Your click-through rate is one of the most important metrics to monitor. In fact, many people see their CTR as the most important measure of their online marketing campaigns. But what impact does your CTR have on your SEO? Conversely, how does your SEO affect your click-through rate?
With so many aspects to consider, we take a look at the relationship between click-throughs and SEO success. Read on to find out how to enhance your SEO and increase your CTR…
Your click-through rate, or CTR, tells you how many people have clicked on a link to your website. If 100 people see your advert and 10 people click on it, for example, you would have a click-through rate of 10%.
A well-executed marketing campaign includes persuading users to visit your website or landing page. The first step is getting your advert in front of your target market. A high number of views or ‘impressions’ means that your adverts are being displayed in a good position.
The second element involves increasing the number of people who actually click on your link. With well-written adverts, for example, you can enhance your CTR and see an increase in your traffic.
Increasing your click-through rate means that more people are clicking on links and, therefore, visiting your site. Furthermore, high click-through rates are linked to better rates of conversions too. As well as sending more traffic to your site, a higher CTR should mean that your sales increase accordingly.
Ultimately, a healthy CTR indicates that your online marketing campaigns are working. By hooking prospective customers with your marketing content, you’re enticing them to visit your site. At this point, you can deliver substantially more content and persuade them to engage with your brand.
Absolutely. Search engine optimisation determines where your webpages rank for specific keywords. If you’re the first result when people search for ‘bakeries in London’, for example, more people are going to see your advert. When compared to ranking on the third or fourth page, for example, the number of impressions you will receive is dramatically different.
When your adverts receive fewer impressions or views, less people will be clicking on your links too. On one hand, this isn’t too problematic. Consider the following example:
Advert on page 1 of Google receives 10,000 impressions and 1,000 clicks = 10% CTR
Advert on page 4 of Google receives 10 impressions and 1 click = 10% CTR
Statistically, your CTR remains the same in both instances. This means your content is working well and is persuading 10% of users who see your ad to click on it. In reality, however, there is a significant difference between getting one click and getting 1,000!
By increasing your impressions, you can, therefore, increase your CTR too. To achieve this, you’ll need to enhance your SEO and improve your rankings.
Fine-tuning your marketing content will, of course, have an impact on your click-through rate but, if no-one is seeing your ad, then they can’t click on it. By using SEO to rank highly for relevant keywords, you can increase your organic CTR. As a result, your web traffic will increase, as will the potential rate of conversions.
This one is a little bit trickier but bear with us and we’ll explain. Google is notoriously secretive when it comes to their ranking algorithms. We know that some factors, such as the quality of your content, undoubtedly affect your SEO rankings.
However, Google has been reluctant to confirm or deny all the factors they take into account when ranking sites. This has led to differing opinions over what really matters when it comes to SEO. Despite this, most SEO experts now agree that your click-through rate does have an impact on your rankings.
Search engines set a baseline of how they expect a webpage to perform in terms of CTR. If your ad is current halfway down page two of the search results, for example, Google might expect you to have a click-through rate of 3%.
If your advert starts over-performing and your CTR soars to 15%, for example, Google is going to start wondering why. Furthermore, it will be keen to capitalise on your success and should, therefore, rank your webpage more highly.
Conversely, if Google expects your advert to have a CTR of 3% and you’re only achieving 1.1%, this could send you further down the rankings.
Whilst this hasn’t been confirmed by Google itself, the latest data does appear to show that your CTR will impact on your SEO rankings. Due to this, it’s important to keep your CEO to the baseline level or above it.
In essence, SEO and CTR have a symbiotic relationship. They are innately linked and typically perform best when they are both fully optimised. Due to this, it’s important to implement effective SEO strategies. Similarly, you’ll want to monitor your CTR to determine how successful your SEO campaigns are.
Whilst the relationship between CTR and SEO is important, don’t lose sight of the value of CTR as a single entity. When people are clicking on your links, it means they’re visiting your site. This is the main aim of any SEO activity, so a high CTR should always be welcomed.
To achieve consistently high CTRs, however, you’ll need to put the effort in with your SEO. Fortunately, help is at hand. If you want to learn more about improving your SEO performance, why not get in touch with us?
With in-house SEO experts ready to answer your burning questions, we can provide all the info you need when it comes to enhancing your SEO, boosting your CTR and increasing your ROI! To talk to a member of the team, contact ClickSlice now on 020 3287 3638.
A functional website is essential for any business, but how do you ensure your site delivers a great customer experience? Whilst the aesthetic of your site is critical, its development is, perhaps, even more important.
The setup or development of your website is, essentially, the building blocks upon which your online presence rests. A poorly developed site will inevitably result in a poor user experience, or UX. When users can’t access quality content easily, they will deviate to alternative sites.
In fact, it’s estimated that your website has less than four seconds to impress users. If it doesn’t, they’ll be off to a competitor site before your homepage has even finished loading. However, it isn’t just the initial loading times which have a bearing on how long a user will stay on your site. If there is a lag at any stage of their journey, users will disappear from your site as quickly as they arrived.
