As we can all see, free internet users are faced with this kind of problem. Simply speaking, services such as Google sheets, slides, and even drawings are all down at this very moment.

Is everything OK with Google Docs?

According to many different sources, if one would try to connect to Google Docs, the only thing they would see is one message.

“Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. Please try your request again later.”

Anyway, this is not usual for Google and all their gadgets and applications. Thousands of users all across the globe are reporting that they also got this message. Luckily, Google is always on top of the problem so we can expect these applications to work once again.

When?

Well, nobody knows exactly when.

On the other hand, users are also experiencing some spikes when they try to load their stuff from Google Drive. Namely, this is not usual as well, and it causes a lot of concerns for those who are using this kind of application.

Everyone is Losing Patience

From a variety of sources, we saw that people are losing patience when it comes to Google Docs. Simply put, there are loads of tweets saying exactly the same thing.

‘’Why is my Google Docs not working?’’

However, some are more concerned about the Google Docs repair. And, they are wondering when they can start using Google Docs again. Anyhow, one thing is certain, this malfunction of one of the biggest programs on the planet is outraging.

Furhtermore, some users tweeted with lots of sarcasm. Therefore, we can see that one guy wrote: “Of course Google Docs would go down when I finally have time today to work on my essay.” Anyway, this clearly shows that people are really pissed off when it comes to Goggle Docs at this moment.

To be honest, it’s probably one of the bugs they are experiencing in the program maintenance. However, we can’t be sure, but, one this is certain, Google will be back and fully working, in no time.

Your website content doesn’t just function to engage your readers. It’s part of the complex algorithms which underly SEO.

Snatching organic traffic by rising through the SERPs is the end goal of anyone who’s engaged in search engine optimization. Your content is the place where it all begins.

If you’re wondering how your content affects SEO then you’re in the right place. Read on and we’ll show you why you shouldn’t be just creating good content… you should be creating great content.

1. On-Page SEO

Your on-page SEO is determined by your content for the most part.

There are some other minor things which aren’t directly related to the post or page you’re trying to rank and could be considered on-page techniques. These include meta descriptions, site speed, and website architecture.

The content on the page, the keywords included, and the length of the content is all important. Without good content, you’re simply not going to be able to rank.

Good content is about more than just pleasing the crawlers, however, SEO specialists are engaged in a constant tug-of-war with Google’s algorithms. SEO experts want to rank, while Google wants to provide the best user experience possible.

If you’re in the dark on this you can try a free website grader tool to help figure out what changes you’ll need to make.

2. Increasing Your CTR

Your click-through rate is an important part of your overall SEO strategy. It signals that users are interested in your page and hanging around to keep getting more information.

By increasing your CTR you’re also increasing the overall SEO power that your website holds and helping yourself up in the search rankings.

3. Increased User Engagement

Great content increases people engaging with your content.

This takes a ton of different forms. Your social media pages will get more shares, people will generally be talking about your business, and your articles and pages will make the rounds more quickly.

Social media engagement may not directly affect your SEO power but just getting your page out there will help to bring in more traffic.

SEO focuses on the search rankings but thanks to the emphasis Google places on the end user’s experience you’ll quickly find out that a successful SEO campaign will get people talking about your business and not just visiting. 

4. Organic Backlinks

Backlinks are the foundation of off-page SEO. While many people start with Web 2.0s or PBNs when they’re initially gathering links those grey hat methods will only get you so far.

If you’re able to produce the best piece of content possible for a specific subject then chances are other people in your niche will be linking to you as a reference.

Without these organic links, your page is doomed to either be a grey-hat project or just go without enough traffic to turn a profit.

Your Website Content Matters

Website content isn’t the end-all, be-all of SEO but it forms the essential structural foundation on which you build the rest of your campaign.

It’s important to focus on making your content as awesome as possible, especially for those who are in high-competition niches. If you can provide value to your readers then you’re in taking a step in the right direction.

Looking to make your traffic soar by conquering the SERPs? Check out our blog and learn more than ever!

For many individuals and businesses, this is not a “what if.” Instead, it’s an annoying reality.

If this describes you, then the answer to your problem may be custom web design. However, many people don’t know much about what custom design is and why it works so well.

Keep reading to learn more about how a custom design can transform your website!

What Is Custom Web Design?

We’ve prepared a solid guide to the benefits of custom web design. However, we need to first define exactly what “custom web design” means.

Most people and businesses build websites with a template or website builder. This has some obvious advantages: it’s cheap, easy, and fast.

However, cookie-cutter websites tend to look a bit generic. And once you’ve seen one site using a certain template, you’ve seen them all.

Custom web design is truly “custom.” It means that you or a professional have built everything from the ground up.

Wondering why you would do this? Keep reading to learn more about the awesome custom design benefits!

The “Wow” Factor

We hinted at this earlier, but let’s just say it: websites built with templates are boring.

Imagine if thousands of books had the same cover and the same chapter layout. How many of these books would you want to read? After all, none of them look like they are doing anything new.

Web design is like that, too. Sure, you can whip something up in WordPress in minutes. But it’s going to look like something you only spent a few minutes on.

With custom web development, you can get a site that has a true “wow” factor. And in a crowded field of competitors who all look the same, your site will truly stand out to your audience.

It’s “Just Right”

Another problem with using web design templates is finding what is right for you. Some templates are going to have too many images, for instance, and some will have too few.

The hard part, then, is finding a template that is “just right” for your particular needs. And many people may never find that template at all!

With custom design, you get exactly what you want on every page. Think of this as a time-saver. Why spend weeks or months finding what’s “just right” when you could have someone bring your dream site to life?

Conversion-Centric

The best websites don’t just look good. Instead, the best sites are maximized for conversion.

This means guiding visitors in a specific way. The ultimate goal is that these visitors will become customers after coming to your site.

With cookie-cutter templates, the site is not designed for conversion. That means you may be losing out on potential customers left and right!

Custom web development helps you design the entire site with customer conversion in mind. By focusing on user experience, you will end up with a website that is far better than any template.

Faster Loading

If you use website templates, you may not know much about coding. But trust us: the coding for a website is very important.

With templates, you are getting code that has been copied again and again. It may be old and clunky code; in rare cases, it may lead to strange errors that you cannot fix.

With custom design, you start fresh with a clean code. Not only does this avoid those problems, but it may help the website load even faster.

This is important because load times can really make or break a website. And by reducing load times, you’ll reduce your “bounce rate” and keep more customers on your site for a longer time.

Easier to Find

What if you build an amazing website and no one can find it? In that case, you probably have bad SEO.

Most website builders don’t make it easy to tweak the SEO of your site. And in some cases, the templates may have no SEO support at all.

Without good SEO, your website will stay at the bottom of Google’s search results. And that means you may as well be invisible.

With custom design, you have full control over the SEO of your site. This can help bring in more traffic, boost conversions, and increase buzz over your company and product.

Room to Grow

Every small business dreams of no longer being small. In short, these businesses want to grow and expand.

As your business grows, you’ll need to expand your website. And if you’ve been using templates, this is where you run into a pretty big problem.

Most templates were not built with expansion in mind. So when you end up expanding the site, it looks like a Frankenstein mix of different parts.

With a professional design, you can actually go ahead and plan for future sections of your website. And when those sections go live, everything will look and flow very organically.

Easy Support

The best thing about using templates is that you can do everything on your own. But what if that ended up being the worst thing as well?

If something goes wrong with a template-built website, there is usually no one to turn to. That means you must spend hours Googling solutions and trying to fix the problem yourself.

With custom web design, you have most likely hired a professional designer to build everything for you. That means if you encounter any problems, it’s easy to reach out and get them resolved.

Honestly, simply having easy access to your designer is a real game-changer. It means you can make immediate patches and additions to your site without having to make your customers wait!

The Bottom Line

Now you know more about custom web design. But do you know who can help you learn even more?

At Social Media & SEO, we bring you the very latest tips and tricks to making your website more successful. To see how we can continue your professional transformation, check out our website design articles today!

It shows that three in every four people who use their phones for a local search are ready to buy. All they need is somewhere to buy from.

If your business isn’t showing up high in the search engine rankings, then you could be missing out on a huge amount of business. And the best way to get your business up the rankings is to get your local SEO right.

Read on as we take a look at 11 local SEO solutions that can help to grow your bricks-and-mortar business.

1. Keyword Research

Stuffing your content with local keywords you’ve picked off the top of your head isn’t going to cut it.

Rather than guessing what users in your location might be searching for, do some research. There is a huge amount of data that can help you choose keywords that users search for. Use that information to your advantage.

Remember that a keyword that gets a ton of volume isn’t necessarily the best choice. If there’s a lot of competition from other sites, then you’re unlikely to see any significant improvement in your rankings. Instead, try to find the sweet spot of keywords that are fairly popular without having too much competition.

2. Get Local Backlinks

Link building is a huge part of SEO.

But when it comes to local SEO, having strong backlinks to sites on the other side of the world isn’t really going to do much for you. Instead, try and build as many backlinks to local sites and companies as you can. 

This is far more likely to help when users are searching for local businesses.

3. Use Your Positive Reviews

Positive reviews aren’t just a great way to build confidence in your business.

They’re also something that search engines will use to determine whether or not your business is a good one. And one or two reviews aren’t going to cut it either; having good reviews from only a small number of customers isn’t likely to instill much confidence.

Try using social media to promote your positive reviews whenever you receive them. 

4. Sign up to Local Directories

Not everyone looking for a local business will use a search engine directly.

Make sure that your business is listed on all of the prominent online directories. Sites such as Yelp, Foursquare, Yellow Pages and Angie’s List are all regularly used by potential customers looking for local businesses. The more you sign up to, the bigger your chances of being discovered.

If anything changes, such as adding additional locations, make sure you update all of your listings. You can find more information about acquiring temporary buildings for your business.  

5. NAP

When submitting to these listings, make sure that your NAP information is submitted in exactly the same way. 

NAP stands for name, address, and phone number. This has to be submitted exactly the same for every site. That means you shouldn’t use the word avenue in one listing, and an abbreviation in another. 

If your listings aren’t identical, you’ll actually be competing with yourself in the search results. 

6. Google My Business

If you don’t already have a Google My Business listing, get one now.

These are the business listing blocks that you’ll find in Google search results. Signing up to the free listing means that if users search for your business, it will come up with the same look and feel as if they’d searched for their local Starbucks or Apple store. It gives your business an appearance of quality and trustworthiness.

Make sure that your NAP information is exactly the same for this listing too.

7. Optimize Your Site for Mobile

As we already learned, people using mobile local search are ready to buy.

So if your website doesn’t work well on mobile, you’re very likely to make potential customers look elsewhere. The best solutions are either to have a dedicated mobile version of your site or to opt for a responsive web site. Make sure to test it on as many devices as possible.

Having a site the works well for mobile will also help your position in local search.

8. Produce Quality Blog Content

The backbone of any SEO campaign is blog content.

But it’s not enough to churn out a few hundred words stuffed with keywords. Your blog content needs to be useful, and it needs to be high-quality. If potential customers are drawn to your site via a well-optimized blog post, they’re not going to hang around for long is the content is awful.

It’s also important to keep producing fresh content as this will affect your rankings.

9. Target Your Writing for a Local Audience

If you want local people to read your content, then aim it towards a local audience. 

Blog posts that are genuinely useful to your local community will make your site, and your business more popular. Find out what interests customers in your area have, and write content aimed at them. 

If you find a niche that works, then you’ll set yourself apart from the competition.

10. Optimize Your Product Lists

When sites are being crawled by search engines, they will search through things such as menus and listings of products or services.

So make sure that you optimize these for local search too. Including the right keywords in these pages means that your product list or menu might start ranking in its own right. And it will also boost your overall SEO.

11. Include a Map 

Remember that 76% of users?

They’ve done a local search. They’re ready to buy today. They just need somewhere to do so.

So make sure that they can actually find you. Embedding a Google map for your business into your website means that not only can the see where you are, but they can also get directions from their current location.

Then there’s nothing to stop them from becoming your next customer.

Have These Local SEO Solutions Been Useful?

