Getting the most from Google Analytics: Custom SEO Dashboards and Email Reports

By Brian Rants | Published: June 5, 2012
Google Analytics SEO Monitoring Dashboard

Google Analytics works pretty well out of the box, but with a little bit of work you can turn this Ford Focus into a Porche Boxster. Here are three SEO dashboards I use to understand how our clients sites are performing in Google. Even better, I’ve included the link where you can add these dashboards to YOUR Google Analytics account! SEO Monitoring Dashboard Description: Taken from the fantastic SEOBook.com, this is a powerful 360 view of your organic SEO performance. Link: Click Here This Week vs Last – Dashboard & [...]

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Tortoise vs Hare – Why “Steady” Wins the Online Marketing Race in Small Business

By Brian Rants | Published: May 1, 2012
tortoise-hare

In the famous fable, the steady tortoise wins over the flashy hare with steady, consistent effort. Too often companies approach launching a website as the finish line, when it is in fact the starting line. A website gets you in the race, but then you have to start running! Here’s some tips on how small business owners can get ahead with steady, consistent marketing efforts. Create a Marketing Plan (Quickly) For most small business owners, having a Chief Marketing Officer or dedicated marketing team is the stuff of dreams. That [...]

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Shotgun vs Sniper Rifle – Why “Focus” is Key to Online Marketing Success

By Brian Rants | Published: April 25, 2012
overwhelmed-by-social-networking

“The key to online marketing success is a good blog. Also a Newsletter. And Facebook. I mean Twitter….errrr, or maybe LinkedIn? Ok, it’s Pinterest, I promise! What, what’s this Google+ thing?” The media and the business “experts,” whoever they happen to be, love shiny things. And Silicon Valley is happy to constantly churn out the next “great idea” (with a flimsy if discernible business model) that is certain to “revolutionize online marketing forever!” (Take a breath). Ok, let’s have some straight talk: the only thing that revolutionizes online marketing is [...]

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The New & Improved Google Analytics

By Brian Rants | Published: April 20, 2012
Google Analytics Real-Time

If the last time you looked at Google Analytics was around the last time you cleaned out your basement, it’s time to meet this powerful (and free) tool all over again. What’s New? Google has done quite a lot to the old version of Analytics. The interface has been completely redesigned and is now faster than ever. There are also multiple dashboards that allow you to create a custom dashboard for each department. You can track Event Goals and you can even configure two-minutes of play time on a video [...]

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What’s the Chemical Composition of SEO Success?

By Brian Rants | Published: April 12, 2012

Clients often ask which are the most important factors for ranking well in Google or Bing search results, and how to optimize their site (search engine optimization) to create the best chance for search success. Being “lab rats” ourselves, I was delighted to see SearchEngineLand.com put together a “Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors.” There is an art to SEO, but here’s the science: View the full size:

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What 3 Months of SEO Can Achieve

By Brian Rants | Published: February 27, 2012
Screen shot 2012-02-27 at 11.39.21 AM

When times are tight, how should you spend your marketing dollars? Companies are increasingly coming to us to leverage the varied tools of online marketing such as automated marketing and SEO & PPC marketing. We provide weekly reports, but after 3 months I like to prepare an aggregate report showing what we’ve accomplished. While manufacturing isn’t as mature a vertical as something like software sales, what we achieved in three months is pretty darn remarkable, wouldn’t you say?! 2012-02-27 Example Rankings Report

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New Twitter Brand Pages and How They Can Be Used For Business

By admin | Published: February 14, 2012
businesses need twitter branding pages

Google+ recently released business brand pages and now Twitter is following suit. The new Twitter brand pages off some exciting new development for marketers. These include the ability to embed video, the ability to show off a bigger logo and you can even ‘sticky’ tweets, which means that you can keep the most important and relevant tweets at the top of the news feed even if they’re not the most recent. But how can you use these effectively for business? New Fully Customizable Header The new Twitter brand pages feature [...]

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7 Top Online Lead Generation Tips for 2012

By admin | Published: February 8, 2012
2012 lead generation tips

Your business should already have a solid online lead generation strategy in place. But if you don’t or you feel your lead generation strategy is lacking, you may want to pay attention to the following seven lead generation tips as we head into the New Year. Times are changing leading up to 2012 and the Internet is changing even more so. Use these tips in your own lead generation campaigns and you’ll be well-prepared to take your business into the future. Educate and Inform To help you attract more leads, [...]

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Are You Using QR Codes In Your Marketing Campaigns?

By admin | Published: January 31, 2012
QR Code Marketing

QR Codes, or Quick Response codes are not a new technology, believe it or not. They have actually been around since the ’90s and were used primarily by companies looking to track inventory. Today, people with smartphones can scan QR codes to access ‘hidden content’ that isn’t otherwise accessible. QR codes are two dimensional barcodes that can be used to take smartphone users to a website, a local search page, or to a video or other multimedia. If you’re not using QR codes in your marketing campaigns, you may want [...]

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Pay-Per-Oops – Top PPC Marketing Mistakes To Avoid

By admin | Published: January 26, 2012

Pay-Per-Click or PPC marketing like Google Adwords can be incredibly effective, if you know what you’re doing. If you take one wrong step, you can quickly lose everything. Not only that, but there is tons of competition out there. Just because you think you have a winning PPC campaign doesn’t mean that it’ll get seen amongst all the other ads that grace search engine results. How do you make your ads stand apart? You can start by refraining from committing these top PPC mistakes. The Wrong Landing Page Even if [...]

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