March 2018

Be Credible Because You’re Naturally At The Top

If you have an online business, you may or may not have thought about the importance of getting your website to start ranking in the search engines. The truth is, there are tons of people selling something similar or the exact same thing you are. But, that doesn’t mean all hope is lost, with good search engine optimization, it is possible to have your website eventually ranking above the competition. Not only that, but SEO is the way to build true credibility. No one wants to be perceived as a phony.

Making sure that your website is optimized for the search engines and that it is getting noticed by them consistently is key to building your website rankings. Although no one can promise that you will be on page one on Google, you will naturally rank higher in the search engines as you keep your website able to be easily indexed by the search engines, and valuable for your website visitors.

The great thing about search engines listing you higher or at the top is that it is basically free advertising. You likely will be investing some money into your SEO, but after that, your rankings come naturally and you will not have to worry about paying money with pay-per-click advertising or your success relying on any kind of costly advertising campaign on Google.

Being able to track your success and see your website traffic increase is another huge advantage of SEO advertising services for your online business. You can use analytics tools to track your success and see increases in website visitors and what effects your SEO is having overall.

Probably one of the best benefits of SEO advertising is that you can build your credibility naturally and not be seen as someone who pays their way to the top. No one likes to see ads in their search results when they type something into Google and those businesses are often seen as dishonest and not credible. If people see that Google is naturally ranking you high and you did not pay them to do it, that is a huge plus in the eyes of the consumer. They view your business as credible, trustworthy, and the right place to meet their needs and wants.

If you want to do your own SEO, that is a great place to start. Don’t let any company tell you that you can’t do it yourself. That is a great way to save money if you are skeptical about the benefits or you don’t want to have someone else do it for you. When you are ready to have someone professionally do your SEO, explore your options and find the right online marketing company for your business.

The Interplay Between Website Design And SEO

Great website design and SEO are closely connected and they naturally have an effect on each other. Making sure that your website design and SEO efforts are working closely together is important for ensuring that you are making the most of every chance that your website has to rank in the search engines.

Many business owners don’t realize just how closely web design and SEO are connected. They might spend a lot of time building a beautiful website with pages that aren’t being indexed at all by the search engines, leaving them practically useless, or they may decide to revamp their website, not realizing that they are deleting SEO value that they took years to build. They may not think to carefully examine what to keep during a rebuild to avoid this.

Getting a website built with good SEO design from the beginning is really helpful in order to avoid some of these common pitfalls. One of the most important things to consider is the experience of the person shopping on your website. Search engines want to keep a good reputation with people using them by listing the most helpful websites towards the top when someone is searching for something. Naturally, websites that are easy to navigate, websites that keep people on their pages for longer periods of time, and have a good amount of social sharing get rewarded by the search engines. Ensuring you have this kind of a website design will help you be rewarded by the search engines.

Another important factor to consider is that search engines use links to discover what is on your website. If you have broken links on your website or links that are too hard to find, this will really affect the ability of your website pages to rank. Most of the time, making your website well-organized and easy to go through for customers will make it easy for the search engines to navigate it at the same time. Using good categories, subcategories, and prioritizing your keywords will help both your customers and the search engines have a great experience.

Keeping the interplay between website design and SEO in mind is essential in making sure your website has the best chances of success. Getting a professional website built using a platform that was designed with SEO in mind is a great way to set yourself up. You can explore WooCommerce web design, for example, that gives you excellent opportunities for creativity and SEO. One you have the right platform, you can focus on website design that works well with your SEO efforts.

Beckoned By The “Play” Button: The Importance Of Online Video Advertising

Online video advertising is going strong and there are a lot of great reasons to start making it work for your business. First off, everyone starting an online business is looking for a great return on investment. You put a lot of time and effort into getting things going, and it is important to you that it wasn’t all for nothing. Using video advertising is a great way to help increase your chances of a nice ROI. 83% of businesses say they get a good ROI with video. It is important to note that a video doesn’t have to be flawless. According to recent studies, the main reason people may not be into a video is when it doesn’t explain what you are selling very clearly. Turns out, lower quality and not the best video design is not something people care about nearly as much as they care about having the product explained well. So…explain well and just get them out there!

