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Top 12 Website Design Guidelines for SEO

Website Redesign Checkpoints 6 Steps for SuccessInstagram Product Tags Rolling Out to All US Users

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Top 12 Website Design Guidelines for SEO

 

Want to become an expert on how to use SEO when designing your website? Read on to discover top 12 guidelines for SEO-friendly website design.

 

  1. MAKE SURE YOUR SITE NAVIGATION IS SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLY

Using Flash for navigation on your website can be bad news if you aren’t aware of how to make Flash objects accessible and web-crawler-friendly. Search engines have a really tough time crawling a website that uses Flash. CSS and unobtrusive JavaScript can provide almost any of the fancy effects you are looking for without sacrificing your search engine rankings.

 

  1. PLACE SCRIPTS OUTSIDE OF THE HTML DOCUMENT

When you are coding your website, make sure you externalize JavaScript and CSS. Search engines view a website through what’s contained in the HTML document. JavaScript and CSS, if not externalized, can add several additional lines of code in your HTML documents that, in most cases, will be ahead of the actual content and might make crawling them slower. Search engines like to get to the content of a website as quickly as possible.

 

  1. USE CONTENT THAT SEARCH ENGINE SPIDERS CAN READ

Content is the life force of a website, and it is what the search engines feed on. When designing a website, makes sure you take into account good structure for content (headings, paragraphs, and links). Sites with very little content tend to struggle in the search results and, in most cases, this can be avoided if there is proper planning in the design stages.

 

  1. DESIGN YOUR URLS FOR SEARCH FRIENDLINESS

Search friendly URLs are not URLs that are hard to crawl, such as query strings. The best URLs contain keywords that help describe the content of the page. For example, think about the following URLs for an HVAC website:

 

hvacompany.com/services/repairs/

hvacompany.com/services/residential-repairs/

hvacompany.com/services/commercial-repairs/

  1. BLOCK PAGES YOU DON’T WANT SEARCH ENGINES INDEX

There could be pages on your site that you don’t want search engines to index. These pages could be pages that add no value to your content, such as server-side scripts. These web pages could even be pages you are using to test your designs as you are building the new website. Don’t expose these web pages to web robots. You could run into duplicate content issues with search engines as well as dilute your real content’s density, and these things could have a negative effect on your website’s search positions.

 

  1. DON’T NEGLECT IMAGE ALT ATTRIBUTES

Make sure that all of your image alt attributes are descriptive. Search engines will read alt attributes and may take them into consideration when determining the relevancy of the page to the keywords a searcher queries.

 

  1. UPDATE PAGES WITH FRESH CONTENT

If your website has a blog, you may want to consider making room for some excerpts of the latest posts to be placed on all of your web pages. Search engines love to see content of web pages changing from time to time as it indicates that the site is still alive and well. With changing content, comes greater crawling frequency by search engines as well.

  1. USE UNIQUE META DATA

Page titles and descriptions should all be different. Many times, web designers will create a template for a website and forget to change out the meta data, and what ends up happening is that several pages will use the original placeholder information. The Best Web Design Companies know that every page should have its own set of meta data; it is just one of the things that helps search engines get a better grasp of how the structure of the website is constructed.

 

  1. USE HEADING TAGS PROPERLY

Make good use of heading tags in your web page content; they provide search engines with information on the structure of the HTML document, and they often place higher value on these tags relative to other text on the web page.

 

  1. INCREASE INTERNAL LINKING ON YOUR WEBSITE

Internal linking can boost the rankings of your website when used correctly. It helps Google understand your content better and also sets an informational hierarchy for your website. Websites with information are consistently correlated with each other. It is very helpful for people and search engine bots when relevant information leads them to further information on the subject.

 

  1. MAKE YOUR WEBSITE MOBILE-FRIENDLY

Whenever a query is entered in the search bar, Google will rank websites based on several different factors, but mobile-friendliness is be one of the primary factors. Thus, Google requires webmasters and businesses to create a mobile friendly website.

 

  1. IMPROVE YOUR PAGE SPEED

Nobody has the patience to tolerate a loading website nowadays. With so many options available at our fingertips, people swiftly switch from one site to another to look for the desired products or services. Thus, you’ll lose the potential rankings and leads if your site’s speed is low.

 

Need help with website design? Get in touch with our team for expert advice.

 

Analyze your site?

Website Redesign Checkpoints 6 Steps for Success

Website redesign is complicated. Here are some steps to take away before, during, and post-launch to avoid an SEO disaster when redesigning your site.

 

  1. Take inventory of your current site

Before changing anything, you need to take a snapshot of what your site and ranks look like currently. This will be a necessary reference point post-launch when evaluating if everything is indexing and ranking as it should.

