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Is there something going wrong with your SEO campaign?

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The importance of an effective search engine optimization, SEO, strategy cannot be ignored today. However, it’s not always an easy thing to achieve! After all, SEO is changing all of the time, and you need to keep up with the pace.

If you have not been achieving the results you had hoped for from your SEO campaign, you might be wondering where you are going wrong. With that being said, let’s take a look at some of the signs that your SEO strategy is flawed…

You take SEO breaks

Do you stop working on SEO? Even if you only do so for a short period of time, it’s a bad, bad move! This can disrupt your website’s organic presence in the search engine result pages. Google is looking for a website that is active and well optimized. You need to generate new inbound links and post new content on a consistent basis.

Your website is slow to load

Another indicator that you are going wrong with your SEO campaign is if your website is too slow. If you think that SEO is merely about keywords and links, think again!

User experience plays a key role, and load speed is a huge part of this. If your website is slow to load, people are going to go elsewhere. There are a number of different ways you can speed up your website, from changing web host to compressing your large files.

You write content simply for the sake of it

When writing content, you need to have a purpose. Don’t write for search engine bots; write for your target audience. All of the content you produce needs to add value.

You do not vet link opportunities

Hopefully, you already recognize that inbound links are vital for SEO. It’s not about quantity, though; it is about quality. Inbound links need to be relevant and they must be via high-authority websites. If you sell car parts, an inbound link from a blog on romance novels is going to do more damage than good.

AnalyticsIconNo data collection

Data? What data? If you do not have a solid plan for capturing and tracking data, you will never achieve SEO success.

Spend time evaluating your efforts so that you can build on your achievements and troubleshoot your weak spots. Plus, you should put together a strategy that includes A/B testing various versions of pages produced on your website. You will then be able to find a clear loser and a clear winner once this data has been gathered.

Your keyword strategy is wrong

There are a number of different ways you can go wrong with keywords. Keyword stuffing is a prime example of an outdated strategy you should not be using anymore.

In addition to this, you should not leave out long tail keywords. Basic keywords are not enough. Your efforts must be focused on conversion. This means you need to opt for keywords that are long tail, meaning they will be less competitive and more targeted. This will lead you to targeting and capturing consumers that are genuinely interested in your products or services, i.e. those with a purchasing mindset.

Copycat content

Last but not least, how do you gather ideas and content for your website? Your content should set you apart. It needs to be unique. When someone lands on your website, you need to give them what they want. You need to inform and delight. If your website reads like every other, what’s going to compel people to choose you?

Is your Meta tag copied and pasted from a part of your website like your About page? If so, you need to update this as soon as possible!

So there you have it; some of the clear signs that there is something wrong with your SEO campaign.

If you have noticed any of the indicators that have been mentioned above, there is no need to panic but you do need to act. Take note of the points that have been discussed so that you can rectify your efforts sooner rather than later!

 

Event Promotion: Tips for Using Email Marketing to Promote an Event

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By: Camille Moore, Contributing Blogger

Regardless of event type, attendance is always a key indicator of success. While there are several channels a business can use to promote an event, email happens to be one of the most effective. That is why 85% of event marketers use email for their promotions.

Email marketing has the potential to deliver good results for event promotions, but you have to follow some best practices if you want to maximize your returns. Those can include tracking performance metrics and using an email address verifier. Here are some additional tips for businesses that want to use email as a part of their event marketing strategy.

Segment Your List

Your event is likely to appeal to a variety of people. When you segment your list, you can send different emails to distinct groups. You might have people of different age groups, people from varying regions, people that work in diverse industries, and more. Instead of sending the same generic email to everyone on your list, segmenting gives you the opportunity to craft the perfect message for each specific audience.

Optimize the Subject Line

The subject line is one of the most important elements of any marketing email campaign. According to research from CMB, 47% of consumers view the subject line as one of the most important factors in their decision to open a marketing email.

You want a compelling subject line that catches the reader’s attention. The subject line should reflect the intention of the email and give audiences a reason to click on it.

