Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Social Media Management and What is Best for Your Business

May 15, 2017 by John Lehmberg Leave a Comment

May 15, 2017

Social Media Management and What is Best for Your Business

Best Social Media to Choose for Business.

There seems to be a question on everyone’s mind when it comes to the social media platform Instagram and that is “How does it help a business?” Although there can be argument made that this question exists for all social media still, for those that have proven other social channels such as LinkedIn and Facebook as profitable sources of leads and sales there still seems to be a larger lingering tone of insecurities for businesses when using Instagram.

This undertone almost certainly exists firstly because the target audience started out as a primarily teen and young adult centered platform but has since grown to expand its target age range into the 30’s. Instagram also is light years behind Facebook in their advertising mediums BUT has recently started breaching into the paid advertising market working towards a goal of becoming like Facebook’s boosting and ad performance.

So, what makes Instagram different?

Instagram allows you the opportunity to create visual appealing art and photos to share on all your social media platforms. You can easily change the filter on an image and add text or create a fun collage with multiple photos. So many ads these days center around visually appealing images to the point that the competition to grab a user’s attention has steadily risen.

Since Facebook only allows 20% or less text on an image the ability to edit the photos on Instagram can be a huge time saver to use on both platforms for advertising.

Instagram also allows videos as of August 2013 and the use of videos in peoples news feed has become very prevalent and useful. Business owners can post how to videos for their products and even answer frequently asked questions via this platform to be sure to impress all potential and current customers.

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As of very recently Hoot-suite, the popular and free scheduling platform, has started integrating with Instagram profiles to allow for all the benefits of scheduling posts ahead of time.

If you need a consultation about SEO or Web Design, our company, Make It Loud, can at the very least help you to discover if SEO or a good website fits into your budget. It doesn’t cost anything to find out and we’d be honored to serve you, face to face when geographically possible. Feel free to contact us by email at: info@makeitloud.net, visit our website at: www.makeitloud.net, or call us at: 678.325.4007. Even if you’re not local to Gwinnett or Atlanta, we’d be happy to do an assessment.

How to Market with Social Media and LinkedIn

May 12, 2017 by John Lehmberg Leave a Comment

May 12, 2017

How to Market with Social Media and LinkedIn

How to Market Your Business on Social Media

LinkedIn: Marketing Yourself & Your Business

LinkedIn remains one of the most powerful social media channels for B2B marketers and its importance continues to grow. Organic reach on LinkedIn remains at full throttle and the majority of LinkedIn users are the decision makers in their respective businesses.

LinkedIn offers two account options: 1) Personal Profile and 2) Company Page.

PERSONAL PROFILE:

Your Personal Profile is the foundation of your LinkedIn presence and it serves as the storefront for your personal brand throughout your entire professional career. Please use a professional profile photo and complete your profile using well written text and multimedia elements when available. (Spellcheck!)

You will use your Personal Profile Page to share helpful information with others. This in turn validates you as an authority in your industry. Don’t use your Personal Profile for selling! That’s reserved for your Company Page but your Personal Profile Page will be used in tandem to gain wider exposure for your Company Page updates. (This will be explained in more detail when we discuss Company Pages.)

Your Personal Profile Page Is for Helping Others

You have several ways of interacting on your Personal Profile Page. You can share an update or you can like, share, or comment on one of your connection’s updates. The later shows you to be a caring business partner. In addition, your name and profile photo are now attached to that update which is visible to both your and your connection’s network. When posting an update, remember to include an image which will help draw attention to your update.

Always Use an Image When Posting An Update

Stay focused on growing your LinkedIn network by continually sending invitations to connect and responding promptly to any requests you receive. (Sending a personal note to the connection during this process is a nice touch.)

Welcome to LinkedIn’s New Long-Form Posts

The newest way to share on LinkedIn is via the Long-Form Post. Think of it as a mini-blog (but no selling!) This is where you will share personal/professional insight that would be helpful to someone dealing with issues that you’ve faced. You can also share industry knowledge that would expedite the reader’s learning curve. Persons reading your Long-Form Post can elect to “follow you” which alerts them to all your future posts. These followers can be LinkedIn users with whom you are not currently connected. (Your Long-Form Post becomes part of your Personal Profile and your Long-Form Post is searchable both on and off LinkedIn.)

COMPANY PAGE:

To create a Company page, you first must have a completed Personal Profile. You will also need a “domain based” email address for the Company Page you’re creating. (Example: john@yourcompany.com) Make sure too that your company is listed under the ‘Experience’ section on your Personal Profile.

Your Company Page is where you will share information about your company’s current promotions or upcoming special events and promote what makes you different or better than your competition. Your Company Page should be professionally branded with the consistent look and feel of your website and other social media channels.

Your Company Page Is For Promoting Your Business

You’ll want to encourage LinkedIn users to ‘follow’ your company page. This is done by promoting your page via newsletters, printed materials, other social media channels or good old-fashioned email.

To gain wider exposure for your Company Page posts, you can ‘like’ the update when it shows up on your Personal Profile Page’s newsfeed. This is a non-selling/humble way of getting this update in front of your 1st level connections and it allows them the opportunity to share it with their connections.

Use Your Personal Profile To Expand Your Company Page’s Reach

You don’t want to ‘like’ every Company Update you post on your Personal Profile Page as this can get a little annoying and predictable. Be selective on the updates you choose to bring into your personal LinkedIn pipeline.

