Voice-search-is-changing-the-future-of-SEO

How Voice Search Is Changing the Future of SEO?

by Artificial Intelligence

 siri-760x400

Statistics from think with Google place voice search at 20%. Users are interacting with smartphones more than their computers, and Google is trying to provide quality mobile-friendly websites. Therefore, content marketers need to focus on mobile users more.

What Are the Pros of Using Voice Search?

voice-search-app-ss-1920On a mobile phone, it’s quicker to ask Google a question than to do manual typing. In some demanding scenarios like when driving; you can’t type in the query for directions, but the voice search feature is applicable and safer. Also, you can accurately express what’s on your mind by talking; rather than typing it down.

An Expert’s Take on the Impact of Mobile Search

During the Search Marketing Expo in March 2016, BehshadBehzadi, a Principle Engineer at Google delivered the keynote speech on the prospect of mobile search. According to Behshad, the future of search is the creation of an online virtual assistant. He also demonstrated the strides made by the search recognition technology, which has a high accuracy rate and an advanced capability of comprehending natural speech patterns. For instance, the voice recognition algorithm automatically removes repeated words and stuttering in speech. It’s able to recognize the user’s intent and display relevant content.

Google SearchThe Google search algorithm can understand long questions, and give the user accurate information. An example you may ask Google what the weather condition will be tomorrow and get the weather forecast based on your location. The voice search app talks back to the user; it’s like having a conversation with a real person. You can also set alarms using the action feature; play music, call someone, or book a reservation –providing users with a hands-free experience. Google has also improved the integration of voice search with other apps for increased productivity.

How will the new trend impact SEO?

It will place more demand for unique content that Google can use to answer voice queries. To rank higher; websites should focus on adding more pages that target both short-keyword phrases and long sentences queries. Also, existing content would require rewriting to incorporate longer sub-titles. The use of location-specific keywords would also increase since Google is focused on helping users interact with their immediate surroundings better.

How can Marketers and Content Creators Gain from Increased Mobile Search?

Understanding the difference between voice queries and typed searches is important. When typing on the computer, users will be less descriptive and focus on specific keywords. However, in a voice search, the user is free to add more details to the query creating a longer phrase. Content marketers need to add detailed descriptions to the products focusing on using real-world phrases. It’s also important to incorporate more versions of the keyword phrase in the content.

mobile search

Google wants to focus on providing the right user experience. The process of displaying search results is still the same. First, Google crawls the web and downloads web pages, analyses them, and stores them for retrieval during a search. What’s different is the focus on semantics or linguistic analysis in addition to the mobile-friendliness score. For better SEO webmasters need mobile-friendly sites; they will rank higher on the Google index. It’s also critical to avoid duplication of content and ‘spammy’ behaviors.

The reality of an online virtual assistant to automate daily mundane tasks is no longer a science fiction fantasy. In the future, instead of searching the web, we will be having a conversation with the internet.

5-reasons-why-small-businesses-need-a-mobile-app

5 Reasons why small businesses need a mobile app

by Mobile Apps
Small business needs a mobile app- Not Kidding!

Small businesses were once very easy to run. You just have to set up a shop, place an ad in the local newspaper, wait for the businesses to come through. Though it took a few days, it wasn’t a complex process. But as days went by, the Internet became an essential element in running any business.

Small business owners now have to keep up with technological advancements in order to run their businesses successfully.

The difficult part starts with setting up a website as small businesses seriously need one. Earlier, only large corporations had a website on their own, but it was time for the small business owners to become familiar with web designing, hosting, etc. Once the website is ready, it doesn’t end with that. You should also get familiar with SEO, Ads, tackling issues related to social media, offline and online marketing, etc.

As all these became essential for a small business, it looks like you now need to function like an MNC.

shopping-with-mobile-phonesDoes it all end here. Absolutely not. Now it’s all about mobile phones. Gone are those days where we used mobile phones only to talk to each other. Smartphones have revolutionized the way we do business. Even large corporations from all over the world, have shifted from their routine work of printing ads, billboards, and giving out leaflets, to the world of mobile marketing and ads. And of course, there are enough reasons why small businesses should embrace the change but almost all small businesses have one common perception in their minds.

A mobile App? We don’t see a need for that at the moment.

Yes, You might not see a need but there are plenty of stats and research findings that reveal what the consumers expect. Here are a few surprising mobile app stats.

  • Of the 1.8 hours average users spend online on their smartphones each day, mobile apps account for 89 percent of this media time (Social Media Today).
  • Almost 60 percent of marketers say mobile apps are crucial to creating a cohesive customer journey (Salesforce).
  • Around 88 percent of customers who search for local businesses online will actually visit or call these businesses within a day (Social Media Today).
  • 269 billion apps will be downloaded in 2017 (Statista)

Number of mobile app downloads worldwide in 2016, 2017 and 2021 (in billions)

Mobile app stats

You need an “extra” to become extraordinary. The survival rate of small businesses depends upon the extraordinary effort and innovative ideas they bring to the table. Here are few ideas that show how small businesses can benefit from mobile apps.

