Monthly Archives

July 2018

Web Design

Five Moe-tivating Quick Tips for Website Design

Posted on July 31, 2018

Poor web design can make your website lose visitors faster than an ice cream melts during a Texas summer. Want to know how you can make it better to attract and convert customers? Let a digital marketing consultant like me, Mauricio Pina, help guide you through the sometimes tedious realm of website design.

1. Effectively Utilize Visual Hierarchy

Web designers have heard this term many times before but for those of you who might not be familiar with it – visual hierarchy focuses on organizing design elements in an order of importance.

That could refer to the website’s arrangement, size, color, and contrast. Its primary purpose is to guide the visitor’s attention to the important aspects of your website first. When used correctly, visual hierarchy will lead your visitor to your call-to-action (what you are trying to get them to do) without much fuss.

On the other hand, you must be careful when it comes to background colors, contrasts, text, or accompanying images. They could affect your visitor’s ability to read or consume your content.

2. Ensure Your Website is Readable

The readability of a web page is what makes or breaks your whole site. If a visitor cannot quickly scan through its contents because of poor formatting or unreadable text, they will leave to find another website that can cater to their needs.

This goes without saying that your bounce rate will increase, signaling to Google that your content is low quality, meaning you are about to lose some rank. But not all is lost if you’re a little insecure about the readability of your content. Here’s what you need to focus on to ensure that you keep all eyes locked on your web page:

Contrast Between Text and Background Color – A surprising amount of entrepreneurs don’t live by this very crucial practice. Often I see websites that have a red background with orange text, or some other mismatched colors that make reading content difficult. Depending on your brand’s colors, take into consideration what color you need to use to make the text visible. For instance, if your brand is heavy in purple colors, use white text.
Font Size – Of course, you shouldn’t create content that has a font size of 6 or a font where four words take up the whole page. Focus on using a font size of 16 when creating content for your website, but do keep in mind that different font types have different font sizes.
Ditch Serif Font Types for Sans Serif Types Instead – I know in high school we were taught that serif fonts like Times New Roman were the end-all-be-all of fonts to use, but when it comes to creating content online, you need to use a font from the sans serif family.
Formatting – Simply put, no one likes to read a wall of text. Break up your content into nice, digestible paragraphs.

3. Make Sure Your Website Is Easy to Navigate

Creativity may compel you to create a website that has a unique navigation pathway but you would only be doing yourself a disservice. Visitors just want the easiest path to get where they are going. Your one-of-a-kind design may look fantastic, but if visitors can’t find what they want, they’ll simply leave to find another provider that can give them just that.

Take these recommendations into consideration when designing your website for easier navigation:

Link your business logo to your homepage. At the same time, you will want to keep your homepage clutter-free and minimal; less is more. Fewer things for your visitor to click on makes it easier for them to navigate to where you want them to.
Place your Menu in the header on top, categorizing your sections in accordance to importance.
Include all of your important links on the footer like your social icons, a shortened version of your Menu, and links to your business’ FAQs/blogs/contacts.
Keep your important blogs detailing your business easily accessible and visible, or “Above-The-Fold”.

4. Make Sure Your Website Loads Quickly

Google’s “mobile-indexing first” campaign means the search engine giant will add mobile pages into a search first while using page speed metrics. When your page is loading at an average of 15 seconds, however, that may become problematic. According to Google, 53 percent of mobile site visitors leave a page that has taken longer than three seconds to load.

Web pages that have slower loading speeds tend to have a higher bounce rate, and at worst, these slow speeds can affect your conversion rate – that is site visitors that become customers.

To combat this problem, one of the many things you can do is a simple image optimization, ensuring that they aren’t bigger than they should be or saved in an incorrect format. This blog piece nicely details what you should do to reduce your page load speed. Check it out!

5. Optimize for Mobile!

YES! I’m saying it again…optimize your website for mobile!

Times are a-changin’, and mobile is on the up-and-up. According to the Pew Research Center, 77 percent of Americans own a smartphone, and in another 2015 article by the same institution, 51 percent of Americans purchased something using a cell phone. In total, 79 percent of Americans have made purchases online, which is equal to eight out of 10 Americans that shop online.

