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Search ResultsBlogAvoid Keyword CannibalizationWhat is keyword cannibalization? It's the attempt by users to rank higher for a specific keyword by overusing that keyword on many different pages or in many different areas of the site. An example of keyword cannibalization would be using the term "First Baptist Church" as the title of three different pages on your site because you want a higher SERP (Search Engine Results Page) ranking for the term "First Baptist Church."
While this may seem like a good idea in theory -- that idea being that you are reinforcing that your site is a site for a "First Baptist Church" and therefore more relevant for searches containing that keyword -- it in fact makes it more difficult for search engines to see which page is more relevant for the term "First Baptist Church". Why is that?
Be Unique - Don’t be repetitive by using the same keyword or phrase over and over. Be Relevant - Make sure that the keywords or phrases that you are using are relevant to the page or area of content which you are using them on. Don't Stuff - Do not try to stuff keywords or phrases into pages just to try to boost your ranking. Search engines can detect this and your site will be penalized because of this. As with most things SEO-related, there are no shortcuts, and there is no easy fix. If you want your site to have a higher SERP ranking, you will have to be consistent and diligent in your process. The earlier you start formulating your SEO strategy the better. If you are in the early stages of building your site, keep this in mind as you build out the content and pages. If you have already built the site, it may be time to go back and revise your SEO strategy to better align with the current trends. And remember, your SEO strategy should be strategy that is always adapting to the current trends. There will be constant tweaking and improving. As we all know, competition for the top SERP spots is fierce, and every little bit of improvement to your site counts. Churches and SWOT BrandingHeard of SWOT? It stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Developed in the 1960s, it’s often used in business environments as a tool to extract the right questions, which lead to better solutions and increased success.
SWOT can also be used to help a church or ministry define and refine their brand.
Strengths and opportunities are the areas that are helpful to achieving their brand; weaknesses and threats make light of the challenges they face in growing their brand. From a different perspective, strengths and weaknesses are an internal perspective (things they can directly change), where opportunities and threats bring attention to external factors that they likely cannot change. Here are some examples of the kinds of SWOT questions to ask yourself: Strengths: Ways we can
Weaknesses: Opportunities:
Threats: What’s holding us back
-------?WWW - Who, What and Why Props to Jeremy Waite, where I first saw the connection of this analogy. Who are you? ?What do you do? Why does it matter? Part 1 - Fundamentals of Building a Brand?Part 2 - Strategies that Ministries Can Build a Brand On Getting Real With SWOT
Churches are missing out if they’re not getting their members' feedback on how to improve God’s house. One simple strategy would be to use the SWOT analysis. Asking members (a random sample may give the best results) to offer their thoughts can give you insight from multiple perspectives and help guide your decisions on the way forward. Marketing, A Simple MessageMost people would agree that simplicity is easier to deal with than complexity. Think about your own life for a moment. The days that are crammed full of meetings, work and obligations can be exhausting. The exhaustion amplifies when days turn into weeks and months. However, an organized life can make the most complex lifestyle seem simple. This principle can also be applied to strategies in your church marketing platforms.
Whether you are creating a new post for your blog or your church website, your message should be simple. Try your best to refrain from adding too much to your message. Text should be informative, but concise. Impactful, but not overwhelming. Your goal should be to give your audience all of the important information they need while using as few characters as possible. A simple way for you to test your message is the “Twitter Test.” Because Twitter only allows you to use 140 characters, you are limited in what your message can contain. Create your own character limit for each individual message and try to match or beat the limit! Let this be a sort of guideline for your text. Practicing these skills will help you develop more creative and attractive messages. It will also keep your audience from being bombarded with an information overload. Make your news as easy for your audience to remember as possible. Mobile Web Usage Doubled...AgainHere’s an experiment. The next time you’re in a public place, look around and see how many people are staring at their mobile devices.
According to an Akamai report released in January 2013, mobile Web usage grew a staggering 16% in a single quarter and doubled between the third quarter in 2011 and the third quarter in 2012--just like it has every year since 2009. At 14.55 percent of overall Internet traffic, mobile browsing is quickly moving from a niche player into the mainstream. Strategists from Gartner to Morgan Stanley predict that mobile browsing will overtake desktop browsing sometime between 2013 and 2015.
Android's WebKit browser accounted for 37.6 percent of traffic over cellular networks with Apple's Mobile Safari following closely behind at 35.7 percent and Opera Mini rounding out the top three at 20 percent. Unsurprisingly, when it comes to WiFi-only devices, Apple's iPad and iPod led the way with 60.1 percent market share and Android securing 23.1 percent. With WebKit-based browsers accounting for more than 73 percent of cellular browsing and 83 percent of WiFi browsing, you probably already have a device you can use for testing mobile rendering.
If you haven't started thinking mobile, you're already behind the curve, but it isn't too late...yet. The good news is that standards compliance among mobile browsers is extremely high. Building a standards-compliant site is the best first step you can take toward the growing mobile future.
