Starting a web design project on the right foot can be a complex undertaking without effective project management systems in place. Whether you’re a web professional taking on a new web design client or a business looking to hire an agency to create your site, it’s important to identify obstacles early on, as well as agree upon the overall objectives, deliverables, and expected outcomes of the project.
By using a website brief, you can achieve those goals and more. An outline of what the project will cover can enable you to be more organized, stay on track, and stick to your budget. It also provides a way to avoid scope creep and manage expectations.
Irrespective of what industry you’re in, you’ll always have at least one competitor who has been around longer and has allocated more budget and resources to building their visibility on the web and in search engines.
It may feel futile to try and compete with them in the realm of SEO.
But local SEO plays by slightly different rules to the regular kind. You don’t need to have reams of funding at your disposal or hundreds of links pointing to your site to be visible and relevant to a local audience – you just need to understand the unique characteristics of local SEO, and apply a few simple strategies to cater to them.
Sometimes the factors responsible for your search rankings and traffic dropping can be difficult to detect.
It could have been a change in the Google algorithm, a technical error, your server not handling bandwidth properly, or links that were sending traffic before suddenly no longer sending that traffic, to name just a few examples.
With so many social media platforms and features now available, it can be overwhelming to determine which opportunities are optimal for your business growth this year.
We’ve got you.
Let’s first discuss the platform changes and updates that will drastically affect the marketing world this year, then drill down into new and emerging social media marketing opportunities you’ll want to have on your radar.
Business owners and marketers who haven’t serendipitously discovered Google’s various guidelines are left wondering how to promote non-brick-and-mortar brands. Even where there’s awareness that such guidance exists, Google is continually evolving its stance. It’s easy to make mistakes, overlook updates, and miss out on opportunities.
The great news is, there are local marketing possibilities for almost every business type, but you have to know which pathway to follow, based on how the brand you’re marketing operates. In today’s column, I’ll help you identify your model along with the best opportunities available to you for being discovered by the maximum number of local customers.
As a business owner, search engine optimization plays a vital role in attracting consumers to your website. SEO can help grow your website’s online visibility on the search engine results page, thus bringing more organic traffic to your website.
Do you want to generate more leads and improve your sales? If the answer is yes (of course), you need search engine optimization (SEO). It’s simple — if you have a business in the twenty-first century, you need to be online, and you should hire a great SEO specialist to make sure you’re highly visible to your target audience.
In 2021, relevancy is still king, and the companies who can adapt to the changes in the search engine landscape will be the ones who thrive. It’s about more than just getting a few search terms on page one of Google.
It’s about building a solid foundation of SEO that will outlast changes in algorithms and keep your business relevant.
The Covid 19 pandemic is going to be around for a while so it is vital to have a website for your business more than ever before. If you have been putting off a new web design then there may not be a better time to improve your company website than right now.
WordPress is a frequent target for hacking. Hackers are targeting the theme, the core WordPress files, plugins and even the login page. These are the steps to take to make it less likely to be hacked and to be able to recover easier if it should still happen.
Like many other industries, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) moves extremely fast. But where is the future of SEO going? What does an effective, organic strategy need to look like in the next few years?
While not too long ago, everybody was totally focused on keywords and backlinks (links from other websites), today we hear search and SEO more and more in the context of machine learning and artificial intelligence within a collection of hundreds of ranking factors. But there is much more!
With businesses making the move to serve their customers primarily online and the footfall of customers in physical stores dropping dramatically, the value of SEO has been rediscovered. Businesses are now paying closer attention to their online experience and how they can compete on the internet.
Have you ever thought about how – and when – your target buyers are consuming your content?
When we are planning a content strategy, we invariably start thinking about the kind of content that our target personas will love reading.
What we do not notice is that subconsciously our content decisions are founded upon creating content for various stages of the buyer journey.
The algorithms of modern search engines don’t merely look at the words on the page.
Today’s search engines look for the meaning of the page beyond the simple keywords and keyword phrases.
But the simple fact is that in most cases if you don’t have a specific word on a web page, you probably won’t rank for that word in the search engine’s results.
While developing content calendars and meticulously monitoring your brand is essential, it doesn’t necessarily leave you free of drama.
Accidents happen!
Here are to the top 10 ways to restore your social media reputation.
The post-Covid-19 world will be different from the preCovid-19 one. The crisis has changed the behavior and habits of the world. Google searches have increased rapidly because people prefer to buy and order food/goods — everything online.
