Blog

Published on August 24, 2023

Google Analytics is the easiest way for marketers, developers, and businesses to track the successes and failings of a website – but for many, the powerful free tool just leaves more questions than it actually answers.

“What exactly is bounce rate?”

“How do I have such a high average time on page and a high bounce rate?"

“Which metrics should I actually be concentrating on?”

“Hey, what did you mean when you said that bounce rate and exit rates are different things?”

“…Help?”

At times, Analytics can be frustrating and a little confounding, even for the experts. Fortunately, like any program or process, there is a way to work through and logically break down all of your Google Analytics questions.

Published on August 7, 2023

The marketplace is constantly evolving, and traditional forms of marketing just can’t keep up.

Is your small business grappling with how to develop and use content to generate leads and drive sales without spending a fortune?

It’s absolutely possible to create a successful content marketing strategy on a limited budget. The notion of competing with larger, more resource-rich competitors can be daunting, but fear not! Bigger doesn’t always mean better.

The key is to focus on quality over quantity. You need to make every piece of content count in order to boost the visibility of your brand and thrive in an ever-more online world. 

Don’t underestimate the power of engaging content when it comes to captivating your target audience. Let’s take a deep dive into embracing a digital mindset and leveraging some budget-friendly tips for maximizing your content marketing effectiveness.

Published on July 14, 2023

“Isn’t Twitter kind of dying as a platform?”

“Does anyone actually even read content anymore?”

“I just don’t see how I’ll have the time to focus on a new website, let alone content.”

“Digital marketing sounds great! But I think I’ve missed my shot at it…”

We hear thoughts like these from business owners here in Chicago and around the country all the time. For some, digital marketing still seems like an unattainable pipe dream that they’ll never get a chance to reach.

For others, even those who recognize the incredible value of digital marketing, there’s another belief — that the best days of the web are already in the past. That SEO, social media, email, and other digital marketing channels have already passed their expiration date.

To both of those groups, we have one thing to say: Digital marketing success is always within grasp, and it’s never too late to get started.

Published on June 26, 2023

Most business professionals have at least a peripheral understanding of how to market their products or services on social media sites Facebook and Twitter. (If not, Geek Chicago is here to help with those, too.)

LinkedIn, however, is often vastly misused or misunderstood, by businesses and professionals alike.

On the one hand, LinkedIn is the preferred social media network for B2B marketers, it’s able to call itself one of the leading job search sites in the world, and Microsoft valued the company enough to acquire it for more than $26 billion.

On the other side of things, plenty of would-be LinkedIn users have been left scratching their head after creating a profile. Others have told us that they’ve long avoided the process altogether.

Whatever the case may be, LinkedIn remains one of the key social media networking and content marketing opportunities for businesses and individuals, and if you aren't an active part of this community yet, there’s no time like the present to get started.

Here's our 101 crash course on learning the basics of LinkedIn.

Published on April 13, 2023

In terms of inbound marketing for your site, we tend to talk about traffic in two major ways: either as organic traffic, or referral traffic.

Broadly speaking, organic traffic is best categorized as the clicks that come from users who find your site directly from a Google or Bing search. Referral traffic, then, refers to the visitors who come to your page through any site other than a major search engine.

For your site to truly generate value and help your brand achieve its strategic goals, it’s important to have campaigns in place to drive in both organic and referral traffic. Unfortunately, we see many too many people who tend to focus on the former at the expense of the latter, not realizing that SEO and referrals are deeply interconnected.

Referral traffic is, indeed, a key part of “off-page SEO:” The more trustworthy sites that link to your pages or content, the more the search engines value your content. The more that Google and its ilk trust and recognize your content, the higher they prioritize it on search engine ranking pages (SERPs). Consistent, steady referral traffic, then, will also net you more organic traffic down the line.

Published on March 1, 2023

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a process your brand can use to position itself highly on search engine ranking pages (also called SERPS).

