Category

Website

Website Redesign

Top 12 Reasons To Redesign Your Website

By | Web design, Website

Websites and brick & mortar stores must be renovated after a certain period of time, and for the same reason. Search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. are putting a lot of efforts to make the Internet browsing user-friendly. For that, they are frequently updating their algorithms. As a result, as the days are passing, the standards of a website are increasing.

If you created your website long back, then you should consider redesigning it. That’s because the parameters have changed. Now, we have many new ranking factors such as speed, mobile friendliness, security, and many other things. Here are the top reasons to redesign your website.

1. Your website is not fulfilling your needs

A website is the most important part of your business. It is created to fulfill certain needs and expectations of business owners. Below are the things that a website can help you achieve.
More sales
Bigger customer base
Higher visibility
Good online reputation
Great brand awareness

These are some of the common goals that business owners try to achieve through a website. As a business owner, you might have certain unique goals too. Check whether your website is able to fulfill all your business goals. If you are not able to meet your expectations, you might require a website redesign.

How do I know whether my website is serving its purpose? Well, it is pretty easy. You should keep an eye on certain parameters such as subscriptions, sales, visitors, conversion rate, bounce rate, etc.

Note that the absence of an SEO campaign also contributes to the reduction of website traffic. SEO is a continuous process. So never stop your ongoing search engine optimization campaign.

2. It is slow

In both SEO and web design, user experience plays a vital role. Therefore, speed has become the most basic quality of a website. If your site takes more than three seconds to load, it is tagged as a slow website. There can be many causes, for instance, poor website development, and slow hosting service.

In the last couple of years, things have drastically changed. Today, Internet users have a short attention span and expect a website to load fast. If your website takes anything more than three seconds, they tend to hit the back button or close the window. As a result, your bounce rate increases and negatively impacts your SEO.

So get your website redesigned, if it is slow. If you find it difficult to guess the website speed you can use free online tools available on the internet, and determine the speed.

3. It does not reflect your brand properly

A business does not remain at it was in the beginning. With time it tends to evolve. As a result, core principles, customer base, keywords, and business goals tend to change. Your website should be synchronized with all these things. In order to make sure your website matches with the various aspects of your business.

Why is it important for your website to reflect your brand properly? An internet user comes to your website as a visitor. The content on the website and the user experience play a major role in converting them. In addition to that, online reputation management experts also suggest reflecting your brand accurately.

4. The absence of Call To Action buttons

You have created a website so that your visitors can take certain actions on it. The action can be Subscribe, Call, Message, Get direction, Know more, Talk to the experts, Make an inquiry, Buy, Book an appointment, etc. Without Call To Action buttons your website is like a computer without a keyboard.

Just placing the call to action button is not going to solve the issue. They need to be placed in the right places. For example, it is not a good idea to place “buy now” in the above the fold region. That’s because users do not come to your website and buy your products and services directly. They go to various web pages and judge both your business and online presence. Web design experts usually suggest keeping the call to action button in the places where the visitor is ready to take the action, for example in the bottom.

5. It is not responsive

What is a responsive website? A responsive website is a website that detects the visitor’s screen size and orientation and changes the layout accordingly. In short, if you visit a responsive website you will not have to zoom in and zoom out to read the content on the website.

If your website is not responsive, it is not user-friendly. It is as simple as that. Moreover, responsiveness is a search engine ranking factor. Without it, you can’t rank your website on Google’s first page. Visit your website using different devices such as desktop, mobile, tablet, laptop, etc. Check how the website is displayed in these devices. If your website is not adjusting itself according to the screen size, it is time to redesign your website and make it device friendly.

6. It is not capable to build trust

Trust is the top most important factor for any business. Even when if you have a phenomenal website and the topmost search engine ranking, people will not buy your products and services if they don’t trust you. That is the reason why the importance of online reputation management is increasing year by year.

How can I establish trust through web design? Well, it is quite simple, all you need to do is display social proofs. For example customer testimonials, consumer reviews, case studies, and statistics. These are the things that make your potential customers believe in you. Make sure you do not fake it. Faking is not going to help. Eventually, people will come to know the truth.

7. High bounce rate

Bounce rate, a term used in website analysis, is nothing but the percentage of visitors who enter your website and exit rather than continue to view other web pages of the same website. So, a high bounce rate indicates that the majority of the people who are coming to your website are leaving without taking any action.

