Many online initiatives fail when an outdated CMS creates a chasm between ideas and execution. With the wrong CMS, a project that once seemed easy becomes an ordeal. Rather than staying fresh with updated content, your once dynamic website begins to stagnate. Outdated content tells potential customers that your business does not have the means or desire to stay current – hurting your brand and your bottom line.

CMS Enables Fresh Content That’s Key to SEO Success

Thanks to Google’s latest Panda/Penguin algorithm updates, fresh content matters more than ever before. In fact, Google’s infamous “Freshness Update” affected 35% of all search results, according to SEOMoz. Google ranks search results in part based on “freshness” and “relevance”.

This means if you last updated your blog, client portfolio, or case study last year, it’s already old news – and your site will score low on the fresh-o-meter. For most visitors, new content is also more interesting, which means visitors are unlikely to comment on or share your outdated material – and your site will also score low on the relevancy-o-meter. The wrong CMS will effectively bury your website at the bottom of search results.

The Right CMS Will Power Your Business’s Growth

The wrong content management system not only means that your website is outdated and clunky, but it also means that your business is missing out on important online marketing opportunities. With so many features available on the right platform, your site could be faster, sleeker, and sexier – delivering a better user experience, advanced SEO capabilities and improved conversion rates.

The market is flooded with content management systems that all look the same to the average user. Choosing the right system will give you unprecedented creative control over your web content, while the wrong system could mean countless hours (and expenses) lost to an overpriced web developer.

Don’t get stuck on the sidelines – stay ahead of the curve with a robust CMS that will power your business’s growth. With over 100 years of combined experience, the Wakefly development team knows what content management systems will work for your business – and which won’t. Contact us today to get started.

So your old webmaster went AWOL and all you’re left with is a stack of source code that means nothing. The last time your site got a refresh was before Obama got elected (the first time) and Lindsay Lohan was still a promising child star. Yikes! Now, your customers are scared off by your antiquated website and outdated content. Blame your website’s content management system – or lack thereof.

A content management system is a web-based system for finding and managing website content. In theory, a content management system allows users to dynamically update site content, quickly post media files and even make basic layout changes without any coding knowledge. In reality, however, not all content management systems are created equal – or effectively used.

The inability to easily change website content is a major business problem:

• Redundant, outdated content leads to poor customer experience
• Your business lacks a central database to track and quickly update existing copy and media
• Content publication and management is restricted to one employee (i.e., your IT guy with no SEO background or your now-AWOL webmaster)
• An inability to centrally manage your content means double the work for different platforms (web, mobile, mobile apps) rather than a single, streamlined solution

Don’t panic – a new content management system and site refresh can turn your website around. No source code knowledge required.

“Which content management system is right for my business?”

Finding content management systems is easy – you probably get calls from leading vendors each week promising a better, faster, more responsive system for your company. Choosing the right CMS for your business’s unique needs, however, is more complicated.

The most popular content management system is WordPress. According to Technorati, self-hosted WordPress powers 53% of the top 100 blogs in addition to major websites, including CNN, NBC Sports, TechCrunch, UPS and CBS Radio. However, just because WordPress is a popular choice, does not mean that it is a natural fit for your integration requirements and technical scalability. Many businesses benefit from the features and customization capabilities that come with systems such as Drupal, Kentico, Hubspot, Ektron, Sitecore and advanced eCommerce platforms.

Which system is right for your business? And most importantly, how can you avoid getting locked out of your website again? Wakefly can help. Our experts have more than 100 years of combined experience developing and managing websites for businesses of all sizes and needs.

Don’t get shut out of your company’s lifeline. Let the experts at Wakefly fix your website problems with a CMS that makes updating content a breeze. Contact us today to get started.

How to Get Better Click Thru Rates

On its own, a low CTR is certainly bad news. No one is clicking on your online advertising, and that’s frustrating. It gets worse. A low CTR is symptomatic of an even bigger problem with your online advertising strategy. It’s like going to the doctor for a minor cold and discovering you also have high blood pressure, diabetes and might keel over from a heart attack at any minute. Low CTR means your business is:

• Overpaying for clicks
• Getting a low pay-per-click (PPC) ROI
• Being beaten by the competition

Traditionally, businesses approached pay-per-click advertising with a giant list of global search metrics and a hefty side of guesswork. This is also why 98% of businesses are dissatisfied with their Google advertising ROI.

