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
Google’s Panda Update: It is All About Quality
/in SEOGoogle is once again changing the game with its Google Panda update. We’ve often discussed the importance of SEO optimization being in-line with Google’s algorithm. In addition, we’ve shared the importance of having high-quality content on your website. Panda is another Google SEO algorithm update that makes this even more crucial. Google designs its algorithm to ensure that the best quality and most relevant sites for a given search term is offered in search engine results. Obviously, websites that are higher to the top of the list will have more traffic and more conversions than websites on page two or three of the results. Content is a significant driver that determines your site rank.
What Is The Panda Update and Why Should You Care?
Panda is an update to the Google algorithm that is now integrated into its core SEO engine. Named for Google engineer Navneet Panda, who developed the technology to implement the algorithm, Panda is specially designed to lower the rank of websites with “low-quality” or “thin” content. Due to Panda, it is now more important than ever that your site contains content that is of the highest quality. Panda was first introduced in 2011 and is updated periodically. This latest Panda update allows websites that were previously penalized by Panda for poor content to rise to the top of the rankings once more if the website made the appropriate changes. However, the update also places more importance on quality. This means that if your site has been enjoying positive results from your organic SEO strategies if your success did not include the use of a higher-level quality in content, your traffic could see a significant drop.
How to Handle the Panda Update
If your website already uses exceptional content, you should have nothing to fear. In fact, it is likely that as poor quality sites begin dropping in rank, your site’s rank will rise. The best way to determine how Panda is affecting you is to use Google Analytics and keep an eye on your stats. However, if you know or are unsure if your site has the level of quality Google now requires, there are ways to overcome a possible drop in rank. Matt Cutts, the head of spam at Google describes the type of content the new update is looking for.
“This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.”
Given that description, you may have some work to do to freshen up the content on your website.
At Cohlab, we fully understand the importance of digital marketing through the use of quality content. It is critical that customers and prospects be targeted and provided the best message, in the best manner, at the best time, and that you fully understand their needs through solid data. Creating and delivering content of this caliber can be a challenging effort. That is why we partner with you and take the time necessary to ensure you get the most out of your efforts. We “cohlaborate” with you to generate the right message, and our strategy is proven to be exceedingly successful for our digital marketing clients.
Did you know that online reviews are becoming increasingly important?
YouTube – The Second Largest Search Engine
/in SEO, VideoYouTube—a search engine? Most people would immediately discount that because everyone knows that YouTube is site for sharing videos, right? Actually, more than 3 billion searches are done every month on YouTube, which is more than AOL, Ask, Bing, and Yahoo! combined!
People go to YouTube all the time to find a specific video or channel, and how do they find that? They search for it, of course. Even those who only go to the site with the intention of watching new videos from their subscriptions may end up doing a search or two. There are 100 hours of new video content being uploaded to YouTube every minute of every day. With that much new content being added, it’s impossible to simply browse the site and try to find what you want. You have to search for it.
Another factor that contributes to YouTube’s huge number of monthly searches is the fact that almost 50 percent of all internet users use YouTube, and the site gets a billion unique visitors every month. These billion visitors watch 6 billion hours of videos on YouTube each month. If all these users lived in one country, that country would be the third-largest in the world!
YouTube continues to grow, too. One year the number of overall monthly views increased by 50 percent, a huge jump for a website. The infographic below includes more interesting facts and figures about YouTube.
Does your Digital Marketing Strategy include a YouTube Strategy? If not, contact Cohlab Digital Marketing to learn how to implement YouTube into your content Strategy.
Created by Mushroom Networks
How to Recycle Content for Your Blog or Website
/in How To, SEOIn our last content based article, we discussed how to choose blog topics that will generate the SEO results you hope for. We mentioned that there was certainly value in recycling or repurposing content from your blog or website when done properly. In this article, we will take a closer look at this practice including the proper time and place for it, as well as how to do it effectively. When we have content on our site that has been hugely popular or that has contributed to a high number of conversions, it only makes sense to use it as a benchmark for future content. Instead of allowing that content to sit stagnant on your site, recycling it can both bring back the same visitors who made it successful with a fresh spin, and also generate an entirely new crop.
Benefits of Recycled Content
When creating a new piece of content, in order to be effective, it takes a lot of time and effort. Because your time is valuable, it can be limiting if you are re-inventing the wheel every time you post. The research, planning, and writing of content can be significantly reduced through content recycling. The practice is also valuable to generate a jump in your SEO efforts. Having multiple content pieces that use the same keywords or focus on the same subject can drive more traffic, rank higher in the search engine results, and generate more backlinks. Also, if you use the same content, but optimize it for different mediums, you can reach entirely new audiences. From a standpoint of your branding, it also will help to reinforce your position as an expert on the subject and reinforce your desired message.
What Is Recycle-Worthy?
It may seem daunting to select the best of the best material for content recycling. It is true, not all content is recycle-worthy. However, finding opportunities to do it is not as difficult as it may seem. Your blog archive is the perfect place to begin your search. Simply start by reviewing your past content, or search for content related to the topic you wish to revisit. There are four primary aspects that you should be considering as you do this. First, the content should be high-quality. If the original content was choppy and full of holes, it is likely not a great candidate unless you plan to start from scratch. Also, the subject matter should remain relevant. This type of content is commonly known as “evergreen”. The message should be just as valuable today as the day it was first presented. Analytics can be of help as well. Look at the posts that were most popular. There is a recycle-worthy reason for that. Finally, think about whether or not there is room to expand on what was said. If you feel the information can be improved upon, added to, or has changed, it is probably an excellent candidate.
How Can I Recycle It?
There are many great ways to recycle your past content. Some are basic while others require some creativity. Use the selected content to create new posts. Simply expand on selected portions of the original content by adding detail, providing examples, or relating it to new developments in your field. The recycled material also does not necessarily need to be in the same format as the original. You could use the content as a basis to create an online slideshow, and infographic, or a video. If the content is truly exceptional and highly valuable, you may not need to do anything more than to repost it on your social media pages or highlight it on your front page. Another favorite tactic is to transform the article into an email series to send to your list or to create an eBook. These are just a few of the many valuable ways to recycle content. Don’t be afraid to step outside the box and come up with some of your own.
Content can be expensive from a standpoint of both time and money. Moreover, while there is no way of getting around the fact that new content needs to be continually generated, there is still great value in squeezing every last drop of usefulness out of content you’ve already used. Recycled content can even be strategically placed in your overall marketing plan to boost traffic when you need it most. Just as a professional SEO company can help provide you with quality new original content, they can help you maximize the effectiveness of content you already have.
Use our complimentary Digital Marketing Scorecard to gain valuable insight on how your website rank compares to others. We are also glad to answer any questions you may have and provide Cohlaborative digital marketing solutions to meet your company’s needs.