If you’ve found these local SEO solutions useful then you’re in the right place.

Our site is packed full of useful articles all about the world of social media and SEO. We cover news and information on everything from expanding technology, gadgets, and mobile devices, to the latest developments in the SEO world. We also try to help business owners leverage the internet and social media more effectively.

Feel free to take a look around.

Small businesses everywhere can benefit from this search engine traffic by implementing Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

SEO involves optimizing your online content for specific search terms. These terms are those your ideal clients are likely to type into Google.

An effective SEO campaign can give you the online visibility you need. The more visible you are on the internet, the greater your odds are for gaining conversions!

Keep reading to learn more about the advantages of SEO for small businesses.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a digital marketing tool.

Like any traditional form of advertising, SEO is designed to give your business visibility. However, with SEO, you’ll be making your website visible to visitors on multiple digital platforms.

A lot goes into a typical SEO campaign.

Every campaign, for example, incorporates keywords. These are terms that your customers are most likely to enter into a search engine to find your business.

Marketers optimize online content for these keywords. This means that they integrate these terms into web content, enabling Google to make a solid “match” to your site.

Beyond keywords, there are several other things that can influence your Google ranking.

It’s important to have excellent content, for example. Google emphasizes the value of rich content your customers are likely to find useful in its guidelines here.

You can also earn a higher ranking if a lot of other sites on the internet link to your website. This is called your domain authority.

A business owner can implement SEO themselves. Read more here to discover what to do.

The Advantages of SEO for Business

What advantages can SEO bring to small businesses? We have some ideas.

1. Attract Local Customers

One of the greatest advantages of SEO for small businesses is the fact that it can get you more local customers.

This is essential if your business is located within a specific community, one you depend on to bring you regular customers.

Local businesses are also frequently up against competition from chain stores and other big-name institutions–not to mention other local shops!

As a business owner, you can easily implement an SEO campaign to make your website more visible to local customers. This is called Local SEO.

Local SEO is still SEO. Its difference lies in the keywords and its overall strategy.

Local SEO involves optimizing some of your content for location-based keywords. These are phrases like “best Miami beach” or “San Diego restaurants.”

Keywords like these are often searched for in a time of need, when people are actively seeking certain things. For this reason, a local SEO campaign can target people who are most likely to want and need your services.

A local SEO campaign also makes the most of other digital tools. These include Google listings, those informative “cards” that appear to the right of search results.

Google listings give searchers more details about your business, including its hours of operation. They also place your business on Google Maps itself.

Online reviews are also important to local SEO. We talk about these below.

2. Earn More Site Traffic

SEO is primarily designed to give your website the attention it deserves. A well-developed campaign can give your content a high Google ranking.

Google rankings refer to where your content appears in search results. In general, most searchers are only going to prioritize the first page of results.

This is because the first page contains Google’s “best matches” for a certain term. Subsequent pages are less likely to match the searcher’s needs.

If your website is currently hovering on page two or three of results, SEO can help. By making your content more visible, you are more likely to get clicks from visitors.

Once a visitor is on your site, they may just stick around. They may even make a purchase decision right then and there.

Implement SEO to get more site traffic, which can open the windows to more conversions and a solid brand image.

3. Outpace Competitors

As a small business owner, you may feel as if you’re always seeking out ways to outpace competitors.

Such efforts are important. After all, they often mean the difference between a thriving business and a failed one!

If you’re looking for a simpler and easier way to stay ahead of the crowd, think about SEO.

SEO can set you apart from your competitors in many ways. For one thing, it can put the spotlight on your website.

Some of your competitors may not even have websites. That’s right: nearly thirty percent of small businesses do not currently have websites!

SEO also requires marketers to have a great website to begin with. Google can penalize some sites that aren’t meeting its needs for content and speed.

By implementing an SEO campaign, you’ll be meeting design standards that many of your competitors may not have in mind.

If you launch a local SEO campaign, you can easily draw community attention to your business (and away from your competitors’).

4. Leverage Online Reviews

Online reviews are powerful tools. Studies indicate that most consumers will check out online reviews for a business or product before making a purchase decision.

If you’ve enabled online reviews of some kind, SEO can make the most of their potential.

This is especially the case if you implement local SEO.

A Google listing, after all, incorporates a review system any Google user can use. These average ratings display in listings in relevant search results.

You can use these to your advantage by actively responding to reviews your customers have left. What’s more, use your SEO keywords in your responses to these reviews!

Yes, review content can surface in search results. Optimized review content can draw attention to positive reviews and direct more visitors to your website.

Final Thoughts

Search Engine Optimization is an essential tool for any business wanting to get more website traffic. SEO can help you outpace competitors and leverage other digital marketing efforts.

It can even be your secret to getting those profit margins you desire.

Now you know about all the advantages of SEO. There’s still more to be shared, however.

Check out these five SEO hacks that can help grow your business today!

SEO is a diverse topic, a cornerstone of a multi-billion-dollar industry. Before we dive any deeper, have you heard of the service Google My Business? It was previously known as Google Local and Google+ Local. Now it’s often just referred to as GMB.

If you haven’t heard of it before, it’s your business profile on Google. It feeds your information to places like Google Maps, Yelp, and the local pack on search engine results pages (SERPS).

It’s one of the key features that’ll distinguish you from your competition in today’s noisy digital world. It’s also one of the critical elements in setting up your SEO for local business. To understand why that’s important and what impact local SEO has on businesses in 2019, read on.

What Does SEO Mean to Businesses?

Just to make sure we’re on the same page, let’s clarify the term search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is the practice of increasing the quality and quantity of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.

The quality of your traffic is a measure of how likely they are interested in what your site has to offer. Let’s assume your site only sells organic tea, but your visitors are looking for John Deere tractors. Then you’re receiving low-quality traffic. It’s unlikely you’ll get many tea sales from this crowd.

Your quantity of traffic is simply the number of visitors who arrive at your site. More traffic is preferable, as it means a higher chance of your website serving its purpose. Regardless of if its purpose is to simply give information or sell a product.

Also, organic traffic is simply traffic you don’t have to pay for. Paid traffic, on the other hand, includes things like sponsored affiliate links or social media ads.

The goal for businesses is to have a high SEO ranking, high quality of traffic, and medium- to high-quantity of traffic. When you match that with a stellar website and excellent service or product, you’re guaranteed success.

What Is Local Seo and Why Is It Important?

With billions of websites competing for traffic, both viewers and search engines need a way to differentiate between them. SEO helps with this, ensuring viewers land on pages that match their search criteria. But with so many websites now in operation, further distinctions are useful.

For instance, let’s assume you’re shopping for a new leather couch. Furniture stores in London wouldn’t be as useful as stores in your own neighborhood. This location-based segmentation is one of the newest ways that Google and other search engines determine a site’s page ranking.

These search engines are now quite good at evaluating the quality of your website. They’re also good at determining the relevancy of your site.

• Is it structured well?
• Is the content useful?
• Does it match the search query?
• Is it located nearby?

To have your site rank for location, you must perform some extra steps in your SEO. Don’t worry. We’ll give you a brief overview in the following sections.

The important take away is that local SEO is decreasing the quantity of overall traffic reaching most sites. But, more importantly, it’s increasing the quality of that same traffic. As any expert marketer will tell you, that’ll result in an increase in conversions.

Local SEO is as important to businesses in 2019 as voice search technology will be to them by 2022. The state of technology is ever changing. Businesses like yours must stay current.

If you don’t, your competition will advantage of newer technology and steal your business.

How to Search Locally

When a user types a query into a search engine, keywords tell the engine to focus on local results. Words like nearby or near me will tell the engine to search by location. Also, using the name of a specific city, county, or state will limit the search options.

Ok, so you can set up your SEO to target people searching in your location. But what happens if your brick and mortar store is located in more than one city? What if you have multiple branches or service many cities?

If you own a business with more than one location, you set up multiple local SEO strategies. For more information on multi-location local SEO services, you can view here. For the rest of you, jump to the next section.

How to Make Your SEO Local

Localize your website. Include your country, city, or region name naturally throughout your site. Also do your best to get your name on other local sites, such as stores, newspapers, and schools.

Get your business on citation sites and online business directories. Yes, it’ll help customers find you. But more importantly, your company’s website URL, phone number, address, and name will be there.

Search engines cross-reference this information and compare it to what they have on hand. The more often they find external sources that reinforce this info, the higher they rank the accuracy. The higher the accuracy, the higher your page ranks.

Claim your business on Google My Business. Look, Google is the uncontested leader in search engines. If your business info isn’t stored on their servers, your business isn’t going to pop up on maps or local search results. It’s critical.

Respond to reviews. The reviews themselves show search engines that your site is trustworthy. More reviews and higher scores translate to more trustworthiness. You can help moderate these through your responses.

Get quality backlinks. When trusted sites link to your site, search engines trust your site more. Seek out backlinks from your local papers, schools, chamber of commerce, and the like.

Google and other search engines will rank you higher both overall and locally.

What’s Next?

If you’re still wondering what does SEO mean, then we’re in trouble. By now, you should know why SEO is important for your local business, and how to leverage it to increase business. To add SEO to your current online presence is a mechanical process.

If you’d like to learn more about it or other SEO processes, you can find that information in our free Search Engine Optimization Articles.

So long and good luck!

Patients aren’t the only ones that need your care to stay healthy. Sometimes, your website needs a checkup, too.

If you need your healthcare website to get well soon, you’ve come to the right place. Use the website improvement tips below to get your website back on its feet.

1. Blog

If you don’t already have a blog, start one now and never stop pumping out content. Aim for at least two articles per week.

This won’t help you right away, but it’s essential for later that you make it a habit now. That’s why it’s first on the list.

All the other SEO tips on this list will help people find your content in search engines. When people search for topics related to healthcare, your content will show up in the results. But you’ll need to have content first in order for them to find it.

Furthermore, the more high-quality content you update your site with, the more authoritative you appear. And authority is very important for your search ranking.

In SEO, Site Authority (SA) and Page Authority (PA) are basically a score of how optimized your site is. Learn more here about how authority affects your search rank.

2. Keywords, Backlinks, and Page Layout: How to Produce Great Content

Now, let’s see what it takes to add quality, value, and authority to your blog posts.

Keywords

Start with keywords. Keywords are the words or phrases people type into the search box when searching online.

Base your topics on the popular healthcare keywords people are already searching for. Use this keyword in the title (which should also be the URL) and a few (not too many) times in the post. You can research the popularity of keywords with free tools like Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

Structure

Next, let’s talk page structure.

Break each article up into smaller, titled sections. And break each section into small paragraphs of around 1-3 sentences each. Use images about every 300 words, according to the instructions in the section further down.

Use this article as an example.

Backlinks

Backlinks, hyperlinks on other sites that lead back to yours, also boost your search rank. There are two basic ways to earn this.

When you produce enough high-quality, valuable content, other blogs will naturally use you as a source in their posts. Otherwise, you can write guest posts for other sites and include the backlink yourself.

But be careful when you guest post to use the backlink naturally, as with any other source link. If the link isn’t helpful or relevant and it’s obviously only there to promote your site, it will actually penalize your ranking.

3. Use Original Images

If your website offers the same, generic content as everyone else, why would anyone care to be there? The truth is, they won’t. Even worse, if site visitors see boring, irrelevant, or low-quality images, they’ll leave before they even get to the content.

Unfortunately, people do judge books by their covers. Like it or not, your images tell them what to expect from your content. And if your “blah” images leave them unimpressed, they won’t even start reading.

So try to avoid generic looking images, like stock images. If possible, use original photos or artwork.

If no one on your staff possesses these creative talents, hire someone to create a stock of images for you. It’s not that expensive to hire a photographer or artist to build you a personal library of images for your site.

4. Responsiveness

Responsiveness means “optimized for viewing on multiple devices.” That is, the site detects the type of device viewing it and displays the most appropriate version for the visitor, as it should be.

Mobile users should have a simpler version that fits their screen and doesn’t take to long to load. Desktop users should see the full version in all its glory — with all the bells, whistles, and autoplay videos they’ve come to expect.

