But how do you choose the best digital marketing agency? What kinds of things should you look for? And what is going to make one agency stand out from the crowd over the others?

What does the Agency’s Website Tell You?

An agency’s website should be your first source for information. Their site should tell you a lot of background info before you even get around to talking with someone.  The website should highlight their core competencies, what they feel that they do best. What are your primary needs for your business? Does the agency explain these things on their website?

You want to do your homework on a company before you ever even get to the point of speaking with a salesperson. Their website should be an integral part of that. What a company highlights on their website is going to give you a good and feel of what they do best.

Really Talk with Your Current Agency

If you are already working with an agency and trying to decide whether you should find a different one, this should really be one of your first steps.

When you are an existing client, often that agency does not want to disappoint you. Sometimes this may lead to them saying yes to requests they may not really be able to fulfill. They end up making promises they know they can’t keep.

It has more to do with a company trying to do everything they can to make a client happy, and sometimes some digital agencies will take on more than they can really handle. Find out if this is the case for your agency.  Find out if there is any way of reconciling the differences, or if it is best that you look elsewhere.

Make your expectations clear from the beginning. That way, if what you are looking for is beyond their area of expertise, they can be up front about that.

Do Your Homework

Try to have some information and be familiar with an agency before you approach them. Do they list other clients they have worked with on their website? Reach out to them if you can. Find out what they feel the company’s strengths and weaknesses are.  What do they do well? Is this in line with what you are looking for?

How are their search rankings?  And some companies will leave reviews right in the search rankings. What are other people saying about this agency? Does it sound like their skills are in line with your expectations?

Check References

This goes hand in hand with doing your homework. You can always ask for references. Who have they already worked with? Who are they working with now?  What makes them stand out and shine among the many different options that you have?

Once you are armed with all this information, you will be better equipped to make a decision.

Have and Be Clear About Your Expectations

The digital marketing agency you choose needs to be your partner in promoting your businesses and your goods or services.  How much time are you willing to put into the partnership? How much are you willing to spend? What skills does your current team have? What skills do they lack?

Don’t make rash impulse decisions. Be sure that you think through what you are looking for and what you need. Think critically about the questions above and know what you are looking for.

What are Your Marketing Requirements?

Do you know what exactly is it that you need? What are you looking for the agency to do?

Some examples might include:

• Web design and development services
• Content creation and writing services
• Maintaining an updating a business blog
• Do you need an SEO consultant?
• Does your business need a fresh and new website?
• Are you in search of social media services?
• Are you looking for local SEO services?

These are just a few examples. Your list may look very different, or be more extensive. Objectives in outsourcing your marketing could include brand awareness, making sure that your branding is consistent, or even increasing traffic to your website, as well as other avenues. Increasing sales leads may be a significant focus for you.

These steps and tips are going to get you heading in the right direction. There are hundreds of different digital marketing agencies out there. However, not all are going to meet the needs of every business out there. If they did, there wouldn’t be so many different options. The most critical steps are going to be that you need to be clear about what you are looking for and do your homework. Don’t act without thinking.

For any questions on learning more about our digital marketing services, you can contact our seo portland team today…503-933-6950!

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By now, many of us have heard that Google is more and more into web content being readable. Their latest algorithm is based more on human behavior. When humans have a hard time reading your web page content, they tend to bounce off quickly!

So, the relevance of writing good readable content, not only appeals to Google, but all your visitors as well.

Let’s take a look at how good readability can be achieved and how this helps for stronger SEO.

Make sure your content is readable at least for an 8th grade student
(yes you heard it right)

There are several readability tests out there. One of the more popular ones would be the Flesch–Kincaid grade level test. The formula base for the grade level readability can be seen below:

Based on an expert SEO opinion by Yoast, your Flesch–Kincaid readability score should be at least 60. The equivalent of an 8th grader. An even higher score is totally recommended.