JOIN A GROUP:

A great way to expose your brand beyond your current LinkedIn connections is to Join A Group. There are groups for most every industry and interest so finding one to join should be easy. Once a member, you gain immediate contact access to group members and a portal to share your knowledge with professionals outside your current network.

If you are currently not very active on LinkedIn but want to be, start slow. On your Personal Profile Page, begin with maybe posting one update per week and one like/share/comment per day. After a month or so, you can ramp up to a more normal schedule. Of course, what’s normal is unique to everyone but my suggestion is posting an update no more than once a day to your Personal Profile Page and like/share/comment on someone else’s update no more than two or three times a day. As for your Company Page, start with maybe one post per week and after 30 days expand to two or three posts per week.

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The secret to building a solid LinkedIn reputation for you and your company is to be helpful, humble and consistent (and not become an irritant because you’re posting too often or sales pitching too much). Your LinkedIn connections can choose to block your updates, or even worse, remove you as a connection. You don’t want either!

Video Marketing and Your Website

May 5, 2017 by John Lehmberg Leave a Comment

May 5, 2017

Video Marketing and Your Website

Video Marketing: It’s Not as Hard (Or Expensive) As You Think!

Many small to mid-sized business owners here the term “video marketing” and think two things- no time to do it along with giant dollar signs. It’s just too intimidating. Well, this post is designed to debunk that myth because that’s what we do here at Make It Loud- debunk.

First, some businesses need to be convinced that video marketing is worth the time and energy. Here’s some of the data we found:

100 million people a day watch at least one video
90% of online shoppers say a video helps them decide to buy
Better retention- 80% of browsers recall watching a video on a site they visited
46% of that 80% took action-looked for more info, visited the website or purchased
64% of browsers are more likely to buy after watching a video
403% Australian realtors reported listings with videos received that many more inquiries
Forbes reports 59% of executives would rather watch a video than read
65% go to vendor’s website
45% contact the vendor
50% purchase
Videos on email marketing campaigns have been shown to increase click through rate (2-3x)
Reduces opt out rates (~75%)
Has been shown to increase subscriber to lead rates by about 50%

Video Marketing Tips 101

What have videos been shown to accomplish? That’s simple. Videos can help you demonstrate your product or service faster and more clearly than written text. It’s a great way to introduce you or your business, and it keeps browsers on your site longer which contributes to better search rankings. Plus, when you have a video in the search results, we know that improves click through rates and helps drive people to your business. Some experts even predict that in less than 3 years, almost 75% of all traffic online will be video!

The point of all this is simple- your competitors are most likely using videos, and if you’re not, you could be missing very important leads.

We outlined three ways to create a business video. First, there’s the old-school way of getting a video camera, shooting and uploading that video to your computer where you’ll need to edit what’s there. This is effective, but can be time intensive. Next, grab your cell phone and shoot what you need to. Upload, edit and share. Easier, but still can cost you some time. Last, there are image based videos where you take 10+ images and use software like Animoto to build a video for your business. This is the least time intensive approach and can lead to beautiful results.

YouTube Can Change Your Business and Here is Why.

Have you ever found yourself standing in front of the numerous social sites wondering which are right for your business? So many times, I hear business owners overwhelmed with the amount of options for social media they have that they decide to either pick the wrong ones or not be involved at all. The key to deciding which sites to be involved in lies in how much you know about your target audience. When you can tell me the most obtrusive and invasive information about your target audience (How old are they? How many kids do they have? Do they vacation in the South of France?) then you will know how to properly market to them. This information will clearly show you where you need to focus your digital marketing efforts.

YouTube is the 3rd most viewed website after Google and Facebook and 4 billion videos are watched EVERY DAY on YouTube. YouTube acquires more than 800 million visitors per month, so your business has one of the best chances for exposure on this platform. People assume that they have to be professional videographer to participate in this social media site but do not let that deter you from participating. Not only was this site designed around the video “selfie”, but also there are also numerous different video-editing sites that allow you to put your photos into a video format to add a little something else to your marketing.

Professional Marketing Tips

YouTube has multiple applications for customer service as well! Think about the surprised and impressed potential customers that you will have when they call in to ask about solving a particular issue and you can point them to a YouTube video you creating specifically addressing that problem. You have now gained a customer for life. Embedding those video tutorials on your website will improve your SEO dramatically due to the increased time people will spend on your site to watch the video. Google will have recognized the increased time and boost your ranking accordingly.

Top 5 Reasons to use YouTube for a business would be:

1) Creating original video content improves your SEO

a) Embedding a video increases the quality of your website, visitors stay longer which helps rank better than competitors.

2) Video Content is a powerful branding tool

a) Adds emotion and visual attributes taken out of purely written conversation.

3) Great potential to get your message in front of a wide audience

a) Videos are much easier to syndicate via social media, industry websites, and brand partnerships to reach potential customers.

4) Video Content is easy and inexpensive or free to produce

a) Many viral videos on YouTube were produced by webcam or smartphone.

5) Video plays better on mobile devices

The # of webpages accessed via mobile devices is growing rapidly. All smartphones are optimized for video content.

