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Archives for May 2016

DaBrian Marketing Redesigns South Mountain YMCA’s Website Pro Bono

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South Mountain YMCA New Website

30 May, 2016 (Reading, PA) – DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC has developed and redesigned South Mountain YMCA’s website, pro bono.

The South Mountain YMCA provides camping experiences as well as educational and outdoor programs that build personal leadership, character, and life skills while developing care, honesty, respect, and responsibility in young people, families, and communities.

Nathan Brant, Chief Executive Officer of South Mountain YMCA, said,

“We cannot begin to express what an incredible gift this is. As a charity serving kids, families, and schools, a good website significantly increases the positive impact we can have on our community. This beautiful online presence will drive awareness of our programs and services, assist families in learning about transformative experiences for their children, and help educators plan for environmental and outdoor education field trips. We cannot thank the team at DaBrian Marketing enough.”  

South Mountain YMCA emphasizes three main goals of their new website: an improved experience for its users, a more effective attraction of their target audience, and the creation of a unique, intuitive aesthetic.  South Mountain YMCA’s satisfaction with the new website speaks to the analysis-based, creative web design that DaBrian Marketing Group produces.

Visit the New South Mountain YMCA  website to learn more about their youth- and family-oriented programs as well as the most recent work by DaBrian Marketing Group’s team.

About DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC

Founded in 2008, DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC is a full-service digital marketing agency, focused on providing original and strategic digital marketing solutions for businesses, that want to create digital awareness, increase return on investment (ROI), and identify insights that not only will help achieve goals but will also help to increase your business’s efficiencies. DaBrian Marketing Group’s services include email marketing, search engine optimization, website design, web analytics, social media marketing and more. Company headquarters are centrally located at 500 Penn Street, Suite 201, Reading, Pennsylvania 19602. For more information about DMG, visit dabrianmarketing.com or call 610.743.5602.

What is a Sitemap and How Do I Create One?

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xml sitemap
The beginning of an XML sitemap

What Is A Sitemap and Why Do They Matter?

A sitemap is a page on a site that is a list of all the pages on a website that are accessible to web crawlers and users. Web Crawlers use the sitemap as a roadmap to index your site better on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. It is important to keep the sitemap updated because having outdated links in there will result in 404 errors: these are always bad. A sitemap should contain all links on your site that you want to be accessible to a visitor. A “Thank You for Visiting” page is an example of pages that can be excluded from sitemaps.

What are the different types of Sitemaps?

There are 2 different types of sitemaps. HTML sitemaps are for your site’s visitors to help them navigate through your site. HTML sitemaps are optional; usually, they are only present on the medium to large sites. The other type is one that all sites should have: an XML sitemap. Search engines use XML sitemaps to crawl your site. Whether it is a small site, a medium site, or a large site it should have an XML sitemap. Otherwise, you will be missing out on potential leads.

When Should You Update Your Sitemaps?

In short, a sitemap (both XML and HTML) should be updated whenever a page on your site is added, deleted, or the URL is changed. By not updating your sitemap, you run the risk of search engines not finding your newly created page. If you changed a URL, the search engines will still be showing the old URL and not the new one. This will make you lose  tons of traffic until the URL is updated.

How Sitemaps Impact SEO/Business (Lead Generation & Sales)

A sitemap impacts sales and lead generation if you don’t update it at least once per every 2 weeks. By updating it, you’re assuring that search engines have the clearest roadmap to all the pages on your site. Not updating either of your sitemaps can cause  your site to fall lower in the search rankings. Failing to update your sitemaps could also result in links that do show up as 404 error pages – this will give the user a bad experience on your website.

How To Make A Sitemap

There are several methods that you can use for each type of sitemap. Use the method that best works for you. First are the methods for the most important type of sitemap: XML sitemaps. You can manually create these, use a generator to crawl your site for you, or, depending on your platform, it is possible to have a tool such as  Yoast to auto update it for you. These methods only create the sitemap, they do not actually submit it to any search engines.

