Thursday, 26 September 2019

How does SEO work?


Search engine are not humans but the software that crawls the web page content. So, not like humans search engines are text-driven. They complete a number of activities that bring search results – crawling, scanning and storing (or index), courses of action, measuring pertinence, and recovering. The distinction with an excellence count is that you’re calculating components of design, rather than actions of an individual. For example, some of the elements that are known to build up a quality score are as follows:
• Website names and URLs
• Page content
• Meta tags
• Characteristics of Link
• Usability and accessibility
• Page design
Let’s see how this whole cycle works:
• Crawling: Every search engine has software, known as Crawler or Spider (in case of Google it is Googlebot), that crawls the webpage content. It is not possible for a crawler to see daily if any new page appeared or any existing page is updated, some crawlers may not visit a webpage for a month or two. In this connection, it should be important to remember what all a search engine can crawl: it cannot crawl image, Flash Movies, JavaScript, Frames, Password protected page, and directories. Therefore, if you have majority of these in your website, it would be better to run a keyword simulator test to see if these are viewable by the spider. Those that are not viewable are not spidered and not indexed or not processed. On the other hand, they will be missing for search engines.
• Indexing: Post-crawling content the Spider stores the indexed page in a giant database from where those can be retrieved upon entering a related search string or keyword. For humans this will not be possible, but for search engine, this is every day’s work. Sometimes, the search engines cannot understand the page content. And for that, you need to correctly optimize the page.
• Search work: With every search request, the search engine processes, i.e., it contrasts the key phrases searched with the pages indexed and stored in its record. More than millions of pages have the same search phrases. So, the search engine is an act of measuring the relevancy of all the pages and matches with what it indexed as per the keywords inserted in the SERP.
• Algorithms: A search algorithm is a diagnostic means that takes a puzzle (when there is a search with a particular keyword), sorts through a record that contains cataloged keywords and the URLs that have relevancy with those keywords, estimates some probable answers, and then reverts pages that have the word or phrase that was looked for, either in the body content or in a URL that directs to the page. Three search algorithms are there – On-site, Off-site, and Whole-site algorithms.
Each type of algorithm definitely looks at different aspects of the webpage, such as Meta tags, title tags, links, keyword density, etc., yet they all are part of a much larger algorithm. That is the reason why same search string generates different results in different search engines having distinct algorithms. And all these search engines (primary, secondary, and targeted) periodically do keep on changing their algorithms, so you must know how to adapt to these changes if you want to stay on the top. This requires sound SEO expertise.
• Retrieving: The end–result will be visible in the search results.

