Be In The Know Blog

Pushing the "publish" button on a new website amplifies a small business launch. But when time runs short, a grand opening looms and social media fans clamor for information, it's not unheard of to activate a website early. Don't get in a rush with web development and fall victim to these four brand-damaging and potentially profit-squashing website design mistakes.

There's no shortage of examples of online reputation management catastrophes, and all it takes is one messy situation to tarnish your brand for good. But while larger organizations can work with pricey PR firms to orchestrate a rebound, smaller businesses aren't usually so lucky. In fact, failing to properly manage your company's reputation online could be a kiss of death to your business.

The good news is there are best practices to follow to maintain a positive reputation and keep current and prospective customers loving your brand. Here are our top three tips:

As long as Google has been generating results for user's search inquiries, businesses have been striving to reach the top of page one. After all, 75 percent of users never scroll past the first page of search results, according to HubSpot. Achieving the highly coveted top result can bring plenty of traffic to your site and potential leads to your business.

While algorithms often change, one thing is guaranteed: Search engines will always strive to connect users with the best possible answers to their questions. And the most effective SEO trends are those that improve the user experience.

Voice search is making a quick move into the lives of mainstream customers. Smartphones now come with voice-activated digital assistants, in-house technology like your TV may already have voice functionality and in-home digital assistants such as Amazon Echo and Google home are already shipping to customers around the world.

According to research from VoiceLabs, an estimated 24.5 million devices will be shipped in 2017 alone, resulting in 33 million voice-first devices currently in use. That just counts voice-first digital assistants, which means the true number of voice search touchpoints — counting smartphones and other devices — is much higher.

Remaining relevant and visible is a top objective for any search marketer, which means maintaining prime positioning where online search factors into the customer journey.

However, the role of search has changed over time. In the past, search was seen as a bottom-of-the-funnel activity, rather than something that permeates every stage of the journey. Today, we know that isn't the case. Customers depend on search at every stage leading up to the transaction, which means search strategies must be built to account for these varied stages, too. A diversified approach is required for brands to generate positive results from across the spectrum of customer search activity.

Spring is the season associated with deep cleaning and home renewal. If we credit the warmer weather and the longer days for this motivation, then perhaps it's wise to leverage these spring cleaning habits and tend to much-needed business management tasks. Online presence management requires some year-round attention, but certain tasks only need to be done once or twice a year.

If you've neglected your digital presence and it's affecting your bottom line, now is the time to audit this profile and make changes where necessary. By regularly keeping up on this maintenance, you can make your online reputation work for you, instead of against you.

Getting past gatekeepers on search engines isn't easy — Google doesn't even release its algorithm for public analysis, so there's no blueprint for winning this endless optimization game.

There are dozens of metrics incorporated into these algorithms, and the ingredients are changing. Over time, the role of location expanded in these search results. Mobile search users often write queries with an implicit desire for local results, even if they don't type out that location. Google and other search engines employ metrics and strategies to quantify and qualify this location information as it relates to local businesses, according to MarTech Today.

Any e-commerce company depends on website conversions to drive their business. When those performance figures suffer, it's likely because of problems you'll find in your website experience, maybe even on your home page.

This can torpedo your online revenues, but there's good news: Many of the barriers to better conversions are easily resolved through some simple fixes. Here are five ways to increase conversions:

Not every business has consistent customer activity throughout the calendar year. Just as a public swimming pool doesn't do much business in the winter, certain businesses know their biggest earnings opportunities only come around during certain months of the year.

For home services companies, that peak season is the summer. Consequently, successful SEO for home services requires that these companies plan their marketing schedules with this cycle in mind. Data shows that online search volume for most home services businesses begins to rise between April and May, peaks between June and July and drops sharply in September. How do small to midsize businesses plan a marketing and SEO strategy that takes this cycle into account? It all starts well before the summer business heats up.

This past year wasn't a huge one for Google algorithm updates, as there were only two major, verified changes that occurred. However, even though the changes weren't significant, they have some big implications for the future of search engine optimization (SEO), and are definitely worth acknowledging.

Google Bets Big on Mobile

The first big algorithm update of 2016 happened in May, when Google put even more emphasis on the ever-expanding mobile market. According to Search Engine Land, Google's aim was to build on 2015's mobilegeddon update and boost up pages that either had responsive or mobile-friendly designs. Though this update doesn't punish websites without mobile versions, it does lay the groundwork for a more substantial mobile update in the future, which could arrive later this year. This why you should optimize your website for mobile now. In fact, Google even has a mobile-friendly test you can use to see where your page stands and learn about any improvements that should be made.