Search Engine Optimization | Panoptic Online Marketing

8 Ways to be SEO Ready in 2017

Nov 21, 2016 By Redge Estebat

2017 is drawing near — time of the year to start planning next year’s online marketing strategy. With so many changes to SEO and the increasing importance of driving the right kind of traffic to your website, knowing what your next move should be can feel overwhelming.

New trends and big changes in SEO practices are no surprise to anyone; the only thing businesses can do is learn quickly and adapt strategies accordingly. To help you catch up and provide a little guidance for your SEO initiatives in 2017, we’ve listing eight important things to focus on as the New Year approaches. [Read more…]

Website Redesign and SEO Starter Package for Shoreline Pixels

Sep 8, 2016 By Melissa Cahill

Panoptic Online Marketing has been working with business owners along the beautiful Connecticut coastal towns that make up the Shoreline area. It’s a joy for our client account managers to get away from the grit and hustle of NYC to spend a few days meeting with clients, prospects and colleagues in Westbrook, Old Saybrook, Madison, Clinton and Guilford. The scenery is gorgeous; farms and forests, the beaches of the Long Island Sound. And local business owners that actively help each other — and the larger community– grow and thrive through their local Chambers of Commerce.

We’ve joined two of these: the Old Saybrook Chamber of Commerce and the Shoreline Chamber of Commerce; it’s through the latter that I met Peter Sikes of Shoreline Pixels, a Google Street View Trusted Photographer. Peter has been providing 360-degree virtual tours for a variety of businesses from New Haven to New London, and we are now teaming up to round out each of our respective business’s capabilities, share leads and deliver great results for our clients!

In getting started, we decided to work with Shoreline on the redesign of its website and make sure the new site was properly optimized for both visitors (hopefully potential customers) and search engines.

The new site provides for better responsiveness to mobile devices and provides Peter with an easy way to add new Virtual Tours to his portfolio, new Testimonials from business clients who have taken advantage of his expert service, and blog/news items for stuff that doesn’t fall naturally into other categories, for example, beautiful shots of moonrise over the Madison Surf Club. We also provided him with an intake form to collect more information from potential customers who may be looking for specific types of digital imaging services.

If you run a business with a physical location — could be a shop, restaurant or bar, hotel or even your manufacturing plant — you should consider a Google Street View for your website. Let us know if you’d like us to introduce you to Peter at Shoreline Pixels.

Five Things to Look at If You’ve Never Looked at Google Analytics

Aug 5, 2016 By Melissa Cahill

I’m never very surprised when I meet business owners that don’t monitor their website traffic and usage reports. As a business owner, I know there are many things I probably should be doing that end up falling by the wayside, mostly due to time constraints. But business owners should learn how to read and interpret some basic analytics data – even if they only check it once in a while. Setting up and configuring a free Google Analytics account is a must if you want to start realizing some return on the investment you made in your website.

Once up and running, you’ll see data start to accrue in your Google Analytics. Here are five of the most basic reports that will give you a sense of how visitors reach your website and what they do once they’re there. [Read more…]

SEO Musts When Redesigning Your Website

Jul 21, 2016 By Melissa Cahill

You might be undergoing a redesign of your business website to update its look and feel or upgrade any outdated functionality. It’s important to have an attractive and accessible website so people don’t balk just by looking at it, and equally important for visitors to be able to find the information they’re looking for quickly and easily.

When considering your website redesign there are a number of factors to consider that go beyond the layout and color scheme. It goes without saying that your website should be mobile responsive and user-friendly; mobile usability is an important component of SEO that can influence your online rankings. The other consideration, often overlooked in a redesign, is how to preserving any SEO you’ve already built up so you don’t fall off the map once the new site is launched. Let’s take a closer look at the “SEO musts” for any web redesign project.

[Read more…]

SEO Comparison: WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace

Jun 30, 2016 By Redge Estebat

Creating a website for your business has never been easier, especially with the availability of all-inclusive website builders that let you effortlessly build your own site with a few drop-and-drag actions. It can be tempting to go with the easiest and fastest way to build your website and get it out there for the world to see. But is the immediate result really worth it?

To answer this question we look into two of the most popular drag-and-drop website builders, Wix and Squarespace, and compare them to WordPress which is among the top recommended web content management platforms by online marketing experts. Many reviews and comparisons have been written regarding these three platforms on aspects such as pricing, ease of use and design. Our focus here is on their respective SEO features and functionality. [Read more…]

Three Reasons to Outsource Your SEO and Online Marketing

May 26, 2016 By Melissa Cahill

From time to time I offer SEO tutorials to clients or speak at events where small business owners come for a do-it-yourself SEO overview. I’m always happy to educate people around search engine optimization and all the techniques we employ in our daily work at the marketing agency. Somebody once asked me if I wasn’t afraid of “giving away” my expertise, but I love what I do and I enjoy educating others on how to leverage their websites to meet their business goals – that’s why I’m in business!

I’ve never worried about giving away expertise – the expertise is out there for anyone and everyone to find and study for themselves. The thing is, even when armed with the necessary knowledge not everyone has the time to work on their own SEO and content marketing – especially not the small to medium-sized business owners we work with. And if there is a single lesson I try to impart during my talks and tutorials, it’s that SEO and online marketing requires commitment and consistency. In almost every case I recommend that businesses – even those with in-house webmasters, design teams and marketing departments – outsource their SEO. Here are the three main reasons why

[Read more…]

How to Shop for an SEO Vendor [Infographic]

Apr 21, 2016 By Melissa Cahill

With more companies starting to understand how essential real SEO is and how time and resource intensive it can be, business owners are opting to hire agencies to help them with their online marketing. But how do you choose an SEO vendor? There are so many SEOs and digital agencies that promise results, so it better educate yourself a bit before choosing one.

In our latest infographic we share some important considerations before and during your selection process so your investment won’t go to waste. You can also read the full article, “Shopping For An SEO Vendor?” in The Social Media Monthly. [Read more…]

What is an SEO Audit?

Mar 18, 2016 By Melissa Cahill

So you’ve signed up a great SEO or digital agency to help you with your online marketing initiatives – congratulations! You’ve taken the first step in leveraging all the cool 21st century technology in the service of growing your business.

What can you expect from your shiny new marketing team? At Panoptic, the on-boarding of all new clients begins with a consultation call or meeting, followed by a comprehensive SEO Audit. [Read more…]

"Panoptic guided our non profit through both technical and organizational transitions, most recently bringing our website into the 21st century and raising our profile in the educational and independent media world." -- Greta Schiller, Director, Jezebel Productions

"If I need a website re-designed or created for Wordpress, I'm calling Panoptic again. Customer service is foremost. They aren't satisfied with the end product until you are." -- Greg Miller, Owner, Intelireach Marketing (White Label Client)

"Melissa and the Panoptic team were an important part of the SEO process during the development of the new Morvillo Abramowitz website." -- Paula Zirinsky, Marketing Director at Morvillo Abramowitz

"Panoptic has been instrumental in helping my company launch a successful social media campaign. Any time someone found my services on the web and booked them, it was Panoptic’s work that got them there!" -- Gina Bradley, Owner, Paddle Diva