The rise in search engine use by the average person lead to an explosion in visibility for small businesses. These businesses may not have been able to compete for customer attention through traditional media and advertising. Changes to Google’s search algorithm have made practices that raise search engine visibility all the more important. Because of Google, we all now care about HTMLs security, mobile-friendliness, and creating quality content. Heck, if it weren’t for Google, most of us in the Atlanta internet marketing industry would be out of a job. But are the opportunities Google has created staying the same? Or are they shrinking? Recent changes
Adding just a few quick upgrades to your current digital marketing toolset can make everyone’s lives easier on your team — just in time to serve as a Christmas gift of sorts. It’s the end of the year, and we’re all feeling a bit clocked out counting down the days at our Atlanta digital marketing agency until we get our Holiday break. In these last few days, starting a new project or making a significant change to your digital marketing practices can feel like the last thing you want to do. But you don’t have to write a 1,000 page strategy document to make positive
2018’s almost here, and search engine traffic will continue to play a growing part in nearly all businesses’ success in the months to come. Why? Because the vast majority of people perform research online before making a big purchase, and more often than not they’re turning to search engines to get started. 43% of all website traffic comes from SERP (search engine results page) referrals. And thanks to ad-blocking and things like ad blindness, people are 8.5 times more likely to click on a result that appears organically on the SERP compared to a paid ad. Even small, local businesses have a strong incentive to
Accelerate Mobile Pages, called “AMP” for short, create a mirror version of your website that’s stripped down and designed to load ultra-fast on mobile. Creating an AMP version of your content can therefore improve user experience for those accessing your site via mobile device. But the changes don’t benefit every type of company or content. AMP coding standards leave out most Javascript, for instance, taking away functionality like social sharing buttons. You are also left with barebones CSS, so your page style and formatting will be rather bleak. For pages that rely heavily on design or layout to guide conversions, AMP may therefore be
Google search users have noticed that the length of the descriptive snippet text found under search results has grown significantly over the past few weeks. Search queries now tend to yield results with descriptions going much longer than the ~160 character cap used for meta descriptions. These expanded snippets have been around the 230 character mark, on average. A spokesperson from Google confirmed the change to Search Engine Land, stating that it was made recently. Having a longer description makes a search result listing stand out compared to others on the page, potentially increasing CTR. It also provides more information to the user, helping them
Many digital marketers suspect that a high CTR (click-through rate) on a web page can boost that page’s organic ranking on a SERP (search engine results page). Thanks to some experimentation by Larry Kim of WordStream, we now have compelling evidence that this effect could definitely be real, especially for long tail queries. Based on this information, business websites seeking to gain ranking over competitors could earn top SERP spots by improving CTR. Read on to learn more about how Mr. Kim arrived at his conclusion as well as some advice from our Atlanta SEO agency on how to use this information to
Many marketers and business owners have heard how using Schema markup up and earning rich snippets on search engines can boost their click-through rates. With the right use of Schema markup, you could earn more-prominent search engine placements and improved data fetching from your website. In turn, your website gets more clicks and a higher likelihood of earning new customers. But what, exactly, is the difference between rich snippets and Schema markup? And how does each benefit you in its own way? Well, as an expert Atlanta digital marketing company, we’re here to clear the air. Put simply: Schema markup is a coding practice that
A recent survey of small business owners revealed that most businesses are on the right track when it comes to small business marketing, but they are also woefully neglecting their own website content. The survey, which was conducted by a company known as Wasp Barcode Technologies, gathered responses from 1,127 random small businesses based in the U.S. Staffing ranged from five to 499 full-time employees. A large proportion of responses came from construction firms and those in the professional services industry, which includes accountants, consultants, legal representation, etc. Keep this in mind since it may have slightly skewed the data. With all that out of
Personally speaking, there are a lot things we are individually thankful for at the EverSpark Interactive office. We naturally appreciate our friends, our family, our health, the opportunities to see beautiful things in the world, and for being able to work at truly great digital marketing agency in Atlanta. But, as marketers, there are few things we are thankful for in the professional sense. So, to sit back and reflect on how lucky we are, we rounded up a few responses from the office to see what people could come up with. Here are the five best answers we got. Google’s Push for Quality Content We
Every business should be listed online using the Google My Business (GMB) information system. Make no mistake that this system is your friend and will work in your favor when it comes to generating leads. GMB pages generate strong signals for searches related to business categories. Having a complete GMB profile is also essential for locally focused businesses, especially ones that serve customers at the business’s physical address. But even businesses without a brick and mortar location can benefit from a local search. So, whether you’re 100% online or 100% in-store, GMB is very much worth your time. The best part about GMB is that