Can’t Be Found On Google? Here Are 7 Reasons Why They Can’t Index Your Site

Are you struggling to get your website found on Google? Are you afraid your competitors are snapping up all your potential customers?

 

In order to place you in their search engine results Google needs to be able to “crawl” your website using a series of programs called spiders which move from link to link taking note of your coding and content. If Google can’t do that then your site won’t be listed in their search results!

 

QuickSprout have put together the infographic below describing the indexing process in more detail as well as listing seven common reasons why Google can’t index your site.

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2014/12/23/cant-be-found-on-google-here-are-7-reasons-why-they-cant-index-your-site/

 

Old SEO vs New SEO: What You Should Stop Doing and What to do Instead

The process of optimising a website for search engines like Google (SEO) is a constantly changing field, and it’s important to keep up with these changes if you want to succeed online.

 

Using old techniques that Google now considers spammy may work in the short to medium term, but you can be sure Google will catch you out eventually and slap you in the face with a penalty that could take you months to recover from.

 

For what’s hot and what’s not take a look at this infographic from Digital Marketing Phillipines.

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2014/12/08/old-seo-vs-new-seo-what-you-should-stop-doing-and-what-to-do-instead/

 

3 Reasons to Create a Sales Video

A sales video can transform your sales pitch from boring to interactive. It sells your business to clients and can heighten their interest in setting up a meeting with you. A sales video sells your product or services, and captures why someone should be interested in what you have to offer.

A sales video can transform your sales pitch from boring to interactive. It sells your business to clients and can heighten their interest in setting up a meeting with you. A sales video sells your product or services, and captures why someone should be interested in what you have to offer.

 

Why Have a Sales Video?
 

1) Pamphlets Are a Thing of the Past

 

Today, the average North American watches four hours of television everyday. Compare that to the fact that the average North American reads only one book every year. This information shows us that nowadays people get more of their information from video than anything else.

 

Business’s should consider video as the way to get the word out. Nobody wants to spend time anymore reading long pamphlets or going through a plain PowerPoint. Business videos are quick and get the message across better than any other platform. 

 

2) Sales Videos Create Impact

 

No matter how much you know a movie is not real life, it will always still impact you. Whether it gives you the feeling of happiness, sadness or sheer excitement, a video can cause emotions that a webpage or brochure cannot. It doesn’t have to be a Hollywood video. Simply adding music to a presentation can build impact.

 

3) You’ll Never Be as Good 

 

It doesn’t matter how good of a sales person you are, but you can never deliver information the way a video can. A video can be organized and edited in a way that includes photos, graphics, music and sound, that can truly capture the message you want to send.

 

Email your business video to the individual you hope to set a meeting up with before speaking with them in order to increase excitement that is harder to provide over the phone. 

 

http://www.n5r.com/blog/3-reasons-to-create-a-sales-video

 

4 SEO Tactics to Embrace in 2015

Remember when the meta keyword tag was popular? Or when a good SEO strategy was to put keywords in everything (URL, title, description, headings, images ALT text, side nav, main nav, footer nav, in the keywords and 231 times in the body content)?

 

Welcome to 2015, where the world of search is a completely different game. In fact, in 2015 you need to check site pages to be certain keywords aren’t overused in key elements.
 So why are so many SEOs still recommending that webpages include the "targeted keyword" in the URL, title, headings, and corpus? Can you say penalty risk?

 

We can touch on a hundred different SEO strategies do improve your website, but below are 4 ways a beginner can start improving their site.

 

Hummingbird Made SEO Much Easier

 

Search engines no longer value pages filled with targeted keywords. Google’s Hummingbird algorithm drove a final nail into the keyword coffin. With Hummingbird, Google proved that they now understand what your page is about; they know the topic of the page, how unique the content is, and how well it’s written.

 

Searchmetrics released their annual white paper detailing ranking factors and rank correlations. What they found was that there is little to no benefit to strategically incorporating keywords in different page elements, and often sites can be negatively impacted. You can also read a summary of Searchmetric’s report on Moz’s website.

 

Practices that Will Strengthen the Value of a Website

 

1) Skip Meta Keywords

Remember in preschool when you’d draw on the walls and your teacher would say, "If you can’t learn how to use the crayons then I’m going to take them away from you"? You would laugh and continue drawing on the walls, only to have the teacher take your crayons.

 

Now imagine the crayons are Meta keywords and Google is that mean, old preschool teacher. Google took Meta keywords away because we didn’t use them correctly. Search engines have taken it a step further and declared that meta keywords could be a spam signal.

 

In 2009 Google’s Matt Cutts posted on the official Google Blog, "Google doesn’t use the 'keywords' meta tag in our web search ranking." Still don’t believe? Read Bing’s guidelines for webmasters to get the full picture.

 

Solution: Stop using Meta keywords
 

2) Don’t Stuff Your Content with Keywords

Nothing is worse than arriving to a site and finding content with keywords strategically (and awkwardly) positioned throughout. Let’s just put this one to bed here and now. Keyword density is no longer important and you should stop any and all strategies aiming at stuffing keywords into your content.

 

Instead, learn about an important concept known as TF-IDF, or term frequency-inverse document frequency. TD-IDF means that content should include different phrases and that some of those phrases should appear more frequently than others.

 

For example, a page about Nintendo should include the word Nintendo more frequently than the words Mario and Luigi, but Mario and Luigi should (probably) appear on the page because they are related to the topic of the page.

 

Solution: Let’s not over complicate the solution here. Cyrus Shepard wrote a comprehensive post about keyword targeting explaining what I’ll summarize in a few bullet points.

