One measurement of website success tends to get overlooked a lot in favor of other, bigger numbers like traffic and bounce rate. That measurement is conversion rate, what percentage of visitors to your website convert into a lead. One of the biggest factors when it comes to optimizing your site for higher conversion rates is usability, if users can’t successfully navigate your site how do you expect to get leads out of them?

One way to easily boost your sites usability is to add site search. In a study done by Branded3.com 27 websites were evaluated for conversion data and it was found that “users were more than twice as likely to convert if they used a site search.” Their numbers put the average conversion rate for sites without site search at 2.41% and the sites with site search had a 5.45% conversion rate. Definitely an impressive difference, so there you go site search is apparently very important.

Obviously just throwing site search anywhere on your site isn’t going to get you more conversions, we are talking about usability here after all. Make sure that your site search is at the very top of the page and is featured prominently. Another thing you might want to make sure of is that it works properly. As part of the study Branded3 found that a user is 2.5 times as likely to leave your site if their search turns up nothing. A good way to mitigate loss if a user does happen to find the “no results found” page, is to offer them something else on that page like special offers or top products.

Make sure you also setup site search tracking with your google analytics. Data on what your visitors are searching for can be extremely useful. Especially data on what people are searching for that turns up no results, that way you know where you need to grow your site and add more content.

Original article about site search posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title Using Site Search To Boost Your Sites Coversion Rate.

Facebook has rapidly become one of the biggest players in the SEO field. Weʼve given you tips on how to make social network marketing work for you in the past, but itʼs time for an update. Facebook is implementing a major change by making their new Timeline layout compulsory. In the recent past, users could elect to change from the traditional layout, but as of early August, the social network switched everyone over.

So now, the big question is: What does this mean for my business page?

Thankfully, the change wonʼt be too dramatic, but it does require your attention. Here are a few of the big things you need to go and update as a result of the change:

Cover image: Youʼre cover image is the large graphic that will be the header for your new page. You still have the old profile picture, but the cover image is much bigger, coming in at 851 pixels wide by 315 high. Use this extra space to send a strong message about what it is your company does, but avoid including sales pitches. Itʼs considered tacky to use the space to sell or show pricing. Also, be sure you own whatever image you use. There have already been a few companies in trouble for using images without the proper permissions.

Tabs: Traditionally, you had multiple tabs on your business page that you could assign to whatever you wanted. Now, youʼre limited to four and the first is locked in for photos. These other three tabs are the appropriate place to list your products/services and pricing.

Milestones: Your Timeline has milestones. These should be important events in the life of your business. For the average user, a milestone is something like buying a house or getting married, so make sure youʼre milestones are analogous. A good business milestone is something like opening a new store.

Brand Name and Landing: With Timeline, you have one default landing page, so make sure it looks good. The same goes with your brand name, once you have 100 fans, youʼre not allowed to change it, so make sure you get it right the first time. The upside is that you are immediately granted a vanity URL, so be sure to take advantage of that!

Original article about mandatory Facebook Timeline posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title Facebook Timeline and Your Business

Recently Google started offering vanity URLs for Google Plus. The announcement stated that the vanity URLs will start being rolled out with a few verified users but it will soon become available for all users. Finally this is what many of us have been waiting for with Google+ no more massive strings of numbers in your URL now you can just have a simple short URL like plus.google.com/yourname and this will make Google Plus Marketingmuch more convenient now.

Besides letting you get rid of the number string and add your personal username Google is also dropping the ‘plus’ from the URL to make it even shorter. For example we would be able to change our Google+ URL to google.com/+wikimotive or Wired could use google.com/+wired. This should make it much easier for brands to optimize their Google+ and do better branding, not to mention you can actually write out your profile URL now and it will be recognizable and easy to remember.

Some brands as well as a few famous people have already taken advantage of these new URLs. Among them are Hugo, Ubisoft, David Beckham, and Hugh Jackman. Not to worry though your old link back to Hugh Jackman’s profile will still work as of this writing.  Hopefully Google will continue to forward the old URL scheme to a new one if you set it up, so that you don’t have to go scouring the internet for any Google+ link you may have buried somewhere and change it.

Original Post about vanity URLs for Google Plus posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title Google Plus Introduces Vanity URLs

If youʼre involved in your companyʼs internet marketing, then youʼve probably heard the term, “landing pages”. A landing page, or a lead capture page, is the page that a potential customer arrives at after clicking on an advertisement or other link. The page should be related to the ad or link and also should contain a form for gathering information. A good landing page is the difference between getting a lead and getting a fly-by visitor, so make sure yours are up to snuff.

Our ebook is broken up into three chapters:

Chapter 1: The Principles of Landing Pages
” In this chapter we cover the basics of what landing pages are and what purpose they serve. They may seem trivial on the surface, but landing pages are crucial to any companyʼs internet marketing strategy.

Chapter 2: Building a Landing Page
” In this chapter we go in-depth on what constitutes a landing page. We cover the seven major aspects of their creation so that by the time youʼre done reading, youʼll be able to create pages that will definitely give your leads a boost.

