by Marketing | Jun 9, 2015 | Digital Marketing, Mobile, Strategy, Websites
When it comes to SEO, you of course want to always rank as high as you can. With this, you may also endure some frustrations. In this blog, we will discuss how to cope with 5 of some of the most infuriating problems with SEO as described by Rand Fishkin on www.moz.com/blogs.
Frustrations:
- Following “best practices” lists and advice often does nothing for new and emerging sites
- Competition is ranking on manipulative or spammy links
- No understanding of why the rankings are going up and down
- Lack of control/predictability of SEO
- Hard to compete against big brands- Google favors
How to Deal:
- “Best practices” are created to support a website and keep problems from happening, unfortunately these do not increase rankings.
- Spammy and manipulative links and pop-ups are very annoying (as we all know) and can actually create loss. Are you willing to spam people and potentially lose customers/website viewers?
- You, Google, competitors and searchers are constantly changing! Be aware of this and be aware of your target audience.
- Understand that things happen that we can’t control and we can only be prepared. Know your audience and anticipate multiple scenarios.
- (This is my favorite) Choose to compete where other companies can’t and won’t. Build on these things to grow as an organization. Serve the market or customer that larger companies won’t and become your own brand!
(https://moz.com/blog/combat-5-infuriating-seo-problems-whiteboard-friday)
by Marketing | May 14, 2015 | Digital Marketing, Mobile, Strategy, Websites
Google has officially announced that people are doing more searching on their phones and mobile devices than desktops. With this information Google is now evaluating websites by a new algorithm that boosts ranking to web pages that are mobile friendly for search results. These mobile friendly pages are evaluated based on three basic criteria:
1. Text size-Font size should be large and easy to read from a mobile device.
2. Spacing between links-Adequate space provides easier access to links.
3. Mobile Viewport– How the website is displayed on the mobile device in terms of width and scaling.
Check to see if your website is mobile friendly with the Google Mobile-Friendly Test! Click on the link below, enter your domain name and click Analyze.
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly
by Marketing | Mar 26, 2015 | Digital Marketing, Mobile, Websites
Google announced this month that starting April 21st, they will use mobile-friendliness of website as a ranking signal in search results. Why does this matter? Because your business ranking could be penalized for not having a responsive website.
In addition, Google will also factor in content from mobile apps when rendering mobile search results.
What does this mean for you?
Mobile-friendly sites will rank higher than those that are not designed for mobile devices.
What is RESPONSIVE?
- DESIGN: Make it big and CLEAN. The design of your website needs to carry your brand and content over to a mobile environment. Full-screen design, larger images, video all are good and you need to follow some basic responsive design standards….here are two quick examples of responsive sites:
http://www.liquidsunshine.in/
http://www.clifbar.com/
- AUDIENCE: Use a mobile-first strategy. Define your prospects and customers as using a mobile device to find and view your site. Content must be concise, clear and move a person to action or give the information they need fast.
- CODE: Yes, programming. Add the proper code to detect the device type, deliver smaller sized content, and break apart content on pages where it needs to for small devices. Of course there’s more coding talk, but this is a good start.
- PLATFORM: What’s under the hood. How content is delivered and managed really matters. Older sites have a harder time being responsive and unsupported website platforms open you up for hacking. Define your needs, then evaluate features first before making a decision.
