Let’s Talk Turkey about 2016. Part One - SEO.

Thanksgiving is almost here and the December holidays are just around the corner.

The year is drawing to an end and we’re inching ever closer toward the beginning of 2017.

Though this is not a startling realization, it did get us thinking about the year that was 2016 at LeDuc Creative.

Because we always have one foot (or some other singular body part) in advertising, we couldn’t help but think about the changes we experienced this past year. Good changes. Changes that made us a better agency. We also thought about fuzzy things like ducklings, which are cute but ultimately irrelevant to this post.

At any rate, when John LeDuc first ventured into running an ad business over 35 years ago, things were a lot different.

The internet was in its packet switching infancy and a couple of years away from being an actual usable thing. It would be quite some time before it would reach adulthood. (Of course, with all of the infantile behavior on the internet, one could argue it still hasn’t.)

The world of advertising then was of the traditional print/broadcast/billboard ilk. It obviously wasn’t called traditional then. After all, we’re talking about a time when direct mail was considered cutting edge. Which is a little hilarious.

But here we are 35 years later and our battle cry at LeDuc Creative is, “We’re not new to this.”

We call it a battle cry because although we have vast experience in traditional advertising, we know there’s a certain fierceness required to survive in the current and constantly changing landscape of today’s marketing and advertising. And we vow to stay out ahead of it - for our clients and for ourselves.

At LeDuc Creative, we must always consider what tactical moves to make in order to be holistic in our approach to get success for our clients.

So the first move we made in 2016 was focusing on SEO.

SEO is the name of the game these days. And the game is getting our clients results. In case you didn’t already know, SEO stands for search engine optimization and though that may sound like some Star-Trekian acronym for achieving warp speed, it’s really pretty simple. SEO is basically a measurable, repeatable process that is used to signal search engines that certain pages are worthy of being shown in Google’s index.

And Google’s where it’s at, y’all.

That’s why this year we added a certified Google AdWords Expert to the team.

We call her our superstar. And not because she’s shaped like a star. (She isn’t.) But because her expertise adds so much to creating powerful and effective SEO.

Google works from an algorithm that gives websites scores based on the quality of the site, how many sites link to it and how trustworthy it is. And our superstar expert helps us create SEO savvy content that is relevant and gives our clients’ sites a higher score. A higher score means higher billing on a search. And higher billing means more visibility.

Some of her other superstar duties include:

•        Conducting keyword research to create a list of keyword phrases on which the client bids

•        Creating Adwords Ads that will run on Google Search, Google Display Partners sites (if desired) and on mobile devices (if desired)

•        Testing different ads using various headlines and ad copy

•        Managing bids

•        Revealing what keywords were entered into Google Search that resulted in an ad being displayed

•        Telling clients how many times visitors clicked on an ad, which ad was clicked on, and which keyword got the ad displayed

•        Working with clients to create targeted landing pages for each of their Adwords Ad Groups

•        Keeping John LeDuc in line

Okay, that last one isn’t really a part of her AdWords duties, although she does it well. Still, through her tireless efforts with SEO and AdWords, LeDuc Creative was able to generate more leads for our clients. A lot more leads.

And in the case of Feed Lease Corporation, those leads came at an exponential rate, accounting for some pretty happy guys over there. And when they’re happy, we’re happy.

Yep. Getting on board the SEO train was definitely a game changer. But we didn’t stop there.

There were two other areas where making changes really benefitted our clients.  One of them was also forward thinking, but the other one - not so much.  And this is a good thing.

Wanna know how we upped the ante on website design in 2016? Stay tuned.