Google’s ranking factors are becoming more comprehensive and user-driven than ever before. Google’s algorithm pays attention to factors such as intrusive interstitials, mobile-friendliness, page load time, and interactivity.

Geraldine Convento, MeetGeraldine’s founder believes that one of the biggest mistakes digital marketers make is not investing in tools that can be effective in the SEO keyword search.

Here is what she has to say in a recent post on iFour Technolab Pvt.Ltd.

The post SEO Mistakes in Digital Marketing appeared first on MeetGeraldine.

Sometimes web developers use guest posts as a way to introduce spam, however it can be a viable option for reputable and ethical brands if done the right way.

Guest blogging not only helps boost your brand’s credibility and awareness but also strengthens your SEO strategy.

Our founder, Geraldine Convento believes that guest posts can be highly effective. Here’s what she had to say about it in a recent blog post mention on UpCity.

Read more here – Is Guest Blogging Still a Viable SEO Strategy?

The post Does Guest Blogging Work for SEO? appeared first on MeetGeraldine.

When it comes to business, your website is one of the most important decision-making factors of whether a customer will invest in your products or services. Making sure your website is user-friendly and representative of your current services (not 5 years ago when you last updated your website) is critical for attracting new customers.

In this article, we will explain what web maintenance entails and why it is important for your business.

What Does it Mean for My Website to Function Properly?

Most websites these days (especially those built with WordPress) contain a lot of features such as: pop-ups, contact forms, photo or video galleries, broken link checkers, e-commerce stores and more.

• If one of these features of your website stopped functioning, what would you do?
• Would this roadblock impact your customers’ experience?
• Can it prevent them from communicating with you or buying your products?
• How about if your website got hacked and you had no idea?

Most of the features we’ve mentioned above are controlled by something on the back end of WordPress called, Plugins. When these aren’t maintained, things break down and your website can be susceptible to viruses.

The purpose of web maintenance is to keep your website up and running smoothly at all times.

If you are curious to know more and want to understand how your website can stay up to date, read on.

Why is Website Maintenance Important?

Here are three common reasons to consider website maintenance:

1. People don’t have much patience these days nor do they care to give second chances.
   When someone hacks into your website or the plugins break down, your customers will conveniently move on to your competitors’ websites without a second thought. User experience and your reputation is critical in today’s time and regular website maintenance ensures your security patches and security updates are performed routinely.
2. If your website is inaccessible, customers won’t be able to find you.
   When your website is broken or infected with malware, it will cost you time and money. Websites that are affected rank lower in Google search results or may even get blacklisted!We once had a customer that was blacklisted from Google and lost 50% of their monthly profits as a result! They went from making $100,000/month to $50,000/month. BIG DIFFERENCE!
3. If your site is infected with malware and you have no clue, your website will be suspended.
   Hosting websites like Bluehost, GoDaddy, Siteground and Dreamhost do not clean malware for you unless you’ve signed up for a malware removal service. If your web host detects malware on their system, they will suspend your hosting account and the website (sometimes email as well).

What Does Web Maintenance Entail and Why Should I Care?

Here are some of the processes involved in a web maintenance plan that will ensure your website functions properly in the long run:

• Updating software and plugins. WordPress has its own open source software and plugins. Web maintenance ensures these plugins and softwares are updated periodically to prevent malware.
• Removing spam comments and backlinks. Occasionally, hackers may send out automated scripts to WordPress websites and insert malicious links into your website comments. This can be bad for your site’s Google ranking as you can be miscategorized in Google search engine for topics that aren’t related to what you do.
• Running website backups. Monthly website backups ensure that your site will be restored if it breaks down or is hacked.
• Checking for malware. A few things can happen when a site is hacked or infected by malware:
  • Profanity or inappropriate language can be inserted into your content.
    Your website can be completely restructured. Years ago a client of ours got hacked and the hacker placed an animation with clowns and music on the website’s homepage!
  • You can get locked out of your website.
  • This one is not as common, but in some cases, hackers can access sensitive data as well. Most of the time hackers inject malware when they are testing out their coding skills. Don’t let yourself fall victim to this!
• Cleaning malware. Some web developers deal with malware by completely erasing a website and rebuilding a new one. This is expensive and unnecessary. Most of the time, a web maintenance service can clean malware within 24-48 hours unless it has been ignored for a long period.