Chapter 3: Conclusion and Resources
” In this chapter we highlight some of the most important facts you should have learned and provide you with resources if you need a little help moving forward with your own landing pages.

So if you want some information on landing pages and how to build them, or just want to compare your existing landing pages to our technique, follow this link to get a free copy of our ebook.

Original article about Wikimotive's Landing Pages ebook posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title Wikimotive’s Landing Page Guide

The purchasing of Twitter followers has become an extremely popular trend. It offers the instant gratification that many people and businesses crave. When someone sees you have a mere handful of followers, they arenʼt likely to believe you have much clout (or Klout, for that matter). When you have thousands–or tens of thousands–of followers, you suddenly start to look a little more reputable.

As we have mentioned before, social media is not just a good way to keep in touch with your customers it’s now crucial to your SEO as well. But just how can you use your social media marketing to help your SEO? We’re going to talk about exactly that, how your social media and SEO can work together to grow your business. As is stands now social signals have already become an important part of how Google ranks your site, but quality links are still the real money maker in SEO strategy. However signs say that social signals are growing in importance and Google has said they will eventually be a much stronger ranking signal than they are currently.

One of the biggest problems with businesses and social media is that their hearts aren’t in it. Usually you get one of three things, businesses who think they’re doing a good job by making 1 or 2 posts a day, others who flood their social media with advertising and otherwise spammy content, and then there are those who are doing nothing at all. Social media was created to allow people to build relationships online with other people, why should the rules completely change when a business is involved. You should be there to build relationships with your customer base not to inundate them with marketing and ads. Make sure you reach out to people, don’t just wait for them to like and share your stuff, go out and like and share their stuff. If you make the relationship between your business and your fans and friends on Facebook a 2 way street you will get much more out of it.

The relationships you build on social media can also help you get more high quality links for your SEO efforts. Reach out to Bloggers or other website owners that you know or want to know. Social media isn’t just about the consumers, you can build some business to business relationships here too. If you build some good reciprocating relationships with these people the opportunities will be endless. To start with you can get more shares and likes which will make you even more visible. Guest blogging opportunities are also excellent for links, whether you have a popular blogger write something on your site or you convince someone to post something you’ve written on their site. This couldn’t be accomplished without first forming a relationship through social media.

Social media is definitely here to stay for the foreseeable future, you might as well start using it properly. No more half-assed efforts and please, for the love of god, no more spammy advertising. If you need help with your social media content or your strategy in general, don’t hesitate to Contact Wikimotive for a free evaluation and advice on how you can improve.

Original article on using social media for SEO was posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title Using Social Media To Effect Your SEO

Pinterest has generally been ignored by the advertising world at large, but the site is making big moves to assert its relevancy. As of last week, the social media website has done away with their invite system.

Pinterest has used the invite model since launch, but it hasnʼt been as talked about as other invite-only services, like the ones Google is always rolling out. At most, people have had to wait a week to get their invite; most others simply got referred from a friend and signed up immediately. Still, the removal of the invite system is indicative of a new direction being taken by the site.

So starting this week, when people navigate to Pinterest, theyʼll see the old “Request an Invitation” replaced by the much more inviting “Sign up now.” It may seem like a small thing, but it will likely result in a boost of the userbase. There are no hard numbers, but we can safely assume that some percentage of visitors saw the invite request and instead navigated away; an additional percentage likely requested the invite and then never followed up. Offering the ability to sign up instantly is a lot more welcoming to new users, as the exclusivity of an invite system wears thin quickly.

The other major change implemented by Pinterest is the default layout. Before the update, users automatically started with boards about products, books, locations, style, and home decor. A quick glance at that list reveals what the site thought to be their main audience–women. With the update, Pinterest now offers four blank boards, allowing users to define the experience for themselves.

These two changes, while not earth-shattering in and of themselves, represent a new direction for the company. They are becoming increasingly open and are clearly looking to broaden their audience; a broader audience means more people to market to. So are you on Pinterest yet? Because you really should be.

Original article about the new Pinterest posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title Pinterest’s Bold New Direction.

Social media represents a new dawn for the marketing industry. The level of interaction it enables between business and consumer is nothing short of revolutionary. Most would agree that this is a step forward; more communication is always preferable to less. However, it is not an avenue of communication that businesses can control, or even truly mediate. Social media creates a dangerous duality, in that it can make or break a business with equal aptitude.

Two brothers have started a boycott against their sister’s former employer, Clay Nissan of Norwood. Their sister, Jill Colter, has stage 4 brain cancer and they claim that she was wrongfully terminated by the dealership. Both sides have taken to social media to garner support, and now the issue is heading to court.

Jill took a two month leave of absence to recuperate from intensive whole brain radiation treatment. Once she returned to work, Jill felt she was completely capable of performing her duties and arrived on time or early every day. Just three weeks after her return, she was terminated. When she inquired about the reason, she was informed, “We are going in a different direction.”

Massachusetts has an At-Will Employment rule. This is defined as an employment relationship in which either party can break the relationship with no liability. However, there is also the U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act, which protects people’s right to take unpaid, job protected leave for as long as 12 weeks. To terminate someone’s employment as a result of illness covered under the FMLA can be regarded as discrimination.

