Digital Neighbor Recognized Among Tampa’s Top SEO Agencies by DesignRush

At Digital Neighbor, we’re passionate about helping businesses grow through effective digital marketing strategies. We’re thrilled to share that our dedication has been recognized by DesignRush, a leading B2B marketplace connecting brands with top agencies.

Being featured among Tampa’s top SEO agencies is a testament to our team’s hard work and our clients’ trust. We believe in building neighborly relationships, understanding each client’s unique needs, and delivering tailored solutions that drive results.

Why This Recognition Matters

DesignRush evaluates agencies based on service offerings, portfolio, client feedback, and overall performance. Our inclusion highlights our commitment to excellence in:

Customized SEO Strategies: We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all. Our team crafts personalized SEO plans that align with your business goals.
Transparent Reporting: We provide clear, concise reports, keeping you informed every step of the way.
Continuous Improvement: The digital landscape is ever-evolving. We stay ahead by continuously refining our strategies to ensure optimal performance.

Join Our Growing Community

We’re honored to serve businesses in Tampa and beyond, helping them navigate the digital world with confidence. If you’re looking for a partner to elevate your online presence, let’s connect.

Explore our services and discover how we can support your growth.

Eric Ritter

Eric is the conductor of an orchestra here at Digital Neighbor. He knows how all the digital instruments should sound together. When he’s not solving marketing challenges for the neighborhood, Eric is also an adjunct professor at the University of South Florida, where he teaches Digital Media in the Zimmerman School of Advertising and Mass Communications.

Unlike paid search advertising, search engine optimization doesn’t charge you a cost per click, but that doesn’t mean it’s free. You need to invest time and money in SEO to compete effectively for valuable keywords. Like many areas of business, the greater your investment in SEO, the greater the rewards. An SEO return on investment forecast can help you decide how many keywords to target and which audience segments to prioritize.

What Is an SEO ROI Forecast?

An ROI forecast for SEO is an estimate of the results you can reasonably expect from future organic search marketing efforts. Businesses use these forecasts when planning SEO strategies for the next six to 12 months. Predicting your ROI from SEO is part math, part art, and part experience.

Factors That Affect Your SEO Forecast

There’s always some guesswork involved with digital marketing, and SEO is especially hard to predict, simply because there are so many factors to consider:

Your industry and target market
B2C vs. B2B differences
Changes to Google search ranking algorithms
World events/trending topics
How much your competitors invest in SEO

Put simply, SEO trends can change a lot in the six months it takes for your efforts to pay off. That said, as long as you do your homework, SEO forecasting should get you in the ballpark.

Helpful Tools for SEO Forecasting

If this isn’t your first rodeo, you can probably find all the data you need by analyzing Google Analytics and Google Search Console metrics for your website. There are also fantastic SEO research tools — some free and some paid — that display granular details about your traffic, target audience behavior, conversions, and similar details.

How Does SEO Forecasting Work?

Any SEO forecast should start with high-quality research. The process is a lot like panning for gold. From a large volume of possibilities, you extract a smaller result. Then, you repeat the process several times, filtering down to the actual returns on investment.

Now it’s time to show you how to create an SEO ROI forecast step by step.

1. Calculating Organic Traffic

The first step is to calculate how much traffic you can expect from your planned SEO campaign. The calculation for this is total search volume multiplied by your average click-through rate.

Here’s how to gather the information you need:

Create a comprehensive list of the keywords you want to target.
Research each keyword and note its monthly search volume.
Add up the monthly search volume figures for all the keywords, and write down the total (“fig. A”).
Write down your website’s average click-through rate (“fig. B”).
Multiply “fig. A” x “fig. B”.
The result is a good estimate of the traffic you can expect from your efforts.

With Google Search Console, discovering your average CTR is a breeze. There’s a column called “Current CTR” that shows you the average for each keyword. If you use a different tool, calculating CTR means dividing your total impressions by total clicks.

Sort by average rank to see your likely ROI for the top three and top 10 positions. Your average rank has a huge impact on CTR, especially considering that the number one position gets almost 40% of the clicks and the top three capture almost 70%.

2. Anticipating Challenges

The tricky part when it comes to estimating keyword traffic is that not all keywords are made equal. You need to factor in keyword difficulty.

When using keyword research tools, try to gauge the level of KD you’re currently dominating. If you ace KDs of 39, then you can probably expect to get in the top spots for keywords with a KD of 40 to 45.

Depending on how detailed you want your SEO ROI forecast to be — and how many keywords you’re aiming for — you can also look at historical trends for search ranking volatility. Try to target terms that have relatively even performance as opposed to rapidly spiking keywords.

3. Forecasting SEO Leads

Next, calculate what percentage of your traffic will end up converting. At first, this seems easy: Just look at your historical conversion rate, or total leads generated divided by total website sessions.

Unfortunately, SEO conversions are rarely this straightforward — unless you’re sticking to the same keywords as last year. Countless factors come into play:

Content quality
Bounce rate
User Engagement
Target audience needs
Top of funnel versus bottom of funnel
Type of keywords (informational, transactional, etc.)

The closer your target keywords align with your audience’s interests and needs, the higher your conversion rate. You may need to make an educated guess.

4. Predicting Sales

It’s time to dig into your company’s sales statistics. You need to find your average lead-to-sale rate. In other words, the percentage of converting visitors (leads from landing pages, email signups, whitepaper downloads, etc.) who end up becoming paying customers?

The formula is total sales divided by total lead volume, multiplied by 100%. For example, if your capture form generates 200 leads, and 10 become customers, your lead-to-sale conversion rate would be 5%.

Now, take your predicted leads from SEO and multiply them by the lead-to-sale conversion rate. If you estimate that your new keyword strategy is going to bring in 2,000 leads, and your conversion rate is 5%, you can expect about 100 new sales from the campaign.

5. Estimating Revenue From SEO

The last step in your SEO ROI forecast also requires sales data. This time, you want to multiply the number of estimated sales by your average order value. With an AOV of $95, you could expect to make $9,500 from those 100 new sales.

Not sure how to find your AOV? Just divide your annual revenue by your total orders in a year.

What Does an SEO Forecast Look Like in Practice?

It’s easier to understand the steps of an SEO forecast with a practical example. Let’s go through the process one more time with figures from an imaginary business called Example21:

Estimate the total monthly search volume of your target keywords: The new keyword list for Example21 has 300,000 average monthly searches.
Calculate potential traffic based on your CTR: Based on industry data, Example21 estimates a CTR of 6%. That means 300,000 searches x 6% CTR = 18,000 monthly visitors.
Estimate new leads generated: Considering past results, Example21 thinks that a conversion rate range of 3% to 5% is reasonable. So, 18,000 visitors x 3% (or 5%) = 540 to 900 new leads.
Calculate the number of new sales: Example21 has a fantastic 15% ratio of email leads to new sales. SEO can generate at least 540 x 12% = 65 new leads.
Forecast the estimated revenue from the campaign: The AOV at Example21 is $150. With 65 leads, the total revenue would be at least 65 x $150 = $9,750.

All that’s left is forecasting the ROI. The formula is total revenue minus the cost of investment, then divided by the cost of investment. Let’s say Example21 plans to spend $8,000 on the SEO campaign. The ROI would be $9,750 – $8,000 = $1,750 / $8,000 = 22%.

What Trends Affect Your SEO ROI Forecast for 2025?

For your forecast to be accurate, you need to stay up to date with emerging SEO trends.

The Need for E-E-A-T

It seems like every new ranking algorithm update aims to filter out the tide of gen AI spam from articles that show experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). E-E-A-T is part of Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines which assesses the quality of content on websites and is used by manual reviewers to evaluate the success of Google’s algorithm updates.