As users place such a high importance on page loading speeds, it’s become an important factor in determining website credibility. Now part of Google’s SEO algorithms, your site won’t rank highly for any keywords if it’s marred by slow speeds.
Of course, it isn’t just loading speed which has an impact on SEO rankings or user experience. To satisfy users, your content will also need to be easily accessible. However quickly your pages load, they won’t be any use to your audience if they can’t view, engage and navigate around your site.
So, how can you ensure your site delivers a great UX when users are visiting from an endless range of devices? With mobile internet users now overtaking desktop users in every demographic, there are no set display parameters to work with. Instead, your website will need to cater for users visiting on screens ranging from 5” on smartphones to 50” Smart TVs.
Designing an innovative and engaging website can be tricky at the best of times but it’s even more difficult when you consider the variables you need to take into account. Fortunately, there is an effective way to ensure your website caters to every visitor.
A responsive website ensures that your webpages are displayed optimally, regardless of what device a visitor is using. Whether they’re browsing from a smartphone, tablet, laptop or TV, a responsive site delivers your site in the most user-friendly way. Quite simply, it responds to the user’s individual display demands.
It’s clear that a responsive website improves the user experience. Capable of displaying your site perfectly to every user, visitors will find it easy to read or view content. Furthermore, navigating around your site will be easy and straightforward, which will reduce your bounce rate.
However, responsive websites bring important SEO benefits too. We already know that UX is critical to high SEO rankings. As a responsive website improves UX, you can gain credibility with Google based on this alone.
In addition, a responsive website helps you to satisfy Google’s newly introduced mobile-first indexing. As Google is using this indexing method to facilitate ranking websites, it’s vital that you adhere to it, and a responsive website will enable you to do so.
In response to changing user behaviour, Google introduced mobile-first indexing in 2018. Recognising that more people were surfing the net on mobile devices than on laptops or desktops, Google gives priority to websites which are mobile-friendly. In terms of indexing, Google will look at the mobile version of a website before it reverts to a desktop version.
Whilst site owners traditionally ran two different websites to facilitate functional mobile use, this is no longer the case. A responsive website negates the need for a separate mobile version of your site completely.
As a responsive website recognises the user’s display parameters and adjusts your site accordingly, there is no need to develop a second site at all. For site operators, this is welcome news. By switching to a responsive site, you can essentially halve your work. Instead of having to update two websites, a responsive website means you can focus your efforts on one site, whilst improving UX at the same time.
Furthermore, you won’t be penalised under Google’s new mobile-first indexing policy. The search engine understands the flexibility of responsive websites and judges them accordingly. With a responsive website, you’ll meet the criteria of their mobile-first indexing strategy and climb the rankings accordingly.
Choosing to have a responsive website is beneficial for site owners in a variety of ways. Due to this, it’s important to update your existing site to a responsive version as quickly as possible. By doing so, you will enhance UX, reduce your workload and find it easier to satisfy Google’s algorithms. As a result, your rankings will improve, and you’ll find it easier to attract visitors to your site.
Crucially, the enhanced UX delivered by a responsive website means you’ll find it easier to retain site visitors too. With a reduced bounce rate, users will remain on your site for longer periods of time and be more motivated to engage with your content. In short, switching to a responsive website can have a dramatic impact on your conversion rates and, ultimately, your profits.
Your site design and development are the foundations to your online success, so it’s important to get it right. Once your responsive website is up and running, you can begin to implement effective SEO strategies.
To learn more about the SEO benefits associated with responsive web design, contact ClickSlice now on 020 3287 3638.
Backlinks have been the mainstay of search engine optimisation for years, but in a changing digital landscape are they still relevant? With routine algorithm changes and SEO methodologies, how much should you be relying on backlinks to get you to the top of the rankings? More importantly, should you modify your backlink strategy to increase its efficacy?
Backlinks are simply links which connect your website to other sites online, but they’re extremely important when it comes to search engine optimisation. Your backlinks help search engines to determine how important, influential and reliable your website is, and this can boost your rankings.
Traditionally, websites benefitted from having lots of backlinks because this helped to establish the site and its content. In basic terms, the more backlinks you had, the more significant your site was. As a result, high numbers of backlinks were a good way to increase your SEO rankings.
Absolutely. Backlinks still help to establish your website’s authority, and they still play a considerable role in determining your rankings and how search engines view your site. As a form of off-page SEO, backlinks are still extremely important. However, the way backlinks are perceived by search engines has changed in recent years.
The number of backlinks on your site is no longer seen as an indicator of your website’s importance or authenticity. Whilst a healthy number of backlinks may be advantageous when it comes to your rankings, search engines, such as Google, now assess the quality of your backlinks as well.
High-quality backlinks are links high authority domains. Well-known, secure and popular websites are typically deemed high-quality, and they’re often recognisable names. Well-known sites, such as, Facebook, Forbes YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram are all examples of high authority domains, and creating a link between your site and any of these websites would be extremely beneficial for your SEO rankings.
Conversely, lower quality backlinks are connections to websites which don’t necessarily have a high authority domain. These sites may not be as well-established or well-known, and they won’t automatically boost your rankings on search engines either. However, that doesn’t mean you should avoid lower quality backlinks in their entirety.