1. More Value to Your Customers

Business is all about giving. When you open up and offer your product, it should create value for your customers. If they find your product/service to be great, the market/customers will be ready with their wallets. Mobile App is a great way to increase your customers’ interaction with your brand. And not only that, you can add a lot of offers and loyalty programs inside your app in such a way that when the user opens the app, they have great deals either while ordering online or be it in the shop. One great example is The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, They offer free brewed coffee/hot tea to customers who install their mobile app.

2. Better Brand Engagement

Customer service is not always about communicating through emails or having a conversation over the telephone. Nowadays, it has become much more than that. A recent survey brings an interesting fact that 63.5% of the entire U.S population is expected to use a smartphone.

The real challenge for businesses is to create a rapport with their target audience and the best way to deal with this would be with the help of a mobile app. Design the mobile app in such a way that it interacts with your customers seamlessly. It should give a feel as if they are interacting with you in person. If you can win this challenge, you can resolve all your sales and customer service issues.

mobile app for small business

Another huge advantage of building a mobile app is when a customer wants to know something about your business at his convenience, say middle of the night, all he has to do is unlock his mobile and download the app. Very simple. Even buying a product is very simple. The customer doesn’t have to wait for the opening hours. He can just order it through the mobile app even when the working hours are over. For example, big boys like Amazon, eBay, etc allow you to order anything you need, from anywhere and at any time.

3. More Revenue, More Profit

A mobile app has enough features to generate additional income. By 2020, there will be 6.1 billion smartphone users globally.

When you create a user-friendly mobile app, the customers tend to spend more time browsing your product/services. When there’s more personalized content, there is a higher chance of an increase in sales. Recent data from Yahoo’s Flurry analytics shows that 90% of consumer’s mobile time is spent on apps.

It’s an App world, the web just lives in it.

percent-time-spent-on-mobile-apps-2017

CMO by Adobe recorded every e-commerce transaction during the 2016 holiday shopping. It reveals that a staggering $46 billion worth of sales came through mobile devices.

Here’s a very interesting statistic from Domino’s Pizza. When they introduced the mobile app for ordering pizzas, they saw a quick rise of 28% in sales in just half-year. As of today, 51% of their online orders come through mobile apps.

4. Customer Experience

A well-designed mobile app can perform faster than a mobile website as it does not require a web server. Mobile App stores all its data on the local device thus making it perform faster.

Minimal UI design combined with personalized content is more likely to engage your audience.

 Sleek Design

5. Extended Marketing Tool

More than just a mobile app, it can act as a tool adding a lot more value to your marketing efforts. If your app helps the users save time or keeps them engaged, they would definitely recommend it to their friends and share glowing reviews.

mobile-marketing-Griffon WebstudiosAs a business, Instead of reaching out to the customers through the traditional medium of phone/email, you could try conveying your message in the form of a mobile app.

Your downloads will increase when you promote the app with special deals and coupons. The users would enjoy the experience rather than avoiding the brand.

You must remember that today’s customers are constantly moving and addicted to their mobile devices.

72% of adult internet users use Facebook.

Your app can be easily integrated with Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. That allows the users to share your app with their network and review your business if they enjoy the experience. This gives you free publicity.

Forbes states that “building and delivering great mobile experiences will be the beating heart of your customer engagement strategy for the next 10 years.”

Push Notifications

One of the most important features the small businesses can make use of is push notifications. Push notifications are alerts that pop up on a user’s screen and informs them of the latest news, deals, offers and so on, which are available through your app.

Frequency, Timing, Content, and Deep linking are the important strategies to master when it comes to push notifications.

Frequency: Push notifications can keep your customers well informed and interested but too many notifications would frustrate the customer and they end up trashing the app. There are no universally correct solutions for frequency but don’t overdo it. It all depends on your audience and their expectation.

Timing: Right place at the right time always works. Timing is very crucial in sending push notifications. The best way to determine the optimal timing for your business is by A/B testing. The same message at different hours will give you the user pattern and their engagement rate.

Content: Make sure that you offer real value, every single time. Content that drives urgency and relevancy would drive them to your app.

78% of users tend to immediately delete the app or disable notifications if they are unhappy with the content.

Deep Linking: Push notifications with links can redirect your audience to a specific screen or pages in the app. As a result, It provides a seamless experience and increases the engagement level of the viewers due to less distraction.

Mobile App stats

As you know, Mobile apps play such a huge role in the world of small business but there are two major things that make or break your app strategy. The quality of your app and the way it is marketed to the audience determines your success.

