Pete Brand

I’m sure your inbox gets cluttered each week with the “We can get you to #1 on Google” SEO emails (just like mine does), and you’ve probably been receiving them for a long time. Based on feedback from client's we've acquired after trying these services, they will leave you very unsatisfied. Their success will be measured by achieving a top rank for your company name or some obscure keyword that never provides leads or new customers. That's best case. Most received no results at all except a debit from their bank account.more

You’ve probably heard the cornerstone of Inbound Marketing, as well as being found online, is to consistently create compelling and valuable content for the personas you serve. And the most effective way to do this is through blogging. This post will help demystify blogging and help you with your planning so you’re not stuck staring at a blank screen as you attempt to tackle this profitable activity.more

Are you tired of watching your competition continue to grow through their online efforts while you’re struggling to gain any traction at all?more

As each year winds down, it’s always nice to take note of the memorable events, express gratitude for the people in our lives who have made a difference, and even take some time to look at those things that didn’t go so well so we can learn and help steer clear of any avoidable issues going forward. This post is from the perspective of MINDSCAPE.more

Please raise your hand if you’ve ever found yourself haunted by the fact that your competition is kicking your ass online. You know what I’m talking about… Every time you do a search on Google for the products and services your company offers you see the same competitor at the top of the list and your company is nowhere to be found! To make matters worse, once you leave the search results page you are followed around by that same competitor’s ad on almost every website you visit. Even on Facebook, where you attempt to escape to throughout the day; it’s almost as if they are taunting you for your lack of digital prowess. How long are you going to let this happen before you do something about it? Hey, I’m not trying to rub salt in your wounds, I’m simply trying to motivate you to do something to improve your situation and your company’s revenue. The more the question above pisses you off, the more motivating it should be. You’ve known for some time now that you and your marketing team are struggling in this area right? Let’s take the next few minutes to examine just how much it costs to continue to do things the same way without taking action to reverse your position and begin to dominate your dominator. To do this we’ll need to gain an understanding of a few metrics before we can calculate how much it could be costing you to allow this situation to play out each month.more

I must admit I initially loved the concept of #GivingTuesday and how it’s a nice invitation to help others beyond our own friends and families. The timing couldn’t be better since everyone is already softened up and looking to do nice things for those we care about.more

With the holiday season fast approaching, I’m sure you’ve started planning for how you’re going to take advantage of the time when consumers are eager to pull out their wallets and pony up their hard earned cash to purchase your wares. If you haven’t thought about it yet, or if you’ve been struggling to come up with ideas on how to take advantage of the period of retail abundance with your website, don’t worry, it’s not too late!more

As you work through your strategic planning process, you're probably required to submit your marketing budget for the next year. The following are the top items you’ll want to consider as you determine what your team can handle, and where you’ll need to bring in outside expertise.more

I’m sure by now you’ve heard the phrase “Content is King” millions of times and, you’ve possibly struggled with how the heck you’re going to create the amount of content required to help you achieve the goals necessary to get in a favorable position with your boss. Or, you may be wondering if “content marketing” is all it’s cracked up to be and worth investing your limited resources on planning, creating and promoting content. The facts are that 81% of shoppers conduct online research prior to buying. A whopping 94% of B2B buyers conduct research prior to making a purchase. The main tools both types of buyers use are search engines and social media. The bottom line is … If you aren’t consistently creating and distributing compelling content online, there is about a 100% chance these buyers won’t find you and you won’t be considered.more

If you happen to be in charge of marketing for your organization, you’re probably judged by the volume and quality of your lead generation. Unfortunately there are far too many organizations who depend on a subjective analysis of that quality, and that typically leads to a finger pointing match, instead of a constructive conversation over how to increase the volume and quality of those leads. The following are some tips you can use to make you the “hero” by increasing both!more

One of the top questions we receive from prospective clients when they reach out to us is, “can you help us increase our website traffic?” You’d think, based on what we do, that this would be a logical request and one which we’d happily answer, “Sure we can!” Strangely, there are many times when this question is asked and our response is, “that’s not really what you need.” Although traffic is an extremely important piece to the puzzle, it’s critical to make sure that when you open the “spigot”, that you’ve got a solid platform to send them to that delivers an awesome user experience and makes it easy for your visitor to accomplish what they arrived there to accomplish. Let’s assume, for the purpose of this post, that you’ve already addressed the middle of the funnel and the bottom of the funnel and you are ready to tackle the top of the funnel and tap into a steady flow of visitors to your website. If you haven’t, you may want to bookmark this post and come back once you have. Remember: It’s not about the quantity of traffic you get to your site, it’s about the quality. If you want to drive more quality traffic that converts, follow these four steps.more

Big data. It’s a phrase you’ve heard a lot the last few years. It's a $125 billion industry. But what is it, really? Big data is simply the practice of collecting large data sets that can be analyzed to show patterns, trends, and associations, especially for consumer behavior. The latest stats indicate that 90% of the world’s data has been generated in just the past few years.more

One of the most frustrating experiences for a marketing professional, or a business owner, is to invest time and energy into your marketing and receive less than desirable results. As much as you’d like to deny it, without effective marketing, you will struggle to accomplish your sales goals.more

Can you remember a time where you visited a site and it felt as though the company knew you very well and were able to anticipate your every move before you made it? How about a time when you visited a site and the user experience was so clunky and disjointed that you ended up with your blood boiling as you clicked the “back button” on the browser while making the decision to NEVER do business with a company that cared so little? The following steps will help you create a user experience that wins you customers instead of alienating them through frustration!more

WOW! Have you ever had one of those years where you are celebrating New Year’s Eve and you’re struggling to understand how an entire year could have passed since your last celebration? If so, then you know exactly how I feel about 2014!more