SEO can be a lot like fad dieting.
There’s a lot of advice that promises fast results, but most of it doesn’t deliver.
Plus, many highly-touted SEO tactics just don’t work anymore.
If you’re using outdated practices it’s time to let them go.
COVID-19 has switched up life as we know it, and it’s unlikely to stop doing so for some time.
E-commerce shopping is a perfect example of how things have changed, and in a number of ways.
The speed of transformation in e-commerce since the COVID-19 outbreak (an already fast-paced industry) has been savage.
Much like outdated home decor, sometimes we have to strip the “walls” of our websites and update things—or at the very least, apply a fresh coat of paint in a more modern color. From time to time these renovations are necessary in our homes and on our websites.
Google My Business can be a powerful tool for certain types of companies to get in front of more customers, but most people aren’t tapping into its true potential.
In fact, most don’t even begin to scratch the surface.
Most businesses in today’s digital-driven climate know the importance of social media and the reach it offers businesses.
Social media platforms allow businesses to communicate with customers during an emergency, highlight products and services, and even get real insight from customers about expectations, wants, and needs.
LinkedIn is certainly no exception to this.
One of the most common questions I get as an SEO professional is “How long does SEO take?”
It’s also one of the most frustrating questions because, while clients understandably want a definitive answer, there is simply no way to provide one due to all of the variables involved.
Now is the perfect time to improve your ecommerce store’s SEO and content for an impending flood of virtual customers. Here’s how to get started.
In the mad race to get ahead in search engine rankings, the SEO landscape has become littered with misinformation. Whether you’re hiring an SEO company or starting the journey on your own, there are many common and persistent SEO myths to be aware of. I’ll debunk eight of them here.
Google has focused its recent algorithmic updates largely on promoting great content and natural links, and penalizing weak content with unscrupulous links. This means that content marketing is undeniably effective at getting sites to rank in search engines.
How ever this comes at a risk of devaluing technical changes — including site speed — that absolutely make clients more money on their existing organic audiences. You might be able to get slow sites to rank consistently, but the lack of attention to infrastructure will eventually come back to haunt you in conversion rates.
If you’re looking to improve your website, you know how daunting this overhaul can be. There are tips and tricks for almost every facet of the process, from improving your copy to reworking your design.
What you need is a process — not a grab bag of tips that leave you more confused than when you started.
Here’s the 7-step framework you can follow to improve your website content, even if you have no idea where to start.
Google first started encouraging sites to go to HTTPS in May 2010, to emphasise the point In 2018, Google told webmasters that if you have a non-HTTPS website, you risk losing traffic and showed a horrible pop-up notification.
Expand Digital Media have recently achieved the Cyber Essentials certification through the IASME Consortium. The award reinforces Expand Digital Medias determination to ensure the skills and knowledge are at the highest industry levels. The benefits of this commitment are clear as it means we are able to offer the very best security expertise for our clients.
Local businesses know better than any other model what it means to fully participate in community life. You are the good neighbors who are there to serve, inspire, and sustain the people and traditions that make your town a unique and enjoyable place to call home.
Have you ever read a great piece of content that really stuck with you? Are you wondering how to write a good blog post that makes an impact? Writing great blog posts isn’t easy. But it’s not rocket science either!
For local businesses today, there are numerous different ways to market your brand online. The majority of your potential customers still use Google to find local businesses near them — businesses where they will spend their hard-earned money. In fact, 80% of searches with “local intent” result in a conversion.
This begs the question: “What’s the best way to catch the attention of local searchers on Google?”
These days, the way we do SEO is somewhat different from how things were done ca. 10 years ago. There’s one important reason for that: search engines have been continuously improving their algorithms to give searchers the best possible results.
Are you aware of your social media content sins? Often, it’s easy to pick out the mistakes that other brands or agencies are making, but it’s a bit more difficult to see your own. Below is an outline of some of the most abhorrent sins in the social media world to assist you in evaluating your online content.
When designing a new website it is important to consider the structure of the site to aid organic search performance. With every passing year, I find it closer to the top of my list of important things to work on when working with a site.
As your site begins to age, you may be wondering whether it is worth it to invest in tweaks and updates to your existing site, or blow it up and start from scratch according to 2020 standards.
2020 presents many new and exciting opportunities to master your content and reach a wider audience.
