5 Simple Steps You Can Take to Help Your SEO Strategy

8/24/2018

The phrase 'search presents a unique opportunity for businesses' has become a cliché. You will hear everybody talking about it, but no one will ever tell you how you can leverage on those opportunities to see actual gains that can drive the growth of your business.

Leveraging a search engine can be harder for small companies which other than their lack of finances, they may also harbor misconceptions. However, this should not be the case. Startups can wrestle with fortune 500 companies for a piece of the cake.

All they need to do is take steps to employ some top SEO strategies, and they will stand a chance. So what are these strategies?

1. Reviews of your content
Content is the driver of SEO. You have probably heard this before, but I believe stressing it is key. Search engine algorithms mainly prioritize relevance and content hence content forms the backbone of your performance on SEO. Great pieces of content often perform better on search engines. So how do you have great content? You have to employ multimedia. This is usually in the form of images, texts, and video. Purely text websites are often dull for visitors.

These visitors often leave the site within a brief period hence go the website with a high bounce rate which results in it being ranked lowly by search engine algorithms. However, you can try and have your content in the multimedia form to counter this. This will break the monotony and keep your sites interesting enough such that visitors often stay in them for more extended periods.

Subsequently, search engines will rank them highly. Your content should also have a call to action. It can be in the form of convincing customers to pay or even to leave a review. You should encourage reviews to boost your SEO. Many people often want to find out how past clients rated your business before spending on it. Excellent business reviews often translate to reliability and authority.

When people find these excellent reviews, then they are likely to spend on you. Similarly, search engines usually rate sites with excellent reviews highly as this is seen as a show of authority and your social proof.

You should continuously seek to improve yourself based on the reviews. Your content should also reflect what I like to call the four pillars of high material. It should be convincing, informative, educational and entertaining. Once you ensure that your content meets these, then you can say you have started your journey to SEO success.

2. Know your audience

Several SEO campaigns often struggle due to the absence of this. Unless you have a clear understanding of who you are targeting, you will employ general strategies which may not be as effective as customized strategies. Not knowing who your audience is will likely make your efforts futile or not as useful. Thankfully, today there are so many tools out there that can help you identify who your target audience is.

You should seek to find one that works for you. For example, try the Google Search Console to help you know what your customers are looking for and Bing's Keyword Research tool to help you understand the words in their search queries.

3. Do great web design
It is essential that you focus on this. The way you design your websites can have a significant say on whether you will be successful or you will struggle in search engines. Effectively developing your site can lead you to success. Here are simple strategies you can adopt in your web design to help you be successful on search.

Make your site mobile-friendly. Mobile is a valuable asset for an organization. It should ensure that its websites are responsive to the various screen sizes and people can click easily for example to call them.
Similarly, the landing pages should be eye-catching. Since these pages are the initial pages, visitors see once they come to your site, they can determine whether they will stay or leave.
The loading speeds of the website should also be fast. On average, good loading speed is that of around 2 seconds and not more.

4. Use analytics and tools
Analytics plays a key role in measuring the effectiveness of any campaign. For this reason, the metrics and information they provide offer a key indicator of what is working and what needs changing. Similarly, tools can be a great asset to you and your website. They can help you respond to customers within a short period, manage your sites and even schedule posts among other.

Google has a wide variety of analytics and tools that you can utilize to help your business as well. One of the most useful applications is Google My Business. This allows you to put your business on the map and attract more local search results. If you don't have a physical location, but you still want to use Google My Business, setting up a virtual office can help you attract the local search results you are missing out on.

5. Promote your content
It is significant that once you are up and running on a search engine, you promote your content. This can be done in the form of advertising your sites in other platforms like social media platforms. This will help push your site's traffic. Link your websites to your social media platforms, and you will be surprised by the truck originating from your social media.

Search engines can be a great avenue to generate leads. While these strategies can work for some, for others it might take time and require a little twitching. All you have to do is be patient and try new things until you find what works for you.

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5 Ways Technology is Changing Customer Service

8/23/2018

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gettysburg website design customer service

The success of business mostly depends on its ability to provide excellent customer service. In today’s competitive world, the way you treat your clients dictates how much activity you will have. Many companies have had trouble in the customer service sector, but thankfully technology is making things easier. Here are five ways technology is changing customer service:

Giving control to the client
Technology has enabled companies to empower clients. Nowadays, clients have expectations about how they should be treated. Customers have become more demanding, but technology has allowed companies to meet their expectations by all means. In the past, customers did not have a choice when they got poor customer service. The incorporation of technology has enabled clients to access a global marketplace. The moment one company offers poor customer service, the clients switch to the competitors. Since competition has become stiff, other companies are going the extra mile to provide social media customer service.

Client-centric modeling
A few years ago, many companies used to get away with poor customer service only because they offer superior products or services. Nowadays, clients have become wise because they can get excellent customer service and at the same time great product or service. Today, when you are running a business, offering a great customer experience is a must. Technology is encouraging key performance indicators, which is essential in creating a client-centric approach. With the help of big data and analytic information gotten from different applications, companies can quickly gain access to key performance indicators. Such knowledge helps the company to hold everybody in all positions accountable in case any client does not get superior customer service.