 

Optimizing Content for Users and Ranking

1. Decide upon a topic for a page or blog post
2. Extensively research said topic
3. Write content that is uniquely valuable to your targeted visitor
4. Verify that you have written a minimum of 400 words
5. Split the content into short paragraphs, consisting of 2-4 sentences, or bulleted lists
6. Add a headline to the opening of each paragraph to describe the upcoming info
7. Within the body content create anchor text links to a similar page on the site
8. Add a page title that speaks to your targeted visitor and the topic of the page
9. Make the page easily shareable on social networks

The result will be an authoritative, user friendly, search engine friendly piece of content for your site.
 

3) Don't Ignore Your Meta Description

This last one isn’t so much about what companies do, but instead it’s what they fail to do. Too often I see sites with a Meta description that has been completely ignored, or maybe worse yet, use a tool or plug-in to dynamically generate a Meta description.

 

You have about 215 total characters (or 512px by 100px) to persuade searchers to click on your listing in SERP. 215 characters include the page title and Meta description. 215 characters because SERP is dependent upon pixels and not characters (the letter 'W' is obviously wider than "I").

 

Plain and simple, Meta descriptions are a conversion factor. Meta descriptions are not a factor in ranking algorithms, though. Knowing that they impact CTR why would you ignore them?

 

Solution: Take time to write compelling Meta descriptions for all important pages of the site, and for any pages that can be shared socially. While 155 characters is target length, keep in mind that words aligning with the search query will be bolded, causing your description to be longer. So it would be advisable to keep the character length between 115-145 characters. It’s also important to include some form of a CTA or value proposition. Words like ‘decide,’ 'learn,’ or 'find out' can be considered calls to action in this situation.
 

4) Don't Forget to Markup Pages with Schema, RDFa, JSON-LD

Next time you search in Google or Bing, look at the results. Spot the results that contain more information than just a title, description, and URL. Those results have additional info because the html of the site is marked up to relay explicit information to crawlers. The result is more equity of SERP.

 

BuildVisible wrote a comprehensive guide to help with Microdata. They found that search listings with rich snippets would be clicked on up 25% more frequently.

 

Solution: Plain and simple, make microdata part of every site you create. Markup logos, images, addresses, phone numbers, business name, type of business, reviews, prices, software, and anything else that’s relevant to the site. Clients will thank you and visitors will appreciate it.

 

Conclusion

 

Once you’re using these tactics you can build upon them. Taking just these steps will help your site rank, but optimizing a website is a practice that doesn’t really end. You can stop improving certain pages, but the site as a whole can always be improved.

 

You may not be an SEO expert, but you’ll strengthen your website with the simple strategies above.

 

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/seo-tactics-2015

 

9 Things Great Writers Do Every Day

You’re a writer, a content creator. People expect you to churn out really good, really engaging, and really awesome content.

 

What they don’t realize is that it takes some serious effort to create great stuff. That article that is so easy for them read is actually really difficult for you to write.

Thankfully, through the sheer power of habits, you can get to the point where creating awesome content comes naturally. Habits have the uncanny ability to stick with you. They’re a pain to implement, but they flow effortlessly after that. In the interest of making your tough job a little bit easier, here are a few daily habits that will make your content much better.

 

 

Remember, these are daily habits. Skip the weekend if you want, but be sure to put these into practice during the days that you’re expected to produce content.

 

1) Read Something Really Well Written

 

The next few tips have to do with reading. One of the best ways to become a better writer is to read what others have written. You’re not going to become a solid professional writer if you spend all day reading low-quality content. But if you spend more of your day reading professional-grade content, then you will improve.

 

The tough thing is, you have to be discerning to find the really good stuff online. To start, here’s a list of places where the content quality stays high:

• Harvard Business Review
• New York Times
• Slate

Don’t be afraid to pay for top-tier content. There’s a reason it costs money, and it’s often well worth it.

 

2) Read Something Funny

 

Reading humor can help shake up your brain in ways that loosen up the creative portions and help you produce better content. If you need to get your fix of Buzzfeed or The Oatmeal, go ahead. Don’t feel guilty about it.

 

Sometimes, the best few minutes of your day are spent laughing. You’ll enjoy a lot of benefits besides just the kick you got out of the hilarious content. You’ll enjoy the benefit of writing better content yourself. Your content may not be funny, but it will be good.

 

3) Read Something Outside of Your Niche

 

If you want to get better, read broader.

 

Reading other stuff -- really different stuff -- has a way of cross-pollinating your own writing specialty. For example, maybe you write about conversion rate optimization all day. If that’s the case, then take a few minutes to read a blog about yoga.

 

Yoga?! Why? Because the style, approach, and nature of content that is outside your niche can help you within your niche.

 

Good writing, regardless of what it’s about, will help you become a better writer.

 

4) Read Something You Wrote in the Past

 

Great orators spend hours watching their speeches. Professional athletes analyze videos of their moves. Politicians watch themselves on TV.

 

You’re a writer, so you should read content that you wrote in the past. The goal of reading past content is not to edit it. It’s too late for that. Instead, you want to learn from it.

• What was good about it?
• What things do you write best about?
• What wasn’t so good?
• What sounds awkward?

Ask yourself those questions and spend a few minutes getting a better understanding of how you’re doing as a writer.

 

5) Write for at Least 30 Minutes

 

The most powerful tip in this whole list is right here: Write for at least 30 minutes every workday. (Skip the weekends; you deserve the break.)

 

To become a better writer, you have to write. A lot. Every day. There’s no way to improve without actually doing it.

 

When you get into the habit of writing on a daily basis, your brain begins to anticipate it and prepare for it. This is especially true if you write at the same time each day. Way before you put hands to the keyboard, the brain’s juices are flowing, allowing you to be more creative, more precise, and more skillful during your writing time.

