Square Has Made Big Splashes in Mobile Payment World & They Impact Business

Mobile payments are really gaining some footing here with marketers in 2014 and expectedly in 2015. With moves such as Apple Pay and partnerships with payment companies, mobile payment options are showing the business world they are worth taking a look at.

How does this relate to SEO? Square is becoming a main competitor for keywords such as mobile payment and digital money.

A leader in the mobile payment world, Square, is leading the charge and make a serious name for itself. What has the company done in the past few weeks to be so dangerous?

Square helped create vanishing money. No, not like a robbery but rather money transfers via Snapchat. Square partnered with Snapchat to launch mobile payments, called "Snapcash", which lets users keep debit card info within the app so they can send money between friends. As to the popularity of this feature, we are not sure since it launched very recently and understandably, there is skepticism about the safety with users.

Becoming buddies with Apple. In the past, it was seen that Square and Apple would be competitors since Apple Pay requires different payment systems than Square; however, that alleged feud has turned into a friendship. However, Dorsey, of Square, wants to build a payment device that can house all kinds of payment in one.

Going back to school, er, old school. One thing that is holding up the immense takeoff of mobile payments is the habit of swiping a card that consumers are still used to. Due to this, Square has decided to let its merchant clients sell gift cards to consumers; for only $1.50, merchants can customize gift cards to sell to their consumers. Why gift cards? Well, gift cards are still an incredibly lucrative option for businesses to invest in.

While Square may not be doing search engine optimization for keywords such as "mobile payment" or  "digital payments", they are certainly known for them and rank well for them, regardless. If you want to be known for words and phrases like Square is for those words and phrases, then hire Integraphix-- a digital marketing firm and be remembered!

Organic SEO & Paid Links (PPC)

There seems to be a stigma that organic SEO and paid links, or PPC, are enemies. Some may believe that these two search engine marketing techniques would clearly be rivals, they are actually teammates.

In order to understand this concept, for the novices out there, let's talk about what these two are, first.

Organic search engine optimization: Organic SEO is the usage of blogs, articles, inbound links, and other "natural/free" means to appease Google and get ranked for keywords. This route takes much longer to succeed at than PPC. As long as you are doing good SEO, you stay in good rankings.

PPC: You pay search engines, such as Google, to put your site on the f
irst page. You get on the first page right away.  You stay in good rankings until your daily budget runs out.

So seeing how they might be enemies seems logical, natural vs. purchased success. However, if you really want to get seen on the web, your tactic should be to use both. See, organic SEO takes time to get going, anywhere between 2-6 months before you see anything (depending on a variety of factors). In the meantime, while that builds up, you can do PPC and be on the first page while your sustaining rankings come to fruition.

Do you want to be on the first page of Google, Yahoo, or Bing? Then hire Integraphix to be your SEO firm! We work with both organic SEO and paid links.

How to & Why You Should Set Up Goals on Google Analytics

Directing more organic search traffic to your website is the main goal of your search engine optimization, but driving more to your site only really matters if it is the right kind of traffic. The right traffic matters because it is what will convert the web traffic into customers!

Remember, the first time someone goes to your site, they are likely not ready to convert; a web visitor might need a few visits to your site before they decide if they want to
buy from your or not.

There are a lot of micro-conversions you can keep track of to see how well you are converting your web traffic. One way to track the micro-conversions is to set up goals in your Google Analytics account. Setting up goals allows you to measure how well visitors complete actions that you want to measure. Want to see how many web visitors click on your "contact" page? This is something you can measure with goals.

Analyzing and tracking your goals will allow you to see the quality of your organic SEO visitors versus the quality of the direct traffic, social referrals, etc. You can see which of these traffic sources has been giving you the best conversion rate.

Don't be surprised if the organic search traffic is the smallest traffic source your site has. That is rather common.

Viewing this data will enable you to show your boss just how valuable SEO is. Due to info like this, a client might just decide to increase their search engine marketing budget! One can hope, right?

Our Chicago SEO firm always makes sure to set up goals in Analytics because it allows our SEO specialists to view info that cannot be seen otherwise. It just makes sense.

Does your SEO company set up goals for you? Or, if you do your own, do you set up goals? Maybe it is time to discuss this tactic with an SEO firm that knows how to do it and get you data you need to win the SEO battle. Contact Integraphix about our SEO services and get noticed on the web!

Benefits of Google+ for SEO & How It Impacts Search Results

Considering getting more use out of your search engine optimization? Great! Wondering how you can do that? Well, one way is through using Google+. Google+ offers people opportunities for their business that cannot be found elsewhere.

For one thing, it makes sense that it will do some work for your SEO; think about it, Google owns Google+ and they essentially run the internet. Google+ is described as a unification of all that Google has to offer but with a social layer on top; due to this, the social media platform is a major factor in your SEO, in addition to your social media marketing. So how exactly does the platform work its way into SEO?

Social signals. When you share things on Google+, it can be shared and +1'd (it's like a Facebook "like"). Google sees the credibility from others and takes that into account. These social signals account for 7 out of 8 ranking factors in search results. Search results like to display what is popular and resourceful, having good content on Google+ is a great way to achieve this.

Pagerank. One way search engines review material to index and rank is by sending out crawlers that scan the internet and review information. When you post things on Google+, it is scanned and indexed  very quickly and the better the content is, the more it helps your profile's PageRank; any Google+ profile is treated like a real website by Google. Just a tip for novices, the higher your PageRank (PR), the better.

Web Influence. The more you are in Google+ circles (they're like networks), the more you influence the search results of the people who have you in their circles.

Google+ Local. A major tool of Google+ focuses on businesses and their locations, this comes in handy when someone searches, "BBQ near Houston" and guess what, YOU'RE A BBQ PLACE NEAR HOUSTON! These pages are similar to Facebook business pages but have more features and connections for businesses and users. You get much more visibility, more engagement with consumers, better access to consumers, better PR, and better integration with Google Maps.

Don't believe us? Then just try it for yourself! Need help? Then contact Integraphix, we are a SEO firm and social media marketing firm that's been around for one 20 years! Speak with one of our specialists today and get noticed on Google.

The Best Way to Help Your SEO

When it comes to having good SEO, you need to have this one thing down or else your search engine optimization will suffer greatly.

What is that one thing? CONTENT. Content, my friends. As an SEO firm, we operate offices across the country and one thing we can tell you is that people all over love to see good content. Of course, good content doesn't just soothe the soul of humans, it also soothes the souls of the search engines.

You have to write great content! This is the heart of your SEO efforts. What is great content? It is content that helps people, is captivating, relatable, interesting, and even sales-oriented. Great content shows your customers why they need your services and how you can better their lives. It gets people to realize they have a connection with your brand. Sure, you can write about your cat and how he is adorable but that will not work for your flooring site.

You have to write unique content. This means no copying what other people write. One, that's plagiarism. Two, if you avoid that, it just looks tacky. Do your own research and find out what people want to read and write about that. Write stuff that is not on other sites or other pages of your site. As an SEO company, we can't stress this enough. People hate it. Search engines hate it.

Post new content frequently. Your site should have new content added to it on a regular basis. A site that adds new content is seen as more credible than static sites. Your rankings will see great improvements if you do this. Search engine rankings are sometimes hard to achieve, you want to do all you can to get them!

Need help creating great content? Then contact Integraphix who has a whole team of talented marketing specialists who write specifically for SEO purposes.