Stop hemorrhaging money with ineffective online advertising. Here’s how to resurrect your click-thru rates before things get even worse:

1. Use long-tail keywords. People search using phrases, not single words. Pick a long-tail keyword phrase (usually five words long) and make this your target search term. Fewer people will search this phrase, but because of its specificity, you’ll get higher click-thru rates. Long-tail keyword phrases are also less competitive, which means you’ll achieve a higher CTR for a lower PPC.
2. Match your ad content with your landing page content. This seems obvious, but many businesses overlook this critical step. If your landing page has nothing to do with your ad (or only vaguely makes a connection), your site’s bounce rate will skyrocket and Google will flag both your site and your ad is irrelevant. You’ll be buried so far in Google search results that folks won’t even have a chance to click (or not click) on your site.

3. Show value. Yes, it’s hard to solve a problem or explain a benefit in 100 characters or less. Do so anyways. And by all means, avoid “Click Here!” or any phrase with exclamation marks. Even if your intentions are genuine, these phrases appear spammy and will sink your quality score.

If your current PPC campaign is driving traffic to your website at AOL dial-up speeds, the online advertising experts at Wakefly can help. And if PPC, CTR and CPC sound like alphabet soup, our team can help with that too. Contact us today to get started.

Traditional search engine optimization (SEO) is dead. Thanks to the Panda and Penguin algorithm updates, along with Google’s over-optimization penalty (“OOPS”), the majority of SEO tactics are now more hassle than they’re worth. Link building, optimized anchor text, press releases and even guest blog posting can do more harm than good for your search engine ranking – if these tactics even do anything at all.

PPC Delivers Biggest Bang for Your Advertising Dollar

Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is the most cost-effective strategy for building brand awareness and connecting with your target audience online. There are two types of PPC ads: search engine marketing (advertisers bid on keywords, such as Google AdWords, that appear next to search results) and partner network advertising (less targeted ads shown to a large network of partner websites).

PPC advertising is taking over Google’s organic search engine results. Your business must adapt its online strategy to leverage the power of PPC. Here’s why PPC makes financial sense:

• Google ads account for 64.6% of all clicks for high commercial intent keyword searches; that’s a 2:1 victory over organic search results, according to WordStream researchers
• The average click-thru rate for Google ads on high commercial intent queries are up to 600 times than click-thru rates for a typical Facebook page, according to WordStream researchers
• PPC is a low-cost, high-yield marketing tactic for smaller businesses that can’t compete with offline ad buys

Are you a PPC newbie? Still rockin’ the old-school SEO tactics? Started and abandoned a PPC campaign because you didn’t know what you were doing? Here are three things your business needs to change in 2013:

#1: Less SEO, More PPC. If you don’t know how to execute a successful PPC campaign, learn how to now. It’s just as easy to burn money on an ineffective PPC campaign as it is with bad SEO.

#2: Enable Google AdWords Sitelinks. Sitelinks offer additional page link options beyond your default landing page. Like Google AdWords extensions, your ad will benefit from an additional line (more real estate on the search page) and the ability to elaborate on specific benefits your company offers (e.g., free shipping) or respond to a customer query (e.g., international and APO shipping)

#3: Start Remarketing with Google Analytics. Remarketing lets you show PPC ads to users who have previously visited your website. Use this highly targeted advertising technique to ensure your brand is at the top of a potential customer’s mind when it’s time to make a purchase.

Stop wasting time on ineffective SEO and start building your PPC campaign. The online marketing experts at Wakefly can help you get started. Contact us today.

Wrong! Google ads account for 64.6% of all clicks for high commercial intent keyword searches (i.e., searches from consumers who are primed to purchase a product or service). That’s a 2:1 margin of victory, according to WordStream researchers.