 

Every 30 minutes that you spend writing is 30 minutes that you’re getting better. Progress may not be huge, but at least it’s progress.

 

6) Force Yourself to Talk to Someone

 

Talking is different from writing. But talking can help you become a better writer, too.

If you want to write better, then talk better. You can’t improve your talking skills by staying silent all day.

 

If you work by yourself, call up a friend. If you work in an office, shoot the breeze over lunch or coffee. Just pick someone, and be conversational. Using your writing skills to some verbal interchange will actually help your writing become better.

 

7) Go for a Walk

 

Science has proven that taking a walk helps us think better. Some even say that it makes us smarter.

Let’s face it. Writing is a mental challenge. You must be in keen mental shape to be able to produce the kind of stuff that you’re producing.

 

So, if you want to sharpen your mind, then get out of your chair, head for the door, and don’t come back for at least 10 minutes. This isn't a brainstorming walk. You don’t have to think about anything, let alone your subject matter. Instead, you just move your body, and your mind will take care of the rest.

 

8) Write Fast

 

It may sound strange, but some of my best content is stuff that I wrote really fast.

 

Obviously, it had tons of typos and grammar errors, but overall, the content itself was pretty darn good.

 

I’ve recently discovered the reason for this. The mind can generate thoughts way faster than the hands can type them. If, however, you’re able to type faster, you're able to transcribe more of those thoughts, along with extra nuance and clarity.

 

Your fingers will never be able to match the speed at which you think, but when you do produce content rapidly, it has a much better chance of aligning with what you’re thinking.

 

I’ve met people who say “Oh I can’t write. It just comes so slow!” Actually, I bet they could write, if only they type it out faster.

 

You don’t have to turn on your supersonic speed all the time, but it’s helpful to get in the habit of writing fast.

 

Write fast. Edit slow.

 

9) Google Any Grammar Questions

 

An important part of writing is the mechanical stuff -- making sure you’re not breaking any grammar laws or violating any rules.

 

(A few well-intentioned rule breaking is okay, but if you’re being sloppy, that’s just bad form.)

 

If you come up against a grammar issue while you’re writing, do a quick Google search on it. It will only take a few minutes, but you’ll definitely learn something and possibly avoid an embarrassing mistake. Get into the habit of double-checking your grammar, even if you’re only slightly suspicious of your potential mistake.

 

Conclusion

 

Stay positive. Nobody becomes a better writer automatically. It takes months, even years, to form habits. But once those habits are in place, things can flow without any thought and hardly any effort. Before you know it, your writing is improving exponentially.

 

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/habits-great-writers

 

3 SEO Vulnerabilities to Avoid When Changing the Design of Your Site

Updating the design and structure of your site from time to time is a requirement of the age of online marketing. Designs get stale, technology evolves, and your customers are always looking for the next big thing, so eventually, whether it’s two years or six years down the line, you’ll have to rebuild your website from the ground up.

 

It’s an exciting opportunity for the entrepreneur enthusiastic about the future of the brand. It’s a new challenge and another project for the design and development team. But for the search marketer trying to maintain and build on their site’s current level of success, the whole process can be a nightmare. Pulling one version of your website down and putting another one up is like swiftly pulling a tablecloth out from under a set table without breaking or moving anything; it’s next to impossible unless you know what you’re doing.

 

Fortunately, many of us have gone through the process before and have escaped at least relatively unscathed. Chances are, you’re going to see a bit of volatility no matter what, but you can mitigate the effects by watching out for these three common vulnerabilities:

 

1. A Changing URL Structure.

The biggest problem you’re likely going to face as you update your website is a disconnection between your old URL structure and your new URL structure. In a perfect world, you would maintain an identical URL structure, thereby preventing the possibility of a discrepancy, but then you probably wouldn’t need to be updating your site in the first place.

 

There’s one critical danger here, which can have a rippling effect that permanently damages your domain authority and crashes your ranks. Your URLs have history with Google, and Google likes links with history. Its search engine algorithm has come to expect your site to be in a very specific structure and a very specific order, and when it goes to crawl your new site, if it doesn’t see what it expects to see, it triggers a red flag. Historical links, with lots of credibility, that suddenly disappear in favor of entirely new links can wreak havoc on your domain authority, putting you in the same position as a site for a brand that just launched.

 

The problem is compounded by external links. Naturally, you’ve built a number of links on external sites pointing to various internal pages of your domain in an effort to improve your authority. If any of those links become no longer relevant, the page rank those links pass will become useless, and you’ll have a profile full of dead links pointing to nowhere, further damaging your domain authority and possibly interfering with your inbound traffic.

 

Fortunately, there is a simple—but admittedly painstaking—strategy you can use to ensure this outcome doesn’t occur. First, you’ll need to set up a Webmaster Tools account and crawl your site or use an alternative tool to generate a list of all the URLs found on your current website structure—and don’t forget about all your subdomains! Then, if you can, do everything you can to keep that link structure as similar as possible.

 

For any old links that do not have an immediate counterpart in the new site, or for links whose names have changed, you’ll want to set up 301 redirects. Fortunately, setting up 301 redirects is easy, and once they’re in place, any traffic that would encounter your old URL will be automatically pointed to the new one. This should prevent any damaging crawl errors from Google, and will definitely keep all your inbound external links accurate and functional.

 

2. Design and CMS Pains.

Unless you’re working for a very small business, your new website is going to be in the hands of many individuals from many teams and many different departments. Everybody is going to have their own perspectives on what would be best with the site. Multiple opinions, collaborating together can ultimately culminate in the greatest final product, but you can’t forget about Google’s perspective.