It’s important because it helps Google minimize misinformation, increase the amount of useful content, source reliable information, and hone in on how people look for information.

The #TLDR: to stand out, you need high-quality content, not just keywords.

Site Crawlability

Search engines are prioritizing websites that deliver a great user experience. Pay attention to technical SEO essentials such as image alt text, clean redirects, and a streamlined sitemap. Spending time on schema markup can help you rank for Google-rich results and SERP features, including image carousels, videos, FAQs, and product reviews.

User Intent More Than Keyword Usage

Search engines are increasingly looking at user intent to rank web pages. That means using keywords naturally and focusing more on answering the questions your audience has with clear information.

Mobile UX and Mobile-First Design

In 2024, over 60% of all internet users were on mobile devices. The time is over for “mobile optimization.” Now, the goal is mobile-first design. Build your content so it’s easy to read and scroll with one hand. Choose images that are expressive, vertical, and quick to load.

Video SEO Optimization

In 2024, Americans spend almost an hour more watching YouTube videos than TV programs. That’s nearly four hours a day on average.

This comes back to how SEO is evolving in 2025. Search rankings are starting to involve how your audience wants to consume content, not how you think they should connect with your business.

To look for video SEO opportunities with good ROI, check which of your target keywords have video carousels. Prioritize video content for those topics.

Make Plans To Maximize Your SEO ROI in 2025

At Digital Neighbor, we believe in quality over quantity. Our professional SEO services never go out of style. Our team can help you adapt to 2025’s trends while prioritizing time-tested strategies. We can help you create an accurate SEO ROI forecast built around the needs of your business and your customers.

Sound like too much? We are your helpful neighbors—let us do it for you! Schedule a call to discover how we can help your pages rise to the top.

Eric Ritter

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9 Steps to a Digital Marketing Strategy Framework

Digital marketing delivers excellent returns on investment for every industry, but marketing costs differ by avenue. Pay-per-click advertising can deliver ROIs of 200% to 800%, but almost half of businesses get the most value from search engine optimization instead. To use your ad budget wisely and maximize ROI, your business needs a digital marketing strategy framework.

What Is a Digital Marketing Strategy Framework?

A digital marketing strategy is a plan that outlines your company’s goals for online advertising, the target metrics you want to achieve, and the steps to reach your objectives. A detailed framework can help you overcome obstacles and make intelligent decisions.

To understand what a digital marketing strategy is and how it works, think of a construction blueprint. Blueprints help you visualize the project, revealing potential problems and showing you what to prioritize for amazing results. Similarly, a marketing strategy framework can make your advertising more valuable, effective, and profitable.

How Do You Create a Marketing Strategy Framework?

Skilled architects create unique blueprints for every construction project. That way, the finished home checks every box on the client’s wishlist. When you build a marketing strategic framework for your business — instead of copying one from a template — you get a better fit for your budget, products, target customers, and business goals.

1. Choose or Review Your Marketing Model

Before you can draw up a detailed digital marketing strategy, map out the broad strokes. Start by choosing a marketing model that offers the best foundation for your campaign objectives:

STP: Segmentation, targeting, and positioning is a customer-centric model that divides your market into target groups and helps you reach each segment with the right message.
Seven Ps: This business strategy focuses on your product, pricing, and promotional options, as well as the places you sell (e.g., e-commerce, brick-and-mortar, or both).
Porter’s Five Forces: This model helps you predict and adapt to advertising challenges from competitors, buyer sentiment, alternative products, market barriers, and other outside forces.
AARRR: The acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, and referral model looks at customer lifetime value and acquisition costs to help you maximize advertising profitability.
Hook: The hook model relies on understanding your audience, such as internal and external triggers, actions, rewards, and the factors that drive brand attachment.

Each model offers pros and cons for different industries. Small businesses may get better results from the STP or Seven Ps strategy. Manufacturers and B2B organizations often use AARRR. Porter’s Five Forces is an excellent choice for highly competitive markets or large urban centers.

2. Define Campaign Goals

Clear goals are like a compass for your digital marketing strategy framework. First, decide the main purpose of the campaign, such as capturing more leads, increasing brand recognition, boosting website traffic, or improving sales.

Set specific digital marketing targets. Examples include:

Reduce bounce rate by 50%
Increase lead generation from landing pages by 20% (or 200 signups)
Lower PPC costs by 25% without lowering traffic
Increase the ratio of qualified leads or conversions from clicks by 20%
Generate $25,000 in e-commerce sales over the next quarter
Rank in the top five for your ten most important search terms

Why are specific figures necessary for the planning phase? They’re the only way your team can measure campaign effectiveness. Performance indicators tell you which avenues deliver the most value for your business.

3. Identify Current Challenges or Problems

Keep your company’s operations in mind when setting digital marketing goals. E-commerce stores have starkly different advertising needs than CNC machining businesses. Well-known brands have resources and search advantages that startups don’t (yet).

Set aside space in your digital marketing strategy framework to list your company’s largest advertising challenges. Here are some common difficulties:

Lots of clicks but few conversions
High bounce rate
Reputational problems because of past employees
Too much competition in the local market
Poor search rankings or low page visits
Difficulty fighting established brands for keywords

All of these issues have solutions. Openly discussing the problems with your current marketing strategy helps you know where to start. Sometimes, the fix is as simple as making web pages load faster or look better on mobile devices.

4. Analyze Target Audience Behavior

Your ad spend has limits, so it’s essential to know where your traffic comes from and which channels drive the most revenue. You can learn a lot by analyzing your target audience’s online behavior. There are many sources of accurate customer data:

Facebook Audience Insights
Google Analytics
Brand surveys
Your CRM or sales software
Website metrics
Social media feedback

You shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket, but if email marketing drives the most conversions for your business, it should be a major pillar in any campaign. On the other hand, if your sales funnel requires informational searches before purchase intent, high-quality content marketing is a must.

5. Create Up-to-Date Solutions

To stay ahead of the pack in a digital environment, your marketing must be agile and attention-grabbing. Don’t underestimate the impact of trends on a customer’s decision-making process:

Social media marketing
YouTube and video content
Storytelling instead of bullet-point benefits
Edgy or irreverent branding
FAQs for web pages

Working with SEO or PPC experts can also help you keep on top of annual changes to search engine best practices or paid search techniques.

6. Set Reachable Objectives

Make sure your digital marketing strategy is reasonable. Don’t pull performance targets out of thin air. Base them on accurate metrics and your organization’s honest capabilities.

For example, small businesses are unlikely to win head-to-head in PPC bids against national brands, but there are cost-effective workarounds. Local SEO or high-value, low-volume keywords can be a game-changer for small business marketing efforts.

7. Plan Effective Content

Attractive content and marketing success go hand in hand, so it makes sense to include content plans in your digital marketing strategy framework. Prioritize the content avenues that are most likely to motivate your target audience:

Blog posts
Landing pages
Social media posts
Buyer’s guides
Long-form articles
Marketing emails

For greater organization, use a separate content calendar and add a link in your marketing strategy framework.

8. Put Your Framework in Writing

A digital marketing strategy is more effective as a document, not just a meeting or brainstorming session. Being able to refer to your strategy (and share it with employees) helps you keep your priorities clear when making marketing decisions. Divide long-term goals into smaller objectives and check them off as your team hits targets.

9. Perform Ongoing Analysis

We recommend reviewing your campaign progress, keyword performance, and website metrics as part of an SEO weekly or monthly checklist. Look at key performance indicators to understand what’s working, what isn’t, and why.

Your marketing strategy isn’t set in stone. Use the information you gather to continually improve your results. Surprises can be good, too, potentially giving you the opportunity to rank high for overlooked keywords.

