Digital Natives. Small Business Focused. Minnesota-Based.
Blue Ox Websites & Marketing is based in Minnesota, with remote employees across Central Minnesota and the Twin Cities. We love helping small businesses, startups, and nonprofits get found online so they can spend less time worrying about their website or marketing and more time serving customers.
We’re dedicated to strengthening our local economies and communities, which calls for resilient businesses. Most of our team members stay with us for 8 years or more, not just because we build great websites, but also because we value learning, teamwork, remote work, and family.
What Drives Blue Ox
Mission
We build innovative websites and honest marketing strategies to help small businesses and nonprofits grow—and make a bigger impact in communities.
Vision
We’re here to grow alongside local small businesses and nonprofits, building lasting partnerships that help communities thrive.
Guiding Values
Creativity: Custom solutions, not cookie-cutter.
Reliability: We show up and follow through.
Approachability: No jargon, no gatekeeping.
Community: We grow with the businesses and nonprofits we support.
Remote First
At Blue Ox, we prioritize flexibility and choice while focusing on making meaningful connections with our coworkers and clients. While we’re primarily virtual and WFH, our teams meet in person a few times per year to celebrate accomplishments and brainstorm big, new ideas.
Benefits & Perks
Flexible PTO & Company Holidays
Prioritized work-life balance, with flexible PTO and 23-25 observed days off.
Family Planning
Paid family and medical leave, including for adoption.
Employer-Matching 401K
50-100% retirement matching.
Perks & Stipends
Monthly internet and equipment allowances to support remote work.
Learning & Development
Mentorship from senior team members, conferences, certifications, and online learning opportunities.
And More!
Meet the Blue Ox Team
Meet the team! We’re a small, local crew of real people who care about helping businesses succeed online.
Employees
Logan Gruber
ReFounder / Marketing Director
Base: Sauk Centre, Minnesota
Tenure: 2016
Katie Carlson
Designer / Developer
Base: St. Cloud, Minnesota
Tenure: 2015
Kelsey Meyer
Designer / Developer
Base: St. Joseph, Minnesota
Tenure: 2017
Jonathan Gamble
Writer / SEO
Base: Cottage Grove, Minnesota
Tenure: 2024
Zeineb Kadhkadhi
Social Media / Designer
Base: St. Cloud State University
Tenure: 2018
Jen Gruber
Social Media / Designer
Base: Sauk Centre, Minnesota
Tenure: 2024
Careers At Blue Ox
Application
4 Extremely Common SEO Mistakes To Avoid
/in SEOSearch engine optimization (SEO) is necessary if you want any part of your website to rank highly in Google searches. If you’re not on the first page of Google results for the keywords you’ve chosen, you’re nearly invisible to searchers.
You may know some of the brighter points about what to do to have good SEO, like having consistent, fresh content and using relevant keywords, but today we’re going to look at huge SEO mistakes we see people make, and which should be avoided at all costs. Whether you work with us or not, take heed of these tips.
1. No SEO At All
The most common form of bad SEO is to have no SEO at all. This means the website has been left in it’s most basic, original state.
None of the titles or descriptions have been updated, so they are generic and unoriginal, e.g. Home, About Us, Contact, Blog, Services, Products, etc.
The descriptions might be something like, “We provide solutions for clients to help them succeed.”
Some of the content might even be left over from the development process of the website. Placeholder content such as the fake Latin “Lorem Ipsum” is common in the web development world, but can be accidentally left behind and make your website even more confusing.
No keywords will be specified, or if they are they are far too general. Not having any SEO makes it hard for search engines – as well as your customers – to understand what you website is about, leading people to leave your website very quickly without contacting you.
2. Duplicate Titles/Descriptions/Content
One of the worst mistakes which can be made is duplicating content. Whether it’s the titles of pages, the descriptions or the words on the page itself, duplicating content is a lazy way to create volume.
When content is a copy of another page, search engines will notice and only index one of the pages, meaning the effort put into creating the duplicate pages was wasted anyways. And if the content was duplicated from another, pre-existing site, none of your content may be indexed at all in favor of the original content.
Individual users will also be repelled by duplicate content. No one wants to go to a new page, only to find the same exact material as was previously covered. That would be like opening a book to page 52 and finding out the author simply started over with Chapter 1 at that point. That book wouldn’t sell a lot of copies.
