Why Your Mobile Site Needs Google AMP

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.0.66″ transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” _builder_version=”3.0.66″ src=”https://rothstokes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/AMP-main-image-01.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” sticky=”off” align=”center” always_center_on_mobile=”on” border_style=”solid” force_fullwidth=”off” animation=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” /][et_pb_text admin_label=”Title” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” header_font=”Droid Serif||||” text_font=”Droid Serif||||” text_font_size=”18″ header_font_size=”46px” custom_padding=”20px|||”]

Why Your Mobile Site Needs Google AMP

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Byline | Date” _builder_version=”3.0.66″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font=”Roboto Condensed||||” border_style=”solid” text_letter_spacing=”2px” custom_padding=”13px|||” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” saved_tabs=”all”]

by MATT STOKES | MAY 6, 2016

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]

Studies show that 40% of people browsing the internet on their phones will leave a website if it doesn’t load within three seconds. Three seconds! That’s why it’s so important to optimize your site to load quickly on mobile phones.

You don't want your website to look so 2003...
You don’t want your website to look so 2005…

The problem is that much of the web is still stuck in the pre-smartphone era. Websites designed for desktops, with their slideshows, ads, and sidebars, struggle to fit onto a small screen. What’s more, web developers usually load other elements onto the page that the user can’t see, such as tracking codes to determine how the user found the site. All of this clutter makes the page even slower and clunkier to use on a phone than on a computer.

Clearly then, optimizing your site for mobile use is absolutely crucial. To help web developers, Google has rolled out a project called Accelerated Mobile Pages, or Google AMP. AMP is, essentially, HTML code that web developers add to each page on their site to make the page’s content load almost instantaneously on a mobile device—think of it as creating an instant “printer-friendly” page for users.

AMP-optimized pages
AMP-optimized pages

AMP is an “open-source” project, which means that it is free for users and dependent on users to add to and manage it. Learning how to incorporate it into your website is important not just because you want your users to have the best experience visiting your website, but because Google will prioritize sites that are AMP-optimized in its search results. In other words, if you don’t optimize your site for AMP, your site could lose traffic because it could fall beneath AMP-optimized sites in the results of a Google search.

This post, without AMP and with it
This post, without AMP and with it

As mobile becomes the dominant way we consume the internet, staying on top of mobile optimization trends has never been more important.

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

Search Engine Optimization vs. Search Engine Marketing

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.0.66″ transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” _builder_version=”3.0.66″ src=”https://rothstokes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Paid-v.-Organic-2.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” sticky=”off” align=”center” always_center_on_mobile=”on” border_style=”solid” force_fullwidth=”off” animation=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” /][et_pb_text admin_label=”Title” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” header_font=”Droid Serif||||” text_font=”Droid Serif||||” text_font_size=”18″ header_font_size=”46px” custom_padding=”20px|||”]

Search Engine Optimization vs. Search Engine Marketing

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Sub-heading” _builder_version=”3.0.66″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font=”Droid Serif||||” border_style=”solid” text_font_size=”24″ custom_padding=”10px|||” text_line_height=”1.1em” header_font=”Droid Serif||||” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff”]

They are actually very different things.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Byline | Date” _builder_version=”3.0.66″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font=”Roboto Condensed||||” border_style=”solid” text_letter_spacing=”2px” custom_padding=”13px|||” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” saved_tabs=”all”]

by LACI ROTH | MAY 2, 2016

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” header_font=”Droid Serif||||” text_font=”Droid Serif||||” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]

What’s the difference between Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM)? Both fall under the umbrella of digital marketing, and though they are often confused with each other, they refer to starkly different things. The easiest way to think about how they are different is one word: advertisements.

Organic Results & Paid Results

When you conduct a search on a search engine, the results you see can be divided easily between Organic Results and Paid Results.