Sender Name

Consumers also take the sender into consideration when deciding whether to open an email or not. People are more likely to open an email if they recognize and trust the sender, be it from a close friend or a respected organization. When you send out emails for your event, make sure your company name appears as the sender.

Create a Progression

Event emails need to provide potential attendees with some basic information. Most importantly, you are going to want to sell recipients on the value of attending.

To make sure you hit all of the necessary points, and that they come across in a logical and easily digestible manner, you should make an outline of the information and how you want to lay it out in the email. This could include a description of the event, details like time, date, and location, a value proposition, ticketing info, a CTA, and more.

Company Logo and Contact Details

Adding your company logo can be a good way to tie both the email and the event in with your business. Along with your logo, the email should contain your organization’s contact information. At the very least, you should include your address, a phone number, and an email address. You should also make sure the email address and the phone number are both active.

No More than Two CTAs

The CTA buttons are important because they tell the reader what you want them to do, and the link helps them to move on to the next stage in the process.

The average marketing email has about 2.1 CTA buttons, and for  good reason. If you have too many, it can make it difficult for the reader to know what to do next. As a rule of thumb, event emails should have a single CTA that directs the reader to a registration form or a ticketing page. In some cases, however, you may also want to include a “learn more” CTA that provides additional information about the event.

Send Thank You Emails

Thank you emails are a good way to express appreciation. When your audience feels valued, they will be more likely to engage with your brand again in the future. You could send thank you emails for signing up, registering, or buying a ticket for the event, and you should also send thank you emails to attendees after the occasion has taken place.

Website Speed Spring Cleanup

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Happy Spring Everyone!

It’s not just time to set the clock ahead an hour or change your smoke detector batteries. Its also time to optimize your website speed and do a website cleanup.

If you don’t already have a cleanup, back up, or website speed optimization plan in place for your WordPress website then its critical you read this as the web is changing.

When I began using WordPress as my platform of choice for website design and development, I had to understand the full scope of the platform and its effects on the web.  Plugins and other elements of every WordPress site play a role in the speed of your site, but more importantly the footprint of WordPress CRM across the internet has forced WordPress to stay ahead of the scope of its users.

WordPress statistics

as of Feb. 2018 according to www.codeinwp.com [1]

  • WordPress runs 28.9% of the internet
  • Around 19,500,000 websites on the entire web use WordPress.
  • 8% of the top 100 blogs according to Technorati are managed with WordPress.
  • 2,645 of the top 10k websites on the web use WordPress.
  • 22,111 of the top 100k websites use WordPress.
  • 297,629 of the top 1M websites use WordPress.
  • 50,000 WordPress.com websites are being launched daily.
  • 120 languages are in use at WordPress.com sites.
  • 71% of WordPress.com blogs are written in English / 5.1% of are written in Spanish.
  • WordPress.com gets more unique visitors than Amazon (126 million per month vs. 96 million per month).

Yes, I know, you don’t own WordPress.com! These stats are critical because your website, if it isn’t already, should be on the WordPress CRM.  When I started in web design in 2003, I was an avid user of Dreamweaver which was all the code and fancy stuff from back then. But today, I believe, I write about 2% of actual code for any website I manage.  This has allowed me to boost my web design business, expand service vs. writing code and analyze data and reach more frequently with proper integrations.

With 95% of my clients using WordPress and me using Managed WordPress to manage my sites I can say resources are much faster and these are some key tips for improving your website speed.

Increasing your WordPress website speed.

  1. Optimize Images

Images are often the culprit for sluggish sites.  If you are saving your images be sure you are saving images as optimized jpeg, gif, png formats.  From Photoshop its as easy as saving for web vs just saving or exporting an image.

  1. Use a CDN

A CDN, Content delivery method, is a proven way to improve site speed.  Because CDNs are Global Network of Servers that provide site visitors static content as images, JavaScript, stylesheets and more, this makes them instant speed boosters on a website.

  1. Minification

Minification is simply the process of removing unnecessary characters, and whitespace from source code without changing the codes functionality.

