Content marketing companies consistently stress the importance of SEO. However, the world of SEO can be tricky to navigate, especially since it is not always easy to understand what it is. As an expert content marketing company, Bluetext knows the ins-and-outs and the most effective ways to audit your current SEO process. To help you further understand the importance and relevance of SEO, we’re sharing some important insights. Here are the top 5 things you may not know about SEO:

1. Relevancy Matters

Throughout the years, SEO standards have seen many changes. Search engines still reward those who backlink and use keywords, but only to a certain extent. In other words, it is important to stray away from packing keywords and backlinks into web pages, as search engine crawling algorithms can tell the difference between valuable and non-valuable keywords and backlinks. As a way to ensure that the different search engines know your content is valuable, focus hyperlinking to relevant keywords and phrases. For example, linking keywords like ‘article about brand evolution’ is better than linking words like ‘read our article about brand evolution here.’ Other ways to keep your content relevant is by getting rid of broken links and linking to newer resources.

2. Update. Update. Update. 

One thing many people forget to do is to update older content. For example, as good as it feels to hit submit on a blog post, it shouldn’t be the last time you look at or edit that post. It is crucial to review your older content to know what needs to be updated with new information. Although it may feel like you should solely focus on driving leads to newer campaigns, pages, and posts, investing time into updating older content can be an incredibly helpful way to get users to your pages. Moreover, crawling algorithms favor new content, so updating old content can be a great way to land your work on the first page. 

3. Images Should Be Optimized

Images are incredibly important to users during their search. However, it can still be very difficult for search engine crawlers to fully make sense of images. Alternative text is a great way to help search engines understand what your image is about. Additionally, when you further optimize your image files, you improve user experience, which, in turn, will decrease your bounce rate and increase average session duration. Here are a few other ways to optimize your photos:

1. 1. Reduce the size of your image files so the page loads faster 
   2. Include a description that can help the user find what they are looking for
   3. Add a title to the image to help provide additional information

4. Competitor Discovery Is Vital 

There’s no doubt you know who your competition is. In fact, you probably keep a pretty close eye on your top competitors to get a sense of what they are doing and how you could improve (at least you should be). But, in today’s age of digital evolution, new brands are constantly popping up and established brands are constantly changing. As a top content marketing company, Bluetext suggests monitoring your top targeted keywords to see whether your competitors have started to rank above you. Conducting a proper competitor audit can help you get a game-plan in place before you lose your position and views.

5. SEO Varies Country-To-Country

Having a high ranking webpage can be a tough feat in-and-of-itself. If you do business outside of the US, international SEO deserves separate attention from domestic SEO and adds another layer to the conversation. Although you may rank well on Google.com, you may not rank well on Google.ca or Google.mx. It is important to look at your audience and decide where your attention should be focused. 

Even for a top content marketing company, there are still a lot of question marks surrounding SEO since search engines use proprietary and unknown algorithms. Even with these unknowns in the world of SEO, we still do know things that search engines reward. When launching a new campaign or just updating older content, be sure to keep our SEO tips in mind! 

We’ve all heard of SEO – but what exactly is it? And how do you achieve “good” SEO? Before attempting to tackle your own search engine optimization strategy, take a look at these five SEO basics.

1. What is SEO?

 While there are varying definitions for SEO, SEO can be thought of as increasing the visibility and traffic to your website, brand, or company through non-paid search results.

2. Why is SEO important?

SEO is important for many reasons, but here are the top four factors a digital marketing agency considers in their optimization strategy:

• The majority of online traffic is driven by search engines
• Organic search has no direct cost to run
• Visibility is determined by the relevance and utility of content, not your budget
• SEO helps effectively communicate your content to search engines

3. How do search engines work?

 SEO matters because it helps search engines determine if your site is relevant to users. But how does the search engine know? The specific search algorithms are complex and unknown — even to top digital marketing agencies —  but a premier SEO strategy firm will tell you that search engines pick up keywords by crawling websites. They arrive on the website, go through every link and all text on the site, and summarize and bucket the content into the search engine’s index. The index is updated, and search rankings are updated to match it. This process can take days, or even weeks, depending on the popularity and size of the website. 

4. What is a good SEO keyword?

 In order for a search engine to give you a good SEO ranking, it is important to incorporate keywords into your site that the crawlers will pick up on. Here are four factors that Bluetext, a leading digital content marketing firm, recommends considering when selecting your SEO keywords:

• Relevancy: Can you write multiple pages solely dedicated to this keyword?
• Search Volume: Do people actually search for this word?
• Competition: Is this keyword popular among your competition? Make sure your keywords are unique enough to you in order to show up on the first search results page.
• Campaign: Are there plans for a paid campaign around this keyword?

5. What is the best way to utilize my chosen keywords?

Content, content, content. Blogs are not just for recipes and personal stories! They actually serve a critical function to search engine optimization. This is why digital content marketing firms recommend before your site launches,  you have a solid repertoire of resources and blog posts. Here are some tips to help ensure that your SEO keywords are utilized in the most productive way possible:

• Make sure your pages have a central focus. Select one or two keywords to write about and stay on topic. If you have other keywords to optimize around, start a new post! 
• Regularly link back to relevant pages with internal links. Otherwise, the search engine crawlers will not know what pages on your website are relevant or important
• Leverage the H1. H1 headings are especially weighted by search crawlers because of their visibility and size. The H1 is the single most important line of text on a page
• Ensure that pages are long enough to have crawlable body text, usually 200 words or more

Search engine optimization is a tricky terrain to navigate alone. Google search engines use a number of complex algorithms to improve the end user experience, so it is recommended you consult a digital marketing agency in planning your SEO strategy. Digital content firms, such as Bluetext, are a strong asset to leverage in keyword research and content planning. Digital marketing agencies are experienced and skilled at selecting organic keywords that will be both effective and realistic.

