Enjoy your journey

When I was in 4th grade, there was nothing I wanted more than a Geocities webpage to showcase my obsession with Sailor Moon (a popular Japanese anime show). Geocities pages were the perfect beginner webpages: they started free, and almost anybody could design a page to their liking. “Cool” webpages had tons and tons of images and not a lot of text. But webpages that really were worth sharing were the webpages that had your name in sparkling pink letters (thanks FlamingText.com), an “under construction” sign that flipped vertically, or a dancing banana. These moving or animated images are called “GIFs,” an acronym for “graphic interchange format.” After being MIA following the demise of MySpace and the rising popularity of limited design social media sites like Facebook, GIFs are having a renaissance. But like most things these days we have to wonder: are GIFs back for good, or is this just another Millennial fad?

GIFs made their official debut in 1987, hence the painfully outdated name of “graphic interchange format,” Almost immediately the GIF met controversy in a copyright war that lasted until 1994. The disagreement ended in the winning company licensing the GIF format to other companies for a fee. Most people didn’t want to pay, and ditched GIFs for the PNG format by 1996 – a free, non-patented single-image format. By the early 2000’s, time had passed: we survived Y2K, Britney Spears was America’s Sweetheart, and the GIF patent had expired. ربح المال من لعب الالعاب Enter Geocities and inexperienced Internet users.

Before MySpace and Facebook, there was Geocities, and what better way to express your limited HTML knowledge and trendiness than with a bunch of animated images? GIFs are compressed image files, meaning they could more easily load for people with modem connections and outdated web browsers. The ease of loading GIFs made GIFs accessible for people of all Internet speeds and bandwidths. Remember, this is the time before we had YouTube, Vimeo, Netflix, and Hulu: accessing video files used to take hours! How people ever survived is a mystery to me. Somewhere around 2001, a flash music video for the song “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” featuring a pixelated, dancing banana took over the World Wide Web. The dancing banana went on to be one of the most popular GIFs of that time. After the Geocities craze came the next bigger and better Internet trend: MySpace. MySpace was hot for about four years and truly kicked off our dependence on social media. Other than constantly worrying about who should be in my Top 8, I know I was one of the millions of teenagers who spent far too many hours littering their MySpace profile with as many GIFs as humanly possible. قوانين البوكر Why did we love GIFs so much? They were new, shiny, fun, and added a little bit of quirk to an otherwise stereotypical MySpace page. Once Facebook eclipsed MySpace in users, GIFs died out because Facebook only offered, and still only offers, limited customization aspects on profiles. However, like most trends including Jelly sandals from the 90’s and unfortunately overalls, every trend gets a second-go, and now is the time for GIFs.

Today, thanks mainly to Tumblr, the home of many GIF-centric pages, we have GIFs for every situation, every reaction and every feeling featuring clips from TV shows, music videos, movies, YouTube videos, you name it. Furthermore, companies like Victoria’s Secret PINK, J.Crew, and Steve Madden are cashing in on the GIF trend by using their merchandise to create GIF images on their marketing emails. لعبة قمار For example, Victoria’s Secret PINK recently sent out an e-mail promoting their collegiate collection, featuring an image model with the pullover sweatshirt she was wearing changing every few seconds to showcase different colleges and universities. Steve Madden often features GIF images in their emails with rotating images of their latest and greatest shoes. Even K-Mart got on the GIF-train during the 2013 Holiday Season with a “GIFing Out” campaign. This campaign featured commercials of family members doing strange repeated movements after scoring great deals at K-Mart, to which the onlookers would remark that their family member was “GIFing out.”

