strategy - 5 Horizons

Celebrating Our 2023 Wins + Planning for Our 2024 Successes

January 12, 2024

2023 brought 12 months of growth for our team. We welcomed four new employees and five new clients, putting in hundreds of hours building up our offerings.

As always, education and professional development are at the forefront of our company culture. Our team attended three conferences and exhibited at two, networking with new connections and expanding our skills in design and technology.

2023 was a website heavy year––our team built over 43 websites, spending over 1,000 hours writing, designing, constructing, and testing. We created nearly 500 digital ads and worked on 228 unique projects of varying complexities. Our data and tech team completed three extensive SEO audits and got the ball rolling on six more. We also launched two new Marketing Automation systems in Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud.

As we move into 2024, we are excited for the new opportunities on the horizon––including clients, design techniques, and innovative strategic methods––all delivered with the same quality and care we’ve prioritized for the last 11 years.

Visit our website for fresh ideas and upcoming trends on our Insights page, and take a look behind the curtain under Projects to see how we handled different client challenges. Follow us on social media for day-to-day updates or reach out through our contact form to chat with us directly.

At 5 Horizons we solve problems using creativity, technology, and data to help our partners grow. We look forward to being your partner in 2024.

– Pat Riley & Ben Sandman

Co-Founders, 5 Horizons

How to Increase Return Site Visitors

January 4, 2024

As we mentioned in the previous blog, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) isn’t one and done and needs to be frequently updated to maintain your website’s credibility and ranking. Search engines view repeat site visitors as a sign that your site provides valuable, trustworthy information. So, how do you increase return visitors to your website?

Identify Why People Should Come to Your Website

Answering the question of why people should come back to your site will help you pinpoint the site’s features you can enhance or move directly to your home page for easier navigation. At 5 Horizons, we work with clients from a variety of industries but want to provide a few examples for some of our most prominent ones.

Senior Living

People visiting the websites of senior living communities are most likely interested in the services and resources the community provides, as well as interacting with chatbots, reviewing the updated activities and events schedule, and searching for contact information.

Higher Education

Similarly, visitors tend to go to higher education websites to find resources for current, future, or returning students, look for upcoming events and contact information for various departments and offices.

Other

As the examples above indicate, the visitors’ intent is frequently similar throughout various industries. Some other reasons why people might visit your website include making a purchase, leaving a review, and using features such as a customer portal or an FAQ page.

Four Ways to Increase Return Site Visitors

With the reasons people come to your website in mind, consider implementing the following four steps into your online presence.

1. Optimize Your Visitors’ Favorite Landing Pages

This includes improving the user experience by putting the most important information on each page front and center, making the page layout intuitive and efficient, and the content easy to follow and understand. Optimizing your entire website’s navigation can also increase visits—utilize your menu bar to funnel visitors to the most important areas of your site.

2. Start an Email Newsletter

Email is a great way of engaging with your audience and connecting them to more of your content. The newsletter can link to website blogs and social media content, allowing you to repurpose the already existing content into micro-content shared across platforms.

3. Create a Customer Loyalty Program

Customer Loyalty Programs are a great way of encouraging loyal visitors to return to your website again and again. By offering an incentive in the form of discounts or other perks, you make people feel appreciated and motivate them to not only come back to your site but also to spread the word about your services.

4. Retargeting Ads

Running retargeting ads can help remind the people who previously interacted with your website to visit it again. This type of advertising also works by displaying ads to someone who engaged with your social media pages, watched a video, or connected with your brand at some point in time. You can place these ads through Google or Facebook, using them as reminders for your visitors.

There are more strategies for increasing your site visitors out there, but these four offer a solid starting point for any community, school, or business.

Follow our Demystifying SEO series to learn how SEO is more than just content, how it requires a thorough strategy and involves intent-focused keyword research. Or contact us to discuss conducting an SEO audit to help your business thrive.

Why SEO Isn’t One-and-Done

December 12, 2023

There isn’t a single person in marketing who hasn’t heard of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or taken steps to implement an SEO strategy into their organization’s or business’ efforts. However, most people get stuck thinking that SEO is an item you can check off your to-do list. Instead, SEO is an ongoing process––a strategy that requires continuous attention, tweaking, and improvement.

What Makes SEO an Ongoing Process?