October 26, 1994 is a day that will be forgotten by few…it was the first day a banner ad (or any ad for that matter) was posted on the internet. AT&T paid $30,000 for the appearance of the first banner ad. While we have seen an explosion in the variety of ad types on the internet since then, banner ads still remain among the most popular. Banner ads are rectangular displays that appear on web pages but can vary in appearance, theme, and content. Even though banner ads may seem like a rudimentary advertising technique, they are still an incredibly useful tactic used by brands across the world. Here are four reasons why Bluetext believes banner ads are still an asset to any company.

1. Banner Ads Can Have Different Presentation Elements

Nowadays, banner ads are just downright pretty. Thanks to the evolution of graphic design, banner ads can include elements such as graphics, video, audio, and everything in between. As the world of paid media continues to grow, banner ads have evolved alongside. In recent years, it has become evident that animated banner ads are far more effective – and engaging – than static ads. In fact, animated banner ads can help increase conversion by up to 73%. The catch, however, is that animated banner ads are not easy to produce without a team of animators, especially with normal file sizing in mind. Luckily, a branding agency such as Bluetext has an experienced creative team, which proved helpful when the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) needed help with a brand redesign. Part of this redesign included a new media campaign that presented personalized content through captivating visuals, engaging messaging, and efficient audience septation; in short, it helped ensure that the right message was going to the right person at the right time. As a result, GMAC saw a 153% increase in website content clicks and 400,000 more microsite visitors. 

2. Banner Ads Increase Awareness of Your Brand and Products

While banner ads may be helpful in driving immediate sales, they also play a larger role in building brand recognition, which is vital when internet users don’t immediately click on an ad. Studies have shown that banner ads are a great way to keep your brand top-of-mind when it comes time for a customer to buy your product, which is helpful considering 73% of internet users in the United States over the age of 14 buy products online. Additionally, even though web users may not be directly looking or focusing on your ads, they will be subconsciously exposed to your brand and products through banner ads. While the ultimate goal is to drive sales, banner ads are a fantastic way to keep your company, your brand, and your products on the minds of consumers. 

3. Banner Ads are Easily Measurable

One of the most beneficial aspects of modern-day advertising is our ability to measure the successes of the campaigns a company like Bluetext can help you run. Thanks to programs such as Google Ads and Google Analytics, we can measure data points that tell us how many people saw your ad, how many people clicked on your ad, how many people made a purchase after viewing your ad, and so much more. With help from these tools, we know the average click-through-rate for a banner ad is 0.07%. While this number may seem low, it is necessary to recognize that it has a higher action rate than billboard (.03%) and television (.05%) ads.

4. Banner Ads Support Retargeting

Have you ever put an item in your shopping cart and let it sit, only to see ads for that same product pop up all over your web pages? This tactic is referred to as ‘retargeting,’ which helps drive users to complete their orders (or other low-funnel action). Studies have shown that users who are exposed to retargeting banner ads are 70% more likely to complete the desired action. If that isn’t convincing enough, remember how we said the average click-through-rate for a banner ad is 0.07%? Well, the average click-through-rate for a retargeting banner ad is 0.7%, 10 times the amount! 

Clearly, banner ads, especially animated ads, have their pros. With some of those pros in mind, it is vital to remember a few key tips when running a banner ad campaign. First, update your ads! Click-through-rate decreases by nearly 50% after running the same group of ads for five months. Secondly, as only 8% of customers return to their cart to finish a transaction without retargeting, it is vital to allocate some of your advertising budget to retargeting campaigns. Lastly, don’t get discouraged if your banner ads have a low click-through-rate. Other metrics, such as impressions, can show us how many people have seen the ad, even if they haven’t clicked on it. In short, banner ads are a key advertising method to drive sales and boost brand awareness. While banner ads are great alone, they are most effective when paired with other types of advertising techniques, such as paid search. 

1. Best account management practices. First and foremost, it means that your brand is truly working with specialists in both analytics and program management. Not only does a Google Partner need to maintain current certifications, but it also must meet the best practices for account management.
2. Early Access to New Features. Google is routinely rolling out new features for its digital campaign tools, and often does so through limited beta releases to its partners who can test out the features and identify improvements. Working with a Google Partner gives our clients access to these new tools, often a year or more before they are made more widely available. That gives you a clear advantage over your competitors who haven’t selected the best digital marketing agency.
3. Working with AdWords Experts. As a Google Partner, our team is required to be well-schooled in ad extensions, site links inside of ads, split-testing, ad scheduling, broad match modified keywords, the use of negative keywords, and phrase match keywords, as well as many of the latest digital ad techniques.
4. Testing & Innovation. As part of the best practices that are required as a Google Partner, the Bluetext team is always pushing the boundaries of split-testing to maximize traffic to our clients’ landing pages. Google both encourages and enables its partners to be innovative and experiment with targeting audiences while delivering top results.