Plan what you want to accomplish with the video- demonstration, brand awareness, etc. This will help you decide what images and text to use, but with some software, you can have a video in as little as 10-15 minutes! Let the staff at Make It Loud show you how. Call us today and ask for Make It Loud Academy session on video marketing! Imagine if you will, being able to tap into conversations with specific keywords and such that directly relate to your brand, your business and exactly what you do. It would allow you to be more efficient with the time you spend on social media. Welcome to, well, this blog post! Sure, it’s cutting edge stuff, and most businesses don’t understand it all that well. And, don’t think this kind of prospecting is cheap my any means, but there are some tools out there than the small business owner can use to accomplish some of the same things- finding conversations that directly relate to your business.

It works like this- there are bazillions of conversations that occur on all the social media channels, and a percentage of them either indirectly or directly relate to your business. If you provide a vital service (like say, digital marketing. Hmm!), you would naturally have a list of keywords that pertain to what you do (web design, website design, social media marketing, SEO, etc.). Developing this list and referring to it while using these tools can alert you to conversations that are related to those terms. You can then insert your message into that thread which can lead to higher engagement, conversions and mo’ money!

Now, some business owners are still thinking they don’t need to be on social media- that it’s just a fad, it’ll go away, etc. My response to those people is simple. Is your target market there? If the answer is yes (which it obviously is!), then if you’re not there talking to your people, your competitors are. That means you’re ignoring a major avenue to the very people that are looking for what you do. To us, that’s leaving money on the table.

But, the question always comes around to “How do I know if I’m doing well?” It’s a good questions certainly, but it also depends upon your goals for social media- increase brand awareness? Drive traffic to your site? Make sales? Regardless, measuring your efforts requires you to look at some data or social analytics.

The cheapest way to check your social analytics is to look at the data each channel provides. That tells you at least some basic numbers like “likes”, “shares”,” +1’s”, etc. Besides what’s available there, you can always check out these:

Google Analytics-if nothing else, you can see which channels are feeding your website
Cyfe-free to start, upgrade to $29/month
Agorapulse- helps you measure your FB & Twitter, some free stuff, $29/monthly
Sprout Social-pretty analytics $60/month
Social Media Monitoring

Different from just measuring how well things are going, social media monitoring is where you’re actually plugging in to conversations about your business. Think of it as listening to Twitter or the others for posts about what you do so that you can jump in there and engage at the right time with the right people. Powerful stuff! As with any other listening, there are two types- active & passive listening.
Active listening/monitoring is where you go to a website and plug in your keywords to see what people are saying. Here are some tools that seem useful:
Addictomatic-let’s you browse a variety of channels across the web
Social Mention- gives you “mood metrics”
Topsy-search out trends, topics & discussions about your subject
Icerocket- lets you search out and find people mention keywords

Passive social monitoring is where you go to a site, set up some keywords, brands, etc and these tools notify you when a conversation is taking place that might interest you. Some of these tools include:

Google Alerts

Buzzsumo-has tools & free account
Mention-free account, will give alerts
Hearsaysocial-good for financial, insurance, etc
Bottlenose-maps the trends
Gnip-starts at $500

Some of these tools offer both social analytics that’ll help you measure how well you’re doing with your social media as well as social monitoring abilities.

The point is, there are a host of tools that exist to help you become more efficient in what you do to attract people to your business. This gives you a good list to start with to match your business goals and your budget. Now, get out there and start listening!

Digital Marketing Agency in North Atlanta Georgia

May 5, 2017 by John Lehmberg Leave a Comment

May 5, 2017

Digital Marketing Agency in North Atlanta Georgia

Do You Have a Strong Marketing Foundation?

Marketing in the 20th century was primarily done three ways: In person, via phone or by mass communication (television/radio spots, newspaper/magazine ads and direct mail). These are still valid components to consider today when developing your marketing plan. Add to these the 21st century goodies: websites, social media, email marketing, pay-per-click, etc. As you can see, there’s lot of marketing choices these days but please make sure your foundation is in place before you get too far down the path.

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What makes a solid marketing foundation? I suggest it’s all the items that you own and fully control. Do you own your social media channels? Can you dictate exactly how your brand is presented and the breath of exposure you get on social media? No, you are always one “terms of service” change from potentially losing all the momentum you’ve built.

So, what are central components of a strong marketing foundation?

A domain name you own and control. You’ll want to secure both the .com and .net version of your domain. Buy each domain for two years or longer (because Google likes that!)

A high-quality logo for your business that’s easily recognizable and represents your brand well.

A professionally designed website that’s graphically appealing, easily navigated and converts (makes browsers become customers). It also must auto re-size for easy reading on a cellphone. You website is the center of all your marketing efforts.

An email marketing program where you constantly capture email addresses of prospective customers to add to your list of regular customer who receive your company’s monthly, branded email newsletter. Remember, they came to your website so there must be an interest in your product or service. Every email you send moves them closer to buying or using your service again (or trying it for the first time).

The items listed above all have one thing in common. You are in control! You set the rules and decide how things will work. Can your business survive with only these four tools in your marketing toolbox? Probably. Can you excel and grow using only these tools? Probably not. You’ll need social media to create the “digital word of mouth” for your company and drive your website activity and rankings. Broadcast/print advertising will get your message to the masses fast while pay-per-click places your ad on page one of Google search.

Build your foundation and make sure it’s stable. Then focus your attention on the supporting elements like social media and mass advertising. It’s called marketing strategy for a reason. It takes careful planning and consistent monitoring to insure your marketing effectiveness.

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PS: Let’s not forget the oldest form of marketing in the world: person to person. Make sure you get from behind that desk and out in front of people whenever the opportunity permits (maybe even create a few networking opportunities at your office!) There are hundreds of business networking events across Atlanta every month. Here’s a list of the most popular ones: www.joelslist.com. See you there!