Changes in User Behavior

In the past, it was challenging to keep up with the most popular keywords or keyword phrases. Now, that task is made even harder by Google, which is not just looking for keywords anymore—it is also reviewing the intent behind the search by compiling a user profile. Understanding the “why” behind your audience’s search is a long process but one that will tremendously help your SEO results.

Evolving Marketplace

New technology, products, media, trends, etc. are constantly entering the marketplace, shifting the trajectory of the audience’s interests, hobbies, and likes. Anticipating these changes is difficult, but you can learn to adapt, pivot, or enhance your strategy and language in accordance with the market demands.

Algorithm Updates

To avoid search engine results page (SERP) manipulation, search engines frequently update the way they evaluate and rank websites when it comes to search results. These updates can have an immediate effect on your strategy’s performance, heightening the importance of promptly incorporating the current best SEO practices into your efforts.

How to Keep Up with SEO Over Time

Generate High-Quality Content

Populating your website with content that is relevant to your audience requires constant content generation. Uploading a few blogs to your site when implementing an SEO strategy and never writing another one again will make you rank lower on the SERP and prevent people from engaging with your website. That’s why it’s necessary to keep creating content that your prospective customers, clients, or students would want to interact with on a regular basis.

Maintain Your Website

On-page SEO is easy to keep in mind when you start optimizing your website. But as time goes by and you create new pages, you might forget to write meta titles and descriptions, making it harder for search engines to index your content. Continuously keeping your site organized will help your page rank higher.

Monitor Trends and Competition

Staying in the know of the new approaches search engines and your competitors take when it comes to SEO will help you adjust your own strategy if needed. Learning from the victories and mistakes of others is just as important as learning from your own, and it will help you stay afloat when search engines inevitably release updates that can affect your rankings.

It is vital to keep your SEO fluid and flexible to help your operations thrive and gather as many viable leads as possible. At 5 Horizons, we offer continuous SEO services that ensure your organization, business, or school reaches your target audience. Contact us today to learn more and follow along on our Demystifying SEO journey.

The Benefits of Focusing Your Strategy on Local SEO

Local SEO is a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that helps increase search result visibility for local businesses. If you rely on local customers, have a physical location, and serve a specific geographic area, local SEO is a strategy worth implementing to optimize your reach.

Benefits of Local SEO

1. More new and returning customers

With modern life being so fast-paced, people tend to add “near me” to their search engine inquiries or look for local businesses directly in Google Maps and other map apps. With successful local SEO, your business will appear in the top three results, increasing the chances of customers selecting it among your competitors.

2. Increased website traffic conversions

You can include the link to your website in directories such as Google My Business, which will result in highly qualified traffic. Site visits that come from local searches are from customers in the area who are ready to engage with the products or services your business offers.

3. Improved brand awareness

Having your business appear in global or local trustworthy publications and review sites (such as Yelp) can help generate more feedback, helping you take control of your reputation. Also, through high-quality link building, search engines and customers alike will feel more confident about your products or services, amplifying your business opportunities.

How to Implement Local SEO

Your strategy for implementing local SEO for your business stems directly from what you hope to achieve. Taking the above local SEO benefits as a guideline, here are some things you can do to rank higher in Google search, get noticed by more customers, receive better leads and targeted website traffic, and manage your reputation for increased brand awareness.

1. Perform a website SEO audit

Keeping local SEO in mind, check how well your website is performing. Does your website feature SEO elements that help ranking? Do you mention the specific geographic locations you want to target? Are your URL, meta titles and descriptions, and headers optimized? Do you have a location page on your website? Do you offer local content that could attract a local audience? These are just a few of the questions worth asking when performing an SEO audit.

2. Optimize your online presence

Create a Google My Business page and encourage your customers to share authentic reviews. Keeping this page active and updated will help your business rank higher in search results. But your online presence doesn’t stop with Google My Business. You have to make sure the content about your business continues to appear in online directories and citations. Reach out to local online publications to feature your business and link to it, which will help your website gain credibility for search engines and prospective customers alike.

3. Stay consistent

It is your responsibility to make it easy for people to contact you and find out where your business is located. Ensure your name, address, and phone number are the same everywhere online, and optimize your website for mobile to guarantee website traffic conversions for people who are on the go.

By implementing a local SEO strategy, you’ll increase your business recognition and gain more customers. Though the benefits of this approach are undeniable, building a successful local SEO strategy takes time. To streamline your journey, contact us to discuss conducting an SEO audit and other steps we can take to help your business thrive. You can also learn more about SEO by reading other blogs in our Demystifying SEO series.