The quality of your backlinks is crucial to your SEO success, but it’s important to remember that content matters too. If you want to link to a website which doesn’t have a particularly high domain authority but has original, informative and relevant content, then it could be worthwhile. Whilst you may not gain much from this type of link building in terms of SEO, connecting your users to content fresh and interesting content has its own rewards.
However, it is important to avoid low-quality backlinks, as these could actually have a negative impact on your SEO rankings. Traditionally, quantity reigned when it came to backlinks, and this lead to some unscrupulous tactics. With people eager to boost their rankings, sites were created simply to serve as backlink connections, rather than delivering relevant content.
To prevent falsely inflated rankings, search engines started to pay more attention to where your backlinks were going. Instead of focusing solely on the number of backlinks on your site, Google cares about their value. As a result, the quality of your backlinks became increasingly important, whilst the quantity of your backlinks became less influential.
Yes. Quantity still matters when it comes to backlinks, but not necessarily in the way you might think. Hundreds of backlinks may have ranked you more highly on a SERP (search engine results page) in the past. Now, however, it could do just the opposite.
Having hundreds of backlinks won’t necessarily improve your SERP position. Furthermore, hundreds of low-quality will actually put you lower down on SERPs and damage your SEO strategy. Whilst a decent number of backlinks can be beneficial for your website and its rankings, quality matters. Backlinks will only have a positive impact if they’re high-quality. Of course, backlinks of moderate quality can be valuable too, providing they link to relevant and worthwhile content.
Most users want to know whether high quantity or high-quality backlinks will benefit their site, but it isn’t quite as simple as that. Whilst high-quality backlinks will place your site higher on SERPs, a high quantity of backlinks could actually lower your rankings, depending on their quality.
Like most digital marketing and SEO concepts, the use of backlinks has changed over time. Whereas quantity once reigned supreme, high quantities of backlinks are now only beneficial if they’re also high-quality. As low-quality backlinks could have a negative impact, it’s important to look at the value of each potential link. In fact, focusing on quality before quantity is essential if you want to use backlinks to boost your SEO rankings.
To learn more or to enhance your backlinks today, contact ClickSlice now on 020 3287 3638.
Local SEO has increased in prominence recently, with ‘near me’ or ‘nearby’ searches rising almost month-on-month. For bricks and mortar businesses, this trend highlights a shift in the way people are looking for services. In response, companies must incorporate ‘near me’ searching into their SEO strategy.
Users have always relied on search engines to find shops, restaurants and amenities in their area. In this respect, local SEO is nothing new. However, the way users are searching for local services is changing. Traditionally, users would add particular location to specify the geographical area in which they wanted to search. This shift towards ‘near me’ searching has removed the need for users to pinpoint their locale. As a result, it increases convenience and UX when it comes to searching for nearby businesses and services.
Quite simply, users add the words ‘near me’ to key terms when they’re using a search engine, such as Google. In doing so, they expect to see SERPs showing relevant businesses or services in the current area. If you’re out and about and what to stop for an impromptu lunch, for example, you might enter ‘restaurants near me’ or ‘cafes near me’ to find a selection of eateries nearby.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the increase in ‘nearby’ searches has correlated with the rise of mobile devices. With cheaper data, more functionality and faster response times, mobile device usage has risen across every demographic in recent years, culminating in more people using mobile devices than laptops or desktops.
Currently, almost 90% of ‘near me’ searches come from mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. With the ability to find local services in any area, adding ‘near me’ to a keyword or key term ensures efficiency for the user, so delivers a better UX.
The way we use technology evolves over time, and the shift towards mobile devices and voice automation been a significant factor in the rise of ‘near me’ searches. We’ve become used to increasingly intelligent indexing and highly-relevant SERPs, despite providing less detailed search terms and keywords.
‘Near me’ searches are easy for users, and they provide good results. Instead of having to specify an area or maximum distance, users can simply add ‘near me’ to whatever they’re looking for and rely on Google to do the rest.
Furthermore, ‘nearby’ searches are ideal if you’re looking for amenities, products or services in an area you’re unfamiliar with. Whether you’re in a new town, city or country, adding ‘near me’ to your search will give you more information about your immediate area and the amenities available.
Search engines have sought to track and identify a user’s location for years, although more advanced location tracking has been controversial. Originally using IP addresses to determine your location, search engines now use a range of tracking methodologies to isolate your geographical location. With location tracking more accurate than ever before, the quality of ‘near me’ SERPs has increased, and it’s become a mainstay of local SEO.
In fact, more accurate location tracking has put ‘nearby’ searches on a par with location-included searches. In contrast, ‘near me’ queries offer more convenience and faster searching. As a result, users have embraced this new way of searching for local services.
Voice searches and the use voice-activated tech has exploded over the past couple of years. Smart home devices becoming increasingly popular in residential environments is just one example of the trend. Whilst mobile device personal assistants have been around for some time, the improved results delivered by Cortana and Siri have ensured their continued usage.
However, when we use voice-activated tech, we look for things differently. You don’t necessarily type how you speak, so it makes sense that these two search mediums operate differently. To offer accurate SERPs, Google has invested heavily in AI. This technology determines exactly what users are searching for, and which results are likely to be most relevant to them.
