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Consumers are now used to interfacing with things in bits, bytes and and bite-sized chunks. When it comes to reeling in a broad audience, marketers are using vanity URLs to do exactly this by shortening lengthy, confusing URLs into readable and accessible links. What are Vanity URLs? Vanity URLs: Are short and clean, easy to remember and easy to read website URLs Are seen as more trustworthy than long links and perform better in terms of clicks Can increase rankings on search engines if keywords are embedded in them Can be monitored so that you can track where traffic is coming from, and which advertisements or platforms are performing best What are The Two Types of Vanity URLs? Vanity URLs are very useful for a variety of purposes, but depending on the need they can be utilized in two places within a URL. A subdomain (prefix) occurs at the beginning of a URL (e.g. xyz.college.edu) while a subfolder (suffix) occurs … Continue reading
Posted in: Higher Education Marketing, vanity URLs
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Achieving Google page 1 rankings is the road to prosperity for brands. Since 90% of the users never go beyond page 1 of Google search results, and Google now commands close to 90% of global searches, getting on page 1 is critical for brands. These Google page 1 rankings are also a critical foundation for the emerging voice search arena. I’ll first provide a little background on how Google’s algorithm works. Then I’ll share some tips on how to get ready for voice search on mobile devices and home gadgets like Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod. Factors That Influence Page 1 Google Rankings Getting on page 1 is not a one and done game. Because Google’s algorithm changes periodically, the strategies for securing page 1 positions must be adapted periodically. In general, Google wants marketers to provide concise, helpful and useful information to all prospects so they can evaluate their options and make their choices. It doesn’t want … Continue reading
Posted in: voice search, voice SEO
Whether we’re working on higher education website design projects or marketing campaigns for colleges and universities, SEO strategy is always central to our thinking. We always start by creating an SEO Keyword Lexicon that guides our content creation and optimization efforts. The Keyword Lexicon includes different types of keywords that a prospective student will use at different stages of their college search process. Here’s an infographic that illustrates the various stages in the search process and the type of keyword used at that stage. Awareness = Reputation Keywords: At the beginning of the college search process, people tend to use broader keywords looking to build awareness about possible options at that time. One way to start the search process is by using reputation keywords – using “top” and “best” keywords as you look for the most reputable solutions. For example, someone searching for MBA programs in Pennsylvania will start their search with keywords like ‘top MBA programs in Pennsylvania’, ‘MBA … Continue reading
Recently Elliance worked with Highmark Insurance Group to launch their new website. As part of all our web design and development projects, whether for insurance or manufacturing companies or higher education institutions, one of the points of distinction that no one ever sees is the SEO work that gets baked into the structure and thinking of the website. Here are some ways SEO is essential to all our web projects: Sitemap optimization: A sitemap is like a blueprint – it defines the structure of the website and provides a map of how the content will be laid out. When we start to think about a sitemap, we focus on the ways people will consume content on the website – how they will search for it and find it, and once they arrive, how they will interact with it. What’s important to note here is that visitors may not come in just through the homepage. Each page becomes a doorway that … Continue reading
Founded in 1998 by two Ph.D. students at Stanford University, Google has risen to become more than just a household name. Today, Google stands strong as an empire, armed with a vast arsenal of products and devices. In 2006, we published an infographic showcasing the three most popular search engines in America. It comes as no surprise that even in 2006 Google came out on top as the clear winner. But what you may find surprising is how this data has shifted further in Google’s favor over the last decade. Below is our original infographic from 2006. The data shows that Google held 46% of the search engine market share, with only Yahoo and MSN proving to be real competitors. One might argue that in search it was still anyone’s game. But that’s not the case today… In 2016, Google held a whopping 77.43% of the global search engine market share. And their only American competitors, Bing and Yahoo (who’s … Continue reading
Posted in: Search Marketing
Elliance recently worked with the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) to brand and develop a new online magazine concept and design called ONS Voice. The ONS digital magazine, partner to a monthly print edition, needed to accomplish several major objectives. As an inbound marketer, I was focused on: Effectively organizing and classifying years of existing content (while establishing a foundation for new content) Ensuring the site performs well in internal search, as well as in Google search Addressing objective one: To begin organizing content, I needed to first review existing articles/stories and place them into groups based on topics. Building these groups was no easy feat; not only was the volume of content I needed to classify massive (good work ONS!), but also cancer is a HUGE topic. I needed to create a reasonably-sized list of groups, which would ultimately function as content topic “tags” within the content management system (in this case, Drupal 8). Building solid content relationships into a … Continue reading
Posted in: responsive web design magazines
I have this love for story — the hear and the tell — the feel that comes from being submersed in a good narrative. I believe that I was born with this hunger for story, driven by a native curiosity to know and see and feel the world around me. That, paired with an unshakable desire and urgency to share with others the stories I’ve discovered, led me to pursue my career as a writer. I’ve always loved the creative freedom that comes with writing — the instinctual aspect of the profession. Almost instantaneously after starting my job at Elliance I began blogging — a service we perform for many of our clients, most often those in higher education, to help them expand their reach and better connect with their target audience. As I began to write, I would find myself in the zone, really getting a good flow going in the copy and focusing on telling a brilliant story. … Continue reading
According to a recent Gallup report, 71 percent of B2B customers aren’t engaged. Meaning, they are readily willing to take their business elsewhere should an opportunity arise. Content marketing, a tactic that is widely used to boost engagement and aid many B2B challenges that underpin this problem — customer centricity, relationship building, strategic positioning, etc. — has hardly worked for B2B marketers, particularly those in midsize and small companies. In fact, according to a recent study by MarketingProfs, only 6 percent of B2B marketers rated their use of content marketing as very effective. Why? The answer lies in a number of factors that hold to be true across B2B companies. B2B marketers lack content production capacity Traditionally, B2B marketers have focused on analytics, sales and quantitative side of marketing to support their customer acquisition strategies, hence not needing superior writing talent. Forced to adapt to the rise of digital marketing, many scrambled to assume the role of content experts, with … Continue reading
Posted in: seo agency for manufacturing
Most people draw a clear line between conventional marketing of products and services, and social marketing, which broadly defined applies marketing principles to change human behavior in order to improve health or benefit society. But what happens when you bring a social issue forward that almost nobody knows even exists — one that goes to the very heart of an American ideal as old as the Declaration of Independence. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. True in countless respects, but not when it comes to gauging a child’s future academic success. Some children simply are born “gifted” or “talented” — and that wealth of talent spreads equally across all segments of the American population, regardless of race, religion, geography or family income. Researchers count about 3.4 million academically gifted American school children in grades K-12 who happen also to be poor. Here is where the story gets interesting. Year after year, grade after … Continue reading
While your faculty and students may have taken the summer off from their college assignments, you know that the work of higher education brand building never ends. Today, and every day, your college brand continues to do its daily work — on your website, social sites and across the continuum of digital and human conversation. As new and returning students unpack in residence halls and faculty reclaim their offices, it’s a good time of the year to ask: What can we do to renew our college brand for the 2014-2015 academic year? We offer five steps forward: 1. Begin investing in first impressions. That could mean redesigning an initial search mailing aimed at rising high school juniors, or rethinking training for new and returning student tour guides. First brand impressions hold great potential — but can also be overlooked. Given the number of campus visits that students (and parents) make, it’s worth preparing your student guides. Can they really translate … Continue reading