Five Reasons to Trust Us with Your SEO

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If your business is new to the world of online commerce, welcome! If it isn’t—and in some ways, you’re still feeling around in the dark for better—then you could benefit from a fresh start.

One start is to reimagine how your business operates around a search engine. With the right approach, a search engine like Google could become an even better friend to your business. The practice of enhancing your business’s web performance in this respect is called search engine optimization (SEO).

There’s no doubt that the boom of online commerce will bring a stream of marketers to your door. But truth be told, purported SEO experts are a dime a dozen. Many will offer you the same string of promises about hitting the top of Google’s search rankings in two months or less. The same bunch will likely use covert methods to manipulate the data, such as repeated keyword stuffing with meaningless content. Hiring these people as your partners will damage the credibility of your business’s online counterpart, and ultimately drag down your profit.

But hear us out and let us show you something different. SEO is possibly the best new option for growing your business. There are ways to tailor-fit the keyword-and-content approach that will work just right for your business, sensitive to its goals and needs. Let us prove our point not for its own sake, but for you.

Here are five reasons to trust us with your SEO

We’ve got the experience

As our portfolio of clients has grown, so have we. We’ve built a credible reputation for handling SEO marketing for businesses of all kinds, true to our own mandate.

We’ve earned success for businesses, and have the numbers to prove it

We believe in the saying “numbers don’t lie.” That’s one tenet we’ve taken to heart. Our SEO marketing practice is data-driven, detailed, and exact. There’s no room for performance based on goals that are uncertain and abstract.

We’ll show others the value of your business

Our work will distinguish your business and put you in the best positive light on Google. Each product and service you advertise is worthy of our best marketing effort. We’ll use our skills to show your customers that you offer the best.

We’ll drum up search-friendly keywords and quality content

We’ll research the best possible combinations of words to lead people to your business. In addition, we’ll supply rich, substantial, and engaging content that is worth your customers’ time, and encouraging of their interaction.

We’ll help you concretely measure your future success

We won’t just leave you hanging with what we’ve produced. We’ll help you track what exactly translated into increased traffic, higher search rankings, and better profit for you. We’ll follow your marketing plan from start to finish.

So, consider turning to SEO marketing as a viable and cost-efficient way to get your business out there. Trust us with the SEO aspect, and we’ll map your customers to their greatest new treasure.

What Your Website’s Design Says About Your Company

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In today’s corporate world, having a company website is no longer a luxury. It is a necessity. Think of it as a virtual business card, but certainly a much interesting version.

That said, your website should not stop at your About Me page. There has to be more to it than some vague information about who founded your company or how it all started. The goal of a company website is to effectively establish your brand online which will hopefully entice more clients in the future.

So, do you think you’ve reached that goal yet? If you can’t confidently say yes, then you should probably take a step back and review your site based on the following components.

The look

Choosing the design for your website is crucial. While it may not always be good to judge a book by its cover, your website’s overall look actually says a lot about your company.

From the layout down to the color scheme, visitors should be able to see the amount of work you put into making your website look pleasant and engaging. Be sure to stay updated on the latest web design trends of your industry. This will help you choose the right design that’s appropriate for your business.

If people can see the effort you put into developing your website’s design, your prospective clients can easily see how you don’t settle for mediocrity and how you are willing to invest on all possible aspects of your business to make the whole experience better for you and your clients.

Ease of navigation

Not everyone has the patience to scan through a website that’s difficult to navigate. Perhaps only those people who are desperately looking for information tolerate such experience.

So, if your current site is congested with confusing navigation menus that users will have to endure to find exactly what they’re looking for, then you’re doing it wrong.

It might sound cliché, but less is more. Provide your audience with only the juicy bits and make sure they can readily access these. That way, you can turn them into paying clients without overwhelming them with options and menus. You can create your information layout based on the nature of your business, your target market, and the relevant contents that you will be producing in the future.

Ultimately, a user-friendly website is a reflection of a company that has a clear vision of its business and pays attention to the kind of experience its consumers are looking for.

Contact information

Remember how a company website acts as a virtual business card? Well, that fact should emphasize the importance of giving out your company’s contact details.

A good company website keeps an updated contact information and makes that information available in plain sight. This will give your prospective clients an assurance that they can easily get in touch with you in case anything goes wrong.

Bottomline

Running a physical company is stressful enough. So, if you decide to maintain a virtual counterpart, you might as well do it right. It wouldn’t be easy at first. But, if a company successfully manages both, you will surely be looking at an increase in your following, higher profits, and generally, a growing business.