Search engines now have a greater understanding of what users mean when they add ‘near me’ to a search. Combined with their ability to pinpoint our real-time location, the results from these searches are increasingly accurate. As a result, users have continued to use ‘near me’ searching at a prolific rate. To date, this particular search trend is showing no signs of slowing down.
Businesses who want to attract local clientele to their premises must engage in effective local SEO, and ‘near me’ searches are a critical component. Whilst search engines can accurately identify user location, they have yet to establish an effective way of determining what geographical areas a website is targeting.
For digital marketers, this means your SEO strategy should still incorporate locations which are relevant to your clients. It won’t take long for Google to find a way to determine what locations websites are targeting, but it’s not there yet.
In the meantime, your content and your page title should still contain the locations you want to reach. This will enable search engines to match your content to users in the relevant area.
However, the change in location searches provides us with crucial information about user behaviour. The improved accessibility and accuracy of ‘near me’ searches increased convenience and enhanced UX even further than before. Now, users can provide less information but receive more tailored and relevant SERPs. Indicative of the move towards more intelligent indexing and results, ‘near me’ searching is just the beginning.
The rise in ‘near me’ searches is underway but it’s not too late to benefit from this new user behaviour. As users continue to search for amenities and services close by, it will be websites and businesses which respond to ‘near me’ searches that will attract users and custom – both online and offline.
To incorporate ‘near me’ searches into your local SEO strategy, contact ClickSlice now on 020 3287 3638 or say hello@clickslice.co.uk
Over the years, it’s become increasingly harder to get prospects to visit a website. Given the rapid rate at which search engine algorithms change, it’s likely that this will keep on being an arduous task in the foreseeable future. Once you factor in the fact that online businesses are increasing in number, you can clearly see that competition will keep being stiff.
As you start out, be prepared to register almost zero traffic on your website. Having revealed this, you need not despair, we’re committed to helping you get more traffic to your brand new website in a couple of days. If you’re able to stay consistent, you’re likely going to see all your hard work come to fruition.
While this may seem like a no-brainer, there are still plenty of businesses today that are not active on social media.
Before you create a social media page, it’s important to first conduct proper research on your industry and your customers’ preferences. Once all this is ascertained, you’ll have a good idea on which platforms are ideal for your business and where your customers like to flock whenever they’re online. Failing to conduct proper research may see you in trouble as you’ll be operating from a point of darkness.
If you’re a B2B business, then, it’s advisable to check out LinkedIn. It all depends on the nature of your enterprise and what you’re looking to achieve.
If you’d like to become visible in a short span, then, it’s safe to play with the right set of hashtags and monitor your quick progression on platforms like Twitter. Since hashtags act just like keywords, it becomes easier for customers to spot your business as they scroll through their feed or as they’re searching for information online.
Importantly, you need to always remember that content is king. If you’re really looking to leave a good impression in the minds of readers, make sure you come up with scintillating content. With this approach, your clientele will find it easier to connect with what you’re really saying and chip in with a suggestion or two.
You can also develop backlinks as you interact with people on social networking platforms. While at it, it’s vital to remember that these platforms thrive on human interaction, so try to strike a balance between site promotion and socialisation.
Search Engine Optimisation is the way to go if you’re looking to grow your audience. At present, projections show that 51% of all website traffic originates from organic search and another 10 percent from paid search. With these numbers, it’s clear to see that you need to have a solid plan in place to really stand out in search results.
Since your audience is targeted, you’ll have a higher chance of converting them into willing buyers. As a consequence of the high number of prospects coming to your website, you’re likely going to register more returns for your investment.
Content optimisation for search engines is definitely something you need to try out. Making small tweaks to your content like the manner you arrange your image alt text can make a big difference. The same applies to add meta descriptions and creating internal links to new content.
As you go about writing and publishing content, always be on the lookout for opportunities to introduce internal links. This kind of linking can enhance your SEO strategy and provide meaningful content to users.
Reading content online is designed to be easy. That is why some of the most engaging articles have plenty of paragraphs, brief entertaining sentences, multiple sub-headings, and added GIFS to lighten the mood.
But one of the most compelling ways in which content becomes captivating to readers is the presence of images. Images not only look attractive but also create a visual imprint on the eyes of the reader.
However, for this to be executed successfully, one has to know their way around optimising images.
This simple guide will help you get started with the subtleties around image optimisation today; including how to select the best images, and how to optimise them for your content.
The first thing about image selection is that an image should always reflect the subject matter of the text. This is mainly for the reader’s visual engagement, and it helps maintain synchronicity with what they are reading.
Secondly, these images need to be of great quality, placed in the ideal aspect ratio and come in a great resolution so that they are big enough to be viewed across all devices.
A common faux pas observable in most websites is the use of stock photos. Stock photos are one of the worst deterrents of organic traffic because they simply make your website look like one big marketing gimmick.
When selecting an image, you should always proceed with caution. You might be selecting one which you initially thought was copyright free, only to discover that the image’s rights are still under the owner’s name via Shutterstock or Getty. There’s no point of being slapped with a hefty invoice of £500down the line.