 

Some areas to keep in mind while taking inventory of your site are:

 

  • Current SEO rank: Check the current rankings of each of your website and also make note of the pages that currently rank in Google.

 

  • Crawl your current site: This will let you see what your current site looks like and grab the structure, current URLs, meta description, and titles tags so you can match your new site up to the old.

 

  • Blocked content: Verify any blocked content with your Robots.txt and/or Google Search Console. It is good to check this list so that you can make sure that these blocked pages continue to be blocked after the redesign.

 

  1. Keep content as close to the same as possible

We all know the saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” but that doesn’t mean you can’t change a page.

 

You just need to make sure your development and copy teams know when and what tags need to stay the same. Yes, during a redesign, you may need to make some changes to copy/content, but make sure the changes are small and deliberate.

 

In order to maintain your current rank, you should aim to keep the title tag, meta description, URL, and the H1 – H6 the same.

 

These areas are the most commonly crawled and are most important for pages that already rank on Google.

 

  1. Preserve some of the overall site architecture

Yes, some of the ways you organize your navigation and files may change based on your new website strategy and goals, but if possible, try to keep as much of the structure the same as you can.

 

Search engines already know your current site architecture, so by maintaining it, you give yourself a better chance of not affecting your rank.

 

Keep your existing visitors in mind as well, you don’t want to change your structure and confuse your existing audience when they revisit your website.

  1. Create 301 redirects

You also want to make sure you don’t want to remove any pages that are doing well. If you must, make sure you inform the search engines about this change by setting up a 301 redirect. If you don’t implement these 301 redirects you can drastically kill your traffic

 

Keeping an organized list of old page URLs vs new page URLs is extremely important and will help you with re-organizing the website.

 

  1. Block your new site from search engines during staging

Once you have a game plan of what your new site architecture is going to look like, it’s time to design and get the new site built.

 

Make sure your development team sets up the new site on a staging environment or a platform meant for testing that resembles the live environment without launching the pages.

 

It is important to have a staging environment so that you aren’t messing around with your live site and prematurely set pages live and having search engines index duplicate content.

 

A very IMPORTANT thing to do once your staging environment is set up and put a “No Index, No Follow” on it.

 

You don’t want Google finding your staging environment and marking it as duplicate content. This will create a bigger mess to clean up once you take your new site live.

 

  1. Double check everything in staging

When everything is built, run tests on the staging environment to make sure you aren’t missing or have duplicate H1 & H2 tags, title tags, and meta descriptions.

 

Once everything looks good and you have not only run some SEO tests but also did internal QA (Quality Assurance) to make sure the site is responsive and works in various browsers, it is time to take the site live.

 

What about post launch?

Even everything looks great in staging, once you set a site live, there are several things you need to do to ensure you maintain your SEO.

 

Here is a quick hit list:

  • Remove “No Index, No Follow” – This is a very easy thing to forget to do it is the #1 item on our post-launch checklist when launching a site to make sure that is removed.
  • Import your 301 redirects
  • Check your 301 redirects to make sure if you did redo your highest-ranking pages that they are redirecting where they should go
  • Make schema.org tags are still implemented
  • Make sure tracking codes are all still up and running
  • Re-run broken link checker
  • Re-submit new submit to Google Search Console

 

You should be monitoring your new site regularly to spot any issues. Check Google Search Console to check on the number of pages indexed in Google to ensure no pages dropped, track impressions and clicks, and track your rankings.

 

It’s important to monitor these things so that if you did drop in SEO rank you can work on getting it back up quickly, rather than catching it too late.

 

Need help? Do get in touch with our professionals for assistance.

 

See How You Can Improve Your SEO! 

Instagram Product Tags Rolling Out to All US Users

Instagram will open product tagging to every user in the U.S. The ability to tag products is starting to roll out now and will become available to everyone within the next few months.

 

Product tagging debuted on the platform in 2016 as its initial foray into e-commerce. Until now, only businesses and creators could tag products in video posts, stories and reels.

 

Of its 2 billion monthly active users, Instagram has an estimated 159 million users in the U.S., according to Statistia.

 

Why we care.

Instagram said that 1.6 million people are already tagging at least one product per week. By making product tagging available to everyone in the U.S., this number will likely skyrocket as users learn of and use this feature. This is yet another way for brands and businesses to be discovered organically on Instagram. So if your brand isn’t set up for Instagram Shopping, there’s no better time than now to test it.

Instagram Why We Care

 

How to tag products?

After creating a post, users would tap the “Tag Products,” tap the product in the video or image, then search for the product from the shop to add a tag. Instagram users who see a product tag can tap it to buy the product within the app.

 

Control for brands and businesses

Whenever one of your products is tagged, Instagram will notify you on your profile. Want to turn off product tags? You can in your account settings. By default, it is set to “Allow all”.