How to create a digital marketing plan for a small business

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When you are just starting out on a small business, it is highly advisable and a good idea to create your own digital marketing plan. That’s because digital marketing is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to market your small business.

So, how do you create a digital marketing plan for your small business? What are the steps you need to take to create a good digital marketing plan? What makes a digital marketing plan good? What are the benefits of creating one and why you should? The answers to all of your questions and information you need will be supplied in the article or content below.

Five areas of digital marketing to focus on

Before we get to creating a digital marketing plan for your business, first, let us have an overview of the five main aspects and benefits to digital marketing:

Search Engine Optimization or SEO Marketing

This type of marketing is crucial for every small business as it gives you a chance for a higher ranking in search engines. With the use of Search Engine Optimization or SEO, you can have more visibility for your related content and more visitors to your website.

Local Search Marketing

As a small business, you probably have a physical store. That means it is just as important to make sure you market your physical location, as well as your website. Local SEO is the most effective way to do this.

Content Marketing

This type of digital marketing mainly focuses on giving reliable and informational content to prospective clients that is related to your product, service or the topic you’re promoting. People are most likely to spend money on things when they are well-informed or feel valued. Content marketing is an excellent way to achieve this.

Social Media Marketing

Social media is a very powerful tool when it comes to promoting your business. Most people nowadays check and browse posts on social media using their phone very frequently. Therefore, by integrating Social Media Marketing, you can strengthen your customer base and sales remarkably at a short period of time.

Email Marketing

This is also a crucial form of digital marketing as people check their emails often. Email marketing can help you improve your sales by reaching people directly in one of the places they spend most of their time—their inbox.

How to create a digital marketing plan

Now that we know the areas of digital marketing to focus on, we can create our own digital marketing plan using all those information as the basis. Here are the steps you need to follow:

  1. Identify and set your own goals
  2. Define your target audience
  3. Customer research
  4. Competitor research
  5. Create your plan
  6. Collect past and present data
  7. Review and analyze

Overall, we can conclude that digital marketing and digital marketing strategies play a big role in the survival and success of your business. They serve as your starting ground for your small business to be able to reach higher heights and to become more recognized by people. We can help you create an effective digital marketing plan, and help you execute it. Get in touch today for more information.

Does Social Media Affect SEO?

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With all the complexities of digital marketing, it is inevitable for experts to have differing opinions about what techniques or tools really work and provide positive results. A good example is that of social media’s role in Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

To set things straight, Google does not actively utilize social signals as part of their ranking algorithms. Basically, one cannot rely very much on their social media presence in order to hack up their website ranking. However, that doesn’t mean social media does not affect whatsoever on your SEO.

Although social media can’t directly influence your website rankings, it can serve as leverage to your SEO in order to improve or strengthen your organic visibility. Here is how the magic happens.

Social media as a tool

Numerous situations can illustrate how social media and SEO complement each other.

For one, social media serves as a platform where your content can potentially reach a wider audience. The more shares and likes your content gets, the longer its content life. If so, you can also expect an increase in your visibility.

As more people start to take notice of your content, some may decide to share links to your page. When they do, there is a greater possibility of gaining more website views which most likely increases your traffic and ultimately, your ranking.

The more you invest in your social media presence, the easier it will be to recognize which type of content is most likely to get the attention of your target market. From there, you can then make the necessary adjustments to improve your content strategy.

Utilizing Google+

It turns out that Google+ actually has a direct effect on website rankings. Although, this is highly dependent on the user who is currently logged-in to G+.

Whatever page or post that people in your circle over at G+ has +1’d they will have the greatest potential of ranking higher in the search results once you search for any related contents. In fact, you will be able to see the name of the person who liked that particular page.

User interaction signals

If you know enough about how Google pretty much owns everything from the search engine to the browser and the Analytics, it won’t come as a surprise how they are also capable of monitoring your web interactions.

The user interaction signals initially comprise the time on site and the bounce rate. These stats are what Google uses as a basis for a page’s quality and relevance which ultimately results in higher rankings.

In the case of social media platforms, the likes, retweets, comments, and such can also be considered as signs that people find a certain page interesting. Basically, these social interactions can say a lot about the quality of a page and again, quality is directly associated with higher rankings in Google.

Bottomline

While it can’t be denied that social media indeed plays an important role in SEO, that doesn’t guarantee anything for your website. In fact, one should notice how Google tends to put more emphasis on the quality and relevance of a page.

Basically, social media is just like a melting pot of pages and contents. At the end of the day, only those that are engaging enough can gain sufficient audience to even make an impact on a website’s organic visibility and ranking.