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5 important things to remember in Local SEO

by Digital Marketing

One of the highly effective forms of online marketing is Local Search Engine Optimization commonly known as Local SEO. This online marketing technique is found to be tricky because it does not just stop with performing the on-page and off-page work, but even the more complex activities such as citations and listings.

Though it sounds simple, Local SEO can get confusing when differentiated into various forms and deeper analysis. A good example of this is, the common misunderstanding that having listed in a lot of directories is the exact way to achieve a successful local SEO. The reason why it’s not completely true is that there are several other factors that need to be in order other than the number of listings in directories.

Local business store

The business should ensure that the directories listed are unique and relevant to the industry of business and are being optimized based on the location of your business which includes street name, city and state.

To better understand the technique to achieve a successful local SEO, you should remember the five major things below:
  1. Accurate location in online listings
  2. Useful information on directories.
  3. Building social profiles
  4. Getting more reviews
  5. Optimizing for Hyperlocal.

 

1. Accuracy and Consistency in online listings:

The first important thing to keep in mind is the information such as Name, Address, Phone number and Website. The information should be accurate and consistent across all the listings. A recent study revealed some interesting patterns found among the local business owners. 

Around 85% wanted their business to be found on local listings and directories but only a very few have actually taken the effort to update their business information on the web.

70% of business owners say that there is not enough time for them to update.

The two most annoying things for the local customers are:

  1. Finding a false location of the business he/she’s searching for will have an adverse effect on the business.
  2. Mismatch in business information- Untrustworthy.

A lot of times we don’t find even some of the most important details such as the store information, operational hours, location with a map. Such inaccuracies lead to the dead-end of your local SEO efforts.

This can further be divided into two

(i) Accuracy of the Information

(ii) The consistency of the information.

  • crossfit nycThe accuracy of the Information: Information required to optimize your local business are Name, Phone Number and Address. It is used as an important tool to determine the accuracy of the business. The information fed on the listing should have the correct information. An easy example to remember is Kasey’s Donuts misspelled as Kassey’s Donuts– A simple spelling mistake would lead to inaccurate information on the listing.
  • The consistency of the information:  After accuracy, Consistency is the second most important word to remember in Local SEO. The business information on listings, local mentions, citations and directories must be consistent across all the places. Businesses should stay cautious and not let the consistency of their brand slip away by entering information that mismatch.

Local SEO can be optimized in a simple way by keeping the information consistent and accurate.

2. Useful information on directories:

It is a well-known fact that getting listed on the directories is a very simple process. The difficult part of this process is to provide detailed information about your local business and making them rank higher.

The most important step to perform is to create a local listing. A recent survey conducted by the Local Search Association Inc revealed the information consumers wish to see when they search for a local listing. 

  • Address 67%,
  • Phone number 66%,
  • Location 59%,
  • Company name 56%,
  • Website 54%,
  • Prices 52%,
  • Credentials 22%

There is enough reason now to keep the directories updated with as much relevant information as possible. If your listing has more information, there are higher chances of customers reaching out leading to more new business. 

3. Building Social Profiles:

The biggest advantage of local SEO is that your business can benefit even without having a website. This is possible because of the way the Local SEO works. Social profiles like Google plus, Yelp has become an identity for all the local businesses and it dominates the search results and listings providing exact information thus bringing success to the local SEO efforts.

As a business owner, Do you think the website will help in scaling up your business and streamline the operations? The answer is always a resounding “Yes” irrespective of the niche your business belongs to. A lot of times, customers prefer checking the business details on their social profiles instead of visiting the website. But having a website is an authority on the business you are managing as it allows the customers to know more about who you are, what services you offer, and read the client testimonials.

One classic example is the delicious coffee shop in New York- Neil’s Coffee Shop has so much success with social profiles. When you search for this restaurant you’d only see the rating, reviews, timings, and price. Now, this information surely hasn’t come from the web search, because this shop doesn’t have a website. The only way the restaurant earned its place is through social profiles and local listings, which clearly signifies the importance of social profiles for local businesses.

4. Getting more reviews:

The best thing about local SEO is that you can control it very easily by creating local listings in Yelp, Foursquare, Google Business page, and Facebook page which helps the listing go on top for the local search.   

The only thing that you cannot control is the ‘reviews’. You need to earn it with the quality of the service provided to your customers. You can always encourage them to give ratings and reviews online as most of the shoppers decide their visit depending upon the ratings and reviews.

As a token of appreciation and love, you could always incentivize your customers with some free coupons, discounts, etc which would make them share their experience at your store. We can do a few innovative things to make the customers voluntarily perform this act.    

QR-Code-local storePosting a sign at the door, a QR code on the menu allowing the customers to scan and post reviews, and so on. By going a little further, you can also get your service team to ask for reviews from customers at the time of checkout.

Reviews are an essential part of local SEO. Google always keeps delivering results that are local with high reviews for a great customer experience. 

