You may have heard the term SEO before, and you may even know that it is VERY important, but do you really know what it means or how it benefits your business? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is the act of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website using organic search engine results. Sounds great right? Here are five ways your business will benefit from having amazing SEO set in place.

1. Quality of Traffic – Sometimes it is good to take a step back and try to better understand the people coming to your site. Getting a lot of traffic to your site is important but if they are coming to find a product or service that you don’t sell it won’t benefit you at all. You want to make sure the people coming to your site are interested in you and what you do.
2. Quantity of Traffic – Utilizing a site like Google to do the heaving lifting just makes sense. 67k searches are made every second on Google. If even a fraction of those people are looking for a product you offer you can see how important it is to make sure your SEO gets you to the top of those search results. 
3. Local SEO – Think of a scenario where you are searching Google for a product or service. Do you want to shop local when possible? Most people do. 46% of all Google searches are local! After making a local business search on a mobile device, 88% of consumers will either call or visit the business within 24 hours. The local market is extremely important when it comes to SEO and should be a part of your plan.
4. Don’t Get Left Behind – More companies than ever are turning to SEO and implementing it in their marketing strategy. 61% of companies in 2018 said their highest priority was to grow their SEO campaigns. You don’t want to fall behind in the search results and have to work to catch up. Leave your competition wanting to catch up to you!
5. Organic Traffic – This is any traffic to your website that you don’t have to pay for! Unlike paid ads, organic traffic brings people to your site without the extra cost. Which is a smart choice considering nearly 80% of users ignore paid ads in search results. Higher organic ranking on Google and other search engine sites will get more customers to your website.

 
If you think your business could benefit from improved SEO give us a call today or send us a message. You can find all of our contact info here. We can’t wait to help your business grow!
 
Source: https://seotribunal.com/blog/stats-to-understand-seo/

We are so excited to introduce our client, Champaign Residential Services, Inc. (CRSI). Their mission and philosophy are “To empower and support individuals with challenges to provide an opportunity to develop their maximum level of independence as they choose. It is the intent of CRSI to value lifestyles and choices by all individuals served.” Their corporate office is right here in Champaign County, but they provide services to 22 different counties in Ohio.
 
They work hard to build support systems for the individuals they serve. One of the important roles in this system is the Direct Support Professional (DSP). These are the people that work directly with individuals with developmental disabilities to help them realize their full potential. This role is not about caregiving but is about helping people learn to live their lives to their fullest and learn new skills to make their lives easier. DSPs help people become integrated and engaged in the community in ways they might not have been before.
 
This week, September 14-19th, is Direct Support Professional Week. To celebrate this important career, we want to highlight some of the things that these individuals do every day to improve the lives of those they help. Starting first thing in the morning the DSP helps individuals get ready for the day by assisting with personal care and making breakfast. Each individual requires different attention based on their care plan, preferences, and progress. Once they are ready for the day, the DSP is their transportation to and from work and activities. Once the day is done, they help them get ready for the night by making them dinner, helping them get ready for bed and then spending time with them doing whatever they like to do to wind down.
 
On the surface it would seem that a DSP has a clear-cut job, but looking a little further there is so much more that goes into it. Many DSPs know that their attitude will affect the attitude of the individuals they help so they like to start their day off the right way with a positive outlook. They also provide friendship and companionship for these individuals and help them create those connections with others in the house or in the community. They learn so much about the individuals they help like their food preferences, their favorite music, and if they have family that comes to visit them on holidays. Sometimes the DSP plays a much bigger role in these individuals lives than they expected to, and amazing lifelong bonds are formed.
 
All of these things combined create the job of a DSP. At the end of the day they are there to help individuals with their personal growth in daily activities, communication, personal care, and so much more. Watching someone start to excel at something they couldn’t do before brings great joy and pride to one DSP, Tonya Van Winkle, at CRSI. She cites her time spent serving as a DSP at CRSI as one of the main reasons why she decided that once she graduates as an occupational therapist that she wants to continue to work with adults.
 
CRSI is an amazing resource right here in our own community. They help so many people live their lives to the fullest by giving them choices and providing options to them that they may not have had before. Their core values are positivity, respect, empowerment, teamwork and ownership. These values help the team at CRSI connect with all the individuals they serve in the best way possible providing an amazing space for growth and happiness. To learn more about CRSI, their core values, or how to join the team and start changing lives visit their website at https://www.crsi-oh.com.

Top Tech CEO's of Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook are all testifying today in congress on antitrust laws. Google found Berry Digital Solutions online and fell in love with their story. They loved the fact that they invest all of their resources back into their community. They wanted to share that story on a larger platform and chose to include their story in their prepared remarks to congress.

