SEO

7 Steps To A Stickier Website

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It’s three simple letters that make up SEO, but the reality is that search engine optimization is far from straightforward. It’s takes a brew of equal parts science, art, and algorithm guesswork to make it just right. To make things even more complicated, just when you think you have the perfect mixture, the search engines add new details that send you back to the drawing board.

Further compounding the issue is that there are elements to SEO that aren’t visible right off the bat. Included among those elements is the importance of a sticky website. If you have a website that doesn’t have sticky qualities, your search engine rankings may start to slip. Most businesses simply aren’t aware that their site is about as sticky as greaseproof paper.

What exactly is a “sticky website?”

As the words suggests, a website that is “sticky” is one that has content that will keep the internet user on its pages for an extended period of time. The longer a visitor stays, the stickier the site is considered. It is those types of sites that also bring people back for more.

Stickiness isn’t just important for search engine ranking, it can also be great for your business. The reality is that the longer people hang around on your site, the more likely it is that they will either buy or request more information. The same rules apply with repeat visitors, as they will grow loyal to your business and make your site the only place to go for their purchase needs. The stickiness of your site has a direct impact on your ranking.

How to make your site good and sticky.

  1. Take time to blog, and do it properly. Regular posts are fine, but if they are bland and boring, people just won’t come back for more, no matter how regularly you post. Try to deliver topics that are informative, interesting, and helpful. How-to guides are great, as are tips lists. If you find that visitors have been asking you the same questions over and over, write a blog article that answers those questions.

  2. Make everything on your site shareable. Social media has turned the average internet user into a sharing monster, so take advantage of that. On-click share buttons are a great way to engage your audience, as well as tempting them into sharing your info with their network.

  3. Make space for comments. You can get great feedback by allowing users to comment, and you can also make your site very sticky. People love to see if anyone has responded to a comment they left, which means they will return to your site to see what’s being said. That all adds up to you taking time to replay to comments that are left.

  4. In order to make your site more useful, think about adding some helpful tools in there. For example, if you have a site about dieting, think about including a calorie counter.

  5. One great way to keep visitors right where they are is to promote related posts. If the content on a blog is interesting, it becomes easy to get caught up in reading multiple posts. This happens when there is a “related posts” link set up at the bottom of the page.

  6. Multimedia is another great way to engage visitors and get them to stick around. Polls, videos, and all kinds of interactive little tools are often too much for the average user to ignore. Again, people will stay longer and will come back for more.

  7. Title feeds are another thing that can get visitors excited when they arrive at your site. Seeing that a new blog post has just gone live can make them stay longer than they planned to.

Take time to implement these additions to your site and you will have a website that’s stickier than the bubble gum in your kid’s hair.

Photo by nabil boukala on Unsplash

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Is It a Good Idea to Pay for Website Links?

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If you want your website to be higher up in the search engine rankings, you will need to have good back links. One option that you may think about is simply to pay for the links. However, you need to be careful as there are both good and bad ways to go about paying for links. The real question is: should you do it all?

Buying links indiscriminately, just for the sake of having the links built, is a bad way to go about getting links. Using this method, it is possible for you to be penalised by the search engines causing a massive drop in your rankings. There are a great deal of SEO companies that are still using this bad “link farm” method to create back links. Nowadays, this method will not get the desired results in the search engines. Google’s new algorithms have advanced to a stage where they recognise these bad links. If this method is used, it is likely that your website will receive a penalty and in order to get this corrected, you will need to disavow your links by going through Google Webmaster Tools; this can be a lot of trouble.

Another poor way to purchase links is through the use of “link swaps.” These pages are located on websites and are hidden from the public’s view, but they are crawlable by the search engines. Usually, these pages consist of just long lists of links, which have been traded for a similar page of links on a different website. As stated before, Google’s algorithms have caught on to these exchanges and when they are found by the algorithm, your site will be penalised for using them.

The good news is, there are acceptable ways to purchase links. Like most things that are good, it will take a little bit of time, investment, and effort. When your site has good back links, it helps with SEO. This will generate significant traffic back to your website and, in turn, this traffic helps with SEO.

The first thing you will need to figure out is who, in your industry, are the main online influencers. This should be accomplished by researching online magazines, blogs and websites that discuss your industry. These are the locations where your possible customers are most likely doing their research before they make a purchase. Only after you have accomplished this should you start looking for areas to purchase a back link.

There are a multitude of websites that are willing to sell a back link to you. At times, the price may be quite substantial, so you will need to spend time making sure whether the purchase will be worth it to you or not. These websites will provide you with information regarding their traffic; it’s your job to sift through this information so you will know exactly what you will be getting. You should check in social media to see the popularity of their website and you should check their page rank as well. In general, you will receive greater SEO benefits from a website that has a higher page ranking.

If you locate the right website, and pay for a link, you may well receive a greater amount of relevant traffic and this, of course, will have a positive impact on your SEO. However, you must be certain of what you are getting before you make the purchase.

Photo: Image courtesy of stockmonkeys.com

Why Your Business Needs A Blog

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Why Your Business Needs A Blog

When it comes to your Internet business, having a blog can be a crucial part to your search engine optimisation campaign. A blog is an important marketing tool that all businesses should implement in order to meet their marketing goals.