It’s downright shocking if you’re not already doing this. By now, responsiveness has been a web design staple that all of your competitors have been using for several years. An unresponsive website is not only behind the times, but it also kills your search rank.

5. Load Time

Be careful that you don’t take the above instructions the wrong way. Your full site should be something special to behold. But don’t cram it so full of bells and whistles (and huge files) that it takes forever to load.

Short load time is not just for mobile sites, but the full site as well. Your search rank is directly impacted by load time. While rich media like videos are good for your search rank, long loading times bring it down.

Find a good balance between rich content and acceptable load time.

6. Navigation

Now let’s see what happens when you start getting traffic to your site. Imagine a visitor clicks on your newest blog post and they like what they read.

They want to learn more about the topic, but can’t find the rest of your posts. They want to find out about your services, but they can’t find that either. They look for a way to leave feedback, but they can’t even find your contact information.

It’s all probably there on the website, somewhere. But when visitors can’t find what they’re looking for, they leave, and your blog posts accomplish nothing.

Don’t let this happen to you. Organize the sections of your site under clearly-labeled menu headers.

Use an intuitive menu system. Most sites use a top-of-page menu bar and/or drop-down sidebar menu under a menu icon. It’s also good to list the sections of your website in a mini sitemap in the footer.

7. Landing Pages

A landing page is basically a homepage for a specific category of content on your site. Google loves landing pages. So make as many landing pages for your content as you can.

Every multi-page section on your site menu should have its own landing page. Also, make landing pages for your most commonly posted blog topics.

This is easy if you organize your blog posts with topic tags. For every tag, you should make a landing page. For example, you can have a landing page for addiction recovery posts and another for posts about physical therapy.

Make your landing pages like you did your homepage. They should have an overview, an attention-grabbing design, possibly an intro video, and interactive/animated elements. And, of course, they need easy-to-follow links to the content.

8. Update Your Content

If you have a lot of old content that looks nothing like we just described, you’ve got some overhauling to do.

Start by replacing old, ugly, generic images. Restructure your articles to the standard above and speed up slow-loading pages.

Also, check for broken links (hyperlinks to pages that no longer exist). These are bad for your search rank.

While you’re at it, check through your old content for dated information. if you find any, here are two good ways to address it.

First, you can make simple changes to the old article to update it. Then, promote the updated post on social media the same way you would with a new post. This is way easier than writing a new post but gets you just as much traffic.

Or, if you’ve already posted an article that gives updated information on the topic, put a link to it in the old article. This will boost the popularity of the new post and the old one. If you don’t have a post that updates the old, you can create one.

Use These Website Improvement Tips

Improving your website helps you help your patients. Use these website improvement tips to get patients the care they need.

Want to learn more? Check out How to Create a Successful Small Business Website.

This is why even the smallest digital marketing mistake can cost you many clients. For example, 46 percent of Americans admit they would steer clear of a rehab clinic if it didn’t have any online reviews.

That said, the right rehab marketing tip helps you avoid an otherwise expensive misstep. Let’s look at a few things you should keep in mind when putting together a digital marketing strategy for your treatment center!

1. Monitor Online Reviews to Rank High on Google

Give this a try: type in “(your city) rehab clinic” on Google and hit enter.

Consider that the first three results at the top of the page get the bulk of the clicks. Do you see your treatment center on that list?

Google My Business (GMB) reviews impact local SEO rankings more than anything else. To maximize your chances of ranking in the top three, you need to claim and optimize your GMB listing. Ensure your business details are accurate and add photos of your logo and facility.

Once you verify everything with Google, take the most important step: address the negative reviews. Reply to complaints within the first couple of days after they’re posted, and don’t forget that potential patients will read what you write.

2. Focus on Building Trust

What digital marketing strategies do the most successful treatment centers use?

Inspire Malibu, for example, not only has glowing reviews all over the internet, but they also post testimonials on their site. Plus, they build even more trust through their blog, podcast, photo tour, and staff bios.

Having a staff page on your site humanizes your business. Meanwhile, a virtual tour lets people know what to expect.

Also, potential patients want to read and hear about success stories. So give it to them via blog posts, podcasts, and testimonials.

3. Bolster Your Website’s User Experience

The experience visitors have as soon as they load up your site determines how long they stick around. In fact, one study found that sites with responsive web design experience an 8 percent greater increase in conversion rates from year to year than non-responsive sites.

To make it easier for mobile users to navigate your site, declutter your navigation bar or add a hamburger menu icon.

Want to ensure potential patients find what they’re looking for on your site? Chatbots provide a way for your site’s visitors to get immediate answers to their questions about your rehab clinic.

Making Good Use of Each Marketing Tip

There are many reasons why digital marketing spending by U.S. firms will balloon up to $120 billion over the next three years.

Compared to traditional marketing, digital marketing is inexpensive. This gives smaller businesses a better chance against larger ones. Not to mention that digital marketing allows businesses of all sizes to tweak their strategy within minutes.

Each marketing tip mentioned above will help your rehab clinic succeed. But do you want to ensure that your marketing efforts will fit within your budget? If so, be sure to look through our guide on how to save money on your digital marketing campaign!

You are not alone. The New Year offers every business an opportunity to keep up with advertising trends and launch fresh campaigns.

In this digital age, it can be difficult to stay on top of what’s new in the digital marketing world.

This is especially the case when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search engines are constantly rolling out new ranking factors that force marketers to change their strategies.

You don’t have to be a tech or marketing guru, however, to keep pace with the world of digital marketing.

In this post, we discuss the key digital advertising trends you should be aware of in 2019. Read on for insight!

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI has been on the horizon for quite some time. What makes it new in 2019?

For one thing, AI technology in the marketing sphere is maturing. AI is quickly becoming “actually intelligent,” enabling marketers to automate more of their efforts.

Chatbots are dominating the AI landscape when it comes to digital advertising. Chatbots were popular in 2018, but now that they are becoming more advanced, they are becoming an asset for marketers.

These helpful little bots can field a wide range of customer service questions once visitors navigate to your site. They can also give marketers the ultimate gem: data.

Being able to interact with your customers in real-time boosts their odds of conversion. It also demonstrates authority, something your customers value.

Plus, you’ll be able to get essential data from these AI interactions with your visitors. Such customer insight can help you hone your marketing game and change your tactics as needed.

To keep up with this advertising trend, consider implementing a chatbot on your website. You can easily create your own chatbot at little to no cost, too!

(Note: We only recommend this if customer service is an essential component of your business.)

2. Mobile-First

Over 77% of American adults have a smartphone. This means that a large portion of your site traffic likely comes from mobile devices.

2018 saw a huge emphasis on mobile-first marketing for this reason. After all, if you aren’t catering to your mobile audience, you’re missing out on an enormous market.

However, 2019 is all about mobile advertising. Google has announced recently that it is rolling out mobile-first indexing.

This means that it will be looking at the mobile version of sites when assigning content rankings. If your site isn’t meeting its mobile-friendly standards, your rankings could suffer.

Mobile-first marketing will involve campaigns crafted entirely for mobile users. Advertisers will need to ensure the mobile versions of their sites are up to par.

3. Automated Marketing

Business automation can limit inefficiency, saving companies thousands and millions of dollars each year.

When it comes to marketing, automation is just as important. Automated marketing will be all the more urgent this year.

This is precisely because automated marketing campaigns can get things done faster, and often with better results.

Automated email marketing campaigns, for example, can guide site visitors through a conversion funnel without business owners having to lift a finger after launch.

Such campaigns send out customized emails at key trigger points, ensuring that leads become conversions as quickly and effectively as possible.

It’s not just email marketing that will experience automation. Automated marketing is surfacing across channels and platforms, including social media.

The added benefit of automated marketing is that such campaigns quickly generate insights. Being able to analyze data in real-time can be valuable for marketers busy managing multiple campaigns.

4. Multimedia Ads

Video content has always been popular. It’s not losing its popularity in 2019. If anything, it’s gaining traction.

Marketers will still experience success with video tools like Facebook Live, Instagram stories, and embedded multimedia.

But most importantly, multimedia ads are trending. Such ads incorporate different media forms to maximize customer engagement. They hinge on professional, innovative video experience to drive conversions.

Where do these ads appear? Most commonly, they will appear in news feeds of social media platforms.

But they can also appear in between videos on YouTube and even on websites themselves.

5. Voice Searching

Yes, voice searches are a thing. They’ll be even more of a thing by the end of this year.

Voice search technology gives users a convenient and hands-free means of searching for information. People will still type terms into Google, but these individuals are set to become a minority in the coming years.

This may seem like a negative trend for marketers, especially SEO advertisers. After all, what will happen to all of those keywords?

Nothing, really. Proper keyword usage will simply be all the more important.

SEO marketers will have to be very cautious that they are effectively tagging images and content to align with voice search demands.

6. Brand Safety

With the rise of “fake news,” consumers are getting pickier about ad content. They are less likely to trust brands at the outset.

For this reason, brand safety is one of the most important digital advertising trends for the year.

How will marketers implement this trend?

Some may take advantage of encryption technology to ensure safe delivery of ad content to consumers. The same goes for machine-learning and other AI tools designed to fight ad fraud.

Others may emphasize values of transparency in ad content itself. Personalized, frank content will likely be more successful in the long run.

Read this post from EraserFarm to learn more.

Digital Advertising Trends for 2019

To succeed in the world of marketing, it’s important to know this industry’s trends.

The digital advertising trends in this post may not feel entirely new. But they signify the evolving needs of consumers.

These needs point to more voice-based searching and transparent, fraud-free advertising. They also prioritize video content, indicating a huge push for multimedia ads across many platforms.

AI will stay on the scene, ensuring seamless customer service interactions via chatbots and automated marketing schemes.

Google’s mobile-first indexing will urge marketers towards even more mobile-friendly advertising.

Looking for more digital advertising tips? Check out this post on SEO hacks designed to grow your business.

While both are highly effective, there are some major differences that set to the two advertising methods apart. Here is our rundown on facebook ads vs. google ads, and what you should know about each of them. 

What are Facebook Ads

Chances are you’ve seen a Facebook ad appear on your Facebook newsfeed. The most recognizable form of facebooks ads is center stage, typically in the form of a photo or video with content pushing you towards a link or call to action.

There are other forms of Facebook ads you may have seen, however, they may not have been as noticeable. This includes promoted posts or smaller ads that appear on the right side panel of your feed. These ads are also mobile friendly and can be shared on your own profile.

What are Google Ads

Google ads are also a common form of advertising, however, they may be slightly more subtle and effective. Google ads, also known as “Google Adwords” link an ad to your business with specific keywords. These keywords are used both in searches and on other sites that have agreed to show Google ads. Why the name change? Check out this relevant article on the new Google ads brand. 

The effectiveness of these ads typically depends on how competitive the keywords are. The ads also follow a “cost-per-click” model in which you only pay for the amount of traffic the ad gathers.

Who are they Ideal For

There’s a wide range of business and industry types that can benefit for both Facebook ads and Google ads. While Google ads are more focused on driving traffic to a specific website, Facebook ads tend to be more informative and can be targeted more towards a specific product.

While both are ideal methods for increasing exposure and brand recognition, your best bet is to use the strengths of each to create a full ad campaign. For example, you may use Facebook ads to upload a video selling a new course or product and google ads to point searches for similar courses directly to your site.

Facebook Ads vs Google Ads: Pricing

Facebook ads and Google ads are beneficial for any business size, as you can set an ad budget according to your own financial situation. While the average monthly spend on both is roughly the same (about $300 USD), the way these costs break down is different.

Facebook ads charges you for the duration of time that the ad runs, the longer you run the more you spend. However, it also takes visibility and outreach into account when calculating it’s pricing. Google ads, on the other hand, charges you based on the strength of the keywords and the number of clicks the ad receives.

Facebook Ads vs Google Ads: Targeting

Targeting is one area where these two advertising methods really stand on their own. When it comes to Google Ads it’s really on you to research which keywords have the strongest correlation to your audience. If you’re targeting a very specific niche, it should be easier to figure out which keywords are unique to that demographic.

