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How to Optimize Your URLs for Search [Quick Tip]

On-page SEO
July 24, 2020/by
How to Optimize Your URLs for Search Organic search is the most consistent, long-term way to drive traffic to your website — if you can perform well on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). While many SEO factors are out of your control, such as who you're competing with and what they're doing, you can still benefit from on-page optimization, which is very much in your control.  One on-page best practice is optimizing your URL slug for each page and post you create. It's one of those SEO best practices that's actually stood the test of time, left relatively unscathed by violent little penguins and fuzzy-yet-aggressive pandas. What Is a URL Slug? A slug refers to the part of the URL that identifies the address of the individual page. The slug is located at the end of the URL after the domain and any subdirectories. Let's use a physical address as an analogy. If your website was a complex filled with offices, your domain is the address where the "complex" can be found. The slug, then, would be a box number or suite number that corresponds to a specific place in that complex.  Just as that box or suite number directs people to the correct office in the complex, a URL slug directs your browser to the correct page on your site, differentiating it from all the others on your domain. URL Slug Example Let's take our URL for this post: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-optimize-urls-for-search Here...
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4 Major Ways Your Creative Agency Can Make Money

Solutions Partner Program
July 24, 2020/by
4 Major Ways Your Creative Agency Can Make Money Every once in a while, I see a commercial that makes me think, "Well, who did they get to do that?" As a marketer, it's something I can't really help. I immediately strategize about target audiences and selling tactics — especially during commercials for the Super Bowl. When a video really impresses me, I research the advertising agency that conceptualized the campaign for its clients — like this one, from Sarto Restaurant: I loved how this commercial mixed funky music with action shots. Plus, it was intertwined with an interview with the Chef Du Cuisine. Hearing about the menu, inspirations about the restaurant, and seeing the type of food being made gave me a good idea of the atmosphere in Sarto. My admiration for the commercial led me to Erba, a creative agency offering a full range of marketing and advertising services. Companies leverage agencies like Erba to produce professional, effective campaigns. It's likely that the team at Sarto wanted to use an agency like Erba to raise awareness of their restaurant. But what else can creative agencies offer? And how do they make money? Let's explore those questions next. What is a creative agency? What do they do? An agency is an organization that offers a list of services for one specific industry. A creative agency, then, is one that offers services related to marketing and advertising. For instance, some...
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What is a 301 Redirect, and When Should You Use One?

Technical SEO
July 24, 2020/by
What is a 301 Redirect, and When Should You Use One? I moved five times in the last year. And every single time I moved, I forgot to sign up to have my mail forwarded to my new address. Mail forwarding is an important step in any moving process, as it ensures you don't lose any valuable information that's sent to you. And the same can be said for your website: If you're moving a website from one URL to another, you need to take the necessary steps to ensure your visitors get sent to the right place. In the world of tech, this is called a 301 redirect. Here, we're going to discuss what a 301 redirect is and when you need to use one, as well as how to redirect a URL in HubSpot or WordPress. Additionally, we'll explore the differences between a 301 and 302 redirect. Let's dive in. What is a 301 redirect? 301 is a status code which a server sends to your browser. It is one of many possible status codes, some of which you've probably heard about (including 404 - Not Found, 403 - Forbidden and, 500 - Server Error). When you visit a webpage and the server sends the page normally, the status code it attaches to that page is 200 - OK. You can think of a 301 redirect like a mail forwarder. Once you've moved a piece of content away from a specific URL, anyone who tries to visit...
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HubSpot Ran A Co-marketing Campaign: Here’s What We Learned

Co-Marketing
July 23, 2020/by
HubSpot Ran A Co-marketing Campaign: Here's What We Learned Co-marketing campaigns can be undeniably effective for increasing brand awareness, reaching new audiences, or creating amazing — and potentially delicious — new products. For instance, consider the partnership between Doritos and Taco Bell, which resulted in Doritos Locos Tacos, a delicious product promoted in a brilliant co-marketing campaign. If you haven't heard of the partnership, watch the story unfold in this promotional video: In this case, the two B2C companies saw success in their venture — and now, the popular item is a mainstay on the Taco Bell menu. Marketers at the two companies can attribute the home-run to a certain tactic: co-marketing. A wonderful way for two companies to partner together, co-marketing can create opportunities for businesses to reach new audiences and delight existing audiences at the same time. For instance, HubSpot has the Partner program, which offers unique benefits, including co-marketing opportunities. Recently, the team decided to run a few tests to see if co-marketing could expand past content offers — and what that would look like. Essentially, the team aimed to answer three questions: How do we move co-marketing programming forward? How do we keep providing top-notch education? How do we keep our lead number high while creating value for our audience? HubSpot Academy gives educational value to its audiences, so it was a great channel for partners to get involved. It's the home of hundreds of...
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What is a 301 Redirect, and When Should You Use One?