"I am deeply proud that because of our tools, businesses on main Street can compete in a way that wasn’t possible 20 years ago. For example, Berry Digital Solutions is a digital marketing firm in Urbana, Ohio, that supports local small businesses. They use Google tools to work remotely during the pandemic, coordinating meetings through Google Calendar and collaborating on content in Google Docs. They help their clients use Google Ads, and they appreciate that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. The Berry Digital team also uses Google Analytics to learn more about the customers of their clients and how they can better serve them."

Ryan Berry met Google CEO Sundar Pichai on a video call last week and spent an hour sharing the story of technology in Urbana, Ohio. They discussed pivoting during Covid-19, how Google's tools were helping that process, what Google could do more of to support small businesses, and how important Google is to our local community. You can read more about the testimony here and read the prepared remarks below.

Many small and midsize businesses feel the need to hire a marketing employee full or part-time. They combine their payroll budget and their marketing budget to blend a role, with high hopes of accomplishing larger business success. The main issue to this approach is that it is extremely rare to find a single person to handle your entire marketing department. They may be a great photographer or graphic designer, but may not have experience with email marketing. They could be great at SEO and websites, but lack creativity. They may be gifted with engaging others with social media, but their grammar is consistently off. We have learned this as we have grown our team over time and have decided that instead of trying to find the perfect person for a marketing role, we would create it.

We aren't scientists in a lab creating the DNA of the next best marketer. We, instead, are a team of 40+ local experts who can provide their strengths, as you need them, to your business. We have a website team that works with our photographers and graphic designers to ensure your website both looks great and performs well. We have a social media team that works with our web team to ensure the strategy is working and can be verified through analytics. We have a video team that makes sure the content created will be viable on your website and social media. We have email, content, blog writing, website, and many other teams working together to ensure your digital marketing strategy is working for you.

The best part? You also get a designated team member who works in your building, understands your mission and processes, has a relationship with your team, attends your leadership and marketing meetings, and is your one contact to relay all information to and from our team. In other words, we make it simple. We also make it affordable.

Below is everything we provide to you with our Berry Digital Solutions #DreamTeam:
-Website
-Social Media
-Email Marketing
-Photography
-Video
-Graphic Design
-Content Creation/Blog Writing
-Marketing Consultation
-40 Hours/mo Designated Employee in Your Building

Contact us today to schedule a free consultation to better understand how our team is the last marketing employee you will ever need to hire!

Berry Digital Solutions is proud to be one of the first ever sponsors to help get the We Spend Local Network Podcast off the ground. Adam Moore of We Spend Local has started a monthly podcast where he interviews local leaders and business owners to better educate Champaign County on the benefits of shopping local. Adam is a lifelong resident of Champaign County and has a passion to help our community. He interviews Dean Ortlieb, Urbana Fire Chief, as his first guest and talks about how they have had to adapt during Covid-19 as well as new things happening inside the department. You can listen to the podcast HERE or by searching for "We Spend Local Network" on your favorite podcast player.

"You have thousands of people at your fingertips. And business networking within your community or your brand is a way to reach so many more you may not have reached before."

Here are a few benefits of business networking on social media:

We often read articles on where websites are headed, what trends are in, and how to handle the basics of designing your own website. But there isn't nearly as much coverage on the bad practices of website DIY'ers. You know a bad website when you're on it, but it can be difficult to pinpoint the "no-no's" that make you bounce from the bad site and give your attention to a site that does it right.  
 
Here are a few of the "no-no's" we think are important when it comes to website design in the Year 2020.

First:
Don’t get cute with font colors. Stick with black text on light backgrounds.

When was the last time you checked out your own website?
 
Often, this is something even WE overlook. We understand. In this day and age, it's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day work. Like us, that work probably has you on dozens of other sites all day long and before you realize it, a lot of time has flown by since your last check-in on your own site. It may feel it may feel like you just launched that "new" website last month, but maybe a couple years have gone by, and in the digital world, a couple of years can be a lifetime. Best practices, new trends, search optimization, and algorithms are ever-evolving and constantly changing, but try not to get too overwhelmed with it all.
 
Here are a few simple signs it may be time for a little website work:

​It is no secret that we are avid #ShopLocal supporters.

So we thought, what better way to showcase our love for our fellow entrepreneurs than to share our absolute favorite hometown spots to shop steps away from our location #OnTheSquare and beyond!

Find unique holiday gifts or add some local flavor to your gift certificate game this Christmas season.

Here is our EXCLUSIVE "Ryan & Chris Approved" family favorites: