Being Found on Google, digital marketing agency, marketing best practices, organic SEO, pull marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, social media, social media strategy, social media voice, strategic planning

Stay At The Head Of “The Local Pack” By Packing Your Google My Business Profile With Regular Updates

Leave a comment

Of course, we’re humming the1964 hit below from the Shangri-Las as we write this post. This post is the second in our series about why it’s so important to keep content on your digital properties fresh!

If you want your organization’s website to be served up in what’s called “The Local Pack” or “The Map Pack (see image at bottom of post),” the first one-time step you have to take if you haven’t already done so, is to set up a Google My Business Profile/Google Search & Maps listing.

How To Set Up Your Google My Business Profile

If you don’t have access to your Google Maps listing or your organization isn’t shown at all on Google Maps, type the address of your organization including any Suite # into your browser or Google; then click on the red dot showing your location. Then, follow prompts to request creation, or take ownership of, the Google Maps listing.

Once Google has verified you as the owner of the Profile, make sure you fill in as many of the fields in your new Google My Business profile as you can to make it comprehensive and more likely to be served up by Google, particularly: service areas, business categories, and hours of operation. And, don’t forget to complete the “Info. from the business” section. That’s where you tell potential searchers what your organization is all about. Lastly, as part of managing your online reputation, you’ll want to remember to ask happy customers to provide a “Google review” and to make the time to respond to ALL comments in a professional manner that shows your organization cares about customer satisfaction. Our Boston digital marketing agency offers “reputation management” services and can help make sure you handle the aforementioned marketing activity effectively.

How To Rank Well Locally/For Local Search Phrases

But, the focus on this blog post is not about initially setting up your Google My Business profile. It’s s about the ongoing step/ activity to support your organization being served up among the top three spots in “The Local Pack (or top four if Google includes an advertiser’s listing (ear-marked by Google as being an “Ad”)) for “near me,” “where to buy,” and similar local-in-nature search phrases that searchers enter into Google’s search engine. And that ongoing step/activity is to regularly add updates about your organization to your profile the same way you share them regularly to social media platforms.

Repurpose Social Media Posts On Your Google My Business Profile

As indicated above, an easy way to come up with, and add content to your Google My Business Profile, is to simply post already-created content to your profile at the same time you are posting it to the social media networks in which your organization participates.

See examples of updates we recently added to our Boston SEO company’s own Google My Business Profile at the bottom of the image below (taken from our own Profile), or enter “Results Communications & Research” into Google to call up our Profile and view the updates yourself/in greater detail.

Help Setting Up Or Managing Your Google My Business Profile

Need help setting up or optimizing/effectively managing your Google My Business profile. The team of SEO experts at Results Communications & Research is here to help, so please reach out!

Being Found on Google, blog, Blog, Blogging, competitive advantage, digital marketing agency, keywords, meta tags, online presence, organic SEO, pull marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, SEO tags, strategic planning, User experience, website

Why You’re Missing Out If You Don’t Consider Joomla For Your Website CMS/Platform

Leave a comment

While our Boston digital marketing agency doesn’t normally build websites for clients, we regularly advise our clients about what content management systems (CMS)/website platforms they should consider when launching a new website. We’ve also project managed the RFP/RFI process for several clients to arrive at the best-fit web developer and platform for a new site build. In addition, we often provide recommendations to clients for expert developers in various CMS with whom we’ve had the good fortunate to collaborate. One such collaborator and true partner is Robin Clapp at Web Design by Robin.

By working closely and collaboratively with Robin on the execution of SEO tactics on numerous mutual clients’ Joomla websites, we’ve gotten to know the many benefits to an organization of building and managing their website on Joomla. We’ve found it easy ourselves to use the tool to add new posts to resource/blog/news/articles sections of sites; plus, enter post title tags that support websites being found on Google for relevant high-volume keywords.

And, thru the results of SEO audits we conduct, we’ve become confident that, like WordPress and other sites built on non-drag-n-drop platforms, Joomla sites tend to rank well in Google when the proper SEO tactics are put in place. But, we’re letting Robin take it from here by sharing her thoughts below about why it’s a mistake not to consider Joomla as a website platform option when launching a new site.

From Guest Blogger, Robin Clapp, Web Design By Robin

While networking lately, I’ve been asked repeatedly, “What platform do you design websites on?” The reaction to my answer is confusion. They had never heard of Joomla. That’s okay! I don’t necessarily expect business owners to know all about website technology. So I put together these highlights to help them understand what Joomla is and why it is an excellent choice for a business website.

What Is Joomla and Why Should I Choose It For My Business Website?

What is Joomla and why should I choose it for my business website?

Joomla is the ideal Content Management System (CMS) platform for businesses and companies with websites with numerous pages and continuous content updates and additions.

At Web Design by Robin we have been designing custom websites in Joomla for 15+ years. Using extensive website development knowledge and years of experience developing websites in Joomla, each design is a custom experience tailored to your specific needs. Joomla provides a secure login and the ability to add, change, and remove content.

Benefits Of Using the Joomla Platform For Your New Website Include:

  • Joomla is a free, open-source content management system for publishing web content. Joomla is free and open-source because a community, not a company, owns it. The nonprofit organization, Open Source Matters, Inc. and the Joomla community develop the Joomla platform code where skilled Joomla specialists can design top-of-the-line websites.
  • Website content is template-agnostic. In the Joomla platform, content is created natively as individual elements. The template, in our case, a custom-designed template, is independent of the content, allowing for a design change while keeping the content as is.
  • Joomla has powerful role management and permissions built-in. This is useful if you have a variety of staff roles and responsibilities or tasks that they need to perform in relation to the website.
  • Content can be customized using custom fields. Custom fields include content and options such as video, audio, links, and images. Content can be categorized, tagged, searched, and sorted. All this is native to Joomla, making it an excellent solution for resource-heavy websites.
  • SEO metadata is easy to access and maintain in Joomla. Add your titles, descriptions, and alt tags in the same place you add your content. Joomla makes it easy.
  • Joomla is the leading platform when it comes to accessibility. If you choose accessibility for your website design, maintaining accessible content is easy going forward using Joomla’s built-in accessibility checker.

Joomla websites are beautiful, functional, and robust. At Web Design by Robin we design all our websites in Joomla. Check out our extensive portfolio to see just how diverse websites designed in Joomla can be.

What to learn more about Robin and Joomla?

Feel free to reach out to Robin directly, or ask us to make an introduction — we’d love to do so!

Being Found on Google, blog, Blog, Blogging, competitive advantage, content marketing, digital blueprint, digital marketing agency, marketing best practices, online presence, organic SEO, pull marketing, Search Engine Optimization, search terms, SEO, strategic planning, target audiences, Target Marketing, website

Why It’s Time To Get Back To Internet and SEO Basics

Leave a comment

As we mentioned in this recent blog post, there’s so much discussion going on right now about whether or not, and how soon, AI (artificial intelligence) will impact how search engines like Google determine what websites, Google My Business Profiles/Google Search & Maps listings, or other digital properties to serve up in search results.

We think, now more than ever, it’s important to return to why the internet, via which individuals are able to access various digital properties, was first launched. Certainly and initially, the internet was created to allow for easier sharing of information. We believe that, regardless of the decade in which we find ourselves living and working, websites and other digital properties should still continue to support the internet’s initial mission, and therefore, focus on the target audiences they serve and what information those target audiences expect to find on the online property in-question. Plus, focus on what information would be most helpful to those audiences.

Image is a gray square that has "2 Best Practices For Digital Information-Sharing That Also Support SEO" as a header in dark turquoise letters. Underneath in the square two smaller headlines read "1. Be Authentic" and "2. Be Fresh (Keep Your Content Fresh, That Is!". The logo of our Boston digital marketing agency and Boston Digital marketing agency is at the bottom of the image, Results Communications and Research.

Two Best Practices For Digital Information Sharing That Also Support SEO

So, what are two practices that are critical to effective information sharing that also support SEO (search engine optimization)/being found on Google?

  1. As we called out in our “SEO Is Not For Sissies” blog post that we wrote seven years ago (2016), BE AUTHENTIC.
    • Provide the best User Experience (UX) by not overthinking, and being real and being honest about who your organization is and the services your offer. While you want external organizations to link to your site, don’t offer compensation for sites to do so. Google recognizes when the connection between organizations is forced vs. real and natural. In addition, don’t just write for SEO. Tell a good story, get people talking about you, be newsworthy, etc. Write about the things that matter most to you and your customers.
  2. BE FRESH. Keep your website and any other digital property’s content fresh by continuing to produce and share new, content relevant to both your organization and your target audiences. Visitors to your online properties aren’t going to return if there’s no new information to be gleaned from your site, and Google and other search engines are way more likely to serve up a competitor site for relevant search terms (keywords) if that competitor site has fresher, newer content. What’s an easy way to keep your content fresh? Create and post a bi-weekly or monthly blog post!

Even if the two digital information principles/best practices above are all you have time to attend to due to limited staff, time, or $, barring any kind of technical issues with your digital properties, as Boston digital marketing experts offering SEO services, we believe you’ll be well positioned to be found on Google by the people you want most to find you. Plus, you’ll be supporting the internet’s original mission to share beneficial information effectively!

Don’t Have Time To Ensure Your Website Content Is Authentic Or Fresh?

The team at our Boston digital marketing agency, Results Communications & Research, has a significant experience serving as the blog voice for many of our clients, in addition to writing our own blogs. Schedule a time to learn more about our SEO services, or learn more here.

Being Found on Google, keywords, organic SEO, SEO, SEO tags, website

Search Engines Still Have A Long Ways To Go Before They Are True “Interpreters”

Leave a comment

Regardless of the nature of the search engine — Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. — search engines do not yet have the Artificial Intelligence (AI) that they would need to have to be bestowed the title of “interpreter.” We’ve found at our Boston SEO company that many people who aren’t digital marketers, or particularly who aren’t SEO experts, don’t truly understand that search engines still don’t take a lot of leaps of faith. They don’t make a lot of assumptions either.

