Since the beginning of the twenty first century, social media has become an essential tool for businesses of nearly every type and every size. Social media allows businesses to network with others, advertise to potential customers, communicate with fans, share information, and complete many other important tasks.

Which Social Media Platforms Should Your Business Use?

Depending on multiple factors, you will have to decide which specific social media platforms your business would like to utilize. The demographics of your audience and your social media goals will both have an effect on the platforms that you choose to use and the ways that you choose to use them. If you want to create an in depth online presence, it is often useful to hire a professional social media manager.

Facebook

Facebook has specific business tools that are designed to help businesses target their ideal customers and attract them through paid advertisement. These tools can be highly effective but it is important to understand that there is a financial cost associated with using them.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is specifically designated as a professional platform so it is especially important for businesses to establish a presence on it. This platform can be useful if you are hiring at your business or if you want to network with other businesses in regards to partnerships, events, investments, or other mutual tasks.

Instagram

Instagram is a great app because it allows you to share photo content with fans of your business, customers of your business, and/ or clients. Instagram also has excellent tools for sharing video and live video. Live video can be a great way to personalize your business social media accounts.

Tik Tok

Tik Tok is one of the newer social media platforms but it is extremely popular, especially among younger generations. If you are targeting a younger demographic, it is essential to have a presence on this app. Tik Tok is also a great way to share short video content related to your business.

Youtube

If you are looking to share more in-depth video content, YouTube can be a great tool. YouTube allows you to share longer videos that can be permanently linked for sharing on other social media platforms as well.

Pinterest

Pinterest boards assemble together links, photo content, video content, and other forms of content to establish social mood boards. Businesses in the clothing industry, baby industry, wedding industry, and food industry may especially find this app to be useful.

Twitter

Twitter is one of the most informal apps that businesses use to establish an online presence. Businesses often establish a more trendy, fun, and youthful presence on this app. It is also extremely popular for interaction between businesses, between businesses and fans, and between businesses and celebrities.

Conclusions on Social Media for Business

No matter which social media platforms your business chooses to use, it is important to pay attention to the type of presence that you create. Be professional but also personal and friendly on social media accounts for your businesses. It can be very helpful to hire professional assistance when doing this. Replying to comments and messages helps as well.

We have all seen bitly links posted on Twitter, sent to us through email, and scattered throughout the web. Unfortunately, sometimes people have associated them with less than reputable sources, even if URL shorteners like Bit.ly and Ow.ly are both reputable companies themselves. This is an unfortunate development, because these can both be an important part of optimizing limited space on social media, websites, and in email marketing strategies. Google itself used the shortener Goo.gl before switching to their new dynamic links. With all the confusion surrounding URL shorteners, some have wondered if they will have a negative effect on your Google search engine ranking. Our digital marketing & Austin web design team looks at the answer to that question below.

Use a Well-Established Link Shortener

Before we begin, you need to make sure that you are using established brands. If you go with a new start up and it ends up going bust within a year or two, your links will go dead. These dead links will have a negative effect on your Google ranking. 

Another reason to use well known link shorteners over others is that studies have shown that users and customers are unlikely to click on a URL with a URL shortener that they do not recognize. 

Be Aware of Redirect Issues

URL shorteners use 301 redirects to their own sites that then redirect to the final destination. Google has offered clarification on whether they use the URL shorteners’ domain or the final destination in ranking factors, affirming that they do indeed use the final destination. Now of course, part of this means you need to ensure that it is indeed a 301 redirect and not some other tactic.

One pitfall to avoid is the fact that the shortened links are very specific, meaning that if you change just one letter, or do not copy the entirety of the link, you risk sending your customers to entirely unrelated content or a broken resource. 

URL Shorteners for A/B Testing

Another benefit of URL shorteners is that they offer the ability to get an in-depth look at how people are reacting to your links. They can help track social sharing, clicks, who is referring, reach, and conversions. While there are other ways to get this information, URL shorteners can make it easier when you are using a variety of different platforms to share links. 

This allows you to do significant A/B testing (deciding best practice through trial and error). You can try tactics such as branded links (links using shortened words or phrases instead of random letter/number combinations), or even try your hand at using your own domain to post shortened URLs. This works especially well in traditional media (radio, newspapers, TV) where customers are unlikely to remember long domains, or long randomly generated links. 

URL Shorteners and SEO

Let’s return to the original question: Do URL shorteners have a negative impact on your Google search engine ranking? The short answer is “no;” the use of URL shorteners themselves will not. Using a URL shortener that doesn’t use appropriate 301 redirects or one that disbands and leaves you with multiple dead links can lead to problems, but there’s nothing wrong with using a reputable shortener that will save space and allow tracking and A/B testing.

While using URL shorteners for these testing purposes will not have a direct impact on SEO, it can help you fine-tune your process and ensure that everything you share has the maximum reach. More reach and more shares means a better Google rank ultimately, which over time will increase your domain authority and total rank.

More from Our SEO & Austin Web Design Team

Looking for more information about factors that affect your website’s search engine rankings? Find more articles like this in our SEO blog, or Contact the digital marketing & Austin web design team at tekRESCUE to learn more.