GIFs have evolved greatly past pixelated images. In addition to having a GIF for any mood, we now have “cinemagraphs,” which feature still images with only a minor repeated detail moving.  But what does this mean for the future of GIFs; are they here to stay, or are they another fleeting millennial fad? Kerry Trainor, CEO of Vimeo, stated, “We really feel like the GIF format overall really represents an interesting connecting tissue between what people typically think of as video and what people typically think of as still images… This is a new area of video creativity that we think bridges the gap between video and still photography.” With the attention span of users shorter than ever and the number of hours in a day ever dwindling, it is important for marketers to provide users with content that can be accessed quickly and easily. Sure, YouTube and Vimeo videos are great, but users’ time is limited, and watching a minutes-long video just takes up too much of their precious time. Not to mention buffer time! Enter the GIF – typically a few seconds long – short enough but to the point. Furthermore, GIFs can be instantly shared through social media, bypassing the inconvenience of having to click the play or pause button like on a YouTube video. Are GIFs the future of video? Will there one day be a social media site dedicated only to GIFs? As the popularity of GIFs continues to increase, I personally believe these are not such farfetched ideas.

So how can you jump on the GIF-train for your business? First, you can share GIFs across your social media accounts: be it Facebook, Google+, or even your blog. GIFs don’t always work on all social media platforms (Instagram and Pinterest for example) but they can help spice up your posts on social media platforms where they do. Whether you are sharing original, curated or repurposed content, GIFs can help tell your story with a little quirk and flare. Another way you can use GIFs for business is by creating GIFs that are centric to your work. In other words – don’t just use or make a GIF just to say you did. If you are using GIFs just to fit in or look cool, trust me, it’ll be painfully obvious. But when a GIF syncs with your brand or campaign, people will know who is responsible for that fun piece of content (you!). Email campaigns are another great outlet to create your original GIFs to market your latest and greatest products. As previously mentioned, Victoria’s Secret PINK has mastered the art of GIF marketing, as has Urban Outfitters. Lastly, if you are a website or blog that frequently posts a lot of tips or how-to’s, GIFs can be used as an educational resource. Showing your readers how to follow your tips step-by-step in a short, repetitive clip will help keep readers from second-guessing your directions, or leaving your page to turn to YouTube for help.

When words can’t say what you’re feeling or thinking, a GIF can. GIFs are like Hallmark cards for Millennials, except free and less compassionate. As consumers’ attention dwindles and patience is fleeting, I believe marketers will eventually have to be even more creative and find a quicker way to reach their consumers, and GIFs are the perfect medium. With GIFs, your creativity is limitless – the only real boundary is your mind, and maybe some copyright laws (watch out for those when using content lifted from movies, TV shows, and anything you don’t). Below are some of my favorite GIFs, and of course, I included the dancing banana. Long live Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

Source: http://mashable.com/2012/10/19/animated-gif-history
Source: http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/7-best-practices-using-gifs-cinemagraphs-business-0939520#!bLjeQm
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-gifs-of-2013-2013-12
Source: http://victorious.wikia.com/wiki/File:Cupcake_dog_gif.gif
Source: http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070819174055/uncyclopedia/images/b/be/200px-Dancing_Banana.gif
Source: http://vspink.com
Source: http://www.urbanoutfitters.com

It has been approximately nine years since Facebook consumed my life, and I’m not afraid to admit it. When Facebook first started to catch on, I was a sophomore in high school, and being the rebel that I was, I refused to get one initially. Keep in mind I initially also refused to try Chipotle because I “didn’t like Mexican food,” (but really I was lying to myself, I was just trying to be defiant). Neither of those delusions lasted very long, and soon I was a Chipotle and Facebook addicted teenager; a textbook Millennial.

When Facebook introduced “Pages” and made a push for them instead of user-created groups, it was a game changer. Gone were the days I spent mindlessly browsing for Facebook groups that I felt encompassed my interests and made my profile look cool. Now, connecting with people and companies was just a quick search and “Like” away! And, even better, you could easily see which of your friends shared your Likes as well. With stories from Pages now showing up on my newsfeed, I could easily see what was going on with all my interests, which made it infinitely easier for me to stay connected to things I cared about.