Lastly, you can manually create  an HTML sitemap, use a tool that depends on your platform, or, if you or your web programmer know some database scripting, you can automate this process. This  will directly pull from your database. Again, use the method that best fits your situation as each one takes a varying amount of time.

Where are the Sitemaps located?

Your XML sitemap is located at the high level directory of your site (yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml). It is also recommended to submit it to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. If you already have an account, sign into it. Click on the site you are managing. On the left drop down, click on “Sitemaps.” Here you can see your current sitemap, as well as, any errors that Google and Bing see within it. Keep in mind: submitting your sitemap is requesting them both to crawl your site, again, however, this does not mean that they will.

If you have any sitemap questions, ask away in the comments below or contact us today!

DaBrian Marketing Group Receives Accreditation From the Better Business Bureau

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Better Business Bureau

Reading, PA, May 20, 2016 – DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC has received accreditation from the Better Business Bureau as of April 26, 2016.  To receive this accreditation, DaBrian Marketing Group applied to the BBB and was subject to a strict reviewing process.  Through this review, it was determined that DaBrian Marketing Group adheres to the BBB’s Code of Business Practices.  These practices encompass traits and values such as honesty, clarity, responsiveness, and privacy.

The Better Business Bureau ensures that consumers interact with companies and agencies that both uphold strict standards of ethics in customer service as well as deliver consistent, reliable services to those consumers.  The BBB encourages trust among consumers.  Accordingly, DaBrian Marketing Group was granted an excellent rating through criteria that include the company’s response to feedback, the company’s level of transparency, as well as the current age of the company.

In gaining accreditation from the BBB, DaBrian Marketing demonstrates their commitment to their clients and their adherence to strict ethical values.  This accreditation encourages a transparency on behalf of DaBrian Marketing Group.  This transparency concerns all of the projects, tasks, and milestones of each client that are produced and facilitated by DaBrianMarketing Group.  These services – as well as any products such as websites, designs, and reports – are delivered to clients with full disclosure by an agency that functions on the value of integrity.

President and CEO, Daniel Laws gave the following statement:  “The accreditation is a symbol of our level of transparency and quality service to our clients and prospective clients – while reinforcing our emphasis on digital marketing and validation of our strategies that impact clients’ revenues.”

Through this recent accreditation, the Better Business Bureau has declared that DaBrian Marketing Group is a trusted company that consistently delivers informative, dynamic, and original results to its clients.

About DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC

Founded in 2008, DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC is a full-service digital marketing agency.  DaBrian Marketing Group is focused on providing original and strategic digital marketing solutions for businesses that want to create digital awareness, increase return on investment (ROI), and identify insights that not only will help achieve goals but will also help to increase your business’s efficiencies. DaBrian Marketing Group’s services include email marketing, search engine optimization, website design, web analytics, social media marketing, and more. Company headquarters are centrally located at 500 Penn Street, Suite 201, Reading, Pennsylvania 19602. For more information about DMG, call 610.743.5602.

Google Adwords Audit/Grader

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Google AdWords Audit/Grader – Example Google AdWords Audit (This will accompany a YouTube Video)

The first three pages of the audit is like an executive summary including a general performance grade (ie, excellent, average, poor, etc.), a few facts pertaining to the activity of your account over the last 30 days, a report card, and finally an overall grade out of 100. While this quick 3 page summary is a great overview, the more granular sections of the audit really help uncover what can be done to improve your account performance.

Quality Score Optimization

Having a good Quality Score is important to keeping your Cost per Click (CPC) low while keeping your Ads showing in the prime Ad Positions (1 – 4.) This account has a low Quality Score, which we will see is negatively impacting other areas of the account performance.

Click Through Rate (CTR) Optimization

While CTR is above 1.00%, it could be higher. The Ad Position is mostly between 5 – 10, which is bottom of page 1 or even worse Page 2. Focusing on improving Quality Score will help increase Ad Position and boost CTR.

Account Activity

This given account has had a lot of changes happening over the 30 day time frame. This is great to see that the problem areas are being addressed, specifically the over 200 changes to keywords, and almost 500 changes to Ads.