In this article, we’ve defined what website maintenance is and have listed a bunch of reasons why maintaining your website is important for your business. At MeetGeraldine, we believe that you shouldn’t have to worry about these issues when you have other important tasks on your plate. We offer one-time malware clean up services, fix broken WordPress websites as well as offer on-going website maintenance packages.

Have questions? Let’s talk! Fill out our form below or call 510-473-6183.

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The post Why is Web Maintenance Important for Your Business? appeared first on MeetGeraldine.

There are several different terms that are used to describe different things that are on the web. You may have heard them before “ Splash Page ”, “ Landing Page ” and “ Website ”. What many don’t know about these terms is that although they appear on the same platform (the web), they are different!

Whether you’re a someone looking to build your presence online, advising a colleague or family member- here’s some context to describe what each type and how they are best used…

Splash Page

A splash page is your organization’s portal. Individuals land on your site, pick an option, and get transported to the correct site. International enterprises, for example, often use these to place links to their country branches. Splash pages also work very well for someone who has different specialties. Say you teach piano, dance, and crochet, and you also sell paintings. For the jack of many trades entrepreneur, a splash page is an easy and effective way to direct your clients and potential clients to the right service or product. Another great thing about a splash page is that multiples sites can share the same domain.

When is a splash page applicable? When you’d like to give your viewers an easy way to choose what’s most applicable to them.

Landing Page

What do people do after they land on your page? Do they fill out the form to subscribe to your newsletter? Or do they ignore your call to action (CTA)? Landing pages are designed with conversion in mind. Unlike home pages, they’re clean with one goal, or two at most. They’re phenomenal at tracking behavior, and because of this, they’re perfect for targeted campaigns. You can and should set up a landing page for each campaign you do. If you’re a new company that wants to, say, get a feel for the market when it comes to your new product, a landing page is a great way to do this.

Landing pages are good for lead generation. It allows the viewer to quickly decide if they are interested or not. If they are, they give you their info or by their product. Just like that.

Since the content of a landing pages typically focuses on one specific product or service, they are highly optimized with keyword rich copy.

Common uses for a landing page is promoting a product, consulting service, eBook, email subscription. Landing pages can be promoted through social media, Google AdWords and are sometimes found through organic searches.

Measurable ways to promote them include: running a PPC campaign, writing guest posts on 3rd party blogs or magazines that links refer out to.

When is a landing page applicable? When you have one thing to sell or generate leads for. Or if you have a sea of products and you want one of them to stand out for a specific period of time.

Website

Your website offers the big picture of your business — who you are, what you offer, why you exist. It’s your online hub that should be built for longevity and expansion.

Your business needs to have a well functioning and easy to navigate website to be taken seriously. Your website is also your medium for building relationships with your audience. Through blogs, photos, videos, and overall design aesthetic, your website sets the tone for your brand and all of your other engagements in our digital age.

When is a website applicable? When you have a business that offers more than one product or service and most importantly, when you’re building a brand.

To learn how to leverage or improve your online presence, contact us for a consultation or email us at beseen@meetgeraldine.com.

The post What’s the difference between a splash page, landing page and website? appeared first on MeetGeraldine.

Kirk and Sherwin bonded in high school over their love of cars. They discovered what a great team they made while working together on restoring Sherwin’s ’67 Karmann Ghia, and strengthened their bond while restoring several other vintage cars and tackling home repair projects.

The duo enjoyed having a beer together after an honest day’s hard work, which led to Sherwin getting a home brew kit, and eventually collecting bronze, silver and gold medals for his beers. Soon, the two had a business plan in place to launch the Brewyard concept, and with a lot of hard work, they became the second brewery in Glendale, providing fresh, craft beer for those living in North LA. They opened their location in the industrial section of Glendale, tackling a great deal of the build out themselves.

The Need & Our Process

Brewyard needed a website that strongly conveyed their brand, alongside providing functionality such as an age verification pop up, social media feeds, as well as lots of images and video (they even have a great video showing those wishing to visit the brewery how to get to their location).

MeetGeraldine first conducted a Brand Report analysis, including several in-depth interviews, to get a complete picture of who and what Brewyard Beer Company is. Our team traveled to SoCal to visit the taproom, with the goal of translating the esthetic of the taproom into the site.

Walking into the Brewyard taproom feels like walking into a speakeasy at the tail end of Prohibition. The staff are personal and approachable, just like the beer. In many ways, the taproom and the brand are built around the restored 1936, end of prohibition-era truck. The truck represents a “work horse.” It’s a celebration of the hard work and resourcefulness of the blue-collar worker, as well as Kirk and Sherwin’s friendship.