Why am I telling this story from my perspective? العاب رب وس حقيقية Because I am a consumer, and I now stay connected to all my favorite brands through Facebook. I even use Facebook to find coupons or learn about sales only valid for Facebook friends. To this day, I judge a brand’s legitimacy by its Facebook page. If you don’t have an updated and flourishing Facebook page, I question your legitimacy. If you aren’t keeping up with the Kardashians (sorry Jones family you’re out), you will surely be forgotten. Here are the top 6 reasons I believe everyone should have (at least) a Facebook Page for their business:

1). There are over a billion people on Facebook.
Each month 1.5 billion people use Facebook, trailed by Google+ at 359 million, then Twitter at 215 million, and then Instagram at 150 million. Pretty much this statement says that for a business, the world is your oyster via Facebook. Facebook allows you to connect with not millions but BILLIONS of customers around the world that you may never have otherwise reached with traditional marketing efforts.

2). 30 million businesses have Facebook pages.
But only 19 million have optimized for mobile (or are mobile friendly). If you have not optimized your page for Facebook mobile, then you are making your resources inaccessible to potential consumers who are on the go, have their cell phones glued to their hands, or are not confined to a desktop device, which nowadays seems like most people. If your business is brought up at a Starbucks between 2 Strawberries and Cream Frappuccinos and the two Millennials talking about your Facebook can’t access it because it isn’t mobile friendly, chances are they will have forgotten about you before even getting home; a missed business opportunity for you.

3). 25% of the Facebook-using population exclusively uses Facebook Mobile.
Following up to my previous point, 654 million people use Facebook on a mobile device daily, and 399 million users exclusively use Facebook mobile each month. Your Facebook page should be an extension of your resources, and not optimizing Facebook for mobile devices puts you at a great disadvantage by limiting your reach. Once again I reference the saying, “If a tree falls in the forest and nobody’s there to hear it, does it make a sound?” Similarly, if a consumer goes to your establishment but can’t check in on Facebook mobile, were they ever there? Millennial logic says no: if we can’t show off on a mobile Facebook check-in that we’ve been to the coolest new club or restaurant in town, it’s like we were never even there, and you miss that exposure to that users’ Facebook friends (which, by the way, was free).

4). 47% of Americans say that Facebook is their #1 influencer of purchases. لعبة الكازينو
Being able to interact with content, read customer feedback on pages and see the company remedy unsatisfied customers all attribute to a purchaser’s final decision. A few months ago, I purchased a dehydrated vegan soup (I was a huge fan of this brand until this incident), which, upon opening it, prompted live moths to fly out of the container. Furious, stunned, and extremely nauseated, I contacted the company via Facebook and complained about their disturbing lack of quality. Notice how my initial reaction was to head to their Facebook and not their company website. They are a small company, and it took them days to respond. In my post, I stated I did not want any replacements of their products; who would after that incident? What did they do, after taking days to respond? Offered me a replacement. Not only did they not listen to me, they did not remedy the situation, and that was present for their other 800+ fans on Facebook to see. Other people jumped in on the post, disappointed with the company. To this day, they have done nothing to remedy my situation, and I will never purchase their products again.

5). 42% of Marketers said that Facebook is critical to their business.
Although millions of businesses crowd Facebook with their pages, it is something no business can afford to sit out on. If you sit out joining Facebook like stubborn ol’ me tried to refuse to like Chipotle, you are ultimately giving your competition the upper hand in reaching the same consumers that you so desperately want. Furthermore, chances are you are already operating in an oversaturated industry. Why do we need another brand of jeans? Or another pizza place? Or another dry cleaners? If you have something special to offer that sets you apart from the millions of other businesses in your industry, your Facebook page is a great place to show it.

6). It’s a free tool for your marketing toolbox.
Yep, for the most part maintaining a Facebook Business Page, posting content, generating a following for your great content, interacting with new and potential customers, and posting about your products and services are all free. Facebook is an ideal platform to help you promote all the marketing material you’re creating and writing across social media platforms, in hopes that it’s intriguing enough for people to share it with their friends (all free exposure for you!) Paid advertising obviously costs money as does sponsor advertising, and paying for likes is something you should NEVER do. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be successful sticking to just the basics of Facebook for Business. If you have a great product to sell and have interesting content to share and a knack for interacting with even the toughest of consumers, there’s little chance you won’t be successful.

Of course, while social media like Facebook offers a great platform to engage with your audience, having eye-catching visuals is just as important to capture their attention. This is where a strong graphic design agency comes in. If you really want to elevate your business marketing and make your brand stand out, professional design can make all the difference.

Whether it’s creating logos, infographics, or social media graphics, Graphically can help take your brand to the next level. A well-designed visual not only grabs attention but also communicates your brand’s message clearly and effectively, helping you stay ahead in today’s competitive market. With the right blend of creativity and strategy, even the simplest content can become compelling enough for customers to engage and share, amplifying your reach without costing you a dime.

While I admit that Facebook has its flaws, having a Facebook presence is an undeniable marketing advantage for your business. Don’t try and be that hipster business that is “too cool” for Facebook, because you aren’t. بلاك جاك Social media is there to connect you to your customers and open doors to new customers: use it to your advantage. There’s a whole world of untapped business opportunities out there, so go get em Tiger. If you aren’t sure where to begin with content, we’ve got you covered.

Just like social media, a well-designed business card is a powerful tool that should not be underestimated. It’s often the first impression someone will have of your business, so why not make it count? A sleek, high-quality business card tells your potential clients that you’re serious about your brand and the services you offer. Think of it as a mini-billboard that fits right into someone’s wallet.

And if you really want to stand out from the crowd, consider Metal Kards. These premium cards don’t just sit in a pile—they make an impact, giving your business that extra edge and professionalism that people remember. In today’s competitive landscape, it’s all about making your brand memorable. Sure, digital marketing is great, but tangible items like business cards give people something to hold on to, something that lasts beyond the scroll.

Imagine handing out a metal business card at a networking event. The weight, the feel—it’s a conversation starter on its own. It’s not just about giving your contact info, it’s about making a statement that says, “Hey, I’m here, I’m serious, and I mean business.” So, whether you’re killing it on social media or making waves in face-to-face meetings, don’t overlook the simple yet effective power of a killer business card.

Peak Seven is proud to announce that the Promenade at Coconut Creek has been awarded South Florida Parenting’s Kids Crown Award for Best Shopping Center in Broward” for 2013 and now 2014! بينجو اون لاين Local businesses and service providers awarded the Kids Crown Awards are considered to be the best-of-the-best in the tri-county South Florida area. Winners are chosen by local South Florida Parenting Magazine readers and confirmed by a panel of local readers and judges. ماكينات القمار

Peak Seven has played an active role in facilitating and promoting all of the great family events held at the Promenade, including the South Florida Parenting Holiday Festival, Water Fun & Sun Event, Easter Egg-stravaganza, Halloween at the Promenade, Chanukah Menorah Lighting, Christmas Tree Lighting, and more! This year, Peak Seven introduced the Annual Fashion and Food Event at the Promenade, featuring food and wine samples from everyone’s favorite restaurants, as well as a fashion show featuring the Promenade’s most fashionable and trendy retailers!

To see all of the great upcoming family-friendly events at the Promenade at Coconut Creek, please visit www. كازينو 888 ThePromenadeAtCoconutCreek.com/News or “Like” the Promenade at Coconut Creek on Facebook!

These past two months has been a great experience for me. As a native New Orleanian, coming to South Florida was a much anticipated change. Spring semester this past year I realized that I wanted to leave New Orleans for the summer for an internship elsewhere. My only criteria was that I wanted to go somewhere sunny with a beach. I eventually began searching for opportunities in Florida.

I found Peak Seven Advertising through a simple Google search and saw that they were a small boutique agency with some major clients. At first glance, I figured this agency may be a good fit so I emailed Kata Breman my resume and cover letter, and called many times (most likely more times than necessary) until I received a response.

Once I arrived to South Florida I knew it would be different for me. Though the weather was very similar to New Orleans: it was distinct simply because I was away from home. لعبه با جاك My first day at the office, everyone made sure to make me feel welcomed as I became acquainted to the agency. I learned many hilarious things about this office on my first day which made me feel as if this could be a place I would come to enjoy and it did.

Here at Peak Seven I learned how daily agency life goes including how hectic it can be to how completely calm some days are. I was able to sit in various creative meetings and client meetings. I was able to witness how we the agency interacted with the client as well as client/agency frustrations all a part of daily agency work.

I unexpectedly learned the most about online marketing. العاب ماكينات قمار At Loyola University of New Orleans I am studying mass communication with a focus in advertising, this sequence allows me to learn about the creative side of advertising, like how to develop a campaign and social media strategies. شرح لعبه البوكر With my sequence I haven’t learned as many online marketing techniques and practices. Though this year will be my senior year and I will most likely learn some about online marketing, it was great to be able to get a head start learning this useful information.

I was able to work with Google Adwords and create a few landing pages for some of our clients. In the process of working with both of those tools, I learned basics of how online marketing works and its purpose. I also became acquainted with moz blog, inbound.com, and kissmetrics blog. These blogs are all great online marketing tools that will be useful in whatever field I decide to go into. I’ve learned some about SEO and how valuable it is.

Overall, I have enjoyed my time in South Florida at Peak Seven Advertising. I will go on to use all of the tools and skills I have learned this upcoming year and in my career. This internship has been a valuable experience for me and am thankful for the opportunity.

Last week, I visited the topics of basic content strategy and blogging. If blogging is your tortilla, then content is the filling – nobody wants to read a blog (or eat a burrito) without some tasty content. As I previously touched on, blogging and content creation are much easier when you set a content schedule. When you plan ahead, you ensure not only that you stay on track, but also that you are never without ideas for content. The next step is creating the content that ranks highly with search engines, and that’s where I’m picking up this week. Thanks to our friends over at CopyBlogger, I bring you your fresh weekly burrito: content creation with a side of salsa and sass.

An Overview of Your SEO Burrito
You know the age-old saying, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one’s there to hear it, does it make a sound?” Similarly in blogging and content creation, if you blog and no one read your content, are you relevant? The answer is no, in case you were wondering. That’s part of the magic of Google and Search Engine Optimization (SEO): connecting billions of people to billions of sources of information by only typing in a few words into a search bar. SEO is a website’s content’s relevance on search engine results.

What determines content’s relevance? The number of users finding the content “organically” or without a website using paid keyword search to appear at the top. “Organic” or “natural” search results typically represent a website that offers both meaningful and useful content for the majority of users searching keywords that website mirrors.

For businesses looking to make a real impact online, partnering with an SEO agency that drives results is essential. Agencies like those offering ecommerce seo services melbourne specialize in tailoring strategies that increase visibility and drive traffic, specifically for online stores. These services are invaluable for e-commerce businesses aiming to rank higher on search engines and reach potential customers.

From optimizing product descriptions to enhancing user experience, an expert agency can fine-tune every aspect of your website to ensure it’s aligned with best SEO practices. By leveraging such expertise, your online store can stand out in a competitive marketplace, attract more visitors, and ultimately increase conversions. It’s not just about getting noticed—it’s about being found by the right people at the right time.

Just as SEO ensures that your content reaches the right audience, the design and structure of your website play a pivotal role in making that content accessible and engaging. When it comes to website design, it’s not just about aesthetics or flashy elements; it’s about user experience and functionality. A well-designed website serves as the gateway for users to interact with your content, and if your website is hard to navigate or visually overwhelming, visitors will quickly bounce.