Does Your Business Need Help Designing a Marketing Strategic Framework?

Creating a digital marketing strategy takes effort, but the returns are impossible to ignore. What if you’re too busy to create or manage marketing? Outsource the heavy lifting. We’re happy to handle planning, optimization, metrics, content, and PPC management.
At Digital Neighbor, we’re experts in digital marketing for small businesses, retail and e-commerce, real estate, healthcare, manufacturing, and many other industries. Explore our case studies to see how a digital marketing strategy framework has helped our customers stand out online. Let our friendly team help you set marketing goals and reach your target audience effectively – get started with a consultation today!

Eric Ritter

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How to Leverage AI in Digital Marketing

How Does Artificial Intelligence (AI) Work?

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is a field of computer science that tries to understand human intelligence through computers. Technology developers build “intelligent” machines that think and respond to information, solve problems, and do technical tasks like a person.

While AI dates back to the 1950s, it gained popularity in the 1980s and began taking the world by storm. From voice search to facial recognition to chatbots, leveraging AI technology opens up automation, effectiveness, and targeted content creation for marketers.

How AI is Changing the Future of Digital Marketing

We live in the digital age. According to Forbes, 84% of marketers now use machine learning technology and artificial intelligence.

AI enables marketers to:

Better understand customers. Meeting customers where they are on their buying journey, in their chosen channel, and leveraging automation are all key benefits of AI.
Leverage hyper-personalization. With specific product and content recommendations, AI “learns” what customers want and provides targeted marketing.
Predict customer behavior. Marketers can create AI-enabled advertising with predictive customer analytics for tailored customer experiences.
Improve the user experience. With an intelligent way of identifying prospective customers and predicting future actions to improve messaging, marketers can use “conversational marketing” with chatbots and virtual digital assistants for enhanced customer service.
Increase marketer productivity. Automated workflows for keyword research, social media marketing, search engine marketing, and pay-per-click (PPC) ads can save exponential time and money. Computer science does the work so you can focus on other priorities.
Monitor effectiveness – automatically. AI allows marketers to receive better data insights to determine what’s working in a marketing campaign strategy.

AI systems deliver more bang for your buck with less effort while boosting customer relationship management, optimizing marketing efforts, and improving the effectiveness of campaigns.

Best of all, AI constantly evolves to enhance productivity by using algorithms.

AI Technology Tools for Digital Marketers

At Digital Neighbor, we were early advocates of integrating AI into SEO strategies to drive competitive advantage.

How do you implement AI-powered tools to ramp up traditional advertising and digital marketing strategies? Here are a few ideas.

Personalized Marketing For Customer Relationship Management

AI personalizes marketing campaigns and messaging based on identifying patterns and trends in customer data, such as browsing or purchasing history. AI can take those insights and re-target customers with chatbots, interactive sites, and emails.

Using AI to personalize marketing campaigns can help improve your marketing’s relevance and impact. A happy customer who gets what they want leads to increased engagement and conversions.

Tools to try: Adobe Target, Lytics

Predictive Analytics For Digital Advertising

AI analyzes customer data to predict their future behavior and eliminate guesswork. This allows marketers to target the right audience at the right time, improving the effectiveness of campaigns to give buyers what they want.

Tools to try: Folloze, Acquisio

SEO Tools that Reach Your Audience & Provide Valuable Insights

AI tools for search engine optimization (SEO) can improve keyword research, optimize your content, identify relevant websites for link building, track performance, and personalize your customers’ experiences.

AI helps with:

Identifying relevant and high-performing keywords through data analysis.
Evaluating your website content to suggest changes for search engine and user relevancy and readability.
Sourcing high-quality websites for link building to boost ranking in Google’s algorithms.
Tracking a website’s performance with insights on improving ranking and visibility in search results.

AI-Powered SERPs

AI tools are at the forefront of digital marketing players, too. AI can now work behind the scenes to optimize search engine page results (SERPs). In January 2023, Microsoft announced the integration of OpenAi’s ChatGPT into its Bing search engine by the end of March 2023.

Using AI in SEO can help businesses save time, improve the efficiency of their efforts, and ultimately drive more qualified traffic to their website. Given Microsoft’s challenge to Google’s seat as the reigning champion of search engines, it’s likely the industry will see more AI!

Tools to try: Google’s RankBrain, Lumar (rebranded from DeepCrawl), SEMrush, Surfer SEO, MOZ Pro, Ahrefs

Targeted Content Creation Through Automation

Intelligent AI writing bots like ChatGPT produces original content using algorithms to understand the tone and style of a brand and automatically generate social media posts, blogs, or email marketing campaigns.

While AI can’t replace humans in the writing process, AI tools are growing in capabilities. They can even check for plagiarism as well. Our content creators at Digital Neighbor used AI-powered ChatGPT and Surfer SEO in the creation of this blog.

When it comes to images, Canva and Adobe Sensei can generate images and videos based on specific inputs and parameters. You simply type in what you want to see, and poof! The idea comes to life.

Tools to try: ChatGPT, Articoolo, Wordsmith, Jasper AI, SurferSEO

Targeted Image & Video Recognition

You can also use AI to analyze images and videos for website content optimization to improve your website’s visibility and ranking in search results. The analysis process can target advertising more specifically. For example, you could use image recognition to target outdoor gear ads for hiking enthusiasts who have recently posted social media images of themselves camping or pitching a tent on a mountain.

Image and video recognition are also great for customer service, allowing customers to upload pictures of products and receive information or assistance related to those products.

Tools to try: CloudSight, Clarifai

Email Marketing Made Easy Through Automation and Customization

So much email these days gets marked as junk. AI can help marketing teams optimize email marketing effectiveness and efficiency by harnessing the mounds of data generated from email marketing campaigns. You can optimize the send times, craft more targeted campaigns, and even email customized newsletters.

AI algorithms can understand the tone and style of your brand as well as help to ensure that your emails reach your target audience and don’t get marked as SPAM. It can also analyze content – for example, you can assess the effectiveness of different subject lines to use the best ones for your emails. Additionally, it can spare you from culling your email lists by cleaning up out-of-date contacts from your databases.

Tools to try: Lyne.ai, Magic Sales Bot, Conversion.ai (now owned by Jasper), Snazzy.ai, Lavender’s AI, SmartWriter.ai, Lola AI, Seventh Sense, Drift

Optimizing Your Site for Voice Search and Voice Virtual Assistants

Optimizing your content marketing for voice search and voice-based virtual assistants is critical, given these technologies are now mainstream.

To ensure that your website is visible in voice search results, you will need to optimize content for long-tail keywords and natural language and ensure that your website is mobile-friendly and has a fast loading speed.

Customers often use voice search for local searches, so optimizing your website for local SEO is essential. This can include claiming your business on local listing websites and optimizing your website for local keywords.

Also, be sure to create content that is optimized for voice assistants like Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Assistant with clear and concise answers to common questions.

Using voice search for digital marketing can improve the visibility and ranking of your website in search results and drive traffic to your website.

Tools to try: Google Analytics, Google Search Console

Human Intelligence and Chatbot Technology

AI-powered chatbots for digital marketing can provide customers with instant assistance on a website or social media platform and drive engagement and conversions.

Chatbots offer much more than traditional customer support. They are an intelligent solution for answering customer questions, identifying prospects, predicting future customer actions, as well as improving your marketing messaging. Chatbots can provide simultaneous support to multiple customers. They also do not need to be trained.

Additionally, you can integrate your bot with website and social media channels to harness omnichannel strategy.

Tools to try: customers .ai, ManyChat, Chatfuel

How Can You Design an Effective AI Digital Marketing Strategy?

