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
Online Reviews And Listings: 5 Ways To Improve Local Search Ranking
/in Reviews, SEOLocal search ranking is a huge opportunity for any business. Google is emphasizing local answers in search, so it’s important for you to be visible so you can be found by local searchers. There are a few different ways to become more visible, like getting more online reviews and claiming your Google business listing.
Before we get into the ‘how’ of improving local search ranking, it’s important to truly understand the ‘why.’
95% of searchers do not go beyond the first page of Google results, and 60% of clicks occur in the top three individual search results, making local search ranking one of the most important factors in traffic flow to your website. And online reviews are one of the top ranking factors for local search ranking.
1. Claim Your Google Business Listing
One of the most important things you can do is claim your Google business listing. You can see here how we have claimed ours. This means anyone who directly searches the name of our company gets a complete and full look at our address, phone number, photos of the business, a map, as well as online reviews and other things we might choose to put in there, depending on our type of business.
The business listings are highly important, as they can also show up when people search for your industry locally, like ‘web design in St. Cloud, MN’ or something like this. The listing won’t show up in full immediately, but will be truncated with simply your address, phone number and star rating. The searcher can then click on you to be given the full listing as well as a larger map.
2. Claim Your Online Reviews Site Listings
There are a lot of online review websites out there: Yelp, TripAdvisor, Fandango, Houzz, Google, Yellow Pages, Facebook, Amazon and so many more. These sites all have listings for businesses. You might have a listing already and not even know it!
Go to one of these websites and do a search for your business name. If you find an unclaimed listing for your business, it’s in your best interested to claim it and start to control it and the online reviews. If you don’t have one, you can create one to collect future reviews with.
3. Ensure Data Is Consistent On All Listings
Once you’ve claimed all of your online reviews site listings and Google business listing, make sure your address, phone number, photos and all relevant information are consistent across all of them. Google will be looking at this information when it is considering where to rank you in local search results, and inconsistent information will lower your ranking.
4. Add Online Reviews To Your Website
Next, make sure you add your online reviews to your website.
Hosting online reviews on your website can boost your conversions: visitors who read and interact with online reviews are 58% more likely to convert than those who don’t.
No, don’t copy and paste the reviews on there. Many plugins or widgets exist which you can utilize with some research to get your online reviews onto your website for customers to see.
Another option would be utilizing our proprietery Cohlab.Reviews software. Cohlab.Reviews, as can be seen here, gathers all of your online reviews from across the web and displays them chronologically (while also filtering out bad reviews.) With Cohlab.Reviews, you are also able to solicit customers who you know are happy to provide you with extra reviews on the site of their choosing.
5. Share Online Reviews On Social Media
While social media is not the biggest ranking factor for local search listings, it doesn’t hurt, and it may help grow your business through word-of-mouth, or person-to-person influence.
Online reviews play a huge role in building trust, and are viewed as more trustworthy than other types of promotional posts on social media. So when you get a new 5-star review, post a link to the review on social media and write a thank you to the person.
Online Reviews And Listings: 5 Ways To Improve Local Search Ranking
/in Reviews, SEOLocal search ranking is a huge opportunity for any business. Google is emphasizing local answers in search, so it’s important for you to be visible so you can be found by local searchers. There are a few different ways to become more visible, like getting more online reviews and claiming your Google business listing.
Before we get into the ‘how’ of improving local search ranking, it’s important to truly understand the ‘why.’
95% of searchers do not go beyond the first page of Google results, and 60% of clicks occur in the top three individual search results, making local search ranking one of the most important factors in traffic flow to your website. And online reviews are one of the top ranking factors for local search ranking.
1. Claim Your Google Business Listing
One of the most important things you can do is claim your Google business listing. You can see here how we have claimed ours. This means anyone who directly searches the name of our company gets a complete and full look at our address, phone number, photos of the business, a map, as well as online reviews and other things we might choose to put in there, depending on our type of business.
The business listings are highly important, as they can also show up when people search for your industry locally, like ‘web design in St. Cloud, MN’ or something like this. The listing won’t show up in full immediately, but will be truncated with simply your address, phone number and star rating. The searcher can then click on you to be given the full listing as well as a larger map.
2. Claim Your Online Reviews Site Listings
There are a lot of online review websites out there: Yelp, TripAdvisor, Fandango, Houzz, Google, Yellow Pages, Facebook, Amazon and so many more. These sites all have listings for businesses. You might have a listing already and not even know it!