As a new rule of thumb, avoid purchasing stock photos. Conversely, you should hire the services of a photographer and have him or her take authentic photos for use.
It would also be wise to create your personal visual designs, charts, and graphs for content as well.
Nevertheless, if you’re strapped for time and money to undertake such a task, you can opt for free-image resources easily accessible online.
When your searching for images online, you can narrow down your search result to free images by simply clicking on search tools, navigating to Usage Rights, and picking ‘Labeled for Reuse as your main filter option.
You might not find the best photos here, but rest assured that there are great images available that other people might have not used before.
Flickr is one of the best sources to find thousands of free images for use. These images usually come highlighted with a Creative Commons license.
It is a great alternative to copyright because what it simply means is that you can use the images as freely as you want, but you will have to give full credit to the owner of the photos as well as linking back to their personal Flickr accounts.
That being said, you should always double check the status of the photo you’re selecting on Flickr because there are some photographers who only permit their images to be used for non-commercial content
Other notable websites to look at when searching for images include Unsplash, Piktochart (mainly for creatives looking to find infographic images) and Gif Grabber.
After downloading a relevant photo, you will definitely want to resize it so that it doesn’t occupy a lot of space inside your text.
For example, most photos captured with an iPhone tend to be more than 3000 pixels wide, which is way larger than the recommended size limit.
One of the biggest folly with huge images is that they can greatly reduce page load speeds, negatively affecting your search rankings. Hence, ensure to resize them before including them in your text.
Ideally, Photoshop is the best tool to optimize your images for uploading, but there are multiple options out there including Picresize.
If you’re on a tight budget, however, simply open the Paint program on your computer and resize the image.
Before you choose for your image to go live along with the text, it is important that you assign the right file name to your image.
While this might not play any significant role when it comes to SEO, it will definitely make things easier when you need to quickly navigate to the image and change something about it.
Fortunately for block programs such as WordPress, the photo is automatically assigned the title of the file name.
This is usually done in the Alt section of content (commonly known as the Alt text).
This is what Google uses to read your image and present it when someone searches for images related to the one that you have posted.
Your alt-text should be brief, descriptive, and go straight to the point in describing what the image is all about.
In WordPress, the caption field is one of the most highlighted fields when dealing with images. Though it might not add a lot of value in terms of SEO, the caption is where content is inserted to give your image a little more life and colour.
A great caption can also keep the reader hooked, and increase the mental clarity of the image in relation to the text that is being read.
Lastly, if you photograph your own images, you might find that some people have snakingly used them on their own website without giving you proper credit as the owner.
You can reclaim your images by using an automated reverse tool such as Image Raider
All you have to do is simply add the images to the tool, and it will ping you any time someone infringes on your content and uses your images without your permission.
Once you have optimised all the images on your site is highly advise to start some link building to your website. We wrote up a really good guide explaining exactly why link building is important and should not be skipped.
Before we get all immersed in the wealth of hosting options available for your personal blog, it’s important to first separate the wheat from the chaff. You need to first look for these qualities when selecting a hosting company:
Ever since they started out, SeekaHost has improved its services massively. The hosting company is appealing even to newbies who are just starting out.
SeekAHost offers cheap web hosting packages which are convenient for those running small blog sites. With an economic plan running at $9 annually, SeekaHost is one of the very best hosting companies out there.
Having revealed this, it’s only logical for you to assume that their services aren’t that great. In truth, they offer excellent services. Users have access to unlimited bandwidth which is great if you want to manage traffic to your site. Other alternatives in the market tend to offer throttled speeds as a way of saving costs.
With SeekaHost, you have access to the real thing. Their partnership with WordPress allows you to perform auto-installation of WordPress. This is usually a great time saver and comes to the aid of those seeking to enhance their security salts and FTP protocols. In addition to all this, upgrades to WordPress software are also easy peasy.
With SeekaHost, you can rest easy knowing that your website is up and running at all times.
With a monthly payment plan of £2.00 monthly, BlueHost is a viable option if you’re looking to get maximum bang for your buck. The only time where their fees are a bit steep is when you’re transferring a website. In such situations, you have to fork out £120. This may contrast a bit with other websites who may offer such services for free.
Once on board, you’ll have access to free domain name registration an unlimited bandwidth. Once you factor in the 24/7 customer support and the fact that you’ll be able to control all your tabs from a single control panel, then BlueHost definitely looks like a bargain.
Many people running personal blogs on platforms like Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal usually prefer hosting on SiteGround. They have alluring offers like free site transfers and 24/7 customer support. Their instantaneous feedback works great especially if you happen to have an issue that’s troubling you.
The great thing about SeekaHost is that you don’t have to look far to access its wonderful features. You’ll be able to access great data about how your website is faring right from the dashboard.
Some of the leading CMS platforms like Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress actually recommend SiteGround
Users also have access to a free SSL certificate irrespective of the plan they choose to go with. If you’re looking to perform site transfer, you can freely do so using SeekaHost. Once all is set, you also have the guarantee of 99.9% uptime without taking into account the pricing plan you’ve chosen.