Google AdWords pay-per-click (PPC) is a highly effective and scalable advertising solution that works for almost any business. Consider these stats:

• The average click-through rate for the top AdWords ad on a search page is nearly 8%.
• The average click-thru rate of any ad on the Google Display Network is 0.4% – four times as high as the average banner ad.
• The average click-thru rate for Google ads on high commercial intent queries are up to 600 times higher than click-thru rates for a typical Facebook page, according to WordStream.

However, in order to make AdWords PPC work (and generate the above results), significant time and money needs to be invested in your AdWords campaign. Is this a smart investment for your business? In a word: Yes. Here’s why:

4 Reasons Why Your Business Needs AdWords

#1: AdWords is hyper-targeted. With traditional advertising, targeting options are limited. AdWords allows for hyper-targeting, including specific keyword matches (e.g., an entire phrase in exact order) and the ability to narrow your target audience by location, language, browser device, time of day and more. An international business can target potential leads in Tokyo, Japan during their 9 to 5 workday and separately target leads in San Francisco during their 9 to 5 workday; no one outside these geographic time zone targets will see the ads.

#2: AdWords is easier to manage than SEO. Search engine optimization is increasingly difficult to measure and execute; results are unpredictable and costs are high. Effective SEO requires substantial effort to build and maintain. Google’s algorithm is constantly changing and your competition is constantly adapting their strategies. Your business, in turn, must consistently churn out fresh SEO content. In contrast, AdWords is easy to “set and forget.” Once your PPC campaign is in place and you’re satisfied with the results, minimal effort is necessary to keep the campaign going or scale it up.

#3: AdWords has a fast learning curve. When it comes to search engine optimization, an entire industry is dedicated to gaming the system. With Google’s rapidly evolving algorithm, even SEO experts struggle to keep up with what’s a legitimate SEO practice and what will get your site slapped with a penalty. That’s not the case with AdWords. There are no smoke and mirror tricks to “beating” AdWords. Once you learn how to perform basic keyword research and set up your campaign, you’re in the driver’s seat.

#4: AdWords gets premium page location. Paid advertising is rapidly squeezing out above-the-fold organic search results. In the war of high commercial intent words, PPC beats SEO hands-down. On average, the top sponsored ads receive 41.4% of all clicks on the page, while the top organic listing gets just 8.9% of the clicks, according to WordStreamresearchers. Even if your website fights its way to the top of Google’s search engine results page (SERP), it will still be beaten by a Google ad.

Does your business use Google AdWords? If not, it should – and our online marketing experts at Wakefly can help you get started. Contact us today.

Sure, we know you’re not rockin’ clunky flash graphics or comic sans typeface (right?), but there’s a good chance that your website is an embarrassment to your business. Outdated, sluggish websites are deadly – damaging your brand, losing leads and sinking sales.

Website redesign can make or break your business.

In the cutthroat world of online marketing, businesses face a simple ultimatum: redesign outdated websites or face extinction. A successful website redesign can increase site traffic by up to 15% and boost conversion rates by up to 20%, according to Forrester Research. Redesign improves user experiences, optimizes for lead generation and sales, and strengthens your brand.

Most importantly, effective redesign beats the classic website Catch-22. We’ve all seen websites that look pretty but lack functionality. Sure, the design is sleek and sexy, but it fails to optimize for lead generation. Conversely, highly optimized pages tend to compromise user experience and design quality for the sake of scoring a higher page rank. Businesses falsely think they must choose between beauty and performance.

Either choice hurts conversion rates and inflates bounce rates. With Google’s latest Penguin search algorithm updates, high bounce rates and low interaction metrics will bury your site at the bottom of search results. In short, an outdated web design is more than an embarrassment: it’s costing your business money every day that you fail to update it. With a website redesign, you can have both powerful performance and a beautiful interface.

Stay ahead of the competition with site redesign.

