Website Design It’s important to differentiate between website design services and website development services as the two are not the same. There are some amazing developers that do not have design chops and there are designers that have never developed. Website development is the process of making a website live and building it out while the design is the schematic and the aesthetic. Design as Aesthetic An important thing to keep in mind when designing or assessing a design is that the aesthetic is subjective. Several people may look at the same design and have very different feedback. Learn More

Website Development Your website is the centrepiece of your digital strategy and is incredibly important to get right. It is often the first look a visitor has at your business and the basis by which you are judged. The website can uniquely operate 24/7, serve multiple people at the same time and never has a sick day, or a bad mood. Your website will say exactly what you want it to say 100% of the time. The website’s first impression may end up being the only impression, so it’s important to get it right. Make your site the employee of the month, every month. The website should really never be understood as ‘done’, but rather, a living and breathing digital asset that serves your visitors and customers. That being said, most websites done right won’t require a major overhaul for 3-5 years. It’s a good idea to consider that when budgeting your time and capital. Of course, there is a lot to consider when looking at what kind of website you want to build, but here are the three most important factors to be mindful. Learn More

Landing Pages The term 'landing page' is often used in two ways. The first is, a page meant to be a stand alone one-pager typically used to quickly convert paid search traffic at the bottom of the funnel. The second is, that a ‘landing page’ is the first page that loads for the user, so a website may be comprised of many different landing environments. Stand alone landing page Note: With few exceptions. one-pagers do not rank naturally organically. Some landing pages work better than others depending on the industry. Some landing pages link to the rest of the website while others are contained. Landing pages are best used in a conversion situation where the choice to make contact is simply a yes or no. Learn More

Search Engine Optimization What Is Search Engine Optimization? The aim of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to place on the first page of search engines naturally without having to pay. Some of the other terms associated with SEO are "natural", "organic" and "earned". When speaking about SEO it's hard not to exclusively focus on Google because that's where 90% of the searches take place. After all, we don't "Bing it!", we "Google it!". Another way to understand Google Local Optimization Be Consistent. Name Address Phone Number Image that you're planning to take your family to a drive-in movie. It takes you some time, but finally the car is packed, chairs, snacks and the kids! You finally get there only to realize the drive-in isn't there. You've actually driven to the wrong address. By the time you figure out where the drive-in actually is it's too late and the show has already started. You would be frustrated and disappointed with the whole ordeal. This is the worst experience Google could provide you as a user. Learn More

Google Local Optimization What is Google Local Optimization? The Google Local portion of the search engine results page has changed over the years. We started off with a 7-pack (a-g) then that was reduced to a 5-pack (a-e) and now we are down to the top three and the criteria for showing up naturally in this section is different from the rest of the natural/organic search results. Indeed, over the past couple of years, Google and Bing! have shifted into a hyper local results page that now serves users Local Business results based on a variety of signals such as: Proximity of the business to the searcher/user.

Authority of the local business listing based on the number of credible citations that point to back to that listing – as well as consistency between the name, address, and phone number (NAP) of each citation.

Optimization and completion of the listing itself.

Number of reviews on the listing

Regular updates to the listing such as photos related to the business.

Inclusion of a Google 360 Business virtual tour. Learn More Indeed, over the past couple of years, Google and Bing! have shifted into a hyper local results page that now serves users Local Business results based on a variety of signals such as:

Content Marketing Content is king, right? It may be true, but that statement undermines the level of strategy needed to succeed with content marketing. In our modern digital world everyone with a smartphone is a content producer. There has been more content produced in the last seven years than the previous four billion – no joke. With that in mind, how do you create a content strategy that actually works? To successfully execute a content strategy you must identify communities of interest. Then you need to provide value to that community by producing content that entertains, solves problems, answers questions, or makes the user stop to think. Why do we take this approach to content marketing with our clients throughout Toronto and Canada? In our modern digital world, marketers are in the business of day trading attention. It has never been more difficult to capture the attention of a user and/or potential customer. Everyone is distracted. Everyone is over-stimulated. Everyone has a magical device in their pocket that answers every question imaginable, takes pictures and videos, solves your life challenges, and allows you to communicate with anyone in the world in real time. Yes, this digital revolution has changed everything. Learn More

Google AdWords Google AdWords Management

What is Google AdWords?

Google AdWords is an advertising platform that allows advertisers to place their ad on the first page of Google as long as the advertiser is willing to pay for the click. The advertiser specifies how much they’re willing to pay for a click in a specific geography for specific keywords.

Advertisers choose their selected geographies, the keywords they want, the keywords they don’t and where they want to show up. For example, the image below is a screenshot of what happened when ‘personal injury lawyer Toronto’ was typed into Google. Notice the great variation in the way that these ads are positioned, the information and the amount of information that is shown. Take a look at the ads and notice how different these firms are advertising.

Neinstein, in this instance is in the top position because they are the highest bidder (bid position is also impact by quality score). Diamond and Diamond has the best written ad out of the group with call out extension, and site link extensions being present. Preszler is using two phone number instead of just one and using that space to better advertise.