The one remarkable thing about their platform is that they use their in-house developed SuperCacher to increase site speed. Other than this, they have also developed innovated technology and other great features to support developers running personal blogs.
If you decide to go the SiteGround route, you also have the freedom to choose from a number of different servers around the world. The options include the UK, Singapore, Asia, and the USA.
At £2.75 monthly, you have access to a storage space of 30GB, daily auto back-ups, 99.9% uptime and issuance of a free SSL certificate.
Having shared something about reliability, it’s only right that mention Media Temple in our analysis. They are a great company that offers their clients a variety of hosting plans depending on the nature of your business, be it a website, blog, app, or platform.
The options also include things like VPS hosting, shared hosting, and a couple of more choices. By giving you the freedom to choose, they’re able to help you plan on how you want your needs to be met.
A quick look online at the company will give you a clear representation of how people enjoy their services. They have numerous rave reviews from a satisfied client base which goes to show that their services are excellent.
As a web host provider, GoDaddy has one of the most intuitive systems in place. Their services are also expansive which means that bloggers looking to something extra from a web host are certainly going to enjoy.
Their plans are also affordable because you have access to plenty of storage at low rates. To further entice users, they offer a 45-day money-back guarantee and unlimited bandwidth.
As one of the most secure hosting companies out there, GoDaddy offers 24/7 security monitoring and DDoS protection for both Windows and Linux platforms.
As the world has slowly started to go green, so have a number of hosting companies. GreenGeeks is your best bet if you’re looking to kill two birds with one stone, positively contribute to the environment and access A1 hosting services.
On their platform, they proudly state that they use 300% renewable energy to power their web hosting functions. Admittedly, it’s easy to think that there’s a downside to this i.e. lower processing quality, but, in truth, this is not the case. Not only do they guarantee a 99.9% uptime, but they also offer other perks like free SSL certificate and domain registration at a measly £3.00 monthly.
If you’re thinking about starting your very first blog, then you definitely need to consider HostGator as the way to go. As a platform loved by people just starting out, they offer excellent 24/7 support and assurance of 99.9% uptime.
To access their services, you have to part with £3.25 monthly. Given that they offer a 45-day money back guarantee, they’re a bankable option.
In our review, we’ve highlighted the top hosting companies for bloggers in the market. Having read through all of them, we trust that you’ve discovered at least one option that appeals to you.
We carefully evaluated all of them to ensure that we only post hosting companies with a fantastic reputation among bloggers. Since you want to have a dependable platform, this is one attribute that you really need to be on the lookout for. While there may be cheaper alternatives out there, it’s best to take the tried and tested route. Dividends are sure to pay out in the long term.
Objectively speaking, businesses are always looking to do much more than just break even. Most businesses are able to do this by creating value in the markets they operate in and then leveraging the buying power of their clientele.
While this traditional approach has worked well over the years, the dawn of the internet age has forced many enterprises to rethink their strategies.
Sure, value addition remains a central premise for business operation. However, much more is needed if you want to stand out. We’ll be looking to highlight some of the major areas you need to cover ground if you’re looking to register impressive sales numbers going forward.
Traditionally, word of mouth marketing typically spread from one person to the next. The modernised version is somewhat different in that it describes both targeted efforts and naturally occurring happenings where individuals share their satisfaction with a brand.
Data from Nielsen has shown that about 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family over any other kind of advertising. As it’s already apparent, trust plays an important role in word of mouth marketing. In light of this, you need to foster the right conditions for word of mouth marketing to thrive. With that done, you’ll have broken down trust barriers that may exist and allowed influential customers to openly share their experiences with your company to the masses.
Given the fact that 74% of consumers have reported word of mouth being the key inspiration behind their buying decision, it’s crucial that you tap into this kind of marketing strategy.
If you look closely at the numbers, you’re bound to discover that there’s some long-term value when you invest in word of mouth marketing. This is because referred customers usually stick to a company over extended periods when compared to people who find your company using other means.
A contented customer base is likely going to direct more of their family, friends, and close associates to your direction. Going by this exponential growth curve alone, it’s logical to see just how valuable the first referral is.
As you look to venture into word of mouth marketing, it’s essential for you to understand that it happens in 2 ways, either organically or through marketing and ad campaigns. Since the two have inherent overlaps, it’s necessary for us to distinguish the two.
Video is one of the most powerful mediums out there. Research has shown that adding videos to your landing page can increase your conversion rate by as much as 80%.
When customers watch things like explainer videos, they’re able to visually identify the reasons why they need your product. This means that they’re likely to go further down the sales funnel and complete a sale.
It’s not surprising that this is the case because vision is our most dominant sense. Plenty of the information we are able to transmit to our brains is visual in nature. If the adage, a picture is worth a thousand words is actually true, then, there’s plenty to be said about moving pictures.
You can massively boost your return on investment by using video to tell your story. Luckily, you don’t need to be tech-savvy to come up with great videos. The internet is awash with video production and editing tools that you can quickly acquaint yourself with.
Importantly, you don’t need to come up with perfect videos in order to resonate with audiences. Content is the most important thing you need to be mindful of when producing your videos.