In a lot of ways, SEO is one of the most important tools you can use to get future customers to find your business’s information online. It’s also an effective way to keep users coming back for more, and increase the likelihood that your newfound website visitors will be primed and ready to become eager conversions, either right away or at some point down the line.

In short, SEO really does matter. It’s an essential strategy for businesses of all sizes to have in place.

But, then, this beggars another question: What goes into a successful SEO effort today?

From the jump, it’s important to realize that SEO is a multi-faceted process, and a lot of different elements go into generating search engine success. It’s part art, part science, and part game – and you need to master all three of those buckets if you want to claim your rightful place at the top of the SERP.

Today, we’re going to focus on one part of the SEO formula that often goes overlooked: The user.

Published on February 13, 2023

Maybe you’ve been at a fancy restaurant, only to look over at the corner booth and see a young couple who can’t seem to keep their hands off of each other. They’re canoodling, they’re sharing food, and they’re generally showing to the world that they’re, like, so totally in love.

And then your gaze glides over to another table, and you see, perhaps, an older couple. They’re sitting in silence and swapping bites. For them, the passion seems to be missing, that spark just burned out with time.

In a lot of ways, gaining and retaining clients for your business can be a little like entering into a long-term relationship. At first, it’s all about the thrill of meeting each other, and seeing all the amazing, novel things you can do together. But over time, familiar patterns settle in, and the old tricks just don’t seem to be working as well as they used to.

This is particularly the case when it comes to digital marketing, centered on high-quality content creation. While some things, like blog posts primed for SEO success, only get sweeter with time, the fact is that other elements slow down or stop working on audiences altogether the longer they’re in play.

Published on February 10, 2023

When it comes to SEO, it seems like someone comes up with a new “magic trick” every day. And as organic clicks decline due to the addition of search engine results page (SERP) features such as “people also ask,” first page results stuffed with ads, and “featured snippets,” it can seem more difficult than ever to create growth through organic search. This reality leaves many companies wondering whether traditional ways of generating pageviews remain viable as the way people search for content changes.

However, even as Google’s algorithms change seemingly constantly, it remains true that keyword research and content marketing are the best way to create robust, sustainable growth. Keyword research, high-quality, readable content, and content marketing through SEO and social media continue to “beat the averages” and show real growth. 

Published on February 6, 2023

Even the most advanced demand-generation strategy can falter if you don’t have compelling content that addresses your customer’s pain points throughout your sales funnel. 

And if you’re a new entrepreneur or just learning about the benefits of content marketing, you may not realize how effective it can be, especially for a small business without a massive marketing budget.

While a growing number of B2B and direct-to-customer brands are now dedicating more resources toward developing engaging content, these moves won’t truly reveal their ROI without a cohesive approach, consistent delivery, and a reliable system for tracking content performance.

Why waste effort on pay-per-display or pay-per-click ads or unhelpful messaging when you can create a plan to leverage your content and generate qualified leads? Let’s dig deeper.

Published on July 22, 2022

Do you ever feel like your personal productivity goes down during the summer? What about your company’s overall productivity?

If you answered yes to either of the above (and we’ll bet a cool Mai Tai that you did), then you’re definitely not alone. In fact, tons of research indicates that the productivity of American businesses goes way down during the summer months.

In fact, a study from Captivate Network indicated that:

• Workplace productivity drops 20% during the summer months
• Workplace attendance decreases by 19%
• Projects take 13% longer to complete
• Workers are 45% more distracted

Think about it! How much time do you spend over the summer months traveling? Or what about day-dreaming about traveling? Or how about spending time trying to play catch-up with your clients who are off on vacation, even as you keep working?

And vacations are just the tip of the iceberg! Science says it’s harder to work in the heat and the humidity - and, conversely, in an office that’s too cold from AC!

Basically? Trying to get things done in the summer is a lose-lose proposition - except when it comes to digital marketing.