While the BERT algorithm update gave a not-so-subtle nod to the importance of search intent, SEO content writers everywhere were not surprised to hear that the search engine is prioritizing audience-focused content.
Therefore, 2020 is all about putting the user first by creating value-rich content. Add in AI and engaging visuals, and you have the perfect cocktail for SEO-friendly, click-worthy content.
When you’re trying to improve your website’s performance, it’s important to remember that you have to focus on numerous factors simultaneously. If you want to do better in the SERPs, it takes more than just SEO.
Is your marketing goal this year to revamp your company’s website? If so, then you are taking a step towards building a strong foundation for your marketing strategy. As you are creating your marketing strategy and preparing for your new website project, it’s important to start with a realistic budget.
As new businesses spring up each day, the competition for the reader’s attention heightens. Staying on top of the latest SEO trends will enable you to meet specific requirements that search engines use to rank websites.
Google makes hundreds of changes to its search algorithms every year. While most changes are minor, they could affect your search ranking. These are some of the SEO trends I expect to see in 2020.
Most aspects of an SEO campaign take significant time to research and implement, but there are always a few relatively quick tactics to boost results. Here’s a list of low-hanging SEO fruit that to grab right now.
Take a moment and Google “SEO trends.” You’ll see article after article, blog after blog, touting a “definitive” list of SEO trends. It’s a lot to sort through, but what you’ll soon realize is that all the expert takes boil down to the same fundamental idea: The only thing we can say for sure about the world of SEO is that it will continue to change.
It is important to figure out ways to update and repurpose old blog posts to keep the content fresh. Consumers love high-quality content. Marketers and business owners understand this tendency and use this data to reach their target audience.
Want to give your organic SEO traffic and visibility a boost?
Are you aware that the Internet has emerged as the primary platform consumers use to gather local business information? Moreover, local searchers know exactly what they are looking for and by overlooking local SEO, you are missing a powerful opportunity to convert traffic into qualified leads.
If you are looking to build a new startup website or make your current site more effective, here are 10 key steps to getting started and helping your small business website compete effectively in the online marketplace.
In this blog, I’m going to detail some common-sense local SEO tips that can really help you take full advantage of the marketing opportunities that are the holidays!
I call these tips “common sense” specifically because you don’t have to be a digital-marketing guru to figure them out, but nonetheless, you may not have considered them before.
Optimizing websites without first understanding how search engines function is akin to publishing your great novel without first learning how to write.
Certainly, a thousand monkeys at typewriters will eventually create something useful (at least this monkey likes to think he does from time to time), but it’s a lot easier if you know the core elements of a task beforehand.
Although I would recommend WordPress for creating a small business website, WordPress isn’t right for everyone. This post outlines what every small business should consider when deciding whether to build their website in WordPress.
There’s no question that Google is the primary focus when optimizing for SEO.
That said, it should not be the only focus. Bing, Yahoo, and Baidu all have millions of users.
These “secondary” search engines are often overlooked because of low market share.
Consider this; Bing powers not only its own searches but Yahoo as well.
Content strategy is a science and every detail matters. Having high-quality content on your website can mean the difference between a No. 1 ranking (or answer box!) vs. content that doesn’t even make it on Page 1 of the search results. That’s why we’ve rounded up the 10 best content writing tools for SEO that specifically help you improve readability.
In the crowded and ultra-competitive world of e-commerce, there’s one thing that almost everyone agrees helps you stand out: reviews. But there are simple steps that you can take to gradually build your reviews presence into a selling point for your brand that will also improve your SEO presence.
You’ve heard it over and over again: every business needs a website. You might have a website that isn’t quite working for your business, or this might be your first website project. You’ve done a little research on DIY website platforms, but you feel overwhelmed and have no idea where to start. You need serious help, but your business is still relatively new and you’re not yet in a position to hire a professional.
For years, people in this industry debated the merits of paid search advertising versus organic search marketing.
Small business owners increasingly understand that website success depends on developing and implementing an SEO strategy.
More than one-third (36%) of small businesses already have an SEO strategy, and an additional 23% plan to develop one in 2019, according to a recent Clutch survey.
In the not-so-distant past, PPC managers created multiple campaigns divided up by device to easily differentiate and customize messages to desktop and mobile users.
Now, device targeting is streamlined. We can use a one-size-fits-all approach to ensure ads are shown on mobile devices with little effort.