Facebook, however, has slightly more options when it comes to targeting. In the “audience” section f your ad you can choose from a wide range of demographic areas including age, marital status, gender, location, and interests. This can be particularly helpful if your business is based in a specific city or town.

Pro’s and Cons

As with all advertising methods, both facebook and google ads come with their own set of pros and cons.

Google Ads-
Pros:

• You can start receiving clicks to your ad instantly.
• Ad campaigns are generally quick and easy to set up.
• Enhanced exposure.
• Great metrics and reports on your ads performance
• Suitable for really any sized budget.

Cons:

• You’ll have to pay for each click, even if the click doesn’t turn into a sale.
• Competing sites may be using a higher click budget
• Once your budget is done, your ad immediately turns off.
• You have to be certain you’re using the right keywords

Facebook Ads-
Pros:

• Budgets and “boosts” start as low as $5
• Ads are easy to create and edit
• Enhanced targeting options
• Ample date on the ads performance

Cons:

• No guarantee that your ads will actually persuade viewers to click
• You are charged whether or not the ad is successful
• Without a strong follow-up action, the ad may not result in strong leads

How to Make Them Work Together

While they have their differences, using both Google ads and Facebook ads together can be a real game changer. The biggest factor in the success behind both of these ads is demographic research. The more you know about your audience (who they are, what they’re interested in, what they spend their time doing) the better you can target your ads.

Since Google ads are relatively short, use them to create a “straight to the point” call to action, while your Facebook ad will give you more room to sell. Offering a free content grab on your Facebook ad is also a successful method to utilize.

How to Get Started

To get started on creating your ads, there are some steps you’ll want to take beforehand.

For Your Facebook Ad: Have a defined budget in mind before getting started. Make sure you have all photos, videos, and copy for your ad ready to go. If you are taking a “funnel” approach to your Facebook ads make sure your landing pages are set up and any integrations are activated. Finally, make sure you’ve done adequate research on your target demographic.

For Your Google Ad: Thoroughly inspect your landing page and make sure any edits that need to made are complete. We suggest putting your landing page in front of a few people for feedback. For a successful google ad the individual has to have a desire to stay on your page. Do some deep research (or hire someone else to) on the most relevant keywords for your demographic.

The Learning Curve

Remember, when it comes to Facebook ads vs google ads you’ll find a learning curve with both. The best thing you can do is read up on these and other popular marketing methods to master them as quickly as possible.

Read our articles on business and marketing for more info and inspiration for your next ad. 

Well, there are many things you can do. And one of the best options is to focus on your search engine optimization (SEO) tactics.

But if you’re like most people, it can seem a little daunting. However, don’t worry any longer. We’ve outlined 3 key things you can do to become an ecommerce SEO expert.

1. Optimize Your Titles and Descriptions

First and foremost, it’s important to optimize the titles and descriptions throughout all of your pages. This is an SEO fundamental.

These are the pieces of content that tell both Google and page visitors what your pages are about. The title is what displays as the main text in Google search results as well as in the header bar in the web browser.

The description is what shows up as the body copy in the Google results. Both are important in improving click-through rate as well as improving your search engine rankings.

2. Ecommerce SEO Expert Pro Tip: Put Your Products in Categories

Next, when it comes to ecommerce SEO, be sure to organize your products well. A core part of SEO is having a unique keyword for each page. 

So if you have more than one page competing for the same keyword, you are actually fighting for the same traffic, and cannibalizing your efforts. That’s why you should organize your products in similar categories, like Winc has done.

Then, all you have to do is create one page for each category. This makes your website more organized and will improve your SEO rankings as well. Talk about a win-win. 

3. Optimize Your Images

Images are an important part of any ecommerce website. Since people are buying your product online, without being able to see or touch them, it’s crucial that your product imagery is exceptional.

To do, make sure you do the following:

• Save your images as a JPEG or PNG
• Pick the right dimensions to avoid slow loading times
• Be sure to have images shot from multiple angles and include a zoom feature

Also be sure your images are super crisp and not blurry. Often, it’s worth investing in professional photography. People will trust your company much more if the photos seem professional.

If you do these things, your images will help you sell more product than ever before. This is one of the biggest things you can to do increase your online sales.

Final Thoughts

There you have it: 3 tips to help you become an ecommerce SEO expert. Try implementing them in your business today. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll begin to see results.

Have questions or want to learn more? Contact our team of experts today. We’re happy to help you on your SEO journey. 

Here are a few things to test before launching a new site.

Does Your Site Look Good on Mobile Devices?

Around 60 percent of online searches in the United States happen on a mobile device. This is a trend that doesn’t appear to be slowing anytime in the near future. The onus is on you to push out a website that is accessible and readable via mobile. In fact, Google recently changed its search algorithm to prefer sites that render well on mobile.

Fortunately, this won’t take an obscene amount of work on your end. The best web hosting platforms will offer mobile responsiveness or mobile compatibility as a standard feature. Regardless, you need to ensure that your site looks good on both phones and tablets before you decide to open it up to the public.

Is Analytics Doing Its Job?

Analytics adds a helpful element to any website. Analytics shows you how people are engaging with your content. Looking at this information will allow you to fine tune your process in order to make site visitors happier. The vast majority of visitors jumping from your home page to your product section? Consider integrating the two pages to ensure a more streamlined user experience.

Some web platforms offer users a variety of built-in analytics tools. There are also a lot of external analytics programs out there if you want to get really detailed. For most people, the standard toolkit will be enough to examine user engagement over time.

Have You Thought About SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a way for individuals and organizations to increase their chances of being found online. Not every web search is specific. How often do you know exactly what you’re looking for when you type something into Google? It doesn’t matter what your site does, it can benefit from SEO.

Keywords are a great starting point. You can test keyword viability buy running them through a variety of free tools. Using strong keywords on your site will boost your organic search viability in search engines. You’ll want to place these keywords in a variety of places, such as in body text, and in image and site metadata. Finally, you should see what happens when you search for your site. If it’s hard to find, you’ll want to make some changes.

Is Your Site Fast Enough?

People who use the Internet frequently know that few things are more obnoxious than a slow site. In fact, this is something that many people won’t tolerate at all. About 40 percent of people abandon websites that take longer than three seconds to load. Three seconds isn’t a very long time. Yet, in today’s world where everything happens instantly, people simply don’t want to wait that long for a webpage. You’re going to end up losing a lot of business if your website has a slow load time. Use a free speed test site to ensure everything is running smoothly before you launch.

Are Your Images Good to Go?

Not many people want to read through endless seas of text when visiting a website. Images are a great way to break up text with a bit of flavor. But you need to make sure photos and graphics are working correctly before you welcome visitors to your website. How can images not work correctly? First, you should see how they appear on the page. Are they aligned in a way that looks good? Be honest with yourself. There’s no benefit to telling yourself something that isn’t true since it’s your visitors that will suffer.

Photos and graphics also play a role in determining site speed. These are often data-heavy files; so they can take a while to load. To remedy this, you can compress images for faster load times.

Don’t rush your site launch. You can always make it private again if something’s off, but that won’t bode well for your image or business. Just take a bit of extra time to check these things before you launch your site.

Thin content practically means that the content present on a website is not seen as high enough quality for the search engine. When you are hit by a thin content penalty, the penalization is a really serious one. It does not appear simply because there is one article that is of low quality. It practically means that most of the content on a website is low quality.

What Is High Quality Content?

In order to avoid thin content penalties, you need to publish high quality content. This is not as difficult as you might think. The idea is always to offer really good content that will offer value to the viewer.

The very best possible content is the one that answers questions. You can talk about a topic or you can simply refer to something else. No matter the topic that you discuss, what is really important is to cover it as much as possible.

For instance, if you want to write about something plumbing related, as you can see on Fix It Right Plumbing and similar sites. You would obviously want to write an article about different types of tools used in plumbing. Simply mentioning them is not enough. You need to talk about the tools and discuss various different details that are about them. Basically, you need to write absolutely everything about those tools. This is what is going to help you to write the best possible content for a plumbing blog.

What To Do When A Thin Content Penalty Appears

For starters, be sure that the penalty affects just a part of the website. If the entire site is affected, you need to start making modifications to absolutely all site pages. This is much more important than what you might initially think. When the penalty only affects some specific pages, Google tells you what the pages are. This is something that is vital for the evolution of the website. Solving only problems on those pages is all that has to be done.

Solving the thin content issue is normally all about doing one of two things:

• You add content so that the page becomes valuable.
• You delete the page.

If you decide to delete the page, you need to be sure that the website still has high quality content on it. If this is not the case, Google will just dismiss the entire site and it is a certainty that a thin content penalty will be decided for its entirety.

If you feel that you cannot properly take care of the thin content penalty, look for SEO specialists that can get it done for you.

You’ve got a store full of merchandise, the question is, how do you get rid of it? The world of sales is a competitive one, and if you aren’t marketing your vape products correctly, you may get smoked by your competition.

The best way to let others know about your products is by aiming for the top. The top of the Google search anyway. Most people don’t go past the first page of search results so you’re going to want to be there.

This can be easier said than done. Here are ten vape marketing tips that will help you up your SEO game and get your website the traffic that you want to see.

1. Page Speed is Everything

In the days of old, people would wait around on a webpage for a bit before getting frustrated and moving on. Nowadays though, you’re lucky if someone will wait for more than a few seconds.

You’re going to have to build your site with speed in mind. Remove any clutter that could slow the website down. When your site is, slow and cluttered, it reduces the customer’s trust.

A fast site just increases the customer’s experience in general.

2. Link to Sites with Relevant Content

If you sell vape products but not juice, you want to link to somewhere like brokedick.com/vape-juice. Granted you wouldn’t usually link to someone who sells the same products. You want to link to a blog that pushes the same sort of content.

As a vape store, you don’t want to link to something like bed sheets. It makes no sense and just doesn’t match up.  Keep in mind that when you do this, you want to make sure that the website you’re linking to is a trustworthy one.

3. Write what People want to Read

You do want to write to get ranked on Google, but that won’t do any good if you can’t keep someone on your site to browse your products. You want to write content that is valuable to actual people with feelings and wallets.

You want people to not just read your blog, but absorb the information. You need for it to help them. If you do this the SEO Gods will actually reward you because search engines follow user activity.

4. Let Other Sites Link to You

If you’re going to be linking to other sites, it’s only fair that you let them link to you back. This can’t hurt you, only help you because it gets the word out about your products easier and faster. You also get the build a relationship with the company who is linking to you.

This doesn’t mean that you should just let anyone link to you. Again, this works if it’s a trustworthy site.

5. Use Social Media to Your Advantage

SEO and social media go together like a tired blogger and a nice cup of coffee. Remember when we said that search engines follow user activity? This is where that comes into play.

It’s all about getting as many shares as possible so you want to set up a Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. From there, share content that your followers are going to be interested in sharing. If you really want shares, host contests to gain attention.

On all articles on your site, make sure you have an option that allows a visitor to share it to their social media.

6. Use Web Analytics

Once your vape marketing campaign is up and running you need to know if it’s successful. It’s for this reason that you need to set up analytics.

Analytics is a neat tool that allows you to check your numbers every time you launch a marketing campaign. You can take notes about what’s working so you can keep doing it, and what’s not working so you can fix it. You’ll want to have this set up as soon as you start marketing your vape store.

7. Write Unique Meta Descriptions for Everything

Meta descriptions are the descriptions that will be shown in Google before someone clicks on your site. You need to make sure that it is well crafted with a keyword thrown in.

This is going to be the deciding factor to rather or not someone will visit your site so you can’t afford to just write any old description and call it a day. You actually need to put a little thought into it.

8. Your URLs Need to be Easy to Read

If your URL leaves a user saying “huh?” chances are their search engine is going to be just as confused. You need to keep them as simple as possible to ensure a good customer experience.

Imagine if someone is trying to tell their friend about your site later and they can’t remember the URL at all. You don’t want that.

9. Use Relevant Keywords for Images

There is a whole section of most search engines that is dedicated completely to images. It’s for this reason that you want to choose the right keywords for your images so users can find them.