Paid v. Organic

Paid Results appear at the very top of search results as well as in a column on the right-hand side of the screen. Everything else is Organic Results.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

SEO aims to make your website more attractive to search engines like Google, so that you appear as high as possible in the Organic Results.

If, for example, you own a pet store in New Orleans, you want your store’s website to appear at the very top of the list when somebody searches for the phrase “pet store New Orleans.” SEO will write the content on your website to be more attractive to search engines, and help you rise organically in the results.

What is Search Engine Marketing?

SEM involves purchasing a spot on the Paid Results section of a search. If you own that same pet store in New Orleans, you could purchase a Paid Result spot on the search results for “pet store New Orleans.” Your site would appear in the right-hand column or above the Organic Results.

How are they similar? 

Both SEO and SEM require a deep understanding of a similar body of knowledge—search terms, geography, and consumer behavior, to name just a few. Picking one over the other involves trade-offs—do you want to invest your marketing budget into Paid Results, or into an SEO analyst’s labor to try to get you better Organic Results? Do users trust Paid Results or are they likely to skip over them?

Both play an important role in a company’s digital marketing strategy, and a comprehensive marketing strategy will involve both. But for a company on a more limited budget, careful consideration must be given to what it wants to achieve and how it wants to achieve it.

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

How to Get People to Actually Read Your Emails

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.0.66″ transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” _builder_version=”3.0.66″ src=”https://rothstokes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Dont-Do-Email-Like-This.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” sticky=”off” align=”center” always_center_on_mobile=”on” border_style=”solid” force_fullwidth=”off” animation=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” /][et_pb_text admin_label=”Title” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” header_font=”Droid Serif||||” text_font=”Droid Serif||||” text_font_size=”18″ header_font_size=”46px” custom_padding=”20px|||”]

How to Get People to Actually Read Your Emails

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Byline | Date” _builder_version=”3.0.66″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font=”Roboto Condensed||||” border_style=”solid” text_letter_spacing=”2px” custom_padding=”13px|||” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff”]

by MATT STOKES | APRIL 29, 2016

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” header_font=”Droid Serif||||” text_font=”Droid Serif||||” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]

Whether you’re sending out a newsletter, doing some email marketing, or just trying to get a colleague to respond to you, you’ve surely experienced the perils of writing an email. How do you say the exact right thing, in the exact right way, to get the exact response you’re looking for?

The art of crafting the perfect email is, well, just that—an art. There is no science behind it, and different people respond to different things. Still, there are some easy steps you can take to send more effective emails.

Remember the Reader

Keep in mind that nobody else will be in the same frame of mind as you when they read your email. We may live in a world where everyone’s on the clock, but that doesn’t mean we’re all paying equal attention. Your recipient may see your message while he’s dealing with his kids, or driving, or cooking dinner. He might not take everything in, or he might send a one-word reply that triggers unnecessary follow ups.

It’s important, then, to keep two things in mind when you’re writing and sending out emails:

It’s a cliché for a reason: Clear, Concise, & To the Point

As a writer, I can tell you that it pains me to delete my precious words (including these!). But editing yourself, removing unnecessary, extraneous, redundant, or superfluous language (See, I could’ve just said unnecessary.) is critical.

Grab the reader’s attention by showing why the email is important to her.

Make the action items very clear to her, so she knows what you need from her. Highlighting action items is even better.

Snip20160429_42

And most importantly, avoid data dumps. A data dump is a strategy used in litigation by lawyers who have to hand over documents to their opponents and they know there’s one smoking gun document in there they don’t want the other side to see—so they bury it among 100,000 others, hoping it’ll never be found. People will do the same thing in emails, explaining in great details that tend to distract rather than clarify.

So Much Data

Another useful cliché: Timing Is Everything

We’ve all gotten an email late at night, skimmed it, and then completely forgotten about it. That email might as well have never existed. And while some have a great system of flags, stars, and labels to keep track of everything, most people will only put out the email fires right in front of them.

