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The Blog
November 5, 2015
Guide to Getting Started With Content Marketing
“Do you do SEO?” If this is one of the first questions you’re thinking about asking us here at Alt Creative, you’re in good company. We hear it all the time! But while SEO is certainly an important part of any marketing strategy, it’s not something that’s best done on its own. Sure, you can lace a few good keywords into your web copy, but the search engines are far more likely to find you if you’ve got a vibrant, relevant and frequently updated blog and social media feed.
The real question you should be asking is, “How do I create a killer content strategy?”
November 2, 2015
Why You Should Enable Blog Comments
The internet is a playground for commentators. Now more than ever, the average guy or gal has the power to share their thoughts and amass a following. But alongside fame comes infamy, and it’s becoming harder for busy bloggers to fish through the internet’s growing infantry of spammers and trolls.
Blogging has become a powerful tool for people to share their knowledge and help others grow. In a sense it is the new wave of learning, thrusting people who might otherwise never leave their hobby room into the limelight. Still, the problem with popularity remains: it is fickle, and for the boldest bloggers, scarce. Most creators fear nothing more than criticism, and it seems like many of the biggest and brightest bloggers have decided to boycott it altogether.
The question of whether enabling blog comments honors bloggers’ time and energy has sparked widespread debate in recent months, as big name bloggers like Matt Gemmel, Everett Bogue and the Copyblogger team have started preaching the benefits of going comment free. Others are not so convinced that it’s a wise decision to eliminate the democratic and interactive process that makes the web 2.0 such a great place to communicate.
October 26, 2015
10 Tips for Small Business Productivity
What is the most important thing a small business needs?
Most business owners say that time is the answer. As a small business owner, you will always long to have extra hours in the day and a third hand. But time is one thing that you cannot produce or manufacture. Running a small business requires you to play a variety of roles. You are the inventor, creative head, marketing executive, business development team, the IT department and the human resource who has to focus on people management and more. You will always be in search of the right strategies to attain you entrepreneurial goals.
A pain point in running a small business is managing productivity. One way to better manage productivity is to better manage the time you have allocated for your work. Here are 10 tips that can help you and your employees increase productivity.
October 9, 2015
How to Write SEO-Friendly Web Copy
Once upon a time, the only thing that mattered in writing SEO-friendly web copy was zeroing in on a keyword or two and repeating them ad nauseum. It didn’t matter if doing so made your page utter nonsense. In fact, some tricksters profited by publishing pages featuring a white background with keywords also in white, so no human eyes would be the wiser to the mischief happening there. It was pretty much the worst thing to happen to ideas and intelligent thought since the invention of reality TV. (Not that I don’t watch insane amounts of Big Brother and Top Chef, but let’s call it like it is here, people).
Google, however, has become increasingly savvy at punishing bad content with each new release of its search engine. Now, rather than rewarding a site in the search rankings for being filled to the brim with irrelevant keywords, Google punishes them. This is good for the most part — hey, who wouldn’t like any move to privilege intelligent reading material over spam — but even well-meaning small business owners just looking to get found online can get pinged if they’re not keeping up to date with the latest SEO best practices.
So what can you do to ensure your web copy and blog content is up to SEO-snuff? Let’s take a look.
September 10, 2015
Navigating the Freelance and Small Biz Galaxy
No one said working for yourself would be easy. As the owner of a small business, I can tell you first hand that it takes a lot of work! Depending on the size of your venture, you may find yourself wearing many hats.
August 20, 2015
Your New WordPress Site is Up! Now What?
The web design & development process can be stressful, so once your new site is launched, it is easy to think, “Okay, I am done!”. Here’s the thing though, you’re not done. After investing your time and resources in the launch of your new site, you’re going to need to maintain it so you can keep site visitors returning (and hopefully converting) to your site.
August 1, 2015
WordPress Categories vs Tags: What’s the Difference?
We get this question a lot: “When organizing my WordPress posts, should I use categories or tags… or both?” The answer is not as complicated as you might think.
There are several benefits to using tags and categories. Grouping your posts by category or tag can help users navigate your website, discover new content, and better understand the value of your content. Additionally, tags and categories can actually help drive traffic to your website. At first glance, these two grouping mechanisms can seem very similar, but they do have some very distinct differences.
June 30, 2015
Why Updating Your WordPress Site Is Crucial
The WordPress software is constantly being updated to allow for functional improvements and fix issues that could put your site at risk. We update WordPress versions for all of our maintenance customers on a monthly basis because we’ve seen what can happen to outdated WordPress installations.
May 5, 2015
A Quick Guide to Website Security
If you have a website, you need to secure it. You might think, “Nah, I’m just a small business. I am not on a hacker’s radar.” Not true. Hackers don’t always go for the big fish.
It’s easy to say that you need strong website security, but it’s tough to know how to implement it, especially if you’re a beginner. If you don’t understand the particulars of creating a secure site, find someone who can explain the most important parts to you, and make sure you have a reliable host that can protect your site.
There are some basic things you can do, though, that will start you on your way to making sure your website is as secure as is possible that aren’t hard to understand at all. Read More
January 25, 2015
Top 3 Website Updates You Need to Make Now
In presidential politics, there’s one saying that rules them all: “As Iowa goes, so goes the nation.” In the SEO, marketing, content, and really, the entire business worlds, the saying is more like, “As Google goes, so goes theentire globe.” In fact, when Google announces a future date for their next algorithm release, discussion boards and industry blogs explode with nervous speculation about what the changes will do to the online health of their brand. And it’s no wonder, as a single Google update can instantaneously move a brand from the first page of search results to a less than ideal location 15 pages in.
But you needn’t let Google algorithm updates take you by surprise. In preparation for Google’s April 21st new release, we’re offering our best tips both for getting your site ready, and for ensuring you’re following the best practices already in place.