Monthly Archives: April 2020

SEO: What Is The Role of SEO In Digital Marketing?

SEO Toronto - Insiteful Solutions

The Important Role of SEO in Digital Marketing

Insiteful Solutions are SEO experts. For over a decade we have been helping companies in Toronto and the GTA and across Canada build websites and develop digital marketing campaigns that propel them to success. Every company should have knowledge of what an SEO is and why it is vital to your company’s success in reaching potential customers. At Insiteful Solutions, we have worked with hundreds of companies to improve their SEO ratings and are always excited to pass on the knowledge we have to others.

SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. It is the practice of increasing the quality and quantity of traffic to websites by increasing the visibility of a website to gain spontaneous, un-paid, visitors to a website. It is vital for your company to invest in promoting your SEO efforts. At Insiteful Solutions we take the time to learn about your company, your desired customer and we analyze and implement unique strategies to make sure your company’s website ranking is as strong as possible.

You may not realize it but every time you do a Google search you are witnessing the power of the SEO. If you own, for example, a flower shop in Ottawa you will want your company to pop up on the first or second page of the Google search. If your company doesn’t appear until page 40 it is highly unlikely people would order from your shop. Investing in your SEO can’t be underestimated – if your customers can’t find you they can’t buy your product or service.

While Google isn’t the only internet search engine it is by far the most powerful. Recent estimates that there is a mind-boggling 3.5 billion global internet searches a day, and Google has a whopping 92% of this traffic. Dedicating resources to your SEO as part of your digital marketing strategy can also help search engines locate, crawl and index your website in their catalogue.

To increase your SEO you will most likely need to make certain changes to the design of your website and make sure the content you create is attractive to a search engine. With time and some effort, you can greatly increase your company’s chances of landing on the first or second Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Google (and other search engines such as Bing or Yahoo) want to provide the highest quality products to people who use their sites; if they produce search results for shoddy products people are less likely to use their search engine. This means that your website has to be one of quality and highly relevant to what an individual has searched for.

To make sure the people using their search engines find what they are looking for Google has devised a search algorithm that will scan (or crawl) different websites; from this, they are able to identify the most relevant websites that will be valuable for people. They also scan for related topics and keywords – this is how the search engine links up searches using related terms and keywords with websites. The search engine algorithm will also scan the site to figure out if it is user-friendly or not – the easier your website is to navigate the higher ranking you will receive on the search engine page.

There are numerous other factors that impact the success of your SEO:

One of the most important, yet often under-considered, factors in SEO success is the content of your site. Your website needs to contain up to date, relevant information about your business and the product or service you deliver. Beyond how this helps the Google algorithm identify your site as valuable, potential customers are more likely to spend time on your site if they see that it is constantly updated with quality material.

Before you start to create content for your site you will need to determine keywords and phrases related to your business. If you are, for example, a bakery in Toronto, you will want to include words related to a bakery: bake, bread, cupcakes, delicious, fresh etc. You will also want to include geographic parameters: Toronto, GTA, Ontario, Canada. Your keywords and phrases will help the search engine algorithms identify what you do and in turn inform people searching for, taking our example into consideration, bakeries in Toronto.

There are numerous ways you can create content for your website; its best to develop a variety of different forms of content. Everything you create should be well-written and most important, relevant to your company’s product or service. Here are some content ideas for your site:

Blog Posts

Blog Posts should be at least 1,000 words and be written in a clear, concise manner. The content of your blog post should focus on keywords and phrases related to your business.

How-To Guides

Creating and posting explanatory content can attract customers who wish to learn in-depth about your product. A How-To Guide is a way you can show potential customers how unique your offering is.

Articles

If there are informative articles published about your product you can repost them. People that look for the author’s name or topic will search and could find your site.

Videos

If you have videos of your product or service available embedding them into your website is a great way to increase visits to your site.

You also want to remember to include your keywords and phrases throughout your social media channels.