Oh, for the good ole days… Back when all your social media posts were seen by all your followers. Not today! (In fact, your Facebook posts rarely reach 15% of your followers.)

What’s one to do? The answer lies in your wallet. You might want to “Pay to Play”. Social media channels are actively seeking new ways to monetize their business model. One way is by charging you a fee to expose your company’s posts/updates to a larger audience. It’s not just Facebook. LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest all have paid options. We’ll discuss a few of these “Pay to Play” options below:

Facebook – Boost A Post: As was mentioned in the introduction, most of your followers on Facebook never see your post. But, you can increase the number of people who do see your post by boosting it. This service will cost you but you can set how much money you’re willing to spend. (The less you spend, the lower the exposure.) You can also select the demographics, geographic location and interests of the individuals who will be shown your update on their news feed. The persons you target can be people you already know or people you don’t currently interact with. Tracking the success of your post is easy thanks to the Facebook Ads Manager.

LinkedIn – Sponsored Update: This is LinkedIn’s paid service. LinkedIn is the business social media channel, so naturally anything you promote on LinkedIn is geared toward the business customer. (Think B2B not B2C.) Unlike Facebook, your shared updates are currently seen by all your connections. However, LinkedIn Sponsored Updates can expose your update to an even wider audience. You can define your targeted audience based on variables like age, gender, location, job title, job skills, company size, company industry, etc. You will need to decide whether you want to pay per 1000 impressions (CRM) or per click (CPC). CRM is good for building brand awareness while CPC is good for lead generation. This is an auction for ad space so will need to select your maximum bid amount. Results from sponsored updates can be tracked via the LinkedIn Ads Manager.

Twitter – Promoted Tweet: Twitter is home to the tweet, the very popular 140-character social media message. (Factoid: The tweet has the shortest lifecycle of any social media update at about 18 minutes.) Just like Facebook and LinkedIn, Twitter has paid options for expanding exposure. One such item is the Promoted Tweet. With this, you can target by keywords, interests, geography and device (cell phone, android or iPhone, laptop/PC, Mac, etc.) Promoted Tweets appear at the top off a person’s timeline and then scroll through the timeline. Simply select your bid based on your budget. You’ll be charged when someone follows your account or clicks, re-tweets, favorites or replies to your Promoted Tweet. Use Twitter analytics to track how well your Promoted Tweet is doing.

Pinterest – Promoted Pin: The Pinterest Promoted Pin has not been rolled out to the general populous but Pinterest has invited select individuals to use the service and serve as a beta tester for what will be offered to the masses very soon. Pinterest Promoted Pins are a great if you have something to sell because it gets your product in front of a lot more eyes and you can point the customer directly to your website for purchasing. (Factoid: The Pinterest pin has the longest life cycle on social media.) To create a promoted pin, select one of your recent pins. Then choose the keywords you’d like to target, demographics and location. Like Twitter, you can also choose which devices will show (or not show) your Promoted Tweet. You are charged when someone clicks on your pin and is directed to your website. (You do not pay for views, re-pins, or likes.)

Should all businesses use the paid options above? Probably not. Should your business use a couple of the options? Maybe. Should you at least try one of the paid options? Yes, absolutely! (Suggestion: Start with Facebook’s “Boost A Post”.)

Web Consultations & Digital Marketing Services Made Easy!

It’s commonly accepted that you should review your overall marketing strategy at least once a year. When it comes to the digital portion of your marketing, we recommend a review every 60 to 90 days. The ever-changing Google algorithms and the frequent updating of social media’s “terms of service” necessitates this constant reevaluation.

Below are a few key points to consider when setting your digital marketing resolutions (goals) for the first quarter of 2015.

Website Design:

Your customer expects your website to be graphically appealing, easily browsed (on all devices) and filled with quality content establishing you as an authority capable of filling their needs. Google is looking for much of the same. However, you must first satisfy Google’s spiders (site scanners) if you want your website to show up high enough in the search rankings for customers to find you.

Just last month, Google began putting a “mobile friendly” notation (on mobile search results) next to websites that are easily viewed on a cell phone. At the same time, Google let it be known that they’re preparing to rank websites denoted “mobile friendly” more favorably.

Is your website “mobile friendly” in Google’s eyes?

Keep in mind, the average lifespan of a business website is 2 to 3 years before the site begins to look dated. If your website fails the “mobile friendly” test, please reach out to Make It Loud. We give you our honest feedback and direction.

Social Media Services:

How effective is your current social media strategy? Are you using the platforms your target market uses? Does what you’re doing seem effective? Should you restructure your social media mix or possibly expand the channels you’re using? These are all valid questions and ones that must be objectively answered when evaluating the effectiveness of your on-going social media efforts.

Dramatic changes occurred in social media this past year and these changes will continue and only increase in frequency. One easily recognized recent trend is the push by all the social media towards monetization or what is often referred to as “pay to play”.

Facebook recently told marketers not to expect their posts to organically appear on their follower’s news feed and suggested they should plan to spend some greenbacks to gain the broader exposure.

In 2015, we suggest allocating marketing funds towards “boosting your posts” on Facebook and promoting accordingly on your other social media channels. At least give it a try and gauge for yourself.

