Igniting Business Blog

As you know, simply having a website these days doesn't guarantee leads. The businesses that generate the most leads from their sites are making smart use of search engine optimization (SEO) and keeping up with the ongoing changes. It's all about making sure consumers can find your company online and that they find your business first when they're ready to make purchasing decisions. As search engines are constantly evolving their algorithms, how is a business to know what SEO practices work the best? While there are numerous SEO factors to consider, below are just a few to consider to help your ongoing ranking efforts.

Hootsuite and Buffer are two social media posting solutions used by many small business owners who prefer a fully-integrated social media management dashboard. These tools offer a wide range of features designed for scheduling content ahead of time, making it easy for you to keep up with peak posting times, engage with your audience, and gain viewers.

We often hear about the large, nationwide company security breaches, whether it be database hacks or publicly shared user information, and it can sometimes seem like only the big corporations are targets. However, a recent study shows 43% of website hacks target small businesses. Victims of cyberattacks come in all sizes, but websites with lightened security measures make for easier targets.

We all know the timeless saying “A picture is worth a thousand words”. On the internet, though, that might not be so true – especially for search engines. Have you ever wondered what a search engine reads/detects when it comes across an image on a web page?

With the number of social media users continuously growing, it’s no surprise that social media platforms are quickly becoming a necessary marketing tool for small businesses. Companies effectively using social media continue to grow and expand their brand, while those that use it ineffectively or not at all are losing out on potential customers.

When it comes to writing content for online audiences, ensuring your content is engaging is essential. According to Nielsen Norman Group, around 79% of readers spend time skimming rather than reading online content; only 16% read pages word-by-word. From these statistics, it is evident that many businesses produce content that’s never read. In order for your website to stand out from the crowd, appeal to your target audience, and rank well on Google, it’s important to ensure that you’re producing captivating content.

Maximizing organic efforts and generating leads with referrals, free resources, and networking is crucial to any business. However, in today’s world, online advertising is an especially effective marketing tool. Below are just a few of many ways small businesses can use online advertising to gain customers and increase revenue.

In a recent blog post, we discussed a few different actions to take to help boost traffic to your blog. However, if your blog has been in operation for a few months but you're not seeing the traffic to your small business blog you’d like to see, there are a number of reasons that could be contributing to the lack of views.

First impressions matter. Ensuring your web design meets the user expectations should, therefore, be a priority. With the majority of consumers turning to the web to find specific products and services, implementing the latest web trends to ensure your web design and business stands out from the rest is critical to growing your client base.

Google continues to revolutionize the way small businesses market their solutions through online advertising, search engines, and Google My Business. Google My Business is a free platform launched in 2014, whose purpose is to give businesses more control of what appears when someone searches for them online.