Integrating AI technologies into your customer journey and digital marketing can feel overwhelming if you’ve never done it before, but collaborating with a digital marketing agency can help you implement a strategy that drives results. Here are a few tips to get you started:

Try some task automation. Craft automatic email replies or use a simple chatbot for customer service with simple decision trees.
Move to machine learning. Fuel your programmatic buying with online advertising, recommendation engines, and CRMs like Salesforce or Cogito.
Combine machine learning with automated applications. Get the full effect once you have a comfort level with AI technologies and have built your business to a place where it justifies the expense.
Partner with the experts. Teaming up with experienced digital marketing experts can help you maximize AI powerful tools with a cohesive strategy.

A few key pieces to keep in mind: remember that AI is data-fueled, so you’ll need to have some data foundations built to “feed” your AI tech with information. Also, ensure that whatever tools you use comply with privacy, security, and data ownership. Being able to opt out is a biggie here.

Additionally, check in with a digital agency partner on your data analytics tools to keep your AI on track. You need to monitor regularly for what works to maximize the use of your AI tools.

Contact Your Friendly Digital Neighbor Experts Today

Digital Neighbor is a full-service SEO digital marketing agency based in Tampa, Florida. We’re a team of friendly marketers who love bringing Nextgen tech like AI to businesses looking for measurable results. Book a meeting with us today, so we can create a tailored digital marketing strategy for your business!

Eric Ritter

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Mobile Marketing’s Importance in a Connected World

Smart digital content is a great investment for your business, but to get the best results, you have to go where your customers are. In today’s connected world with smartphones and tablets, mobile marketing is everything. To connect with modern customers, hop on board with this global phenomenon that has taken over the world.

Why Use Mobile Marketing?

Mobile marketing helps your business communicate with mobile users effectively. With mobile ads, you can take advantage of innovative marketing opportunities through apps, text messages, notifications, and web content.

Mobile Trends

It’s not an exaggeration to say that smartphones are revolutionary. Mobile apps put power into the hands of consumers, providing access to products, content, games, services, and tools with the touch of a button. From booking flights, ordering food, purchasing clothing, and checking work messages from virtually any location – there’s almost nothing a consumer doesn’t have at their fingertips anymore.

These devices are way more than a tech upgrade. They represent a new lifestyle, which also provides some awesome opportunities to reach your audience – and with the instant gratification that consumers seem to want these days.

Types of Smartphone Marketing

What is mobile marketing in practice? This category offers a variety of ways to reach users of modern devices with your messaging.

Push Notifications

Push notifications are short messages that pop up or appear as alerts on the lock screen. They can announce products, direct attention to blog posts, or provide important updates. Security apps often use push notifications to encourage clients to renew a subscription or purchase add-on services.

SMS Messaging

Also known as text messaging, SMS advertising involves sending short texts to a phone’s inbox. Text messages can provide electronic receipts, share promotional codes, or tell clients about product launches. For example, banks often use SMS to communicate suspicious account activity to clients.

App-Based Messages

In-app messages appear front and center for maximum visual impact. They can suggest similar products or announce limited-time offers. App-based marketing can use colorful images, attention-grabbing content, and functional call-to-action buttons.

Leadferno is a powerful business text messaging app that lets you communicate with your customers more quickly and drives conversion because text messaging gets 60X faster response times than email. It can also personalize the customer experience with emojis, links, and photos – great for building loyalty!

Mobile Inboxes

Mobile inboxes allow for messages that stick around instead of disappearing, just like email. When you have offers that users may come back to many times, such as a seasonal sale, mobile inboxes are a great fit. Mobile inboxes, or in-app messaging, work just like an email box, except the messages are contained within the app. The app stores the messages, so they stick around instead of allowing them to disappear. This is ideal for offers that users can return to, like a seasonal sale, product recommendations, guides, or new feature announcements. They’re typically customizable for appearance and interactions, too.

Why Is Mobile Marketing Important?

The whole point of marketing is to reach the largest number of potential customers possible and motivate them to take action – and to do so efficiently and effectively. Mobile marketing has the power to reach customers based on real-world actions and real-time behaviors – meaning you can catch the right person at the right time to fill an immediate need with a product or service.

If someone is already engaged on a mobile website or app, they have the power to make a decision right then and there to make a purchase or subscribe. Few avenues have as much reach and power as mobile advertising.

1. Mobile Devices Are Everywhere

Over 6.5 billion people around the world use smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. As of 2022, the world’s population is 7.87 billion, meaning four out of five people worldwide own a smartphone. The percentage is even higher in the U.S., where 85% of adults have mobile devices.

With such a large, global audience at the tip of your fingers, tailoring your marketing efforts specifically for mobile devices is the most efficient way to connect with both your current and potential customers.

2. Mobile Marketing Gives You More Advertising Opportunities

People spend a lot of time every day on mobile devices:

Americans use their phones every 10 minutes on average.
In the U.S., people spend over five hours a day on mobile devices.
Smartphone users check their devices over 95 times a day.

This gives your business many opportunities to connect with potential customers. Push notifications, text messages, and app inboxes grab attention every time users check their lock screens.

3. Mobile Delivers Results

People don’t just use their mobile devices to browse the internet for information. They’re increasingly using smartphones and tablets to make purchases:

About 80% of smartphone users have made purchases from their mobile devices.
Mobile purchases represented almost 75% of total e-commerce sales in 2021.
The number of mobile sales increased by nearly 40% in just five years.

In other words, if you sell products or services online, you’re missing out big time if you don’t have a mobile marketing strategy in place.

4. Smartphones Are Here To Stay

Mobile devices are more popular than ever before. Millennials love smartphone apps for news, music, and shopping. Gen Z grew up surrounded by the latest tech, including tablets, laptops, and smartphones. These digital adventurers represent a whopping 40% of all mobile users.

As these generations get older, their love of using mobile devices will stick around. This means that your business has the opportunity to reach entire generations of people with a single marketing avenue! If your target audience is under the age of 40, mobile advertising should be a top priority.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Mobile Marketing?

Considering how popular mobile devices are, smartphone advertising offers huge potential for companies in every industry, from healthcare practices to manufacturers.

Pros

It’s easy to see the advantages of advertising with mobile messaging.

High Engagement

Do you remember the statistic about people checking their phones every 10 minutes? It’s a habit that can work in your favor for advertising. Notifications get attention immediately and often motivate users to take action.

Smartphone users spend a huge amount of time browsing social media — at the end of 2019, 83% of social media visits were from mobile devices. Mobile-optimized content is an ideal way to reach customers on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and other apps.

Direct Messaging in Seconds

While content marketing is effective, improving your search rankings and attracting visitors takes time. In comparison, mobile ads are lightning-fast. They offer quick and immediate exposure, reaching audiences within seconds, and are practically impossible to ignore.

Customizable Communications

Mobile marketing services give you the freedom to personalize your messaging. You decide who, what, where, how, and when. For example, fast food brands often send SMS discount codes right at lunchtime, exactly when their customers are starting to get hungry.

Cost-Effective Ads

Mobile advertising sends similar messages to a large volume of users, so campaigns cost significantly less than other types of digital advertising. For small and medium businesses, advertising for pennies on the dollar is a smart way to use your marketing budget.

It doesn’t matter if you manage a small sales business or a national e-commerce brand. Improving the way you market to mobile users is one of the smartest investments you can make.

Cons

Mobile marketing presents a few challenges that you should know about.

Privacy Regulations

Some places have strict governmental privacy laws concerning digital devices. In Europe, the General Data Protection Regulation controls how companies use personal data, which includes names, locations, IP addresses, and mobile advertising ID numbers.

The California Consumer Privacy Act requires businesses to disclose exactly what information they collect and to allow users to opt-out at any time.

