January 2018 ~ Website Design, Development & SEO Service Provider @ 08553452211
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Wednesday 17 January 2018

SEO Trends to Look for in 2018

It’s hard to believe that there are just a few weeks left in 2017. How effective were your SEO strategies and initiatives? Were they better or worse than expected?

Similar to other areas in the tech industry, SEO is constantly changing. The once fail-proof method of consistently landing atop SERPs (search engine results pages) became irrelevant within a few months. SEO practices that once dominated the industry quickly fell out of favor.


The Google algorithm itself changes constantly, sometimes with multiple changes happening within months. On top of that, the technology available to SEO professionals also constantly evolves, allowing us to stay abreast the seemingly daily changes of what it takes to dominate search.

While 2017 has brought about the dominance of Google AMP (accelerated mobile pages), the rise of HTTPS, the importance of backlinks, the precaution of the overuse of 301 redirects and reformatting of rich snippets to accommodate the increasing popularity of voice search, some of these trends will continue into 2018 and some will fall away.

On the other hand, we expect many new trends to emerge in 2018.

While Google makes it near impossible to completely crack its page ranking algorithm code, constantly adjusting to accommodate a thousand different nuances will be the challenge for SEOers in 2018 and many years to come.

Whether you want to do away with 2017 and start anew or you want to build on the success of your 2017 SEO campaigns, here are some SEO trends to be on the lookout for in 2018:  

1.  Increased Search Engine Results Page Features

It is the goal of any SEO professional to achieve and maintain a high volume of traffic to a given website. Ideally, this would be the result of reaching the top spot on a search engine results page. Not only is it important to achieve this coveted position, but to also maintain it as long as possible.

However, with the latest developments in the search engines, achieving this #1 ranking may no longer be enough to get the traffic you desire.

Gone are the days of the ten search results listings, highlighted in blue hypertext, and a couple of clearly marked ads. Now, when you look at a SERP, it is cluttered with images, videos, links, social media mentions, in-depth article listings, various widgets, and ads. It has become easy for a #1 result to get lost in the busy jumble of other page features.

While keyword and key phrase optimization are still important, you now have other offsite elements to consider.

Popular search engine results page features include AdWords, news block, featured snippets, local packs, reviews, tweets, video, image pack, shopping results and site links.

How can you rank and monitor your rankings for all of these? There are tools such as Rank Tracker that allow you to track your ranking and to show you possible keywords that are holding back potential traffic.

2.  Rich Snippet Will Need Careful Structuring

There are rich snippets and regular snippets. Both include a clickable title, a URL, and a meta description. Rich snippets have more condensed titles that include “|” instead of a dash (-), reviews and an image. How you structure the data, however is important in how search engines will display the information.

While the difference may seem insignificant, it has been shown that search results with properly formatted rich snippets receive more clicks and have a higher click through rate, which in turn increases potential sales.

If you’re not sure what properly structured rich snippet structure looks like, you can check out Schema.org which features a step-by-step data structure guide.

3.  Page Speed

In today’s fast-paced, on-demand society, people want things, including information, immediately.

Nothing is more frustrating than clicking on a website that appears to answer your question exactly, only to have to wait for the page to load. If the page doesn’t load in 5 seconds, you’re off onto another website that can hopefully give you the answers you need.

People don’t like slow webpages. If your page is slow, your site traffic will suffer. Page speed is a user experience feature that is expected for all websites.

If you’re wondering how fast is fast enough, take Google’s recommendation of 3 seconds or less.

To see how the speed of your website stacks up, you can take Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

Speed has been a critical component for years, but moving into 2018, we’re going to see even more emphasis on it in the future.

4.  Increased Page Relevance

Google continues in its quest to provide the best web browsing experience to users. Besides offering users websites that are safe, Google searches for sites that best match the user’s search intent – even if that’s a little different from their actual query.

This means that search engines will evaluate the relevancy of the content on your website. One of the ways that Google assess the relevance of a website’s content is with Latent Semantic Indexing. Through Latent Semantic Indexing Google can gather content from billions of websites and parse through the content, scanning for related terms and words.

Latent Semantic Indexing also enables Google to determine whether the content on a website is “comprehensive” and flows well.

Google also has the ability to analyze top ranking pages as identify similarities and shared features among them.

How can you make your content relevant and comprehensive throughout 2018? You can start by researching the content of the top websites in your industry and look for commonalities among them. This, however, can take a long time, especially if you’re looking for particular terms or words. To speed up the process, you can make use of some of the free trials available with different website auditors.