Thursday, 19 September 2019

How Effective Is Your Online Reputation Management


Do you find that your business is struggling to generate new customers? When faced with such a daunting realization, it’s tough to even think twice about your online reputation. However, if online reputation management is not consistently on your to-do list, then your business is likely to run into problems.
The Internet Is the Most Important Influencer of Our Generation
How often do you allow someone else’s opinion to influence your decision making? Probably a lot, huh? Now imagine all the friends and relatives that have ever recommended a business to you, and multiply that by millions. That’s the reach that the internet has created in terms of influencing decisions.
81 percent of shoppers conduct online research before buying, and part of that research will involve analyzing the online reputation of relevant organizations. Surprisingly, consumers are just as likely to take the advice of strangers on the internet as they are from their own friends and family. 92 percent of consumers trust peer reviews over advertising, so you better believe that negative reviews can cause them to sway from your direction towards one of your competitors instead.
Online Reputation Is More Important Than You Think
You may call me crazy, but I’ll say it: Online reputation management is more important than digital marketing. You can perform all the SEO, social media, and paid search campaigns you want, but it only makes your negative reputation that much more visible. When such a high percentage of consumers research before they buy online, you can’t assume that potential customers aren’t going to look at your reviews.
A lot of companies chuck millions of dollars at digital marketing without even looking twice at their online reputation. If your business is plagued by nasty comments and reviews online, then you might as well be throwing all that money away. Without an effective strategy to guide you through reaching out to your happiest customers and ensuring that they are the most vocal, you could be turning away hundreds of potential customers every day.
Why do you need online reputation management?
Managing your reputation online takes a lot of effort. It is not an easy task, to begin with. You need to be consistent when it comes to your online reputation. This is why you need to have a proper online reputation management plan for your business. maintaining a good reputation online is very important especially for the digital marketing services online. If you are wondering what online reputation management can do for you then we are here to answer your questions. Go through the pointers given below and you will know why online reputation management is important for your business.
• Increase sales: the Internet is one of the best places to promote your products and services. That’s because the majority of the people rely on the internet when it comes to learning about a particular product. It is actually an easy way of connecting with people. With the help of the internet, you can engage your potential customers online and thus, increase your sales. A reputation management company can share insights from your customer’s reaction and behaviour which will help you to understand the best way to communicate with your audiences in order to turn them to leads.
• Build credibility and trust: Without gaining the trust of your customers you can never establish a successful business for yourself. Almost every customer have the tendency to share their purchases with their families and friends. If there is a problem with your product then it is obvious that they will spread it too. This may affect the reputation of your brand badly. Therefore, you cannot let your company lose confidence in the customers. Therefore, it is needed that you maintain your online reputation carefully.
• Online insights: Rumours, gossip, and speculation are known to ruin the reputation of a brand especially when it’s online. Many businesses have lost the confidence in their customers because of this in the past. Bad rumours tend to spread like wildfire on the internet. In most cases, this mainly happens due to all the false information floating in the market. When there is an online crisis, it is quite common that inside information is available easily. However, it is often leaked through wrong sources before, it reaches to the important channels. Before the time of the internet, it was easy to remove issues internally before, it reached the public. But with the rise of the internet, this has become very difficult as news tends to travel really fast. It takes only a few seconds to ruin the reputation of a brand online. It is because of this reason that online reputation management is important.
• Reveal your best side: When it comes to research your business, starting from investors to potential customers, everyone is going to look up to the internet in order to know more. Your investors are basically your customers but in a different way. Before, taking a decision, your investors would like to know more about your business. For this, they will refer to all the information available to them. Most of the information is fetched from the net. Now if you have a bad reputation online, it will have a bad impact on your investors. No investor would ever want to associate themselves with a business with a bad reputation. Therefore, it again becomes important for you to maintain a good reputation online.
• Recruitment: In order to be successful in your business you need to have a strong workforce. Any candidate will first look up to the internet in order to get information about your company before, they accept any position offered by you. in case, if your brand has a bad reputation online, it may become difficult for you to hire a candidate for your business.
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Difference Between White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO


When developing an inbound marketing strategy and generating traffic through links, marketers face a choice to either play by the rules of search engines or cheat. Some in the industry classify these strategies, and those who employ them, as either White Hat or Black Hat SEO.
In this article, we will help you learn the differences between White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO and make you aware of some of the strategies you should be using and those which you should avoid.
White Hat SEO
White Hat SEO refers to the SEO tactics that are in line with the terms and conditions of the major search engines, including Google. Generally, White Hat SEO refers to any practice that improves search engine rankings on a search engine results page (SERP) while maintaining the integrity of your website and staying within the search engines’ terms of service.
Search engines want to make it as fair as possible for websites to rank. This is why White Hat SEO strategies are by far the most successful. Here are some examples of White Hat SEO techniques:
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is the process of writing a blog post on someone else’s blog. Blogging as a guest is a great way to increase your search rankings in search engines because it helps you earn backlinks, or links that connect back to your site from the blog you are appearing on. Google likes to see links leading back to your site because it’s a vote of confidence. If sites are linking to you, it means you’re providing valuable, interesting, and quality content. Keep in mind that there are “good links” and “bad links.” Be sure all off-site links are relevant and offer high-quality content, as well.
Producing Quality Content
The more content-rich your site is, the better your odds are of ranking. It is important to produce quality content that meets your visitors’ needs and helps them solve their problems. Use an SEO keyword research tool, to help identify the most relevant keywords for which your content should be optimized. Focus your content around the keywords that help address some of the common issues and questions your user may have.
Internal Links
Internal links, or linking to content within your own site, indicates to search engines that your site has value. Be sure to never “overstuff” internal links. Search engines may mark this as spam, which makes it extremely difficult to rank. A good rule of thumb is two or three links to core pages or other blog posts on your site.
Black Hat SEO
According to Search Engine Journal, Black Hat SEOs are the “gun-slinging outlaws” of the internet because they rely on rule-breaking techniques to earn higher rankings. Black Hat SEO strategies typically focus only on search engines and not on human audiences. Black Hat SEO is used more frequently by those who are looking for a quick financial return on their website, as opposed to making a long-term investment in growing their business.
Black Hat techniques are incredibly risky and are quickly detected by search engines. Consequently, sites that employ these strategies are often banned or penalized with a lower rank. Here are some examples of Black Hat SEO techniques:
Keyword Stuffing
Various sources deem keyword stuffing as an unethical search engine optimization technique. Keyword stuffing refers to the practice of filling your content with irrelevant keywords in an attempt to manipulate where the page ranks on search results pages. An example of this is repeating the same words of phrases so often that it sounds unnatural. While this leads to a poor experience for users, it may also cause your page to rank for irrelevant queries.
Invisible Text
Black Hat SEOs often employ the invisible text technique where they hide text or links within their content in an effort to improve their rankings. This is done by adding white text on a white background or using a very small font size. No matter how it is performed, invisible text is identified as search spam by each of the major search engines.
Cloaking
Cloaking is a deceptive technique that involves presenting visitors and search engines completely different content. Black Hat SEOs use this technique in hopes to make their content rank for a variety of terms that are irrelevant to their content.
In order to be successful in SEO, it is important to do whatever you can to avoid search engine penalties. SEO can be a lengthy process, but staying within the White Hat lines is a sure way to rank.
Looking to improve your SEO strategy? At SMA, we specialize in White Hat SEO strategies guaranteed to help your ranking improve. Check out our On-Page SEO Guide where we detail ethical and effective SEO best practices. Click below to download our FREE On-Page SEO Guide!