There are many reasons that increase the bounce rate. Here we are mentioning some.
Poor quality content
The mismatch between expectation and reality
Slow website
Too many ads
Complicated navigation

You can check the bounce rate of your website with the help of Google Analytics. If you find it high, consider redesigning your website.

8. It is not SEO optimized

A website without SEO is the same as a watch without a cell. The whole SEO can be divided into two parts, those are On-page optimization and Off-optimization. On-page optimization is something that overlaps with web design.

If your website is not SEO optimized, it is not going to rank well in search engine results pages. A good web design produces SEO ready websites. If your website is not SEO ready, you should redesign it and start an SEO campaign as soon as possible.

9. It is outdated

Just like your business, your website also needs to be updated. Web design trends usually change after a couple of years. Your competitors are updating their website to win the competition. If your website is outdated, visitors tend to think they are on a website that is not currently active. Many business owners tend to commit this mistake. A website created cannot be used forever without making changes in it. If you have not updated your website since the day it was built, you need to contact a web design company today.

10. It lacks proper website security

You cannot rank your website on the search engine results page without proper website security. SEO should not be the only reason to concentrate on website security. Cybercrime has become the top concern of internet users. No one whats to interact with a website which is not secure.

If your website is built years ago and hasn’t been updated since it is at great risk. Old and outdated websites are easy to hack. Once your website is hacked, you will lose your online reputation and credibility, without which your business cannot survive.

11. It does not go well with your marketing strategy

Is your business the same as it was in the initial years? It must have gone through some significant changes, right? When your business goes through the changes, marketing strategies no longer remain the same. They are evolved to suit the nature of the business. Similarly, your website should go hand in hand with your marketing strategy. An outdated website does not suit the current marketing strategy.

12. It doesn’t convert

As a business owner, what is your ultimate goal? You want more sales, isn’t it? Well, to have more sales you have to convert your visitors into customers. And an updated website is capable of doing this job. Various aspects of a website such as content, social proofs, navigation, user experience, speed, and readability help you to make more sales.

If your website is not converting, you must go for website redesigning. It is as simple as that. Rebuild your website taking all these factors into account. If you do not have the required knowledge and experience, it is always best to take the professional help of a web design company.

website design

12 Things To Do Before Starting Your Website

By | Website, WordPress Website

A website is your virtual store. So, creating a website for your business is basic in this digital era. 24/7 access, higher brand awareness, better consumer relationship, non-stop lead generation, and unlimited sales are some benefits of creating a website for your business. In short, a website is no less than a boon for your business.

However, if you are a new business owner, and want to build a website for your new business, it is not a good idea to jump directly into website development. There are several things that you must consider before starting with website development. Ignoring these crucial factors and proceeding to web designing can put your digital marketing strategy off track. Therefore, in this blog post, we are listing out 12 crucial things to consider before beginning with web designing and web development.

1. Know what you want to achieve

The truth is that many business owners build a website for the sake of building. They actually do not know what they want to make out of it. As a result, they fail to utilize their maximum potential. Therefore, it is crucial to set your goals before going for website creation.

In the business world, nothing is done without a purpose. You have a purpose, and to achieve the same you are building a website. Many people say gaining higher sales is their ultimate goal. Although it is the truth, such goals don’t help much. You should be more specific.

2. Research

You are new in your industry. You may not fully understand how the industry functions in the digital world. Doing in-depth research will help you to gather all the important information required to make crucial decisions. Moreover, you will understand what needs to be done and what is not needs to be avoided.

Also, make a list of all your competitors and do research on their website. See what changes they have incorporated into their website and what purpose they are fulfilling. If you find and a good aspect that is relevant to your business, then reflect it into your website without duplicating it. Note that you do not copy the content. Duplication of content is considered a black hat search engine optimization technique. Your web page can be penalized.

3. Know your target audience

You build a website for your potential customers, don’t you? So, it makes sense to know who your potential customers are, what keywords they use, what they like and what they don’t like beforehand so that it makes the whole process easy and confusion-free.

Knowing your target audience will help you to design a website that is more relevant to your potential customers. In short, it makes web design more effective and attractive. In addition to that, it also enhances your search engine optimization (SEO) and helps in converting visitors into customers.

4. Choose your domain name wisely

Your domain name is going to stay for a long period of time, so it makes sense to choose it wisely. Also, keep SEO in mind when selecting a domain name.

In the third point, we asked you to find out the keywords that your potential customers use to search your products or services. Try to use exact match domains. It will be one of the biggest plus points for your SEO campaign.