Buying stuff online still seems risky for some people. They are scared of being cheated and they need to have trust in your online business to feel confident buying from you. 57% of consumers report that videos have helped them feel confident buying something online. Building trust is very important, and videos allow you to create those relationships with your customers so that they see you as someone who wants to help you and give you useful information.

What is all this about Google liking videos? It is pretty simple. When you have videos on your website, people spend more time on your website, even if they weren’t planning on watching a video but couldn’t help but be dazzled by the pretty colors and pictures and beckoned by that “play” button. Longer time spent on your site by people lets the search engines know that your website must have some great content on it. Studies have even shown that you are 53 times more likely to rank first in Google if your website features a video.

Bottom line: You still don’t have a video on your website??!!

Be Among The Greats With WordPress Web Design

There are plenty of big names taking advantage of WordPress web design and plenty of great reasons why they are doing so. Let’s take a look at some of the big names out there using WordPress and getting lots out of it:

The first thing people notice when looking at your online store is the look and design of it. You want to make sure that you have an attractive online store without it being too complicated or busy. WordPress is a great platform to create a beautiful website. For example, The Rolling Stones official website is built with WordPress, where they promote their upcoming tours, exhibitions, news, and more, in a stunning way. The bold website: www.rollingstones.com is eye-catching and draws you in, so you can be free to explore.

Having a mobile-friendly and responsive website is of the utmost importance today, and you can be assured that WordPress web design is completely responsive and designed to be viewed on mobile devices. For example, the Harvard Gazette takes advantage of WordPress for posting official Harvard news. Whether you open their website https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/ on a mobile device or on a regular desktop computer, you will have the same beautiful and informative experience.

WordPress is always changing for the best, and that is another reason so many big brands are using it to power their businesses. WordPress is flexible and constantly being updated with new and exciting features. For example, the Target blog on https://pulse.target.com/  is created on WordPress. This blog allows Target to share their events, stories, and more, in a captivating way.

If you are still unsure of the beauty and power of WordPress to fuel your business, there are tons of other stunning examples of big-name companies and brands who rely on WordPress every day. Now is a great time to start your own beautiful journey with a WordPress online store, blog, or portfolio.

Social Media Trends That Are Turning Heads This Year

A good business owner is always refining and improving their marketing strategy to keep up with the latest trends and new opportunities. Social media has become a very important aspect of marketing a business, so let’s take a look at some of the social media advertising trends that have been worth paying attention to in 2018.

Videos have continued to dominate this year, as studies have shown that a whopping 95% of messages from videos are retained in a viewer’s mind, while only 10% of the message is retained with text. An expansion of this that has been becoming more and more popular is live-streaming. Studies have shown that 80% of customers would rather watch a live video from a brand than read some posts. The expansion of live streaming on social media has been only growing, as Facebook, YouTube, and Tumblr have launched live streaming in the past few years. Studies show that Facebook Live Videos are watched three times longer than regular videos. Live videos are engaging and there is a lot of potential here for a business. Live streaming the making or launching of a product, and a live Q&A session are a few great ideas on how to take advantage of this for your company.

Marketing to Generation Z, called “true digital natives,” is another important trend to consider this year and into the future. Generation Z loves to use Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, among other social media platforms. Making sure that your business is connecting with this generation and understanding what this generation is looking for, is a must.

Last but not least, mobile-optimized content on social media sites is becoming more and more necessary. The number of people using their mobile devices for social media is only increasing, so it is worth it to ensure that your social media can easily be viewed on a mobile device. This includes short and to-the-point headlines, images that work well with smaller screen sizes, and using a content management system.

Keeping up with these social media trends presents exciting opportunities to grow your business and to stay ahead of your competition.