5. Optimizing for Hyperlocal:

Google is in the process of testing an algorithm called the ‘neighborhood algorithm’.

Few steps for a successful local SEO:

  • Your neighborhood name can be added at the end of the business page. (Example: Ray’s Pizza, South City East)
  • If you have a website, don’t forget to add the texted version of your neighborhood name.
  • Your neighborhood name has to be added to the website on the title tags area.
  • Be aware and check thoroughly whether Google Maps has defined and placed your neighborhood correctly. 
  • Don’t forget to add your neighborhood to all the citation profiles that are local.

You need to follow the guidelines above to successfully optimize your business for the local search.

10-tips-for-email-marketing

10 tips to create a successful email marketing campaign

by Digital Marketing

Is your e-mail marketing campaign facing a massive challenge with open rates and clicks? Here are 10 tips to create a successful email marketing campaign. This will help your email campaign grow more effectively and bring success to all your email marketing initiatives.

In this article, We’ll learn how to handle the email recipients and distribution of newsletters along with some tips to design campaigns and trigger emails.

1. Optimizing your subscriber list

Having a huge email database of clients/subscribers will not change the game, It’s the quality that matters. Obviously, There’s no point when your email campaign has 5,000 subscribers but only 300 opens the email. Right? If you have a large number of inactive subscribers, mailing them over and over again will be the worst thing to do. In order to optimize the process, it is very important to generate relevant data from your previous email campaigns.

How to find your inactive subscribers: The first step is to look at the subscribers who have neither opened the mail nor carried out any action. In the second step, Sit back and carefully analyze the behavior of these inactive subscribers. Check their status in the last 30 days or a period of 3 months and understand the pattern on the timeline the users became inactive. It could be because of the frequency of your email broadcasts. Whatever the reason is, Always remember that you DO NOT delete the inactive subscribers.

2. Reactivate the subscribers

After thorough research on your subscribers’ list, you might now know which contacts are inactive on your mailing list. Now the aim is to create a campaign that mainly targets to transform them back to interested readers or customers. Before starting with the reactivation campaign, you can suspend the regular emails for some time to the inactive recipients and surprise them with some unusual way to promote your brand, offers, newsletters.

unusual-emails

The surprise effect has a much higher response than the boring conventional “We missed you” emails. Here are 4 unusual campaigns that are quirky and memorable which could restore interest in your product/service.

  • Brand Stories
  • Say Happy Birthday.
  • Ask for opinion
  • Mark a customer Anniversary

 

Brand Stories– Who doesn’t like secrets? We get so intrigued to know the conversation Neil Amstrong had with his partner before stepping foot on the surface of the moon. We wait eagerly to hear what happened inside the dressing room during the super bowl game. Don’t we?

brand-storytelling-1A story communicates a lot more about your product/service than just the conventional way of communication. You end up becoming more transparent to the customer by sharing every bit of the occurrence while creating your awesome brand.

A few brands have been successful in doing this like Apple- which is a cult for its customers and “Transfarency” by Southwest Airlines which has a loyal bunch of customers.

Say Happy Birthday – Surprise! Your customer might not be expecting you to wish on his/her birthday. A small gesture like this would naturally make them remember you.

birthday-surprise_thumb1The same subscribers might also be in your competitors’ mailing list and they’d probably get generic emails and newsletters, coming at it in an unusual way would make them remember your product/brand over the others.

You still need to follow a rule and add value to your emails. Follow the Dos and Don’ts of the birthday mail campaign. 

Ask for opinion– According to a survey conducted by PwC, 62% say that they trust brands less today so the traditional form of advertisement may not be as effective as it used to be. You need to connect with the customers and ask for their opinion. A lot of companies are aware of it and they are in the game of collecting feedback by asking way too many questions.

Keep your customer survey/feedback form as short and simple as possible for a better completion rate.

Mark a Customer Anniversary: Yes, A customer anniversary. A lot of companies these days are pro-active in maintaining a record of birthdays and other important dates for their customers. You could take this to the next level by remembering the date when they first purchased your product or signed up for the newsletter and celebrate the date.

customer-anniversaryYou could offer some anniversary discount or special offers which they would definitely not be expecting.

3. Winning your email subscribers

This part needs a lot of creativity as the subscriber should feel the worth of receiving your emails. Let’s first understand how to win email subscribers.

Winning email subscribers– How it works?

Building a perfect follow-up/email sequence is one of the biggest challenges in email marketing. Most companies are indifferent towards setting up a proper email sequence in their campaigns as they find it to be time-consuming. Yes, This cannot be done overnight as it requires you to understand the buyer’s mindset and slowly build interest in your product/service. But it is worth every bit of the effort you put in. A personalized email offers a great potential for wider coverage and more interest.

Why create your own email list?