An exact match domain (EMD) is a website domain that includes keywords that you are trying to rank for. For example, if you are a plumber and “top plumbers” is the main keyword you want to rank for, then “topplumbers.com” is your exact match domain. Choosing EMD gives more power to your overall SEO.

However, with more power comes more responsibility. Just by opting EMD will not rank your website high on search engine results page. You need to go for white hat on-page optimization and off-page optimization. If it is not possible to choose an EMD, go for a partial match domain (PMD).

In the end, content is the deciding factor. If you have high-quality content and proper SEO strategy in work, then your website will rank without EMD and PMD.

5. Set up sitemap

A website is like a building and a sitemap is its blueprint. So you should not build a website without a sitemap. It is a crucial element for your website. Since it is a file consisting of the list of web pages, it helps search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. to understand the structure of your website.

That is the reason why SEO experts suggest adding a sitemap. Note that search engines rank all your web pages, not just whole website. Including a sitemap helps search engines to find all your pages easily and effortlessly.

6. Finalize design and layout

Once you are done with research, you should have a rough idea of the design style you want to have in your site. This is the part where you should not copy your competitors. You should be unique and creative. Your aim should be of creating a website that becomes a part of users’ memory.

Using common or ordinary design and layout will not help you to grab the attention of the visitors. When you do not have the attention, how will you convert them? So, it makes sense to spend sufficient time on finalizing design and layout. Always remember, the design is one of the most important ingredients of a website that helps you to convert the website visitors.

7. Pick colour scheme

Colour schemes are more important than you think. It helps your visitors to remember your brand. Alright, let us take an example. If you think of “Vodafone,” what color comes to your mind? Red and white right? That is because this network uses red and white as their color scheme. And that is how the company is successful in creating a memory in the minds of people.

Pick the color schemes that match your logo. For example, if you have used green and black color in your logo, then use the same colors on your website. Do not use more than three colors. Using less than three colors will visibly integrate the website. A visitor should feel all the web pages and the parts of it are a part of a single entity.

8. Know that it takes time

One needs to undergo preparation before building a website. And preparation takes time. As a new business owner, if you are not aware of this fact, you can easily get frustrated and quit early. So, always keep in mind that these things take time.

How to get through this lengthy process? Organize the whole process. Divide the whole task into many subtasks and create a to-do list. This will give you the idea of how well the progress is going on, and how many other things are yet to done. You can take a break after completing a couple of tasks.

9. Branding

Irrespective of what business size you have, branding is something that you should not ignore. Along with the design, placement of your brand logo contributes to the overall website experience. So, if you don’t have a logo for your business yet, you should get one soon.

Professionally designed logos are always successful in catching the customer’s attention and provide a clear understanding of the brand’s unique voice. Choose a place on your website that is easily visible, for instance, upper left corner. This is the region from where a visitor starts to scan a website.

To improve the overall effect, use the logo on packing, ads, contact page, contact form, etc. Doing so will help you achieve an integrated and memorable brand experience.

10. Create content

Before you begin to build a website, you must create content for various regions of a website such as a homepage, service pages, contact page, about us page, case study page, and others. Content is the main ingredient for a website, SEO, and other digital marketing methods. Other than that, content will help you to convert visitors into customers. So make sure you are ready with high-quality fresh content.

11. Decide navigation

Navigation is an important aspect of a website. Make sure you have a pretty good idea about how the navigation of your website should be. This will save you time. Normally it is the navigation, that turns out to be a headache. When it comes to navigation keep these things in mind.
● Try to keep the navigation simple
● Make sure your navigation is predictable
● Complex navigation usually increase the bounce rate

12. Take professional help

These are the things that you need to do before creating a website. We have listed only some important ones out of many. Doing all these things is going to take a lot of time and energy. As a business owner, you might not have enough time and energy to spend on the things that you know less.

Therefore, It makes sense to take professional help of a web design company. Although it will cost you some money, you will get a highly professional, SEO ready, mobile ready, and a user-friendly website. Moreover, mistakes in web design are more likely to attract a Google penalty. Consequently, you may lose your search engine ranking before gaining.

Website Hacking

11 Reasons Why Hackers Want To Hack Your Website

By | Search Engine Optimizaion, Website

A hacker is a person who uses computers to gain unauthorized access to data. And the process of gaining unauthorized access is called hacking. There are several reasons why hackers hack websites. Knowing these reasons can help you improve your website security. Therefore, in this blog post, we are going to list the top reasons why hackers want to hack your website. Keep these points in mind while securing your website.

