Our new IESinc.blog has officially launched!

Who likes a lengthy website address? Certainly not us....we have enough information to remember!

As of today, we have officially launched the IESinc.blog website. Simply type www.iesinc.blog or iesinc.blog into your web browser and you will be sent to the main page of our blog.

We made the change because it's much easier for all our readers. Not only that, but it's more secure. From now on, all the blog posts you see on social media will begin with the URL iesinc.blog.

Your website is one of your biggest marketing opportunities. Don't let it fall victim to these 5 home page missteps.

It's all too common for small business owners who build their own websites to make a handful of rookie mistakes. Luckily, the professionals at IES know how to effectively design and code websites. If you need a website designed, give us a call at 781-816-9437 or email contactus@iesadvisors.com.

Your website is one of your most important marketing tools, so whether you're taking on the creation and design of it yourself or you're hiring someone else to do it for you, make sure you avoid these all too common home page mistakes:

1. Too Many Choices
People won't actually read your home page. They'll scan it, looking for the information that's most immediately relevant to them. If they can't find it quickly and with minimal effort, they'll visit a site where they can.

Your site should be designed to guide new eyes exactly where you want them to go, even if they don't know for sure what they're looking for....especially if they're not sure what they're looking for. Simple navigation with clean lines is the way to go. If your business requires that you offer robust, complex choices, do that on a deeper page. Your home page should be simple and easy to navigate.

2. Wall Of Text
A few years ago, a multimillion dollar ad campaign from five major magazine publishers who were touting the power of print stated "We surf the Internet. We swim in magazines." To do that surfing, people will interact with, share and return to websites that have pages with:

• Short paragraphs

• Bullet and numbered lists

• Lots of white space

• Images and other graphics

• Sections with subheadings

Anything that breaks up the information you're presenting means people will read more about your company, your products and services, and why they want to do business with you.

3. No Blog
Blogging for your business doesn't mean you have to post something every day, but it does give your website dynamic, rather than static, content. Dynamic content means something on your site changes often enough that people will come back to see what's new. More important, it engages Google in a way that unchanging pages don't.

Even one post per week will be enough to get the attention of Google and other search engines. To attract the attention of human readers, be sure to announce the newest blog updates on your social media platforms and encourage subscribers to sign up for your blog.

4. No Optimization
Yes, there's a lot of luck to search engine optimization (SEO). No, this doesn't mean you shouldn't build your site without sound SEO practices in place.

A full discussion of SEO could fill several books, which would then need new editions fairly quickly because of how rapidly Google changes its algorithms. A short list of essentials includes:

• Identifying three to five keyword phrases for your site to aggressively pursue

• Including keywords in metadata, URLs and similar "behind the curtain" aspects of your home page

• Avoiding "black hat" SEO methods like keyword stuffing and courting unrelated links

• Using smart, natural instances of your keywords in your blog and on the static pages of your site

5. Neglecting The Obvious
Google gives bonus points for including a handful of simple page components on your website, which will help your site perform better in searches. Including "Privacy Policy" and "Contact" pages with specific data about your company, information about how to reach you and what you'll do with customer information takes no more than 30 minutes per page, but it's been shown to give sites preferential ranking over similar sites that lack those pages.

Looking for an easy way to create business to business blog posts?

Blogging doesn't have to be difficult. Actually, if done properly, it can be quite easy.

Unpack more formal content.You don’t have to be the world’s best writer to create regular blog posts. If you (or your outsourced marketing partners*) are already creating long form content in the form of white papers and eBooks, you can drill down and repurpose different subsections of those offers into individual blog posts.

Create industry roundups.It’s okay to acknowledge other experts in your field. In fact, a post that includes a round up of other quality resources, websites, blogs, or Twitter accounts worth following can win you points with prospective customers and with professional peers; both are more likely to promote spotlight sharing blogs.

Feature your everyday conversations.Interviews, client questions, FAQ-style posts written by employees with different areas of expertise… These can all make for great posts.

*Speaking of outsourced marketing partners...did you know IES offers this service? Give us a call or visit our website for more information.

IES, Inc.
781-816-9437iesAdvisors.com

3 reasons why your business needs a strong blog.

Many businesses publish blogs, but not every company understands why they do it or the real value they can receive from a successful program. There are plenty of reasons why regular blogging is worth your time, but the biggest ones will depend on your goals, your audience, and your existing web presence.

Here's the short answer to the popular question: "Why should my business blog?

• Companies that blog receive 55% more web traffic.
• B2B companies that blog attract 67% more leads per month.
• 57% of companies that blog gain a customer through their blog.

These are all compelling statistics, but they don’t all necessarily align with your priority metrics. Here are some broad ways to think about blogging goals:

1. For improved organic search rankings.

By creating and optimizing relevant blog posts, you can help more customers find you. Remember that blogging, unlike ads and direct mail, is a long-term investment. Over time, optimized posts grow your blog archive to represent all your most profitable terms. Even just a handful of posts that are imbedded with the right terms, tags, titles, and Meta descriptions could help you jump from the fifteenth page of Google to the first page of Google.

2. For help turning traffic into leads.
Maybe you’ve already cornered the market for your preferred terms, attracting boatloads of traffic but not so many actual conversions. Blogs can help you funnel existing traffic toward calls to action. After a few paragraphs of inspiring content, blog readers will be hungry for more information, like a guide or a tip sheet. This makes your blog the perfect place to position call to actions and ramp up your visitor-to-lead ratio.

3. For opportunities to teach, communicate, and foster relationships. Sometimes lead volume isn’t a concern for B2B companies. Many of our clients need help attracting higher quality leads or speaking to prospects who are farther along in the buy cycle. Your blog is a great place to differentiate your company and speak to these folks - either directly with posts that address your knowledge and experience or indirectly with posts that illustrate your sense of humor, your understanding of industry trends, or your opinion on recent news, etc.

Welcome to the 21st century...
...where the majority of your customers are going to be obtained through an online avenue. We understand that running a business is extremely time consuming! Give us a call - we can help you not only with your blog content, but all of your social media.

IES, Inc.
781-816-9437
iesAdvisors.com