There are plenty of reasons why you should create your own email list. Most of the emails IDs are captured in pop-up/ contact form on your website or from your social media pages. It means that the subscriber has already shown interest and agreed to receive your newsletter, which marks them to be of good quality.

These recipients are partially or fully aware of your brand or services so it obviously makes it worthwhile for you to spend enough time nurturing these leads. Also by creating your own list of emails, you clearly know the exact stage they are at and it helps you to determine what happens to the data and how often the recipients are to be contacted.

Why not just buy email addresses?

We often hear this question. “Where can we buy email addresses?”. Let me give you the answer: “JUST DON’T DO THAT!”

no-unsolicited-emailsFirst of all, Purchasing email addresses will not make any good to your business. You might get offers from different companies like “100,000 e-mail addresses for $300” which might sound lucrative but In reality, these are mostly illegally collected data, which are sold to the business that lacks marketing capabilities.

Unsurprisingly, The quality of these purchased records is extremely poor. In addition, relevant e-mail addresses are often sold several times, so the recipients will already be receiving tons of spam emails from different vendors and you’d only end up damaging your brand with these tactics.

What should I consider when building an email campaign?

It is very important to first determine your target audience. It brings your business usually a little or nothing if you have addresses in your mailing list which are not looking for your service. You should always follow the legal framework while adding new emails to your list. Follow the double opt-in process and always provide a choice for your recipients to unsubscribe anytime from the newsletter.

4. Check the lead generation/landing page

A landing page is a page where your visitors “land” to know more about your product/service.

This is exactly where the visitors transform to become a subscriber. Therefore, you should devote a lot of attention to this page. Do not overload this page with unnecessary distractions such as banners, advertisements, or information about some events. These do not belong here. The focus has to be on the benefits they get by subscribing to your newsletter. Place the incentive in a prominent place in the form of vouchers/Freebies that they could avail by registering for your newsletter. See how people view your website. 

5. Placing the newsletter sign

Is the registration form for your newsletter easy to find on the website? In principle, it is advantageous to place the newsletter subscription at several places on the site. Clearly visible, because no one wants to search for it. The ideal place should be on the sidebar or header.

newsletter-popup

6.Keep Consistent Design

Is the color and design of your brand updated on your newsletter? Has anything changed on the front-end design on your website? The new design should always be used in the newsletter. webdesignA unified design across all channels will help the customers recall your brand and differentiate yours from other players in the market.

These days most of the newsletters are read on smartphones or tablets which require all your newsletters to be optimized to display on mobile devices.

7. Install Tracking code:

The email campaign is all set and your reactivation campaign is in the starting blocks. Have you thought of tracking the emails? Tag everything you use in the newsletter like images, Call to Actions buttons (CTA), download buttons, and links so that you can follow exactly in the wake of what works in your newsletter and what does not.analytics

In your tracking strategy, Remember to track all the measurable objectives like clicks on images, links and track your conversions. You can integrate your email tool with Google Analytics if you want to track the number of visits your newsletter generated for your website. And always make sure that your emails comply with the current privacy policy.

8. Improve your email campaigns

Filter the email campaigns of last year and note down the tracking results and other key performance indicators. Analyze what went well and what needs improvement. Get regular customer feedback in the form of surveys and find out what your customers like and don’t like. With this information, you will be able to easily improve your campaigns.

You can try some online survey tools like Survey Monkey, WebEngage, Engageform.

9. Triggering automatic emails

Triggering auto e-mails are made in various stages of contacting the customer. Automation is a great advantage for your business as it keeps reminding the recipient about your offerings constantly but it also carries the risk of annoying the recipient with frequent e-mails.

auto-emails-jpgAnalyze the open rate and responses from the recipient and create a cheat sheet to get more insights on the following.

  1. What worked in the past?
  2. Which design makes good impressions (CPM) and generates more clicks?
  3. What revisions should you do on the email content? etc.

 

When you keep your email content updated, it would be more effective and rewarding. You can use some of the best free email marketing tools like MailChimp, Mailerlite, Hubspot, Zoho.

10. Timeline for e-mail campaigns

Create an annual overview of your e-mail marketing plan. You don’t have to strictly follow the same plan throughout the entire year. But it is to give a clear direction on when and how to increase the frequency of emails. An annual plan will help you to keep track of the daily businesses and get some space for creative campaigns like Seasonal events such as Thanksgiving, Halloween, Super Bowl which is the best time for targeted marketing.

Now it’s your turn! With these 10 tips, you have a checklist in hand and this should bring more success to your email campaigns.

What-is-SEO

What is SEO? How does it work?

by Digital Marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a technique used to increase the number of visitors to the website and improving the ranking on search engine results such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. Let’s see how this works.

According to Hubspot, 80% of the traffic for a website begins with a search query.