5.  Voice Search is More Real Than Ever

Just like in 2017, voice search will continue to pick up steam. Many consumers prefer the convenience of speaking over typing. Not only is it faster, but the queries can also be more detailed.

More importantly, voice recognition software has reached the point where users are comfortable trusting it to understand their normal speech.

The increased detail of search queries means you’ll need to go beyond the simple keyword and phrases to rank and focus more on terms and phrases people are naturally going to say out loud. People speak differently than they type, so your SEO strategy should try using conversational terms and sentences.

6.  Mobile Will be Even More Important

Smartphones dominate the landscape and more and more web browsing is occurring on mobile devices. In fact, the amount of people using their smartphones to browse the Internet is higher than the number who browse on a traditional desktop computer.

It is no longer optional to have a mobile-friendly website. It is now required and expected by the search engines and the users.

In fact, mobile friendliness is now a search ranking factor.

This is nothing new, and something you’ve probably heard about in many other years, but as each new device comes out and includes some kind of voice search function, you are going to have to really think about it going into 2018.

7.  The Rise of “Linkless” Backlinks

Backlinks have been the bread and butter of SEO for many years. In the past, this linking from another source to bolster a webpage’s authority in the eyes of Google was abused, prompting Google come up with the Penguin algorithm in 2012.

Since then, it has become the best (and most ethical) practice for websites to try and get links from more reputable, outside sources.

While links from authoritative, outside sources gave websites some search ranking juice, the further sophistication of Google search robots are slowly taking away the coveted power of backlinks.

It’s not just about who and where your links come from, anymore. A simple link just isn’t going to stand out of the crowd.

Search engines now have the ability to associate mentions of brands, institutions, organizations and people without the need of linking to their corresponding webpages. While links are going to still carry some weight, the other content around the hyperlinked text is going to also be very important.

8.  SERPs Will Continue Getting Personal

Besides the traditional search ranking factors, such as page speed, content relevancy and page authority, search engines are also using information about the user, such as interests, browsing history and location, to provide a personalized search results list.

Google, along with some other search engines, have been utilizing personalized SERPs for many years.

An SEOer’s goal of getting to the top of search results will have larger implications. Pages that succeed in dominating search will not only get more initial traffic, but when a user clicks to their page, that business’s page will subsequently appear in future searches by that user.

This will give you a greater opportunity to dominate that user’s SERPs in the future.

There is nothing one can do to land on the top of a user’s personalized SERP except making sure your traffic data is accurate and testing your page’s rankings in private or incognito mode for unbiased results.

Optimize Your Strategies in 2018

SEO is an ever-changing industry. In 2018, Google will continue to enhance the web user’s experience by scanning the relevancy of a page’s content, using personalized search engine results and faster page speeds, and include additional results page features. It will also want to ensure that websites are mobile-friendly and full of normal, conversational terms and words.

It takes a lot of time and effort to stay up on all the updates. It also takes time and long-term care. If your company is small or new and it doesn’t have a designated internet marketing professional, SEO.com can help.


How To Find The Right SEO Company

90% of internet users go through the search engines to find what they are looking for on the web. This figure more than explains the importance of Search Engine Optimization. If you are a website owner, then you know the magic that search engine traffic can do to your bottom line. To make your website search engine friendly, you may need a professional effort. But how do you choose the SEO company? This is the focus of this article.


Choosing an SEO company, just like choosing any other service provider, is not a tough task if you are looking in the right places and asking the right questions.

Here is a the most comprehensive checklist to help you get the task done:
  • How Is Their Own Website – If there is any passion, it will show. See if they have done a good job on their own website. Does the website tell you everything about them? You need to look very closely as this will tell you the potential of the company you are hiring.

  • Go Through Their Previous Success Stories – Have they been in the business for long? Who all have they worked for? Make sure the company is not an overnight company and comes with enough relevant experience to handle your site too. Going through their portfolio and the projects that they have worked on, will give you clear picture, as to whether the company can deliver on its promise.

  • Do They Provide Case Studies Of Their Successful Ventures – Is it just words, or do they provide detailed study of the successful projects they have taken up. A case study will tell you exactly how they worked on a site, and helped their client reach the target he was aiming for. You can even do a search yourself to know how their earlier clients feature on the search engines.

  •  Make A Note Of Their Affiliations And Memberships – Are they certified professionals? Are they associated with the respected authorities in the business? Have they been recognised by the top most authorities in the arena? The honest and honourable companies in the market will be backed by various accreditations, because you are as good as the company you keep.