Go to one of these websites and do a search for your business name. If you find an unclaimed listing for your business, it’s in your best interested to claim it and start to control it and the online reviews. If you don’t have one, you can create one to collect future reviews with.
3. Ensure Data Is Consistent On All Listings
Once you’ve claimed all of your online reviews site listings and Google business listing, make sure your address, phone number, photos and all relevant information are consistent across all of them. Google will be looking at this information when it is considering where to rank you in local search results, and inconsistent information will lower your ranking.
4. Add Online Reviews To Your Website
Next, make sure you add your online reviews to your website.
Hosting online reviews on your website can boost your conversions: visitors who read and interact with online reviews are 58% more likely to convert than those who don’t.
No, don’t copy and paste the reviews on there. Many plugins or widgets exist which you can utilize with some research to get your online reviews onto your website for customers to see.
Another option would be utilizing our proprietery Cohlab.Reviews software. Cohlab.Reviews, as can be seen here, gathers all of your online reviews from across the web and displays them chronologically (while also filtering out bad reviews.) With Cohlab.Reviews, you are also able to solicit customers who you know are happy to provide you with extra reviews on the site of their choosing.
5. Share Online Reviews On Social Media
While social media is not the biggest ranking factor for local search listings, it doesn’t hurt, and it may help grow your business through word-of-mouth, or person-to-person influence.
Online reviews play a huge role in building trust, and are viewed as more trustworthy than other types of promotional posts on social media. So when you get a new 5-star review, post a link to the review on social media and write a thank you to the person.
4 Ways To Simultaneously Succeed With Web Marketing
/in Ads, SEO, Web DesignWeb marketing can be tricky business, especially if you don’t have the staff or bandwidth to devote to it.
Digital marketing firms like ours have the expertise and time to devote to working on your web marketing and search engine optimization to help bring you new and repeat business. Let’s look at 4 ways you can help your business succeed with web marketing, either on your own or with the help of a digital marketing firm.
4 Ways To Simultaneously Succeed With Web Marketing
1. Knowledge Card
Your Google Knowledge Card might be a potential client’s first interaction with your web marketing, or it could be how a returning client is able to quickly access your phone number or website.
A knowledge card, seen here, is a way for Google to quickly display the gist of a business to a searcher on any device. On a larger display the knowledge card appears on the right-hand side of the screen, on a smaller device it appears above search results but below other forms of web marketing, like paid ads and map results, if there are any.
Having an up-to-date knowledge card allows you to display your correct phone number, address, accurate hours, as well as reviews, photos and other great information. This is a really effective web marketing technique to make sure your company is known, especially over other companies with similar names.
2. Back-End Optimization
Another huge piece of web marketing is optimizing the many parts of your website you might not normally think of adjusting.
Page descriptions don’t actually appear on the pages of your website, but they do appear in the Google search results, and so needs to be an accurate reflection of what people will find on the page when they arrive; the same goes for your page title. Both of these also need to be between a certain number of characters to fit in the space Google provides.
The text on your page should also be separated by headers, defining different sections. Google likes to see headers, especially when one contains your chosen keyword/phrase for the pages. The headers also need to cascade in size, depending on the topic.
Images are another important piece of web marketing. The images should be unique to your website, as well as tagged with an “alt tag” and “caption” which are both accurate and contain the keyword for your page.
And don’t forget to make sure any links in your page are working and are related to the topic. If you have a blog on how KFC chicken is the best fast food in the world, there shouldn’t be a link to the dolphin page of your local zoo on that page anywhere; for effective web marketing, the links should be to another page you have written about different fast food chicken and a link to the KFC page.
3. Content/Keyword Optimization
Content should pretty much be over 300 words for any page, but different lengths are good for different types of pages/blogs, so you’ll need to experiment.
Each page should have it’s own, unique keyword/phrase related to the topic of your website as a whole, and the keyword/phrase should make up about 2-3% of the words on the given page for effective web marketing.
4. Reputation Management
Another key driver of web marketing and traffic to your website is your online reputation. You’ll need to get control of reviews of your business from across the web, whether the reviews are on Google, Facebook, Yelp, Yellow Pages, Houzz, Fandango or elsewhere. Ask your happy customers either in person or via email to give you a review on their chosen site, and be sure to collect those reviews on your website. At Cohlab, we actually have a great tool, Cohlab.Reviews, which can do a lot of this automatically for you.
Feel free to take these tips and run, or, if you’d like more details on how we can help take your web marketing to the next level, contact us. We’d love to help.