SEO and how important it is

Blogs are the perfect way to share information while maintaining your personal voice and personality. There is more than one way to make your writing stand out, but if people can’t find it easily on the internet your information is useless.   

SEO is defined by Merriam-Webster as, “search engine optimization.” This can be further be described as optimizing your content so that search engines such as Google make your page a top search hit.

 You can achieve SEO a couple of different ways.

  1. Understand Key Word Research 
  2. Put more links in your blogs 
  3. Post regularly with the same key words 
  4. Know what other sites you are competing with 

https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/why-search-engine-marketing-is-necessary

When you understand these tips, your content will get a lot more hits. It is particularly difficult for small businesses and brands to get recognized when their competition is already popular. The smaller brands and businesses might be putting out content that is better than their competition’s, but they will have no chance in rising in the ranks without SEO. Blogs have a particularly hard time getting noticed because they usually are not selling something and they are usually not a significant news outlet. There are major blogs that are household names, so it will take something special to get your voice heard. Just because you are a smaller brand does not mean that you can’t get more hits on your content than competing blogs.  

The cool thing about blogs that can be seen as an advantage is that if you can secure an audience, people learn to love your voice and look out for every updated blog. SEO can help you gain this audience. 

As I mentioned in the beginning, if you cannot gain your audience in the first place, then your information is useless. SEO can inadvertently build up your following and help people find what they did not even know they were looking for. 

You not only have to push your voice out and exude personality, but you have to use the right key words that appeal to the audience you want to reach. For example, if you  have a cooking blog for family meals you could put key words in such as recipe, family, easy, fun all over your blog. If you do that, then Google will put you into that            search engine category. 

SEO is especially important when you have a lot of different audiences that you could reach. When content is super general, it can get lost within a sea of other general content. SEO can elevate your  blog above the others. 

You do not have to pay for advertisement to get to the top of the search engine. A lot of top hits do not come from paid ads. People usually scroll down to see what is not advertised. You want to be  the first search after the long, paid for media. 

The link below takes you to a YouTube video that explains further the importance of SEO.

Everyday Editing: Canva and Spark

One of my favorite newly learned design skill is utilizing Canva to create original and informational images. Throughout the semester, I have been tasked to create Instagram posts for the Auburn PR account. This includes sometimes creating informational graphics to go along with the appropriate information.

These are some of the graphics that I have been able to create via Canva. 

Discovering the convenience offered by Canva was a game changer for my everyday posting tasks. On Canva, you set which kind of post you are creating such as, Facebook or Instagram. This feature then creates the exact measurements that you need for your post. This is a quick and easy tool that ensures your graphic fits the box and that the image and words do not get skewed.

 

More everyday purposes that Canva offers include templates for resumes, business cards and more! This summer I hope to get an internship and need to clean up my resume to make it pop. Canva offers so many templets that are professional and eye-catching. These templates are not overwhelming to the viewer and could be the perfect way to make your accomplishments stand out. When creating a resume, you want to stay professional, but also make sure your personality shines through on paper. Interviewers see so many resumes that are just boring in black and white. I want mine to be different, clean and to show who I am. 

Another business feature they offer is logo building. Logos are a fun way to embed the image of your name in people’s heads. They typically are clean and simple, which is imperative when making sure you do not overwhelm the viewer. Canva logo templates offer a plethora of options whether you are looking for something strictly business, or if you are looking for something more playful. 

This clean and easy way to switch up your logo makes creating new content for your business ventures not so daunting. You could have a new logo inspiration every day with this tool!

Spark is another tool offered by Adobe that is a refreshing way to spice up your content.

https://spark.adobe.com/

Just like Canva, Spark has an array of templates to choose from. You can also add Gifs to your images. A Gif is the perfect way to make your social media entertaining for your audience. There are a lot of similarities between Canva and Spark, you just have to decide which program fits your needs and your aesthetic best. 

If you can’t find a template or Gif you like on Canva, Spark might have more of what you are looking for and vise versa! 

Canva and Spark are here for your everyday design needs. Either program will make your content stand out!