DIGITAL MARKETING ASSESSMENT:

As a way of helping small to mid-sized business owners gauge their digital marketing efforts, Make It Loud is offering a FREE Digital Marketing Assessment. If you will go to makeitloud.net and answer a few multiple-choice questions, one of our Digital Marketing Consultants will reach out to you with a full review of your current marketing (including suggestions for improvement) and assist you in prioritizing your action items. Please enter promo code 2015 to receive your free assessment.

THANK YOU for your friendship and business. Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Website Search Engine Optimization for Google

May 5, 2017 by John Lehmberg Leave a Comment

May 5, 2017

Website Search Engine Optimization for Google

Free Professional Website Analysis

Bond. James Bond. It’s that kind of cool.

Have you ever wanted to spy on your own website? Just to see where users are clicking on your site. Well now you can. Do you know where people spend the most time on your website? Now you can collect data about it. We recently obtained the ability to use heat mapping technology to track exactly where users click (and where they don’t). This allows you to see which elements on your website are attracting the most eyes- and the most clicks. This data can help you test what works and what doesn’t in converting website traffic to actual paying customers.

The way it works is simple. Like Bond going to Q for cuff link lasers, we would put the technology on your site for a month and you’ll find out more about your traffic during that period than you would in months of looking at analytics. A color-coded screen shows where people are moving around your site and where they are coming from to get to your site. It shows where they move the mouse (red for well-traveled parts, blue for not so much). This gives you feedback about the parts of your website that are literally left out in the cold, shown no love, (insert your own cliché here). It’s kind of like measuring the Feng Shui of your website- although that sounds like an enemy of 007. Regardless, that kind of information is powerful in terms of marketing your business online. It can help you answer a lot of questions such as “Are people seeing what I want them to see?”; “Are they reading my text?” or “Are they clicking on my contact form?” Now you can find out as if you’re looking over their shoulder while they surf. To find out more, give us a call or email us. Of course, it’s our website, we know where you’ve been.

The Facts About Google

Free Website Reviews for Any Business

There’s a ton of chatter and speculation about all the changes that Google has made to their algorithm this year, and there’s a lot of reason for that. Google has announced that they made 52 changes in April (2012). As a small business owner, you need to know which of these changes are relevant to your website rankings and how to react to these changes. We thought we’d try to help you clarify some things.

Which changes are relevant to your web page rankings?

The following changes have the biggest impact on the position of your web pages on Google’s search result pages:

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Improvements to how search terms are scored in ranking. One of the most fundamental signals used in search is whether your search terms appear on the pages you’re searching. If they appear on the site, it’s also to consider how. This change improves the way those terms are scored. For many sites, this simply means we need to go back and do more advanced keyword research and optimize for different keywords. Keep in mind, many sites took a hit because they were over optimized for too many keywords. Without a lot of unique text on the page, having too many keywords confuses the search engines and will result in a drop-in ranking.

Keyword stuffing classifier improvement. We have classifiers designed to detect when a website is keyword stuffing- putting too many keywords on the page just to rank. This change made the keyword stuffing classifier better. The “fix” is to place keywords on the page in a relevant, natural way.

More authoritative results. We’ve tweaked a signal we use to surface more authoritative content. This means they are striving to give users relevant content for the keywords they search. Unfortunately, the results are mixed on this which means more algorithm adjustments are on the way.

More domain diversity. Sometimes search returns too many results from the same domain. This change helps surface content from a more diverse set of domains.

These first two items probably refer to the Penguin and Panda updates that Google released last month. Other items in the update list referred to site links. Some search results might get two layers of site links instead of a text snippet. Google also updated the algorithm for local searches and the way titles are displayed for some pages.

How to optimize a website?

Whenever you see a drop-in ranking, it’s natural to want to panic. Keep in mind, Google makes mistakes as well. Some of the adjustments they make to their algorithm is to fix these mistakes which means results will “bobble” up and down. Getting good rankings will always depend upon good keyword research (are we focusing on what the customers are typing into the search box?), proper usage of these keywords and a diverse backlink strategy which includes conversations about your business in social media outlets.

A website audit can often identify some of the issues the search engines may be having with your site. If you have concerns, feel free to give us a call. We’ll see how we can help.

It’s the end of summer, but surfs up at Google! So, hold onto your (key)boards and enjoy the ride. Today, we learned that they changed their search algorithm again. This time they’re focusing on websites with domain names that have hyphens in them. They’re considered “spammy”. So, www.your-site-name-atlanta.com gets de-indexed. That’s right. Tossed out of the search results altogether while www.yoursitename.com/atlanta hangs ten (that’s my surfer dude lingo for “does well”). It’s just another major change in the rules that most people didn’t see coming. Thus, hundreds of thousands if not millions of legitimate, non-spammy sites just got tossed into a major time out. We have no idea right now if this is a permanent change to Google’s search algorithm or if this is a preview of a coming attraction. We’ll have to wait and see.

Google SEO Services

The reality is that many business owners are completely confused about what Google is doing with their search algorithm. Truthfully, so are many SEO experts, but the good news is that we’ve had enough time to test out a few things and a pattern is starting to emerge. It might be helpful if we shared a brief bit about the biggest changes Google has tossed at us recently.