3 Key Reasons Your Site Needs A Blog

When you have a website, an SEO company is liable to tell a blog can help your business in three big ways:

  • It can boost the keyword density on the website
  • It can assist Internet users in reading your website
  • It’s a great way to provide a constant source of up-to-date content

Still, while these are true statements, blogs can do far more than anyone gives them credit for. Of course, you need to put forth some effort to ensure the boost pays off for you. You want the blog to be a significant support source for your business’ marketing campaign.  How so?

1 – It Can Give Support To All Social Media Activity

When it comes to social media, it can be extremely difficult in getting seen, more so in the beginning. If you want people to notice you, you have to start interacting with them.  Still, a blog is another big way for people to learn who you are and about your business. A blog will ensure you have more followers in a short amount of time.

Now, if you find yourself lacking time to do things manually, consider feeding the blog through your social media networks.   Keep in mind that doing things manually looks much better.

2 – It Provides Support To Your Press Releases

Many companies still use press releases to spread the word about their business and products/services. However, a basic press release is often ignored. Use the blog to announce any business-related news.

3 – It Can Endorse Your Website’s Resources

One way people try to attain links for their website is to download free things to get attention. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done to the website, use the blog to promote the change.

4 – It Can Help With Promoting Products or Services

Use the blog to promote your products/services. Highlight a product/service benefits.  You may think that just including a product’s manufacturing description is best, but readers want honest reviews about a product. Honest reviews can only help with your marketing and SEO plans.  Fresh material on your blog will ensure you stay ahead of the competition because this is what search engines are looking for.

One additional way to increase awareness of your product is through consumer reviews. Have your readers write and post their own details about the product/service.  With this method, you get free, relevant material that can bring you closer to your customer and spread the word about your business.

Special Note: Condense Technical Data

Now, you understand how a blog can better help your business’ SEO and marketing campaign. But, when it comes to your blog, you certainly don’t want to appear “overly technical”.  The majority of Internet users do not readily understand white papers, business reports, legal information, research reports, etc.  You want the blog to be something that’s easy for them to read. Therefore, summarize the information using easy-to-understand language for those interested in the topic.

Here’s how you should look at blogging:  it needs to be a key support source within your marketing campaign. It doesn’t matter if you’re going after links or just promoting your product, a blog needs to be implemented within your company’s plans.

Photo Credit: “Web Marketing Scrabble” (CC BY 2.0) by therichbrooks

Why your website needs a blog …. and a plan!

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Most people who use the Internet know what a blog is. 1999 saw the initial start of blogging platforms like LiveJournal and blogger.com. It seems crazy to think that in 15 or so years, the Internet has gone from a small number of blogs to millions of them.

And, it’s not just about personal blogs. You’re also looking a huge number of business blogs. The problem with businesses setting up a blog is that the company will update it every day for up to a month but start to post less and less, eventually never to post again.

If you don’t want this happening to your business, you need a long-term, solid blogging approach. What your business needs an organised person or team – someone dedicated to providing you with original, engaging content for the blog.   You should have a publishing calendar so that posts are done on a regular basis. And, if you can’t do this yourself, be sure you hire someone who can do the entire thing for you.

Why You Need A Blog For Your Business

A blog that’s both well-planned and carried out is a great tool businesses can use for several reasons:

  • It generates brand awareness
  • It allows businesses to engage with their customers
  • Businesses can become the industry’s leader
  • It enables businesses to create relationships in the niche
  • It produces leads
  • It can showcase a business’ experience

When looked at from the search engine optimization point of view, blogging on a regular basis is extremely helpful to business. It helps to:

  • Bring links by posting outstanding material
  • Boost the amount traffic a website gets
  • Rank the business’ relevant phrases and keywords
  • Produce social signals
  • Provide the latest material so the website ranks high

Now, you never want to update your blog… just because.  Put your attention more on the quality of the blog material, not the quantity of it.  Blog posts need to have some type of purpose behind them. You want them to solve an issue, educate or entertain readers. And, most importantly, they should be timed perfectly.

Don’t forget that updating the blog is just one part of what you need to do. You need to also promote the latest material. Use your Facebook or Twitter accounts to continuously mention your blog and its content.

Why It’s Important To Implement and Use a Blogging Calendar

If you’re going to get and stay organized with your blog, you need to use an editorial blogging calendar.  You can either use the free Internet templates along with the free and paid plugins or editorial calendar software.

A calendar is a visual reminder of the picture – series of posts, patterns, theme, etc. It helps to ensure you cover a wide array of pertinent subjects at the right times.  Use the calendar to remind you have ideas you’ve jotted down.

Why Planning Is An Essential Part To Your Business’ Marketing Strategy

Be sure to implement a long-term blogging plan in your marketing strategy. Be sure you put attention on the whole picture and focus on the following things:

  • What you need to write about
  • Why you need to write it
  • Who is the audience you are writing for
  • How you should write it
  • When to write it
  • How and where to promote the content

You want to be sure that the strategy is flexible and is current in the happenings going on in the niche. The strategy should work to increase the exposure for your brand simultaneously.

Special Note: Blogs can include more than just writing – pictures, podcasts, videos, etc.

If you feel overwhelmed by the amount of work laid out in the plain, hire someone to help you do this. You don’t want the ignore chances to help your business because the work is just too much.

Photo: Image courtesy of sunshinecity on Flickr