That means that you are going to want to have your website design properly optimized to ensure that your visitors—and potential customers—stick around on your website when they are accessing it from their mobile device.

A good way to check how your website would look like on a mobile device would be to, well, look it up on a mobile device. Check to see if all the content fits within the device’s screen comfortably. Check the menu for ease of navigation. Check the other pages to make sure they are in line with your mobile optimization.

Mobile is becoming a big thing, and if you don’t optimize your website for mobile devices, you will lose out on a lot of revenue.

A lot to take in? Why don’t you contact me, Mauricio Pina, at (956) 566-4998 for a one-on-one digital marketing consultation?

While some of the tips in this blog may just touch the tip of the web design iceberg, a one-on-one consultation with me can help you build a crisp, clean website that will attract traffic and compel them to stay.

Entrepreneur Tips

8 Killer Ways to Stay Motivated and Creative as a Freelancer

Posted on July 26, 2018

Digital marketing requires a lot of creativity and motivation. From developing gorgeous websites to crafting astounding content and creating captivating social media posts, digital marketing is definitely a field for the creative types.

But truth be told. It can be a little challenging sometimes to get those creative juices flowing. This can be especially true for freelancers who work all on their own without the benefit of bouncing ideas off of coworkers.

With the sun setting on your project due date, you can either panic or get motivated and creative.

As a digital marketing consultant and business owner, I’ve had my fair share of brain drain. But I’ve also had plenty of opportunities to learn and develop different tools and techniques to help me reignite those creative engines.

While I know motivation doesn’t grow on trees, I’ve gathered here a few tips of the trade to help you push through to success on your next project. Freelancers! Let’s get creative!

1. Get Out

I’ve met plenty of freelancers that work from home (and I must admit I do it too on occasion). I mean, what’s there not to like. You’re never late for work, you don’t have to worry about traffic, and you don’t have to dress up. On the flip side, though, there are plenty of distractions to keep you OFF task.

Sometimes refocusing just means turning off the TV. And sometimes it means completely leaving your house so you can get some real work done. A “new” work environment can help to get those creative juices flowing again and get you out of that state of mind that being at home puts you in. Whether it’s a workday at the local cafe or a trip down to the library, try to keep things fresh by getting out of your house every couple of days.

2. Get Some Fresh Air

Working in the field of digital marketing (or any creative field for that matter) can be fun and exciting. But it can also include hours upon hours of sitting in front of your computer screen trying to perfect the project at hand. All this screen time can start to take its toll after a while. But there’s a simple solution for that – get outside, soak up some sun, and enjoy some fresh air.

A quick walk around the neighborhood can be just what you need to fan that creative fire. When you take a walk, your heart begins to pumps faster, delivering much-needed blood and oxygen to all of your internal organs and muscles – and most importantly – your brain. You’ll be developing new brain cells, rejuvenating older brain cells from decay, and promoting the growth of new neurons and neurotransmitters.

What does that all mean? Basically, you’ll be able to get back to the task at hand with a new sense of clarity and creativity.

3. Meet Some New People

Working as a freelancer can be isolating at times. You don’t have coworkers (unless you count your pets), which means that you won’t get that traditional social interaction throughout the day – interaction that can help to motivate and inspire you on occasion.

To help you make up for this lack of social interaction, consider participating in some sort of organization, club, or even take a class. It’s amazing how much meeting new people with new ideas can really help your productivity and creativity.

If you aren’t too interested in going this route, there’s always the Internet. Facebook and Twitter offer freelance groups that you can draw inspiration and new ideas from. There’s also plenty of forums, like Reddit, where you can learn more about your field and learn some new tips to improve your freelancing abilities.

4. Routines Can Be Fun (and Really Helpful)

Yes, part of the adventure of being a freelancer is that there’s always something new to do. But don’t forget to set up a routine that can help to alleviate that stress caused by the constant flow of “newness.”

Routines can help you to properly schedule out your day so that you aren’t feeling pressured and strapped for time. It can be especially beneficial if you start your day early as you’ll have more leeway in case some type of emergency pops up that takes you away from work.

A daily schedule will help you to keep all tasks in perspective and make you feel more professional – an important key to taking your work more seriously.