Are you getting the best return out of your digital marketing?

Need an extra pair of eyes to review your online game plan? Let our experts take a look at your current state and do a comprehensive digital marketing analysis at no cost to you. Please call us at (800) 379-2829 or contact us today and we will get to work right away.

When you think of social media oftentimes customer service isn’t an immediate related concept. Social sites like Facebook and Twitter after all are more geared towards conversations and advertising for a business, but in recent years the two business departments have slowly but surely grown closer and changed together. The question is: how and why?

Social Media’s Effect on Customer Service

As more and more companies and people in general get tapped into the internet on nearly every aspect of life, from purchasing products to talking to friends and family, the online world becomes more of a go-to for people worldwide… even customer service issues and social media has paved the way for this new way of dealing with customer service. The natural inclination in years past when dealing with a brand, service or product issue was to go to the business in person or call, but in a technology driven world that has changed, leaving more and more people seeking out resolutions to their business related issues online. From Facebook to Twitter, Google+, YouTube and more, social networking proves to be a driving force when it comes to customer service resolution.

The Ways in Which Social Media & Customer Service Have Changed Together

In the recent How Social Media Is Changing Customer Service (And Why Big Brands Must Try Harder) infographic the concept of how social networking sites have changed customer service is explored. Using statistics acquired from social networking site users the infographic provides a startling glimpse into the ways that the two driving business forces have combined… and how a business must evolve with it to stay current. In the few years since the concept has come on the scene, social media has proved to be a lasting concept and if these stats are correct it will be influence countless other business departments as well.

Social media today is a large ever growing collection of people, groups and businesses that have all joined together to talk, share and enlarge their own social circles. For businesses this environment is the perfect place to engage and grow their own customer base with targeted customers that best suit the needs and goals of the business. Like with any business, there is a right sort of customer base and a wrong one. There are those customers that may not be interested in the products or services, those who lack the financial means to purchase them, those who do not meet the requirements of certain services/products and so forth… it is the way of business to target the right customer base that will ensure a profitable and successful marketing/advertising strategy. With social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram are no different.

Social Media’s Ability to Help Businesses Grow Their Customer Base

Growing a customer base can be difficult as a business navigates the perilous and murky waters of the business world. Whether the business has a small, distinctive customer base or a large, varying customer base, finding customers who are willing to buy a business’  products/services and talk about it can be a trial in and of itself. However, as social media becomes more and more of an everyday activity for the world’s population, businesses can adapt to this newest form of marketing/advertising and truly begin to grow their customer base through conversations, viral videos, social networking sharing and so forth. With certain social platforms such as LinkedIn that potential customer base can be refined to find the potential customers-in-the-rough that could rocket a businesses success exponentially.

Social Media Statistics of the Affluent

In the article “Nearly 90% of Affluent Consumers Use Social Media [Study]” the author talks about the ways in which social networking sites like LinkedIn offer a startling gateway for businesses into the lives of the affluent. Whether a business uses Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or StumbleUpon, social media sites are a resource for the right customer base that shouldn’t be ignored.

As a Chicago social media agency we often get asked about tips on how to use Twitter by local businesses. Social networking sites as a whole are global and oftentimes local businesses can find it hard to make a dent in the global conversations going on and make their efforts successful. Whether they are a big business that has its hands in countless local pots or a small business just starting out, Twitter can be used effectively you just have to know how to navigate the murky waters.

The Chicago Social Media World

The Chicago social media world is much like any other arena in the world as it has an ebb and flow of conversation and information that local businesses can tap into. It is similar to the high school scene in a way… you have to know who’s popular, who can help you get connected and where the best connections/conversations can be found. The social networking scene may be a little more quiet and unassuming, but it can be just as cut throat as any high school cafeteria in America. The trick is to just get in where it best suits your business and keep a hold of that spot.

Twitter Tips for Businesses in Chicago Social Media

In the article “5 Essential Tips For Local Businesses On Twitter” you can get invaluable tips on how to navigate the cutthroat waters of the social media scene to your benefit. Whether you are looking to just dip a toe in the water or go in with a full head-on dive, the Chicago social media scene requires a little skill and finesse to effectively navigate.

When it comes to social media and specifically Twitter, there is a big divide on whether it is truly beneficial to businesses who are looking to generate leads and increase overall sales revenues. Twitter and other social networking sites are places where people bounce from conversation to conversation as information about businesses, groups and individuals are passed between people. This is a boundless place where businesses can interact with their current customers and they develop relationships with future customers to their advantage.

Why Twitter and Social Media can Benefit a Business for Lead Generation

Of course telling you why something is good for your business may not hold as much weight as showing you, so below you will find a detailed infographic that outlines why social media giant Twitter is a place where marketing and lead generation are readily at hand.