Was your website great a few years ago? That’s nice. Would you eat last month’s bag of Doritos? We didn’t think so. Even the freshest things go stale with time. A great website won’t stay great without consistent design updates. Here’s why:

• Consumers expect instantaneous information; pages that take longer than five seconds to load cause visitors to abandon your site. This spikes bounce rates and hurts your Google page rank. Last year’s fast is this year’s slow: design updates keep your site speedy whether it’s loaded on a desktop or a smartphone.
• Today’s online shopper wants one-click ordering. Clunky forms, site-specific sign-in requirements, and a lack of a search function are killing your online sales. A redesign will streamline the journey from product search to checkout and improve conversion rates.
• Social media matters; Google’s Panda and Penguin updates now track your website’s “interactivity” metrics. Sites that consistently publish fresh content that’s re-posted and re-tweeted rank higher than sites with static information. Is your last blog post, case study or portfolio sample from 2011? It’s time for an update.

At a minimum, your website will benefit from a redesign every 18 to 24 months. But there’s no need to limit a design refresh to a fixed timeline. Think of your website as a dynamic, evolving entity; consistently editing and improving your website delivers the biggest bang for your buck.

Does your website need a refresh? The team at Wakefly can help transform your website into a powerful strategic weapon that improves user experience, conversion rates and on-page SEO. Contact us today to get started.

Is Google’s new pay-per-use shopping model right for your online retail business? When executed correctly, yes.

Google Shopping Benefits for Online Retailers

According to the 2012 Holiday Online Retail shopping report released in January by digital marketing group Kenshoo, Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs) outperform traditional text-only ads:

• Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs) capture about one and a half times the click-thru rate of regular text ads (2.73% vs. 1.86%)
• PLAs convert 23% better, generating a 31% higher ROI

Since PLAs are relatively new, we are currently in a period where competition for PLAs is low, which is leading to inflated ROI and click-thru rates. Retailers that move quickly are rewarded with big gains and minimal risk exposure. Your business cannot afford to sit on the sidelines. Early adopters have theopportunity to establish themselves as major Google Shopping players.

Google Shopping success is dependent primarily on two key metrics:

1. Maximizing conversion rates
2. Maximizing cart value

If your business currently succeeds with paid search, then your business is well positioned to succeed with PLAs. When used correctly, Google Shopping naturally complements your existing AdWords campaigns and online marketing efforts.

Google recently integrated Google+ with PLAs. Now shoppers can read their friends’ user reviews and share feedback with Google+ connections. This enhanced social media integration adds an important feedback loop and increases the significance of user-generated product reviews. Managing online reputation and customer service will be increasingly important for Google Shopping success in 2013.

The online marketing experts at Wakefly can help you get started with Google Shopping. We’ll show you how to maximize the conversion rates and cart values for your PLAs. We’ll even spend an hour of your time walking you through the process – all for free.

Don’t let the competition beat you to Google Shopping. Contact us today to get started.

PPC mismanagement can destroy your marketing budget. Don’t let this happen to you.

Here are four ways to jump-start your PPC campaign and get your marketing dollars out of the trash:

1. Refine your target. With a PPC campaign, you need to target clicks that are both inexpensive and valuable. If your CPC is high, this means you are using the wrong keywords or targeting parameters. Your current targets are simply not ready to buy. Stop wasting time with bad leads. Eliminate irrelevant or overpriced clicks by trimming the fat from your keywords.
2. Expand your search. Keyword expansion is key to a successful PPC campaign. Don’t sit back and let your old keywords stagnate. Understand how people talk about your product or service features. What keywords do they use that you are not currently targeting? Don’t have time to comb through hundreds of possible keywords and phrases? We thought so. An experienced online marketing firm like Wakefly can help you find words with lower CPCs and higher conversion rates, edging out the competition.
3. Find new keywords in your website’s log files. Put an end to painful company brainstorming sessions that go nowhere. Find new keywords by checking your company’s log files. These files tell you how many people are searching for your specific site. You can discover misspellings, keyword variations and other search terms that you never considered.
4. Improve your quality score. Google rates the quality and relevance of your PPC ads. The higher the score, the lower your advertising costs and the greater your ad exposure. Quality score is primarily based on relevance. The best way to boost your quality score is to structure your PPC campaigns into small, well-organized keyword groups. Campaigns with a variety of disconnected keywords will score poorly, as Google assumes these campaigns are of little relevance to real world users.