5. What’s Your Home Office Look Like?

Are you working on your bed all day? Or perhaps in your living room with the TV on and the refrigerator only a few feet away? While setting up shop anywhere in your house can be an awesome experience early on your freelancing career, you’ll find out soon enough that you need a dedicated home office to really hone in on your tasks.

If possible, avoid working where you sleep. Instead, set up a little space elsewhere in your home where there’s plenty of natural light, few distractions, and an overall positive energy that will be conducive to working.

Again, taking yourself seriously as a freelancer will go a long way in keeping you motivated.

6. It’s OK to Reward Yourself (A Little)

Freelancing is all about balance. It’s about enjoying the freedom that comes with being able to work whenever you want while remaining productive. And while that doesn’t mean binge-watching a show because you worked for two hours, it’s also OK to reward yourself in increments throughout the day.

If you feel like you need a break every couple of hours, then take advantage of your position as a freelancer and watch some YouTube videos or an episode of your favorite show after you’ve completed a meaningful task.

These small rewards throughout the day can be a great motivational tool to help you stay focused. Plus, they give you a moment to relax and reenergize yourself.

7. Keep Learning

Feeling stagnant in your skills can definitely kill any motivation you may have. That’s why it is so important for freelancers (and really all professionals) to constantly be learning. Whether it’s learning new strategies and tips from other professionals or reading engaging books that inspire us, learning can prove to be an essential element in keeping a freelancer competitive and engaged with their work.

8. Remember Why You’re Freelancing

Why did you decide to march to the beat of your own drum and not take a typical 9 to 5 job like others? Was it so that you only have to answer to yourself? Hate waking up early? Do you appreciate the respect clients give you? Cubicle-phobia?

Type it up, print it out and frame it on the wall behind your workspace.

And don’t forget to continue visiting me here at my website for all things digital marketing and entrepreneurship.

Digital Marketing

4 Little Known Headline Creation Tips to Live By

Posted on July 22, 2018

Writing a headline is one of the most challenging tasks when it comes to writing blog posts. Not only do you have to write something that pops, it has to be an ultra-concentrated sentence of what your blog post is essentially about. It has to capture the imagination while teasing just enough information to draw in readers.

That’s probably why a lot of content marketers leave it as the last thing they do when creating a blog or article. But you don’t need a digital marketing consultant like me to tell you that.

After sitting down one evening, I started to brainstorm a few tips that can help push the creative process along, and these 4 tips are generally what I use when making a headline that pops out, entices, and brings traffic to my website.

Check them out.

Tips to Shaping One Heck of a Headline

1. Do Your Homework

One way to learn how to write a great headline is to find one what you like and analyze what makes it successful. Whether you know it or not, you encounter dozens of headlines every day when you read:

Blogs
Newspapers
Magazines
YouTube Videos
Email titles

Analyze all of these headlines and titles thoroughly, then focus your attention on the ones that compelled you to click on them. Next, ask yourself some insightful questions about them:

What was it about this particular headline that drew your attention and made you act?
What was your favorite part about this headline?
Was it funny, charming, or eye-catching? If so, how did it evoke that emotion?

Don’t forget about the ones you DID NOT click on. Ask yourself:

What about this headline made me not want to click it?
How could it have been better?
Did it offend or annoy me?

Jot down the answers to your questions and have them readily available. I jot down my findings on my Sticky Notes application in my laptop, that way, they are there when I need to remind myself.

Keep in mind, however, that you are essentially basing the value of a headline on your own personal likes and so what you like might not work for everyone else. But, on the other hand, the truth of the matter is that you aren’t going to please everybody, all of the time.

2. Try and Spot the Winning Headline Formula

For years, digital marketing content writers have conducted research to see what headline factors and trends bring traffic to a website.