Make sure the keyword is relevant to the image, and of course, stay away from keyword stuffing.

10. Your Content Needs to be Interesting and Consistent

If someone visits your site and sees that the last time you posted anything was almost a year ago, they will get the impression that your business is no longer up and running. It’s safe to say that you don’t want to give this impression.

Not only do you want to post quality content, but you want to make sure that you post often.

The world of vaping is a very competitive one. It feels like you can’t throw a stone without hitting a shop and that’s just with brick and mortar stores. You want to make sure your vape marketing techniques are smoking or you will get left in the dust.

New to SEO and don’t know where to begin? Contact us with all of your burning SEO questions.

Search engine optimization used to be easy. You selected a keyword and away you went. Now Google uses a sophisticated algorithm that considers around 200 factors when ranking pages.

This means you need to make some careful decisions when it comes to using an SEO strategy. Picking the right keywords and creating great content is only half the battle.

Another thing you should consider is what ecommerce platform you’re using. Different platforms have different features that can help you execute your SEO strategy.

If you haven’t considered these 10 factors, you may not have the best ecommerce platform for SEO. If you’re thinking about a new platform or website, it’s time to compare the competition. This guide will tell you exactly what you’re looking for.

1. The Best Ecommerce Platform for SEO Allows You to Edit Page Titles

Keywords may not be as important as they once were, but that doesn’t mean they don’t play a role in your SEO efforts.

Google still considers keywords for websites and pages in its ranking factors. What’s more, the algorithm emphasizes where those keywords are on the page.

One of the most important places for your keywords to be is the page title. Pages with keywords in the title tend to rank higher than those without.

If your ecommerce platform won’t allow you to edit individual page titles, it is not SEO friendly.

2. You Want a Platform That Allows for Keywords in URLs

Another feature you want your ecommerce platform to offer you is custom URLs. Why do you need this feature? It allows you to create keyword-rich URLs.

This is also important when it comes to improving your ranking in search engine page results. Most auto-generated URLs don’t contain any sign of what the page is about. Many are strings of numbers, which are difficult for people and search engines alike.

The best SEO websites use URLs that tell the user and the search engine immediately what the page is about.

3. You Have a Need for Speed

The best ecommerce platform for SEO is going to load lightning-fast. Speed is an important factor in your SERP ranking, and you don’t want your chosen platform slowing you down.

Google and other search engines rank websites based on how fast they load. Loading speed is important for delivering a good customer experience. The faster the site loads, the better the experience for the user.

When you’re designing your website, you can take certain steps to make your site load faster. You should also consider mobile-friendliness. Your platform plays a huge role in how quickly your site can be delivered, so always consider the speed.

4. Sitemaps and Easy Navigation Can Help You Rank

An SEO friendly website is a website that’s easy to navigate. Your primary navigation links should be text, not images. You should also be able to control navigation by editing menus right down to the individual link.

A sitemap is another useful feature. A search engine can index the sitemap, which helps it check how easy it is to navigate your site. The best ecommerce platform for SEO should automatically generate an XML sitemap.

5. Custom Landing Pages Give You More Leeway

How much can you customize your landing pages with your current ecommerce platform? If the answer is not much, it might be time to switch.

Landing pages are crucial for generating more leads for your business. The more you can customize them, the more you can tailor them to specific segments of your audience.

6. You Must Have a Blog Function

You’re likely convinced you need to be blogging for your business. A good blog has many benefits, including:

• Building trust with your audience
• Sharing useful information
• Building your reputation as an expert
• Boosting your SEO efforts
• Helping your customers find answers to their questions

Almost every SEO friendly website out there has a built-in blogging function. You want to be sure you’ve picked a platform that will support your blogging efforts.

7. Design Marries Form and Function

On the best ecommerce platform for SEO, design is a huge consideration. You want your site to entice people to visit. You also want it to give a good impression when visitors arrive.

The most beautiful site will only hold attention for so long though. If your site isn’t easy to navigate, people will give up looking. If your site prioritizes design over content, it’s not going to be useful or SEO friendly.

Look for a platform that uses design to emphasize content. Good design draws attention to your quality content, highlighting it for users. You can learn more about great website design at www.microdinc.com/website-ecommerce.

8. Make it Shareable

This is the golden age of social media, and everything on your website should be shareable. You want to make it easy for people to share blogs, product pages, and more. SEO friendly websites create a frictionless social sharing experience.

Look for platforms that allow you to enable sharing with the click of a button. The easier it is, the more people will share your content with their friends, family, and followers.

9. You Want Full Control of Meta descriptions

Meta descriptions are an important part of your SEO friendly pages. They’re often what search engines pull to create the snippet that comes up on the results page.

If you don’t specify a meta description, the search engine robots will grab a snippet of text from the page. This often looks unprofessional, and it gives users a poor impression of your site. An ecommerce platform that gives you granular control of metadescriptions is a must.

10. Get Analytical with the Right Tools

Finally, any ecommerce platform you choose should give you the tools you need to improve your SEO. Some platforms come with Google Analytics built right in. Others will offer even more robust, custom tools.

Analytics provide insight into what you’re doing and how you could improve. Without them, you’re guessing at what you need to do to improve SEO on your site.

Get a Hand Finding the Right Platform

Choosing the best ecommerce platform for SEO can be a tall task. By making sure you look for these 10 features, you’ll be well on your way to picking the right one.

Not sure your website is reaching its performance potential? Take a look around the blog for more SEO tips and tricks for your website.

Read on to learn what to consider when choosing keywords.

Wondering how to choose your website keywords?

Did you know the advent of Hummingbird, Google’s newest algorithm overhaul, has changed the face of SEO? Before Google released it, keyword stuffing was still a popular technique. A lot’s changed since then.

Google has been working to combat black hat techniques, rolling out 500 to 600 algorithm updates a year. Most of those updates are small tweaks, but a few, like RankBrain, will change the landscape for years to come. With it, Google began AI to their algorithm recipe.

How does this affect you?

In all sorts of ways. The primary being your approach to keywords needs to change. With Hummingbird, Google now understands the context of keywords and links. They even understand topics.

When you’re ready to learn the modern approach to keyword research, read on.

Finding a Niche Topic

If your old approach began with you heading to Google Keyword Planner (GKP), throw it out. GKP focuses all its efforts on a single keyword, and build out from there. We’re going to expand your horizons.

Let’s say, you own an online business which sells primarily hiking boots. You head on over to GKP to see if you can find any ideas for target keywords. When you get there, you plug in the word hiking boots and come up with the following:

• Girls’ hiking boots
• Men’s hiking boots
• Brown hiking boots size 11
• Waterproof hiking boots
• And so on

Notice how each of the above builds upon the core keyword “hiking boot?” That’s the way GKP functions. But you don’t have to be limited by that narrow-minded thinking.

Yes, you’re building content to get more customers, but that’s a process. Marketing is a process. The buyer’s journey is a process.

A large part of that requires building trust. You want potential customers to read one article. Then you want them to come back and read another and another.

That’s the way you build brand recognition. It’s also the way you build trust and set yourself as an authority in your field. When you do that, customers will be flocking to you.

The best way to do that is to think non-linearly. This is where we lowly humans have the advantage over our silicon counterparts. Take a look at the list of keywords we came up with when we saw hiking boots:

• Mountain climbing
• Camping Trips
• Athletes foot
• Hiking backpacks
• And so on

We can still take these and plug these into GKP to come up with a variety of longer keywords. Even though these keywords are only indirectly related to the wares you sell, they’re directly relevant to the needs of your audience. That’s why they’ll read them.

The more you understand your audience, the better you’ll be discovering appropriate topics and keywords. Think beyond what you sell. Think about what your potential customers want.

Research Tools for Website Keywords

Please don’t think we’re suggesting you avoid using the fantastic tools that are available. No. Take advantage of those powerful resources, but don’t rely on them alone. First, take a look at the big picture.

Who is your audience? Narrow that down with laser precision. The more you know about them, the easier it’ll be to build content they actually want.

That builds trust and authority, as well as leads to higher conversions. In turn, you receive a bigger paycheck. Everyone wins.

Are there holes in your competitors’ content? If you don’t know what kind of content your competitors are dishing out, it’s time to learn. With services like those offered by Semrush, you can see the type of content your competitors are pushing out.

Then you can cheat. Look for areas they haven’t covered but are still relevant to your subject. You can also pick a few of their most popular posts and steal their core keywords.

After you’ve done that, it’s time to skip over and utilize some of those keyword research tools. Here’s our list of favorites:

• Google Trends
• Moz Keyword Explorer
• Microsoft Bing Ads Intelligence
• Google Adwords Keyword Planner Tool
• Wordtracker’s Free Basic Keyword Demand
• For a few more keyword research tools, view here.

With these tools, you can discover longer keyword phrases like those listed for GKP in the previous section. You can also discover a variety of metrics:

• Average monthly searches
• Amount of competition
• Number of clicks
• Number of Impressions
• Average cost per click
• And so on

This information is essential. But these tools shouldn’t be used until the middle of your keyword planning process. If you also plan to use Adwords for your advertising campaign, we’ll walk you through the process in our Ultimate 2018 Google Adwords Guide.

Lesser Known Strategies

Here are a few strategies the pros use to help them through the process. Remember, the less linear your thinking, the more keywords and topics you’ll come up with.

Forums and boards

There’s no better place to start your audience research than the places they hang out. Forums and boards are where they go to complain, get advice, and share solutions. If you want to understand your audience read what they’re saying.

• Quora
• Reddit

They’ll tell you exactly what they want to read about. The above are two popular sites outside your typical social media channels.

Idea Generators

These sites are idea generators. Punch in your subject, and the site will return some inventive alternative topics and keywords.

• Answer The Public
• UberSuggest
• ScrapeBox
• Google Trends
• Keyword Tool

You can also use the following sites to discover related topics and keywords. In Wikipedia, type in the subject. Then look at the content listed by section.

Do any of the section headings offer new ideas? If not, head to the bottom of the page to the “External links” section. See any new ideas here?

• Wikipedia
• Google Search Results

For the Google Search Results, you’ll need to punch your query into Google. After you reach the search engine results page, scroll all the way to the bottom. What you’ll find is a section titled “Searches related to” your topic.

What’s Next?

Once you get the hang of this new approach to finding website keywords, you’ll never go back. Start with your audience and think non-linearly. It’ll revolutionize your process.

Did you find this article helpful? If so, take a moment to browse our library full of other great articles.

Only Google Ethical Tactics

Google penalties can be a death sentence for many small businesses as being deindexed from the search engine minimizes exposure for the business. Partnering up with the wrong digital marketing company can lead to months of trying to recover from the penalty which will require money as well as time. Brand-Mention.com works in Google ethical ways as they understand the danger a business can be in if they are found using Blackhat tactics. The days of spamming the internet with articles with links incorporated are over. Picking the most relevant and popular sites will now yield results.

Results Rendered For Other Clients

With any digital marketing company it is important to ask for results they have attained for other clients. Success in one niche of digital marketing like that of finance can be much different than that of tech. Ask for related success as this is the most relevant to the work that you will be having done. If there are no results the company is willing to show you or case studies they have written up, look elsewhere unless the company comes with a personal referral.

A Platform That Makes It Easy

Brand-Mention.com has a platform that makes ordering backlinks easier than ever. Being able to see where content will be published can help you make an educated order without being surprised when the work is delivered. The ability to order multiple guest posts per week can allow a company to handle their marketing campaign for the month in one place. This can be a great place to expand brand exposure for a company in its infancy as well as help establish a company’s legitimacy. Being able to be connected with influencers is also another component of Brand-Mention.com as influencer marketing is here to stay. Being paired up with the appropriate influencer can help a company increase sales at a reasonable ROI. Influencers that have the trust of their followers due to not endorsing poorly made products or low quality services are ones you want to target.

Everyone from small businesses to large corporations can benefit from a company that offers brand mentions in articles. Consider Brand-Mention.com for your outsourcing needs as they already have connections after years of working in the marketing industry. Not all digital marketing companies are created equal, so make sure you do the appropriate research.

