How are you reading this article? Are you sitting at a computer? Are you killing time between meetings on your tablet? Maybe you are sitting at the DMV scrolling through your phone, although we hope not. There is no one way to access information anymore. Mobile is changing SEO and it’s important to consider that customers visiting your website may be relying heavily on their devices.
We find our restaurants on Yelp, get rides on Uber, and shop on Amazon; which we can access from apps on our phones. These apps cut out the SEO middleman and Google searches. While this is affecting SEO now, and will continue to change in the future, there are steps you can take to lead customers to your website, even if they don’t use a search engine.
How to Attract Customers in a Mobile Market:

1. Optimize your site for mobile:

If your website takes too long to load or they cannot find the answers to their search queries quickly, they will likely leave your site for another. People are looking on their phones for information and want to get their needs met quickly and clearly. Make sure your site is optimized for mobile and customer friendly.
Mobile friendly is more important now than ever because Google checks to see if your site is mobile friendly and will penalize the site in search rankings if it is not. There are two main ways to make your site viewable on all devices, by using responsive code, and by building a mobile site.  Either way the site needs to be minimal to allow for fast loading times on a mobile network. Responsive code is acquired using bootstrap or media queries telling the site to act and appear differently at different screen resolutions.  Hiding areas of the website during pc view or mobile view is also possible using media queries. The strategy here is to make your site easy use friendly and clean on mobile as possible.

2. Capitalize on Social Media

 One of the basic tenets of marketing is to reach the people where they are; be present! People are on social media on their phones all the time. Reach them there by updating your pages with interesting information that they will want to consume. Boost this effort by advertising on social media and lead consumers to your website. Facebook ads are a great way to catch someone on their mobile while they are just starting to garner awareness of your brand and get them to their site. This way you can reach the customer while they are at the ever important top of the buying funnel and direct them to your service or product before your competition even knows that they are in play.

3. Optimize for local search

For some businesses, it is important to reach the consumers in your “neck of the woods” A pizza parlor wants to reach customers around the corner, not around the world. Optimizing your site for local search will not only help your digital presence but it will also boost awareness for folks searching on the go. This includes standardizing your name, address, and phone number and including your city and state name in your site's metadata. Have you ever asked Siri to find a pizza parlor near you? Chances are you were offered a range of places, all nearby. This would not be possible if businesses weren’t optimizing their Local SEO presence with mobile technology in mind.
4. Use Intuitive Keywords and Content
People search very differently on mobile devices than they do on their computer. Small screens, smaller keypads and voice technology have altered the way people search on mobile. Take the above example of pizza parlors (because who doesn’t love pizza?) When searching for a pizza joint on a computer one may type in pizza delivery in Chicago, or deep dish pizza in Kansas City. When searching for these same types of places people will search a little differently, like pizza places open late near Washington University. Optimizing your site for both types of searches with smart keywords and even smarter content will ensure that your business won’t miss out on any opportunities.
Whether or not people are only using apps, searching on their phones, or Googling on their computers, the goal is to get customers to your services. Seafoam is constantly looking at the future of SEO and tweaking our approach accordingly. It is important to stay on top of the market, as it's always changing. Seafoam can help guide you to your digital happy place.
How do you find products and services? Are you app exclusive or is Google your standard?

Chasing social media trends are as challenging as catching a butterfly. Once and a while you may catch onto a trend before it expires, but you don't want to spend all your time chasing trends. Staying up to date on the latest marketing trends and tools are important, but honestly sometimes they are just trends and aren't actually quality marketing tactics.  The goal in social media marketing is to find out which ones are actually worth your time.
Of course, not every trend is relevant to every company. While some brand's may absolutly benefit from Instagram, another may need to jump on LinkedIn. It's vital to your brand to keep up to date with trends, but also to know which ones to try and tackle, and which ones to leave alone.
Not only does the below infographic mention the seven social media trends to pay attention to, but it gives the important do's and dont's.

Take a look at these 7 trends to discover how you should be approaching them.

Your business needs SEO to function, like we need caffeine. But why is SEO important?
Let’s talk about what SEO (search engine optimization) is first. SEO is the process of affecting the visibility of your website in a search engine’s unpaid results – often referred to as “natural,” “organic,” or “earned” results. We will use ‘organic’ in this article when referring to the type of SEO we are discussing.
Now, you may think you don’t really care about your website getting noticed on the first page of Google. We are here to tell you why you should.
HERE’S A LIST OF FIVE SPECIFIC REASONS WHY SEO IS IMPORTANT FOR YOUR BUSINESS:
1. Everyone is searching
Almost all customers now check online prior to making a purchase. They read reviews, search a variety of products, and even ask their friends online before making a purchase. You want these people to find your website and your products. If they search for one of your products, and you don’t appear in the first couple of pages of Google you don’t really exist online. Ask yourself, when was the last time you went beyond page 3 of Google? Without organic SEO in place, people will have a hard time finding you and your services, and in turn will purchase from someone else.
2. The Competition
If you’re not moving forward and improving how your website is seen on a search engine, you’re losing ground to a competitor who is. There is someone out there getting a higher rank than you. People have the tendency to stop after looking at the top few options. They get the information that they need and they tend to do business with the people who appeared at the top. Are you one of them? Or is it your competition? Don’t let your competition out-maneuver you by ignoring this valuable tool for your website.
3. It is cost-effective
Compared to what it costs for other forms of getting noticed online, SEO provides a fair good ROI. PPC advertising, social media marketing and advertising all cost more with less guaranteed return. While PPC may drive more revenue and social media may be more essential for branding, your organic SEO in many ways remains a base of your online presence. Don’t get us wrong, we believe a little bit of everything is best, but SEO should never be the first to eliminate off the marketing list.
4. It’s not rocket science, but it takes work
Google and other search engines are constantly updating their search algorithms, and every update affects the way they rank websites. But, there are many tactics that can get your website ranking higher by these search engines. Your site needs to be updated and relevant to the related searches. Your site needs to operate well, with no technical issues or slow loading speeds. And perhaps most importantly, you need good content, consistently- as Google uses this to evacuate your website’s credibility. Google is a business and their product is providing the best, most relevant websites to their users. If you can help Google with their product by providing timely, compelling and engaging content then they will reward you with a higher ranking.
5. It’s in Your Future
It’s pretty exhausting keeping up with the forever-changing world of tech, social media and marketing. As mobile technology advances and tech becomes more ubiquitous in our lives, search engines will adapt to ensure that they are keeping up with these advances. Smart companies will also advance, investing in the latest in SEO to ensure that their companies stay top of mind for their customers.
Investing in organic SEO is vital to ensure your company’s visibility online, so hop on the chance now to improve yours. In order to succeed with your online presence, your business needs to have an SEO strategy in place. Are you curious about your company’s digital brand? Take advantage of our discovery session. We can help you determine the best path for your digital health.