Multiple findings point to the following elements that the most successful headlines have:

Numbers – Headlines that began with a number, normally introducing a list within a certain subject. Take the headline above, for instance.
How To’s – Kind of a no-brainer. People Google things all the time in an effort to learn something they don’t know how to do. A headline that includes “How to…” within the title will let the visitor know that your site intends to deliver the information they’re looking for.
Rare Opportunities – These headlines tend to have some sort of secret that an expert wants to let you in on. They usually have a “5 Little Known Tips…” or “The Secret to…” within them. It offers visitors an opportunity to gain knowledge that isn’t mainstream yet.
Piggy-Backing on Popularity – These headlines include names of famous people or popular events and entertainment, in essence, borrowing from their popularity. Depending on the article topic, it can add a little extra flair and personality to your headline. An example would be like “5 Friendship Tips I Learned From Watching Game of Thrones” or something of the like.
Big Promises – These headlines generally involve words like “The Ultimate Guide to…” or “The Best 7 Tips for…”. They offer a plethora of information to interested visitors.

Of course, you don’t want to load up your headline with all of these factors because then you’d have a whole mess of stuff that doesn’t make much sense. As with any content creation, the goal is to shape a quality title that delivers the overall message of what the blog is about and lures visitors at the same time.

You don’t want to oversell anything either, as that generally sends visitors running away from your site, not to. Avoid hyperbole like “These 27 Headline Creation Tips Will Blow Your Mind” when, in fact, the majority of those tips are mediocre at best. You’ll lose credibility that way.

3. Practice, Then Produce

As with anything in life, you need to practice in order to get better at it. Making an eye-catching headline is no different. Practice is something that I would consider somewhat of an umbrella term in this case. It means several different things, but it all has the same end goal: honing your ability to create a great headline.

Below is what you should focus on:

Practice Writing Blog Post Headlines – Commit 30 minutes each week to just writing a headline. For better results, commit at least 10 minutes each day.
Write Multiple Headlines For Each Blog Post – Some say that you should spend an equal amount of time creating an engaging headline as you would with creating an actual blog post, but I wouldn’t recommend that. A good 15 to 20 minutes should suffice when it comes to developing an outstanding headline. Then, read them off to a friend to see which ones are more engaging.
Appeal to Readers/Visitors’ Emotions – Most research points to an emotional response when a visitor decides to click on a headline. According to Copyblogger, eight out of 10 people will read your headline, and only two of those 10 will actually read your blog. Appealing to readers’ emotions can grow that number, meaning more visits that can help your Google rank. A higher Google rank means more leads that can be converted to sales.
Keep It Short and Concise – People have short attention spans so a short headline won’t lose their attention. Keep it down to that sweet spot of eight to 10 words.
Use Keywords – If you’re a content marketer, you may already have keyword research results for your particular niche on hand. Focus on a natural delivery of the keyword in your headline; you don’t want it to read awkwardly. As a matter of fact, keep the language conversational, more in tune with your potential customers’ word choices.

Once you’ve practiced all that you can, you should be able to produce quality headlines that can attract traffic, but your learning doesn’t stop there.

4. Most Importantly, Write For YOUR Audience

When it comes to marketing in general, not everyone is going to like your advertising strategy. The same is true when it comes to digital marketing.

What counts, though, is getting the audience that you are trying to reach out to like you. Don’t create a headline to have something to show your family at the next holiday dinner, to appease your boss, or to make you sound witty to other digital marketers. That’s not the point.

The point is to write a headline for your audience, tailored to the data you have collected. You can collect data through a survey or an A/B test.

An A/B test, in a nutshell, is when you compare two versions of a single thing—in this case a headline—to see which one performs better with your audience. A number of programs exist that can help you do this like KISSmetrics, but if you have Google Analytics, you can try out their Experiment systems tool to get this done for free.

But the easiest way that you can write a great headline is to have an expert in the digital marketing field do it for you. My expertise as a digital marketing consultant can get you a quick return on your investment. To begin, all you have to do is reach out to me at (956) 566-4998 today.

Social Media

Stop Being Socially Awkward: 9 Sensational Social Media Tips You Need to Be Using

Posted on July 19, 2018

I know. Not everyone is a social butterfly. And it can be especially challenging to grab your audience’s attention on social media when there are so many posts and viral memes making their way through the digital world on the daily.

So, what’s the secret? Well, there isn’t just one way to get the job done. Successfully using social media for your digital marketing plan not only requires a bit of planning but also requires a real desire to actually engage with your customers (and any potential clients).

As a digital marketing strategist, I’ve had my fair share of experience in creating a viable social media marketing strategy, and I’d like to share with you some things I’ve learned along the way.