  • Form a Basis of Contact with Them – Interacting with the real people will let you judge their levels of knowledge and professionalism, and most importantly, their expertise levels. Communicating with them will help you understand their style of working, approach to different campaigns, their way of project management and how they stay ahead of the algorithms. You can then decide, if it suits you or not.

  •  Go Through The Career Section – To get to know the kind of people they are, find out who they hire. Going through their career section, you will understand the sort of quality staff they hire and their work culture. Is it in harmony with your work culture? The answer to this question will significantly help your decision.

  • Packages Offered By Them – What sort of service packages do they offer? Are these comprehensive enough? Are they the latest in services and confirm with the latest industry standards? You need to get your value for money.

  • What Sort Of References/Testimonials Do They Have – What do people say about the company? Do they have video testimonials, complete with person and company name of the referrer? In fact, why go only by the testimonials on their site — check out online for negative comments on consumer forums or social media sites. Don’t worry, if it’s there it will show up on first few pages of search engines.

  • Level Of Involvement They Need – How much time and involvement is needed from your end? Once you have sorted the goals and the ways to achieve them, will the company function on its own, or will you need to constantly monitor them?

  • What Other Marketing Services Do They Offer – In this age of active internet marketing tools like social media, it is important that you hire someone, who can meet all your requirements.
In conclusion, do not pre-judge any company by just word of mouth or the look of their website. Dig deeper with the checklist above and you will never fail in making the smartest decision.

With the search engines changing their algorithms, it is definitely the SEO Company’s responsibility to ensure that your site is always up to date with these changes. You should also ask for periodic reports to monitor the SEO campaign. Just remember, SEO is something that needs time and patience. So, it is important to have achievable goals and reasonable expectations.

6 Ways Your Website Navigation Can Better Convert Visitors into Customers

Even a minor change brings a big difference. And your website navigation is a great example.  There is a big difference between good and bad navigation. Users can struggle while browsing your website, but they cannot identify it. Only developer can detect. The structure and labels of your website navigation carry a huge impact on results.

Find why.
  •     Website navigation affects visitors’ experience to your website
  •     It affects traffic: how much traffic you will get or how high you will rank
  •     It validates how user-friendly the site is
  •     It affects conversions: what number of visitors convert into leads and customers
In order to develop a good navigation site, we need to reach new levels of interaction with our audience.
Be descriptive. Add descriptive key phrases or labels in your navigation. They are good for search engines.

Find how.
  • In every site, the navigation bar is supreme to show relevance to search engines. Since it is available on every page, descriptive label is a good way to impress the search engines.
  • Descriptive labels in a navigation bar are good for visitors, as it (navigation bar) appears on every page and is a key place to communicate directly. When you list your main services or products on the navigation bar, it will be easily understandable at a glance.Visitors will realize that they’re in the right place.
  • It also advisable to avoid adding labels like ‘solutions’ and ‘services.’Besides, don’t have one page listing all of your services. It will never rank.
Say ‘No’ to Format-Based Navigation
  • “Photos”and “videos,” are format-based navigation labels. They tell visitors only the format of the content, not the topic. A site with descriptive navigation is easier to use than the format-based navigation.
  • Bear in mind, visitors don’t go to a website in search of photos or videos. They visit a site to seek information and answers.
Say ‘Yes’ to Mobile-Friendly site
  • Competition is becoming tougher to make service easier.
  • Statics website is no longer the wave of your business. It is being replaced by mobile-friendly responsive design. Google also dumps sites without certain mobile-friendly features.
  • A mobile-friendly site is a way to simplify visitor’s experience on our site. Make your website easy and engaging to navigate on a mobile device.
 Avoid drop down menus
  • Popular, right?But not a good idea.There are two basic reasons to avoid using drop down menus.
  • Engines friendly: Drop down menus lead to arise problems for search engines to crawl, depending on how they’re programmed.
  • Visitors friendly: Drop down menus is annoying. Users are believed to move their eyes faster than their mouse. Such menu discourages visitors to skip some important pages.
  • However, one type of drop down menu performs well. If you have to show mega services, then it makes that moment of friction worth it.
  • A big site with a good number of pages and a wide range of products or services should have a mega menu.
Reduce the Number of Direct Navigation Links

You can probably come across with some websites that have a navigation that resembles a laundry list with 10 or more discrete items. It keeps users confused and hampers logical navigation. It also affects visitors flow and finally leads to reduce conversion rates.

We strongly recommended including the most important or most heavily trafficked pages. You can opt for dropdown menus or other navigation structures insteadfor less mission-critical links.