If you run your website on WordPress, you are a fortunate one here. Yoast has a fabulous SEO plugin that has a Readability page score nicely built in. You can get a real time score while writing your articles for the following:

• Flesch Reading Ease test score percentage
• Percentage of sentences containing more than 20 words (recommended maximum 25%)
• The amount of words under each sub heading does not exceed 300 words
• None of the paragraphs are too long
• Percentage of sentences containing transition words (recommended minimum 30%)
• Percentage of sentences that contain passive voice (recommended maximum 10%)

Passive Voice: What is it?

Passive voice produces a sentence in which the subject receives an action.

Transition Words: What are they?

First of all, transition words are used to connect one idea to another. They are used to create a relationship in a sentence.

Yoast offers a premium plugin which gives you even more options for your readability page testing. Head on over there and check it out!

Another awesome readability tool we use…Readable.io

readable.io really does a thorough job analyzing the readability for your web pages. You can also submit just your text if you are writing your article in a text document. Most of all, their powerful tools analyze three different areas:

Readability Grade Levels – Readability Scores – Text Quality

First of all, not everyone is a perfectionist, including myself, but from using these tools from readable.io, I have a completely different perception for writing a highly readable blog article.

Head over to the readable.io blog for some very useful information on all the factors that go into writing great readability articles.

They offer a current monthly subscription for only $5 to use all their fabulous tools…which is a steal, in my mind.

What have we learned so far…and few more tips

• Write short sentences – keeping most under 20 words
• Keep paragraphs short – 3 to 5 lines is ideal
• Mix your paragraphs and sentences up well making for cohesive white space
• Make sure the amount of words under each sub heading is less than 300 words
• Keep your Flesch Reading Ease score above 60 at a minimum
• Don’t start a sentence with the same word 3 times in a row
• Include transition words in your sentences for the recommended minimum of 30%
• Make sure your sentences use passive voice under the recommended maximum 0f 10%
• Be mindful of not using too many syllables in words and sentences
• Stray away from long technical words and technical jargon

Wrapping Things Up

I have delved into the aspects that make good blog articles readable from the stand point of what Google is currently wanting. This holds up for the current year of 2019. The Google web search is based more on semantic search, focusing on the searcher’s intent. Any experienced SEO Consultant will agree on the importance of great readability for your website content.

Related article: 15 TACTICS TO OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE FOR HIGHER SEO RANKINGS FOR 2019

Using strong readability skills for article writing, will play really well with Google search and better indexing! It is not officially a ranking signal, but when you think about it, Google’s Rank Brain is emulating human behavior, and as humans, we tend to be engaged with reading articles that are easier on the eyes and mind.

For any questions on content marketing and readability, feel free to contact us at Designatude.

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So… what exactly is evergreen content?

Evergreen content is a term that you may have heard bandied about in blogging circles for a while now. Any web design expert will tell you that “evergreen content” has become a common practice included in their content strategy and blog writing.

To sum it up as simply as possible, evergreen content is always going to be relevant throughout time. This post, for example, could be considered evergreen content. It will always be considered current, relevant and of importance to your readers.

The word “evergreen” is usually associated with Evergreen trees. These are Pine or Fir trees. These trees always retain their leaves and pine needles throughout the seasons, unlike many of the other trees that shed their leaves prior to winter time. This term has fit perfectly for “evergreen content”, as the content will last for all 4 seasons, and years beyond that.

An example of what could be a good ‘evergreen topic’ for an article is: “What exactly is SEO?”. There is a firm definition for the acronym ‘SEO’ – ‘Search Engine Optimization‘ and what this actually means. On the other hand, if a user searched “Best Practices for SEO in 2018”, the article would have to be specific for the current year and any updates for SEO during that current time.

When the year 2019 comes along, then the “Best practices for SEO 2018” article is deemed irrelevant, outdated, and of no longer good use for the reader.

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In this day and age of content marketing, everyone is striving to create the best web content they can.

But what makes for the best content out there? How can you make sure your content is meaningful and original?