9 Social Media Tips That Can Grow Your Brand

1. Know What You Want

Just like any other aspect of your digital marketing plan, you need to have an idea of what you intend your social media marketing plan to achieve. Establishing achievable goals is essential and should be developed with only a few targets in mind, such as:

Increasing brand awareness
Driving in-person sales
Using social media to target specific audiences to improve higher quality of sales
Becoming more aware of your competition and their audience

Keep things simple, especially at the beginning, and try to grow your presence on only a select social media platform; ones relevant to your business:

Facebook – Great for Business-to-Client (B2C)
Twitter – Ideal for B2C
Instagram – Works wonders for B2C, especially for visual-heavy businesses (clothing stores, restaurant, luxury brands, etc.)
LinkedIn – Growing your Business-to-Business (B2B) connections

2. Don’t Forget to Research & Track

I know you’re probably eager to get into the fun stuff, posting hilarious images that will make their way across the Internet, but we can’t get ahead of ourselves. Two essential steps – alongside making goals – should be to actively understand who your audience is (or who you want them to be).

There are plenty of social media insights that can be found with just a quick Google search, like this Pew Research Center study. Knowing this info will help you better understand the shopping and buying habits of specific age groups and how that can be used to your advantage.

Beyond knowing who your target audience is, it’s also important to track metrics that can let you know how well your social media marketing plan is actually working. Likes and followers are awesome, but they don’t always tell the whole story.

Some key metrics to take note of include:

Engagement
Reach
Clicks
Organic and paid likes

The more data you have available to you, the better informed of a decision you can make for future social media campaigns.

3. Don’t Stop, Won’t Stop

OK…so once you actually start posting, it’s important to remember that your brand/business won’t become an overnight sensation. Social media marketing – just like anything else – requires hard work and a dedication to seeing things through.

Facebook posting, tweeting, or sharing on Instagram once a month is not going to cut it, and while you don’t want to overwhelm your audience with a post on the hour, every hour, you need to remain active. Again, track that data for insight into the types of posts and time of day that you get you the most traction.

4. Make Posts Pretty

Getting your company’s visual brand identity is going to take some experimentation, but that shouldn’t stop you from including the right visual elements in each post. The truth is that visual content goes so much further than a post with nothing but text.

Make sure to incorporate relevant visuals into your posts including images, GIFs, and especially videos when possible. Just make sure it’s tied into your brand and/or post.

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Use Social Media Advertising

Maybe you have the perfect post that you really, really, want your audience to see. One of the best ways to ensure that you get their attention is by boosting your posts. Essentially all social media platforms offer the option to use their advertising to keep your post in a position where they can be easily found by users.

There are some costs associated with social media advertising so just know your budget and get a clear understanding of how the process works. And, of course, make sure the post(s) you are promoting is worth it.

6. Talk Back

Remember, it is social media. That means sometimes you have to be social! Shocker, I know.

Social media has always been about community and making connections with those who may be interested in the same topics, hobbies, lifestyle, etc. In order to really build up your brand and grow your following, you really need to engage with your audience. That means responding to comments in a relatively quick manner. While every company’s response time is going to be different, you’ll generally want to respond within at least 24 hours – especially when the comment relates to a serious issue or concern.

On the other hand, take the time to give a quick thank you whenever a positive conversation is happening around your post. Even use a little bit of humor if the situation calls for it. You are dealing with real people, and you’ll want your business to come off as genuine as well.

Just whatever you do, don’t ignore a customer that has viable concern or comment.

7. Take A Peek At Your Competitors

No, I am not condoning copying your competitor’s social media strategy, but it wouldn’t hurt to gain some inspiration and other ideas and tailor them to your own social media campaign’s specific needs. Look towards established brands in your industry and research why clients love to engage with them.

8. Use Social Media in Combination With Blogs

While not every social media post is going to tie in with a specific blog, you’ll still want to direct your audience back to your website, landing page, or blog that tells a story about your company or services.

Combining a social post with a link to your website or blog helps to generate more leads, which can ultimately end up in sales.

9. Localize Your Campaigns

Small businesses can benefit tremendously from localizing their social media campaigns. Platforms like Facebook not only give you the option to create advertisements but also to pinpoint who your audience is – including where they live.