First, a lot of people find all this stuff very technical, so it’s easy to get lost. Simply put, Google used a panel of quality raters to look at hundreds of websites to determine “user friendliness”. Issues like user navigation, content credibility, trustworthiness of information, etc were rated. They asked questions to the raters like “Would you trust this site with your credit card? Or, would you trust the medical information on this site to use with your kids? User metrics like time spent on the site, number of pages looked at, how diverse the traffic is to the site, etc were also looked at to help determine which sites seemed to be quality and which ones weren’t. Sites of quality were given higher ratings and the others dropped rankings. This was a complete change in the algorithm and changed the game for SEO. It didn’t matter how good your content was, or how much you had, or how good your backlinks were. The overall user friendliness of the site and the user metrics were what mattered. Suddenly, SEO experts were forced into a different paradigm. They were forced into being web strategists because now, everything about the site matters. Google has issued numerous tweaks to this update since it came out in April of last year.

Website SEO Services That Work!

The Google Penguin update also changed the way we do SEO. While Panda was about the user experience and feel of the site, Penguin was about spam. Just as your email most likely has a spam filter that sifts through what’s important and what’s not. Google placed a spam filter on its search results and sites that have backlinks that they don’t like lost rank as a penalty. What used to be common and acceptable SEO practice in backlinking techniques is now considered spam and will hurt the site rankings. It was a major change in the rules. We now realize that backlinking is still important. It’s just that the links need to be more diverse and involve more social media elements. This update went into effect in late April of this year and we are just now getting enough data together to know what adjustments will work and which ones won’t. In fact, Google announced that they made 52 changes in the algorithm in April alone!

It’s a fair comparison to think of a change in the search algorithm like a wave on the ocean. Each one shapes the beach in some slight manner while others hit so hard, they change the shape of the continent.

The main point is that we are adjusting along with the search engines and will continue to find appropriate, acceptable ways to get our clients higher in the rankings, increased traffic and more business. We love to make your phone ring.

Best Digital Marketing Companies in Georgia!

May 5, 2017 by John Lehmberg Leave a Comment

May 5, 2017

Best Digital Marketing Companies in Georgia!

Make It Loud Awarded the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce’s Pinnacle Award and Small Business of the Year Award

Each year, the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce selects 25 businesses in our county to receive the Pinnacle Award, which is their award for being one of the Top 25 Outstanding businesses in our community. This year, Make It Loud was chosen by the Chamber as one of those top 25 businesses! Were so very thankful and grateful for this honor, in what is our 10th year in business. What a wonderful anniversary present!

As if that were not enough, the Chamber also selects a Small Business of the Year in three different categories: 1-9 employees, 10-99 employees, and 100+ employees. Make It Loud was again selected as the Small Business of the Year by the Chamber for 2014. We cant thank them enough for this honor as well.

Award Winning Web Design!

Our owner and CEO, John Lehmberg, has a philosophy on leadership that relies heavily on team. It’s always been his desire to create an environment where people LOVE what they do, so that they always give their best. He believes that each person in his company is uniquely created to brings their gifts to the team, to enhance the ability of Make It Loud to serve its clients well and to achieve. In that sense of the word, being a part of the Make It Loud team probably feels more like “family” than “business” for those of us who work here. It is these people, who have put their love, excellence, expertise, creativity, and passion into this endeavor we call Make It Loud, and these awards are just as much a result of their efforts as anyone else on our team. Those of you who have encountered them and have gotten to know them have seen them in action, and it’s a beautiful thing. Our work is deeply personal to us because of its importance, it literally helps put food on the table for small business owners and assists small businesses in the Gwinnett and Atlanta areas in their success. To that we are committed and will continue to strive, delivering whatever we can to business owners to make them successful.

So, with that, I (John) would like to extend some “thank you.”

Also to those who were on our team prior, those people who have served at Make It Loud for a season. Thank you for bringing your unique gifts and talents to our company.

To the Gwinnett Chamber, thank you for showing us what it was like to network in the community and who helped John in getting the business started.

To all the fantastic local networking groups that we have been a part of over the years: The Gwinnett Business Network, The Suwanee Network, The Suwanee Business Alliance, The Buford Business Alliance, The Dacula Business Association, and the North GA Business Connection.

And finally, to our clients. We hope you know how serious we take our work for you, how much we adore you as people and as small business owners, and how proud of your success we are. We work hard for you, and I can’t promise well always get it right, but we sure strive to because we care about your company and our work deeply.

In closing we want to tell you that were grateful beyond words for this honor, and grateful to God for his kindness to us.

Gwinnett County has a fantastic local newspaper in the Gwinnett Daily Post. Keith Farner, sought out Make It Loud’s owner, John Lehmberg, about 9 months ago to do a story on him in the GDP to give an overview of his life, and how he got involved in the ministry and owning a web design company. That article can be viewed here.

This past week, Keith wrote another article, this time featuring Make It Loud Web Design, and their transition to their new storefront location up by the Mall of Georgia on Highway 20. Make It Loud moved into its new storefront in January and opened its doors officially on February 5th, launching with a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony hosted by the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce. Over a hundred business owners and professionals attended the event from all over the Atlanta Metro Area. The GDP article can be seen here.

Award Winning Website SEO

“John Lehmberg is the Owner and President of Make It Loud Creative Web Design. John served as a full-time youth pastor for almost 20 years, and in 2004 started Make It Loud to begin to work with small business owners, helping them to market their businesses. Make It Loud has created more than a website weekly since that time, and optimizes websites for excellent Google rankings. Make It Loud has a wonderful team of people who are available to assist in e-marketing endeavors.”