Friday, 6 September 2019

Must-Known Web Design Trends for 2019


Mobile-First
Google rolled out mobile-first indexing in 2018, which is based on prioritizing content and links from mobile website pages. The initiative will be carried over to 2019, requiring web designers to give priority to the mobile version of websites.
Moreover, SEO is not the only factor that dictates the priority of web design. Statistics show that 50% of global website traffic comes from mobile. As the mobile user base increases, good visual effects and search experience are also factors need to be considered in website design in 2019.
Speed
THREE seconds. That’s all users spend in deciding whether to leave or stay on a website. Your design has that much time to convince a user to stay.
Research by Akamaii and Gomez.com shows that 50% of users want a website to load in three seconds or less. Furthermore, due to the Speed Update algorithm announced by Google in July 2018, designers need to reduce page load time if they want to improve their search engine rankings. Thus, speed should be a second important website design trend in 2019 for designers' consideration.
Personalized Illustration Design
According to statistics, the visual effect of the illustration on the user is 7 times better than that of ordinary photography. The illustration is suitable to apply to the homepage of the website, new user guidance, waiting for the interface, progress page, etc.
Statistics show that the visual effect of illustrations on the user is seven times better than that of ordinary photography. Illustrations are suitable for the homepage, new user guidance, waiting for the interface, and progress page - practically any website element!
CSS3 Animation
The rise of animation in the past two years has been very rapid. In the Forbes web design trends in 2018, it predicated animation is one of the most powerful trends in web design and will get highly popular among designers and users. The use of CSS3 technology makes traditional web design more vivid and easy to use.
Since CSS3 animation is considered relatively new in the UI field, there is more room for its development in the application of web design. It is therefore logical for CSS3 animation to be used and developed more in the coming year.
Dynamic Full-Screen Video Background
One of the best ways to catch the customer’s attention is to create a website with a dynamic video background. Moving objects tend to be more attractive.
Compared to text or still images, short videos are a more convenient way to provide more information, enabling the user to quickly understand the characteristics of the web page or product.
Video helps increase user time on page, which is good for SEO and conversion rates. Facebook’s prioritizing video posts is solid proof of the medium’s effectiveness. Moreover, given that we live in an era of diversified information, the application of dynamic elements such as video backgrounds will gradually increase.
Minimalism, Simplicity But Not Simplistic
One of the classic web design trends, minimalism is synonymous with simplicity. Often the first choice for web designers, it embodies the “less is more” principle. The fewer the interface design elements, the better.
With modern life being so fast and dynamic, people have insufficient time to process information, making redundancy a no-no. Good design enables users to digest information in as short a time as possible. This is best achieved by using fewer elements.
Whether it’s the use of white design, contrast, or clear typography, a well-designed website makes navigation easy and provides accurate information - making for a good user experience. Well-designed CTA also makes for higher page conversions.
Responsive Design
The rapid development of reading devices in recent years - mobile devices, tablets, TVs, wearables, and desktops - has made designers aware that responsive design should be one of the mainstream web design trends in 2019.
Since Google started highlighting mobile-responsive websites in 2010, mobile has become the first choice for responsive web design. Now that the number of mobile users has far exceeded that of desktop users, Google has also announced changes to its algorithm to prioritize mobile-first indexing. The goal is to encourage companies to update their responsive web design and enhance the online experience of mobile users.
Bright and Gorgeous Gradient
In the past few years, more and more designers have adopted color gradation in design. In 2018, the fluid gradient was quite popular. Even if only one color is used, it can create a rich layered structure with the help of gradients and different images, resulting in an aesthetically pleasing experience. The use of bright gradients and bold illustrations will be one of the mainstream color combinations in 2019.
Creative Bold Typographic
The layout of the web page is just as important as the content displayed on the interface. Statistics show that more than 95% of the information on a webpage is text. In terms of influence on users, typesetting is second only to web color matching and images.
Adventurous, bold typography impresses the audience. Carefully selected fonts can convey the emotions you need and build a powerful visual hierarchy. In fact, more big names are starting to use their own exclusive fonts to enhance their brand's recognition.
Mainstream Design Tools
Regardless of the type of web design - minimalism, responsive design, illustration design, gradient design, or typographic design - design tools are the foundation for everything. Efficient design tools never go out of style. In 2019, these design tools will still be popular.