Social media is essential in today’s business world. Reach out to me today at (956) 566-4998 for more helpful hints, tips, and information about everything digital marketing.

Google

What is G-Suite And How Will It Benefit Your Business?

Posted on July 9, 2018

Are you brand new to running a business and feel that your email system is too cluttered or disorganized to properly keep track of conversations with your clients. Maybe you can’t make an effective group calendar to get everyone on the same page.

Whatever your concerns are, Google has come up with a solution—as they normally do—to help you organize your business into an effective communicating and file-storing team. We here at Cobalt Digital Marketing want to share what we’ve learned using this product.

What is G-Suite?

As you may have guessed, G-Suite is Google’s service suite for several different apps that can improve the way you run your business. It wasn’t always known by this name, however. Before it was called the surprisingly mediocre, Google Apps.

G-Suite has become the backbone of communication, record-keeping, brainstorming, planning, and storing for Cobalt Digital Marketing.

That’s right. We aren’t just Google Partners. We’re Google customers, too.

The Innovative G-Suites Apps and Features

There are a number of Google-developed apps that have proven to be invaluable tools to businesses all over the world. These innovative G-Suite apps and features include:

Gmail

Over the years, Gmail has grown its user base to now just over 1.2 billion. According to a report by Litmus, 24 percent of its market share is based on open rates—a measurement of how many people on an email marketing list open or view a particular email campaign—leaving Gmail in second place among popular email clients today.

Of course, Gmail can be used as a personal email address, but with G-Suite, your employees can have their own email accounts with your business domain right in their email address (e.g. joe.smiff@thebusiness.com).

This alone lends your business the appearance of credibility, legitimacy, and authenticity that could take years to procure in a brick-and-mortar.

Google Calendar

Google Calendar is a go-to for many businesses and for good reason. It helps you schedule calls with clients, set up due dates for projects, set up reminders for important dates, and helps keep your schedule neatly organized.

What’s truly impressive about G-Suite’s Google Calendar is its ability to create multiple calendars for your employees. This works wonders when you are trying to coordinate business-related events with your team.

Let’s say that you want to start setting up monthly meetings to address how well the business is doing, answer any questions, or address areas that need improvement. With Google Calendar, you can create a group calendar that has this scheduled and is accessible to all of your employees.

Simple. Innovative.

Google Drive

Google Drive is the Cadillac of file-storage. It allows you to store, access, and share your files from one convenient, secure place. Better yet, you can access these same functions from any device.

Basic plans that G-Suite has for this revolutionary file-storage service come with 30GB of storage for every employee. In regards to G-Suite’s Business, Enterprise, and Teams editions, however, they come with unlimited storage, giving you all the space you need to store huge amounts files.

But storage isn’t what makes Google Drive popular. Users love its search function. Can’t remember the particular file name you are looking for? Remember anything about the content within it? Try typing that into the search bar and you’ll quickly be able to pull up that specific file. It’s no shocker that the world’s best search engine has a really good search function in its other applications.

As a bonus, the paid version of Google Drive gives your employees twice the amount of storage that would come in a personal Gmail account, plus 24/7 support, advanced reporting, and sharing controls.

That is where the meat of the value is when you get G-Suite.

Google Apps became G-Suite back in 2016. #TBT #CobaltDigitalMarketing Click To Tweet

Google Docs and Sheets

These apps are pretty standard tools. They allow you to create and edit text documents and spreadsheets straight from the browser.

It doesn’t stop there, though. With Google Docs and Google Sheets, you have the ability to import Microsoft Word, Excel, and PDF files. You can also export to common third-party formats, making it easier to send out documents to other individuals or companies without having to install or purchase additional software.

What makes Google Docs and Sheets truly valuable for your business, however, is two-fold:

Real-Time Editing – This feature allows teams to collaborate on a single file all in real-time. Edit, add ideas, make comments, and work on a document all-at-once.
Unlimited Versions of Your Documents – Previous versions of the document are kept indefinitely and do not count toward your storage. This is great if you want to go back to view changes that were made or undo mistakes.

