But most businesses are hard pressed to keep up with the constantly changing algorithms and “tricks of the trade” that make SEO a full time job for someone who knows what he’s doing.

“SEO or search engine optimization is important for any business to get exposure online,” notes a recent Fusion 360 blog post. According to the Utah-based experts in SEO: “In order for your page to rank well on search engines like Google and Bing, it is important to hire an expert to help you achieve these goals.”

Staying up to date is critical. Because Google and other search engines constantly rejigger their algorithms to fight spam and gaming the system, SEO realignments are an ongoing necessity.

But it’s important to keep abreast of the latest, according to experts.

“When a company is using old or outdated SEO techniques, this is a sure sign (of trouble),” according to Fusion 360. “Tactics such as spammy title tags and meta-descriptions are no longer relevant. An SEO expert is someone who is aware of the constantly evolving techniques.”

Since consumers now turn to the web — across a multitude of devices — SEO excellence is a de rigueur requirement.

In the current world of the web, SEO is keeping up with the Joneses. Or the Googles, in this case.

The post Constant Algorithm Changes One Reason Businesses Need Expert SEO Help appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

In 2014 there were a number of changes to SEO that, while not earth-shaking, did prove to marketers what it’s still good for, what works now and what changes to the tool should be embraced.

Recently, MMW caught up with the digital marketing and SEO experts at Fusion 360, a digital marketing firm in Salt Lake City, Utah recognized for their world class expertise in all forms of digital and social media marketing.

Take Social Media for example. While it used to be a platform for practically anything, from posting pictures of your breakfast cereal to “tweeting” about nearly any inane subject one could think of, today’s social media is almost exclusively about entertainment. It’s the smart SEO marketer, Fusion 360 says, who knows this and creates interesting, entertaining content that users will not only enjoy but also share profusely.

SEO also showed us that, when it comes to what’s important about online content, quality trumps just about everything else. Sure, word count is still slightly important but, for example, if a blog is nothing but gibberish with a few SEO keywords and key phrases thrown in, it won’t be long before it’s discovered as being, well, crap. Any links to it will be labeled as crap as well, meaning that quality should be your only goal when creating or linking to content.

Lastly, we found out in 2014 that online headlines aren’t nearly as important as we thought they were. Just like low quality content, titles that are misleading or completely false will only serve to hurt or damage a website, brand or publisher. Thus, using a false or misleading headline is definitely not in any company’s best interest, SEO-wise.

The post What Are The SEO Lessons Learned for 2014? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

It’s also more complex. Building a brand through advertising and marketing used to be confined to a narrow set of venues — billboards, television, print ads.

Today’s marketplace includes all those things and more: social media, websites, and digital marketing to smartphones and tablets.

But, according to James O’Connor, a marketing professional at Fusion 360, the most important place to start marketing is right at home. Sometimes the publicly advertised face of a company doesn’t match what employees see and do. Such was the case with UPS.

“UPS recently launched an internal brand overhaul for this reason,” O’Connor writes. “They realized their internal operations and procedures scarcely mirrored their customers’ experiences. Their brand was slipping from the inside out.”

O’Connor says the improved customer service — created not by advertising to customers, but by marketing internally, made UPS one of the top global brands in 2012.

“UPS demonstrated how a brand is not a gimmick, but rather a promise meant to be kept at every level of interaction the consumer has with their logo,” O’Connor explains. “Although their avowed internal brand statement is much different than its external statement, “what can Brown do for you” is supported by what the employees see as important every day: “One brand, one company, one vision.”

Do your employees believe in your branding concept? In other words, do the people you employ carry out the marketing plan when it comes down to the nitty gritty of product or service quality and exemplary customer care?

“Forbes reports that only 50 percent of employees believe their company’s branding concept, and that an even smaller percent are equipped to carry out the brand’s message,” notes O’Connor. “Marketing no longer starts with the customer, it begins with the inside of an organization. Businesses understand that digital marketing helps them, but in-store experiences count as well — whether they be online or in real life.”

To read more from the Utah SEO specialists at Fusion 360, click here.

The post What Marketers Must Remember: Building a Brand Starts at Home appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

True, big things come and go. But any smart person or company rides the tiger while it lasts. And right now, friends, it’s social media.

“Marketing companies all over America are utilizing networks like Facebook and other social media,” says Sara Bezdijan of Fusion360 , one of the nation’s leading digital advertising agencies based in Salt Lake City, Utah. “For the average Internet user, Facebook is pretty easy to navigate. But there are a couple of tricks that can make it easier.”