The opening of different communication channels
Now that businesses have so many ways of communicating with their clients, there is no excuse for poor communication. The good thing about having different forms of technology is that you can interact with all your clients using their preferred methods of communication. For example, the older generation prefers communicating using email and SMS. However, the young people prefer active connection using social media platforms like Whatsapp, Facebook, and Twitter, and since many clients prefer live chats, technology has also made that possible. Additionally, creating a blog for your website can help you to connect with your customers and answer common questions before they even know how to ask it.

Availability
Operating with a 9 to 5 customer service will make your business fall behind. Nowadays, businesses can be online for 24 hours. Therefore, if you want your business to stand out, you need to utilize this service. Companies can also be available for their clients anywhere and anytime by making use of all communication channels. Give your clients the opportunity to talk to you any time of the day. Few businesses give their customers such freedom. An excellent example of a service you can offer your clients is guest printing. As long as your client has a gadget that can connect to the internet, he or she can be able to print whatever they want from the comfort of their homes.

Empathy
Most clients get frustrated with the customer service they receive from most companies because they feel like the representatives do not understand their needs. The truth of the matter is that the representatives are doing their job. Fortunately, due to technology, companies can change their policies to offer their clients the empathy they need.

To be able to have the edge over your competitors, try and incorporate technology into your customer service campaign.

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Pro Tips for Managing Your New Website

8/9/2018

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Introduction
Launching a website is vital for any business. It’s the first step you take in making a successful site. It’s an achievement that should be celebrated. However, it’s not the time to relax. You will need to update your site for it to grow and get traffic. Consistently develop the website to improve the user’s experience. Few people launch their site as it takes up a lot of time and energy. Do not reach that far and fail. Follow the tips in this article to come up with a management plan.

1. Clean Up After Launching
A website launch is an energy-sapping and time-consuming activity. Your chances of making errors are high. Take time to fix the mistakes made on your website as soon as possible. Check your site’s speed and improve the user’s experience. Enhanced speed will rank your website higher on search engines. Use GTMetrix to check your site’s current performance. You will get insights and recommendations on areas to work on. Create scheduled checks to maintain consistency in your site’s performance.

Check all the images for any errors. Look at their sizes and ensure there is no duplication. Use image optimizer to compress the images before uploading them. It will increase the site’s speed. Consider the various screen sizes of your users as well. Ensure that the site will work well in all the sizes.

Create XML sitemaps to enable web crawlers to check your website’s structure. A sitemap will list all the links you want to be ranked in search engines. It plays an essential role in sustaining and improving SEO.

Run through the content to ensure it is optimized for search engines. A website crawler such as the Screaming Frog's SEO Spider will analyze your entire website at once. Screaming Frog crawls the whole website and interprets the results to give you useful insights. It also highlights the SEO challenges your site is facing.

2. Come Up With Marketing Strategies
Just as a business needs to increase demand to succeed, so does a website need to increase traffic. You need to sustain the traffic you created from the launch. There are several marketing methods available to aid in increasing traffic. Find out where your audience hangs out and select the ways that will suit them. For example, ask your customers to leave reviews on different sites and in different places like Google Reviews. The people who look at Google Reviews will see what they said and will come to your website to check out your business.

Create a big following on social media and direct them to your website. Come up with value-adding content, get a professional bio, use hashtags, engage with other users and ensure your content is shareable. These tips will increase your social media followers. It may take time to build a following, but it is useful for marketing. You can also get your visitor’s email address and use the platform to sell your products and services.

Use keywords related to your business to optimize on search engines. When potential customers search for solutions that your company provides, they will be directed to your website. Maximize on these keywords to ensure your website ranks higher in search engines. Make your site as visible as possible to increase traffic. You can also set up ads on other online platforms to direct traffic to your site whenever a user clicks on the ad. However, improve your website before using this method so that you can maximize on the traffic you receive.

3. Maintenance and Protection
A maintenance plan is vital in minimizing the risk of breakdown and hacking. Get a plan and stick to it to stay at the top of your game. For instance, get a secure location to backup your content. Backing up will depend on the number of times you update your site. Update your themes and plugins to avoid being vulnerable. Your database is like a library. After some time, it will be disorganized. Run a database sweep to keep it organized.

Use security measures to ensure your data is always safe. A complex password will make it hard for hackers to access your site. Reset your password on a regular basis to increase your site’s safety. You may also consider using a firewall. It will protect your site from hackers and malicious attacks. Use it to protect the login and administration areas of your site. Consider installing plugins to limit the number of login attempts.

Conclusion
A management plan will help you track and take control of your website’s growth. Use the tips above and enjoy the journey to success.

References:
Convince & Convert | 6 Simple Steps to Improve User Experience
Big Leap | The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Using Screaming Frog
Smart Passive Income | How to Launch a Brand New Website (With a Bang!)
Podium | Google Reviews Explained

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5 Simple Steps You Can Take to Help Your SEO Strategy

5 Ways Technology is Changing Customer Service

Pro Tips for Managing Your New Website

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