Why Your Website Needs a CTA

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A call to action or CTA is an upfront way to encourage a visitor to do a certain action. It is usually a button. It contains a verb that leads the customer to what they must do next. This may be to click, register, call, or chat. Whatever your call to action says, having one on your website is vital. Without it customers can feel lost and you could lose sales. Here’s why a CTA is so important.

Why do you need a CTA?

The call to action provides a clear focus for the user and gives them a clear path on what to do next. It is a way to help the visitor reach your intended goal.

In creating call to action buttons, you should consider what you want your website’s visitor to do. You should also think about what your goal is, and how it is aligned with your company’s objectives. This may be to get them to register, buy, join a mailing list, and many others.

A call to action helps to guide customers. You should never assume that every person that goes to your website will know what to do. You need to keep them engaged, and tell them exactly what they should do next.

Using CTA’s on your website

Having a Call to Action isn’t enough. You need to use a good Call to Action and you need to use it correctly. That means what your Call to Action says, where it is placed and all of the surrounding content is very, very important.

It must stand out

For a Call to Action to be effective, it needs to stand out on your website. In most cases, web developers achieve this by using colors and fonts, or by placing the Call to Action in a button. In doing so, you make the Call to Action instantly more eye catching.

But the rest of the page matters, too. For instance, having several Calls to Action on a page won’t work. If there is more than one then there is no focus. If the page is cluttered, it also won’t work. Having too many pictures, or an unclear page structure can make it hard for users to find the Call to Action. The less clear it is, the less likely users will be to take action.

Examples of Calls to Action

Choosing the correct Call to Action on your website depends on your business. It also depends on how you want to engage with your clients and potential customers. Here are some examples:

  • Call us
  • Send us a message or email us
  • Register
  • Check out our recommendations
  • Request a quote

Putting a call to action in every page of your website will help clients figure out what they should do next. It is also a way to make sure that it is convenient to reach out to you. With this, you can use them as a part of your design and marketing plan. If you need help marketing your website, don’t hesitate to get in touch for a free consultation.

Top SEO Strategies for 2018

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2018 is just around the corner so you better start looking and preparing for SEO strategies that will help you in the coming year. After all, the ever-changing and highly-competitive world of SEO should keep you on your toes to remain on that top spot. To help you with this, we have listed down below the top SEO strategies you need to make use for 2018:

Don’t neglect on-page SEO

There’s so much focus on link building and content marketing that it can be easy to forget about the importance of on-page SEO. But solid on-page optimization is crucial if you want to succeed with SEO in 2018. Keyword research is essential and it will be important to make sure that every page has a group of keywords that it is focused on ranking for. This should consist of one major keyword and several other semantically similar phrases, too. Proper headings and HTML tags are also important for on-page success, as is adopting the growing number of HTML mark-ups. By making your site easier for search engines to crawl, you stand a much better chance of ranking.

Increase Site Speed

The coming of further advances in technology this 2018 will most definitely entail you to keep up with them on your SEO strategies. What better way to do this than by increasing your site speed.

Let’s admit it. You are less likely to stay on a website where the content takes so much time to load. Likewise, if your website does the same thing, then you should expect fewer site visitors. Furthermore, Google has considered the site speed as one of the major factors in search rankings. Suffice to say, increasing your site speed is a necessity. With the rise in mobile search queries and the use of smartphones in general, this is even more important. Not only will increasing site speed help you to rank better, it will also improve user experience and your website’s conversion rate as a result.

Create Abundant and High-Quality Content

At the heart of every SEO strategy is content. The power of content as a driving force for websites to rank higher in search results cannot be stressed enough. Content not only showcases your business to searchers, it can also establish your expertise in the industry. By focusing on creating quality content, rather than a lot of okay content, you can position your brand and website as an industry leader. In turn, this should help you attract more links and raise your brand’s authority.

However, it is important to take note that while content does this, it has to be of high-quality and comes in multiple amounts. It needs to be spread and distributed throughout your blogs as well as social media accounts. Your content must be informative and relevant. Otherwise, it won’t be as effective as it should be.

SEO in 2018 will be as important as ever. If you need help executing your strategy, we’re on-hand to help. Get in touch for more information about our SEO services.

What Should A Website Look Like In 2018

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Compare a paper map to Google maps or a resume to a LinkedIn profile. You’ll instantly see the astounding benefit of a website. The great thing about a website is its ability to knit emotion and guide into communication and consumption. 

Trends in web technologies constantly change over time. So what is in store for 2018? Expect to see simple designs with stronger emotional charisma. Read on as we talk deeper about what websites will look like in 2018.