SEO trends and practices


With all the changes google keeps making, it’s getting more and more difficult to know which changes are going to up your SEO game in 2019, here are some SEO trends and practices you want to look out for.
1. Going mobile
A lot of factors influence how you rank on Google. These days, the attention has seen a major shift from desktop and PC to mobile users. This due to the fact that the majority of Google users use smartphones and tablets.
What this means for you is that since Google crawls for sites with mobile optimization, sites without it tend to fall lower in the ranking.
Google introduced mobile optimization as a ranking factor in the year 2016 since then it has seen outstanding growth. In the summer of 2018, Google officially implemented their ‘mobile first index’.
It’s no longer an option whether to optimize your site for mobile, it’s a requirement if you want to rank.
2. Optimize for local traffic.
A lot of businesses rely on local traffic as opposed to online traffic for their businesses. These businesses may know it to be a good idea to have an online presence, but having an online presence without local SEO is a waste of valuable online real estate.
The top three spots with high visibility and considerable traffic are usually occupied by close-by businesses that are optimized with their location.
A major way to step-up your SEO game and finally cash-in on all that traffic is to;
1. Associate your business with a location
2. Claim the business on Google. N/B: You can also do this by simply searching out your business on the Google Map. (A way of letting Google know you’re there).
3. Post your map address on your website as well as on your social media outlets.
4. Include the areas your business operates and the specific range of services you render.
5. Add your location when targeting SEO keywords like ‘Digital marketing agency in London’.
6. Focus on widespread SEO like backlinks, social media popularity, Google reviews etc.
3. Key sentences or strings vs keywords
If you know something about keyword research, this isn’t the first time you’re hearing this. Keywords are one of the most important factors to consider when doing SEO. It basically determines your rank in any SERP.
So, if you’re a new or small site without little in the way of authority that’s okay, you can still rank. When optimizing your titles, subtitles or whatever it is you’re optimizing, it’s a good idea to imagine what your potential client is going to type in the search box.
For example, if you use a keyword such as ‘Toyota Corolla’, you’re going to see older sites with way more authority than you. And the problem with using such keywords is that apart from the vicious competition, such keywords usually lead to their key string cousins that Google thinks their users want to find.
If you’ve not been using this strategy, you might want to try it, with Google coming up with all sorts of filters, this one leads your client straight to you. And high specificity means the traffic you’re getting will convert better than the random traffic that’ll just click away.
4. Optimize for voice search
Google reports that one in every search is a voice search. This can be performed while driving and/or using mobile assistants like Bixby, Siri and google voice. Its popularity is a by-product of the sudden popularity of mobile (I.e. mobile first index).
This type of searches usually involves very specific long-tailed keywords. While optimizing it’s a good idea to try to guess what your potential clients are going to say.
Another excellent strategy is optimizing your content for a variety of languages using google translate. Especially when marketing products and services internationally.
5. Good old backlinks
It’s easy to ignore this one since setting up, takes up some additional minutes but Google will reward your efforts.
A lot of people go about saying link building is an outdated SEO strategy but Gary Illyes from Google disagrees. He says that page rank is still a very important ranking at Google and will remain so in the foreseeable future. He also said that authority or link power is obtained by having appreciable backlinks.
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Friday, 30 August 2019

Real Estate Branding: The Importance Of Online Reputation Management


The mainstay of building a respected brand on the web is online reputation management. In today’s tech-driven marketplace, an established, well-maintained web presence continues to be a significant driving force for real estate investors, as a positive online profile can produce a profusion of benefits like new contacts, relationships, leads, referrals and sales. While nothing has the power to vitalize a business quite like a dominant online reputation, if not properly regulated it can become a brand’s undoing.
As a real estate investor, maintaining your digital reputation is equally as important as building it. That said, the following outlines the importance of online reputation management in real estate and the benefits that come with managing your online persona.
Online Reputation Management
Online reputation management (ORM) has become a prerequisite for today’s investor. Brand identity has always held a lot of weight in the business world, but never has it been more evident than in real estate. Because the majority of investors fail to adequately monitor and maintain their online presence, resulting in untold damages to both their public image and bottom line, an investor’s online reputation can serve as either an asset or a liability.
Manage Online Reviews: What people say about a brand online is a focal point for many businesses, and for good reason. According to Search Engine Land, nine in 10 consumers will read online reviews to determine the quality of a local business, with 39 percent doing so on a regular basis. In fact, 85 percent of consumers will read up to 10 online review for one business. For investors, online reviews have not only become more impactful in terms of having an affect on a business, but their importance has become a keystone in online branding.
Monitor Social Media: While Facebook and Twitter continue to become a dominant force in online marketing, social media sites can also be a trap for bad publicity. The uninhibited atmosphere of social media can create a dangerous setting for online reputations, as it provides an open and real-time platform for users to voice their displeasure. That said, social media monitoring should be implemented on a continual basis to ensure negative reviews and comments are dismissed right away.
Update SEO: One of the harder parts of online reputation management is search engine optimization, also known as SEO. This factor is especially important for real estate investors, as potential customers can search your name to reveal positive, negative or false information about you. Developing a prestigious online reputation requires a significant investment of both time and money, and SEO is a component real estate investors should concentrate on.
Reputation Management Will Improve Your Business
The online reputation of an investor isn’t just something — it’s everything. The Internet has morphed into a central destination for determining a business’s worth, filled with real-time consumer reviews, opinions and comments. For real estate investors, the benefits of online reputation management are second to none, as the capability to control and influence your online persona will benefit both the success and longevity of their businesses. To gain a better understanding of the importance of online reputation management, the following breaks down how it can improve the overall health of your business:
Builds Trust: Because real estate is very much a relationship-based industry, one of the biggest assets an investor can earn is trust. Even with a single client, trustworthiness goes a long way in the real estate industry, and establishing a solid brand identity can help to benefit investors not just today, but for years to come. In addition, a reputation laced with trust can further lead to referrals of your services, which can also serve as a critical piece in building credibility.
Word-Of-Mouth Marketing Is Improved: Another benefit of online reputation management is word-of-mouth marketing. The spread of your good name can be equally beneficial to investors. This could potentially lead to new contacts and partnership opportunities, which would have normally not been available without word-of-mouth marketing.
Identifies Opportunities: A well-manicured online presence has the power to provide great results for investors. In addition, it also has the potential to turn opinions into opportunities. Although you may disagree with some feedback, by closely monitoring your online profile and what people are saying about you, investors can locate new opportunities to improve their business. That said, investors need to take the time to read what their customers are saying about their business, as well as consider how those suggestions may enhance the overall success of their company.