Are you creating a new or revamped website for your business? Business web design doesn’t have to be complicated or challenging, but there are certain standards you should follow when you’re building out your design.

Let’s take a look the basic principles of web design and web layout so your project can be completed with success.

Business Web Design Principles

There are many things you can do that will make your website design look professional, clean, and trustworthy. This is true for all design, including graphic design, newsletter design, or even SmashBrand packaging design. Here are the most basic guidelines to adhere to.

Color Combinations

Having the right colors on your website can help to keep business on your site. If the colors are light and the text can be read with ease, your audience is going to stay around longer than if the text cannot be read. Dark background with little contrast makes it difficult to read.

Colors also convey meaning. Take into account the types of colors you’re using and what these colors portray to a user. For example, using a bright color might display danger while a dark blue will present professionalism.

Headlines and Taglines

Having a tagline on your website not only shows your business motto but also helps with search engine optimization. Make sure those that visit your website immediately know what your company is about and what they stand for.

Having a tagline that accurately shows your business tagline will capture their attention and make them want to stick around on your site a little bit longer.

Page Layout

When you’re designing your web page, it’s important that you divide that pages into appropriate categories. Don’t keep everything on your entire website on the same page. It will make it difficult for users to find what they are looking for if they come to your site with a specific topic in mind.

When you’re building your menu, keep separate topics all on separate tabs in your menu. The easier it is to navigate through your site, the easier people will be able to find information.

Pop Up Ads

Have you ever gone to a site that while scrolling you keep getting interrupted by annoying pop-ups? Pop-ups are a no-no in today’s website design world. If you’re like most, the annoyance of pop-ups keeps you from continuing on down a page.

If you build your website without pop-ups, it will be more respectful to potential and current clients. If you’d like to do advertising, you should be doing advertising outside of pop-ups such as digital advertising on Google.

Photographs and Videos

Including videos and photos on your site will help keep it looking more professional and put together. If you have huge blocks of text with nothing to break it up, you can lose your audience easily. Photos and videos give the reader a break and make it more user-friendly.

Getting Started

Now that you know the basic guidelines of business web design, you have a great place to start.

Review the tips that you’ve been given when building your website plan for design to make sure it’s matching the best principles.

If you’re interested in learning about how to incorporate SEO into your website design as well, check us out here.

But staying on the right track in such an uplifting and new climate, is not easy at all. Luckily, experts in the field have been through hell and back until they’ve reached great success and as a result, they decided to share bits of their wisdom to ease the path for new marketers and entrepreneurs.

“Your role is to sell, don’t let anything distract you from the sole purpose of advertising.” Advertising tycoon, David Ogilvy

The main point here is that when you advertise your product or service, make sure you explain it as simply and briefly as possible, because time is money and customers get distracted easily. If you put too much time into making your speech creative and surprising, double-check that it is not detrimental to a sale.

Or as Fuel Online puts it: “No fluff, no BS, you have to get straight to the chase and let qualitative results speak for themselves.”

“If it takes the kid at Domino’s 19 rings before he answers the phone, make sure your pizza shop answers on the first ring.” – PR Legend, Michale Levine

The key element to take out of this, is that competition can save you, more than it can bury you.

As a chief marketing officer, you cannot omit who you are up against and where you rank. These elements are crucial in defining a company’s chance of survival, because it opens up an opportunity for you to re-analyze your strategy, and better your products or services.

Once you do some research and identify what your industry is lacking, you can be the first to provide what is missing.

“The new information technology, Internet and e-mail, have practically eliminated the physical costs of communications.” – Renowned businessman, Peter F. Drucker

Embracing the online world positively impacts the financial part of any company. Advertising online is one of the most cost-effective methods of marketing because marketers are able to create, deliver and execute an online marketing campaign to a variety of viewers, and the budget is affordable.

Moreover, if you want to explore this path on your own, your options are: social media advertising (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), content media marketing (get mentioned in various publications), email marketing, and many more.

“I can’t imagine my life without marketing automation. It’s a no brainer. To me, the fact that so many companies don’t have it, is amazing.” – VP of Papersave, Holly Condon

On average, 51% of companies are currently using Marketing automation. But what is it?

Simply put, it is a software that exists with the goal of computerizing marketing actions. In a marketing campaign, there are many departments that have to do repetitive tasks, some related to emails, social media, and other website actions. By automating all these processes, the advertising team is enabled to focus on what they do best: bringing new costumers and increasing sales.

All in all, marketing nowadays is a mix of tactics, technology, new trends and most of all, customer engagement. Any business that wants to survive this competitive ecosystem, never neglects how clients have transformed along with the digital rise.

When people are looking to research a service or product they will often start with a simple Google search, often using keywords that are relevant to what they are looking for to bring up a list of the top webpages to visit. Businesses that can take advantage of this system by implementing a solid Search Engine Optimization strategy are often ahead of the game in their industries.

If your company has a web page for its customers to view, it does no good if no one can find it. When Google searches for information, it uses a sophisticated algorithm to choose which websites it will list first in the search results. The closer your company is to the top of that list, the more likely it is to be found by a potential client or customer. More views equal more sales in the digital marketing business.

By investing in your brand and partnering with an established and professional Digital Marketing Service like Digital Monopoly, you can establish a successful strategy for your business. Trying to navigate the best routes to take through the digital marketplace can be time-consuming and sometimes confusing. Leaving the digital marketing side to the experts can help you maximize your online footprint and save you valuable time to work on other aspects of your brand.

There is a proven strategy that Digital Monopoly uses to draw clients to your business and connect you with the right audience for your brand.

Consultation

• Introduce your business and set out your vision for the future
• Explain what you are ultimately trying to achieve within your business
• Explore who is your target market and how you can connect with them

Competition Analysis

• Detailed customized research into your market and what your competitors are doing
• Narrow down specific target areas that will yield the best results
• Set up a focused plan that will get you ahead of your competition

Implementation

• Let the experts build a custom plan to promote your brand on your terms
• Design a campaign that focuses on meeting your goals
• Make beneficial updates to your website and social media accounts

Reporting

• Receive easy to understand professional reports  on your site traffic and sales conversion numbers
• Stay in the loop while being able to focus on other business aspects
• Reporting results can help you set goals and plan long-term

As a business owner, your attention is constantly being pulled in many directions at once. For local SEO particularly in Perth, trying to maintain a digital presence adequately takes not only experience but valuable time that can take away from other projects. The web can be a tough place to navigate, but with expert SEO services in Perth, it can be an incredible tool for expanding the business of your dreams.

Investments in better content have been the name of the game ever since Google started to roll out updates to its search engine algorithm. SEO has become more competitive, and companies are putting a great deal of effort in creating content that’s fresh and informative in a bid to rank higher in the search results.

It all boils down to content creation, and it’s crucial for digital marketers to underscore to know what content pieces click with their corresponding demographics.

For starters, writing content for an SEO campaign has to be taken seriously. The way your ad copies are crafted determines the volume of web traffic you are going to get, so it makes sense to know the best ways for giving your brand the exposure it deserves in the search results.

Simplicity is the key

If you belong to such a highly technical field as IT, you’re more likely to use industry jargon to let prospects know you mean business. But using too much of these industry-specific words only serves to alienate yourself from your audience, especially if they include enterprises that are not too savvy with IT concepts and terms. To be safe, aim to use simpler language that anyone can understand and you can bet your bottom dollar they will rush towards you like iron shavings to a magnet!

Choose and place your keywords carefully

Whether you are using Google Posts or writing a blog article for your LinkedIn profile, it’s always best to know which keywords to include in your content. The inclusion of strong keywords and secondary keywords can greatly increase your visibility. It’s only a matter of becoming cautious of the way you distribute your keywords. You need to makes sure your keywords are evenly spread out so that users can read them naturally.

Go the long way

People keep saying that long-form content is slowly dying, but this is not the case when the objective is to increase web traffic considerably. After all, a 2,000-word blog article is more valuable than a 400-word listicle since longer content tends to be more informative. Customers today want nothing but information that’s new and relevant to their industry, and creating long-form content allows you to reach out to them.

Do your homework

In matters of quality, it’s always essential to write about things that are close to the hearts and minds of your audience. In this case, it’s always best to research about a given topic and provide valuable insights about it. For one, you can try to look for a critical issue or problem in your industry and provide your own solutions to them. You increase your reliability in the process and convince your audience to stay on your site longer.

Thinking of trying out AdWords?

Take a look at some of these statistics:

• Businesses make $2 for every $1 they spend on AdWords
• Sponsored results receive 65% of all clicks
• Search ads increase brand awareness by 80%

The numbers support a positive return on your investment. Unfortunately, there’s a learning curve to online advertising.

You can always skip the Google AdWords guide and hire an adwords agency to do the tough part for you.

Or…

If you’re smart and driven, you can step-up and run your own campaign. To succeed, you’ll need to arm yourself with information.

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

By the time you finish this article, you’ll have all the facts you need to understand the scope of AdWords. Then you can evaluate how AdWords will best serve you.

Read on.

What is AdWords?

Google AdWords is a paid service which displays your ads online. The concept is simple. You create an ad, choose a target audience, and pick how many ads you want Google to run.

Google counts the number of ads that it’s run by calculating the number of times viewers have clicked on the ad.

By clicking on the ad, viewers are redirected to your site (or landing page, or affiliate page, etc.)

The ads are displayed on Google’s search-engine results-pages (SERPs), YouTube videos, and over two million websites and apps.

Google chooses the content most relevant to your audience and posts your ad there.

Search Ads

74% of all search engine traffic this last year belongs to Google. Three out of every four searches–that’s massive! Which is why we’re focusing our Google AdWords guide on this type of ad first.

When you create an AdWords campaign that focuses on “search ads,” this is where your ads show up. They land on the same page as the ranked search results.

When a person punches a query into Google’s search engine, Google returns a list of ranked search results.

For instance, punch in pet food store Dallas TX. Google will return something like 13 different natural search results and 3 ad results.

The ad results look almost exactly like the rest of the results on the page. The only visible difference is the word “Ad” which Google includes under your ad’s title.

When a viewer clicks on your ad’s title, they are redirected to your website (or any other URL you choose).

On some devices (like tablets and smartphones), viewers may find an option to call your business instead. In that case, they click on your number, and their device calls you.

Ads show up on the search results in 3 locations: the top of the page, the bottom of the page, the right side of the page. On mobile devices, the ads will only show up on the top of the page.

With search ads, you target specific keywords rather than a particular audience. When a viewer punches those keywords into their search parameters, Google includes your ad on the SERP.

The Process

• Create your search ad
• Choose your keywords
• Set your budget
• Let Google run your ad

Display Ads

If you want your ads to show up on websites and apps, this is the choice for you. If you choose this option, you may pick from four different display options:

Text

This is the same format used for “search ads.” The ad will look like a search result. It’ll include a headline, a couple of lines of text, and a URL.

Banner

These ads incorporate rich media or images. They’re more closely akin to what you might find on a billboard near the freeway. They offer a huge variety of layouts, animations, and interactive elements.

Gmail

These ads are custom. They land on people’s Gmail page. People can expand, save, or forward your ad in their inbox.

App

You can create an ad campaign targeting particular app categories. You can then get metrics on the performance of these ads.

The Process

• Pick your format
• Create your add
• Pick your target demographic
• Set your budget
• Let Google run your ad
• Review your ad metrics

Video Ads

These ads run on YouTube.

First, you create a video ad. Second, you create a YouTube account. Third, you upload your video ad. Fourth, you tell AdWords to start your campaign.

It’s that simple.

When visitors punch their searches into YouTube, your video will pop up next to related videos in their search results.

You can choose your audience based on gender, interests, location, age, etc.

Like “search ads” and “display ads,” you decide how much you want to spend. After AdWords reaches that click-through limit each month, it stops showing your ads.

YouTube has its own set of analytics tools to measure your metrics. Use the data you get from the metrics to refine your audience. You’ll pay less and sell more.