Text Ad Optimization

Testing Text Ads is a must for account managers who are trying to maximize Clicks and ultimately Conversions. While this account has over 100 text ads with more than 10 per ad group, your account may only need to have 2-3 per ad group so that each ad gets enough impressions (views) to determine which ad copy relates better to your target audience. (Sometimes less really is better!)

Long-Tail Keyword Optimization

Short 1 Word keywords will get a lot of impressions, but utilizing multiple word keyword phrase will help you better reach your target audience. Again, less (in this case Impressions) is not a bad thing and can lead to more/better Clicks.

Impression Share (IS) Optimization

How often are your Ads getting Impressions compared to how often they could be shown. This account is losing a large chunk of Impression Share due to low Ad Rank (or position). This is another area that would benefit from improving Quality Score.

Landing Page Optimization

Clicks are nice to get, but where does that Click take the user? A good landing page will encourage the user to take action – Lead Generation, Sales, etc. Make sure you are testing multiple Landing Pages to see which is going to help you achieve your goals.

Mobile Advertising

People are coming to your site on mobile devices. Are your Ads helping to drive that traffic, and is your site (Landing Pages) mobile friendly? There is no good/bad percentage to have here, but it is important to know how users are getting to your site and interacting with your ads.
PPC Best Practices

While there are more than 8 best practices that Certified Google Partners are required to adhere to, this audit performs a quick check to confirm your account adheres to the following 8 PPC Best Practices:

  • Network Targeting
  • Geo Targeting
  • Language Targeting
  • Conversion Tracking
  • Multiple Text Ads Running
  • Modified Broad Match Type
  • Negative Keywords
  • Use of Google AdWords Ad Extension

If you would like to see an audit of Your Google AdWords account or speak to a Certified Google Partner pertaining to your PPC, you can contact DaBrian Marketing Group via phone (610) 743- 5602 or email at Sales@DaBrianMarkeitng.com

13 Digital Marketing Tips – Google Partners Connect

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DaBrian Marketing Group recently hosted a Google Partners Connect event in which local business owners participated in a video-based seminar on effective practices of digital marketing. The video featured speakers that described important factors in constructing a business’ digital marketing presence.

Digital Marketing Strategies & Solutions

The speakers, Aditi Manwani and Frederick Vallaeys, listed thirteen goals that should be prioritized when developing a digital marketing campaign:

  1. Be There: Mobile interactions with digital media dominate the consumer’s world.  Businesses should be present at these moments to capture the attention of consumers.
  2. Be Useful:  Businesses should provide a use to consumers.  The content to which a consumer is exposed must be valuable to the person’s current situation – such as a How-To video when the person needs instructions on the completion of tasks.
  3. Be Accountable: Businesses should accompany consumers from the initial impression to the ultimate purchase through repeated exposure and interactions.  Businesses should continually expose their brand’s information to consumers to build familiarity and trust – an example is a business responding to negative reviews.
  4. Be Found on Google:  Before consumers become customers, they must have knowledge of a business’ existence through its presence on Google Maps.
  5. Make It Easy for Customers to Connect: Whether it is via a mobile device, email, or telephone, businesses should communicate their brands to consumers in ways that will create accurate expectations.
  6. Connect at Moments that Matter:  Searchers give clues to their intent through the words they use to search. Businesses should ensure that their content  is focused on the searcher’s intent to lead them to the most appropriate information – such as reviews, pricing, specific products/service offerings.
  7. Use Ad Extensions:  On the results page of a keyword search, subheadings under the main link of a business offer consumers further resources that may be helpful to their current situations.  This kind of ad extension is related to a 30% increase in the lead-generation for businesses.
  8. Manage Reviews: Businesses should respond to, and not delete or hide, negative reviews.  They should attend to concerns, fix problems, and grant consumers some kind of compensation for unsatisfactory experiences.
  9. Be Found Across the Internet:  Businesses should be accessible across different pages of different websites.  This is possible through advertising on the Google Display Network.
  10. Advertise When You Need It:  Research on the usage of a brand will give information as to when consumers most often use it.  With this knowledge businesses can better capitalize upon the current needs of consumers at any given moment.
  11. Be Found for Product Searches:  When consumers search the internet for retail-products, retail businesses should appear on the results page with Shopping Ads or Product Listing Ads that consist of images and price-related information.  
  12. Reconnect with Prospects:  Advertising to existing customers of a business and previous visitors to a business’ website encourages them to return to the site with which they are already familiar.
  13. Manage Targets: Businesses should ensure that their objectives are reasonable and measurable. Goals must align with the existing brand and be feasible according to the best practices of digital marketing.