Organic traffic continues to shine when it comes to bringing in new prospects. Since most people discover brands online, it’s essential that you factor this is in your sales and marketing strategy, even if you’re a local business.
More specifically, you need to strive to have your brand get to the very first page of search engine results relevant to your client base.
Two decades before the online world became what it is today, many people weren’t acquainted about the best practices of the web. Today, the game has changed. Our phones are smarter and so are we.
Since most of the precious information is usually situated at the very top of search results, i.e. page one, it’s nigh impossible for visitors to check out websites found on successive pages after page one. We wrote a guide covering some great tips you can implement yourself to increase your local business rankings.
Brands like Facebook and Google use user engagement as a currency in measuring how websites are faring. They analyse even the most mundane of user actions like reactions, number of shares, the comments, and the click-to-conversion ratio. All this is done in a bid to bolster the efficiency of their algorithms.
The more engagements you’re able to register, the more likely it is for your ad to be shown frequently to audiences. As such, you need to aim to stay on page one of search results.
Having shared this, it’s worth documenting that website design also plays a key role in determining the success you have with prospects. The presence of broken links and error messages is not something that many willing buyers will be able to stomach. As alluded earlier, trust is of the essence in the sales game. You need to make sure that clients can trust in your business for them to truly become loyalists.
You’ve done it. After weeks of planning and countless discussions with your design team, you’ve finally got the green light. You’re ready to launch your beautiful brand new website to the world!
But although you might be tempted to push the ‘live’ button right away, it’s really important to test a few vital elements of the site before you start showing off the fruits of your labour to your potential customers.
Carrying out the ten final checks below will give you extra peace of mind that your new platform will perform at its very best after launch (and have a great chance of ranking well in the search engines, too!).
Before launch, go back to basics. Review and proofread all the content on your website to make sure it’s free from typos, poor grammar and duplicate copy.
This is essential for two reasons. Firstly, poorly written content won’t leave the best impression on your users. You only have five seconds or so to capture their attention and encourage them to explore everything your company can offer, so the last thing you want is for them to head straight over to a competitor’s site because they’ve been turned off by sub-standard writing.
And secondly, the major search engines such as Google will take your syntax into consideration when deciding whether or not to rank your web page in their organic listings. Bad content is less likely to rank well.
Pretend you’re a potential customer. Work your way through your site pathways to see if your new platform offers a simple, seamless experience.
Are your instructions clear? Is your main call to action displayed prominently on each page? Does your contact form return that reassuring ‘thank you’ message once it’s been completed? If you’re finding it difficult to get from A to B, or you’re encountering needless hurdles along the way, you need to address these flow and usability issues before you unleash your site to a wider audience.
It’s a simple check, but it often gets overlooked by webmasters who are keen to launch sooner rather than later. The load time of your pages will have a big impact on the user’s experience (and you’re probably already aware that slow load speeds can have an adverse effect on your SEO, too).
As we mentioned in a previous blog post How Important Is Site Speed For SEO, there are plenty of tools out there that can help you assess and improve your page load speed. Google’s PageSpeed Insights will give you plenty of food for thought, but other alternatives such as WebPageTest, GTmetrix and Pingdom will also return useful feedback.
This is a big one. More of us than ever before are using smartphones and tablets to navigate the web, so any new website must be able to render correctly on mobile browsers.
The best way to make sure your site is mobile responsive is to test it on as many devices as possible. If you spot any glitches, or you find that some or all of your content is displaying incorrectly, let your developers know so they can fix the problem before launch.
Again, there are tonnes of tools out there that can help you test responsive websites. Google Search Console’s Mobile-Friendly Test will show you exactly how your page is being displayed on a typical smartphone screen and will provide you with a site-wide mobile usability report that highlights any major concerns. Elsewhere on the web, you could use Responsinator, mobiReady or MobileTest.me to gauge the responsiveness of your latest creation.
If you want to improve your SEO rankings, you need a winning link building campaign.
Link building is a form of off-page SEO that helps to improve the credibility of your website. Getting links to your site placed on other reputable sites establishes your authenticity and boosts your rankings.
While the premise behind link building sounds simple enough, a successful campaign can be tricky to execute. If you want to get on the first page of Google, take a look at this step by step guide and start building your link building strategy today…
These small but mighty directives are often used by web designers while they’re creating your new website in a test platform. The noindex directive stops the search engines from being able to access the test site’s content while it’s still in development; the nofollow tag prevents Google from following links between pages.
As you can imagine, launching a website with noindex and nofollow tags is far from ideal if you want your pages to be found – so make sure they’re taken off the code when everything’s ready to go.
These handy tags let you control what content shows up when one of our web pages is shared on Facebook. They’re also recognised by Twitter and LinkedIn.
Needless to say, if you don’t have the right Open Graph tags in place, you won’t have any say in what copy is displayed when somebody shares your page or post on social media. Set up and customise these vital pieces of code as soon as you can (or ask your developer to do this for you).
If a user requests a page that doesn’t actually exist, your site will return what’s called a 404 error page. This page can play a key part in keeping the potential customer on the website if they’ve reached a dead end; an empty template will confuse them and, in the worst-case scenario, encourage them to jump ship.