User Hesitation

Many mobile users are uncomfortable giving out personal information to online businesses. They may reject app requests for location tracking, which can make it harder for you to reach the market with your ads.

Reputation Risks

The close connection between social media and mobile devices works in your favor — until it doesn’t. Bad user experiences or false accusations can go viral just as quickly as positive content.

Negative Experiences

If people have trouble with app controls or pages take too long to load, they don’t just ignore your app. They may also leave negative reviews.

Tips for Maximizing Mobile Marketing Benefits

The good news is that you can overcome many of the obstacles to mobile advertising by following good marketing practices:

Build trust: Invest in high-quality advertising messages that help mobile users trust your business and your expertise. People are more likely to sign up for messages from companies they like.
Be transparent: Don’t be pushy, especially when requesting location data. Show that you want to use data to improve the customer’s experience.
Offer value: It’s easier to convince people to sign up for mobile advertising when you provide something they’re interested in. You can get valuable leads by offering free how-to guides and requesting an email address for downloads. Infographics are popular for sharing on social media.
Choose a professional mobile marketing service: Professional marketing teams have tons of experience with mobile challenges. Navigating GDPR and CCPA data protection laws is much easier with an expert team by your side.

How Can Your Business Use Mobile Advertising Strategies Effectively?

Building a successful mobile advertising plan doesn’t need to be complicated. Above all, focus on making your customers happy and providing the best user experience possible. Follow these six marketing strategies for mobile users.

1. Mobile-Friendly Websites

One of the primary goals of advertising is to direct users to your website, especially if you sell products online. Following a mobile-friendly website layout helps visitors find the right products and services quickly.

Also, make sure your website looks good on mobile devices. Smartphones have vertical screens that are much smaller than laptop screens. Mobile marketing optimization also means using smaller image sizes, so you keep loading times to a minimum. You need to ensure that your visitors have a seamless and user-friendly across all devices.

2. Mobile Search Ads

When people search the internet using a smartphone, they’re often looking for something specific. They may want to see a list of local restaurants, browse the latest shoe styles or check out prices for airline tickets. These users are ready to take action, such as ordering food or visiting a store.

Why is mobile marketing important at this stage? When people have purchasing intent, it’s the ideal time to motivate them to buy your products. That’s where pay-per-click advertising comes in.

With mobile ads, you focus your efforts on specific keywords and demographics. Put simply, you grab the attention of mobile users who are most likely to tap the “buy” button.

Considering how active mobile users are on social media, your business needs to have a social media marketing strategy to stand out online. This type of marketing is amazing for building a strong base of loyal customers and getting your name out there.

Sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest have a less formal vibe for showing off your brand’s personality and values. Friendly posts and great content help customers trust you more. When happy clients leave positive reviews, it can motivate new visitors to choose your business.

4. Location-Based Marketing

If you only offer services to local clients or have a brick-and-mortar store location, you may think that mobile marketing isn’t that important. In reality, mobile ad services are just as essential for reaching clients in your area.

A lot of the time, smartphone users ask Google for local recommendations:

“Best plumber near me”
“Family dentist in Chicago, IL”
“AC repair in Miami”
“Where can I find wedding dresses in Duluth, MN?”
“Home remodeling businesses near me”

Location-based marketing helps you choose the right keywords. If someone searches for “best pool builder in San Francisco,” you want your business to be at the top.

For effective location-based marketing, you should also establish and maintain a business profile on Google Maps and Apple Maps. This can help your businesses to improve online visibility and make it easier for customers to find you, especially in today’s mobile-driven world where consumers rely heavily on their smartphones to find directions and local businesses.

5. SMS Marketing

A high percentage of mobile users redeem text codes and coupons. Using SMS practically guarantees that people will see your messages, such as sale announcements. As long as your company follows data privacy best practices and treats customers with respect, SMS marketing can be an inexpensive and powerful tool in your advertising arsenal.

6. QR Codes

You shouldn’t view mobile marketing as an all-or-nothing thing. These days, advertising is often more effective when it combines several avenues simultaneously, including mobile, social media, paid search, and content marketing. QR codes are a natural fit for multichannel marketing. They encourage store shoppers and social media users to visit your website.

For example, one of your store products may say, “Buy one get one free coupon available online,” with a QR code on the shelf. All shoppers have to do is snap a picture of the square code on their smartphone. This QR code takes them immediately to the relevant page on your website so they can redeem the coupon. Of course, they have to sign up for an account first, which gives your business valuable leads.

Contact Digital Neighbor Today To Boost Your Mobile Presence!

Whether you sell products around the country or provide local services, mobile devices are the future of advertising. Don’t let your mobile marketing efforts fall behind; let Digital Neighbor be your guide to success! Contact us today to learn how we can help take your business to the next level.

Eric Ritter

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Digital Marketing Trends to Look Out For in 2023

Experts say that digital marketing spend will hit an astonishing $682 billion in the coming years. If you spend any time on the internet, you’re familiar with the flurry of marketing efforts from companies of all sizes.

What are the top digital marketing trends to look out for this year? Because the industry is growing and changing so quickly, trends have come and gone in recent years. We’ve compiled six trends that experts predict will dominate 2023.

SEO Trends

SEO will continue to be critical to the success of any business. But SEO evolves as algorithms change, so your current SEO strategy must evolve.

Here’s what’s hot to implement into your digital marketing campaigns for this upcoming year:

Artificial intelligence, or AI, such as:
- Chatbots for conversational marketing
- Email automation
- Website personalization
Increased intelligence level of SERPs
Real-time analytics and metrics tracking
Mobile friendliness for a better customer experience
Using structured data
Think of the user experience and user intent

Localize & Socialize Your SEO

We all know we need to integrate local SEO into our content and website marketing. But what if we were to combine the two?

You can use local culture, lingo, and popular places to help SERPs find your website by incorporating them into the content on your website. And then – share, tag, and refine those words to help crawlers find them on your pages and be more likely to turn up the results.

Try including local keywords and phrases, like the names of local landmarks, neighborhoods, or events. You could also write blog posts about attractions or make videos showcasing your area.

It’s probably a good idea to run any phrasing through an SEO platform like Ahrefs, SurferSEO, or SEMRush to see what people are searching for. You could also try Answer the Public to brainstorm some initial ideas or cross-reference.

Stay Top of Mind with Community Outreach

Speaking of events, be like Fortune 500 companies: community outreach can be an effective way to stay in the news and drive your company’s presence to the top of search results.

Build positive relationships with local media outlets, influencers, and community members through sponsored events, donations, scholarship funding, charity gigs, and press releases. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:

Host an event, like a product launch, charity fundraiser, or open house, to generate media coverage and spread the word about your company in your immediate area.
Partner with influencers in your industry or community to reach a larger audience and increase your visibility on SERPs.
Create valuable content tailored toward your community and target audience. Then share it!
Be active on social media and tell your followers about everything you do.
Make friends with the media – pitch stories about your company, products, services, and upcoming events that you are hosting to engage your community.

It’s hard to go wrong when you give back to the community! You reap what you sow, so be a good “neighbor,” and your efforts will pay off.

AI Marketing Trends

There is one trend that is really gaining traction: AI, along with machine learning. While the concept of AI isn’t new, the technology has gotten much better and more powerful, making it imperative as a marketing tool.

In fact, Microsoft just announced a partnership with Open AI’s ChatGPT. Bing search engine will harness AI technology to provide search answers instead of just the standard list of links as early as March of 2023. There are also plans to incorporate DALL-E, a text-to-image platform, into Bing’s Image Creator.

AI-Generated Content

AI-generated content can take some of the legwork out of producing good content by accessing an extensive array of content sources for marketers.

However, while AI-generated content will grow, users and readily available software can detect this content. So chances are, search engines can too. It won’t be a substitute for the human touch in content writing and marketing.