 

Graphic designers want to make the most visually appealing site possible, but there are some design principles that need to be balanced in order to fit with Google’s priorities and prevent a nosedive in your ranks. For example, most designers would prefer a site designed with minimalism, with only a handful of links in the navigation and as little onsite content as possible. However, Google likes to see lots of high-quality pages, and without ample onsite content, the search engine may find it difficult to understand your purpose. There is always room for a compromise, so work with your designers to find a good balance that works for both of your goals.

 

Similarly, other members of your team may have strong preferences when it comes to selecting a CMS, either due to price or personal opinions. There are hundreds of CMS options out there, with varying compatibilities and functionality with SEO. Be sure to do your research and vet your options when considering a transition.

 

3. The Same Old Mistakes.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, transitioning to a new site is an opportunity to fix all the mistakes that were holding you back with the old site. Passing over this opportunity, or failing to give it its due attention, is a critical mistake and a vulnerability you cannot afford to neglect.

 

Throughout the planning and design process, run an audit of your current efforts on your current site. Where are you ranking? How much traffic are you getting? Where is that traffic going and how is it behaving? What problems are inherent in your navigation, and what gaps are there in your meta data?

 

Your first priority when designing a new site, from an SEO perspective, is your navigation. It needs to be simple and intuitive, but fleshed out enough so that any new visitor will know exactly where to go. It also needs to have strong anchor pages with keywords related to your business, and clear sitemaps for Google to read and understand your site.

 

Second, you’ll need to examine which of your pages tend to attract or retain the most traffic, and look for ways to replicate its success in your other pages (in terms of design, content, and purpose). While not directly linked to the process of getting a new site up and running, this is also a good idea to review your ongoing tactics and find ways to improve them.

 

Even though the process is ripe with SEO vulnerabilities that could shake up your rankings or traffic flow, your website rebuild is an opportunity, first and foremost. Treat it as such, and you’ll be able to reap the benefits.

 

No matter how much you plan or how closely you monitor the progress of your site transfer, it’s likely that there will be some hiccups in your web traffic and search standings. Try not to obsess over them; as long as you dedicate yourself to following the same (or improved) ongoing best practices as you did with your old site, you’ll see similar patterns of growth with the new one. Remember that SEO is a long-term strategy, and any short-term volatility you experience during the site transfer (as long as you’ve accounted for the critical vulnerabilities) is temporary.

 

http://www.audiencebloom.com/2015/02/3-seo-vulnerabilities-avoid-changing-design-site/

 

10 Quick Tips For Marketing Your Website Effectively

Marketing your website properly is just as important (if not more important) as having a properly designed and developed website. In today’s digital world, having a website that works to increase revenue and sales is crucial, especially in a time where a nonexistent (or outdated) website could cost your company hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars in lost sales.

 

It’s a necessity to have a marketing strategy in line with the goals of your company or organization, and in order to increase traffic and revenue at your website, it will take a heavy dose of effort to get your website where you want it. Use these tips below, and continue to research the world of internet marketing, there’s much left to be learned!

 

 

Without further ado, here’s 10 quick tips for marketing your website effectively…

 

1. Make a BIG deal out of the launch of your website!

 

You should be proud of your new site, and use this as a tool to contact your customers to let them know things are changing, and for the better. Market the new features your site will have both online and offline, and let it be known that you’ve invested in yourself.

 

2. Start a subscription-based newsletter.

 

Every company, in my opinion, should have some sort of informative newsletter. Your newsletter should be published on a set schedule, but only one that you can maintain. Ideally, your newsletters should contain informative articles. You don’t need too much content, but the content you have should be eye-catching, easy to read, and something that people want to see. If you bore your customers with your newsletter, you won’t be helping to market your website. Create a newsletter that compels people to do something… write a how-to on something related to your industry, or a top 10 tips that people might find interest in (wink, wink).

 

3. Add your website to your company’s voicemail message.

 

Even if it’s something along the lines of, “Leave us a message, or contact us on the web at www-dot-yourwebsitehere-dot-com. Are you seeing a trend here? It’s important to TALK about your website, and if you have something people want to see (which you should with that fancy site of yours!), your work will pay off.

 

4. Put your website on your company building’s sign.

 

This one’s sort of a no-brainer, but what better of a way to get people to scope out your company in the comfort of their own home. People driving by will remember your address, especially if you have an eye-catching sign, and make your website large enough and easy to read from a distance.

 

5. Tell Google when you’ve got new content…

 

Take this tip straight from Google themselves, “If your site is very new, we may not know about it yet. Tell Google about your site. One way to expedite Google’s discovery of new pages is to submit a Sitemap. Even if your site is already in the index, Sitemaps are a great way to tell Google about the pages you consider most important.” If you aren’t sure if your site has a sitemap indexed with Google, or you’d like help building your sitemap and properly publishing it, contact your web developer.

 

6. Use an email signature in your correspondences, and make sure that a link to your website is in it.

 

Not only will this provide for an easy way for your customers (or potential customers) to find your site, but it will also allow for an easy portal for them to visit you.

 

7. Yes, your website is up and running, but now how are people going to find it?

 

Many companies build a website and forget about it… YIKES! Use social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter to broadcast your website to those you are in contact with. For small businesses and start ups, word of mouth can be the difference between success and failure!

 

8. Advertising your site offline is equally important as advertising your site online.

 

Make sure your web address is in your literature and publications (business cards, corporate branding material, fax cover sheets, etc.)

 

9. Update your website AT LEAST once a month.

 

I would say less than once a week is too little, but it’s important to keep your content fresh, especially if you have an informational site.