  1. Choose the Right WordPress Theme

A badly coded wordpress theme can make your site move as slow as molassis.  Look for themes that provide the visual aspect of your site and leave additional functionality to the plugins.

  1. Reduce HTTP Requests

When someone visits your page on your site all the corresponding files must be sent to that persons browser which can be slow if you don’t have them coded correctly.  That’s all the images, CSS files, Javascript, etc.  Reducing the number of objects associated to a page can minimize the number of HTTP requests required for the page to render.

All of these tasks may seem tedious. At most, for the non-web designer like me, you should get accustom to using three (3) critical plugins to assist with website speed on my WordPress sites.

W3 Total Cache is a free plugin with Premier upgrades, that I personally do not use.  This plugin allowed me to increase the website speed of my sites by 29% simply by utilizing these methods.

The second plugin I utilize is SmushIt.  This plugin is a free image optimize that reduces the file size of an image on your site and increases your website speed.  For every 1M content is 10 seconds of load time.  Reducing images on my site has increased the load time by 4.32 seconds.

The last plugin Yoast SEO.  I went back and forth between All in One and Yoast SEO but recent updates to the WordPress community and both these plugins pushed me to use Yoast SEO over All in One.  Yoast not only allows you to improve your site SEO, but includes optimization extensions that connect both W3 Total Cache and SmushIt which allows increased website speed load times.  Now, if you aren’t an SEO expect this wonderful plugin guides you through improving your site’s presence on the web.

Run a Website Speed Test

I recommend you run a website speed test on your site if you haven’t already.  Either you or your website develop can run a quick test with Google Developer Tools>Page Test Insights. Its free and quick and easy to run.

VSmith Media is available for website optimization. Please contact us to review your website (s) and how we can provide a monthly maintenance package for your site.  901-754-0108 or by email at blog@vsmithmedia.com

 

Resources:

[1] https://www.codeinwp.com/blog/wordpress-statistics/

 

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Event Marketing

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Ticket Sales are low! No one is registering for my event. . .

Oh the sounds of clients who repeatedly say this because they don’t have an event marketing plan in place for their event that will ultimately break the bank if no one shows up.  Don’t let this happen to you in 2018.

Event Marketing takes strategy and promotion in order to get people off their butts and to your venue.  Eventbrite is a great platform to help promote your event and get in front of a lot of people.  Their site processing the following and is growing at astonishing rates.

As of 3/24/2017 expandedramblings.com reports:

4  million tickets on average are processed through Eventbrite weekly

2 million events held on Eventbrite annually

$1.5 billion processed in 2014, which I am sure is much higher for more recent years.

outside these phenomenal stats on what they process each year, they offer a great source for setting up marketing for your event.  In the Eventbrite Event Industry Report 2017, which covers the 2016 marketplace. The marketing trends are surprising because as noted in our last blog post related to email marketing, most people promote their event through email.  Then second free social media.  But with the trend that organic social is steadily fading this number will likely change in the 2018 report as more people are having to pay to play.

The best strategy I have found when marketing events in the US from experience is follow the media trends.  And in those trends are as follows.

  • Email marketing
  • social media marketing (organic)
  • direct mail
  • television
  • mobile app marketing
  • social media marketing (paid)
  • Blogger outreach

Eventbrite also suggests that most organizers of events use 3 to 4 channels to market their event to ensure an impact is made to drive traffic.

Planning Your Event

As an event marketer for many years I can say that the biggest mistake past clients have made is time.  It takes time to plan, promote and profit from an event. It cannot be done in a two-week period of time or even a 30-day period of time.  I can do a 30-day marketing plan for an event that happens on a regular basis and people are waiting for the next chance to participate, but if its a new event that no one has ever heard about it will take at least 6-months of promotions to gain the exposure it needs to drive people through the doors.

The event type with determine the event marketing strategy.