Test your existing 404 pages to see if it follows the same design theme and contains visible links back to the homepage or other resource pages that might be of interest. If it doesn’t, get your developer to improve it ASAP.
Every website should contain two sitemaps: one written in HTML, and one in XML. The HTML sitemap is a more user-friendly version that’s easy for human eyes to follow, whereas the XML addition is designed specifically to help the search engine bots find and index your website’s pages.
Make sure your developer creates an accurate XML sitemap file, then uploads it to your root directory so it can be found at www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.
We’ve seen it time and time again. An organisation has created a flawless website – its design is impeccable, its UX is incredible, and its content adds that extra je ne sais quoi to the whole platform. But several weeks after launch, there’s not been one single enquiry… or so it seems.
In reality, plenty of people have tried to inquire about the company. But the contact form hasn’t been working properly, so all attempts at communication have been bouncing straight back to their potential customers.
Before you open up your website for business, make sure that your contact portal is set up to send your enquiries straight to the email address of your choice (and isn’t pinging correspondence to your developer, who may have used their own email to test the form during the development phase).
As we all know, the work doesn’t end with the launch of a website. If you really want to make a splash online, you’ll need to invest in an ongoing search engine optimisation campaign that will increase your reach and exposure over time.
To make sure you’re able to monitor your online performance, set up a Google Analytics account and link it to your website’s header to start tracking your site data from day one. The data generated by the software will give you valuable insight into where your traffic is coming from, how users are interacting with your pages, and how people are converting into genuine leads.
On-page SEO is of the essence because it plays a major role in how search engines like Google comprehend the content on your webpage.
In light of this, it’s is your job to ensure that all the content on your webpage is optimised from a subset of chosen keywords. Once this is enforced, you will find it easy to rank higher in SERP.
When you don’t have good onpage SEO, it becomes harder for you to stand out in your industry. This is especially true when you consider that there’s every possibility that your competitors have already optimised their pages to rank higher in search results.
While you may have a compelling backlink profile and awesome content, you may find yourself overshadowed by others simply because your webpage falls short in onpage SEO.
The most vital part of onpage SEO are the actual keywords you decide to target. If the keywords you select are too competitive, you’ll be inhibiting your chances to rank, irrespective of how well you optimise your page. To get a better understanding of what keywords are good to target for your London based business, we recommend to hire an SEO consultant as they will have extensive knowledge and know exactly what keywords are too competitive.
If you don’t then it’s important to conduct proper keyword research. When you do this, you’ll be able to find the best phrases with the highest search volume that you can target.
Having identified which keywords you’ll go with, your onpage SEO strategy needs to be focused on optimising your webpage for those particular keywords and their semantic options.
It’s also worth documenting that you need to sort out your title tag, the header tag, image alts and optimisation in the content itself. ClickSlice can help with that if need.
Here’s a breakdown of the top Onpage SEO tools in the market.
As divulged earlier, keywords are critically important in SEO campaigns. Not only do they provide you with a target to aim for, but they also guide your optimisation efforts.
While all this sounds quite easy on paper, keyword research can be quite tasking, especially if all you have is the Google AdWords tool.
With Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer, you can ease the workload by a significant fraction. This SEO tool is quite handy in that it allows you to discover new keywords to target whilst showing you all the backlink data. The fact that it enables you to conduct comparison tests on different keywords makes this tool a gem.
A number of businesses use SEOCrawler as their key onpage SEO tool. The Site Auditor feature is probably their most impressive asset. With it, you can analyse a page in a swift manner and get updates on page speed, duplicate content, broken links, and keyword optimisation. Impressively, all this is provided in an instant.
With such automation features at your disposal, you can save plenty of time and divert your attention towards more lucrative ventures out there.
The Site Auditor feature also provides users with suggestions on how they can enhance their webpage for more effectiveness. With the changes made, you can monitor just how impactful the changes were on the Rank Tracker.
This neat tool is particularly useful if you’re outsourcing the services of a copywriter for your brand. Since Google favours original content, it’s imperative that the content that’s delivered to you is in no way duplicated from other platforms.
To get started with the tool, all you need to do is paste content into their editor and it will scan its records before letting you know just how unique the copy is.
Cognizant of the fact that an increasing number of people conduct internet searches on their phones, Google has upped the ante by introducing page speed as part of their ranking factors.
In today’s world, websites have to ensure that their pages load fast. When they do, they’re likely to win over a significant section of the mobile community. If you’re looking to rank favourably with mobile users, it’s up to you to ensure that your pages load swiftly after launch.
You can make use of the Google PageSpeed Insight tool to analyse just how fast your page is. The tool does a great job of suggesting a couple of improvement areas that can take your page to the next level and rank higher in SERP’s.
This tool does a great job of analysing your webpage and notifying you just how it compares to their specially curated checklist of SEO factors. After analysis, the tool gives you a result that indicates the overall grade of your website with suggestions on how to make enhancements.
The real beauty of Moz On-Page Grader is that it has an intuitive design which makes it the perfect tool for novices. If you’re looking for a tool that will guide you through the ropes of onpage SEO, this is the best way to get acquainted.
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