 

10. Make sure that your website is built with valid code.

 

Check your meta tags are properly used, and each page has a proper title. Consult your web developer about these items, as they are all important for your website to have.

 

Realize that the key to successfully marketing your website is a never-ending, integral process that you NEED to do. Take the time to properly work on the items above, and dedicate yourself to doing it right. You just invested in your website, right? Why not make the most of it and start seeing your hard-earned efforts pay off!

 

http://2marketawebsite.com/10-quick-tips-for-marketing-your-website-effectively-2/

 

8 SEO Trends Every Website Owner Must Pay Attention To In 2015

Do you know what SEO trends will affect your website in 2015? Want to make sure you’re keeping up with Google’s latest guidelines?

 

It’s essential for any website owner wanting to be found online to understand what Google is looking at when they crawl their site and, perhaps more importantly, what makes them decide who should rank above who.

 

Take a look at this infographic from CJG Digital Marketing for their 8 trends to look out for.

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2015/01/27/8-seo-trends-every-website-owner-must-pay-attention-to-in-2015/

 

SEO is Dead! Here’s What You Should be Doing Now

We’ve been harping on for a while now that content marketing is the new SEO. CopyBlogger have taken this theory that one step further and claim that SEO is officially dead and has been replaced by the term OC / DC which stands for Optimising Content for Discovery and Conversion.

 

Their infographic below takes you through the steps they believe have replaced the traditional SEO methods of keywords and link building. Whilst we agree with the principal, we won’t stop using the term SEO just yet.

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2014/04/28/seo-is-dead-heres-what-you-should-be-doing-now/

 

Was Your Site Hit By Google’s Panda Or Penguin?

Was Your Site Hit By Google’s Panda Or Penguin? This Flowchart May Help You Find Out.

 

Columnist Janet Driscoll Miller has put together this handy flow chart to help you determine if your site has been hit by one of Google's infamous algorithm updates.

 

I regularly receive emails and calls from desperate website owners trying to understand why they saw sudden drops in traffic to their site.

 

Unfortunately, most of these site owners don’t have time or know-how to follow the algorithm updates, so they’re often baffled about what the cause might be.

 

When I’m contacted by one of these site owners, I first try to determine if the root cause was an algorithm update.

 

Because algorithm updates tend to have a specific timetable associated with them, I find them often easier to identify than other site changes — especially since many website owners do not thoroughly document changes made to page content or other areas of the site.

 

This lack of documentation can make it difficult to ascertain exactly what actions may have led to a rankings loss, whereas losses within a certain window of time may correlate directly with an algorithm update, often making the problem and the solution faster to diagnose.

 

In conjunction with Search Engine Land, I developed this flow chart to help others follow a process to determine if a Panda or Penguin algorithm update may be affecting their sites.

 

The flow chart should only be used as a guide, however. It is not a guarantee but rather a potential indicator that your site may have been hit by one of these updates.

 

 

 http://searchengineland.com/site-hit-panda-penguin-flowchart-may-help-find-209384

 

Tips & Tricks for Searching Google Like a Pro

Sometimes, I wish Google would just read my mind.

 

I usually have this thought after trying variation after variation of pretty specific search terms, like "recent social media statistics," without finding what I'm looking for. You'd think those search terms would return relevant results -- it's not like I typed in "cool shoes" and hoped for the best. But they don't -- and after a few attempts, I just want to hand over the reins to Google and say, "Can you please just find me what I'm looking for?"

 

Alright, so Google can't quite read your mind (yet ...), but they do have lots of operators in place to help you find more relevant search results.

You just have to know what those tricks are and how to use them. 

 

  

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/google-search-tips

 

10 Ways to Increase Conversions Using Psychology

The best marketers I know are always on the lookout for clever hacks and tools to increase their conversion rates. They're the ones to jump on Snapchat, or experiment with animated GIFs in email, or hack together a parallax scrolling landing page. 

 

The best marketers I know also understand that these new tools and ingenious hacks don't always pan out.

Sometimes, jumping on the latest trends doesn't make a dent in your conversion rates, no matter how well you've implemented them.

 

So to make sure they're hitting their goals every month, top marketers will optimize their marketing based on something that's been around for a while now: human behavior. They read up on what makes people tick -- and adjust their marketing accordingly. 

 

Thanks to Help Scout, getting up to speed on the most important research in psychology is easy. In the infographic below, they've curated and summed up some smart, science-backed tips for increasing your conversions. Check it out!

 

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/increase-conversions-psychology

 

9 Professional New Year's Resolutions You Should Actually Keep

I never used to make New Year's resolutions. They seemed like a forced, trite way to make a change in my life. If I really wanted to change, why would I wait around for January First? I figured I'd be better off just making sporadic changes throughout the year.

 

Well, that strategy hasn't always served me well. Waiting until I "felt ready" to change often enabled me to push aside goals that were important to me but not time-sensitive goals -- like learning photography with a new camera I was given -- in favor of more time-sensitive goals, like making next week's brunch plans with friends.
 

But I got fed up with constantly pushing my goals back. I really did want to change. So one December, I decided to really commit to creating solid New Year's resolutions ... and it actually worked. By putting specific, time-bound goals in place, I was much more likely to achieve them. 

 

The great thing about resolutions is they don't have to just live in your personal life; they can be a powerful aid to help you grow your business, too. If you're looking to set resolutions for next year but are struggling with coming up with some solid, achievable ideas, keep on reading. Here nine resolutions you could pick for next year, and give you additional reading and resources to help you actually accomplish them.
 