3. Still Using Meta Keywords
Meta keywords were heavily used in the 1990s and early-to-mid 2000s to help search engines and searchers understand what a webpage was about. While the meta keywords form can still be filled in with keywords, it can now be more damaging to your ranking than helpful.
Most major search engines no longer use meta keywords to help them rank webpages; they instead check the content to decide what a webpage is about.
By continuing to use meta keywords, you can confuse search engines and possibly searchers, because your meta keywords may not match up perfectly with the topic of your content.
4. Keyword Stuffin
Keyword stuffing is the practice of taking a keyword or keyphrase – think “Cars” or “Used Cars For Sale In California” – and sprinkling it heavily throughout the content of a page, as well as in the description, meta keyword section and/or title.
Instead, it’s best to write about a content naturally, and let the keyword appear a few times naturally throughout the content. There is no longer a hard-and-fast rule about how many times a keyword should appear in content, as long as the content is valuable for the reader and brings people to your page.
If you’d like to learn more about how to create good SEO on your website, give us a call or email us today!
3 Ways To Get the Most Out of Your SEM Spend
/in Ads, SEOIf you don’t have an agency by your side, it can be harder to get the most out of your search engine marketing (SEM) dollars.
Whether you’ve done your own SEM in the past, had an agency manage it for you or haven’t tried it yet, as a Certified Google Partner we have a few tips to help you get the most bang for your buck from advertising with search engines!
1. Stay Active
Consistency. It’s important in sports, life and advertising. Even if you’re only looking for short term results, spend a little bit more and for a little bit longer of a timeframe than you originally planned. You may find that if you stop advertising and then come back, it will cost you more than if you had just stayed consistent.
2. Utilize Analytics
Your SEM with Google is managed through AdWords, and while there are some good statistics available in AdWords, Google Analytics is where you are really going to get insight into who is clicking on your ads and what they’re doing once they’re on your website. You can also tie your AdWords account to Analytics, so you can view your AdWords statistics inside of your Analytics dashboard.
Be sure to analyze your results, so you can fine tune the text and targeting of your SEM.
3. Keep Your Organic Ranking Strong
While concentrating on SEM, it’s important to keep your organic ranking strong. Strong organic placement is very important, as organic search results still receive the majority of traffic as compared to ads.
A search engine optimization (SEO) company can help your website ranking through user experience design, responsive website design, content development and more. These changes will also help users stick around when they click on your paid ads, as they will be easier able to navigate your website and find what they want.
So, increasing your SEO can increase the effectiveness of your SEM.
Lastly, if you’re feeling overwhelmed or are having a hard time with your SEM, let us know! We’re always glad to help small-to-medium-sized businesses succeed.
3 Ways To Get the Most Out of Your SEM Spend
/in Ads, SEOIf you don’t have an agency by your side, it can be harder to get the most out of your search engine marketing (SEM) dollars.
Whether you’ve done your own SEM in the past, had an agency manage it for you or haven’t tried it yet, as a Certified Google Partner we have a few tips to help you get the most bang for your buck from advertising with search engines!
1. Stay Active
Consistency. It’s important in sports, life and advertising. Even if you’re only looking for short term results, spend a little bit more and for a little bit longer of a timeframe than you originally planned. You may find that if you stop advertising and then come back, it will cost you more than if you had just stayed consistent.
2. Utilize Analytics
Your SEM with Google is managed through AdWords, and while there are some good statistics available in AdWords, Google Analytics is where you are really going to get insight into who is clicking on your ads and what they’re doing once they’re on your website. You can also tie your AdWords account to Analytics, so you can view your AdWords statistics inside of your Analytics dashboard.
Be sure to analyze your results, so you can fine tune the text and targeting of your SEM.
3. Keep Your Organic Ranking Strong
While concentrating on SEM, it’s important to keep your organic ranking strong. Strong organic placement is very important, as organic search results still receive the majority of traffic as compared to ads.
A search engine optimization (SEO) company can help your website ranking through user experience design, responsive website design, content development and more. These changes will also help users stick around when they click on your paid ads, as they will be easier able to navigate your website and find what they want.
So, increasing your SEO can increase the effectiveness of your SEM.
Lastly, if you’re feeling overwhelmed or are having a hard time with your SEM, let us know! We’re always glad to help small-to-medium-sized businesses succeed.