Ensuring that your website is easy to navigate, mobile-friendly, and fast-loading is just as important as having great content. With the right design, users can find what they need quickly, and this enhances both user engagement and your SEO efforts.

When it comes to business growth marketing, it’s not just about creating great content; it’s about ensuring that content gets discovered. This is where the power of SEO becomes a game-changer. With the right optimization strategy, businesses can increase their visibility and reach the right audience at the right time. Lexio Digital understands the importance of relevance in today’s digital landscape, helping businesses elevate their online presence and drive organic traffic. The combination of high-quality content and strategic SEO practices ensures that your business not only ranks well but also resonates with your target customers.

As businesses compete for attention online, the role of SEO becomes more critical than ever. By leveraging data-driven strategies and focusing on delivering value through content, companies can stay ahead of the curve. The key is consistency—updating your website, tracking performance, and adapting to the ever-changing search algorithms. Through a comprehensive marketing approach, businesses can enhance their brand’s authority, improve lead generation, and ultimately drive sustainable growth.

To achieve optimal results, many businesses turn to premium choices from letsgetoptimized.com, which specializes in boosting a website’s visibility through effective SEO practices. With their expertise, your website can climb the search engine ranks, ensuring that your content reaches a broader and more relevant audience. By focusing on key elements like content quality, backlink strategy, and technical optimization, LetsGetOptimized helps businesses stand out in a competitive online landscape. Their personalized approach to SEO not only drives organic traffic but also helps businesses build a stronger online presence that sustains long-term growth.

SEO doesn’t stop there: it is not limited to being found organically on Google, but also reflects social sharing, such as linking in blogs, tweeting, posting to Google+, sending to friends through Facebook chat, and the like. Because we are all emotional beings, we are compelled to share things that hit a chord, be it funny, sad, disturbing, or inspiring. The purpose of SEO is to help people find answers to the questions they type into search engines: the focus is on the value that certain websites or pages bring to consumers. While consumers must follow the yellow brick road of keywords to find their answers, there are many misconceptions about SEO, content creation, and keywords.

Content: The Protein
Compelling content is the meat (or beans if you’re vegetarian) of your burrito. You want your content to be useful for thousands of readers, not just you, and you want your readers to share your content with thousands of other readers. Though normally I don’t like to share my food, a great SEO burrito is something I would want to share with the world. Furthermore, when curating your content, it is important to remember one thing: you are writing for people, not for search engines. A common misconception is that truly great SEO content is ugly and littered with keywords and other unreadable mumbo-jumbo to trick search engines into ranking them higher. The truth of the matter is the best content is content that people can benefit from and easily read. Remember: search engines are not the ones sharing your content; people are. Search engines only help lead people to your content. Though there are many technical aspects to blogging and content creation, emotion should never be forgotten.

Keywords: The Salsa
As previously stated in last week’s blog, finding a niche for your content and blog is one of your first steps. Additionally, you must use the correct keywords and keyword phrases for your audience. Keywords are the salsas in your burrito, and you need to find the right spiciness that best suits your taste. You don’t want salsa that is too bland or too spicy for your tastes because then you can’t enjoy the burrito to its fullest extent. Similarly with keywords, if readers can’t find you using their search terms, then you won’t be relevant. Ideally, you want to be as specific as possible in your use of keyword phrases – if you’re too general or vague, you’ll be outranked by a high-traffic competitor. In other words, do your keyword research. It is smart to include variations of keyword phrases in the event a higher-traffic site on a particular phrase outranks you.

A common misconception about SEO is utilizing “keyword stuffing,” or using a certain keyword as many times as humanly possible to have your page rank highly on search engines. We can relate this to saturating a burrito with salsa: when your burrito has too much of a good thing, it falls apart. Google has algorithms that sniff out people who overuse keywords on their websites, and punishes them by essentially removing their ranking. Why? Because mindlessly using a keyword is not going to help the consumer find their answer: think of it as search engine spam.