There’s no room for mistakes in online marketing. Bad targeting, the wrong keywords, and a low quality score will cost your company big bucks. Stop wasting money and start generating real leads.The online marketing experts at Wakefly can help – contact us today.

The embedded video below goes into greater detail, but the Facebook Ad Exchange boasts:

• The ability for advertisers to show product or individual service specific ads in Facebook
• Supreme control as to who you are targeting and what you are showing them
• A 5x revenue return on ad spend as reported by early adopters.
• Not CPM based – you only pay for the audience who click on your ads- the impressions are infinite which means the branding elements of this alone are invaluable.

If you would like to learn more about this service feel free to contact us. We will be happy to chat with you.

Those are both good things, good for users and good for marketers. Why? Because Google is telling you what you need to do in order to boost your rankings. We just need to listen. These Google messages aren’t quick fixes or shortcuts; instead they’re long term strategies designed to build relevance for your site(s) in a new era in search engine history. It all focuses on images.

1. The Unique Image Tip

As you know, content freshness and originality are now both baked into the Google algorithm. And, yes, that applies to images in the same way it applies to text, which means that most of us are making a huge SEO mistake every single time we post…

What do I mean? When most of us publish a post, we spend half an hour (or more) writing the content, and then we grab a stock image off the web in a few seconds and throw it up on our site. Bad idea! With just that one move, we’re negating all of the original content we just worked so hard to create.

Here’s what you should do instead:

1. Find an image just like you normally would and save it to your desktop.
2. Use an image editing tool like Picmonkey or Skitch to add filters, text, etc.
3. Give the image a new, relevant name and save it.
4. Upload that new, altered graphic as the featured image in your post.

BONUS TIP: You can also make your selected image full screen, take an Instagram photo of it with your phone, then save that image from your Instagram feed. Then, link back to your Instagram photo for the social media juice.

Examples: Note how this website takes a common skyline of New York City and adds a filter and border to make it their own. You don’t have to create something garish or showy to be original…as this images shows. The people at Photojojo, a photography site, do the same thing with ordinary objects to make them not only original, but a good advertisement for their product.

You can go from this:

To this:

It only takes a few extra minutes, but this strategy will do two things for you. First, it will make your site look more interesting and unique (and users may be more likely to share your posts/photos). Second, you’ll be uploading unique content… which Google really likes. You don’t have to be a photography expert or a graphic artist. That’s that beauty of sites like Instagram. They do some of the work for you.

2. Instagram Backlinks

The second photo SEO strategy my team has been using involves both unique, original photos and social media.

I’m sure you already have a Facebook and an Instagram account, right? Good. (If not, make it a priority to create both today.) What you’re going to do is use Instagram to push original photos and backlinks out through your social networks. Here’s how:

1. Take your photo, crop it, and add one of Instagram’s hipsterific filters. You can also save photos to your phone’s photo library via the Dropbox or Flickr mobile apps if you’d rather use a professionally doctored image.
2. Add a photo description and include the URL you want to drive traffic to. Remember to use specific hashtags (like #DMcast) that will get your content to the hands of your target audience. (Hashtags allow readers to search for relevant content and find you, even if they’ve never visited your site.)
3. Use the geotag feature to create a link to your site by inputing your site’s URL as if it were a location. As a business, what’s the benefit to checking in anyway? Drop your URL as a location and you’ll create a easy backlink that will carry forward throughout much of the social media universe.
4. Lastly, share the image to your social sites and email list! This will generate valuable backlinks on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and even in e-mail.

For example, we might post this photo on here, but we’ll use it on Facebook to link to this blog post:

TIP: Photos from your Instagram Web Profile photos can easily be pinned to Pinterest, but that’s a topic for another day.

You see how this works? This is why we like to refer to Instagram as the “social media command center.” It’s a great way to easily boost your visual presence on the web, while also building valuable SEO.

The take-away: don’t stop thinking about original content after you write your post. Everything you upload to your site, including the pictures, needs to be original to earn that Google ranking.