Google Keep

This is probably Google’s best-kept secret. Google Keep has a lot of similarities to Evernote, but it incorporates into G-Suite in an unsurpassed manner.

It can be the perfect place to jot down frequently asked questions from your customers, create to-do lists, write down notes, and set reminders for anything you need. It all syncs across your devices so that what you need is there when you need it. Google Keep gives you the ability to share this information with your teammates. When done, you can archive it.

And don’t worry, Google search is available in Google Keep too, making it easy to find what you are looking for in a jiffy.

G-Suite Admin Console

Simply put, the G-Suite Admin Console is the driver’s seat that gives you, the business owner, the ability to manage everything from one convenient location.

That means you can:

Add new users and groups
Manage devices
Configure security settings
Add new custom domains for your business
Enable other usable, fun features for your employees (e.g. Inbox by Google)

While all of these features are available in G-Suite, you must also subscribe to the right tier to unlock and use them. For instance, if you do not have the business or enterprise version of G-Suite, you may not have access to Google Cloud Search.

Gmail’s user base has grown just over 1.2 billion since its beginning in 2004. #CobaltDigitalMarketing Click To Tweet

Honorable Mentions

G-Suite also has a whole other host of apps that you can use that are comparable to other alternatives currently out there but add the benefit of being incorporated into Google. Those are:

Google Hangouts Chat – Google’s answer to Slack.
Google Hangouts Meet – Make video and conference calls with the ability to join meetings directly from your Google Calendar.
Google Slides – Google’s answer to Microsoft Powerpoint.
Mobile Management – Gives the admin the ability to wipe G-Suite data off of a device. Usually, this occurs when a device is lost or stolen.

There are additional apps that are only accessible through business and enterprise editions like:

Google Cloud Search – Gives your company the ability to search across content from Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Calendar.
Vault – Essentially another form of backup. It gives you the ability to manage, retain, search, and export your company’s email, Google Drive file content, and on-the-record chats.

The Benefits of Using G-Suite

With all the benefits stated up top, what more could there be regarding G-Suite? Well…

G-Suite apps are familiar, easy to use, and compatible – Chances are high that your employees are using at least one of the services currently (e.g. Gmail). It also makes the transition for new employees easier as they have some knowledge with at least one of the apps.
G-Suite has the best compatibility on mobile devices – This is a big one as more and more mobile optimization is taking place and more shopping is happening online because of mobile devices.
G-Suite doesn’t take breaks – G-Suite offers a 99.9 percent service level agreement, meaning no scheduled downtime or maintenance windows for the majority of the time. Of course, there may be some exceptions, but downtime with G-Suite is really, really rare.
G-Suite is affordable – There may be cheaper alternatives out there, but they don’t offer nearly as much as G-Suite does. That said, it is still affordable, even at a yearly rate that can save you up to 20 percent. Of course, what you spend depends on what tier you subscribe to:

G-Suite Basic – $5 per user, per month. This is the basic level of service with the features listed above.
G-Suite Business – $10 per user, per month. This is the second tier that includes all the previous apps plus Google Cloud Search, Vault, eDiscovery, and Audit reports.
G-Suite Enterprise – $25 per user, per month. This is the top tier service that includes everything plus data loss prevention, hosted S/MIME for Gmail, Gmail third-party archiving, Enterprise-grade security, and Gmail log analysis.

G-Suite is Secure – It is built on top of the Google Cloud Platform, so when they say security, they mean business. If it wasn’t so secure, companies like HP, Verizon, Whirlpool, and Salesforce wouldn’t trust or use it. Google has always said that they lead with a “security-first” mindset, and it shows:

G-Suite Admin – Gives the admin the ability to set how data is protected, view reports, and even control mobile devices.
Encryption (TLS) – This provides email encryption in transit.
Assessments, Audits, and Certs – G-Suite does several independent third-party audits frequently.
Privacy – Google doesn’t own your data in G-Suite and therefore cannot collect, scan, or use it for advertising purposes. G-Suite also doesn’t contain ads. Google wants to make it perfectly clear that you own your own data.
Data Retention – G-Suite gives you the ability to archive, retain, search, and export your data.
Transparency – Google provides transparency reports frequently to keep you informed.

