What happened this week? This is another short week at LinkNow Media HQ, so here we are with another early Link Roundup – and this is the last one of 2016! These are the links we found most interesting and most useful this week. Link Building: You’re Overthinking It SEMrush has been the blog that seems to have been the most active over the holidays, and they’ve been crushing it with great articles. This is one of the best. Tony Randall addresses a lot of the buzz around link building and cuts through the hype to offer some great practical advice about link building. Want to Grow Your Business? 7 Smart Strategies for Acquiring More Customers We love infographics, and here’s another great one for HubSpot about strategies for acquiring new customers. Planning for SEO Success in 2016 This excellent article from Search Engine Land is all about building a […]
How to Deal With Bad Online Reviews the RIGHT Way
The LinkNow Media Review Guide These days, online reviews can make or break a small business. It’s as simple as that. Estimates range from 67% to 90% of all customers check online reviews when they are considering purchasing something from a new business. With this many of your potential customers reading reviews of your business, a few bad reviews at the top of the search results can cripple your marketing plans. How reviews affect your business It wasn’t all that long ago that if a business had a good location, good foot traffic, or paid for advertising, it wouldn’t have a problem finding new customers. Even if a customer had a bad experience, word of mouth could only go so far. These days, one bad customer experience can become a signpost permanently planted on the Internet so that every person who Googles your business sees the customer’s complaint. And even […]
Link Roundup – Wednesday, December 23 2015
What’s going on this week? This is a shorter work week than usual, but there were still some great articles shared this week. Let’s get right to it. 5 Simple Steps to Breathe New Life Into Old Content With Slideshare SlideShare is LinkedIn’s slideshow program. Copyblogger has written a guide for repurposing old, evergreen content into slideshows that can bring you more traffic and shares. New Data Proves Facebook Ads Lift Search ROI This article from WordStream shows that Facebook ads are boosting the results businesses get from organic search results. How Readability Can Make Sure People Actually Read Your Content This is a guide to enhancing the readability of your content, and a good explanation of why readability is so important. Uncover Your Competitors’ Strongest Landing Pages SEMrush wrote a great guide on how to figure out which landing pages are converting for your competitors, and how […]
How to get serious with online marketing in 2016
2015 was a big year for online marketing A lot happened this year in the world of online marketing. Between Google’s more-bark-than-bite “Mobilegeddon” update and all the monkeying around they did with Google+, small business owners had a lot to deal with on the organic search front. Add to that the big changes that have rippled across social media giants like Twitter and Facebook and the always changing trends in what are considered “best practices” online, and it’s easy to understand why so many of our clients tell us they feel overwhelmed when it comes to online marketing. But never fear! If you want to really start making an impact with your online marketing in 2016, it doesn’t have to be complicated. We’ve collected some ideas that are great for small business owners and aren’t too complex to pull off on your own. Focus on Content The name of the […]
Link Roundup – Friday, December 18 2015
The Week in Online Marketing Hey, everyone! It’s time for another link roundup. There are the articles and blog posts we found this week that we thought were the most interesting or most useful. We hope you get as much out of them as we did! The Anatomy of a Highly Shareable List Post The always-cool HubSpot blog put out a great infographic this week that features a step-by-step break down on how to build a list post that can go viral. Check it out! The 50 Things I’m No Good At With Social Media The folks at Buffer are generally considered social media experts, so when Buffer’s Kevan Lee writes a big list of things he can improve, it can make us feel better about ourselves while also seeing things we could improve. It helps that he has a good sense of humor about it! 4 Reasons Why […]
LinkNow Fundraising
Great job, everyone! It’s that time of year again! Every holiday season, LinkNow Media works with a local organization called The Batshaw Foundation, a non-profit with the mission “to help break the cycle of neglect, abuse, and failure experienced by many children aged 0-18 years and their families. The Foundation supports the clients of the Batshaw Youth and Family Centres, living on the island of Montreal, when public funds are not available.” The Batshaw Foundation intervenes when children are victims of abuse, neglect, abandonment, or have serious behavior problems. The Foundations uses its funds for the direct benefit of children, whether they are living with their own families, in foster care, or in residential placement. Last Friday, we held the annual LinkNow Media Talent Show in benefit of The Batshaw Foundation. This year, we raised over $10,000 and collected over 200 gifts to be distributed to children throughout the Montreal […]
Link Roundup – Friday, December 11 2015
What we’ve learned this week Here’s a collection of the links we found on social media this week that had a big impact. We hope you get as much out of them as we did! 5 Ways to Get People to Actually Read Your Content There’s nothing more frustrating than working hard to research and write great content and having nobody actually click on the link to read it. Rocket Post put together some great tips to get people to read and engage with the content you’ve worked so hard on. What is Content Marketing? Copyblogger produced an excellent resource that can serve as a content marketing resource library. It’s a list of 100 articles that contain guides on virtually every aspect of running a successful content marketing campaign. $100,855 by segmenting to 6,500 emails This blog post details the process examine.com used to segment its email list and send […]
5 Quick and Dirty Ways to get More Twitter Followers
Don’t have a lot of time for social media? Make the most of it with these tips. If you are running a small business Twitter account, you want more Twitter followers. Period. Why else use Twitter if you don’t want to build an audience? However, getting those first few followers is a major stumbling block for many people. Luckily there are some quick, easy and FREE ways to get that follower count climbing. Follow people in your industry, and interact with them Search for people you know, competitors, and industry experts, and follow them. Then interact with them – especially those who are very active on Twitter. Like their tweets, comment, and retweet. Most of them will follow you back. Even better, once they’re following you, these are the people most likely to retweet you, and retweets are one of the quickest ways to new followers. Learn relevant hashtags, and […]
Link Roundup – Friday, December 4 2015
What we’ve learned this week Starting today, every Friday we’re going to post a collection of the week’s most useful, interesting, and popular articles about SEO, web design, and small business marketing. We’ve found these around the web, and shared them on Twitter, so follow us there if you want to keep up to date with the latest in the industry. Without further ado, here are some of the top resources we’ve found this week. The Ideal Facebook Cover Photo Size (And How To Make The Most of It) The social media experts at Buffer go over the components of a great cover photo on Facebook and how to make sure you’re making a great first impression when people visit your Facebook page. They also include a big list of examples of people and companies who are doing a great job. Google Testing 4 Top AdWords Ads Above Search Results […]
How to Use AdWords – A Simple Guide for Small Business Owners
Drive traffic to your site and find new customers Google’s AdWords is an incredibly powerful tool for driving traffic to your website, but it can be overwhelming for new users – especially small business owners who are new to online marketing in general. It’s also a service that can potentially cause major damage to your bottom line if not used properly. But don’t let your fear of the unknown stop you from using this potentially very lucrative tool. AdWords is Google’s primary source of revenue, so they want it to work for you. We’re here to guide you and make sure that you’re getting started on the right foot. Let’s begin by discussing what exactly AdWords is and how it works. What is AdWords? AdWords is Google’s advertising program. You’ve seen examples any time you’ve searched for a product or service. These ads appear exactly like Google’s regular search results […]