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My phone does that thing where it reminds you of photos you took during the same week in previous years. It’s usually a happy reminder of a moment in the past that I thought was important enough to document (though to be honest, it’s usually pictures of my cats).

Last week, Nebo celebrated its 12th birthday party. There was cake, champagne, and speeches — the usual celebratory elements.

But this party was special. Not because of the 12 different cakes (although that was amazing). Not because of the live music (I learned what an e-sax was). Not because of the champagne (although that helped). It was special because of the people in the room.

SuperNova South, the Southeast's largest and longest running tech conference, takes over Atlanta next week. We're proud to have five people from the Nebo team leading some great sessions. Check out who's speaking and use promo code NEBOSNS to receive a discount on your event badge. Hurry—tickets are going fast!

If you were to play buzzword bingo at a marketing conference this year, “the funnel” would be a guaranteed get.

It’s a buzzword now, but the concept of a buyer funnel is not new. Back in 1898, a man named E. St. Elmo Lewis was credited (though not definitively) to have developed the first idea of a purchase funnel.  He defined the stages of the buying funnel as follows:

In the early days of the Internet, Search Engine Optimization (before it even had a name) was simple. Getting your site indexed was more than half the battle, and that was easy. Submit your site to search engines, tell them what your company does, then sit back and wait for users to come find you.

But as search engine algorithms evolved and started crawling, analyzing, and indexing literally everything, a gap between well-intentioned marketers and those out to game the system became apparent.

While marketers with integrity were out building their brands, creating great content, and optimizing their site, quick-fix SEOs were link-building, cloaking pages, and adding hidden, keyword-stuffed text to theirs. While the good guys were trying to earn loyalty by offering value to users, black-hats were trying to syphon off domain authority that they hadn’t actually earned.

This gap has continued to widen, and we have always approached our SEO campaigns with a “user-first” mentality. We’re not interested in chasing algorithm updates or trying to capitalize on a short-term fad or take advantage of some flaw in the system. It’s always been our belief that if you create campaigns that add value to your audience, you will be successful.