefit – it’s a necessity.
If you want to bolster brand recognition, drive targeted traffic to your site and increase conversions without spending tons of time and money, viral videos are the way to do it. Search Engine Land offers some helpful insight into this topic in their recent post on why “Video Is Now a Must-Have Feature for Competitive SEO.”
In today’s society, our mindset is largely focused on two factors: instant gratification and entertainment value. People surfing the Web want to find information quickly and easily, and they want it to be provided in an engaging way. Viral videos allow you to do both. In a short two minute video you can convey an entire page of information, and you can do it using cool graphics, funny clips and other attention grabbing tactics.
You can also use viral videos to drive targeted traffic to your site. People are much more likely to watch a “How to” video than read an article on the same topic, so by providing the specific information users are looking for, you can direct them to your website at the exact time they need your products or services.
So how exactly do viral videos boost SEO? It’s easy. When you embed a video on a page and it includes the keywords that page is targeting, it can help increase that page’s rankings. In addition, when that video shows up in video-specific searches, it’s going to be bolstered by the keywords on the page where it’s located. Relevancy and placement are key, because when the content of a video and the text on a page reinforce each other, they provide double the SEO power. In addition, because videos are generally more compelling than text, people are more likely to click on them when they show up in search results in conjunction with a page on your website.
Viral videos are ideal conversion boosters, because they can:
• Deliver compelling calls to action
• Present content in an interesting and engaging way
• Grab viewers’ attention and provide entertainment value
• Promote events, features and new products in unique ways
• Guide users through complex procedures
• Bring your website to life
Online videos don’t have to be complex, so it can be fairly inexpensive to create these compelling marketing tools. In addition, it’s easy to get instant feedback on how effective your videos are. Simple analytics can show you how many times a video has been viewed, how many times it has resulted in a click-through or conversion and how users are responding to it.
The popularity of video portals has skyrocketed in recent years, and with their close ties to social media, they’re bound to become even more popular in the future. It’s not uncommon for videos on YouTube to have hundreds of thousands of views, so if your company isn’t utilizing this important form of marketing you may be throwing valuable leads out the window.
Learn more about how online video marketing can benefit your business today.
*Photo provided by limaoscarjuliet on Flickr
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A week ago I was on a clothing website just browsing. I had no intention of buying anything, but as I scrolled through the pages of long-sleeve shirts, an offer jumped out at me. “Only 24 hours left! Buy 2 for $20!” There’s a sale on the very shirts I’m looking at? I didn’t need two of these shirts, but for $20 how could I pass up this short lived opportunity? I couldn’t avoid it and I bought two shirts that day.
What made me buy these shirts? The website’s crafty call to action did. As any SEO guru can tell you, your website’s call to action is one of the most important elements on your site no matter what industry you’re in. Here are some tips to creating effective calls to action on your website:
- Choose your words carefully: Visitors to your website shouldn’t have to guess at what you want them to do and they most likely will bounce off your site if they can’t figure it out. Make your calls to action clear and concise. There was no mistaking it; the clothing site really wanted me to buy those shirts.
- Make your call to action relevant: When I was looking at the long-sleeve page, their call to action was to purchase long-sleeve shirts. It wouldn’t make much sense if they suggested I buy socks, since it was clear that wasn’t what I was interested in.
- Determine your most important calls to action: A page on your website riddled with multiple calls to action can get confusing. Even though the clothing site had a “contact us” button on each page, the most prominent call to action was to buy the shirts.
- Make your calls to action visible: The clothing website offered their 2 for $20 deal at every page scroll. It didn’t matter how far down the page I was, I could always find their call to action. You can also play with design elements to make your call to action stand out.
- Appeal to customer’s wallets: This is where the clothing site got me. I have a really hard time passing up a great deal and I’m not the only one.
- Use deadlines where appropriate: Another way the clothing site reeled me in was by saying there were only 24 hours left of their offer. No one wants to miss out on a deal and I sure wasn’t going to.
Although I didn’t set out to buy new clothes, just a couple days ago I had two new shirts delivered to my doorstep all because of a well crafted call to action. An effective call to action increases your conversion rate and leads to more sales or leads. Contact Fathom SEO to learn how we can help you create calls to action that work.
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If you’ve been using social media for some time and aren’t getting the results you want, don’t be so quick to blame your misfortune on the network or method you’re using. You could be doing yourself in by committing one of six common social media mistakes. These mistakes were highlighted in a recent article written by Internet Marketing Specialist Kristi Hines entitled, “Top 6 Social Media Mistakes and How to Fix Them.”
So what are these six deadly sins of social media? They are:
Having the wrong connections – A large number of followers does not mean that you’re reaching your target audience. If you’re sending out announcements and not getting responses, this proves that point. You can help ensure that your connections are solid by using Twitter directories, such as Twellow, that search for members based on their profile description so you can boost your Twitter following with targeted followers. You can also join groups on Facebook and LinkedIn and connect with other members who have similar interest.
Hiding your social media presence – By not publicizing your social media presence, you’re unintentionally hiding it. Promote your social networking profiles by simply adding social links on your website. You can also add your social links to emails, business cards and forum signatures.
Sending the wrong message - If you’re linking your Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn profile with your business or blog on a specific subject, make sure your updates stick to the topic lines of your website. People who are going from one to the other will likely be doing so to learn more about you in relation to the theme of those sites. Don’t post random updates that contain foul language or trivial things like what you ate for lunch.
Using social media profiles for link building – If you’re thinking about just creating a social media profile so you can get a backlink to your site and don’t plan on doing anything with the profile, abort the mission. Don’t assume that once you have more than 100 social media accounts, they will automatically start benefiting you. You have to actually use them in order to see results.
Doing things that can be measured by ROI – Keep in mind that a solid social media strategy for your business will not necessarily create a measurable impact on your bottom line. If you just focus on ROI, you will miss out on valuable ways of communicating with your fans. Social media allows you to show off good customer service, manage crises, and engage with fans so you can create more loyalty to your brand.
Following too many rules of social media – When it comes to social media rules, one size does not fit all. Some rules may not apply to followers in your niche or industry. The best way to determine what works is to follow those who are successful utilizing social media specializing in the same subject area as you and analyze what they do.
The search engine marketing specialists at Fathom SEO can help you make the most of your social media efforts. Contact us today to learn more about our social media services.
Image provided by Zach Klein on Flickr
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