With the spread of the coronavirus in Texas, many small and medium businesses have been forced to temporarily shut their doors to prevent the virus spreading. Losing as little as a few days, and in some cases potentially weeks, of business can be frightening for business owners and their staff alike. 

Luckily, while we all wait for this pandemic to pass, there are some steps business owners can take to continue promoting their brand to potential customers currently stuck at home. With proper digital marketing, you can keep your business in the minds of current customers at the same time as you reach out to new ones. To help you get started, our Austin SEO team has compiled some basic digital marketing tips below.

Utilize Your Website

Digital marketing encompasses a wide range of marketing strategies that reach customers online. These can include investing in PPC campaigns and geo-targeted ads, improving your SEO, maintaining an active social media presence, and more. All of these strategies have one thing in common: a good website improves them all.

What You Can Do

The downtime your business may be experiencing is a good chance for you to take a close look at your existing website. Ask yourself a few questions while you’re looking, such as:

• Does my website function well? (Do the pages load correctly? Are the links still active?)
• Does my website accurately represent my brand? (Is your logo up-to-date? Is your slogan accurate?)
• Does my website have a current SSL certificate? (Learn more about SSL Certificates)
• Does my website help customers access my goods or services quickly and easily?
• Does my website look professional on differently sized devices?

If the answer to one or more of these questions is no, it might be time to consider a website redesign. If you are able to redesign your website yourself, now is a good time to do so. If the updates needed require a professional touch, contact a local web design company for help (for examples of modern website design, see tekRESCUE’s portfolio).

Create PPC and Geo-Targeted Ad Campaigns

If your website is already performing how you need it to, you can take a look at creating online advertising campaigns. Two types of online advertising methods stand out in 2020: PPC campaigns, and geo-targeted ads.

What are PPC Campaigns?

PPC stands for “Pay Per Click.” PPC campaigns are a type of online marketing in which advertisers pay a specific fee only when their ads are clicked.

You’ve probably seen examples of this type of advertising at the top of search engine results. Below is an example of two PPC ads at the top of a Google search engine results page (SERP).

The benefit of PPC campaigns is that they can quickly boost traffic to your website. If you choose appropriate search terms for your ad to appear under, the fee you pay per click should end up being a trivial amount compared to the amount of sales you receive from the resulting traffic. Still not sure if PPC advertising is right for your company? Check out how Google Ads Works.

What Are Geo-Targeted Ads?

Geo-targeted ads are PPC ads that target users in a specific location. These locations can be very broad, such as users in San Marcos, TX, or they can be very specific, such as users on a certain block. Some geo-targeting services even allow campaigns to target users during a specific time-frame.

Geo-targeted ads are beneficial because they allow you to target your customer demographic very precisely. However, using them effectively does require some research to determine your target demographic and how receptive they are to PPC advertising. Interested in setting up geo-targeted ads for your business?

Improve SEO For Your Business

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and is a type of organic marketing, as opposed to paid methods like PPC campaigns. The goal of SEO, like PPC campaigns, is to increase traffic to a website and therefore increase sales or your products or services.

However, instead of paying for each click to your website through a PPC ad, SEO leads potential customers to your website by improving rankings in search engines and cleanly representing your brand online to your target audience (Still not sure what the difference is? Read this article on SEO vs PPC Marketing).

Best SEO practices in 2020 revolve around a few core concepts:

On-Page SEO

These strategies apply to elements on your website and include:

• Content Creation – Search engines strive to simulate human users in order to return the most relevant content in response to search queries online. One of the most important parts of having your website recognized as an authority in your business niche is having high quality content available.
• Content Optimization – Optimizing your content is how you alert search engines that your content is relevant to a query. This requires determining a set of relevant keywords (New to keyword research? Find out How to Find and Target Keywords) and placing them in strategic locations on your website while avoiding keyword stuffing errors.
• Technical Optimization – Your website is more than just content, and the technical aspects of it can also affect your ranking. For example, websites with faster load times rank better than those that load more slowly. Also, websites that are mobile responsive rank higher than those that aren’t (What is a Mobile Responsive Website?).

Off-Page SEO

These strategies apply to areas where your brand appears outside of your website and include:

• Presence on the Web – Having links to your website appear across the internet is as important as having quality content, since your goal is for users to find that content. Signaling search engines with keywords is an important step toward that goal. The next step is signaling by creating backlinks to your website. This tells search engines that your content is helpful enough that it is being linked to across the web. 
• Syndicating Content – Sharing your content is another great way to send users back to your website. There are many ways to share content. Some can be done quickly, such as sharing on your social media. Others take a little more time but are just as, or more, important, such as offering to write content as a guest for a popular blog in your business niche.

What Can I Do?

All of the different aspects of SEO can seem daunting, and deciding where to begin can be difficult. Here are some suggestions to help you get started.

Where to Begin On-Page SEO: As a business owner, you can start evaluating your on-page SEO by taking a good look at the content on your website. Is it high quality content that can answer questions users might have about your business products and services? Does it represent your brand accurately?

