Blog - Digital Marketing

Show of hands if you’d watch a reality show called “Your Money or Your Life.” I mean, who wouldn’t?! I can picture the beautiful, backstabbing cast now.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), in this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll talk about how Google protects your money and your life when you’re searching online. More importantly, we’ll discuss what type of content Google expects from you as a business with a website that impacts consumers. Welcome to the world of YMYL–Google’s guidelines for websites that can impact a person’s quality of life. Learn what it is, why it matters, and how to make sure you’re implementing it on your website.

Pinch. Tap-tap. Swipe. Spread. Tap. A new take on Morse code? A video game character’s ultimate move sequence? Slightly naughty dance moves? Nope. Just some typical user behavior when interacting with a mobile version of a website. Over 60% of searches happen on a smartphone, which is why Google switched to mobile-first in 2016. As nanotechnology and responsive artificial intelligence continue to advance, the proportion of desktop searches is flatlining while searches from mobile continue to rise. So, how mobile-friendly is your website? In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll reveal six ways to future-proof your website and enhance user experience (UX) with mobile SEO.

Just when we thought there were enough social media platforms (or maybe it’s just me), Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg rolled out “Threads,” a new text-based app that was likely intended to give the very similar Twitter (now known as “X”) and its CEO, Elon Musk, a run for their money. A spinoff from social media giant Instagram, Threads has taken the same Instagram fan base that is accustomed to sharing videos and photos, giving them a platform to have more authentic conversations. But is it time just yet for your company to add Threads to your overall social media strategy? In this edition of Plain Talk, we’re exploring the possibilities of a Threads social media strategy. We’ll break down what to expect with Threads, what’s on the horizon with advertising, and whether it really is the missing thread you’re looking for to help your brand stand out.

This year at Google’s I/O 2023 conference, Google unveiled a host of new products and features. Unsurprisingly, the focus was on efforts and advancements made by leveraging artificial intelligence (or “AI”). It was so important to Google to establish expertise, authority, and trust (sound familiar?) in all things AI that Google execs used the phrase “AI” more than 100 times during the two-hour keynote. In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll discuss what we know (and what we don’t) about the future of generative AI in search. We’ll also share what you can do now to ensure you are capturing low-hanging fruit.

In his 1990 Canon ad, Andre Agassi famously stated, “Image is everything!” This is especially true when trying to impress Google with your newly created “Helpful Content”. So, why would you carefully handpick custom images and forget about image optimization? In today’s edition of Plain Talk, we’ll examine SEO image optimization, which helps search engines understand images in related contexts and ultimately provides the best rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs) and image searches.

Since its beginning in 1997, the goal of SEO has been to prioritize keyword rank position, but should that continue to be the standard as Google continues to weigh personal factors and individualized results? In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll discuss if Google keyword ranking is still the best way to measure your SEO and if not, what SEO tools you should use for search engine optimization.

Now that it’s 2023, it’s time to discuss this year’s new social media trends! Social media environments have drastically changed in the last year, focusing on short-form videos, viral video views and the utilization of influencers of all sizes; however, 2023 will continue to shake up social media and how we interact with brands and creators. In this edition of Plain Talk, we will discuss five key 2023 social media trends for successfully building trust and a better social media strategy for your brand.

Brands spend a ton of money getting the word out, driving engagement and generating sales, but fraudulent practices are costing advertisers billions every year. In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll talk about ad fraud practices separating you from your hard-earned ad dollars and costing you sales.

Good SEO has always provided the best bang for your buck in LeadGen. As SEO becomes increasingly more sophisticated and users demand better and faster answers to their queries, Google has a difficult job uncovering high-quality content and promoting the most relevant results for a user’s intent. This edition of Plain Talk will highlight questions regarding SEO and Google algorithm updates and how the right strategy can minimize impact.

While many workplaces quickly realized how big of an issue burnout had become and enacted measures to address this growing topic of concern—from increased health and wellness activities or incentives to encourage more of a work/life balance—it’s not always an easy fix for all employees. In this edition of Plain Talk, we’ll specifically examine social media manager burnout and how those tasked with creating and managing content to help your brand stand out may be at risk. We’ll also discuss ways to work with these team members to develop a system where burnout isn’t the norm.