With the emergence of AI-generated content, user-generated content will remain as vital as it’s ever been because it’s what the algorithms prefer.

AI-Generated Images

Yes, even AI-generated images are growing in popularity, too! Text prompts allow AI software to create images out of thin air.

You can use these images throughout various channels and marketing campaigns.

Remember the whole Clubhouse craze? The social media landscape changes rapidly as new platforms rise and fall. But that hasn’t stopped influencer marketing!

While Millennials were the driving force behind the rise of Instagram, now Gen Z is making TikTok the hottest platform. Of course, all bets are off if another social media platform emerges, but TikTok remains at the forefront.

The key takeaway? Social media is not going away anytime soon.

Because of the pandemic, the newest trend – social customer care – emerged from the shadows. As more customers turned to social media to ask service questions and voice their needs, businesses needed a strategy to handle all the inquiries.

Many companies now use video marketing techniques (such as live streaming) to deliver services directly to customers via social media.

Digital Ads / Paid Media Trends

Paid media initiatives, like PPC, will also remain important. But the focus is shifting toward better-optimized local ads.

Some of the best places to advertise locally are:

Google
Facebook
Instagram
Amazon

First-Party Data

When Apple decided to restrict data sharing with third parties last year, businesses got the push to engage in first-party data collection. With this data, they can reach customers in a way that is more personalized than before.

TikTok Advertising

TikTok is the first non-Facebook (Meta) app to surpass three billion mobile device downloads, making it a must-be place for your business. Companies that have tapped into advertising on the platform are already seeing exciting results.

New Platforms

Platforms focusing on augmented reality or immersive experiences will likely continue to rise in popularity. The Metaverse is especially something to look toward, as Facebook still has the most active users compared to other platforms.

Additional rising platforms include BeReal and Discord.

Content Marketing Trends

Creating quality content remains crucial. Ever-popular sources include:

Articles and blogs
Photos (including NFTs)
Podcasts
Video content
Virtual reality content
Webinars

The list is endless!

Long-Form Content

For 2023, long-form content (articles with 2,000+ words) are trending to earn higher rankings on search engines. This is because long-form copy answers questions and goes in-depth on a topic. You have more of a chance to integrate effective keywords into your post or article, and you also have an opportunity to provide more value for your potential customers.

Google ranks articles based on which ones answer a specific question best. So keep this in mind!

Mobile-First Optimization

Mobile-first optimization has been trending for a few years, and experts predict it will continue in 2023 and beyond. With the increasing number of people using mobile devices in everyday life, optimizing websites for smaller screens with mobile-friendly, touch-based navigation features is crucial for a good user experience.

Google announced an update to its search algorithm, which favors mobile-friendly websites – so it is all the more reason for prioritizing mobile functions for SEO efforts.

Tips to Optimize Your Website for Mobile

Use a responsive design, which automatically adjusts the website’s layout to fit the device screen size.
Use a mobile-specific version of your website. Some hosts automatically populate one. If your host doesn’t get one, that is accessible by a separate mobile URL or a link on the site’s desktop version if necessary.
Optimize images and other media for mobile devices by compressing them and using appropriate file formats. (You should be doing this anyway for the standard version of your website.)
Minimize things like pop-ups, as they’re difficult to close on small screens.
Ensure your website loads quickly by minimizing HTTP requests and Flash and reducing the size of your code and assets. You’ll get penalized if your site loads slowly.
Make site navigation simple and easy to use on a small screen.
Make your call to action prominent, easy to find, and easy to click on and access.
Leverage Google’s mobile-friendly test tool to check if your site is mobile-friendly and get tailored recommendations on how to improve it.

Digital Marketing Experts

Now that you know what trends are gaining traction in digital marketing, you know how to adapt your strategy.

If you feel overwhelmed by all the digital marketing trends, book a meeting with the friendly and “neighborly” digital marketing experts at Digital Neighbor to learn more about our customized solutions. We are happy to help you shape your digital marketing strategy to reach your customers with engaging, effective campaigns that drive an impact and deliver results.

Eric Ritter

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WordPress Benefits

Here are some WordPress Benefits You Need to Know

Whether you are new to eCommerce or have been using the internet for marketing, virtual storefronts, or communications with customers and clients, you might not be familiar with WordPress benefits for your foray into the online world. Not so long ago, websites were difficult to build and maintain, and the sites that did well took a lot of development, requiring knowledge of HTML coding, computer science degrees, and almost no time left in their day for a social life.

As web development has become a necessity rather than an extension of a business’s presence in the online world, you now have access to a very powerful tool to help build your business and deliver it to the world.

WordPress Platform: Ease of use

WordPress has allowed hundreds of millions of people access to web development, with more sites made daily with this tool than any other existing platform. One of the reasons for this is WordPress is surprisingly easy to use. Let’s examine why this CMS platform beats its competition regarding simplicity and user-friendly access to impressive design tools.

Advantages of WordPress Themes

When you envision your WordPress website, it usually follows a theme. Photographers and influencers might want their images to catch the attention of people browsing for photographs of interesting subjects and exotic locations.

Foodies might focus on graphics-heavy landing pages or galleries with close-up shots of delicious meals accompanied by recipes and stories about the culture and background of the food. Bloggers might focus on episodic storytelling, whereas businesses want the products they sell to be front and center for potential buyers.

WordPress gives you the benefit of being able to choose from hundreds of website themes. Photographers, influencers, bloggers, travelers, restauranteurs, and online boutiques can get lost in the number of themes tailored to their venture. With each theme comes functionality specific to that outlet.

From parallax scrolling and landing pages with full-page backgrounds to simple layouts that put the text and the story at the forefront of the site, site builders are no longer bound to the limitations of how well they can code a site. The template does all the work.

Themes also allow your site to keep up with the current aesthetic of next-generation web design. Unlike your competition, whose site still looks like it was created in the late 1990s.

Content creation tools: Block vs. Classic

With improvements in WordPress over the years, block-based page building means that you can simply point and click, drag and drop, and in a matter of minutes, you can start creating blocks of narrative text, inserting photos and galleries, or even gifs to brighten up your page. If you need more control over how your pages are built, you can switch to classic web design.

For the most part, block design builds pages just as well, with little guesswork regarding how your end product will turn out. It is easy to build pages quickly, and with the help of plugins, you can check the strength of your SEO as you go, from landing pages to blogs. Activate and deactivate pages as needed to keep your site current.

Media library

Your media library holds the graphics you want to include on your site. Once loaded, they can be used from any computer you use to log in to your WordPress site. You no longer have to be worried about hosting the images from your PC or server since they have been imported for future use. You can drag and drop your images into the media library where they will load and allow you to name and caption them, add metadata to improve search engine optimization, and include copyright information.

Your media library lets you quickly find your photos and graphics and add them to blocks on your pages seamlessly, whether it is a landing page, a blog post, or a featured image that loads automatically when you promote your page on social media. For the most part, people are visual learners, and media and graphics are a crucial part of good website creation and visitor retention. With a dedicated media library, you won’t experience the broken links and missing graphics of other web development platforms.

WordPress Websites offer Versatility

Even with so many themes available to help you start building your site, a WordPress benefit you will appreciate is how customizable your site is. Just because you pick a theme doesn’t mean you can’t make changes to suit your needs. You can activate and deactivate menus, and logos, and even customize your graphics (or leave them as they come standard) to create the site exactly the way you need it to be done.

Majority of website building for marketing

Some studies have shown that 62% of the top 100 fastest-growing websites use WordPress (Techjury.net, Oct 2022). Ease of use is just one of the WordPress benefits that have made it pretty much universal when it comes to web development. The tools are fairly intuitive to web-developer needs and to the newcomer to creating websites alike. Pages are created with a set-it-and-forget-it method that lets your site remain consistent and easier to maintain.