If you are looking out to revamp your existing website and make more user-friendly or want to develop a new navigation website, feel free to contact Digital Obsession. We can help you with customized website according to your needs. Our services include web development, web design, SEO, social media marketing and much more. With 24 years of cumulative experience, we can increase relevant traffic on your website.

How To Get The Right Visitors To Your Website

How To Target More Traffic To Your Website

Clearly, no webmaster will ever want to have few visitors on a daily basis. As much as possible, they want to maximize the potentials of their websites, products, and services. They want a great number of visitors regularly. Why? Because that will essentially mean getting enough traffic for the site and boosting their ego that they are able to provide quality content and information to the public. So, how do you optimize your website? One way is to of course, to target traffic!

Why is it necessary to target traffic?
Seriously, traffic to any Internet website plays as a great factor considering the amount of money that it can potentially generate. A webmaster like you must have one determined goal. That is, to be able to generate as much traffic as you can.

What are the best techniques in targeting traffic to the website?

Through time, the experts have come up with a variety of ways on how to drive more traffic to the Internet-based businesses. Here are some of the tried and tested ones that you may likewise go for in order to ensure that your website gets a top rank as well.

Link Chain

This refers to the back links that you need to create. Back links can be formed from other webmasters whose businesses are focused on the same niche that you have. Link campaigning is very important as this will promote more traffic to your site. Getting Back links is very important for getting the right visitors

Another useful way of generating a link chain is by means of writing informative and intelligent comments on forums and blogs of other individuals wherein you can leave your link for those interested to follow. This can be very effective because a lot of people out there are normally curious to find out what the link has in store for them.

Articles Submission

This is somehow being overlooked by some but is a very effective means to get more traffic. Unique, intelligent, and informative articles are necessary. Submit them to different article directories. You should play well with the essential keywords and key phrases that are related to your niche so that people can easily find them. Be sure to include a resource box that directs to your own website.

Join in the Free Directories


When you promote your website, that means it will be getting more traffic. But if you don't have the budget for that you can always go for the free website directories. When word has been spread about it, then, chances are always people will get to know about your business and eventually patronize it.

Blogging

Informative content is what your followers deserve. If you got the talent in writing and you are very abreast of different topics, you can come up with blogs. Be sure to update it every now and then. Don't forget to always include your website link.

Social Networking Website

Another effective means of gaining traffic is by promoting for free through the use of the social networking sites. Because you have a network therein, your marketing campaign can be easily pushed through.

Try all these methods, especially linkbuilding and target traffic to your website. Why not do it now?

Tuesday 2 January 2018

Why Organic Search is better than Paid Search Ads

Have you invested in SEO strategically?

Today the choices in digital marketing for a CEO / Marketing VP are many. You can use Google Adwords or Bing Ads for search ads. You can use paid promotion in  Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest.  No longer are you totally dependent on Google rankings. Thank God.

Can you neglect organic search? Should you stop investing in SEO?
There are several reasons why SEO is still the king.



Organic Search Delivers Relevant Traffic

Organic is much better for delivering relevant traffic. paid search ads deliver better conversions, but deliver only 10 percent of overall total traffic. Results show that a using both channels optimizes  delivery of high performing content. Combining organic and paid search increases website traffic, but more crucially, it will yield a bigger return on the investment.

Social Drives only 5% of the Traffic

A large-scale study found organic search drives 51 percent of all visitors to B2B and B2C websites, dominating all other non-organic search channels, including paid search (10%) and social (5%).

Click-Through Rates (CTRs) are better

Search engine users overwhelmingly click on organic results on Google and Bing : 94 percent click on organic results as compared to 6 percent for paid ads (PPC ads). On an average, users clicked on one of the top three results 68 percent of the time.

Loyalty

Social media and paid ads might be traffic generators, but they are not long-term customer creators. The bounce rates are high, and the number of pages visited is very low. Social media is meant to drive article visits, not overall site traffic and customer loyalty.

You keep paying for interruption marketing, i.e., paid ads or promoted content

Paid search traffic only lasts as long as you keep paying for it. Stop spending, and you will see an instant dip in traffic.
In paid ads, the users did not seek you out. You interrupted their attention while they were browsing, and they thought, ‘this looks cool. Let me check it out. I may need this!’ There is no long-term loyalty or repeat visits from most of the visitors you get this way.

With organic search, the user mindset is different. The user is looking for you, or what you sell/provide. When they find you, if you provided an excellent experience, they usually come back.

Do not neglect organic traffic. Invest in SEO for long term benefits. These results will sustain you during those times when you cannot put more money into your paid budgets.