1) Master Excel

It might seem like an old-school skill, but knowing how to use Excel can come in handy far more often than you think. The next time you have to create a custom report based on two data sources, track the growth of your marketing, or make a chart to prove a point to your boss, you're going to wish you knew how to use the program.
 

2) Improve Your Design Skills

You've probably heard all the hype about visual content already -- you just haven't buckled down to start creating some yourself. 

 

Well, 2015 is the year to do it. As more and more content on the web becomes visual, you're going to need to be able to create the content yourself -- or, if you have a bigger budget, learn to better communicate with contractors and agencies to create it for you.
 

3) Hire New, Awesome Teammates

I'd venture a guess that most marketers are strapped for time and resources -- which means you'll be looking to hire new talent in the upcoming year. 

 

If you're going to choose this resolution, be sure to take your time. It's all about hiring the right candidate, not a warm body that can tweet on your company's behalf. You need to ensure that you have a solid job description and a vigorous screening process to ultimately find a solid teammate. This process could take weeks, months, or even a full year, so get started as early as you can.
 

4) Develop a Mobile Strategy (Seriously)

For several years, you've heard about mobile becoming an important focus for marketers ... but have you truly invested the resources to learn about mobile, and adapted your marketing strategy accordingly? 

 

If not, spend some time next year developing a mobile strategy and overhauling your website, emails, social accounts, blog, and any other online content to be mobile-friendly.
 

5) Blog Consistently

Blogging is like working out: You've got to do it consistently to see great results. You can't just publish once every few months and expect to rack up the views, lead, and customers. 

 

If you're struggling to keep a tight editorial calendar, then commit to blogging consistently this year. It doesn't matter if you decide to blog every two weeks, every week, or every day -- the point here is to pick a frequency you think you can accomplish, and stick to it. Once you develop a solid, reliable cadence, then you can work on increasing the volume.
 

6) Don't Forget About Your Old Content, Too

If you already have a solid publishing cadence established, you might want to take the New Year to look back at your well-performing content. Take time to identify the posts that perform best for you, and then figure out how you can squeeze even more juice out of them. Next, apply those experiments' findings to the posts that are "second tier" -- the ones that are decently successful, but could be even more so if you optimized them. 

 

Spending time optimizing content you've already created can be a great way to keep your evergreen content fresh for readers and search engines.
 

7) Run Big, Strategic Tests

Many marketers tend to run small, haphazard tests -- a subject line A/B test here, a CTA color change there. But all of these incremental tests might not really make a difference in your marketing. 

 

In the new year, think about running larger, more strategic tests to get to the heart of what your audience enjoys. Challenge conventional best practices. Make big changes to your marketing. Make your experiments as statistically valid as possible. By doing bigger experiments, you'll have a better chance of getting big results.
 

8) Invest in Better Measurement

Ahh, marketing ROI ... one of the most notoriously difficult things to measure, but also the key to unlocking career growth. So why not make it your New Year's resolution next year? 

 

If you're going to tackle this in the New Year, I'd highly suggest setting up a coffee meeting with your counterpart in Sales within the first two weeks of the year. To justify your department's impact, you're going to need to tie your activities to the bottom line -- and your Sales team can help you do just that. Meeting early and often in the process will be key to your success.
 

9) Move to the Next Level of Your Career

Regardless of what "next" means for you -- changing your title, getting more responsibilities, starting your own thing -- you can set out to accomplish it this year. While it may take longer than a year to fully accomplish the career goal, setting up a plan for yourself to make big, life-changing moves isn't a bad thing. If your goal is really really monstrous, try breaking it into a year-over-year plan, and using the first year plan as the basis for your resolutions. 

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/new-years-resolutions-marketers

How Google Works

Ever wonder how Google manages to serve you just the content you're looking for? You put in a few words, and within a few microseconds, you've got pages and pages of results ready to address your query. It's so fast, so accurate, and so comprehensive, it almost seems like magic.

 

Almost. But we all know there's more to delivering great search results than waving a magic wand.

 

So how does Google actually work? Neil Patel at Quick Sprout put together the following animated infographic to break down Google's process for finding and serving up search results. Check it out below:

 

 

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-google-works?utm_campaign=blog-rss-emails&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=15434572

 

7 SEO Predictions That Could Determine the Success of Your Website in 2015

Do you want to improve your search engine ranking in 2015? Want to know the SEO trends likely to hit the web and shape the success of your website?

 

Google is constantly changing and we see 2015 being no different, they’ll continue to update existing algorithms and introduce new ones to keep up with the spammers and scammers that try to game the system.

 

We’ve scoured some of the top SEO blogs on the interweb for their top tips and predictions for 2015 and have collated the most common in the infographic below.

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2014/12/15/7-seo-predictions-that-could-determine-the-success-of-your-website-in-2015/

 

Nobody Knows What They Are Doing, Not Even the Experts.

Recently I attended WordCamp SF, a 2 day collaborative conference on all things WordPress. Being new to the WordPress community, with numerous stories of it being very ‘cliquey’ and cult-like, I was worried about fitting in and speaking the language of these WordPress experts. Fortunately these fears were misplaced, instead I found a wonderful community of passionate people excited to help each other learn, swap ideas and share stories of success and failure. It was inspiring to see people from all walks of life coming together to advance the Internet and the WordPress mission ‘to democratize publishing’.

 

Amongst all the really great content, one talk in particular stood out: New to WordPress Development.

 

The speaker Mickey Kay had asked some Web Development experts the following question:
 

When coding what % of the time do you know exactly how to do something?

The Answer?  42% – that’s less than half the time!

 

This was so stunning I had to share it on Twitter…

 

 

This statement must have struck a chord as it rippled through the twittersphere with 100’s of RT’s and Faves. Being really surprised by this response I thought it worthy of of further exploration.