By investing time and energy into improving your SEO you can most definitely boost your search engine rankings and drive more business to your site. A proper SEO campaign can take weeks to months to actualize – so it’s important to get started today!

If you’re not happy with how your company is currently doing in your search engine ranking we recommend you give us a call today. At Insiteful Solutions, we apply our years of experience to each and every client and their SEO. We can help improve your ranking and drive business to your site.

Give us a call today (905-947-8235 x 102) or pop us an email so we can help your business grow.

How to Focus Your Website and Social Media Channels During COVID-19

Website Design Toronto - Insiteful Solutions

Website Design

At Insiteful Solutions, based in Markham, Ontario, we know it is nearly impossible to comprehend the changes we have all had to endure since the onset of COVID-19. What started as perhaps a more severe form of the flu quickly changed to something none of us had anticipated. With this profound public health crisis we are also faced with a great shift in the economy. Businesses all over the world were compelled to suddenly close to encourage social distancing.  Many businesses were able to shift some or all of their operations on-line and adapt to this new normal. No matter how your business has adjusted to COVID-19 Insiteful Solutions is here to work with you to make sure your business is prepared as possible for the future.

As a business owner, it was next to impossible to have been fully prepared for COVID-19, even governments and the healthcare industry has been caught off guard. While we are still early in the pandemic at Insiteful Solutions we have already noticed that people are changing how they are using the internet and how they are searching for things on Google. No matter what industry you are in, now is an incredibly important time to focus your energies on how you can make your business as resilient as possible to face the ups and downs of COVID-19.

At Insiteful Solutions, we have been diving deep into new trends to help our clients all over Toronto and The GTA to adjust to our new reality. As always, we want to pass what we’ve learned onto not only our own clients but any business owner who may be struggling. At Insiteful Solutions, we are always available to answer any questions you may have.

Clearly the most significant negative trend from COVID-19 has been the shuttering of physical business locations. To adhere to social distancing guidelines set out by municipal, provincial and federal governments tens of thousands of Canadian businesses have closed their doors unsure of when they would re-open. The lack of foot traffic has devastated bottom lines and brought a sudden halt to many brands. Even businesses that had a strong online presence have been affected by this massive shake-up.

It can be difficult to know how to respond to times like these. But at Insiteful Solutions we can help: we have been advising old and new clients since the onset of COVID-19 that the most important and cost-effective thing they can do is build their online capacity. Whether you already have an e-commerce website or not NOW is the time to create one or improve the one you have. With people staying home most likely on and off for the next few weeks, having the ability to sell your products or services online has never been more important. Insiteful Solutions can help you create or improve your online web presence quickly so that you can face the coming weeks with confidence.

Here are our top tips to keep your customers engaged during COVID-19:

Google My Business

More than ever consumers are searching for answers about how they source everything from necessities like groceries to non-essential items like flowers for their garden. With the regulations around COVID-19 changing almost daily, it is important that you communicate with potential customers the most basic details of your business. Simple information like your operating hours (if you are able to open), if people are allowed in your store or if you are facilitating curb-side pick-up if you take online orders and are able to deliver.  All of this can be accomplished very easily if you sign up for Google My Business. This allows people doing Google searches to quickly find out information about your business before even going to your website. This also allows your business to be linked with Google searches and Google maps.