WordPress is very familiar to most web developers, especially in marketing. A less common or homegrown system will be more expensive, and WordPress won’t leave you high and dry if your web developer goes to a different job. Once the site is set, just about anyone can tackle updates and maintenance. Hiring bloggers to promote your online business site also means that they are more likely to understand how to write and publish content on WordPress.

Advantages of Blogging using WordPress

Creating content for your site and keeping it fresh improves your Search Engine Optimization. Since search engine traffic is constantly changing, blogs are some of the best ways to keep content current and allow your page to break into the top of the stack when it comes to results with search engines. Blogging is second nature to WordPress, with hundreds of millions of bloggers relying on WordPress to promote their content. WordPress even has its own community of bloggers who “Press” their stories and promote their sites through a dedicated online community.

You can choose to have a dedicated page to introduce your small business site, or more commonly, you can let your blog posts speak for you. Either can be selected in your settings to be the homepage people find when they access your content. Blogs are the most common landing page on a site, next to the About Me page. When you have constantly changing content, you are developing a relationship with your visitors. When the information is current and knowledgeable, you are giving them the trust and confidence they need to be a customer. Getting customers to build businesses and more traffic, whereas repeat customers create brands.

Appearance and presentation

When putting your best foot forward, WordPress benefits your business by its ability to play well with a variety of different web browsers, from Firefox to Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Safari. It also works well with different OS platforms such as iOS, Android, tablets, and desktop operating systems. One of the best tools in WordPress is the Preview function, which lets you see how your pages will appear on mobile devices, tablets, and desktops before you even publish.

As you create drafts on your web pages and even blog posts, WordPress allows you to keep track of your drafts. That way if you make a mistake, you can revert back to any number of drafts, reload, and start where you left off. The clean features of the various themes provide next-generation aesthetics that keep current with the websites of this era without looking clunky or shiny like the sites at the early beginnings of the internet. WordPress also works well with an assortment of accessibility programs for the visually impaired to help users with disabilities access your content.

Help is available

Since WordPress is so ubiquitous when it comes to website building and maintenance, you have nearly unlimited resources when it comes to technical support on building your site. A vast network of people experienced in building WordPress websites with a variety of different themes have produced tutorials, YouTube guides, and instructions on just about every aspect of WordPress. If you are one of those do-it-yourself website owners, you can find just about anything you need to work on your site with a few searches.

Another benefit is if your web designer changes, the next person you hire for your content management system than likely be familiar with how WordPress works. They can pick up where your last web designer left off without reinventing the wheel. The WordPress community is extremely useful when it comes to finding helpful information 24/7.

Build your business, build your WordPress Site

If you are running an online retail storefront or online marketing, WordPress is an important tool to have in your toolbox for virtually any website. Other platforms to build new a website, such as WooCommerce and Shopify, also take on this role, but both can be very expensive, especially for someone just starting with their business.

Storefronts: Other platforms allow you to create online catalogs filled with pictures, pricing, and a shopping cart. The good news is that WordPress also allows you to do this. It also gives you the flexibility of integration with other storefront sites such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and other e-commerce sites.

Inventory and pricing: You can keep track of your inventory, backorders, and other vital e-commerce requirements to make sure your customers stay happy, all through your WordPress site or e-commerce plugins.

Sell what you like: Whether it is a physical product such as soaps, gift baskets, auto parts, or any other physical product, you can operate your business website much like a store. The internet also allows sellers to distribute electronic material such as photography, voiceover work, digital services, eBooks, and client-exclusive content, all through an online store.

Functionality with Plugins

When you install WordPress, you’ll be introduced to plugins early on. Plugins are like little programs that work in conjunction with your website; think of the variety of different apps you might have on your phone. Plugins allow your website to have different functionality, depending on what you need your site to do. WordPress has thousands of free plugins and premium plugins that have been developed by third-party creators, some of which are free to install and use, and others might require a subscription. Here are some different types of plugins that will boost your site’s performance.

SEO: Search Engine Optimization is important when it comes to placement on a web search. These plugins can rate the content of your site based on keywords used, the frequency of the terms, and apply them to how a web search might be used to find your site. The better the score, the more likely your site is to appear at the top of a Google search. Common SEO plugins such as Yoast SEO, All in One SEO Pack, JetPack, and Akismet are available.
Backup: You’ve put in a lot of work to build your site, and if your site were to crash or be hacked into, your backup would save you a lot of headaches when restoring your pages.
Security: Malware, hackers, and spambots are a constant threat to the integrity of your website. Security plugins allow you to block these attempts to steal your data and limit the danger to your site and customers.
Outreach, subscriptions, email campaigns, and promotions: Marketing is important to e-commerce, and reaching out to clients and customers keep you moving forward in building your brand. Some plugins allow you to create distribution lists, newsletters, and subscriptions to new content on your blogs to keep you in the back of your client’s mind for future business.
Social media: Much of the internet has been partitioned into social media. Sites such as FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and many others are almost synonymous with the internet to some users. These plugins let you reach those potential customers by linking your site to posts that appear on their social media feeds.
Analytics: If you want to know detailed information about the demographics of those accessing your site, you want to use analytics. These statistics break down how many visits your site has had as well as information such as age, gender, location, and a lot of other information. This way you can make changes to the way you deliver your content to appeal to your audience.
Widgets and customization: Widgets are similar to plugins in that they allow different functionality on your site. But widgets allow users of your site to interact with you, from donation buttons, links to ads and other monetization, subscription forms, social media links, shopping carts, and other features.

Monetization

One of the benefits of having a website is the potential for passive income. This method of income creation relies on a slow trickle of funds that can come from all sorts of different sources. Ads, affiliate marketing sponsors, and Clicks Per Minute (CPM) are ways aside from products you sell. So even if you aren’t building a storefront to sell physical items or electronic items, it is possible to use your site to create income in other ways.

Popular sites can generate income simply from the number of visitors to the site or by clicking on a link that takes them to another site, providing you with a kick-back for spreading awareness.

WordPress benefits its users by allowing ease of access to a large scope of monetization solutions. Whether it is through the WordPress ads plugin or the ease with which you can apply code provided by affiliates who want you to represent their product, WordPress has you covered. An interface WordPress makes even allows you to see how well your monetization is going, whether it is from ads published on your site through WordPress or CPM.

Othe Content Management System Platforms

responsive web design wordpress benefits

WordPress isn’t just a blogging platform it’s an open-source platform. Other sites have come and gone over the years, whereas WordPress continues to remain strong and consistent. Not long ago, you needed to use DreamWeaver, HTML coding, or another application to build your site. Other website platforms, especially for blogging content, have gone by the wayside, and even then, WordPress often integrates well with them with the use of plugins.

Shopify is the next most commonly used web development tool, and it works with your existing WordPress site if needed. Wix, Squarespace, Name.com, GoDaddy, and a variety of other website-building platforms also allow you to use WordPress to build and configure your site.

WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com: advantages and disadvantages

There is a bit of confusion when it comes to these two platforms. Not all WordPress sites are the same. The dot com WordPress is a free platform that allows you to host your site on WordPress. You can buy a dedicated domain name, plugins, and other features, but the site is kept on WordPress’s servers. This might limit your ability to run different kinds of ads, affiliate marketing may be limited, and it may be difficult to rank on Google without a dedicated site.

WordPress.org sites are when you use a self-hosted WordPress platform to create and build your site with its own domain hosted by an outside provider. You have more freedom when it comes to ad creation, distribution, and affiliate marketing, and the site is hosted on servers outside WordPress, such as BlueHost, Wix, or many others. Depending on the features you need, dedicated hosting with WordPress as your web development platform may be more expensive, with the trade-off of limiting your ability to monetize.