1. To steal data

You might have already guessed this one. One of the most important reasons for hackers hacking your website is your data. They want to gain the data on your website. The data may be of your customers, employees or business. In most of the cases, hackers target big businesses to get more attention. Here are the two popular examples.

Ashley Madison and the Starbucks app hack had rocked the Internet. Especially, the former one. In Ashley Madison hack, hackers were able to breach the web security and get access to all the private data including private photos of world-famous celebrities. So, if you have sensitive data on your website, you need to be extra careful.

Most of the time, hackers also steal information to study your personal identity and then use the same thing to transfer money, get a loan, etc. These hacking incidents have increased, especially after the inception of Internet banking and mobile banking. Some of the businesses that were hacked in the past are Yahoo, eBay, Sony, Adobe, etc.

Although many hacks have shocked the Internet world, people still believe that this cannot happen to them. This ignorance further makes an easy way for hackers to steal your sensitive information.

2. To steal money

The next big reason for hacking a website is money. Most of the hackers prefer money over the data. With the increase in online banking, it has become easy for hackers to hack your website and steal your money. Most of the time they just look for the security vulnerability in the website of fairly big businesses.

The day they get any security vulnerability they will exploit it to make your balance nil. So, if your website deals money, hire a web security expert to maximize the security, so that you have 360° protection.

3. To disrupt services

Hackers usually like to take websites down. And when they do, they leave a statement on the website. They do this by manufacturing bots that overwhelm a server with traffic, which leads to a crash. This is popularly known as Denial of Service attack (DoS) and is capable of putting a company’s website out of service.

In the last couple of years, DDoS attacks have become popular. DDoS stands for Disturbed Denial of Service. This type of attack is carried out by using multiple infected systems so that the single major system leads to denial of service. These two are not the only methods to disrupt services. A hacker can use one among many other methods.

Infecting a large network with malicious software installed onto one computer is also a common method used by hackers. This is usually done via email. This leads to a chain reaction affecting the whole network. As a result, the server is disrupted.

4. To make a point

 If you think hacking is done only for the sake of money and information, then you are wrong. There are some interesting hackers out there. They do hacking to make a point. They do not care about money or data. In fact, they have some other purposes. Let us give you an example.

In the first point, we have already mentioned about Ashley Madison hack and explained how it rocked the digital world. In this particular website hack, the hackers had account details of 32 million users. After hacking they left a message on the website to inform everyone about what they thought about the website. The message was clear that the service like this one was immoral.

So, here, in this case, the hackers were not looking to make money. They were trying to make a point, which they did.

5. To get attention

This might surprise you. A lot of hackers are young. And they sometimes do hacking for surprising reasons. Here are some surprising reasons that motivate a hacker to hack a website:

  • To kill boredom
  • To compete with other hackers
  • To gain name and fame
  • To have fun

When the hacking is done for these purposes, no money is asked. It eventually exposes certain vulnerabilities. In the end, you can improve the overall security efforts.

6. To leak the sensitive information

This is also one of the common reasons why hackers hack a website. In most of the cases, the hacker hacks personal and private data and leaks them. The main motive behind leaking sensitive information is to take revenge.

Leaking sensitive information will kill the credibility of the business. As a result, the company loses its online reputation. For this reason, website security is one of the most important aspects of online reputation management. In addition to that, when your website is hacked, it takes your website ranking to the lowest. Therefore, even SEO experts emphasize website security.

So, if you collect user information, you must never overlook site security. It is always a good option to contact a web security expert.

7. To vandalize a website

This type of harm is usually caused when the website runs an ideology that is completely opposite to the hacker’s ideology. Therefore, most of the time political and religious websites are targeted and vandalized. However, this can also be done to deface a certain popular figure and cause severe damage to his public image.

Here the main aim is to hurt religious and political sentiments. Sometimes this type of hacking is done for fun without any political intention. The other categories of websites that suffer vandalism are school, college, institution and organization websites. In most of the cases, the students of an institution hack its website.

If you own a school, college, institution or organization websites, then encourage your students or employees to embrace ethical hacking. Use their knowledge to strengthen your security system.

8. To spread viruses

A virus is a code which is capable of copying itself and has a severe effect such as corrupting the system and harming the data. Sometimes hackers hack a website to spread these viruses so that they hack several other websites.