What can one do to make life on … say, Facebook, for instance … more amenable?

“Some of your friends on Facebook are co-workers, conservative in-laws, or even snoopy neighbors — all of whom would be sorely offended if you ever de-friend them outright,” says Bezdijan. “Nevertheless, you do not want these individuals seeing certain … suggestive photos from Harold’s Halloween party last week.”

Bezdijan suggests using Facebook’s “Lists” feature by clicking ‘Account,’ then ‘Edit Friends’ and then ‘Create a List.’ After that, you can simply go to Privacy Settings, go to ‘Customize Settings’ and enter the name of the group under ‘Hide.’

“You can even click ‘Preview my Profile’ and enter the name of a friend to check how your profile will look to them,” she reveals.

Events are easier to promote on a social media site.

“One of the most useful links for Facebook is inviting friends to an event,” writes Bezdijan. “When your friend count gets upwards of 100 people, individually clicking on each person can be dead boring, if not downright frustrating. So here is a super helpful code when you want to invite all your friends on Facebook to an event:

javascript:var x=document.getElementsByTagName(“input”);for(var i=0;i<x.length;i++) {if (x[i].type == ‘checkbox’) {x[i].click();}}

And there’s more.

“You can also turn your own profile picture into an emoji,” says Bezdijan.

An emoji is a type of emoticon used on  iPhone, iPad, Android, and Windows Phone, as well as Mac OS X and Windows 8.

“Simply take your username (usually the last part of your Facebook URL) and type it in double brackets. Then it will show up as a little emoticon of you,” she says.

With a couple keywords, you can also search for people who aren’t your friends on a site — for instance, at a marketing agency. For example, simply type ‘randos who work at Utah Department of Commerce’ and you’ll get results of individuals with whom you aren’t currently friends. Talk about social media networking!”

Also, she writes, making a social media page easy to find is important.

“You can personalize your Facebook URL and thereby help your potential customers find you,” says Bezdijan. Simply click ‘Account’ and then click ‘change’ next to your username. Then you can type in something you like. Be sure it’s simple — and watch as it can improve your search results.”

The post Fusion360 Shares Helpful Facebook Secrets appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Yes, yes, and yes again. So says Taylor Hatch, a content writer for Utah’s leading digital marketing firm Fusion360.

“It isn’t just about ads in the newspaper or a giant billboard near the side of I-15,” Hatch writes. “The market has grown and information is available digitally with just the click of a button. The digital word of social networks has created an amazing marketing tool for Utah businesses. Now you can create a small ad, or post a link, or answer customers’ questions over social networks in just a matter of seconds.”

Of course, what Hatch asserts about businesses in Utah applies to businesses everywhere.

“Businesses use digital marketing to help their companies grow and get their names out there,” Hatch says. “One thing .. businesses might forget is that they have employees who have their own personal accounts.”

Hatch mentions that most forward-looking companies have entered the world of digital marketing. They have Facebook pages, Twitter profiles, a Pinterest presence, and accounts on LinkedIn and Instagram.

But so do the company’s employees — and they, according to the writer — might just be the most believable spokespeople in the marketing matrix.

Hatch quotes a Business News Daily story that asserts that “If your staff isn’t using their profiles – particularly LinkedIn and Twitter – as branding tools for your company, you may be missing out on a big marketing opportunity. Your business needs to have a face, and people trust faces they know — more often your employees than your logo.”

Three keys to social media standing from Business News Daily are also included in Hatch’s essay:

1. Create high quality profiles. High quality profiles present the business in the most favorable light, show consistency in intent and language, and make good use of photos and graphics.
2. Build a relevant network. Relevance matters more than network size. Employees should be encouraged to connect with customers, partners, and prospects they really know.
3. Engage connections with valuable content. Share interesting and timely news stories, blog posts, videos, journal reports, white papers, and other items of interest to customers and prospective customers.

To read the essay in its entirety, click here.

The post Fusion 360: Employees Integral to Social Media Marketing Mix appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

That should be a terrifying revelation for marketers.

In recent published piece from Fusion360 – a leading digital marketing agency based in Salt Lake City, Utah – author James O’Connor suggests that “Marketing no longer starts with the customer, it begins with the inside of an organization.”

O’Connor posits that though businesses “understand that digital marketing helps them, in-store experiences count as well — whether they be online or in real life.”

O’Connor believes one area of brand message dislocation resides in the realities that modern day consumers experience.