Search Engine Optimization Process

The process of search engine optimization can be divided into three parts-

  • Keyword Analysis
  • On-page and Off-page optimization
  • Backlinks.

It is essential for every website owner to extensively research the keywords that are relevant to their business. Creating descriptive and useful content using the identified keywords will help the website to rank on top of the search results. This can be done through on-page and off-page optimization activities.

On-page optimization- A few changes are made on the back-end to integrate the keywords on your website in the form of the page title, description, image names.

Off-page optimization- The optimization measures do not take place on the site. but “off” page in the form of backlinks, a link-building process of obtaining hyperlinks from other websites to yours.

The search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo have their own algorithms and formulas to deliver the best possible results for all searches. The algorithm keeps changing every now and then in order to fight spam and ensure the best results. The entire search process happens in 1/8th of a second.

Google’s algorithm is very dynamic and it is focused mainly on delivering the best and most relevant results to the users. In order to maintain the quality, Google releases updates on the algorithm quite often. Google Panda was the first update followed by a lot more focus on improving the quality of the website and search engine optimization practices.

google_algorithm_

What is a Keyword in SEO?

A keyword is referred to a particular word or combination of words, that are entered by the user in the search engine to access specific information. Search engines such as Google or Bing assess the keyword phrase and line up websites in the search results according to their relevance. The site which has great content and more visits will be placed on the top of the search results.

computer repair concept - workers repairing keyboard

The website ranking has to be closely monitored by the site administrator because he can make a positive impact on the keyword ranking by accurately researching and placing appropriate keyword terms in the content which would lead to more relevance and better quality. It’s very important to be more specific in selecting the keywords as more irrelevant visits to the website would be simply meaningless.

It is also important to keep in mind to target long-tailed keyword phrases than a single keyword.

Keyword tools

There are many tools available online to determine the relevant keywords for your business. The most reliable tools are Google keyword planner and Google trends.

Google Keyword Planner is a free Adwords tool that is more focused on picking the right set of keywords for Ads in Google. You can search for new keyword ideas, find out the volume of searches and obtain the keyword list to decide on the relevant keyword for your business.

Google Trends is an excellent tool that allows you to compare the popularity of search terms over a period of time. It shows the relative level of interest for your prospective keyword phrase and helps you identify the most trending keyword that is relevant to your business.

Here’re some keyword tools that would help to do the research

importance-of-keyword-research

On-page optimization

On-page optimization is nothing but making certain changes to the website to bring in line with the best SEO practices. These changes are done by tweaking the HTML code, meta tags, keyword placement, and keyword density on the website in order to improve its ranking in search engine results.

Following are some of the on-page components that impact the website ranking in the search results.

  • Page Title: This is the first element that is shown in the search results for your website, Page Title has to be unique for every page.

page-title

  • Meta Description: This attribute provides a short explanation on the topic of the web page that both the users and search engine can understand.

meta-description

  • Meta Tags/Keywords: Enter unique keywords relevant to the content in the meta tag field. However, It does not have any effect on SEO these days.
  • H1 Tags: The header tag that goes from <h1>to<h6> is the heading that stands out on the page indicating the title of the content.
  • Alt-Text: Alternative text gives a description of the image to the website users and search engines.

Off-Page Optimization:

In order to increase the ranking of the website on the search engine results page (SERPs), Off-Page optimization is quintessential. This is one of the most effective ways to build the online reputation of your website using backlinks.

Backlinks

In Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) backlinks play an important role. Google considers the website with more backlinks to be the most relevant to the content. It is also important to have diversity in backlinks, The quality of your website will increase when you get endorsed by different domains linking to your website.

link-building-in-michiganHow to get backlinks?

In order to keep an eye on the quality of the content, Google carefully monitors each and every activity that takes place on the web. A piece of advise-DO NOT buy or trade links. It increases the risk of spam which could bring a lot of trouble to your website. The organic way of creating backlinks yield some great results. Here are some easy methods to start building organic links.

Blogging

Keep in mind that the main objective of Google is to provide users with useful and relevant search results. All you need to do is, Create helpful content that benefits people. If you have a product or provide a specific service, Talk about it on blogs. Let the readers know how your product/service adds value to people’s lives.

blog-facts

A big part of Google’s algorithm focuses on the concept of unique and original content so make sure that the content created across the blogs is all genuine.

There are a lot of companies that sell backlinks. NEVER buy such cheap backlinks. Google will ban your website for spammy content.

Social Networking

Social Network is an online platform where users engage in discussion and build social relationships. It’s very important to be active on social media. It provides a great opportunity to communicate your thoughts, interests, and ideas with the online community.

Building your brand on social websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr makes it easy for people to access and know more about your company.

