UpBuild

Values-Driven Technical Marketing

Mike Arnesen

UpBuild’s Year in Review & 2019 Company Resolutions

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One of UpBuild’s core values is Transparency, and while that idea gets a lot of lip service among startups, it’s important for us to walk the walk. This post is a part of that effort. If you want to take a peek behind the curtain, then come on in and read about how UpBuild’s 2018 went and what we’re setting out to do in 2019.

How 2018 Went

2018 was a great year for the UpBuild team. Yet, it was also our most challenging in more than a few ways. It was a year of dichotomy.

This really snuck up on me, but we’re an established 10-person company now! With that comes higher overhead, increased operational complexity, and exciting challenges. In short, being a company with a double-digit headcount is a more serious undertaking than running a company made up of 4 independent contractors (our Year 1).

Who would’ve thought?!

[Read more…] about UpBuild’s Year in Review & 2019 Company Resolutions

Leadership As a Type B Introvert

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This blog post has been a long time coming. In one sense, it’s taken me the better part of 2018 to organize my thoughts on the topic and actually, y’know, write this blog post. In another sense, writing this post has taken my whole life.

If you’ve come seeking practical technical marketing advice, begone! You’ll find none here. But if you’re interested in learning how one introverted Type B internet geek has been able to helm a successful company, read on!
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Why You Shouldn’t Use GTM to Implement Structured Data

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I’ve written quite a few blog posts and traveled extensively to speak at conferences about using Google Tag Manager to dynamically add structured data and semantic markup to your website(s). It’s one of the things I’ve become best known for. That’s okay (and I’m not complaining), because I really like that style of implementation and because it’s just plain cool to talk about, but, I wanted to write a blog post today to address a common misconception.

The misconception is this: that my talking a lot about using Google Tag Manager to implement structured data implies that I’m saying it’s UpBuild’s (or even, Google’s) recommended method for rolling out semantic markup and structured data on your web properties.

The fact is, it’s not. [Read more…] about Why You Shouldn’t Use GTM to Implement Structured Data

Filed Under: SEO

Leveraging Machine-Readable Entity IDs for SEO

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Once upon a time, I had a boss who would often describe my ideas as “bleeding edge”. I never much liked the description, because — frankly — it sounded disgusting. However, the term is meant to describe something a step beyond the cutting edge. An idea or strategy “so new and untested as to be potentially unreliable and carry a higher risk-to-reward ratio.” I’m not sure that applied to much of what I was doing back then in 2014 (well, there were a few things) but it certainly applies to this.

You’ll want to apply “potentially” and “theoretically” qualifiers to pretty much everything in this post. I think it’s worth taking action on this, but the benefits are as yet unproven. Note that, contrary to the definition of “bleeding edge” above, I think the risk here is almost non-existent while the potential upside is high.

Without further ado…

Let’s talk about machine-readable entity IDs in search and how to use them to your great advantage. Read on for more on the why and the how, and to get your free bookmarklet, too! [Read more…] about Leveraging Machine-Readable Entity IDs for SEO

Filed Under: SEO

UpBuild Turns 3 Years Old Today

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“Wow. This thing is really working.”

It's working!
You know it, Ani!

This is an exact thought that went through my head at the beginning of this week. Yesterday was a new team member’s first day (Hi, Nick!) and, as such, there was a lot going on. On top of that, we also were kicking off a new client (Thanks for going with us, Jenni and Helen!). On top of that, we ran into a big issue with a keyword research project for a current client that had to be dealt with before EOD. Oh, and it was a Monday, so there’s that, too.

My point is that there was a lot in motion and, in the startup agency game, that’s typically when things start to break down and fall apart. The great thing is…nothing did.

All of this was particularly fitting for the eve of UpBuild’s three-year anniversary — despite it being one of the most active days in recent memory, everything worked. Sure, there was stress and, yeah, no one got to Inbox Zero that day, but when we all logged off in the evening everything was stable and humming along nicely. The team could rest easy and know that we’d have tomorrow to sort the rest of it out.

To me, that’s a huge deal. [Read more…] about UpBuild Turns 3 Years Old Today