Sponsored Booth (Festival/Expo)

In my experience with Expo Marketing it takes 18-24 months for a successful first year expo.  The first nine to ten months is focused on selling booth space, marketing to sponsors and gathering the partners to make the event worthy of promoting to the public.  Months eleven through eighteen are used to establish the outreach of the target of who will attend the event based on the booth participants.  Then months eighteen through twenty-four are to deliver the message to the public and sell tickets.  Selling tickets is tricky and you should consider using a ticket sales platform like Eventbrite, Eventbee, Ticketmaster which are among the most popular.

Educational Events/Speaking Engagements

As one of the most popular event types according to Eventbrite its important that you market heavily due to competition.  Speakers who are national travels generally have a following and will sell tickets to VIP members prior to selling general admission to the city their next event will be held.

Speakers whether it be motivational, educational or inspirational will pack a room if their message is delivered appropriately. However delivery can be tricky.  On the digital landscape speakers should consider video messages as well as highlight reels from previous cities on their tour to deliver their message.  Whereas an educational speaker could deliver one-sheets that cover their lessons and what you will gain from the experience.

In my experience utilizing social media, pay per click ads as well as display ads to deliver a informational flyer to drive to the ticket landscape has worked as long as you have the right budget and strategy in place.  Consider local newspaper online advertising options to get in front of the local community you will be to gain local sales.  Also consider bloggers to discuss your speaker or lesson you are teaching.

Concert / Sporting Event

During my time as a magazine publisher covering mixed martial arts in Texas I came across several promoters wanting to make sure their event was the top of the list for everyone’s interest.  From tournaments to cage fights Texas fights were the highlight of my days.

A tournament can take anywhere from 6 weeks to 3 months to promote depending on the venue, cost and time of the event.  Most of the events for children were held from March to May and August to November but the adult tournaments were popular in June to August.  To promote for these months is tricky online because parents are so focused on school stuff they can’t keep up with all the emails, social newsletters, blogging and all that jazz so to capture the best audiences for children I saw a boost when the promoters actually connected to teachers and their classrooms.  Give them flyers to pass out at schools, post on campuses and event hit up school newspapers.

Adult tournaments that run May to August gained a lot of exposure when the promoters used social media, email lead boxes around town, posters in local restaurants and pubs while still utilizing pay per click ads.  Parents don’t pay attention to alot of online clutter for their kids whereas adults for themselves look to recommendations from friends, followers and community leaders.

 

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Checklist to Planning Your Next Event

 

  • When will your event happen
  • Where will the event be held
  • What will tickets cost for the event
  • How will you reach people to attend your event
    • Print Ads
    • Online Ads
    • Social Media
    • Radio
    • Television
    • Blogger outreach
    • Mobile Ads
  • Who is your target market
  • Why is your event important to your target
    • Education
    • Sporting / Concert
    • Expo, Tradeshow or Festival
  • How much are you budgeting for outreach of your event

Once you have determined the above answers call on VSmith Media to assist with strategy and execution of your next event.  2018 will see many events for people to attend be sure your event is on their list and your ticket prices are reasonable to attend.  Book a FREE marketing consultation 

Email Marketing

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Email Marketing

Email is NOT Dead!  Regardless of how many times bloggers say email is dead, it simply is not.  Email has evolved and gotten much better for businesses who know how to manage their database of emails.  As a former journalist/magazine publisher I can say industry leaders said newspaper was going to be dead by 2012 and it has since managed to continue through 2017.  Email is the same situation.  Its said that consumers don’t read their email as often as business professionals but benchmark studies prove otherwise.

VSmith Media is a MailChimp Agency Provider and trust their system over the other key industry providers.  When deciding on which service provider, we looked at multiple areas  that would benefit our clients and what areas would help to expand their automation opportunities.  One of MailChimp’s recent benchmark reports about the use of email marketing stated the following regarding open rate averages and the most important factors.

MailChimp sends billions of emails a month for more than 15 million users. Needless to say, we track a lot of data. So we scanned hundreds of millions of emails delivered by our system (where campaign tracking was activated, and where users reported their industry) and calculated the average unique open rates, average unique click rates, average unique soft bounces, average unique hard bounces, and average unique abuse complaint rate by industry.