Better Typography

Content marketing has resulted in information overload and it doesn’t help with everyone’s limited time. For this reason, web design will evolve and focus more on skimmability. I’m talking about informative subtitles, more headings, and bolded text.

 Several companies, like Intel and Airbnb, develop their own fonts to help define their brand and their company. The “F” in Facebook is pretty iconic in their logo as it offers an identity of their image and brand. This is how strong typography can be. 

Flat Design

The problem with image-heavy websites is that they’re slow to load especially on mobile. The number of mobile searches is increasing and mobile-first design is no longer an option but a necessity. For better mobile performance, designers and developers may create more clean and simple websites.

It doesn’t mean that you have to minimize down to two dimensions. You only need to remove the clutter and focus on the significant parts of your website. Using contrasting right colors, simple imagery, and illustration will make the flat design more eye-catching. 

Micro Experiences

Have you seen little animations or mini-apps embedded in some websites, like Wired Magazine and Website.com? They’re what you call micro-experiences. This will become a trend in 2018 as it offers deeper interaction levels. 

Implementing a voice user interface or chatbots may allow consumers to interact with your website without waiting for your page to reload. Rather than asking your users to submit a form, you can ask them to rate their experience by selecting a number of stars.

Different Domain Suffixes

We are used to websites ending in .com, .org, and .net. But in 2018, there may be more domain suffixes that will arise, such as .city, .social, or .guru. In the near future, you might even see domains already ending in .amazon or .google. 

There is already a long list new domain suffixes applied on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Number and Names (ICANN). Several companies have customized their domain suffixes as part of their brand name including about.me and visual.ly. 

Virtual Reality (VR) Video

We already see a rise of many videos on websites in 2017. It appears that each website has a video introduction so we could see the people behind the products and services that we use daily. We also observe a lot of apps and services that help create videos.

In 2018, expect to see videos to a new level. You might see websites using 360 videos, video mapping, and interactive videos. Although these type of videos might seem expensive and time-consuming, there are actually a few apps that help create VR videos. 

Need a website for 2018? We’ll help you create an exceptional site that attracts customer and improves your bottom line. Get in touch to find out how.

More Google Search Tricks That Will Make Your Life Easier

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Google on iPadSometimes, when we are searching online, our hunt may end up hopeless and we cannot seem to find what we are looking for. This is a guide that will definitely make you an expert Googler. Be sure to take note of all the 8 tricks listed below, or simply bookmark this page. If you find it difficult to follow, just click on the search example and it will show you how it should be done.

  • Finding news in a particular location. If you are searching for news related to a specific place, you can use the location: command to search Google for stories coming from that location.
  • Searching for specific documents. If you are looking to find results that are of a specific file type, you can use the search filter filetype:. For example, you might want to find only Word documents related to the brief history of Japan.
  • Exclude a particular term. If you want to search the web for cake recipes, but you want to exclude recipes that contain dairy products like eggs. In order to do this, add a – (minus sign) before the term you want to exclude in the search.
  • Searching a specific website. Even if the specific website does not have a search box, you can still search a website. You can ask Google’s help to search a website for particular terms.  This is helpful when you forgot the exact page link, and only remember the website. You can use the site: modifier, and follow the format listed below.
  • Looking for the exact phrase. If you want your search results to be more specific, you just need to add quotation marks to your search. This will come in handy when your keywords are too broad and generic. When you add quotes, it will help narrow your results. You can follow the format below and enclose your search terms inside the quotation marks.
  • Similar words and synonyms. To search for similar terms, you have to use the ~ symbol before the keyword. Let’s say you want to search for books, but then, you also want books that has themes similar to love. So, you will search for books plus the tilde symbol and the keyword love.
  • Finding a particular text in a webpage. If you do not know what exactly you are searching for, but you have certain keywords, this trick is useful. The allintext: filter will help you find those keywords, and they do not have to be necessarily beside each other.
  • Searching the URL. If you want to find web pages that mentions a specific keyword in the URL, you just have to type allinurl: and add your keyword.

If you think you know everything about Google, think again. Google has features that we all thought never existed. If you think these tips and tricks are not enough, you can check tips on viewing the cached version of a website, and even some fun games.

Google Search Tricks You Probably Didn’t Know

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Google Home Screen

Google Home Screen

You use Google everyday to search for everything that you need to know. Did you know that the popular search engine has hidden games?  Have you ever tried searching for images using a specific image? Here’s a list of useful Google search tricks, from basic tips to hidden games.