“Everyone has witnessed an advertisement that portrayed a message incongruous with the actual experience delivered by a brand,” O’Connor says. “A fast delivery is promised, but never actualized; the service is touted as reputable, but couldn’t be worse; being put on hold is a thing of the past, but you sit there lulled to sleep by elevator music. You are a long-lost customer, and at this point, you’re destined to seek a business that walks its talk. If the brandscape fosters lies and undelivered promises, no digital marketing strategy will be able to help it, no matter how creative your ideas are.”

Could that be one reason why employees don’t believe the brand messages touted by the marketing departments at their companies?

O’Connor cites the recent brand overhaul at UPS — an overhaul launched for just this very reason. UPS realized its internal operations and procedures hardly mirrored their customers’ experiences. Its brand — he says — “was slipping from the inside out.”

The improved customer service made UPS one of the Best Global Brands of 2012.

“They demonstrated how a brand is not a gimmick, but rather a promise meant to be kept at every level of interaction the consumer has with their logo,” writes O’Connor. “Although their avowed internal brand statement is much different than its external statement, “what can Brown do for you” is supported by what the employees see as important every day: “One brand, one company, one vision.”

The takeaway, O’Connor suggests, is that if companies “want to gain an advantage in the ever-increasing brand chaos that permeates media” they need to start internally.

To read the entire blog post, click here.

The post Better Branding: What Happens When Employees Don't Believe the Company Message? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

But just because an SEO strategy is frequently deployed doesn’t make it a good one.

In fact, there are many SEO strategies out there that just plain… suck. There, I said it.

“We are in something of an SEO red scare lately; SEO black hatters are ending up on Google’s Blacklist, while the benign white hatters are rewarded for smart digital marketing strategy by more clicks, page visits, conversion and customer engagement,” says Marcus McReynolds, Director of Digital Marketing for Fusion 360, an award winning digital marketing agency based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Recently, McReynolds provided an insightful rundown of the top SEO strategies that businesses should avoid like the plague. Among the biggest must-dodge tactics are:

1. Keyword confusion: “It’s not enough to make an educated guess about what clients will type in search engines to find your products,” McReynolds writes. “Utilize tools like Google Ad Words to find essential keyword information.”

2. Keyword overload: In the early days of Google, this was a routine practice. But not today. The reason? “The Google bots who crawl a keyword stuffed page will consign it to the bottom of their search engine results,” the digital marketing veteran explains. “Don’t believe us? We wish you the best on Google’s 230th page of the search result.”

3. Links, links, and more links: Go ahead. Place a few relevant links in your article. But don’t overdo it. If you stuff extraneous links into your content, the results for your SEO will be just as bad as overloading your work with excessive keywords.

To learn about other SEO strategies to avoid – cloaking, link buying, duplicate content, etc. – check out McReynolds’ full post on this subject over at the Fusion360 Blog (a resource every digital marketer should bookmark).

The post The SEO Strategies Your Business Must Avoid appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

“With the fundamentals of a good website seemingly ingrained deeply with the small business community, it’s troubling to see how many small business websites still miss the mark,” says Craig Allesi, the founder of MarkedManMedia. “Our research shows that nearly 20% of all websites fail to make their contact information easily accessible. That’s horrifying.”

Earlier this month, Kylie Moore – a social media manager at Fusion 360 – served up a helpful reminder of the “essentials” of a great website on the company’s popular blog.

Fusion 360 is a leading digital marketing agency based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Winning the Web starts with having a firm command of the fundamentals; they’ve canvassed Web designers, consultants and marketers to come up with the essentials of any effective website,” Moore writes, rattling off a litany of expert tips, including:

• The first step in website development is to tell everyone who and what you are. A website must scream the basics to everyone who comes across it. Don’t leave people guessing visitors must immediately recognize who you are and what you do.
• Make sure that your company’s contact information is conspicuous throughout the site.
• Your website should also have a clear path for visitors to follow. One simple solution is to have a tab on your homepage that says “I’m looking for” with a drop down menu that includes the most visited links, pages and products.
• Make sure your code is simplified and your servers are upgraded so your website doesn’t take too long to load. “There is now a three second rule when it comes to website performance,” Moore writes. “If it takes a potential client more than three seconds to find what they need on your website, you may be missing out on business.”

For more tips and insight (or to learn what Fusion360 can do for your website and digital marketing), click here.

The post Businesses Forgetting The 'Essentials' of a Great Website appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.