 

Industry Open Click Soft Bounce Hard Bounce Abuse Unsub
Hobbies 28.46% 5.13% 0.31% 0.24% 0.02% 0.23%
Arts and Artists 27.23% 2.85% 0.61% 0.44% 0.02% 0.29%
Religion 26.46% 3.11% 0.19% 0.17% 0.01% 0.13%
Government 26.33% 3.62% 0.48% 0.39% 0.01% 0.13%
Sports 25.41% 3.19% 0.46% 0.41% 0.02% 0.29%
Photo and Video 25.36% 3.49% 0.71% 0.61% 0.02% 0.40%
Non-Profit 24.98% 2.76% 0.49% 0.40% 0.02% 0.19%
Architecture and Construction 24.78% 2.90% 1.50% 1.08% 0.03% 0.36%
Agriculture and Food Services 24.71% 2.98% 0.58% 0.43% 0.02% 0.29%
Home and Garden 23.82% 3.47% 0.57% 0.40% 0.03% 0.37%

courtesy of Mailchimp Feb. 1, 2017

If you don’t have an email strategy in place or a current email data base and service provider, please review our findings of the top email service providers.

Download Email Top Provider Service Cheatsheet

Consider upcoming trends when developing a strategy for email. How often, how many words, what day of week, what time of day, etc.  are the standard considerations, but according to emailmonday.com these are some key things to look at for 2018.

3 Trends Driving the Future of Email Marketing

The best way to determine the future is to look at the momentum of what’s happening now, and where it is headed. Will Devlin listed the three master-trends that will likely define the future of email marketing at Customer Think:

Think mobile first
Mobile devices are becoming our preferred personal computer and are outpacing desktops and other devices for email opens and clicks. Customers don’t differentiate touchpoints. They’re just interacting with your brand.

Time for Real Time
the time where marketers can respond and capture sales has never been shorter. Enterprise marketers have to start thinking about their email program the same way they think about their websites. Automated campaigns need real-time data in order to be effective. Triggered emails (like abandoned cart or product view promotions) need to be plugged into the global ecosystem.

Personalisation
Personalization is critical for success. For custom experiences, marketers need to find technology that allows them to access all of their data in real-time so they can have a complete view of what their customers are doing.. Examples are demographic data, customer satisfaction, lifestyle, spending habits, purchase behaviors, brand interactions, etc.

When you consider your plan and need assistance managing, developing and executing it call on VSmith Media to handle your marketing.  To discuss options of email management, automation and execution, book a FREE strategy consultation.

Social Media Marketing

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Social Media Marketing

What’s your handle?

Millennials most likely have no idea what that means, but Gen Xer’s remember the days of AOL, MySpace where your username was your handle.  So what’s your handle?  @VSmithMedia across all social networks.  Find VSmith Media on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+.

Social Media is a tricky landscape to get business if you don’t have a strategy that fits your goals.  One thing alot of small business miss when starting is their username (handle).  Your username is part of your brand and it should be carried to your name, be sure to consider how people find you on social when you are creating your brand.  I wouldn’t want people to be looking for V.Smith Media, or Victoria Smith Media to get to us, I want the company name VSmith Media to resonate across all channels.

Being SEO Ready for 2018 also includes your social channels.  Many times consumers will find your Facebook page first because its capturing more hits than you website, linking through your Facebook is ideal ways to gain organic traffic in 2018.

Socialblog

Stir away from usernames that don’t reflect your business or reflect negatively on your brand.  Avoid special characters unless your brand includes special characters.

You too may have to compromise and settle for second best.  One constraint is that the Twitter username has a limit of 15 characters, with no spaces.  You may want to have more than one Twitter account: one for you representing your company and the other for your personal use.  You can also have multiple accounts for other social media channels.

Be clear to distinguish between your Facebook Profile, which is about you, and your Facebook Page which is about your business.

