social media

  1. Increasing web traffic

    5 Social Media Sharing Guidelines for Doubling Your Web Traffic

    Have you jumped into the world of content marketing or blogging? Small business owners who have been hanging around us for awhile have likely heard about the benefits of posting new content regularly on their websites, with blogging being one way to accomplish this. Last year, we published an introduction to content marketing and its importance for small businesses as well as follow up posts on strategy and tips for busy business owners.

    If you’re publishing regular content on your site, then you want to get as much mileage as possible from that content. (We know the time and effort it takes!)  We recently found a KISSmetrics post that addresses this subject, providing advice on using social media to do just that, and we dedicate this post to sharing their insights.

  2. SEO Optimize Search Results

    SEO: 6 New “Rules of the Game”

    When thinking about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), many people immediately think of keywords – using certain designated words frequently throughout a website in order to be picked up in searches for those words. Several years ago, this practice was a primary way to optimize a website – but search has changed (led primarily by Google, the largest and most frequently used search engine). Keywords still play an important role but in a different way.

    Staying up-to-date on SEO is essential for  increasing, even maintaining, traffic to a website – but it can be a challenge as the “rules of the game” are continuously changing. Here’s a look at 6 current factors for optimizing a site.

  3. Visual Web Content: Is Seeing Really Believing?

    Reading recent statistics about the value of visual content on a website brings to mind this centuries-old adage: “Seeing is believing.” Consider these stats reported on wishpond.com, for example:

    • Sites that use infographics get 12 percent more traffic than sites that do not.
    • 67 percent of consumers consider clear, detailed images to carry more weight than product information or customer ratings.
    • 60 percent of consumers are more likely to click on a business with images appearing in search results.
    • 90 percent of the information transmitted to the brain is visual. Visuals are processed by the brain 60,000x faster than text.
    • Posts with visuals receive 94 percent more page visits and engagement than those without images.
  4. Online Security: Are Your Passwords Working for You?

    Word about the Heartbleed bug spread widely and quickly, prompting many of us to change our passwords on numerous log-in sites. Have a tough time remembering all your passwords? Begrudge the time and effort it took to make the changes?

    Protecting online data is an ongoing concern, and changing passwords routinely is a practice that would serve us all well. There has been talk of instituting an annual Change Your Passwords day, but a once-a-year change is probably not enough to alleviate the concern. Hackers, leaks, security fails and program vulnerabilities are part of our wired landscape.

  5. 12 Social Media Tips from the Pros

    Has scanning the available training resources for social media left you overwhelmed and wondering where to begin? There seems to be an endless supply of books, blog posts, videos, workshops and webinars addressing the “how to’s” of social media for small business. At Page Progressive, we strive to simplify internet marketing — including social media — for our small business and non-profit clients. So, we’re dedicating this post to 12 social media tips from the pros featured recently on a Hootsuite webinar.

    Social media marketing gurus Peg Fitzpatrick and Guy Kawasaki focused their comments on the “four kings” – Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and Twitter. Here are the highlights:

  6. 9 Online Reputation Monitoring Tools Anyone Can Use

    With the reputation and success of your business at stake, it pays to keep an eye on what others are saying about you online. In follow up to our previous post on this topic, here is an introduction to 9 “do it yourself” reputation management tools:

    • Alerts: Both Google and Yahoo allow you to set up alerts for specified search terms, delivered to you by email or feed reader. Choose the type of content you want searched (blogs, news, videos, etc.) and the frequency you want the alert sent (weekly, daily or immediate). Both sites provide a preview of your search results before you create the alert.
  7. How To Manage Your Online Reputation

    Have you searched for your name and business on Google and reviewed the results lately? Are you monitoring and managing your online reputation? What others are saying about you online can have a great impact on your business. In fact, it could have more impact than anything you have posted yourself (on your website, ads, social media, etc.)

  8. Social Media and SEO: What you need to know

    Social media is definitely influencing how information is found online and buying decisions are made. Here are some interesting statistics to consider:

    • 72 percent of all internet users are now active on social media
    •  The +1 button on Google+ is used 5 million times per day
    •  Twitter was the fastest growing network with a 44 percent growth from 2012-2013