Put the Web to Work

In every story there is a hero and a villain. In the story of your business, the customer is (or should be) the hero. Anonymity is the villain. MSW Interactive Designs is celebrating our 20th business anniversary this year. We've helped businesses get found online since 1999 ... PRE-Google, (as we know it today). I tell you this so you know the longstanding love/hate relationship we have with the search giant and why you should protect your business from dependence on it. I am an SEO expert. I execute for clients and I study it every. single. day. I have for more than 20 years. I'm here to tell you, if you are solely dependent on ranking on page one, you are putting your business at risk. Today, LESS THAN HALF of Google searches now result in a click. Worse, 94% of ALL SEARCHES now happen on a Google product (think Google, Google images, Google Maps, and YouTube). If you include mobile, it's more like 97%. When Google first hit the search scene and rose...

Your 2019 Website Hot List (Don't worry, it's not too long!) As you work on setting goals and resolutions for your business in 2019, we thought we'd give you a few very important things to consider for the hot list when it comes to your website. This past year brought some interesting changes to the website landscape and it is critical that you are not only aware of them, but that you take action to ensure your website is up to par with them. 1. SSL Is The New Web Standard In the past, the only websites that were required to have an SSL  (secure socket layer) certificate installed were eCommerce sites, those collecting online payments. SSL is a payment gateway standard and requirement. In the summer of 2018, Google's Chrome browser started displaying a  NOT SECURE message for EVERY website lacking a SSL certificate. This is a misleading message if your website isn't collecting sensitive information, but it must be paid attention to by website owners becau...

Many businesses recognize the power of using Google Analytics to examine how their website is doing, but much of the information available may seem like "Greek" to business owners. In today's blog, MSW Interactive Designs will explain some of the top terms and information available to help you navigate Google Analytics a little better. "Page Views" and "Sessions" "Page Views" are the total amount of visitors you have had to the website over a specified period of time. A better number to look at can be "Unique Page Views." This is the number of first time visitors to the website. A "Session" is the amount of time that a visitor actively engages with your website. If there is no activity from the visitor after 30 minutes, the session resets. This can tell you whether you have an engaging website, or if you need more content, or better content. "Bounce Rate" According to Google's definition, "B...

Tips, Tricks & Lessons Learned for Google Success Search engine optimization involves more than just your website. Your entire online presence can have an affect on where Google ranks your website. Good social media and blogging can also drive traffic to your business website. Compelling images and valuable content keep the customer engaged longer. Let's dig a little deeper into the Google algorithm and take a look at some other SEO factors. SEO is not a quick fix.  Results in search engine ranking take time. Keep in mind that your competition is trying to rank too.  If someone guarantees you a #1 ranking, run away, fast! The Google algorithm is evolving and ever changing. There are so many factors involved, and no one knows what ALL of them are. Some factors matter now, some mattered yesterday. Some may matter tomorrow and some may matter more than others. In addition, some of the factors that may matter to Bing, don't matter to Google and vice versa. Domain F...

Tips, Tricks & Lessons Learned for Google Success Let's face it, we all want to be at the top of the list when someone searches for our products or services in Google. In fact, we need to be at the top of that list to be found. Most people don't scroll past page one of search results, and honestly might only look at the top 2 or 3 results. MSW Interactive Designs is here to help you learn ways to improve your search engine rankings and try to get your business to top of search! What is SEO?  SEO stands for search engine optimization, or in other words, it's everything you can do to rank better in Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. Google uses over 200 factors to determine which websites will rank first on its results pages. Unfortunately, no one really "knows" all of those factors or the impact of them. To make it even more difficult, Google is constantly changing its algorithm, by either adding or removing factors, or maybe just changing the weight of certain...

Transitioning to Long-Tail Keywords When the internet first came about, determining the best keywords to use was based on three different qualities: relevance, search volume and competitiveness. However, the internet has changed a lot over the years and continues to change daily in size and also how people are searching. Your potential customers are now using what is known as "natural language search." While those original three qualities are still extremely important, finding the right keywords has become a little more complex. With over 900 million websites in existence and more people focusing on SEO, the internet marketing landscape has become incredibly more competitive. Natural Language Search  Mainly due to the increase of mobile search, with the ability of speaking your search into your phone, people have changed the way they phrase their searches. For example, in the past people would search for "website designer Lake of the Ozarks" and now the...

YouTube has become one of the most widely used search platforms, with more than 3 billion searches each month. Currently more than 1 billion users watch hundreds of millions of hours each day. YouTube is where its at! So how can you use YouTube for your business? Here are a few business video ideas from MSW Interactive Designs : 1. Feature Behind the Scenes Footage. Show people where you work and what you do on a normal working day. For businesses such as factories or restaurants, people will love to see behind the scenes footage of how your business runs. Showing people that your office or workplace is full of normal, hard-working people can make your business more personable. 2. Showcase Client Testimonials. Testimonials are a great way to positive information about your business out there. Many people rely on testimonials from other consumers to decide whether or not they are going to buy your service or product. Videos are a great way to showcase some of these 5-star te...

According to the Pinterest for Business blog, nearly 2 million people save product pins to one of their boards every single day.  They don't just dream about having those things though, many of them actually purchase them. Data from Nielsen shows that 93% of shoppers shopped online within the past 6 months.  Wayfair's research showed that pinners spend 50% more on average than other social channels and they'll also spend 20% more than those referred by non-social channels such as search.  So how do you get these pinners' business?  Get your business noticed on Pinterest with these 14 Pinterest marketing tips! 1. Title Boards with Keywords Pinterest is similar to a search engine because people can type in certain keywords to bring up the pins they are interested in.  You can make your boards more finable by using some of your keywords in the board titles.  For example, MSW Interactive Designs has a board labeled Social Media Marketing and another lab...

If you don't have a website for your business, you're a little bit behind the times.  If you have a website, but it was built 10 years ago, you're probably still behind!  Your website needs fresh, updated content in order for it to work for your business. Google is looking for fresh, relevant content to place at the top of its search results and that's just one of the many reasons you should consider updating your website! 7 Reasons to Update Your Website 1. Search Engine Rankings - Are you showing up on page 1 of Google for the terms people are searching for to find your business?  If not, you need to consider those keywords people are searching for and update your content to include those.  If you're a website design company at the Lake of the Ozarks , you want to be on that first page when someone types "web design Lake of the Ozarks" into their Google search box.  When 75% of users aren't clicking past the first page of search results, you ...

We have several clients who have been bombarded by a barrage of companies promising instant search engine ranking results with top placement for their business.  These clients typically already rank great, but ask us for our advice on dealing with these calls.  With the recent overhaul of Google’s ranking algorithm, here are my top 5 tips on how you can rank in Google organically (for free!) and help you navigate through the sales noise. 1)  Website content is king – your best chance of ranking well is to have focused, easy to read content on your website that gives value to your visitors, clearly describes your service/product and is localized to the area you serve. 2)  Social media is critical – your website should be the center of a “spider web” surrounded by social media activity on several platforms.  Building fans/followers and posting interactive content will be noticed and rewarded by Google. 3)  Understand what your customer is searching...