The Site

Through our visit and the Brand Report process, it was clear that we needed to ensure the presence of the truck throughout the website, portray the end of Prohibition feel, as well as visually share Kirk and Sherwin’s pride in their taproom being a growing part of the Glendale community.

MeetGeraldine’s design team utilized concepts such as a vintage map of Glendale fading into the background of the homepage, vintage paper backgrounds to display the site’s content, and of course the truck. The team considered how to incorporate the brand when the logo itself wouldn’t work in specific places.

The end result was a beautiful, eye-catching and memorable website that tells Brewyard’s story, and enticing you to come relax and enjoy a fresh, cold, craft beer.

Measurable Results

(Results reported are as of November 2016, 2 months after website launch)

As a result of the website launch- Brewyard Beer company reported a 10% increase in sales after one month and increased foot traffic due to increased awareness of their website events calendar.

Google analytics reported high traffic in the first month of the website launch with a 25% increase during the second month.

Here’s where the website visits came from:

• 50% of these Internet users found the website through organic searches
• 36% visited the website directly
• 9% through social media channels
• 4% through referrals from beer related websites

Check out brewyardbeercompany.com and remember visit their taproom when you’re in the Glendale area!

The post Brewyard Beer Company Launches a Branded Website and Realizes Immediate Results! appeared first on MeetGeraldine.

One of the comments a woman made about what she expects to see. She said, “social issues and community-based issues.” My immediate response was “I would recommend keeping politics out of it.”

My answer didn’t sit right with me. Which brings me to the topic of this post, “How to incorporate social justice into your brand”.

The purpose of this post today, however, is to address one of the comments a woman made about what she expects to see. She said, “Social issues and community-based issues.”

My immediate response was “I would recommend keeping politics out of it.”

But something didn’t sit right with me about that answer.

I was coming from a place of, “it just opens the door for a heated discussion that may not be appropriate in your business’ setting.”

In the wake of #Orlando, #AltonSterling, #PhilandoCastile it is more clear than ever that we as a country need to make some serious changes in the way we treat one another and the way we come together to take a stand for what is not right..

One way that we as people can do that is to “vote with our dollars.” There are several organizations that are calling for mass action around socially divesting (not buying things from businesses that have views on topics that are in support of the degradation of human beings).

Conversely, it is important to know that a company is active in the conversation and showing their support for change. In that way, I wish to retract my statement to the young lady that brought up the social issues on a company’s Facebook page.

One of my specialties in working with people is to help them to clearly define their brand and “who it would be if it were a person.” A brand is the sum of every type of experience people have when they come in contact with your business- like a personality.

Once you have clearly defined what your brand personality is, it is your job to make it come across in everything you do. It helps you to decide how to market, what clients you take, what colors to use, and how to speak on social media.

Included in the “brand” is a company’s mission statement and core values. Unless your business is directly linked to a social movement of some kind, your political stance will most likely not come in a company’s mission statement, which is meant to speak to what the company does and why it does it.

Your political and social beliefs do come across in the company’s core values, however, which are what define what you value a company. These are statements that talk about what your company stands for and makes up the “soul” of your company.

Every company should spend time to have conversations with their team and to write some core values down. Once you have them, it is important to post them in a place where they are visible to their team and customers to see. Core values set a tone for the brand and can come across in many ways throughout your organization- some overtly and some subtly.

I will use my business, MeetGeraldine, as an example. Our core values are all around respect, diversity, and empowerment. Here are some of the wasy that our core values manifest themselves in our brand:

Respect:

• We do a daily check in with our team. In this check in we are able to talk about personal or business stuff- whatever seems to be moving you in the moment. It also gives us the space to say if we are having a bad day and just need to be left alone for the day.
• We take great care in using language that is respectful.
• We allow everyone to have input in creating an office environment that works for everyone’s creativity and productivity.

Diversity:  

• We celebrate our team members and all the knowledge and experience that is brought to the table from being Asian, Black, White, Latino, cisgender, transgender, straight, queer, and so on.
• Each one of us have several passions and talents- painting, rapping, storytelling, fashionistas, and tech nerds.
• We work with businesses in all industries and who also have a multitude of passions and talents.
• We are committed to working with people and businesses who respect all of us for whom and what we are, and actively discontinue working with companies or professionals if and when a mismatch in values is discovered.