There is great diversity in the way that these ads are being managed by the different AdWords practitioners.

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Bing Ads Bing is the default search engine for Internet Explorer, which is the default browser on any msn device. Generally, users who are searching through Bing!, are of an older demographic

Yahoo! and Bing are two of the main competitors of the titan search engine, Google. While they command a smaller market share of the search world (20% combined market share), Yahoo!-Bing PPC advertising can be an effective way to collect additional leads and sales at a lower cost.

The unique searchers on Yahoo!-Bing spend 26% more online than average Internet searchers. Due to the fact that the competitive space with Yahoo!-Bing PPC advertising is much less saturated than Google, marketers will also see significantly lower CPC from this strategy, which in turn should also result in a lower CPL than Google.

In addition to their lower search engine market share, Yahoo! and Bing ads are both managed within the Bing Ads management console (which shares the same look and feel as Google AdWords), and default reporting combines results from the two engines.

Advantages of Yahoo!-Bing PPC

Less advertiser competition means lower CPCs, which translates into lower CPL for your business.

Typically an older demographic of users (average age is 35+), thus also more likely for Yahoo!-Bing users to have children. This can play into the key target demographic for some businesses.

Bing users, on average, have more “blue collar” users than “white collar,” which can also be advantageous based on what your business’ key target demographic is. Learn More

Facebook Ads The demographics of Facebook continue to change, but there are more than 1.4 billion people on the platform – and over 900 million people spend time on Facebook every day. The scale of the Facebook user base is staggering, and it represents a massive opportunity if leveraged correctly.

Here are some of the Ad formats available through Facebook’s advertising platform:

Page Post Engagement Ads

Page Like Ads

Website Conversions

Event Response Ads

Offer Claim Ads

Video Views

Local Awareness Ads

The Carousel Format

Dynamic Ads

Slideshow Ads

Lead Ads

Canvas Ads Here are some of the Ad targeting options available through Facebook’s advertising platform:

Location

Education levels, institutions, etc.

Interests

Behavior

Connections

Custom Audiences Learn More

Social Media Social Media Marketing Remember when people debated the merits of social media? Some people wondered if it was “a fad,” and whether it was a waste of time as a tool for business. Nowadays, that debate is dead - and social media won. Social media is a tool for product announcements, customer engagement, customer service, review generation, e-commerce transactions, retargeting, general research, and much more. But perhaps most importantly, social media networks offer something that is unprecedented in the history of marketing… Production AND distribution. Think about it… When you look at traditional forms of offline media (TV, radio, billboards, transit, print), you had to produce the creative, and then you had to pay for distribution in a separate transaction. Conversely, social media provides a solution for creative production, and mass global distribution to highly targeted communities. So what do you need from a social media team managing your communities and channels? You need thoughtful strategy governed by data. When you are planning a social strategy, there is no shortage of information to guide your plan. Everyone has access to tools that uncover search volume, hashtag usage, and social analytics that are broken out by geography, interest, and demo. Learn More

Videography If a picture is worth a thousand words then video is so much more. Web ready videography is an important strategy to engage in because it: Informs your website visitor through audio and video which is important because most of your website visitors will for the most part, not read very much. Keeps your visitor on your page watching which is a positive ranking signal to Google because it means that visitors were engaged by your site and likely found what they were looking for Video can be used on your website, and deployed primarily on YouTube and Facebook, but can also be put on a wide range of other social platforms. The reason why most websites and business don’t have proper video collateral is because they don’t know where to start, or when they start the price tag is prohibitive. After all, if you’re not thinking about the long term marketing benefits to video, an investment of $3,000, $10,000 or $30,000 may seem like a lot of money. That said, there are a lot of affordable alternatives to a large production. After all, we all have the ability to record on our cell phones, and for some videos the quality you get on a modern smart phone won’t win you any awards, but will be good enough. Learn More

YouTube Ads When Google AdWords started a decade ago, the cost per click was a minor fraction of what it is today. As more businesses became wise to online and choose to participate in the fruits of digital marketing, the competition increased and the cost of a click on AdWords went up. If only there was a time machine to go back and capture that incredible value back when it was cheap… When Google AdWords started a decade ago, the cost per click was a minor fraction of what it is today. As more businesses became wise to online and choose to participate in the fruits of digital marketing, the competition increased and the cost of a click on AdWords went up. If only there was a time machine to go back and capture that incredible value back when it was cheap… Well, we can’t, but what we can do is take advantage of under-priced media. What we mean by this is media that will become more expensive and is worth a lot more than you can currently buy it for. YouTube Video Ads is that form of media. YouTube offers a bunch of different video options that we’ll expand this page to speak to, but for now we want to focus on skippable ads. Forced ads will serve to annoy the public at large and charges you when people are not into watching your ads. You’ll want to do YouTube ads because video gives you a way to communicate with your audience in a more impactful way than your website. You can target your audience based on a numbers of factors like age, gender, interests, behaviours, etc… You can also target a select audience that has been to your website before. Learn More