How can you be sure you aren’t just duplicating the ideas that everyone else has already put out there ad nausaeum?

What makes content “duplicate content”

Does it appear in more than one place? If so, then it’s duplicate content. In other words, more than one web address or URL. This can negatively impact search results. It doesn’t always, but it can.

Why is duplicate content a big deal anyway?

Well…there are a few reasons:

• Search engines won’t know which to include. They get confused.
• They also won’t know which one to rank.
• It can affect traffic for site owners.
• Link equity gets diluted.
• You don’t get the visibility you want or deserve.

Did you know?

That if your site has different URLs both with and without the “www.” prefix, and the content lives on both pages, then you have effectively duplicated your own content and diluted your own results? This is something you may want to be careful of.

Ask yourself what value your content holds

Do you provide information that people are going to want to read? It really doesn’t matter if it’s a blog or an online magazine or some other type of site. Do people want to read it?

Don’t just shove in keywords

You’re going to just look silly if you do. Let the keywords come naturally. If the keywords don’t flow with the readability, your readers will be able to tell. And so will Google.

Don’t just infodump – Engage the reader as well

If you are just shoving information at your reader without it being something that they can connect to and engage with, they are not going to stick around.  There is a fine line between your content writing being informative and it being so info heavy that your readers fall asleep.

But how can I make sure I always have meaningful content?
Writing is hard work!

First, you must make sure you define meaningful, and this can get tricky because it is going to differ by each individual.  Some basic ideas for content writing:

• Unique, original, and relevant
• People can take something away or get something out of your page
• Users can find a way to connect with the content that they find on your site
  • Engaging photos
  • Infographics
  • Videos
  • Engaging content that keeps them reading until the very last word

Some content strategy tips:

1.) Keep your content visually appealing. Don’t go overboard with the graphics or anything but keep the format and styling of your content in a manner that is pleasing to the eye for your readers and easy for them to read.

2.) You can always poll your readers and ask them what kind of content they want to see more of and then create posts based off their suggestions.

3.) Brainstorm with other bloggers or content writers for post and content ideas.

4.) Take on a guest writer. This allows for a unique perspective and keeps the content fresh without letting yourself get burnt out.

5.) Interview someone in a relevant field to what you write about or what your readers like to read about. Coming up with a few questions for someone to answer takes far less time than writing an entire post.

6.) Case studies can provide some meaningful content because they can provide a lot of information. There can be good case studies and bad case studies.

7.) Review stuff. Pick a thing or a service and write about it. What did you like? What did you not like? Give enough detail so that people can make an informed decision. But if it is a book or movie, don’t spoil the plot for others.

8.) Share your success. Tell people how you got to where you are. But try to avoid boasting. You don’t want to sound like a braggart.

9.) Share failures. What were your biggest challenges? And what did you learn from those challenges? What would you do differently if you could go back and do it over again?

10.) Check Google for what’s hot and trending right now and write about it. Look into learning more from a professional and perhaps they can provide some SEO services and help you might need.

When all else fails, some of these tips might help jump-start your creativity.

• Take a walk and clear your mind.
• Tell a personal story. But be careful not to implicate or embarrass someone else.
• Expand your cultural horizons. Explore something about a different culture that you didn’t know about. Try a new food, listen to music in a different language.

The most important thing is to make sure that your thoughts are your own. It’s okay to take inspiration from what other people are doing or to research your topics, but make sure that you check yourself to be sure you are not plagiarizing content from other sites.

There are a lot of great tools out there to help you with this and you can find those with a simple Google search. If you want to reference something from another site, be sure to give credit where credit is due.

Above all else, make sure that you are connecting with your readers. That is the biggest step to creating engaging and meaningful content, and what is going to keep your readers coming back time and time again. Our Portland web design team can get you started on the right path for creating an optimal content strategy that works well for your business niche.

Related article: 15 TACTICS TO OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE FOR HIGHER SEO RANKINGS FOR 2019

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