Per this “Search Engine Land” article, the above scenario will certainly change over time as search engines continue to add more AI knowledge and capabilities to their tools. But, for now, we think what have recently been considered to be SEO best practices, are still best SEO practices, including the one discussed directly below.

Why You Need To Tell Search Engines What Problems Your Organization Solves And In What Geography

Let’s say your organization offers “nutrition counseling.” Most people understand that there is a very diverse set of reasons why people who engage a nutrition counselor may do so. Some may be looking for help losing weight, others may have food allergies and are looking for food substitution ideas, still others may be looking for a diet that helps them manage their digestive issues or one that provides more energy.

In the above case, if an organization offering nutrition counseling does not specifically call out in their website content and/or behind-the-scenes meta page and post title tags that their services provide solutions to the aforementioned problems/challenges, search engines, like Google, will be unlikely to serve up their website in organic search results to people searching on terms like “how to lose weight, “help for losing weight,” “weight loss programs,” “weight loss counselor,” “help for food allergies,” “diet to manage my digestive issues,” etc. You get the picture.

As discussed above, our belief is that, while AI models/tools like ChatGPT may interpret, assume, and take some leaps of faith, standard search engines don’t and won’t to any significant degree. At least not in the near future. As this website content by the developer of the ChatGPT model openly reveals (scroll to “Limitations” section of page), there are still numerous limitations with AI models, and we think both consumers and businesses will continue to pose questions to search engines via voice or typed queries (vs. a tool like ChatGPT) for quite some time. Therefore, we think search engines will continue to be around for a long, long time, and website content and tags will still need to spell out to them exactly what services, products, and solutions an organization offers and in what geography it does so.

Reach Out To Our Team Of SEO Experts For Help

As stated above, we believe current SEO best practices will remain so for the foreseeable future. By visiting the Ponderings section of our website. and scrolling down to the “Categories” section, you can search on blog posts about SEO to learn just what some of those best practices are, but our team is always here to help you understand and implement them.

Learn more about our SEO services, and/or schedule a complimentary SEO discussion with our Boston SEO Company.

Enjoying What You Do, fundraising/development, good will creation, Importance of taking break, keeping a balance, making time for things you value, Nonprofit Marketing & Communications, walking, warriors, fighters, doing good, giving back, paying it forward

Walk, Run, Bike, Hike, Etc. For A Cause

Leave a comment

Back in the days when I worked at BMC HealthNetPlan, I got great satisfaction completing the marketing & communications tasks associated with my role pertaining to “wellness.” I’ve always been someone who liked to exercise, particularly, play tennis, swim, go to the gym, and walk. Those who know me well, know that various health circumstances have gotten in the way of my being able to participate in some of the aforementioned athletic activities, but I hopefully I’ll always have my walking! Anyhow, because I was a big believer in the mental and physical health benefits of getting exercise, I felt blessed and happy to be able to share wellness tips, tools, and information with members of BMC HealthNet Plan’s health plan, as well as with prospective members.

I loved creating wellness-related flyers that the health plan’s Community Outreach team could give out at events, and I was particularly passionate about sharing that same information in the form of an advertorial for the now defunct “Boston Metro” newspaper. In addition, I maintained a section on the health plan’s website about “exercising for a cause.” On the website page, I would list various upcoming charity/cause exercise events like walks, hikes, bikes, runs, etc. I’ve always felt that such events are win-wins. The participant gets great exercise and has fun participating in the event with family or friends that they recruit to join them, and the cause/charity gets the much needed research or other funds they need to operate, as well as the benefit of awareness creation.

Mike McKenna’s Walk Across America For NECC

If you follow our Boston Digital Marketing Agency’s blog and read it regularly, you’ll know that I divide my time talking about “walking” topics and “marketing” topics. This particular post is obviously walking-related, and I’m using it to call attention to the extensive, creative, and significant “cause walk” that a friend and former co-worker from BCBSMA days is undertaking. As you’ll see from reading this article, my friend, Mike McKenna, is “walking across America” to create awareness of the challenges faced by individuals living with Autism, as well as their families, but also to fundraise to support the very important work of, and critical services offered by, the New England Center For Children (NECC).

We, here at Results C & R, just love what Mike is doing and we’ll be cheering Mike on in a variety of ways, and hope you will too. As this article explains, one meaningful/impactful way to easily support others in your lives who are challenged by a developmental or physical disability or chronic condition is to create awareness of their particular health condition, as well as raise funds to support research related to it!

So all those who walk, ride, bike, hike, etc. for a cause, we say “exercise on!” You are doing God’s work!

My Upcoming Cause Walk

I’m continuing to walk the above talk. This month I’ll be walking in Winter Walk Boston, and as I have for the last five or six years, I’ll be captaining my Jimmy Fund Walk team to raise awareness of the challenges of living with cancer and to create cancer research funds. Please consider joining me on one of these walks, and of course, any donations are always welcomed!

Important Update (afternoon of 2/7/23): So, literally within an hour of my publishing this post, I learned Mike had to put his walk on hold because of health concerns, but he assures me, he will still achieve his mission, even if his cross-country journey has to take a new form! Please continue to support NECC in the meantime!