Keep this in mind when sending an email to somebody—it might not be a great time for them. Scheduling emails to send later will be a great help with this problem. Most email clients (including Gmail and Outlook) have a “send later” feature. Think about when your recipient is most likely to respond to or take action on your message, and schedule it to be sent then. For example, rather than send an email at 10:30 at night, schedule it to be sent at 9:15 the next morning, so it arrives just as your recipient has settled in at work for the day.

Bonus Tip: Enable “Undo Send” 

If you’re like me, you always forget to say something in your email and then remember it one second after you’ve hit Send. “Undo Send” is a feature available on most email clients (including Gmail and Outlook) that will let you to “recall” an email, stop it from being sent, for a period of time after you’ve hit the send button.

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

Third-Party Keyboard Apps Will Boost Your Productivity

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.0.66″ transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” prev_background_color=”#000000″ next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.0.66″ src=”https://rothstokes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Keyboard.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” sticky=”off” align=”center” always_center_on_mobile=”on” border_style=”solid” force_fullwidth=”off” animation=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” animation_style=”none” animation_duration=”1000ms” animation_intensity_slide=”50%” show_bottom_space=”on” /][et_pb_text admin_label=”Title” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” header_font=”Droid Serif||||” text_font=”Droid Serif||||” text_font_size=”18″ header_font_size=”46px” custom_padding=”20px|||” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”]

Third-Party Keyboard Apps Will Boost Your Productivity

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Byline | Date” _builder_version=”3.0.66″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font=”Roboto Condensed||||” border_style=”solid” text_letter_spacing=”2px” custom_padding=”13px|||” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” saved_tabs=”all”]

by MATT STOKES | APRIL 27, 2016

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text background_layout=”light” header_font=”Droid Serif||||” text_font=”Droid Serif||||” use_border_color=”off” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial” _builder_version=”3.0.105″]

For most people, smartphones are basically an extra appendage. But we get so used to them that it’s easy to not notice ways to improve even their most basic smartphone functions. Among those most basic functions? Typing. Third-party keyboard apps (keyboards that do more than the default keyboard on your phone, that you’ll have to get through your app store) can make a pretty huge difference when it comes to typing on your phone.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Read the rest” _builder_version=”3.0.105″ background_layout=”light” text_font=”Droid Sans|700|||||||” text_letter_spacing=”2px” custom_padding=”13px|||” use_border_color=”off” saved_tabs=”all”]

READ THE REST on LinkedIn

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

How Marketing Analytics Help You Understand Your Customers

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.0.66″ transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.0.105″ src=”https://rothstokes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Chemist-01.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” sticky=”off” align=”center” always_center_on_mobile=”on” border_style=”solid” force_fullwidth=”off” animation=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” show_bottom_space=”on” /][et_pb_text admin_label=”Title” background_layout=”light” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” header_font=”Droid Serif||||” text_font=”Droid Serif||||” text_font_size=”18″ header_font_size=”46px” custom_padding=”20px|||” _builder_version=”3.0.105″]

How Marketing Analytics Help You Understand Your Customer

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Byline | Date” _builder_version=”3.0.105″ background_layout=”light” text_font=”Roboto Condensed||||” border_style=”solid” text_letter_spacing=”2px” custom_padding=”13px|||” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff”]

by MATT STOKES | NOVEMBER 9, 2015

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text background_layout=”light” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” header_font=”Droid Serif||||” text_font=”Droid Serif||||” text_font_size=”18″ _builder_version=”3.0.105″]

Marketing, at its essence, is the study of markets. One of the most important things you can do to grow your business is to better understand the market that exists between you and your current clients.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Read the rest” _builder_version=”3.0.105″ background_layout=”light” text_font=”Droid Sans|700|||||||” text_letter_spacing=”2px” custom_padding=”13px|||” use_border_color=”off” saved_tabs=”all”]

READ THE REST on LinkedIn

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]