You’re in business to make money. You most likely knew that you can do that with your website. What most ecommerce site owners don’t know, though, is how to make an effective design for their websites and stores. Refusing to learn the basic web design tips means a loss of sales. Here are 8 web design tips for boosting those sales, if done correctly.
Search engine optimization, when done correctly, can take a lot of work. This is why so many people are so eager to take shortcuts.Fortunately, there are some tasks that don’t require as much effort, compared to tasks like link building, yet still yield significant gains.I’m a big fan of efficiency, so I love tactics that deliver a greater return on my investment of time and/or money.In this article, I’m going to explain five of these tactics which are easy to execute successfully but can deliver powerful results.
Each year that goes by in the SEO community, discussions of the authority behind a site become increasingly prevalent.
This has been especially true over the last year, as Google has made more updates to the core algorithm, which seems to indicate an increased focus on authority and relevance.
While authority is definitely earning greater consideration in the broader conversation of SEO, it’s been a particularly critical factor to local SEO for years.
One of the biggest challenges in SEO is measuring impact — we know what matters (or doesn’t matter) until the rules of the game have changed. And when they do, we’re all scrambling to find a baseline again.
Schema is simply a markup that will help major search engines become smarter by feeding them data in a structured manner. It’s like feeding chopsuey to a 10 year old kid and asking that kid to identify each vegetable – it’s really tough (and not just because kids don’t like veggies!). But if you identify each vegetable to the kid, what it’s for, and then feed each one individually, the kid would be able to identify the veggies much easier.
Customer reviews form an integral part of the promotion of any online business. Customer reviews actually form a part of word-of-mouth advertising as the consumers offer information to other consumers.
Link building isn’t always the most effective way to market your business. This is because Google is constantly changing its algorithm, and what works today may not work tomorrow. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use any type of link building to drive traffic to your website.
Local SEO is becoming increasingly important for businesses everywhere. If your customer base is predominantly in specific identifiable areas, rather than internationally-based, local SEO services are what your company should be focusing on.
We have witnessed significant growth in the eCommerce industry over the recent years. Now merchants are moving forward to utilize the modern technologies to bring more diversity to their businesses. In the realm of tough competition among multiple eCommerce platforms, staying ahead among others require keen knowledge of the new trends that are evolving in the industry. An initial implementer surely will have leverage among others in the form of leads.
It is important for every business owner to have a functional, highly optimized and productive business website. And even more important is that it ranks at number one on Google!
Accelerated Mobile Pages, is a Google initiative which will be a solution to the most challenging problem of mobile web-speed. Slowness is not only a UX issue but also minimizes the rates of conversion and tampers with accessibility through excluding the users with the slower internet connections. AMP was launched with a focus of allowing publishers to come up with mobile-optimized content once, as well as make it load spontaneously.
When shopping for the perfect web hosting for you (not the best website hosting for everybody else), you will be bombarded with terms and features that you will have seldom encountered in your everyday life. From FTP to backup, we will explain to you the jargon used and what to look for when you are in the process of acquiring a new web hosting package.
One of the most difficult things about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is keeping on top of the constant changes and figuring out what is and isn’t effective at any given time. Because things change so quickly, you often find that what may once have been common practice, could have the complete opposite effect today.
We all want our websites to rank highly on search engine results and we have touched on some of the ways you can achieve this in previous articles. The slight spanner in the works is that the advice is always changing and the goalposts always shifting. However, what it all ever really comes down to is that ‘you are what you EAT’.
Content is king they say. This has never been as true as it is when you are talking about web content. There is so much information available on the web these days that people expect information to be unique, timely and relevant.
Building a website and putting it out there is just the first step. Doing that and nothing else would be kind of like letting someone loose into a vast jungle with no map, directions or means of communicating. Unless you know their precise location you’ll never find them again, and it’s highly unlikely that anyone else will either.
If you’ve started dabbling in search engine optimisation for your small business website, you might have considered pay per click advertising. Although there are some basic measures you can take to improve your website presence and where it features on search engine result, it’s sometimes worth implementing a pay per click campaign.
Your domain name impacts how easily your website can be found, your performance in search results, your branding, online marketing, social media results and everything else in between – so choose wisely!
If you follow our blog, then hopefully by now you’re a bit more familiar with the basics of SEO and how it can help your website, and therefore your business.
Are you ready to take it to the next level?
If you run a small retail business but you haven’t yet created an online shop – or ecommerce site – you might be wondering whether to take the plunge.