Titles and Headlines: The Cilantro Rice
Headlines are your one shot to communicate to the consumer that you have all the answers to their question they just searched. They are the cilantro rice in your burrito, and influence the initial bite into a burrito. Some people don’t like cilantro (what freaks) and may decide they don’t want to eat the burrito. Similarly, a person may not be grabbed by your headline and surpass your article. However, you don’t want to overload your burrito with too much rice, just as you don’t want a super long and heavy title for your content. Furthermore, it is ideal to work your keyword phrase into it while remaining compelling and while also promising to answer their question. If you write a great attention-grabbing headline peppered with relevant keywords or keyword phrases, people could link back to you using just your headline, also called “anchor text.”

Link Building and Linking Out: The Guacamole
Link Building
When you’re the new kid on the block, you need clout, and as a new website or blog, you can get that clout by having older, popular blogs and websites link anchor to your website. How do the cool kids notice you, you ask? You write better than them, you make them look twice at your blog and go, “WOW! That person can write well! I want to link them to my blog!” This strategy is “link building,” and is obviously used to increase inbound traffic on the site or blog. Link building is the guacamole in your burrito, because who even wants a burrito without guacamole? It’s essential and boosts the burrito’s overall taste. Similarly, when you develop your clout as a smaller, newer blog with the help from older, more popular blogs, your search engine results improve, and you’re on your way to a higher ranking (or better tasting burrito). You can also link build by guest blogging on a more popular blog. By choosing to contribute to an already established blog, you can attract attention to your writing and in turn, your blog.

Linking Out
Similar to link building, “linking out” is defined as engaging readers and bloggers on other websites with your content or other relevant content. There are multiple ways to link out, including through your blog posts and on social media. However, the key is how you share it. As previously touched upon in last week’s blog, you want to engage social media influencers to read and share your content to build clout. Get the influencer’s attention and share your work, but don’t go about it in a spamming or obnoxious way, as you may get the wrong kind of attention.

Social Interaction: The Jalapeno Peppers
Search engines like to provide users with the newest, most-updated links as these are seen to be the most relevant. Search engines also like to know that you interact with other websites and social platforms (clearly this whole thing is a popularity contest). When you update your blog or website frequently, you are opening the social forum to anyone who stumbles upon your content. Staying active and encouraging social interaction is equivalent to the jalapeno peppers in your burrito – they give the taste a little kick and oomph. By encouraging participation, you develop your general website’s authority and open the floor for discussion. Free discussion also allows for opportunities for you to plug your related content, also known as older, previously written blog posts. Getting readers to stay on your website through related content is better for your page, allowing you to lower the bounce rate and keep around potential customers longer. Furthermore, never assume your readers know what you’re talking about, because if they’re just joining in for the first time, chances are they don’t. Linking to previous posts in blogs can convert your new readers to repeat readers.

Conversions: The Grande Finale
While seeing spikes in traffic can be a great indicator that you’ve created successful content (or a delicious SEO burrito), it should not be viewed alone as a measure of success. Chances are, you’re trying to sell something, which is why you created your content in the first place. Furthermore, a consumer likely landed on your page because they are looking to purchase what you are selling. Therefore, unless you see an increase in your sales conversions, then you cannot truly say your content is successful based on page views alone. Before you can even begin with your content campaign, it is crucial to know your base point in order to measure your successes.

How do you know when you’ve made a truly delicious SEO burrito? When you’ve combined the protein (compelling content), salsas (relative keywords and keyword phrases), cilantro rice (attention-grabbing headlines and titles), guacamole (link building and linking out), and peppers (social interaction). If you are selling more SEO burritos than you were a month ago thanks to some savvy new burrito content you’ve created, then you indeed are successful. Keeping these things in mind, do you think you’re ready to create your own SEO burrito? Or do you want to make a quick trip to Chipotle first? I’m kind of hungry!