The Process

• Create a video
• Create a YouTube account
• Pick your target demographic
• Upload your video
• Set your budget
• Let Google run your campaign
• Review your ad metrics

Universal App Campaigns

If you’re trying to get your new app recognized, this is the ad for you. It works for both iOS and Android apps.

First, you need to finish your app and get it on the App Store or Play Store.

After that, you customize your ad using information pulled from one of the above stores. You can include things like video, images, and text.

Then you punch in your audience parameters.

Finally, you tell AdWords your budget, and let them fly.

Google will display your ad on Google Play, Google Search, Gmail, YouTube, and more.

The Process

• Make an app
• Upload it to App Store or Play Store
• Customize your ad
• Choose your target demographic
• Set your budget
• Let Google run your campaign
• Review your metrics

New AdWords (Beta)

This one’s new to the 2018 version of our Google AdWords guide.

Google is offering businesses a more refined approach to target their audience.

In this new version of their AdWords service, Google offers a variety of options when viewers click on your ad.

• Visit your website
• Show interest in your website
• Phone your business
• Go to your business
• Buy your website
• Install your mobile app
• Connect with your mobile app
• And more

They recognize that clicking on your website isn’t the end-all, be-all call-to-action that some businesses are looking for.

They also offer some compelling at-a-glance metrics. They’re user-friendly, yet powerful enough for master-level marketers.

This is the direction Google’s traveling, so jump on the bandwagon now. You’ll have a head-start on your competition.

After You Read Your Google AdWords Guide

Have you finished our Google AdWords guide already? Well, that was quick.

By now you should have a firm grasp on the scope of AdWords.

How does it fit into your marketing plan?

Before you make any final decision, read through our articles on ClickFunnels and other ways to expand your Ecommerce business. They’ll offer you new insights to strengthen your plan.

Get started now so that you can finish today.

And enjoy a brighter tomorrow.

Google’s professional SEO ranking system has likely confused almost anyone who runs a website or blog. It can be extremely confusing to try to figure out what will make your post rank higher than the competition.

With Google’s recent move toward AI machine learning through RankBrain, website owners only got more confused. Rankbrain aims to make the user experience better, but SEO specialists will have a more difficult time learning how to succeed within the parameters of the new algorithm.

Professional SEO Ranking

Search engine optimization refers to the practice of utilizing keywords, links, and content to rank higher on search engines.

Millions of websites are competing for the same clicks and the pages that effectively use SEO will get a higher ranking.

RankBrain

RankBrain seeks to drastically improve the results users get when they search specific questions or words. It can direct a user to the site they want with more obscure searches, as well as guess far better than human algorithms can. This AI and machine learning process will change the way internet marketing services do business.

Before RankBrain, the prevalent SEO strategy was to use keywords that matched a user’s common search. If you used your keywords effectively (no stuffing and unnatural uses), your site would naturally achieve a higher ranking.

Now, keywords are only a piece of the puzzle. RankBrain can direct users to websites that don’t necessarily include the exact phrase for which they searched. The AI behind it will make an educated guess on which webpage will be the most helpful, and send the user there.

Are Keywords Dead?

Keywords are still important, but they aren’t as important as they used to be. Before Google implemented RankBrain, you could manipulate the SEO system using keywords to show your page first, even if it wasn’t the most useful page to users.

Now, Google prefers pages that are easier to view and more user-friendly. Keywords are still relevant, but you can’t sacrifice readability in the name of keyword stuffing.

To rank higher on Google, you need to have a website that’s easy to read on both mobile and desktop, incorporates keywords naturally, and gives the reader the information they wanted in the first place. Many websites were doing this all along, and they’ll be rewarded for it.

You can’t cheat the system anymore. Your outdated SEO tactics won’t work with the new algorithm. If you’ve dedicated your website to user experience, however, you should be in a great place going forward.

The Future of SEO

Machine learning like RankBrain is the future of SEO. Google shouldn’t reward websites for stuffing keywords and sacrifice readability, and RankBrain seeks to solve some of these problems.

It may take some getting used to, but professional SEO will be in a better place in the future.

Want more SEO tips for your business? Take a look at our blog! We have SEO and marketing tips for all kinds of industries.

When devising a social media marketing campaign, many marketers forget about social media search engine results. Here’s why social SEO is important.

You’ve been rocking your SEO campaign. Except, you’ve been neglecting your social media search engine connection in your campaign. Which means your campaign could be performing better.

Let’s put it in context: 72% of adult internet users are on Facebook. And if you’re not there too, you’re missing out on their business.

Here’s what social media SEO is, how it works, and how to incorporate it into your existing SEO strategy (plus a few potholes you should dodge along the way).

What is Social Media SEO?

First things first: what is social media SEO? It’s the thing that makes the social media search engine connection make sense.

It’s also what makes your social media sing.

You could be forgiven for being confused – Google used to give contradictory statements about how social media factored into their algorithm. These days, it’s a boon. It has something to do with how social media has evolved in the past several years.

Let’s break it down.

How It Works

Let’s be clear. Social media isn’t currently a direct ranking factor.

However, that doesn’t mean it has zero effect on your ranking. Actually, neglecting social media’s role in SEO is one of the biggest mistakes social media marketers make.

Content that performs well on social media – strong engagement, likes, and shares – correlates with content that performs well on websites and blogs. That is, content that performs well on one platform is likely to see similar engagement metrics on the other because it’s good quality content.

A good social media presence, combined with a good content marketing strategy, create strong brand awareness and engagement, which boosts your rankings.

Social Media and Search Engines

Nothing is ever simple, is it? Certainly not when we’re dealing with the social media search engine relationship.

So it pays to know what the benefits of social media are for your next SEO campaign. As we said, social media isn’t a ranking factor officially, but it can help boost your SEO rankings indirectly.

That’s because of how social media works. Many of the benefits of social media translate over into your SEO.

Links, Links, Links

Also known as the boon of any SEO campaign.

Let’s be real. You need links. Earning links is what you want – it allows you to gain multiple links from a single posting (SEO folks call that angels singing).

But unless you’re a big site with tons of traffic, it’s hard to earn links.

Unless, of course, you’ve got social media.

Think of it this way. You have x friends on Facebook, y followers on Instagram, etc. They all have their own list of people who friend and follow them.

If your content sees traffic on social media, it has a higher probability of reaching more eyes – and being cited by other websites.

Et voila. Link earning.

Front of Mind

How often do you check Pinterest? Or YouTube? Or Instagram?

Probably more than you’re willing to admit. But you’ll notice something.

The successful social accounts post often, which means you’ll usually see them when you log on. Depending on the platform, many will post several times a day.

Guess what you get as a result?

Every time you log on, you remember them.

So not only does your business get frequent user traffic from social media, it keeps you front of mind with your customers.

Brand Authority

It’s not just brand awareness.

Frequent production of high-quality social media content establishes your brand as an authority in your area while it familiarizes your followers with your brand, style, and products.

Of course, people are more wary of false information on the internet in general and social media in particular. That shouldn’t be a deterrent – if anything, it should be your cue to make sure you’re producing quality content every time you post.

And if you’re playing your cards right, there’s a fair chance that the next time your followers do a search that’s relevant to your product, they may even search you.

Things to Know About Social Media SEO

Ready to jump down the social media search engine rabbit hole?

Hold your horses. You need to know a few ground rules first. It’s not as easy jumping into a pool.

You also probably have a few assumptions about social media SEO that are frankly inaccurate. Those will hurt you in the long run if you’re not careful – or just hold you back from making your social media campaign that much better.

Here are three things you need to know about social media before you start to incorporate it into your SEO campaign.

Social Links Aren’t Guaranteed

We said earlier that link earning is one of the big pluses of taking a leap of faith into the social media search engine rabbit hole.

Thing is, those links aren’t guaranteed. Not even a little bit (if they are, or someone is

guaranteeing them, there’s a fair chance of something shady going on up in here. Don’t do it.)

There’s also a chance that the links won’t boost your rank. Wait, what?

That’s because the quality of those links matters more than the quantity of them – you’re always better off with five backlinks from reputable sites than ten backlinks from questionable sites.

Take your time, make good content, and use content marketing best practices to earn those links you have. Patience, as they say, is a virtue.

The Social Media Search Engine – Social is a Search Engine Too

Fun fact: you should actually be considering a social media search engine as, well, an actual search engine. Because there are more search engines out there than Google.

In fact, YouTube is the second most popular search engine on the web.

Profiles Rank Too

Social media might not directly impact your spot in the rankings, but it can directly change the content that shows up in that ranking.

In fact, social media profiles rank just as much as your business website or blog.

Why does this matter to you, way down there in the social media search engine hidey-hole?

Because social media channels aren’t just another office cubicle. They’re often the place where your company can show personality before a viewer takes one look at your website.

And if potential customers have fun getting to know you, there’s a much better chance they’re going to buy from you.

Making Social Media Work for You

It’s not just a matter of handing over the keys to your Adwords management. Although that does tend to make your life easier.

You need to make sure what you’re doing on this social media search engine deep dive. Here are three things to get you started.

Optimize Your Posts

It’s a strategy that relies on available pre-existing content, but it has the benefit of opening you up to another avenue of search. Fun fact: Google will sometimes feature popular social media posts in the first few SERP slots.

More avenues of search are always a good idea in the social media search engine rabbit hole.

The easiest way to do this is by using your standard SEO best practices on your posts. We’re talking strategic (not obnoxious) keywords, links to great content, and, of course, great post content.

Influencing Social Sharing

Need brand authority? Enter stage right: social sharing.

It’s just another way to give Google a clue that your site is an authority on your subject area, whatever that may be.

The best way to go about this is to target it directly. Give your followers an incentive to like, share, retweet and comment on your posts – like, say, a promotion.

It rapidly becomes a self-perpetuating cycle – the more people share your posts, the more people can see, like, and reshare your posts. You get new followers, more traffic and, if you’ve done it right, more business.

It all comes back to quality content.

Encourage External Inbound Links

And, finally, our old friend in this social media search engine journey: links.

If you’re doing your social media right (with great content, frequent posts, and good SEO practices) it encourages more external sites to share and link to your content.

Know what happens when they link to your content? Authority in the eyes of the almighty Google.

Like we said earlier, there are no link guarantees. You’re going to have to do your time and pay your dues – in the form of consistently creating useful, engaging content that’s worth sharing and linking.

Rock Your SEO (and Your Social Media)

Think you’ve made sense of this whole social media search engine thing?

Great. Let’s make it even better.

Check out our blog for all kinds of useful information to bring your social media SEO to the next level, like this post on the four errors that can damage your company Facebook page or this post on planning for your first Facebook ad.

If you have a question we haven’t answered, head on over to our contact page to let us know. Or, if you’re a writer, come write that answer for us.

There are endless ways to put a powerful SEO strategy together.

Many companies start with the basics – they research keywords, see what competitors are doing, and build out their landing pages. After that, there is plenty of creative freedom to decide how to generate new content and where to place it.

But, as you’re busy coming up with new SEO ideas, you need to keep an eye on your company’s day-to-day performance. This includes everything from research and product development to sales fulfilments and customer service.

Otherwise, you may end up with negative customer reviews.

These turn people away as they read what previous customers have been through. More so, a bad review can hinder the SEO rank you’ve worked hard to achieve.

Here are some of the ways customer reviews can have a negative or positive effect on your digital marketing efforts.

Reviews Generate Content

You know the keywords you try to implement ever so slyly into your copywriting? Many of those terms and phrases feel natural to your users, and they will type them when writing a review.

This creates more and more signals for Google bots to notice your online presence. Some will be general keywords in your industry while others will boost the use of long-tail keywords on your site.

Both are necessary to your SEO strategy. But, pay attention to how customers are using such phrases in good versus bad reviews.

The good reviews can help push your ranking scores a little bit higher as you continue striving to gain momentum against competitors. Unfortunately, the effects of negative reviews happen much faster, bringing you down in rankings if you aren’t careful.

Reviews Help You Compete in Your Market

Beyond your SERP rank, reviews make a difference in your overall market performance.

Consider this: a user searches for something in your industry and Google supplies them with a list of results. A few results have customer reviews and some have none.