With benefits like these, it’s no wonder that G-Suite is growing in popularity among businesses looking to make a strong web presence. Speaking of which…

If you are looking to switch over to G-Suite, contact the experts that know a thing or three about it.

For more information on how G-Suite can benefit your business, or if you are looking to set up your custom Cobalt Formula, contact us at (866) 224-5705 today.

Google Ranking SEO

Three Reasons Why Ranking Well On Google Is Important

Posted on July 5, 2018

You don’t have to be a search engine optimization expert to understand the importance of using quality SEO practices.

The name of the game is all about getting your website high in Google’s ranking system and propelling your site onto the first-page of the SERP. Having a first-page ranking is absolutely essential as the vast majority of people never look past the first-page results.

75% of users never get past first page search results #Google #FirstPage #SEO Click To Tweet

In the digital world, you want to develop a digital marketing strategy that drives leads to your website or brick-and-mortar store. In order to do that, however, you need to rank well on Google. Don’t worry, though, you have my help – an expert digital marketing consultant – to get you there.

In today’s post, we’re looking at why exactly why ranking in Google is so important.

1. Visibility

It’s no secret that Google is widely popular. In fact, it is the No. 1 search engine in the U.S., handling over 12 billion searches per month. And this isn’t just a couple thousand or even hundreds of thousands of users. We’re talking nearly 1.17 billion unique individuals that use Google every month.

If you think that is impressive, just wait. Google generates 63.5% of all core search queries in the United States. For mobile search, Google dominates with 93% market share. This is extremely important as 93% of all buying decisions start with an online search.

What does that all mean? Billions of people are using their mobile devices to conduct Google searches for items, products, or services they would like to purchase.

If your website isn’t optimized for mobile devices, isn’t optimized for voice search, and/or isn’t properly optimized through other standard SEO practices, your ranking will tank. Don’t let diminishing visibility make you lose out on potential customers.

2. Indexing

In a nutshell, the higher page ranking you have in Google, the faster your content is going to get indexed.

What exactly does that mean? Well, indexing is when Google collects, analyzes, and stores data so that it can pull up accurate information at a rapid pace when a relevant topic is searched for in Google Search.

Indexing isn’t only limited to Google. For instance, Bing also works in a similar manner. Search engines release little bots called web crawlers. In Google’s instance, their web crawling bots are called “spiders”. These spiders do the brunt of the collecting, analyzing, and storing of new pages so that they can be added into the Google Index.

Naturally, if you are ranked higher with Google, these little critters will be able to index your business site more quickly than if you had a lower rank. Faster indexing allows searchers to find your web page faster.

As they say in the world of business – “Time is money.”

3. Authority and Credibility

This one is a big one. If done right, your high Google ranking can establish you as a trusted source of information, products, or services. If you are considered a trusted source, it is more likely that you will appear on the first SERP.

Search engines evaluate a ton of factors in order to determine whether or not your web page can be considered legitimate:

Out-links – Links that are present in your content that link out to credible sources. But if it leads back to a website that is no longer relevant or simply outdated, your ranking can take a hit.
In-links (a.k.a. backlinks) – These links are from credible sources that are linking to your web page. This is one of the most – if not the most – effective ways of raising your rank. It goes without saying, the more credible and trustworthy the site, the better your ranking will be.
Traffic – In essence, the more traffic you attract, the more relevant you are to people searching for content in your niche.
Error-free site – Clean up all of those missing links and images, spelling errors, and 404 errors.
User-friendly navigation – Ensure that your visitors can easily navigate through your website to get to the information they are seeking. Complicated pathing in a website can cause your visitors to leave, increasing your bounce rate and lowering your ranking since the search engine will recognize that your site wasn’t a good match for their search inquiry.
XML sitemap – On the other side of the spectrum, your site needs to be easy for spiders to traverse. XML sitemaps act like a roadmap for web crawlers that leads them through your site, either by a text-based list of pages contained throughout your website or a .xml file.

While these aren’t the end-all-be-all factors that contribute to a higher ranking in Google, they are strong factors that can get you started.

Of course, if you need more in-depth assistance setting up your website to rank high with Google, all you need to do is contact a digital marketing consultant like me, Mauricio Pina, at (956) 566-4998 today.