The standard package with a WordPress.com site may include free domain registration, plugins such as JetPack, SSL, and firewall protection. In contrast, a WordPress.org site may require you to subscribe to those services separately, oftentimes for an annual fee. It can be a little bit confusing to website owners since the interface and the method to build your site is based on the same program, but its functionality might be very different depending on how you need your site to be used.

The WordPress Blogging Platform Advantage

These are just some ways WordPress benefits your ability to build, maintain, and promote your website. While there are advantages and disadvantages, WordPress websites often rank higher than most websites. With a whole constellation of widgets, plugins, and a worldwide community of other users happy to help, you might see why WordPress has quickly become one of the easiest and most popular web development platforms.

Contact Digital Neighbor – SEO Agency if you would like to learn more about how WordPress can benefit your business and change how you access the internet. We are here to help you succeed in a growing market with the stiff competition of hundreds of millions of internet users and more starting every day.

Eric Ritter

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Digital Neighbor Sponsors Jacob’s Touch Foundation’s 7th Annual 2022 Golf Tournament

We’re proud to share that for the third year in a row, our CEO will be participating in the Jacob’s Touch Foundation’s Annual Golf Tournament to help support the charity’s fundraising efforts. The tournament will occur on Saturday, September 24, 2022, at the Westchase Golf Club.

Jacob’s Touch Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3), a community-based organization in the Tampa Bay area dedicated to providing financial care and assistance to families and organizations supporting children on the Autistic Spectrum. About 1% of the world population has autism, and 1 in 44 children are affected by Autism. Twenty years ago, this statistic was 1 in 150 children. Autism is considered the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S. today and is now more common than multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis, and childhood cancer.

Jacob’s Touch Foundation is on a mission to drive autism awareness and raise money for assistance, therapy, medical, and educational needs. Jacob’s Touch Foundation has established itself as a resource for Tampa Bay families and organizations with a need for support. In 2021, Jacob’s Touch Foundation raise $50,000, which will assist with payment for therapies and educational and medical costs. This year, their goal is to increase the fundraising efforts to meet a $75,000 goal.

Digital Neighbor will be sponsoring the longest drive and closest to the pin competitions, in addition to sponsoring four players to participate in the tournament. For every post with our hashtag #ForeJacobsTouch, we will add another $10 to our donation to the foundation!

Learn more by visiting: https://www.jacobstouch.org/events/

Eric Ritter

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How to Prep for Google Analytics 4: 6 Questions You Were Too Scared to Ask

If there’s an irrefutable fact about tech, it’s that it’s always up for a makeover. So when the time for a makeover comes knocking, the best thing to do is pack your bags and follow it wherever it may lead. Google first mentioned Google Analytics 4 in mid-2019. Its latest announcement that it would be retiring Universal Analytics in favor of Google Analytics 4 on July 1, 2023, has a big chunk of marketers struggling with how to prepare for the move.

If it’s any consolation, Google analytics commands over 85% of the market share and surveys over 55% of websites. That’s a clear display of its usefulness, and It’s unlikely that Google will upgrade us to a less appealing version of Google Analytics.

We answer your most pressing questions in this article on how to prep for Google Analytics 4 and make it as easy as possible.

What Exactly Is Google Analytics 4? How Does GA4 Differ From Universal Analytics?

Tracking data about two decades ago was best done using hit counters and refreshing your computer to see new data.

A lot has changed since then. For example, the digital landscape is much bigger and more sophisticated. People go online using multiple devices; they’re using the internet for many different reasons, and data laws have changed. Users can now block tracking tech as easily as telling the apps they’re using to block them.

Universal Analytics (GA3) can’t accommodate all these tracking needs. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a complete overhaul of Universal Analytics and is the most sophisticated Google Analytics program so far that enables marketers to track what they need regardless of user behavior complexities.

GA4 is built with machine learning and presents the benefits of mobile-first functionality so you can easily see unified user journeys in all your sites and apps.

GA4 also comes with more privacy. It doesn’t store IP addresses but instead introduces different modeling methods to avoid solely relying on cookies.

There are some glaring differences, too, between Universal Analytics and GA4. While Universal Analytics’ tracking model works on acquisition, behavior, and conversion, GA4 bases its tracking model on events and parameters. Page views, transactions, clicks on some things, and scrolling is all called events on the new platform.

While Universal Analytics depends on tracking page views or hits, GA4 knows user activity doesn’t start and stops with page views. Instead, users engage in activities like scrolling, clicking on different buttons, watching videos, and viewing pop-ups.

GA4 also relieves businesses of the dreaded bounce rate by focusing on user activity and if their engagement was fulfilling. Universal Analytics on the other hand treats clicks on a campaign landing page without submission of a contact form as a bounce because it relies on a user’s behavior.

Will My Existing Accounts Automatically Update to GA4?

Remember when we said Google analytics 4 is a complete overhaul from Universal Analytics? This fact also makes it impossible for it to be an instant upgrade.

With Universal Analytics, you only had to make a few code changes, and the upgrade fixed itself, much like moving from one windows application to the next.

GA4 and Universal Analytics are different at the foundational level. How you retrieve data and view it is entirely different. You’ll require a set of configurations to make it useful for your marketing metrics.

If I Switch to Google Analytics 4, Does It Erase My Historical Data From Universal Analytics?

Since GA4 is a separate Property type, you won’t access historical data unless you get it using GA4 tags. After July 1, 2023, you will only see historical data until January 2024.

Historical data makes it possible for you to create a standard for future developments, which helps with content optimization to boost your bottom line.

Will My Filters, Configurations, and Other Settings Transfer Over to GA4?

Only the property details are transferrable to GA4 when you move, eliminating the chance you’ll carry over any property configurations or customizations.

How Will This Affect Google Analytics Integrations With Other Software?

You still get to integrate most of your favorite tech with GA4. In fact, it is already possible to integrate GA4 with Google Optimize and nine others:

Google Ads
BigQuery
Display & Video 360 (DV360)
Google Ad Manager (GAM)
Google Merchant Center
Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC)
Search Console
Play integration
Search Ads 360 (SA360)

Since the platform has only landed, more improvements are on the way that could accommodate more software integrations.

I’m Still Scared of Google Analytics 4. What Should I Do?

There’s no need to fret if all of this sounds like a big ball of gibberish talk. Migrating to Google Analytics 4 is not about getting a new platform that sacrifices the older joys of Universal Analytics for a new complicated platform that forces you to learn to code.

You still get to measure the vital metrics just a little differently than you’re used to. Essentials such as sources of your web visitors, their preferred channel, and activities on your site qualify for events under GA4.

Plus, goals will be replaced by conversions, and they will appear differently. You’ll also have to set parameters to dictate what GA4 measures –for instance, you can set it to record visits to a particular page. Moving now means you can get your profile up and running to buy time to get used to how it works long before GA3 is phased out.

If you’re still apprehensive, Digital Neighbor is a Google Analytics Agency that can help you prep for Google Analytics 4 and transit before your Universal Analytics tool stops collecting data after July 1, 2023.

We get that even with Google’s almost flawless reputation, implementing Google Analytics 4 is a new thing for you, and it makes a big difference for you to be able to track the metrics that matter most to you.

By working with Digital Neighbor, you sign up for proven skills in digital marketing, Google Analytics, other tracking tools, and everything in between that helps your campaigns thrive. Web analytics shouldn’t be so hard, and you shouldn’t have to do it alone. Contact us, and we’ll be happy to help.

Eric Ritter

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Eric Ritter

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Contact Digital Neighbor Today To Boost Your Mobile Presence!