Was Jill a victim of discrimination? Her family certainly thinks so. Her brothers, Jon and Adam Colter, started a Facebook page calling for the boycott of Clay Nissan of Norwood. The story went viral and exploded across the web. Their Facebook page’s about section states: “www.facebook.com/boycottclaynissan went live about five weeks ago. Since then we have received about 15,000 supporters. Private messages are in the hundreds.”

Once Clay Nissan got wind of the boycott page, they released this official statement: “With regard to the campaign against Clay Nissan of Norwood, we understand this is an emotional topic further fueled by misinformation and efforts to block communication from the Clay family. We encourage you to visit ClayFamilyCares.com to learn the truth about our actions. In short, we were aware of the employee’s illness prior to hiring her, and after learning of her firing we invited her back to work at our dealerships.”

According to the Boycott Clay Nissan Facebook page, this statement is far too little, and way too late. The Colters maintain that they received no such offer until the boycott was in effect for over three days, which was initiated about two weeks after Jill was let go. “This is Clay doing damage control, public relation, and spin and more spin,” wrote Adam Colter.

This is not the first time that a Clay dealership has engaged in questionable behavior toward its employees. Clay Nissan’s parent company, Clay Family Dealerships, Inc. was investigated for knowingly failing to pay owed overtime wages to employees. That investigation ended with Clay paying nearly $280,000 in back wages, restitutions and fees.

If Clay had someone competent in charge of managing their social media presence, they would have known about this boycott page the second it went up. Once they knew about it, they could have apologized and moved the entire discussion out of the public eye before it caught fire.

Instead, they have a boycott, a lawsuit, and an ugly blemish on their company’s reputation. But hey, at least things posted on the internet aren’t there forever…right?
Original article about the Boycott Clay Nissan Facebook page posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title The Clay Nissan Boycott

Google recently released guidelines for their Google+ Local Pages, outlining what you can and can’t do with the main picture on your Local page. It is important to stay on top of these announcements from Google, make sure you read over these guidelines to make sure you aren’t hurting your local page, it could have big implications on your SEO.

Photos that are uploaded to Google+ Local Pages should be relevant. Specifically they should:

-Not be graphical logos

-Not be merely text, unless it is relevant to the place, for example the menu of a restaurant.

-Not be copyrighted

-Not be screen shots

-Not have people as the main subject

-Be of respectable quality. Photos that are overly blurry, noisy, rotated, or too dark may be removed

Most of these guidelines make perfect sense to me but a couple struck me as a little odd and slightly too restrictive. Specifically the second to last one “not have people as the main subject.” If your business provides a service to people why would it be a bad thing to show your satisfied customers on your local page. Especially if the service you provide is, lets say, portrait photography. How are you supposed to showcase your skills if photos get taken down.

As always keeping up with Google is extremely important. Whenever they put out a statement like this you can be sure that it will change a few things and probably go against a few things you’re already doing on your page.

Original article about Google+ Local Page Guidelines posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title Google+ Local Page Photo Guidelines.

If youʼre active on social media (and you better be), than recently you may have seen people on your social networks talk about Pinterest. The site is growing rapidly, already ranking above long running sites like LinkedIn. Knowing this, of course the next thing you want to know is if itʼs a good venue for automotive digital marketing. The answer is a resounding, “YES!” And this ebook will teach you how!

Our ebook is broken up into five easy to manage chapters:

Chapter 1: Pinterest, what it is and why itʼs relevant.
In this chapter we give you the basics of how Pinterest operates, including what

differentiates it from every other social network. We also cover how Pinterest can play a pivotal role in increasing your traffic, building your links, and expanding your social media reach across all networks.

Chapter 2: Create an account, garner a following.
In this chapter we walk you through the account setup process at Pinterest. It may

sound too basic, but there are a few things you really need to watch out for when creating a Pinterest account for your business. We also give you a few easy steps to follow to start building a community around your pinboards.

Chapter 3: Pinterest for marketing
In this chapter we get into the meat of the issue: how you can market your business on

Pinterest. Like any social network, Pinterest features a broad array of methods to engage with your target audience. The biggest goal on Pinterest shouldnʼt be direct sales, but gaining recognition and driving traffic; two things Pinterest excels at!

Chapter 4: Good examples
In this chapter we give you examples of companies that are really performing well on

Pinterest. When it comes to social media, you donʼt always have to be a pioneer. There is a real benefit to watching others and seeing what works. The beauty is that you donʼt have to implement every aspect of any one companyʼs strategy. Youʼre free to pick and choose amongst them all, assembling an amalgam that, in the end, is truly your own.

Chapter 5: Wrap-up and resources
In this chapter we summarizing everything weʼve talked about and go over the ROI of Pinterest.

If you’re interested in becoming a Pinterest pro, follow this link to download your copy of our e-book.

Original article about our Pinterest marketing guide posted on Wikimotive's blog under the title The Pinterest Spellbook For Marketing Wizards