Generally when you register/purchase your domain name check to see if the name is also available across the major social channels; Facebook, Twitter and Google +.  Consumers will remember your handle as easily as they remember your domain so you should link the names across the web.

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Reviews

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Reviews

Reviews?  Why do I have to have honest reviews for better search engine rankings?  Consumers listen to other consumers more often than years past.  Millennials are influenced by their peers while gen x still like to speak their mind.  1 star versus 5 stars will determine if a consumer even goes to your site or local business.  Don’t be a 1-star business.  With VSmith Media Local Listings we can manage your listings as well as manage the reviews online.  Our platform allows us to see the ratings consumers leave about your business and allow us to respond and handle interaction with these consumers.

In this area a recent experience for a client allowed us to improve their search engine rankings because without this platform we would have never known a rating had been posted.  Luckily it was a 5-star ranking but nonetheless we would have never found it.  There is the dark web few people discover without searching deeper than page 2 of Google or Bing.  We happened to come across a 5-star review on our client because we dug into page six (no not the celebrity news site) of Google searches.

What have you discovered so far with the 2018 SEO Ready Checklist?  Do you see improvements?  If you discover things in your research from the checklist, please contact to discuss short or long-term solutions to help keep you in front of consumers in 2018.

 

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Local Listings

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Local Listings for Digital Marketing

Besides your website to sell consumers on your company have you checked your local listings to ensure they are accurate for consumers to find you?  Local Listings play a pivotal role in mobile search as well as consumer rating searches. Have you ever been out and about and decided its time to eat, pulled out the mobile device and said, “Siri find Thai restaurants near me”.  Did you get a bunch of weird listings that made no sense, or you couldn’t even see a listing for the Thai restaurant you saw across the street?  This has happened to me more than once.  Don’t be that business consumers know about but can’t get any information because of a bad local listing.

Many digital agencies have partnerships with Google and Bing among others to help clients keep their local search listings accurate without having to spend hours entering the over 150 search engines individually.  Have you considered checking your listings lately?  If not, consider doing that now.  This will give you the big picture of how accurate your business listing is online.

Customers are looking for businesses in an intimate way – a way they never could before: on-the-go and on foot.

Making sure your business information is accurate online is the key to making sure your customers can find you.

Imagine asking 10 random people where a particular restaurant is and receiving the following answers:

LocalInq

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Consistency results in high confidence (and higher ranking) for consumers and search engine crawlers.  So now you see why Local Listings effect your business and how they impact your digital presence in today’s digital landscape.

Statistics and Images courtesy of Yext

Digital Marketing in 2018

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Digital Marketing in 2018

Many changes occur in the digital marketing landscape daily and many marketers have trouble keeping up.  In 2017 we saw drastic changes in the Google AdWords platform that made the PPC game easier for business owners to handle their own campaigns.  We also experienced an influx of Facebook and Instagram advertising.  These are just a couple of areas that affect your organic SEO and why its more difficult to rank and get noticed without spending some money to get in front of people online.  Meaning the elicit statement, “SEO is dead” simply can not be true.  SEO has evolved with the changes in search engines.

In 2018 its expected that Mobile Optimization and Voice Search will increase.  Snippets will change the game in first page ranks organically.   Is your website ready to take on these changes in 2018.  VSmith Media wants to get your website 2018 SEO Ready.   We have build a guide to get you there and if its to much for you to handle consider booking a consultation with VSmith Media to discuss how we can help.

2018 SEO Ready Checklist

  1. Run a website scan to see if you have the “basic” SEO standards in place on your site. This scan will give you a score out of 100 to see where your basic site setup stands from an optimization standpoint. Many site owners don’t realize for a site to get in front of the most people organically is to have the established code done properly and its not just about a nice-looking page anymore.  Does the site follow the algorithms needed for Google and Bing to allow people to search for your page?

 

Top 3 Elements to a Superior SEO Campaign

Optimized Page Elements

Page Title: The page title (title tag) should include the targeted search terms and be a well written sentence that is 60 characters long.