One of the largest sources of online traffic for many brands comes from “Direct” visits to your website. Direct traffic is one of the few metrics that gives you insight into how your branding is actually doing in terms of your marketing efforts. The problem that many people run into when they see drastic increases or decreases in Direct traffic is figuring out what happened and its cause. Here are some helpful tips on how to analyze the change in Direct Traffic.

Campaign Annotations

One of the most under-utilized features of Google Analytics is the annotation tool. If you’re launching any campaigns or ads, it’s crucial to make annotations to gauge their performance. Utilizing the annotation tool helps keep things organized and may answer any questions as to what caused the change in traffic. It’s best practice to annotate when you run print, radio, or television ads due to outside forces influencing the amount of direct traffic to your website. Determining which external ad that can’t be tracked with parameters usually makes for big changes in Direct traffic.

Landing Page Analysis

You should also be studying what landing pages people are arriving onto directly. Your homepage more than likely will be the highest visited page opposed to your internal pages. If there are any other URLs that are generating large amounts of traffic, you’ll want to figure out what is causing traffic to be directed to that particular URL. You’ll want to compare different date ranges to see if the traffic fluctuation is being caused to these internal URLs instead of the homepage.

Traditional Advertising

External forms of traditional advertising play a major role in the fluctuation of visitors coming to your website directly. Be aware of the bumps in traffic that can result when using direct mailers, billboards, radio ads, newspaper ads, and the like. Also note how much of an increase the advertising created for organic and possibly even direct traffic. You will generally see a rise in both direct and organic traffic when running traditional advertising, but, forecasting how much of an increase the traditional advertising makes to Direct traffic helps demonstrate how a specific change in ads may have performed.

Location of Users

Getting information about fluctuations is difficult, but one of the best areas to look for answers is analyzing where the visits came from. You may be targeting a specific city heavily and wonder why direct traffic may have dropped after all the effort you’ve put into that market. When looking at a breakdown of locations, direct traffic may have increased in visits in that targeted location.  However, the overall drop of visits outside that target market accounts for the bigger drop in direct traffic.

Device Trends

The rise of mobile devices such as tablets and cell phones is occurring dramatically. One way to get more insight about your direct visitors is observing what type of device they are using when typing your website into a browser. If you’re running physical banners or billboards on the highway, for example, you could see a major increase in mobile visits for that particular month due to people driving in their car and using their phone (we don’t recommend). لعبه القمار Another example commonly seen is when there are increases in brand mentions in an online article or announcements of partnerships but there are no links listed for your site. The lack of a link online is often the culprit of people directly typing in your brand name into their browser with  “.com” at the end, causing the direct traffic to rise via desktop.

URL Parameters

We LOVE tagging our links with parameters and highly recommend using them, because it gives you insight about which campaigns drove the most traffic and conversions. Unfortunately, sometimes tools like Google Analytics are confused about what to do when a parameter is used in a URL. شراء يانصيب اون لاين If Google Analytics doesn’t know how to handle a specific parameter, you’ll usually see it appear under “Direct traffic.” It’s a great exercise to see if there are any odd URLs that contain parameters that fall into the Direct bucket. It is common to see a successful piece of content fall into Direct traffic due to sharing via social media. The reason is simple: we are social beings and we take links we find on social media platforms and share them directly with others via any chat program or e-mail. When the user visits the link we share, there could be a parameter in the URL. However, Google Analytics will designate that user’s visit as Direct instead of using the parameters defining its source or medium. كيفية اللعب في bet365 It is also possible for certain tools and applications to cut off parameters at the end of the URL and record those visits as Direct.

Organic Traffic

Recently, Search Engine Land conducted a study to test how much of Direct traffic was actually being accounted for as Organic traffic. The study determined that as much as 60% of Direct traffic might actually be misrepresented as Organic traffic. We don’t recommend you running this test, but it’s something that you should be aware of.