Conclusion

The Google Partners Connect event at DaBrian Marketing Group succeeded in communicating valuable information about digital marketing to local business owners.  This information was presented by a trusted source – Google.  DaBrian Marketing Group’s status as a Google Partner allowed this event to benefit local businesses. 

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Top 5 Video Marketing Tips

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As video searches continue to increase, video marketing is becoming even more essential for a business to have an effective digital marketing campaign. In fact, a report by Marketing Land states that videos make up 62% of all Google searches. To ensure that your video performs well, here are 5 video marketing tips.

1. Video Marketing 101: Make Videos People Want to Watch

Although it appears that marketing and SEO are constantly evolving, one factor has stayed consistent, content is king. This holds true for video marketing as well. While all videos are different, they should all share the same goal of receiving sustained traffic and user engagement. To assure your video performs well, it needs to be engaging, informative, entertaining, and most importantly, shareable. In terms of how long the video should be, this differs based on the intention and audience of the video. With that being said, most viewers’ attention spans are relatively short. Get your message across concisely in the most efficient manner possible, and your video will do great.

2. Select Relevant and Obtainable Keywords

Before you upload your video it’s essential that you develop a list of relevant keywords to ensure your video is optimized. Ideally, your keywords should adhere to the three following recommendations:

  • Look for keywords that aren’t too difficult to rank for (or else you’ll never rank well). Choose long tail keywords (phrases typically 3-4 words) to help reduce the difficulty. This will allow you allow you to specifically target a particular audience. A great (free) tool for this is Keyword Finder.
  • Select keywords that are generating interest (or else no one will search for your video). A great (also free) resource for this is Google Trends. Just type in different synonyms and variations of your keywords, and see which ones perform the best.
  • The intent of the keywords should directly correlate with the content of your video. For example, if your keyword phrase is “Change a car tire,” your video shouldn’t be about how to fix your windshield or change your oil. Keep it it relevant.

3. Optimize Tags, Titles, and Descriptions

After you’ve composed your keyword list, you’ll need to place them within the appropriate places. The three major areas for optimization are the tags, titles and descriptions (as seen in the image below).

Video Marketing Tips

The title should contain your primary keyword phrase (the one you wish to rank for) and should be descriptive as to what your video is about. In terms of the description, YouTube allows video descriptions to be up to 5000 characters long. I would recommend that you use most, if not all of it. While most users are not going to read your entire description, the more keywords you naturally place within your description, the better chance you’ll have to rank for them.

Tags are individual keywords that describe your video. Similar to your keywords, make sure your tags are relevant to the content of your video. The goal of optimization is to drive the right traffic to your video. If you choose tags for the intention of visibility and not relativity, then your video will more than likely receive an influx of dislikes and lower retention rates. Thus, having a negative impact on your rankings.

4. Add Closed Captioning

Since your video is not text based, search engines have a hard time indexing it. Providing YouTube with closed captioning gives them another source of information that contains the keywords you wish to rank for. Here’s a video tutorial on how to upload your transcript to YouTube to create closed captioning.

5. Encourage User Engagement

User engagement is a huge ranking factor for YouTube. So how do you get viewers to engage? Try asking. Create a call to action at the end of your video, asking people to like, comment, share, and subscribe. With that being said, be aware that YouTube is full of trolls (people negatively spam commenting on your video). The good news is that YouTube allows you to moderate your comment section. That not only means you should delete the spam comments whenever possible, but you should also reply to comments as well. This two way engagement will help build a relationship with your viewers that will more likely cause them and others to comment more often knowing you’re actually acknowledging them.

For more information about video marketing, contact us or leave us a comment below!

By: David McDowell