Demystifying SEO

November 22, 2023

A new blog series for understanding the ins and outs of SEO.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process and strategy of increasing search result visibility for businesses. With technology changing and evolving every day, SEO strategies are constantly in flux.

In our new series Demystifying SEO, our team is doing a deep dive into the complexities of SEO and how you can begin implementing best practices into your own marketing plan.

The Basics

In the first section of the series, we’ll cover the basics:

How We Implement SEO

In the second section of the series, we’ll address the challenges surrounding SEO:

Where is SEO Going Next?

And in the third section of the series, we’ll cover where we think SEO is headed next:

Follow our Demystifying SEO series to learn how SEO is more than just content, how it requires a thorough strategy and involves intent-focused keyword research. Or contact us to discuss conducting an SEO audit to help your business thrive.

How to Write Effective Alt Text

November 9, 2023

Alternative text (alt text) is an important part of website optimization. But how do you write it effectively, for the people with visual impairments and for the search engines? Follow this step-by-step guide to writing good alt text.

Examine your image closely

What is happening in the image? What information is it conveying? What would a viewer be missing if they couldn’t see this image?

Mention the specific image medium

Your viewer’s screen reading program will tell them that it is an image, but not what kind. Is it a photo, an illustration, or an infographic? This detail will help your audience understand your content much better and take action if it calls for one. When writing alternative text, be as specific as possible, instead of simply stating “image of…”

Include all important elements

Consider everything, even what is being implied. Is the image conveying a mood, activity, etc. not mentioned elsewhere?

If the image has text, write it out

Graphics, posters, and other designed image content frequently feature copy. Make sure to write it out when working on your alt text.

Consider the image’s layout

If the layout is essential, include details about it in your alt text.

Consider uX while writing alt text

Keeping user experience in mind will help you determine which elements add to the website experience and which don’t. For instance, decorative images that serve no function beyond aesthetics do not require alternative text.

By following these steps, you can ensure that your visual content is accessible to everyone and helps your site rank higher in search results. Learn more about Alt Text Best Practices.

Need help reaching your digital advertising goals? Connect with us to learn more.

Alt Text Best Practices

What is alternative text (alt text) and how to use it effectively?

Although a picture is worth a thousand words, it may be worth nothing to someone unable to see it. Without the proper parameters in place, disabled or visually impaired people may not be able to access the content from images inserted in webpages or posted on social media. This leads people to miss out on vital information about you, your company, and content. A solution to this issue? Alternative text.

What is Alternative Text?

Alternative text (or alt text) is a form of descriptive text used to detail the appearance and function of an image. This text is then read aloud to visually impaired or disabled users. It also can be utilized in place of an image if it fails to load, as well as indexed by search engines to understand the contents of your page, making your images appear higher in related searches.

The Benefits of Using Alternative Text

Accessibility

The biggest benefit of using alt text is the accessibility aspect. The inclusion of an image on a webpage, an article, or wherever it may be, denotes some level of importance or relevance to the information being conveyed. In the case of infographics, charts, and images with texts, such information could be vital to a person’s understanding of content, and if they’re unable to see it, they won’t process the information and/or take action as needed. By implementing the use of alternative text, any viewer, regardless of disability, could access all of your material, helping them access your content in its entirety.

Search Engine Optimization Ranking

Alternative text is also beneficial for SEO purposes. Having alt text on your photos allows search engines to determine what your photos portray, which can lead to enhanced ranking, and images/content appearing higher in search results.

Alternative Text Examples: Good and Bad

Some people fall into the trap of using alternative text for “keyword stuffing,” or trying to bring their image higher up in search results by applying as many words as they think will appear in a related search. This approach does not take into account the purpose of alt text for the visually impaired and therefore does not fit the accessibility standard.

An example of keyword stuffing is alt text that looks like this:

“Young child smiling at the camera, sitting in a snowy frozen plane of snow and ice during winter or Christmas with their arm around a husky dog. Mountains, skiing, snowboarding, sledding, hat and gloves, snowball fight, blue ski jacket, yellow or green snow pants.”

Good alt text is quick, to the point, and describes the image at hand. For example:

“A young child wearing winter gear sits in the snow and smiles at the camera with their arm around a husky dog.”