Make It Loud specializes in providing websites for business all over Atlanta, and has a consultative approach. They will either come out to you, to visit you at your location, or you can come and visit them in their shop in Buford Ga at 2828 Buford Drive, Suite 300. Buford GA, for a free consultation. 678.325.4007.

Make It Loud Emerges with a New Concept– a Storefront for Website Development and SEO.

Nowadays, you can find a web marketing company around every corner. Most of them are fly-by-night operations that are infamous for over-promising yet under-delivering. Alot of these companies are a one-man-band operating out of a home office that knows how to “make a website” but rarely exhibiting expertise in marketing. However, a web company in Buford hopes to change the game by taking the risk of opening a store front after 9 years of outstanding business.

Make It Loud, a company that provides website design and search engine optimization (SEO) solutions for businesses large and small, announces the grand opening of its first storefront on February 5th, 2013. The company, which has been in business since 2003, is leading the charge in a revolutionary business model for web design and internet marketing services, combining the expertise of an internet company born on the web with the convenience and face-to-face interaction of a retail location.

“Most companies would not risk the overhead [that comes with a brick-and-mortar storefront],” says Web Marketing Specialist, Steven Sukovich. “We hope to see this concept take flight and become the standard for the future of web marketing. People can walk in a store with an idea and walk out with something tangible.” Make It Loud sees big potential in the unique business model, because while in today’s world so much of the marketing of a business revolves around a potent online presence, finding the right company to meet your needs and budget can be tricky. With so many fly by night website development companies on the web, it can be difficult to get your site off the ground, let alone build the trust and relationship necessary to continue to grow your online presence even after your site is launched.

The storefront, located off Buford Drive near the Mall of Georgia, boasts a conference room, showroom, and training room. While the conference room and showroom are geared toward a customer ready to discuss and purchase MIL’s services, the training space offers classes to those interested in learning website design and internet marketing skills from the experts. The company currently offers seven classes, including several on SEO, which has become the cornerstone for keeping your business top-of-mind on sites like Google and Bing.

Whether you are an entrepreneur looking to start-up a web company or a well-established organization looking to grow your bottom line with the power of Web Marketing, Make It Loud is ready to help you find the right approach to grow your business on the web.

Best Online Marketing Services – SEO Marketing Company

May 5, 2017 by John Lehmberg Leave a Comment

May 5, 2017

Best Online Marketing Services – SEO Marketing Company

Internet Marketing Services – SEO Company

It’s funny, some companies come up like a bolt of lightning, emerging through the clouds with all the thunder, lightning, pomp, and circumstance of a newbie to the internet market. Sometimes they last, sometimes they don’t. Companies like the Microsoft and Apple steadily build their companies, take over market share, and provide services that fall into the category. You see them coming. You see their impact. You see what they can and can’t do, and you know their limits.

Then there are the stealth corporations of the world, who grow into the monstrosity almost silently. One day you awaken, and they are entrenched, and you wonder if that is a good or a bad thing. For the past 15 years or so, people have been frightened that Microsoft was going to take over the world, elevating Bill Gates to Nerd King of this great land, while Apple bites at their heels, stealing their market share. Like the cold war between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., we’ve watched each side duke it out. All the while, silently, almost imperceivable, Google is entrenched.

And now, I am truly beginning to wonder if that is a good thing.

Have you ever phoned Google? You can’t. Tried to get a contact email address where someone will respond? Not really. They are not only entrenched, they are unreachable. If this were ANY OTHER COMPANY in this world, that we spent hard-earned dollars on, we’d not tolerate such a thing. Yet we do.

And what of personal privacy? We all know that it’s become a serious issue on the ‘net, but do you really want EVERY SEARCH YOU EVER DO, for the rest of your life, FOREVER RECORDED by Google? Every site you ever visit? I can hear your response already, “So John, if people aren’t searching for inappropriate stuff, they have nothing to hide.” Perhaps, but people have personal and private medical issues they search for information on the net, there is family research, people do financial things on the ‘net and have private conversations. Do we really want everything we do to be recorded by Google, then “anonymously” and sold off to the highest bidder? I understand the need to chase predators. We all do. But what about the average personal things in life? This is now Google’s way.

On top of that Google is raking in the cash hand over fist on their SEM/Pay Per Click Ads. Who monitors them? Who makes sure that they don’t have little computer programs out there clicking on all of the ads and raking in the dough for them? They could do it easily. If they can have spiders, intelligent programs, that scour the internet, returning information to the mother ship, they are certainly intelligent enough to create a program that will click through on links so they can achieve profits

If you are a small business owner and you have a Web Site, then I’m sure you would like to increase your traffic. I am going to try to explain this in the most simplistic way possible, but unfortunately, the process is not simple. This guide is specifically made for clients of Make It Loud Web Design. The reason for this is because there are alternate steps in Search Engine Optimization that should be done in addition to backlinking. Here at Make It Loud, we start our clients off with their choice of “keywords” or “meta tags” and apply these to the website not only in coding but in the text, Page Descriptions, Image Tags, etc. Other than what has described above, backlinking is a SEO element we use from time to time.

What Is a Backlink? In Short? Backlinks are links that are directed towards your website.

Think about it like this. What is the best way to get web surfers to get to your website? By having them click a link that LEADS to your website! Backlinks are all over the web. Anytime you are Surfing a Web Page and get a lead to a completely different Web Site, then you have just clicked a Backlink for that Web Site.

How to create a backlink strategy?