Search Engine Submission

Search engine submission is done to notify Google about the existence of the website and instruct the bots to include the site in the search results. Some of the most authentic Search engine submission sites are

  • Google : https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url
  • Bing : http://www.bing.com/toolbox/submit-site-url
  • Baidu : http://zhanzhang.baidu.com/sitesubmit/index
  • Yahoo! Search : https://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
  • Dmoz : http://www.dmoz.org/

Social Bookmarking

The purpose of Social bookmarking is to help Google identify the category/concept of the website. The web pages bookmarked in social bookmarking sites add authenticity which helps in improving the backlink quality. This is one of the important steps in the search engine optimization process.

  • StumbleUpon
  • Delicious
  • Reddit. These are some of the well-known social bookmarking websites.

Business Reviews

The online business review makes a huge impact on businesses these days. The three major benefits that we get from testimonials and reviews are

  • About 90% of the top executives read testimonials before making any business decision. It plays an important role in influencing the customer.
  • Reviews help to understand if your business is on the right track and make a decision based on that.
  • Testimonials have a direct relationship to your performance. You can market it to your leads in the form of email campaigns. You can also place them on the website and forums.

Local Listing

One of the important steps performed in the SEO process is to create a local business listing. A local listing is an online profile. It consists of all the business information and the exact location of the premises.

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You can create a Free business listing on sites like Google My Business, Bing places, Yelp, Foursquare and Yellow pages.

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10 ways how small business can benefit from SEO

by Digital Marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plays an important role in determining the success of any small business. It may not be appropriate to say that businesses that do not engage in SEO will fall apart but certainly, the one that does such marketing activities enjoys huge benefits over the businesses which do not practice it. Now the question is, Why does SEO play such a vital role in small businesses? Let’s find out.

There are tons of benefits provided by SEO for small businesses in different ways. Let us discuss the 10 ways how a small business can benefit from SEO. 

  1. User-friendly website.
  2. New customers and continuous growth.
  3. Explore new markets
  4. Achieve better conversion rates.
  5. Build brand awareness through better rankings
  6. Build a dedicated fan base via newsletter
  7. Stay in sync with the latest trends
  8. Bypass competition
  9. Open your business 24×7
  10. Better optimization of social media.

 

1. User-Friendly Websites: SEO helps in creating a user-friendly website. As the name suggests, SEO not only helps in search but also focuses on the user experience. Google tends to recognize the quality of the website based on user-friendliness and content. For an improved user experience, It is always essential to follow the On-Page SEO techniques. It not only improves the experience but also creates numerous short and long-term benefits.   

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2. New Customers and continuous growth: If you think about it, One of the main reasons to have a website is to increase your brand reputation and improve the customer base and thus the revenue. SEO helps in ranking your website on the first page of search results and that’s the reason businesses that engage in SEO grow much stronger than those businesses which do not have them.  As your website gets good visibility, it reaches a wider audience which eventually results in increased revenue and market share.

3. Explore New Markets: In today’s world, technology is growing at a rapid pace. The entire global market can be tapped with a click of a button and the best way to become successful in reaching out to the new markets for your business is to have a successful SEO campaign. Another magic wand that boosts up your performance to take your business to the next level is Social Media. It acts as a link between the real world and your business world.

4. Achieve Better Conversion rates: A search engine optimized website is easy to use, has a good speed, and is compatible with all the devices such as mobiles and tablets. It is not necessary for businesses to depend only on laptops and computers instead, they can be searched even through mobile phones. This helps in translating better conversions, i.e. A mobile-optimized website tends to retain the visitors and engage them to become your customers, regular visitors, or subscribers.

At least 40% of the global search is expected to be from mobile devices in the next 12 months. 

5. Build Brand Awareness: Another benefit that SEO provides small businesses is brand awareness. This helps the businesses in ranking on the top positions in search results. When a brand appears in the first place of the search engine, it is perceived to be the most trusted one. The small businesses that need better visibility have to invest in SEO. There are two things that need to be done for a definite success.

1. Creating awesome content

2. Promoting them.

The search engines play a major role in developing as well as destroying a brand with the content associated with them.

6. Build a strong fan base: What’s the smartest SEO approach? It is to build a trusted and dedicated fan base through newsletters, articles, social profiles. These sources play an important role in increased website traffic and greater search engine presence. A recent study revealed that successful e-commerce small businesses claim 90% of their income from emails and articles than from any other source so it is very important to engage your customer base with informative articles and newsletters to win their trust. In many cases, websites collect the email and other information of the subscribers but hardly send any useful newsletter.

7. In Sync with latest trends: One of the most dynamic industries in the world is the SEO marketing industry. Google has its SEO guidelines and practices changing every now and then with a sole purpose of creating a refined search result that gives great quality for the searchers. Small Businesses need to understand the importance of regular updates and stay in sync with the change to be benefited.

Since SEO is a continuous activity, you have to keep your business updated with the latest trends and developments. To do this in an easier way, it is best to hire a reliable SEO company that makes you aware of the best practices for your website.