Alternative text is an integral part of making your content accessible, as well as a helpful way to make your content appear more relevant in search results. Read this blog for a step-by-step guide to writing good alt text, and take advantage of this tool to help your content reach a broader audience.

Learn more about How to Write Effective Alt Text. Need help reaching your digital advertising goals? Connect with us to learn more.

Threads App: Do You Need to Use It?

November 1, 2023

Threads has been around for a few months now. So, is it worth using or not?

In July of 2023, Mark Zuckerberg and his team at META created a new microblogging platform—Threads. Attached to the Instagram app, Threads allows users to share real-time updates in the form of 500-character posts, links, photos, and videos up to five minutes long.

If you or your business aren’t on Threads yet, the question remains: should you be? There are a few things to consider:

1. Who is Your Audience?

When thinking about venturing into new platforms, one thing to consider is the audience you’re marketing to. Threads was created in response to decreasing numbers on X (previously known as “Twitter”), as META was looking to capitalize on users searching for a new place to engage in open conversation. The audience Threads attracts is primarily young, mostly Gen Z. If that doesn’t sound like your audience, Threads may not be the right choice for your business.

2. What Content Does Your Audience Engage With?

Take into consideration what content and platforms your audience already enjoys. Is your company active on X? Is microblogging something they are receptive to and apt to interact with? Do they interact more with visual content, such as that found on Instagram? Figuring out what form of media fits your audience’s interests can help you to identify if a new social platform such as Threads is worth investing time in or not.

3. What Are the Benefits of Using New Platforms?

When deciding if a new form of social media is right for your business, it is important to look at how the features of the platform would benefit you and slot in with your pre-existing social media. Threads allows you to connect with your Instagram followers but in a new way. You can engage with all of your same audience, but with less of an emphasis on the visual content.

For example, if your business’ Instagram has high engagement but utilizes a curated feed, Threads would be a way to communicate information, photos, or ideas that don’t fit into your normal posts, but will still reach that same, active audience. Using Threads can also cut out the middle man when it comes to linked content, allowing your links to live within their own posts and get more interaction and engagement.

4. Is This a Trend, or a Long-Term Solution?

The last thing to take into consideration before opening a new account is the cycle of trends. When platforms are first launched, they tend to get a lot of interaction because of their newness. Early reports on Threads indicate that its numbers are dwindling already since its initial launch, and will likely continue on a downward trend. Creating new social media is a large time investment––think of the strategy, graphics, copy, and nurturing your follower base.All of this may not be worth it if the app does not show longevity. With an 80% drop in daily users, Threads might not be the most successful platform to jump into without a specific reason.

If you, however, decide that Threads is right for your business, it will offer an entirely new space to interact with your audience. So, now is as good time as any to start brainstorming ways you could diversify your content on this new platform.

Still have questions? We’re here to help you reach your audience and navigate social media advertising. Connect with us to learn more.

Google’s Changes to FAQ and HowTo Results: What Website Owners Need to Know

October 10, 2023

As of September 2023, Google reduced the visibility of FAQ and HowTo information in its search results. If you haven’t seen the impact of this decision on your website’s traffic yet, here is everything digital marketers and website owners should know if considering rethinking their strategy.

FAQ Results

Google now limits the regular display of FAQ-rich results to well-known and authoritative websites, primarily in the government and health sectors. Google’s algorithm will determine which websites fall into these categories.

HowTo Results

Attempting to simplify search results, Google no longer shows HowTo rich results on desktop or mobile devices. For this reason, this search result type has significantly lost its value.

What Changes Do You Need to Make

If your site features structured data, you don’t have to proactively remove it. Though it has no visible effects in Google Search, it’s not going to cause any problems either. FAQ and HowTo Schema markup may also continue to be useful for other search engines, aiding in content indexing and rich result display in SERPs.

Impact on Website Traffic

Google doesn’t consider this global update a ranking change, so the effects of FAQ’s and HowTo’s reduced visibility remain to be fully felt. Most likely, the removal of these sections from SERPs will lead to more search results displayed on a single screen, increasing the competition for clicks. Website owners who currently employ FAQ and HowTo Schema markup should prepare for potential traffic fluctuations, which may vary based on context and the type of website you have.

Staying up-to-date on Google’s updates and closely monitoring your website’s performance can help you effectively adapt to the evolving search result dynamics. And with 5 Horizons, you can always stay on top of digital marketing industry trends.