In my opinion, the search engines place a lot of importance on backlinks because they want you to be interactive with other people in your Industry. They don’t want business on the web to be all about competition, instead, they want industries to work with each other and to help each other. Think about it. If you were looking up a workout routine on a website and you saw an ad that said “Best Workout Equipment for Sale!” wouldn’t you want to click it? By working with people in your Industry on the web, you will be helping the consumer and the business!

How to track backlinks?

One way that you can do this is by Google searching your URL name with links. For example Google this “link: www.makeitloud.net”. Although I have had a lot of issues getting this to work these days. This is a simple tool. That’s a good thing because you don’t want to spend too much time on areas that don’t need too much time. After you click “Check”, the app will give you a list of Web Pages that are currently linking the URL that you just typed.

Woah! I don’t recognize one of these websites!

Click it and check it out. The Search Engines have sent out robots called “spiders” and have already verified that these pages have a link to your URL. Woah! I don’t see a page that I know has my website linked!! This is a problem… With many potential solutions. Let’s discuss a few.

Is it a Social Media Site? (Facebook, Twitter) If so, then there is a good chance that your Privacy Settings have disabled non-registered members from viewing parts of your Profile page. Make sure your Web Site URL is viewable to EVERYBODY and not just your friends. A Search Engine Robot is not your friend. It’s not even a registered user. So make sure that EVERYBODY can see that URL!

Did you recently create this link?

It takes the spiders some time to find the links. They don’t send them out every day, more like every other week.

Are you using a different URL?

I know that most of you with Web Sites have multiple domain names or URLS, but make sure that when backlinking all your links points to just 1. There are ways around this, but that is for another blog.

Website Building Can Be So Simple When You Hire Us!

On What Websites, Can I Link My Web Site?

For a Small Business:
Better Business Bureau
Chamber of Commerce
Residential or governmental resources
Your local library

Your manufacturers or retailers, or other business partners that might be willing to link to your site. Develop business relationships with non-competing businesses in the same field.

How Do I Get People to Link to Me?

ASK THEM! It’s simple. Just ask them. If they need some incentive, then tell them that you will return the favor by providing a link to their Web Site, as well. This is called a Reciprocal Link.

What If They Can’t Add a Link to Their Web Site?

The only reasons that somebody would not be able to place a link on their Web Site is…

They can’t find their web guy
They can’t edit the website by themselves.

In both cases, they need a website that they can edit themselves! This has SO MUCH VALUE IN THE WEB WORLD!

Tell them to call Steven with Make It Loud Web Design and this will never be a problem for them again!

Where else can I list my Website? …. For free…?

Not everything on the Web is free, and when it comes to getting GOOD Backlinks, you usually have to pay. But if paying is not an option, then here are some places to go link your site.

Free Backlinks for Website

Social Media Backlink Options Include;

facebook.com
twitter.com
linkedin.com
stumbleupon.com
squidoo.com
digg.com

Now that you are ready to market your website all over the web, make sure that your content is useful! If your website has something interesting to say (not just selling) then people are more likely to view your website, bookmark it, visit it again, recommend it to friends, and BUY something from it! Thank you for reading and best of luck with your Internet Marketing!

Digital Marketing in Georgia Done Right!

If you need a consultation about SEO or Web Design, our company, Make It Loud, can at the very least help you to discover if SEO or a good website fits into your budget. It doesn’t cost anything to find out and we’d be honored to serve you, face to face when geographically possible. Feel free to contact us by email at info@makeitloud.net, visit our website at www.makeitloud.net, or call us at 678.325.4007. Even if you’re not local to Gwinnett or Atlanta, we’d be happy to do an assessment.

Domain Name Purchasing Tips

March 14, 2009 by John Lehmberg Leave a Comment

March 14, 2009

Domain Name Purchasing Tips

101 Best Website Domain Names For Your Business

Tips To Pick The Best Domain Names:

1. Keep them as short, yet as memorable as possible. You want to have a domain name people see and can remember well, so that when they get home, they can type it in and find you easily. The shorter, generally, the easier it is to remember.

2. Steer clear of using hyphens and non-alpha characters in your domain name. People don’t generally remember where the hyphen or characters go. Using alpha characters and spelling out words is always best for recognition!

3. If at all possible, find a domain name that is available with a .com, or .net extension. .Org is also appropriate, however it often is used for non-profit organizations like churches and other 501-C3 Groups. .Com and .Net are the most commonly used extensions, and are the most easily remembered.

4. Consider purchasing both the .com and .net extensions. Domain names are so inexpensive, that their cost is usually insignificant in light of the traffic that is directed to your site by having both. If someone can’t remember whether your site is .com or .net, they can type in either and still find you. It also keeps a competitor who has the same business name in another state from securing it and getting your web business. Recent research shows that domain names effect search engine results. Choose wisely!

5. Consider purchasing your domain names for 2 or more years. Again, for reasons of search engine rankings, purchase your domain names for more than a year. Search engines now look at length of time a domain name is purchased for. The assume the longer the name is purchased for, the longer the website will be around– thus, the higher the search engine ranking.

Call Now for a Free Consultation: 678.325.4007

“Broadcast Your Business to the World!”

How to Choose a Domain Name

Every domain name is different and unique to match your company name, brand, and keywords that make your business stand out. Make It Loud inc. offers advise on how to choose the best name for your company. Choose a domain that will stay with your company for as long as you are in business.