Website Design

Over recent weeks we have heard from several clients that they wish to take this unexpected downtime to re-design or spruce up their website. Now is a perfect time to either create a new website or re-visit some design elements of your current site. Prior to COVID-19, there were already some design trends for 2020 that were being reflected in website design. Here are some trends that we have been implementing at Insiteful Solutions:

  • Simplified Design
    People have lots to choose from and are spending even more time on the internet during this pandemic. Creating a site that is simple, sleek and focused on your product is highly advisable. Text is important, but we want your customer to learn quickly about your product or service, so we are designing sites that are efficient with text.
  • Mixing Photography with Graphics
    Photography is largely dominant in designing websites; at Insiteful Solutions, we like to make sure we have the best photography that represents your business and we mix in graphics to best communicate your vision.
  • Dark Mode
    You most likely have seen dark mode as an option on your smartphone. Now the dark mode trend has shifted into website design. Websites designed with dark mode not only look very modern but are also easier on human eyes and can make certain design elements stand out.
  • Minimal Navigation
    When a potential customer reaches your site you want them to get the information they need as quickly as possible. As website design evolves we have seen a tremendous simplification of site navigation. At Insiteful Solutions, we make sure that all of your information is shared in a clean, sleek design.

Social Media

Everyone understands that business models are changing quickly. Social media is the best way to communicate any changes to your business during this time. You can keep engaged and communicate frequently across all social media channels. It’s important to stay engaged on social media; if clients turn to your Facebook or Twitter account and it’s not up to date they may assume (incorrectly) that your business is closed. We are encouraging our clients to dive deep into their social media channels and engage with their customers.

Reach Out to Clients

Business owners across Canada have experienced the tremendous stress of having to recalibrate their businesses almost overnight. Your customers are most likely feeling the stress of COVID-19 effects as well. Now is a great time to write a personal message via email to your clients to check-in. These messages don’t have to ‘sell’ anything or push a specific product or service; in fact, it would probably be best to divest yourself of any business message and just check in on your customers on a person-to-person level.

Since the onset of COVID-19 Insiteful Solutions has been quick to work with our clients to make sure they are doing everything they can to keep their businesses operating. More than ever your company website and social media channels are crucial to your success. Give us a call or pop us an email or visit our contact page, to find out how we can help you and your business weather this storm and succeed.

We are able to offer services worldwide.  Many of our clients are in the Greater Toronto Area Toronto metropolitan area, along with 25 surrounding suburbs and exurbs, distributed among four regional municipalities: Durham, Halton, Peel, and York Region, Ontario.

Insiteful Solutions: Our COVID-19 Response

Insiteful Solutions COVID-19

At Insiteful Solutions we, along with so many other Canadian businesses, have had to adjust our operations to the current impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We were fortunate at Insiteful Solutions that our business transitioned fairly seamlessly to working remotely. Many of our designers and programmers were already working off-site and we were able to continue working with clients and address all of their needs promptly. Unfortunately, we have had to move our in-person client meetings to virtual – but this too has worked well and we’ve enjoyed more than ever working with our valued clients to help keep their businesses thriving during these challenging times.

If you need to reach anyone at Insiteful Solutions our phones are still staffed Monday to Friday from 9:00am to 5:00pm, please give us a call at 905-947-8235 or pop us an email at contact@insitefulweb.com.

At Insiteful Solutions we are sending our thoughts to everyone affected by COVID-19 and wishing that you all stay safe and healthy during this challenging time.

Our People

A strength of Insiteful Solutions is we have a large network of people who work together to create cutting edge websites and online marketing campaigns. Nothing is more important to us than our staff’s well-being. At the very beginning of COVID-19 we have adjusted all of our operations to function remotely; staff are working from home and we check in with them frequently and everyone is following social distancing guidelines. Our staff are available and eager to work with current clients on their existing sites and new clients to create website and online marketing solutions.

Our Clients

At Insiteful Solutions we are fortunate that many of our clients have been with us for a decade or longer. Their well-being is of paramount importance to us and we are dedicated to supporting them throughout this crisis. We want to make sure our clients have the best website possible to weather this current economic crisis and we constantly educate ourselves on current trends and opportunities that we can pass along to our valued clients. While some of our clients already had e-commerce built into their websites we want to make sure all of our clients can re-calibrate their business model to not just survive, but succeed, during the pandemic. At Insiteful Solutions our team of experts are here to help you pivot your business operations and drive as many people as possible to your online presence.