Users are likely to glance at the options without any reviews.

These simply don’t seem as legit as the ones who clearly have a star rating, whether it be good or bad. In fact, a recent study discovered people are more likely to trust customer reviews that have a mix of positive and negative opinions!

This is likely because no company is perfect, so reviews that are only good make tech-savvy consumers think some statements might be made-up for ranking purposes. Not to mention, a few bad reviews help users fully understand what to expect.

Customer Reviews and Local SEO

The positive and negative effects mentioned thus far are even more valuable in the world of local SEO.

Think back to the concept of having targeted keywords used in customer reviews.

When such terms use local references – like your city, borough, or even county – this reinforces your local SEO efforts. It creates truly organic content that supports the SEO efforts you’ve planned and perfected.

In addition to the quality of the keywords is the quantity in which they occur.

The more reviews you get on your local business, the stronger your presence becomes to Google. This can help you dominate the local SEO space and even gain strength in your industry as a whole.

Reviews Validate Your Offers

Speaking of quality, consider the real value of what you offer your customers.

Whether you think you have the best home tool kits around or the absolute most delicious bake shop in town, you need something to back these claims up. Sure, the foot traffic you get on a daily basis and the awards you receive each year help.

But, online users need something that convinces them right away.

They are looking for customer reviews to tell them if their search is headed in the right direction or not.

The importance of this is so high that users aren’t even going to your website after reading a positive review anymore. They are skipping this step and choosing to contact you directly or head straight to your brick and mortar location.

Reviews Establish a Connection with Customers

Why the sudden rush of consumers to go from an online search to making a purchase?

Because it’s human nature – they are looking to fulfill a desire and do so as quickly as possible!

SEO rankings are only part of the equation. A search engine fulfills a user’s need to find out more about the product or service they are looking for. It introduces them to the best possible options available.

Reviews seal the deal.

These are what convince customers to pick you over your competitors. Some people will read a handful of reviews before making a final decision. Others will want the result that is geographically closest to them and the most well-reviewed.

Either way, what past customers have to say matters.

Customer reviews make your business feel genuine. Users don’t feel like other people are trying to sell them something. They feel people write reviews because they had an experience with your company that they are passionate about.

When the review is good, a potential new user wants to feel the same thing. They want to get to know you and find out the truth behind the review for themselves.

Manage Your Customer Reviews to Protect Your SEO Efforts

How can you make the most of your positive reviews, and keep negative ones under control? With the help of reputation management.

This is the tool your brand needs to ensure you are always putting your best foot forward. It helps you resolve conflicts with previously unhappy customers while you keep working to create more and more potential new conversions.

Think of reputation management like digital insurance for your brand image and loyalty.

However, keep in mind this is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to turning your general audience into your customers. For more insights on how to better engage your online customers and create conversions, click here.

Healthcare advertising these days can feel very frustrating and limiting. You’re somewhat handcuffed by the things you can and can’t say in your marketing.

As a result, a lot of healthcare advertising today contains Dragnet content: “Just the facts, ma’am.”

However, it is still possible to run successful campaigns that actually showcase a bit of personality and even generate leads.

Here’s how.

Focus on Your Mailing List

This is one of the most underrated and under-used parts of healthcare advertising.

The common misconception these days is that email marketing is dead. “You’re going after people in their inboxes? That’s spammy.”

This is not true for two reasons:

1. These people have already voluntarily given you their email addresses
2. They’re existing clients you already have a relationship with. So it’s non-intrusive

In fact, you’re going to have a hard time finding a better return-on-investment than email marketing. In fact, it can show you a 4400% ROI and $44 for every $1 spent.

Reach out to your valuable existing clients to:

• Give health/ diet/ fitness tips
• Announce new staff members
• Remind them of appointments
• Send them a birthday or holiday greeting

For example, a recovery center like Caron Foundation Pennsylvania could use e-blasts as a way to announce new programs or workshops.

This is a valuable touch point that will ensure they feel taken care of and will keep coming back. It also makes sure you’re always fresh in their mind when it comes time to recommend healthcare providers to their friends and family.

Own Your Local SEO

This is especially important in healthcare advertising because all of your competition is local. In fact, it could be incredibly local… like down the hall.

Healthcare providers and clinics will often share a building with other similar businesses. A building may have two dentists or two physiotherapists for example. This can be problematic. You get used to people showing up in the wrong office.

But the bigger problem is how this affects your healthcare advertising. Most specifically, your local SEO.

A lot of businesses were trying to win the local SEO battle by creating fake business addresses for their office, often a few doors down or in the same neighborhood.

This was cheating people who set their business listing up the right way, so Google released it’s Hawk Update to crack down on these fake accounts.

The downside is that a lot of businesses who were actually located a few doors down or in the same building as a similar business were omitted from Google listings, because they were flagged as possible fakes.

They weren’t fake, and now all local Google searches were going to their competition. This was obviously a big problem.

How Do I Avoid Getting Hunted By The Hawk?

This has placed more importance than ever on making sure you’re local SEO game is on point.

The first thing you need to do is make sure Google My Business has your correct:

• Physical Address: If move locations, update it right away
• Services: make sure they have the complete list, and when you add new ones, make sure Google knows.
• Business hours: Seasonal hours? Make sure Google knows.

Staying on top of this will make a big difference. Particularly because 50% of the businesses out there say their information is likely not up-to-date. Capitalize on their mistakes.

You can also focus on creating (not buying) real, organic content.

How do you do that?

Write Blogs That People Actually Read

This is one part of healthcare advertising that most people get dead wrong. Most don’t know what to blog about, so their blog lies inactive except for the odd “We welcome Dr. Anders to our Team” post.

However, as a healthcare professional, you have nothing but opportunities to write engaging posts that people want to read and even share socially.

Your brain is full of answers people need. So, find out what their questions are, by:

• Pulling from your own experience, and make a list of the questions you encounter the most, in and out of the office.
• Doing a bit of research to see what people are asking on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Yahoo Answers and Reddit.

Now take these questions, word for word, and turn them into blog titles. Don’t worry if the questions aren’t using the exact correct terminology because you’re trying to lock into the words that people are Googling.

For example, most people are searching for the term “tummy tuck.” Not many are Googling “Abdominoplasty.” You can make the connection between these two terms in the body of the blog, but make sure you use Tummy Tuck in your title.

Encourage Reviews

You need to be very aware of your online reviews at all times. For two reasons.

1. They help your SEO, as this is the organic traffic Google wants to see
2. Most people look for new healthcare professionals online before calling.

In fact, 54 percent of millennials look online before choosing a doctor. And online reviews at sites like Yelp are among the first things they read.

This means your reviews are a huge part of your healthcare advertising plan. Train your staff to remind happy clients to give you an online review. You can even come up with a reward system for clients who do.

A dentist might offer free teeth whitening for online reviews.

What Do I Do About Bad Reviews?

It happens, every business that reaches any level of success will encounter haters.

Don’t ignore or hide from bad reviews. That makes it look like you don’t care. Respond to them professionally and look for an opportunity to make things right.

This shows people you care about the customer experience, and can even turn a hater into a fan.

Let Us Help Your Healthcare Advertising Efforts

We have a proven history of helping people succeed in the world of SEO, Social Media and other forms of digital marketing.

How can we help you? Click here to contact us anytime.

Content Marketing

Content marketing has been around online for quite some time but the market has become so saturated that content quality has gone up immensely. Clickbait was popular for a time but there are only so many articles of Top 5’s that people are willing to read. The use of long term studies and in-depth investigative journalism is still not dead but it does not produce as much content as is needed for some companies. New outlooks on old topics and new twists are what is dominating many blog and news pages. Content marketing is directly tied with your SEO and social media so creating great content can take care of the other two quite well. Create great content and traffic will come!

SEO

SEO in the beginning was much like the wild west with no clear path of how to do things. Two sides emerged with those using ethical tactics and those gaming the system. The days of hidden links on pages helping rankings or sites built just to post generic content are fading away. Google figured out that brands were willing to spam out thousands of pieces of content just to rank higher than the competition. Expedia was actually penalized for this immensely due to the tactics they had been using. Now Google looks for real traffic on real sites instead of paid traffic on sites made simply to generate ad revenue. Google will continue to crack the whip and marketers will continue to find ways around the new changes in the algorithm.

Social Media

Social media was once around for just that, social reasoning with every college student getting a Facebook account in the late 2000’s. While MySpace was great Facebook and its design started to overtake the other social media platform. Then Facebook came out with messenger which killed AOL Instant Messenger in a matter of months. Now social media is used to promote content on a regular basis with Google basing some rankings on the amount of social attention a certain piece of content or webpage has gotten. Social media can be used to get jobs through LinkedIn, document your life, and promote business. There are still those who wish it could just be college kids posting inappropriate stuff on each other’s walls though.

As you can see these three areas of marketing have changed immensely even in the last couple of years. It will be interesting to see how these will continue to change and what trends will emerge due to Google algorithm changes.

Transparency

If an SEO service provider refuses to give you a clear rundown of the method they’re using and isn’t giving you regular updates, run! This is one of the clearest signs that you’re working with a charlatan. SEO isn’t voodoo magic; a SEO provider should be able to tell you exactly what he’s doing and give you updates every step of the way. They should also be able to tell you when you should start getting results.

They Are an Authority in their Field

Ideally, you want to work with a provider with a solid reputation that is respected in the field. If the provider is relatively new, ask for reference. Don’t rely on testimonies either, make sure that you conduct a Google search and see what people are saying about them. Go on their website and check their blog to gauge their level of expertise. Go on webmaster forums and ask other people what they think about their service. The more info you have on a certain company, the better.

They Set Unrealistic Expectations

Many fly by night SEO marketers will promise you the moon to get you at first. If a provider promises you overnight results for any keyword, this is another clear sign that he isn’t reputable. SEO is not that simple and takes time. A good SEO company might not tell you what you want to hear at first, but they have no problem being honest about the process, even if it means losing a few clients. SEO is a long term effort and investment, but one that eventually pays off in spades when done right.

They Do More than “Link Building”?

While link building is one of the most important aspects of SEO, it is in no way the end all be all. Link building services abound on the internet and are completely obsolete in the current landscape. Some SEO “companies” are simply glorified link building services in disguise. Make sure that you run down all the services provided by a company before you hire them. Take a company like Snap Agency for instance. Snap Agency’s marketing services include things such as local SEO, email marketing, video production and social media management. That’s a clear sign that you’re working with a reputable agency.

Conclusion

If you want to make sure that you are dealing with a real SEO agency, make sure that they have a complete suite of products. Also make sure that they have a solid reputation and that they are respected in their fields. Make sure that they don’t set unrealistic expectations, and last, but not least, make sure that they are fully transparent and they are keeping you up to date every step of the way.

Firstly, Apple isn’t ready to dwindle its price. HomePod will cost around $350, whereas you can buy a beginner-level Amazon Echo for $50. Amazon’s cheap smart assistant can basically do all the stuff a user could expect from a smart speaker. Of course, HomePod has some shiny, innovative features like scanning your room to configure the sound to the perfect frequency, but again, these are some a few features Apple rolls out in its devices to justify its outlandish prices.

Amazon Echo is better than Apple HomePod because it is far more flexible. You could link Amazon Echo with various smart home devices. You can even pair and integrate it with your car. Apple HomePod offers less flexibility, thanks to the closed ecosystem approach of Apple.

Apple is coming to terms with the hard market reality that the smartphone market has already reached its saturation point. The future belongs to Augmented Reality, IoT, Self-Driving cars. AI is the centerpiece of these technologies. Apple is also investing heavily in these areas. In 206, the company acquired about 6 startups which were working on innovative products in the realm of AI.

The competition is already heating up for Apple. In 2016, Google launched a special hardware chip, Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), to handle complex graphics in the Cloud. NVIDIA and Amazon already have similar products. Apple’s devices currently have two chips, one is designed to perform normal processing while the other one handles AI-based tasks. Apple Neural hardware will help the company fix its battery time problem.

Apple is expected to announce these new devices in Developers conference in June.