8. By-Pass Competition:  Let’s say there are two businesses dealing with similar products and services. One has a website that is search engine optimized and the other doesn’t. Which one would be the most successful? Obviously, The one that invites a lot of customers, stays updated with the current trends and marketing mechanisms with a faster growth rate. So it is essential to outdo your competitor and stay ahead of the race.  A lot of times, Small businesses ignore the importance of SEO and eventually lose its market share. The survival rate in the US for small businesses is just 25% in 15 years timeline.    

small-business-in-the-us9. 24*7:  24×7? Are you nuts? No, But…. When a business is open 24*7, i.e. 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, then that business is more likely to get a higher organic traffic. Customers always tend to reach out to those businesses that are open whenever they want than those businesses that do not operate. These days we get a notification on our mobile phones when someone fills a form on the websites or place an inquiry so you can always reach out to them because it is revealed that,

First vendor to reach out to a decision maker has 74% more chance to get the business. 

10. Social Media Optimized: A high ranking web page is more likely to gain maximum exposure in social media. The relationship between social media and SEO is bi-directional. Both benefit from each other, The social page found on the top position of the search results is most likely to get increased number of likes, tweets, comments, etc than the other page that doesn’t have a good ranking.

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There are few ways in which one can take advantage of all the above-mentioned benefits.

The first step towards gaining the benefits from SEO is to have a website. Ahem!  More than 50% of small businesses in the US do not have a website. It was also found that businesses with websites grow 50% faster than those who do not have one. So the first step here is to choose a domain name and register and develop a responsive website optimized for users across all devices.

The second step is to hire a good digital marketing/SEO company to handle your marketing campaigns. SEO is an investment that provides a steady ROI for your business. A lot of times, businesses shy away from optimizing their website and lose out on a lot of potential sales.

The last and most important thing is, If you do not have enough budget to spend on any digital marketing campaigns, you can do it yourself. All you need to know is that SEO is not about just building links, it is mainly about making your website more user-friendly with great navigation and excellent content that adds value to the website visitors. A well-optimized website helps the small businesses in gaining a lot of customers and has a great chance of retaining the top position in the search results. As a business owner, you need to understand that SEO is an investment and not a cost.

Get in touch with us for a Free SEO consultation.

Ecommerce-mistakes

10 common errors E-Commerce business owners make on their website

by Website Development

E-commerce business model has received an increased use from businesses. This is because of more penetration of technology making it more profitable and again it is also easier to start. For the brick and mortar businesses, they also want to tap an online business based on the opportunities that can be found online. However, they often make the following mistakes which should be avoided at all cost.

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1. Non-Optimized Websites

Modern website design requires that you offer users a website that can be accessed from any device since people will use different devices to access your online store. Therefore, it is important that businesses consider improving their websites so as to be accessed easily from any device.

2. Poor Navigation

Website navigation should be easy so that shoppers can easily find the items they are looking for. Therefore, you should name links appropriately so that they can identify which one leads to the item they are searching.

3. Not Using Search Tool

Shoppers want to easily access the item and read about it then they can make a purchase. This should be done within the shortest time possible. Therefore, it is important for a business to consider the attributes that will help in searching items and develop a search tool to be used by the shoppers.

4. Broken Links

Some E-commerce websites have shown broken links. This is because the owners have not put in place a mechanism of quickly checking the functionality of the links. Remember that part of the website maintenance includes checking thoroughly to make sure the website links are working. Therefore, don’t just, check if the website is running remember to confirm the links are also working.

5. Forget to Renew Website Subscription

It’s the end of the year, and you should renew the website so that shoppers will buy from you again next year. Therefore, make sure you have set an auto reminder so that you don’t forget this important action.

The global e-commerce market has reached the 1.7 trillion USD and the industry is growing at an explosive pace. Hence, there’s a huge importance of SEO for E-commerce websites.

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6. Poor Choice of Website Hosting Services

Your website should be hosted by a reliable service provider. Therefore don’t just go for the cheap hosting, make sure that the company is reliable. The speed your website loads on the user’s device are dependent on the server speed.

7. Non-Secured Websites

Shoppers want to shop from trusted sites, therefore, it’s important to make sure the security certificate HTTPS is on your website. Otherwise, people will avoid shopping on your website.

8. Not Having Customer Feedback Section

Customers want to be able to send feedback, and therefore it is important for the website to have customer reviews section. This will also help in selling if you have positive feedback.

9. Forgetting to Add Call to Action

A good E-commerce website should have a call to action button so that customers can be influenced to buy the product. Something like “Buy Now!” This will influence the customer to buy.

10. Hidden Contact Information

Customers should be able to contact you anytime they want. Therefore you need to have your contact information on the website pages.

A successful E-commerce website depends on a well-developed website. Therefore you should contact the best website designer to help in designing one.