Page Headings: The page heading (and subheadings) should be formatted properly using H1, H2 and H3 tags and include the targeted search terms. H1 tags are meant to be used for the main or interior page headings and more than one where it makes sense on interior pages.

Image Alternate Text: Alternate text should tell a website visitor what the image is. When optimized, the alternate text can help with keyword rankings for both the webpage and the image in image searches.

Link Anchor Text: Site content should include links to other pages of the website that have keywords in the anchor text. Adding two or three keyword links into page content of 150 or more words is ideal.

Quality Page Content

A website with quality content will be one step closer to getting top search engine rankings. Blogging is a great content generator and can be valuable if done properly.  Curated (shared) content from other sources also generate quality if done correctly.  Let’s be realistic every website that wants people to visit can generate unique quality content, so a thriving area is curated content to drive traffic through social and blogging.  Be sure your social channels are linked to your website, so people can jump back to you quickly if they want to see what’s going on with the brand.

Keyword Focus

Keyword research is the groundwork for a successful SEO campaign. Primary keywords and secondary keywords should be included on every page of your site because visitors may not always enter your site from the main page.  It’s the key phrases they are seeking that drive them to your site.

 

Did you score better than 70% on your website scan?  If not you are likely missing these 3 elements in your site’s code.  The 2018 SEO Ready Checklist provides standard methods to organically be found with search engines.  Organic SEO is difficult to optimize if you don’t have the basics done correctly, stay on top of these areas.  Website scan is step one in the ever-evolving digital marketing landscape.  Step two on our 2018 SEO Ready Checklist will bring further insights to your sites rankings.

If you are having trouble updating the areas discussed in step one please reach out to VSmith Media to assist.  We have reasonable small business pricing as well as long term partnerships to maintain high standards for your brand and business.

 

About VSmith Media

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Hello World!  For the last 10 months I have been developing and designing the best new digital marketing company that Cordova, TN (Memphis Suburbs) will see. I have been so caught up with starting this business and getting as much information in front of potential clients and on social media that I realized I didn’t share key pieces of information.  Who is the V in VSmith Media?

QuickSnapshotWell world, I am Victoria Smith a mere 38 year old entrepreneur who in the last two years has reinvented herself and now I am ready to reinvent or invent for you.  I’d like to take this time to tell you how this company came about and how I am going to deliver for you and your small business or growing brand.  But let me tell you about my background first.

I attended public schools my entire life in a military family that was luckier than most because I only attended five public schools and one DOD school in 12 years.  It was great because when you move around like this, depending on the last district you attended school, you can either be ahead or behind the curriculum. In this case I was well ahead, so my senior year I went to school in the morning and was able to work in the afternoon for work study and get college prep classes done. Graduating in 1998 I would go to community college first.  I attending State Technical Institute of Memphis, now Southwest Tennessee Community College where I majored in Graphic Arts Technology with a concentration of print production and a secondary focus in multimedia design.

Here I was served with Alpha Beta Gamma, a business honor society as a member first then as president of the Chi Epsilon Chapter from 2002-2004 and as national student officer in 2003.  Through this program I learned what it meant to be an entrepreneur and run a non-profit organization, raising funds and developing programs to enhance the futures of others.  In 2004 I graduated with Cum Laude honors and then moved to Texas where I attended Angelo State University. I studied journalism and communications, my passion since the first time I wrote in high school and then for ABG.

I attended Angelo State part time while I worked full time as a graphic designer for a sign company full time before opening my first business as a graphic design consultant in 2008, then added the umbrella of a print magazine focused on the rise of mixed martial arts in Texas in late 2008.  I would also dabble in radio and television production while attending ASU, where I acquired the contacts and opportunities to work in the sports entertainment industry for my remaining two years in Texas.  I worked as a marketing assistant for the San Angelo Saints in 2005 and then as the marketing consultant for the San Angelo Stampede and San Angelo Colts teams in 2008 and 2009.