No app? No problemLook around. Notice how many people are walking around looking at their mobile device. There’s a lot. It’s no surprise that mobile apps are being produced at a phenomenal rate. It seems everyone these days is pushing out smartphone applications for their members and customers. Some churches have even felt the need to follow suit and develop their own members’ app. Seemingly, this makes sense with so many smartphone users. But, does investing in an app really make sense for YOUR ministry? It may not.
Compuware, a technology data company, recently discovered that 85% of mobile users would rather have a mobile app than use a formal website. However, if your app has a problem crashing or has bug issues, users are much less likely to continue using it. In fact, a mere 16% of users said that they would continue using an app if it showed performance issues after two attempts.
What is even more frightening for app developers is the attrition rate for downloaded apps. In 2011, a staggering 80-90% of downloaded apps were discovered to have been deleted from smartphones.
Right now you are probably thinking, “What does this have to do with me and my church?”
If users are 80-90% likely to delete your smartphone application, why not invest your time and resources into something that looks and functions as well as an app, but without the extra effort? I am speaking of responsive websites or, as they’re commonly known, mobile ready. Responsive websites automatically reformat your website to fit beautifully into any size web browser. What this means is that your website will look just as good on your mobile phone as it looks on your desktop computer. Using this technology gives the customer or member a pleasant browsing experience without the worries of bugs or crashes that appear with mobile apps. Quality Content Never Goes Out of StyleWe live in a fast-paced, ever adapting world. This was never more true than when it comes to search engine optimization. Over the years, we have seen many updates to the algorithm that search engines use to come up with their rankings. Because of these changes your SEO strategy has needed to be very adaptable. However, there is one area of your strategy that will never need to change and that is the strategy to have quality content.
It may seem obvious, but having quality content should be the most important aspect of your SEO strategy. Over the years, we have seen many tips and tricks pop up for optimizing your site. Many of these tips were good and some were more of the “magic hat” variety. These strategies often led to over-optimized, non-user-friendly websites. To overcome this, search engines changed their algorithms. These changes led to a resurgence of high quality content-driven sites. Listed below are a few questions you can ask yourself when trying to develop quality content: 1. Who is my audience or whom am I trying to reach? 2. Is this content usable for my audience? 3. What response am I trying to get with my content? 4. Is my content new and relevant? Being able to consistently produce quality content should be the foundation of your SEO strategy, not just another item on the SEO checklist. There are some great tips for SEO out there right now, and there are some great new opportunities on the horizon. However, the opportunities and tips should be supplemental. Search engine algorithms will change and with it many of our tricks will be rendered useless. However, if your strategy is built around quality content, it will be able to stand the test of time -- because having quality content is not a trick, and it never goes out of style. The Case for Instagram in the ChurchWhat is it about Facebook that makes it a lure for just about everyone these days? Is it the design? Seemingly endless amount of information you can attain about your friends? Or is it more visual than that?
The current trend in social media is to go mobile and visual. I believe that Facebook realized when they purchased Instagram for a billion dollars that you could practically relive a person’s life through the photographs they share. More importantly, they recognized that this visual experience was extremely important to their users. Instagram takes the heart of the photo-sharing feature of Facebook to the market in a simple and elegant way. With this purchase, Facebook has effectively monopolized the photo-sharing market for mobile application, for the time being. So, if photo-sharing is worth $1 billion to the social media giant Facebook, do we think there is a place for using Instagram as an affective tool in your church media strategy?
Some things to consider... • August 2012 - Instagram hits 80 million users (7.3 Million ACTIVE/Day) • 5 Million Photos are uploaded every day • 40% of corporate brands have adopted Instagram for Marketing • Instagram has 432k more daily users than Twitter Clearly, a picture is worth a thousand words. In Instagram’s case, picture-sharing is worth $1 billion. But the question remains, can it be used effectively for your church communication? When leveraged by the correct source and delivered with the right message, your church’s photos can speak volumes about the life within your church community. Make sure to post pictures of: - Community Events
- Youth Activities - Worship Moments - People in Mission - Anything That’s Visually Awesome Just remember to be creative. Focus on the specific things/people that get your attention instead of wide shots of rooms. A major part of any ministry is being able to meet people where they are. In today’s society, it is likely that your market is in the social media world. Let your church pursue your market by meeting them in the world of Instagram. Vision, Brand and VolunteerismPeople volunteer for various reasons, but it mainly stems from a desire to make a difference. A brand is more than a logo, it’s the essence of why you exist
Branding connects Vision to Volunteerism
People volunteer for various reasons, but it often comes to them making a decision that offering their time will make a difference. They’ve decided to trade their time for something bigger than themselves, something important, something lasting and selfless.
Vision clarifies what is important to the church. Without it, members volunteer out of duty. With it, members volunteer out of passion.
Branding is the connector. Branding is far more than a logo or a color palette. For a church to understand its brand means it understands its identity. It creates the culture that explains, drives, and aligns everyone to the vision - and gets (and keeps) members excited about the vision and excited about serving.
Branding is the culture that reminds, encourages and aligns members not only to the church, but to the vision of the church.
Remember, without vision, there is no race. Without volunteerism, there is no finish line. Without branding, there is no starting line.
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