Technical SEO
July 23, 2020/by
What is a 301 Redirect, and When Should You Use One? I moved five times in the last year. And every single time I moved, I forgot to sign up to have my mail forwarded to my new address. Mail forwarding is an important step in any moving process, as it ensures you don't lose any valuable information that's sent to you. And the same can be said for your website: If you're moving a website from one URL to another, you need to take the necessary steps to ensure your visitors get sent to the right place. In the world of tech, this is called a 301 redirect. Here, we're going to discuss what a 301 redirect is and when you need to use one, as well as how to redirect a URL in HubSpot or WordPress. Additionally, we'll explore the differences between a 301 and 302 redirect. Let's dive in. What is a 301 redirect? 301 is a status code which a server sends to your browser. It is one of many possible status codes, some of which you've probably heard about (including 404 - Not Found, 403 - Forbidden and, 500 - Server Error). When you visit a webpage and the server sends the page normally, the status code it attaches to that page is 200 - OK. You can think of a 301 redirect like a mail forwarder. Once you've moved a piece of content away from a specific URL, anyone who tries to visit...
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How Marketers Can Leverage WhatsApp’s New Payments Feature

Mobile Marketing
July 22, 2020/by
How Marketers Can Leverage WhatsApp’s New Payments Feature Since launching over a decade ago, WhatsApp has gained popularity all over the world. As the chat app'sglobal user-base has continued to expand, so has its platform. After adding features like group chat and video capabilities, the platform quickly became a place where brands can directly interact with consumers. In 2019, due to WhatsApp's booming popularity, it launched one of its biggest features yet:a specialized app called WhatsApp Business. This app, which passed five million active users in its first year, is quite similar to the consumer version of WhatsApp. However, it allows companies to create a public business profile that includes links to ecommerce stores and a catalog of product shots. But WhatsApp didn't stop at Business pages. In 2020, the company began rolling out an online payment feature. The feature has already launched on the Brazil-based app but will ultimately expand globally. According to the brand, the WhatsApp payments tool will allow payments to be accepted by brands with WhatsApp Business pages for a 3.99% processing fee. One of the major reasons WhatsApp's payment feature, powered by Facebook Pay's transaction software, is being launched in Brazil first is so WhatsApp can learn more about how local benefits can benefit from chat transactions. Prior to this launch, WhatsApp was already one of the top messaging platforms in Brazil and had already seen a number of brands use it to engage with audiences in this region. "Over 10 million small and...
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Why You Need a Responsive Web Design and How to Do It [+ Examples]

Responsive Design
July 22, 2020/by
Why You Need a Responsive Web Design and How to Do It The insights from this article came from the HubSpot Academy's Free Website Optimization Course. Take the full course to learn more about responsive design and how to optimize your website's performance. Across the world, over 50% of total internet activity is done on mobile devices. Desktops follow behind with a little over 45% of total internet activity, and tablets make up the rest. Today, with so many people surfing the web from their phones, it's essential to offer a great mobile website experience. Without it, you can't cater to the majority of internet users, and are likely missing out on traffic and leads for your business as a result. So how do you create an effective mobile experience? That's where responsive design comes in. Simply put, responsive web design is the method of designing web pages that appear in their optimized form across all devices. In other words, a responsive design will automatically reformat your website for all screen sizes. This allows your website visitors to easily view and interact with your site no matter what device they're using. Here, let's explore how responsive design works, and take a look at some examples to inspire your own responsive web design in 2020. How does responsive design work? A website developed with responsiveness in-mind adjusts to the size of the device and browser to display the content appropriately. Breakpoints are set up to target ranges that...
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Grow Your Marketing Agency With These 7 Tips

Scaling an Agency
July 22, 2020/by
Grow Your Marketing Agency With These 7 Tips Creative agencies are at the heart of the campaign process for their clients. Did you know that over 75% of agency marketers believe that they directly influence revenue? From this stat, it's easy to see that, whether your agency specializes in advertising or branding, you're actively helping clients reach their revenue goals. But maybe your agency hasn't been growing as much as you'd like. If you're finding that you're having trouble gaining qualified leads and sticking out from competitors, you've come to the right place. Growing your agency happens from the inside. In this post, we're going to talk about seven things you can do in-house that will help your agency grow. When things are uncertain, refer to these tips to grow your client base and develop lasting strategies that will support your business. Branding is an image that gives definition to your company in public. Sometimes, the first contact prospects have with agencies are their brand, so yours should speak to your agency. For those just starting out with branding, think about your company's mission and goals. From there, create a branding strategy that keeps those values, and your customer's needs, at the helm. Think about colors, symbols, and formats that represent the values of your organization. For more resources, check out some of these branding strategies and tips. If you have a brand strategy set in place, focus on improving its structure. Invest in upping the branded content...
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8 Startup Marketing Ideas That Actually Work [+ Examples]

Marketing Strategy
July 21, 2020/by
8 Startup Marketing Ideas That Actually Work Are you new to the startup game, and even newer to the content marketing game? With all the work that goes into starting a business, there's little time to think about marketing strategies that prove successful and are feasible for a startup's teams to execute. If you find yourself in this boat, don't panic. You probably know the tools that are helpful for startup marketers to use when strategizing — a CMS, social media accounts, and graphic design software, for instance. Now, what you need to know is how to use these tools, and similar methods, to create campaigns that align with your business goals. You may have seen other startups' glowing marketing techniques and found yourself wondering how to create a winning strategy. For that, we've got you covered. To get a sense of how a marketing strategy can produce success for your startup, we're going to lay out some ideas. These ideas are from startups, and will help you visualize how a successful strategy can be helpful for your own marketing goals. Here, let's explore startup marketing ideas and strategies you can use to increase brand awareness, leads, and customers for your startup business. Startup Marketing Ideas Other than starting an email list, using online software, and taking high-quality images, what else can you do to market your startup? Below are some examples. If you're struggling to come up with new marketing ideas, maybe you can put a new...
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