In late 2009 with a thriving graphic design business and evolving publication and several hours of working on sports marketing promotions I would see the start of the next chapter of my life.  Wait for it. . .  I began the plans for my wedding which would happen in the Spring of 2010.

It was after my wedding in late July that I moved, once again, back to Memphis. This is my husbands hometown and also where my parents and older brother still live. So in other words, home.

I closed the graphic design business, shut down the magazine; all which were doing very well when I did, but that chapter of my life was over.

Upon my return to Memphis I began working in corporate america for the first time when I took a job as a marketing assistant at Fred’s Hometown Discount Stores in August 2010.   I knew this company well, it had been a Memphis grown business since I could remember and my mother in law and other in laws had worked for this company over the years.  I was excited to leap into a new experience and explore a new area of growth.

At Fred’s I was responsible for print media and assisting the SVP of Marketing in any area he needed since I had a wide range of skills to apply to the job. I would participate in any project I had time for, which included anything from community relations to IT Marketing development.

Then I was promoted to Media Distribution Manager just 18 months later.  This job gave me the responsibility of managing the sales circular program for 600 stores across the southeast United States and other forms of print medias associated with the retail side of the business.  Working closely with great printers, direct mail agencies, the USPS, media buyers, ad agency teams and my favorite, the in-store radio production team.  I loved every minute of what I did while I was here.

Then in early 2015 I began to jump more into the digital media portion of the business. I stated handling the print coupon portion of the business as well as digital coupons which later led into mobile apps and other IT related projects. It was here that my growth and choice to go into digital marketing full time came to light.  But this wasn’t the only thing that changed my direction for the coming months.

In July 2015 I underwent gastric bypass surgery to help my failing outer self return to a better health in order to deter constant flare ups from auto immune disorders.  This decision came after losing my father to cancer in 2011 and mother to cancer(s) in 2013.  Both parents supported every choice I made in my life and guided me to be the person I am today. So I knew doing this would only be fore the best.

I would return to work just 3 weeks post surgery and I jumped head first into a lot of changes at Fred’s.  I would see new bosses in different departments including in marketing.  These changes only made me see what I needed to do more.

After the surgery I began to evaluate everything I had done thus far in my career and my life and I decided to jump fully into the digital marketing industry.  I had the opportunity to work closely with Fred’s new ad agency working with the social media and web development team.  It was at this time I was able to see that my skills from community college and even Angelo State could be implemented into strategy of the digital marketing world.  Developing websites had already been tackled while a graphic designer, but learning SEO and PPC advertising this I would have to teach myself.  I began online studies and learning from experts and professionals I had worked with over the years.  It was then I realized I knew a lot of what it took to do this job through my experience and working responsibilities.

In November 2016 I began working as a full time marketing consultant.  I utilized my 15 plus years as a marketer and captured one main client, a local psychic medium. I spent a majority of time improving her brand and thrusting her into her next chapter through social media, web development and even worked as her booking agent for all of her appearances and event promotions. This was the first client I was able to put all my skills from each area of my knowledge base to work. I also worked as the coordinator and sole marketer for her event the Memphis Metaphysical Fair.  I developed this brand, rained in the vendors and put on a great first year event for this client.  Then as I parted ways to give birth to VSmith Media which happened in August 2017.

Then in September 2017 I opened VSmith Media, LLC and my brick and mortar location in Cordova, Tennessee.

Through all the chapters of my life, I am now in chapter 38 which is the climax of my life the start of a beautiful foundation for what you can expect from me next.  Everything I have used in every position in every job has allowed me to be the best digital marketing specialist with only two goals; building brands and developing thriving sales growth through today’s digital spaces.  One step at a time though.  Local. Search and Social. Then we’ll move into mobile and application.

It is my honor to grow with your brand, company or non-profit if you’ll accept a driven, goal oriented digital marketing specialist and her team as your new Digital Marketing Company of record.

Jump over to my services page to see what we can do for you.

Victoria Smith
www.vsmithmedia.com 
VSmith Media – A Digital Marketing Company
Get Hits, Get Leads! Local. Search. Social.