Empowerment:

• We empower our clients by explaining how to use the marketing and branding tools we give to them
• We offer opportunities for cross training so our team understands at least a little bit about each other’s jobs
• We open the door for everyone to openly discuss topics related to politics and education around how to best treat others.

Making social and community topics explicit is a personal choice and you will know if it suites your business best or not. In the event you are a company that isn’t wanting to put everything out on social media, you have the ability to incorporate your social and political values into your brand through company policies and how you build your team.

Our dollars do have a lot of power- especially collectively. For your clients/customers to be able to see that you are a proud supporter of social justice movements such as #BlackLivesMatter allows them to further connect with your brand and to feel good about where they spend their money (or not, and if so – it will be an opportunity to educate and invite them to open their mind to something new. If in the end they just aren’t in support of your values – they probably are not your target audience anyway!!)

The post How to Incorporate Social Justice into Your Brand appeared first on MeetGeraldine.

Special thanks to our team for bringing this project to fruition:

• Colleen Yancy, Web Developer
• Danielle Bloss, Graphic Designer
• Emmet Logan, Graphic Designer
• Geraldine Convento, Web Developer
• Kate Pirrello, Illustrator
• Michelle Zambrano, Brand Strategist

Click here to read the article

To learn more about how MeetGeraldine can help with your brand and web development.

The post We were featured in Photoshop User Magazine! appeared first on MeetGeraldine.

The two places were Palm Springs, CA and Sedona, AZ.

As an entrepreneur, there are so many ebbs and flows of emotions and ever expanding responsibilities… Especially when you have a team. To me, maintaining life balance and being a great leader are a winning combination for everyone in the equation. And… It takes knowing of self, a lot of practice and coaching to achieve this.

My focus this year has been on passion, energy and self-care.

Web development was a hobby that I pursued since age 13.  As the years have gone by, my skills have expanded and it’s really like second nature to me to write code, comprehend and troubleshoot challenges. It’s been 8 years since I’ve transformed this passion into a career. These days I don’t do as much of the coding on projects as I used to (our amazing web development team makes it happen). However, when I do code I’ve found that the passion for it has weened away. I like it.. I’m great at it.. I’ve fallen out of love with it.

What do you do when you need to discover your passion… Again?

These trips I’ve taken have given me a lot of opportunity to re-ground myself, explore the various thoughts running through my mind and get to know myself as self.  Although, I still felt like something was missing…

Today, I ran across Oprah’s article “O’s 4-Step Guide to Discovering Who You’re Meant to Be” on Pinterest. Perhaps this is what I’ve been looking for.

I imagine this being a great exercise for any entrepreneur that wants to newly discover their passion.

Click the link, read through and complete the exercise then let’s compare results! 

The post Entrepreneurial Reflections: Finding Your Self & Your Passion appeared first on MeetGeraldine.

Here’s an article that we wrote that was published in the
Strictly Marketing Magazine March/April 2016 edition:

Click to View OR Right-Click to Download MeetGeraldine’s Article About SEO

Schedule an appointment today for complimentary 45 minute consultation today so we can determine whether a targeted SEO program or an extensive campaign is right for you.

Have questions? Send us an email at: beseen@meetgeraldine.com

The post MeetGeraldine Writes About SEO for Strictly Marketing Magazine appeared first on MeetGeraldine.

The Sean Green Show, hosted by Sean Green and co-host Mason Paine, is a lifestyle program that focuses on all things entertainment, as well as providing information and advice in response to requests received from the show’s listeners. It reaches an average of 5-8 million listeners weekly (airing throughout various radio stations via Tribune radio broadcasting), while engaging over 45 million monthly digital users.

The show requested an interview with Geraldine, as a business consultant and web presence expert, to answer listeners’ questions regarding how to start a business and write an effective business plan.

Check out Geraldine’s recorded interview to learn more about:

• Why business plans are essential when starting a business (for both businesses providing products and services)
• The key components of a business plan
• Geraldine’s own business path and learnings in entrepreneurship and business planning
• Handling challenges in staffing/structuring strategy, defining/identifying you’re your business is, financial projections, competitive research and staying competitive, and protecting your plan
• The various types of marketing available, and identifying what you need
• What search engine optimization (SEO) is, and how it can help your business efforts
• Tips for budding entrepreneurs, and how to get help when you need it

Looking to tackle any of the challenges involved in launching, growing or improving your own business efforts? We can help – learn how.

The post Entrepreneurship and Business Planning appeared first on MeetGeraldine.