Staying up-to-date on the latest online developments is extremely important if you want your business to do well. The fundamentals of search engine optimization don’t change often (although the panda update requires more relevant content). These tried and true rules can help you be extremely successful online. If you address each of the following eight elements when new content is added to your site, your search positioning will consistently improve along with the quality of visitors coming to your site. You don’t just want traffic, you want relevant traffic that is looking to buy. 1 | Page title Your page title is one of the first things the search engine spiders view (the page title for this page is 8 Key Elements to Get to the Top of Google). This title tells the search engines what your page is about. You should not simply repeat the keywords over and over in this title. You should limit this title to eight to ten words and it should make sense to the visitor. Don’t just write anything for the spiders - this will lead to a bad user experience and a non-return visitor. 2 | URL The URL that displays in the address bar of your browser should contain the keyword focus of the page. The best way to include keywords is to separate them with hyphens (-). If this doesn't happen, search engine spiders will view all the words as one big word. As an example, this page URL is http://www.mindscapesolutions.com/blog/2012/09/26/8-key-elements-to-get-to-the-top-of-google/. So we're telling Google this page is about eight key elements to get to to the top of Google. 3 | Meta data: keywords & descriptions The meta keywords and meta description are not given as much importance by the search engines as they used to, but you should still take the time to include your keywords for each individual page. Make sure the description makes sense and contains at least one use of the keyword phrase you are focusing on. Also include your keyword phrase in the meta keywords but don’t repeat over and over; limit your meta keywords to 8-10 keywords, no more than 847 characters total. Description should be limited to no more than 150 characters. 4 | Headings & sub-headings Headings and sub headings are very similar to chapters of a book. They describe what the reader should expect in the coming pages. With your website you should use H1 tags with your keyword of focus on the page. If there are multiple related keywords of focus for that page, you can use additional H2, H3, and H4 tags as sub headings. Remember, your visitors will be reading these headings so they need to make sense while still including your keywords. 5 | Text-based navigation Avoid calling a link just articles. Why? What kind of articles are they going to be? How about Web Marketing Articles? Do you have any question as to what the page is going to be about? You know it's going to be about web marketing articles, and even better, so will the search engines! 6 | Alt text for images Search engines cannot read images, but they can read the alternative text in your images. If you add this, the spiders will know what your image is about. If you include the keywords you are focusing on as alternative text for your images, you’ll let the spiders know what relevance the image has. It will be one more instance of proper keyword usage and be that much easier for search engines to find your content. Many companies skip this, so pay attention and you’ll be further ahead of your competition. 7 | Body copy When writing the copy for your page it's important to include keywords in the body. Each page of your website should contain between 250 and 600 words. You should include your keyword phrase at least four to five times. Your objective should be to create an excellent user experience and provide value to your visitor, so you don't have to insert it that often unless it truly makes sense. 8 | Build links The phrase from the movie Field of Dreams, “Build it and they will come,” unfortunately doesn’t apply to the Web. Once your site is built and you have all the elements above, generate awareness and gain inbound links. Search engines look at these inbound links as “votes of confidence” for your site. If those links are coming from sites which have high page rank, they will be viewed as highly credible “votes” by the search engine algorithms and you should see an increase in your position. If you use these eight steps as a template when creating each page on your website, you should rapidly move up through the ranks of search results and quality of traffic will soar. This will lead to higher conversion rates and increases in your online revenue. If this article has left you with any questions, you can simply reach out to us for a free, no-obligation web marketing consultation by clicking here. If you liked this article, you may also like: Learn the 6 Guaranteed Steps to Successful Website Developmentmore

Do you go to sleep at night dreading the next day? Are you more concerned with making money than you are for your own happiness? I am amazed at how many conversations I witness where the entire content is filled with complaints about their job. As I listen to lack of enthusiasm and perceived hatred for the occupation or company these people count on to sustain their lives, it baffles me as to why they’d continue to put themselves in such a horrific position.more

How many times have you found yourself looking at your website statistics and noticed that 90%+ of your visitors were brand new? You may have looked at that statistic and found yourself getting excited that so many new people were finding you each month. Unfortunately, those stats aren't a good thing. These high numbers tell you that visitors are arriving to your site, clicking into it a bit and not finding anything helpful enough to make them want to return. This is a common problem, but doesn’t have to be.more

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “We have two ears and one mouth, and therefore we should listen more than we speak.” I’ve heard it so many times that it’s permanently ingrained into my brain. How about you? As I explore the social web it seems as though companies completely forget this saying and utilize social media like traditional “interruption marketing.” You know the companies I’m talking about. They’re easy to identify when you are viewing your Facebook or Twitter news feed. You constantly see their updates letting you know about the “great deal” they are offering, or messages encouraging you to “buy now.” They post so frequently that the content you’d like to see gets lost in all the noise. It’s as though the marketing people within these companies completely forgot about delivering VALUE to their “fans” and “followers.” If you happen to be one of these “marketers,” and you’ve somehow forgotten what brings the most value to your clients, I’ve got a tip for you. Become an active “listener” so you can get back to the basics of delivering as much VALUE as possible.more

I’m sure your first instinct is to say, “Heck no…I would never do that!” Are you sure about that? Now, I’m not talking about literally “flying the bird” in the face of your prospects. However, I actually think that would be much better. If you did take such bold action, you’d be doing it intentionally and your message to your prospects would come through loud and clear. I’m talking about working your tail off to understand your buyers, strategically gaining awareness, sharing valuable information to show them you’re worthy of doing business with them, and then taking actions that show them you could care less about them.more