Where to Begin Off-Page SEO: A good starting point for evaluating your off-page SEO is searching for your business online. Does your business have a listing with the major search engines, such as Google and Bing? Is your business information correct where it appears in directories and on social media?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, now is a great time to take the necessary steps to fix issues that are hurting your SEO, and therefore your ranking, which will cost you customers. Still not sure where to start?

Improve Your Social Media Presence

Our final tip for promoting your business from home is to take a look at your presence on social media. As mentioned briefly above, having an active social media account can help boost your brand’s presence online in several ways.

Promoting – One of the most important reasons to maintain a social media presence is to promote your brand and products or services. Putting your business on social media gives potential customers additional opportunities to find you. Linking to your website and your content on social media also furthers this goal. The more users go to your content for answers, the more authority it gives your website, and the more opportunities it gives users to find solutions to their needs in your products or services.

Connecting – Of nearly equal importance is the chance social media gives you to connect with your target audience. There are countless examples of this appearing across social media platforms as the coronavirus pandemic continues. Restaurants that have been closed by city ordinances have reached out to their customers on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms to post updates on how they are evolving to meet their customers’ needs.

In addition, many businesses have started sharing resources that can help their audience get by during the period of social distancing. This not only puts your brand in front of potential customers, but it also lets them know that your business cares about their experience. This is a chance to meet your customers’ needs not only through your products and services, but through your concern for their well-being during uncertain times.

Take This Time to Promote from Home

The current pandemic has left many individuals feeling uncertain. Whether you’re having to work from home for the first time, or trying to find a way to support your employees while your business is unable to operate normally, remember that we’re all in this together. Use the information provided above to promote your business to customers online during social distancing, and to let your community know how your services can help them.

Find Help from Your Local SEO Company Near Austin

If you need additional support promoting your business, contact the Austin SEO team at tekRESCUE to learn how we can help. Located in San Marcos, TX just south of Austin, our search engine optimization and digital marketing team can help you promote your business locally and spread your brand awareness even in these difficult times. We’re here to help!

It can be easy to overlook social media sites as strategic business opportunities, but that would be a mistake! What seemed to have started out as a means to search for fun new recipes, fashion, and do it yourself projects, Pinterest has become much more for your business and its online presence. Recently, Pinterest has made some major changes, catapulting it ahead of other sites like it. With over 2 billion monthly searches, on average people are spending more money on Pinterest than on other leading social media sites including Facebook and Instagram. This opens up a world of opportunity when it comes to your business as you follow some of these tips to expand your search engine optimizatio, or SEO, in San Marcos.

Know the Algorithm

Every social media site uses different algorithms to decide what content shows up in user’s feeds over others. Pinterest is no different, and knowing the major factors in what Pinterest goes by to show your content is a huge factor in maintaining the online presence that you want. If you want to give yourself the best shot at having your “pins” show in search, pay attention to these 4 top Pinterest algorithm factors:

• Domain Quality
• Pin Quality
• Pinner Quality
• Relevance

Domain Quality

Increasing the domain quality for your business is a huge factor is Pinterest promoting your posts as it legitimizes your company. Be sure that you have claimed your website and are using a business account on pinterest that reflects your website. 

Pin Quality

One way that Pinterst will judge the quality of your domain is by the quality of your pins, and this is mostly determined by the frequency that people view, like, save, and comment on your posts. Therefor, you should be making posts with the consumers and viewers in mind. What do people like to see? What is most likely to engage someone that would otherwise scroll through? There are a few practical answers to these questions that will increase your pin quality and drive traffic to your posts. 

Remember that pinterest is a picture driven site, meaning your posts should be high quality and aesthetically pleasing. Make sure that your titles are both representative to the content while still being compelling enough to grab the attention of readers. Even the format of your blog posts can either draw or deter someone actually spending time reading, liking, and repinning it. With this in mind, utilize multiple relevant photos strategically placed in your blogs, and avoid throwing too much text at one time to read. We live in a fast paced society, and consumers thrive on snidbits more than overly lengthy posts. 

Increase Pinner Quality

Because you are the creator behind your page, Pinterest will judge you based on your content. The frequency of your posts come into play here, as Pinterest wants to know if you are dependable and consistent. If you are like most busy business owners that can’t spend all day focusing on Pinterest, utilizing one of the many apps that allows you to schedule posts will come in handy. This makes posting several times a day throughout the week possible, which then boosts your pinner quality. 

Relevance

Like in all assets of business, your posts on pinterest need to be relevant to the consumers, otherwise, what’s the point? It can be difficult to always know what is relevant all of the time, but luckily, there are several clues to help guide your posts. For starters, use the search bar to establish what is most commonly searched for. Like on google, as you type in keywords, it provides options for similar posts (this appears as a drop down menu beneath the search bar as you type in keywords). These autocompleted searches are the most frequently searched phrases for that topic, so using these as a blueprint for your own posts is wise. 

One way to keep your posts relevant is also by intentionally using keywords in your descriptions. Every post you make should have a detailed description that is loaded with relevant keywords relating to the topic. Even this small detail has the capacity not only to increase relevance, but brings in more traffic to your posts which then ups your SEO rating for your San Marcos business!

Consider tekRESCUE as your Web Design & SEO company in San Marcos, TX