We all want to spend time on channels proven to generate sales, right?

After all, it’s the easiest way to prove your marketing’s ROI when the cost of using a specific channel is miniscule compared to the revenue it generates.

Databox recently surveyed hundreds of ecommerce experts to see which (if any) channel tends to generate the most conversions.

Surprisingly, one came out on top: organic search.

If you want to see two Search Engine Optimization experts argue, ask them about the effects of social media on SEO. In 2010, Google and Bing both admitted they use social signals when ranking search results. Four years later, Matt Cutts claimed that Google no longer uses signals such as Twitter retweets or Facebook likes.  

The stated reason is that social platforms like Twitter can (and did) block Google’s crawlers, making it an unreliable signal. However, mounting evidence shows that social media can help increase visibility on different search engines. The impact of social media on SEO is one of the most discussed topics in the marketing industry. Specifically, whether social media really helps your SEO efforts.

Marketing analytics can be overwhelming enough without having to translate the different terms included in your marketing reports. Understanding the terminology can be essential to ensuring you understand the results of your marketing efforts.

After looking over your marketing analytics, do you feel like you leave with more questions? You are not alone — our team of consultants are regularly asked to explain the difference between a bounce rate and an exit rate, and explain why the bounce rate matters.

Looking for a business, product, or service? Need a good how-to video? Just "Google it." Google has made accessing the information we need readily available and easily accessible. Consumers can find businesses, services, and products with a click of a button and faster than ever before, making it vital that your business has an online presence.

Does blogging help with SEO? 

Hubspot explains that, "Blogging helps boost SEO quality by positioning your website as a relevant answer to your customers' questions. Blog posts that specifically use a variety of on-page SEO tactics can give you more opportunities to rank in search engines and get customers to visit your site."

What are the benefits of blogging?

• SEO
• Thought Leadership
• Education for Prospects and Customers
• Attract Qualified Leads
• Content for the Sales Process
• Lead Nurturing
• Lead Conversion
• And MORE!

So, how can you utilize this tool to benefit your business? The expert team at LeadG2 has put together a list to help you optimize your blog posts for search. Use this checklist with each post you publish to help you increase your search rankings and drive quality leads to your site before your publish and distribute your posts. 

We've all heard about Google's Zero Moment of Truth. It's the moment before the traditional customer journey when a consumer decides to research online about a product or service that they are interested in. 

The Zero Moment of Truth is absolutely real! And if marketers don't take it seriously, it is at their peril.  

However, just because someone at Google created a new "term" for research before the purchase, does NOT mean that the old rules of marketing no longer exist! 

In fact, they are probably more valuable today than ever before.  

People believe all kinds of crazy things. And just because people believe something, doesn’t mean it's true. SEO has more than its share of untrue beliefs, and these myths keep good sites from ranking well because the owners of the sites don’t know better.

As part of the LeadG2 series on "The 10 Commandments of Inbound Marketing," this post looks at the ninth of The 10 Commandments of Inbound Marketing is: "Thou shall not publish content for the sake of Google. Write for humans not Google." (Tweet This)

As part of the LeadG2 series on "The 10 Commandments of Inbound Marketing" we're looking at several principles that you can't succeed without. The eighth of The 10 Commandments of Inbound Marketing is: Do not ignore SEO / Organic search. This is your website’s lifeblood. (Tweet This)

A couple of weeks ago, we had a scare. I logged into the HubSpot dashboard to see that our search engine rankings had plummeted. We were now ranking for only 3 key phrases in the top 10 results. The day before, we had been ranking for over 180 key terms in the top 10. Many of these were high-value terms pulling $17-$21 per click in AdWords. We get a lot of our visitors from the search engines, and we rely on our rankings.

Needless to say, we were freaking out for a little bit. But after some quick research, I discovered that Google had done a core ranking algorithm update. We weren’t expecting anything like this, because we knew the Penguin update wasn’t ready to come out yet. But Google is constantly working on their algorithm to make sure that their users are finding exactly what they’re looking for in the search results.