No matter what you’re selling, you have probably noticed that many retail businesses around you now offer customers the option to buy online and if you don’t join them, you could be selling yourself short. And that means missing out on customers, sales and importantly, profits.
These are the most effective B2B marketing channels that you should be tapping into to create steady lead streams into your sales pipeline. Without productive lead generation campaigns, companies will struggle to keep afloat. B2B lead generation is a critical partner of sales development and sales. All of them work together to ensure the company’s constant growth.
With the dynamic nature of technology, the internet has provided a platform for both leisure and business; an open field for both work and play. This means that the web offers a larger audience of potential customers to businesses. With these put in place, it is only rational for e-commerce development to have witnessed a surge over the years. Sophisticated mobile gadgets have skyrocketed online shopping activities.
How do you know when it’s time for a new website? While some of the signs are obvious, there can be other things going on behind the scenes that are damaging the credibility and rankability of your website, without you even realising it.
Search engine marketing is a form of internet marketing that maximizes your website’s position in search engines like Google. Search engine optimization, also called SEO, helps attract new customers because of the increased visibility on search engine results pages. If your website is on the second page of Google for a search term, or even further back then that, it is likely that you are not getting as much traffic as you could if you were on the first page of Google
Millions of businesses now have a Facebook page and it can be a useful tool when it comes to reaching your target audience and engaging with potential customers. But can a business Facebook page replace a website?
Expand Digital Media is celebrating after winning the Google seal of approval as leading experts in their field.
Expand Digital Media has joined an elite team to become only the second agency in Tamworth to achieve ‘Google Partner’ status following a rigorous assessment and evaluation process.
Deciding you want a new website is just the first step. You now need to find a web designer who will give you the website you want at the best possible price. In this respect, having a website built can be a bit like sending your car for service or getting a boiler repaired (stay with us on this!). What we mean by this is, if it’s not an area you’re overly familiar with, how do you know you’re getting a good deal?
Every business should have an online presence by now. Most people have the internet in the palm of their hands and will use this to search for companies, services and products. If you haven’t got a website, then it’s realistic to assume that you’re not looking for new customers. If you think you can rely on a telephone directory or a newspaper advert – think again!
If you’re wondering how to improve your SEO you’ve come to the right place. As a highly-experienced SEO company, this is something we know all about.
In this article we’ll have a look at some SEO basics to get you started. While we have to point out that there is a lot more to it than we’ll go into here, this will hopefully show you some of the things to be aware of as an absolute minimum.
If you’re wondering whether you can afford to invest in a content marketing strategy, the real question should be can you afford not to? It doesn’t even have to be that expensive – if you can track down that lesser-spotted, rare commodity known as time, that can be enough to get you started.
No matter how bright or innovative a business idea might be, without the proper marketing it will never be able to be put in place properly since possible customers won’t be able to find out the business even exists, which will ultimately result in the idea being scrapped because the business or individual that had the idea might not have the necessary funds.
BAD SEO HABITS CAN SINK YOUR BUSINESS. ARE YOU GUILTY OF ANY OF THESE WORST PRACTICES?
Every once in a while, it’s a good idea to step back and take a fresh, sober look at your habits. After all, the world around you is ever-changing, so why should your habits remain the same? This applies to pretty much everything: life, health, eating, relaxation, relationships, communication … and work.
General Data Protection Regulation – or GDPR – will be one of the biggest things to hit businesses in 2018, with legislation to be enforced on 25th May that poses potentially crippling fines for organisations that fail to comply.
The maximum penalty for flouting the rules is €20 million or 4% of global turnover, which would certainly be enough to close down many businesses. To avoid these steep ramifications, preparation is key, starting with your website.
At a basic level, video marketing can be defined as the use of video to sell products. For example, television advertising can be considered a type of video marketing. When most people talk about marketing with video, they specifically refer to methods that rely on internet marketing.
Social Media Marketing has become one of the most important marketing methods for many businesses in recent years. With the rise of social media on a personal level, businesses have seen an opportunity to engage with potential customers and gain a following online.
Why good websites are important The fact that a good website is needed in order for a business to function…
A business’ website is crucial to providing potential customers with information regarding their business. For ecommerce sites, it is essential…
What is it? OpenCart is an online store shopping cart platform and customer management system developed by Christopher G. Mann…
A business’ website is a way of presenting the products and services they offer in an easy and accessible way…
When it comes to business; you only get one chance to make a good first impression and your website is no different….