 

Why did this comment resonate with so many people?

 

For many of us there is a constant fear of being “found out”. The dirty little secret that you ‘borrowed’ a few lines of code being discovered by your boss, your client, or your peers, and that somehow this will devalue your work. We constantly worry that people will see us as amateurs who stumble across our answers by hacking until we get it right, rather than the professional who knows exactly what they are doing at all times. So to find out that not even the experts know what they are doing all of the time (or even most of the time) is very comforting.

 

We think of an expert as someone who knows everything there is to know about a subject, a master of their craft. But here’s the real secret, the Internet is evolving so fast that there are no ‘experts’, there can’t be. The internet never stops growing, morphing and evolving, it is the embodiment of billions of ideas, a collective consciousness that can never be mastered, only learnt from.

 

 

The reality is Web Development is more science than art and that means following the scientific methods of establishing theories, testing them, and assessing the results. The Internet doesn’t move forward in leaps and bounds. It edges forward one line of code at a time, slowly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible by constantly blending new and old ideas and concepts to produce a desired result.

 

This is precisely the principles that WordPress, perhaps the most powerful open-source project in the world, is built on. A global community evolving by sharing ideas, constantly adding to, modifying, and testing (and fixing!) each others’ code. Incorporating new ideas and technologies to create something that no one person alone could imagine.

 

So don’t be afraid to admit that you don’t know all the answers all the time. This doesn’t mean that you don’t know what you are doing. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The fact that you can ‘borrow’ disparate ideas from multiple places and mash them up to create something functional is in itself quite masterful. Indeed, take comfort in the knowledge that you can’t ever become an ‘expert’ at Web Development. No one can. The best you can do is keep learning and trying something new everyday. As long as you’re learning, you are an expert.

 

http://www.pagelines.com/the-big-secret-in-web-development/

 

6 Ecommerce Design Mistakes That Can Cost You Heavily This Holiday Season

The Christmas and New Year holidays are a real lottery for Ecommerce businesses. Some of them earn as much as 40% of their annual revenue during the last quarter of the year.

 

With such a big occasion approaching, you need to make sure your website and online store is in the best possible shape to benefit from the additional customer influx.

 

But this can only be done if your store and website design is tailored for this visitor surge.

 

Even seemingly small design mistakes can cost you heavily because of the sheer volume of Ecommerce traffic generated during the New Year holidays.

 

 

Here are 6 design and user experience mistakes that you should look to correct before the surge begins.

 

1. Using the Same Store Color Theme

 

Your website looks great and you’ve branded it properly with your distinct color combinations. But you can’t leave it untouched during the holiday season.

 

A different color and design theme for the holiday season would immediately get your customers interested in what you have to offer for this holiday season. You need to become a part of the celebrations. You can incorporate holiday colors, videos and a festive logo to create the right atmosphere.

 

2. Not Using Responsive Design

 

Using a mobile friendly website design and online store is not an option anymore, it’s an absolute necessity. A mobile friendly or responsive design adjusts according to the dimensions of the device it’s viewed on.

 

If you’re using a custom developed Ecommerce website or online store, make sure it’s built using responsive design. You can also hire professionals to create a mobile friendly version of your website.

 

3. Placing the Email Opt-In Box at the Wrong Place

 

Email list and subscriber base is the backbone of any Ecommerce website. Throughout the year, you should make a conscious effort to find different ways of building your email list and subscriber base.

 

But during the holiday traffic surge, list building becomes even more important. A large mailing list gives you the opportunity to work on your subscribers, build a relationship with them and generate repeat sales.

 

But for effective list building in Ecommerce websites, you need to use a multi-dimensional strategy. Instead of just placing an opt-in box in the side bar or the footer, aggressively promote it at the most prominent places of your website.

 

Use pop ups and offer holiday season discounts in return for the user’s email address. Add it to the main header of your website and in the sidebar. Also make sure your payment processor can be linked with your mailing list at the checkout stage, so that all the buyer email addresses are collected. Both Gumroad and Selz offer this functionality.

 

Remember, this traffic hike would go away in a few weeks. If you don’t add these visitors to your mailing list, you’ll be losing thousands of dollars in potential sales over the next 12 months.

 

4. Using Multiple Redirections in the Check Out Process

 

Using multiple redirections at the checkout and payment stage is the prime reason for shopping cart abandonment. Sometimes buyers get frustrated with the number of redirections involved. Other times, they don’t complete the transaction because of slow internet.

 

Whatever the reason, multiple redirections are known to increase incomplete checkouts. There are two ways you can counter this.

 

• Use a payment processor that uses Java script and completes the payment process in the same window. (eg. Selz and Ecwid).
• Route the buyers to a reliable third party payment service that can handle the payment for you (eg. PayPal and Stripe)

 

Whichever service you choose, make sure it involves minimum redirections and offers the most flexible and widely accepted payment options.

 

5. Not Integrating Social Media Sharing on Product Pages

 

According to research, almost 80% of Ecommerce purchase decisions are influenced by word of mouth or recommendations from close friends. To maximize your Ecommerce sales this holiday season, make social media sharing and discussions on product pages as easy as possible.

 

Here are a few things you should do.

 

• Add a social media sharing widget to the individual product pages and encourage sharing. You can use widgets like AddThis or DiggDigg.
• Enable Twitter cards on your ecommerce website. Twitter cards display additional product information like price and stock details when your products are shared on Twitter.
• Enable Rich Pins in Pinterest. Similar to Twitter cards, Rich Pins also display additional product information when products are shared on Pinterest.
• Embed Facebook comments in the product pages and encourage discussions.