How Important Is Responsive Design


As more people are beginning to use mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets, for every task that used to be only capable on desktop, one thing has become clear: mobile is taking over Internet surfing. And, it’s not even just surfing. It’s everything from browsing social media outlets, checking emails and doing some online shopping.
What is responsive design?
A responsive design simply means a website that has been constructed so that all of the content, images and structure of the site remains the same on any device. For example, when a user accesses a site on their desktop, they are getting the full view of the site. But when that same user goes to visit the site from their smartphone or tablet, the site will retract to fit on the smaller screen.
In other words, with a responsive website design, you don’t have to have worry about having different websites for various devices or making sure that your site runs properly on a mobile device.
Mobile Usage is Increasing.
Take a step into the outside world and you’ll definitely notice a lot of people on their mobile phones. In fact, it seems that just about everyone is attached at the hip with their smartphone. For some reason, however, there are many businesses who have not yet picked up on this trend. Maybe they could use the following stats from Smart Insights to convince them how much mobile usage has skyrocketed.
Recommended By Google
But why does Google prefer responsive design? For starters, it’s more efficient for Google to bot crawl the site and then index and organize all the content that is online. The reason for this is that with responsive design, all sites have just one URL and the same HTML across all devices. When a business has both a mobile site and desktop site, there will be a different URL and different HTML for each. This forces Google to crawl and index multiple versions of the same exact site.
Also, when there is just one website and URL, it’s much easier for users to share, engage and interact with the content on that site as compared to a site that has different pages for mobile and desktop users. Google is a fan of that as well. Why? Because what if someone shared a mobile site on a social media outlet and one of their connections viewed that mobile site on their desktop? That viewer would then be viewing a less than optimal site because it was intended for mobile. This makes the user unhappy.
Can Increase Conversion Rates
Besides all of the search benefits, as well as making users happy, responsive design has the ability to increase those coveted conversion rates from all of the mobile users in the world. Why? Well, if a website is not working on mobile or tablet device, users will obviously be unable to convert. And how many people are doing online shopping from a mobile device? There has been research that found 69% of tablet users shopped on their device within the last 30 days.
Better User Experience
We’ve briefly touched on this before, but responsive design gives users a better experience. For example, users don’t have to fool around with zooming and shrinking the text or images on screen. Instead, all of the content automatically adjusts to the screen of the device. This makes it easier and more convenient for users to read and navigate on your site.
Easier to Manage
Going back to SEO for moment, if you have separate desktop and mobile sites, you’re going to have to run separate SEO campaigns for each. Wouldn’t it just be easier to manage only one SEO campaign and one website? That would make not just your customers happy, but also your team including everyone from developers to content marketing managers. More importantly because you only have one site, responsive design is more cost effective as well
Stay Ahead of Competition
In the business world, you have to stay ahead of the competition. So, if more and more users are using their mobile devices to search and make purchases online, you have to cater to that audience by having a mobile-friendly site. In fact, 85 percent of adults believe that a mobile site must be as good, if not better than, a desktop site.