Social Media: A Veritable Goldmine of Potential?

In today’s world social networking sites comprises a significant portion of online interaction from Twitter to Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn and More. Roughly 65% of all internet users (which is millions upon millions) use social media to communicate and interact with both businesses and individuals. They get online with the sole purpose of talking about the things they are interested in, learning about the products/services/businesses they don’t know about and generally interacting to build relationship both professional and personal. This is a resource that any business willing to build solid foundations with their customers and build revenue should grab hold of and truly begin to take advantage of in the years ahead.

(Source: Search Engine Land. Top image credit: Dalibor via Shutterstock.)

For years the Pew Internet & American Life Project has been amassing data on the social media habits of people all across America. For most people this data is passing amusement that peaks our fancy, but for smart businesses it can help to truly understand how people use the internet and social networking sites in particular… thereby creating an advantage towards being a success in social media marketing strategies. Every advantage in the business world is vital to making a lasting impression, building a positive reputation and ultimately, increasing revenues exponentially.

How Understanding Social Media Trends can Help Your Business

Pew Research Center delves into the intricacies of social media trends, providing in-depth statistics that provide businesses with a breakdown of who uses social networking sites based upon age, race, education, income, location and much more. By doing this a business is better able to understand where their target audience is located, how to start up conversations with them, how to bring them into the fold as a valued customer and how to use that communication to increase sales and sharing of other social media content.

The Pew Internet Research Project 2013 for Social Media

Whether you use social media as a simple way of communicating with customers or as a fully fledged marketing and advertising strategy, understanding how to best post and use the content is vital. Check out the full detailed explanation of the report in the article “Pew Internet: Social Networking (full detail)”. If you are looking to incorporate social media into your online communications or into a marketing strategy, the best thing you can do is understand what you are entering into before you start.

For many B2B companies the idea of using social media isn’t as obvious a concept as more prominent business-to-consumer companies that have an unlimited consumer base. B2B companies are limited by their own customer base because they are strictly for other businesses…  and this is why so few business-to-business companies have social media marketing in their marketing strategy. However, as more individuals and businesses alike jump on the social media bandwagon it is becoming apparent that the more restricted B2B industry needs to get on a resource that could prove profitable and ultimately successful for the business.

The Variety in Which Social Media is Available to B2Bs

Just like with any other business out there social media offers business-to-business companies a wide and varying range of social networking platforms to chose from in a marketing strategy. From the most well known social site Facebook to more business oriented platforms like LinkedIn, a B2B business can pick and chose the right ways in which to dip their toes into the social media pool. There are blogs, tweets, YouTube videos, social bookmarking and more; all offering a unique and specific benefit to a business that relies on other businesses to turn a profit. In the modern era when a simple, cheap and effortless video can go viral social networking sites offer an avenue of reaching that hard to reach business consumer base that could open up new markets for a company.

B2Bs and Social Media: The Infographic that Says it All

Whether you have a small B2B company that hasn’t ventured much farther than selling locally or you have a large multi-national business-to-business company that is looking to join the new internet era, social networking is the key to success. In the article “Why B2B Brands Must Invest In Social Media In 2013” a truly inspiring and startling infographic sheds light on the concept of why B2Bs needs to get in on social media this year.

Social media can be an untapped resource for your next business event. When you’ve got a an event to promote sometimes it can be difficult to find the right medium to get the word out. From radio ads to flyers and more, there are a lot of options to chose from, but one option that has taken the business world by leaps and bounds the last few years in advertising/marketing on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more. The simple truth is that social media provides a solid base for not only building relationships with the public, but getting the world out when a big business event is set to happen in the near future.

How Does Social Media Help to Get the Word Out?

Social media is essentially conversations via the internet. It allows people from all over the world to get to know each other, learn about the things that matter in each others’ lives and ultimately form relationships whether personal or professional. Like any Chicago social media agency worth their weight in gold will tell you, social networking can be an untapped resource that allows you to market an event to not only the current customers base, but to new, potential customers as well who might be interested in attending the event. From Tweets that have a unique hashtag that can start a trend to business event blogs that are shared via social networking sites, getting the word out is as easy as just beginning a conversation. Social media and business event marketing have gone hand in hand for years as more businesses begin to understand the valuable commodity that Facebook, Twitter and the like can offer them.

Tips to Help Your Incorporate Social Media in Business Event Advertising

Of course, knowing the social media can help you get the word out on your business event is wholly different than actually using it to make it happen. In the article “5 Tips for Integrating Social Media Into Your Next Business Event” you can get real life and usable tips to help you turn social media into a veritable advertising mecca at your fingertips.