 

The holiday season traffic surge offers a great opportunity to maximize your product reach with social media websites. Failing to take advantage can cost you significantly in terms of referral sales.

 

6. Not Creating Holiday Specific Blog Content

 

Apart from attracting 200% more inbound links and almost 400% more indexed pages, blog content also has a huge impact on Ecommerce purchase decisions. According to Neil Patel, an entrepreneur and content marketing expert, almost 61% of US customers read a blog post before making online purchases.

 

But surprisingly the majority of Ecommerce websites and online stores ignore this highly effective form of marketing. Creating content does take time, but it offers much higher returns and attracts additional customers. You can simplify content creation to an extent by hiring professional freelance writers. Wrapping It Up Almost all Ecommerce businesses benefit in the short term by the additional traffic and higher sales during the holiday season. However there are very few online stores that approach this occasion with a long term strategy.

 

http://blog.fiverr.com/5-ecommerce-design-mistakes-can-cost-heavily-holiday-season/

 

5 Simple SEO Tips for Better Rankings

Many people believe that SEO is hard but this is not true. Basic SEO configurations are very easy to implement and sometimes this is all you need to do to for maximum exposure on all major search engines.

 

If you are looking for a quick guide with simple but yet effective SEO tips then you are on the right page, read on!

 

1. Optimize Your Titles, URL and Descriptions

 

This is probably the oldest tip in the SEO industry but it is still the most important. Have a look at the examples below and ask yourself these questions:

 

• Which one is more descriptive?
• Which one is catchy and friendlier to the user?
• Which one gives you a very good idea of what the website is about without clicking?
• If you saw both in the search results, which one would you choose?

I am sure that the ‘first example’ is your answer to the above questions and this is expected because it presents:

 

• A unique and meaningful title
• A catchy description
• A well formatted URL

 

Examine your website using this way of thinking and if there is room for improvement in your titles and descriptions, this is your first priority and a great first step for getting better rankings.

 

2. Provide Useful and Fresh Content

 

One of the reasons you have a website or blog is to provide content to build an audience, keep your existing readers happy or gain new customers. By content we mean anything from articles, videos, infographics, slideshows, music, comments, reviews or anything else that is suited for your niche.

 

If your content is static, old or out of date then most probably your visitors will go away quickly and never come back. What is your first reaction when you visit a website that has out-of-date content? It’s exactly the same as the users visiting your website.

 

A couple of years ago we used to say to our clients that updating was not a very important SEO factor but this has changed due to the competition. There is big competition in every keyword you search and those websites that have the most useful and fresh content have more chances of winning the race.

 

Does this mean that you have to post new content daily? Not necessarily. Your publishing strategy depends on a number of other factors as well.

 

3. Improve Your Website’s Loading Time

If this is the first time you are reading that page speed is important for SEO then soon after reading this post you should do whatever is needed to improve the loading time of your website. If you have read about this before and have not yet done anything about it, you are doing a big mistake.

 

Because this is important I will keep it simple:

 

 

Page speed is a ranking factor – if you have two similar websites and the one is faster than the other, you can expect that it will also rank higher (provided that other things are equal).

 

Faster websites generate more conversions – This means more sales, more RSS subscribers and more clicks on your ads (if you are using Adsense for example).

 

More page views – When a website loads fast users are likely to visit more than one page before they leave.

 

 

How can you improve the speed of your website? I know that it is not an easy task especially if you are not a technical person but it is important to handle page speed without further delays.

 

If you cannot afford to hire an SEO or a developer to make your web site load faster, what you can do is the following:

 

• Remove big images
• Remove unnecessary JavaScript files
• Use sprites instead of small images to minimize http redirects
• Move to a faster hosting provider
• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) service
• Use resources from Google for more tips and tools

 

4. Implement Google Authorship

 

When Google introduces a new feature that is related to their search results, you have to follow their path without delay. The good news is that Google authorship is a feature very useful to the searches as well because:

 

• They get to know before clicking a link, who wrote it, how popular he/she is (from the number of circles) and they can easily find more about the author by clicking the image and or name.

For authors and webmasters Google authorship is important because:

 

• They get higher click through rates (CTR) – studies have confirmed that searches are more likely to click a result that shows the author image as well.
• It’s an indication of Google trust – if Google shows your image next to your results it’s a sign that they trust you and your website.

All you need to do to implement Google authorship is a Google+ profile and then link your content with your profile. Being active on Google+ is also recommended for greater exposure.

 

5. Register your Website with Google and Bing Webmaster Tools

 

In a previous post, when I was explaining the 10 most common SEO mistakes, I said that not having your website registered with the webmaster tools is like driving with your eyes closed. This is true and I cannot think of any valid reason as to why you should not take advantage of the plethora of information given to you by both Google and Bing.

 

Some people believe that by not registering your website with Google you can ‘hide’ things from them and slip under their radar and reach the top of the search results. This is not a ‘hide and seek’ game, good long term rankings can only be achieved if you follow valid methods and techniques. For the record: Google already knows everything they need to know about your website with or without submitting it to webmaster tools.

 

Once you go through the registration process and perform some basic configurations you will get notified if there is a problem with your website and also start looking at some interesting facts about your website like:

 

• Number of index pages
• Number of incoming links
• Search queries
• Crawl errors
• Number of internal links

 

Conclusion

 

The above 5 tips are simple but at the same time they are also very important.  If you are running a blog, ecommerce store or content driven website and you are not getting traffic from search engines, then you need to ensure that you have implemented the above 5 tips correctly.

 

https://www.reliablesoft.net/5-simple-seo-tips-for-better-rankings/