  • Searching using an image. When we search on Google, we usually type keywords. Now, you can look up an image. Searching images using another image. How cool is that? You just need to go to images.google.com  and instead of typing in a keyword in the search box, you have to click on the camera button. You can either paste the URL of the photo, or you can upload the photo. If you are on your Google Chrome browser, things are easier. Just right click an image in Chrome, select the Search Google for this image option from the popup menu. Then, Google will show you results and tell you where that uploaded image can be found online. This is a great tool for finding duplicated photos. However, it is quite unreliable as Google will also display similar images. Finding the exact image would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Still, it’s a good start to get leads.
  • View the cached version of a website. Did you know that you can view the previous versions of a website? Well, now you know. Once your Google search results appear, notice the ▼ symbol beside the website links. You can click green pointing-down arrow, and choose the cached option. Then, you will be redirected to the website’s previous version. This cached version is helpful when there are network problems, and the live version of the website is unavailable. You do not have to worry when a website is offline because you can access its cached version.
  • No dictionary needed. Yes, there are various online dictionaries available, but Google will help you things faster. To look for a word’s definition, you just need to type define:  and then the word you want to search. You view its synonyms and even translate it into a different language. If you are not sure how to do it, you can view this tutorial. Google has been your research companion ever since. Now, it is also your know-it-all dictionary.
  • Fun games. There a few casual games on Google. The first one is an Atari Breakout game. To activate the hidden game, you have to go to images.google.com  and type “Atari Breakout” in the search box. The image search results will then transform into a colorful game board. If you do not like it, you can play Pac-Man instead. This mini game is Google’s first-ever playable doodle. Game tip: If you click Insert Coin multiple times,  Ms. Pac-Man will join the game and you can control her with the WASD keys. The last one is Zerg Rush. You have to shoot before the zeroes attack and destroy your Google search results. To play this, go to the Google search box and type in zerg rush.

17 Email Greetings You Should Avoid

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laptop, browsing,

How to start an email?

Writing an email is not as easy as it looks especially when you are writing to a person you hardly even know. Most people care about how you address them. If you make a mistake, that person will refuse to read your email and will have a bad opinion of you. What you write reflect you. Here are a list of greetings and salutations, and why you should avoid them:

  • “Hey!” This greeting is definitely not professional. Most probably, you do not know the person you are emailing, but you are making it sound that you do. You should avoid this greeting when you are at work.
  • “Hello,” is not bad, but a little informal especially when you do not know the person.
  • “Yo!” Are you kidding? This one is a big no! No further explanation needed.
  • “Greetings! ” This is another way of saying “Hi!” if you do not know the person’s name, but it is better to find out the person’s name.
  • “To whom it may concern, ” is acceptable but the other person might just think, well, this does not concern me, so why would I bother reading it? Know the person’s name and instead write, for example, Mr. Ford.
  • “Dear Mr./Mrs./Ms. [first name], ” is not appropriate in the professional world as it is like a child asking their teacher, “Mrs. Kate can you….”
  • “Dear Mr./Mrs./Ms. [last name], ” is not bad to use but it come off as formal and old-fashion. It also feels you are about to be reprimanded.
  • “Dear friend, ” means you are not really a friends with this person. Because if you are, you would not have used this greeting, and would have used the person’s name instead.
  • “Dear [Job Title], ” Just like “To whom it may concern”, it is generic. Find out the person’s name. Go the extra mile.
  • “Dear Ma’am, ” is generic and impersonal. The greeting gives the feel of being old and disrespected.
  • “Dear Sir or Madam” is too formal and it sounds like bad news followed by a complaint.
  • “ [Insert first name]! ” This is way too abrupt and annoying especially when there is an exclamation point after. It’s like someone is shouting your name out loud. It is better to say for example, “Hi, Jane.” or “Hi, Mrs. Brown.”
  • “Good morning/afternoon/evening” has to be skipped. You do not know the time of day the recipient will read his/her email. Take into consideration the different time zones.
  • “[misspelled name]!” is such a big no-no! Make sure you know the person’s name and how to spell it correctly. This is insulting for most people. Check their email addresses. Most of time, the name is reflected there.
  • “Gentlemen” is okay if you are really sure that the recipients are all male. What if there is a female, then this salutation is not appropriate. You can simply say, “Hi, everyone.”
  • “All, ” is too abrupt. If you are addressing a group, you can always use, “Hi, everyone.”
  • “Hi (nickname), ” should not be used unless the person introduced themselves to you using their nicknames. Do not assume that a William is a Will or a Willy. If you are not too sure, it is safe to use their full name.

Whether you know a person or not, the safest way to address someone is to use “ Hi [Insert first name], ”. If you need more tips on online etiquette, you can check out this article. You can also read more about email etiquette.

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