Hackers achieve this by writing malicious code into the backend or with files they have uploaded for download on the front end. When the site visitors interact with such content, it gives hackers an opportunity to steal visitors information.

9. To steal server bandwidth

This is another common reason why hackers try to hack your website. Hackers use this bandwidth to host their own activities, for example, bitcoin mining and brute force attacks on other websites.

It is easy to prevent bandwidth theft. A simple Google search will give you all the necessary information including causes, prevention, and solution. Here is the guide to prevent bandwidth theft or hotlinking.

10. To host legitimate pages on your web server

It is not common these days, but one cannot guarantee that this is not going to happen. Hackers try to host legitimate pages on your web server to improve their own search engine optimization (SEO). These pages talk about them and link back to their websites. In other words, they try to build links illegally.

11. To host phishing pages

Phishing refers to a malicious individual or group of individuals who scam the people on the Internet. This is commonly done by two methods. That is either by sending an email or by creating webpages. Since our blog post is on the topic “11 reasons why hackers what to hack your website”, we will discuss how hackers achieve this by creating web pages.

By creating fake web pages on your website, they attempt to collect information from your website visitors who are willing to give it. They usually do this by embedding a contact form on one of your web pages and asking the visitors to enter their information.

What do all the hacked websites have in common?

Lack of website security is common among all the hacked websites. A recent study tells us that online hacks cost medium and small sized businesses nearly 200 thousand dollars every single year. The study also revealed that more than 60% of these businesses normally shut down their businesses, as they cannot survive the damages caused. All this can be easily avoided if you have a proper security system.

How can you protect your website?

There is a lot that you can do to protect your website. For now, we are giving some top tips that will help you to protect your business site, here we go.

  • Backup your site frequently
  • Secure your site at all levels
  • Make use of security plugins
  • Use SSL certificates
  • Use unique and strong passwords
  • Hire a professional

 

 

youtube channel optimization

11 Ways To Optimize Your Business YouTube Channel

By | Digital Marketing, Google, Social Media Marketing, Website

Before we begin, let us have a look at some interesting facts about YouTube.

  • Did you know? YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.
  • 60% of people prefer online video platforms to live television.
  • YouTube is the third most visited site in the world after Google and Facebook.
  • The average mobile viewing session in this platform is more than forty minutes.
  • On an average, YouTube gets more than one billion views per day.
  • You can navigate YouTube in more than 70 languages.
  • The above figures are enough to show the importance of YouTube in digital marketing. So, if you do not own a YouTube video channel for your business yet, you should set up one soon. However, just setting up a channel is not going to work. You have to optimize it just like you optimize your business website. So, in this blog post, you will learn how to optimize your YouTube channel to improve reach and show up in its search, and suggested videos.

1. Plant a keyword into your channel name

On-page metadata in youtube works the same as it does on your business website. The positive impact of keywords usually depends on the place it is used. Keywords that are placed near the front of a title will obviously work like a magic. However, have you ever thought of adding a keyword in your channel name? It is one of the rarest shortcuts in search engine optimization.

For example, instead of ‘Business name,’ try ‘Business name + keyword.’ Make sure the keyword which you use is related to your industry, service, product or any item that you are well recognized with. SEO experts usually suggest to do keyword research and find out the best possible keyword that your visitors use to find the content you share on the video platform.

2. Fill out About Us section

About Us, a page is the most overlooked aspect of a YouTube channel. Even today business owners, marketers, digital marketing partners do not have a clear idea of what should be written in the About us section. Some say company history or business mission should be written, while others say previous achievements.

Not many people know that the first 48 characters of the About Us show up in the YouTube search results. Hence, filling out this section is the must. Doing so will help your visitors understand who you are and what you do. Furthermore, the same content helps the YouTube to put up the best snippet for the content.

The rest of the content present in the About Us page is equally important. This content will help you to do two jobs simultaneously. On one side, you can fully describe what your channel is all about, the type of content you produce, and the goals you want to achieve. On the other side, you can optimize the About Us section with the keywords. Make sure that your keywords match the content and appear natural. Do not overdo it, Google doesn’t like keyword stuffing.

Just in case, if you are not sure about keywords, you can use these tools to find them.

  • YouTube Analytics
  • Google Search Console
  • Google Analytics
  • Moz
  • SEMrush
  • Market Muse

3. Create long videos

The most important ranking signal is “video watch time” or “audience retention.” Watch time can be defined as the average time your viewers spend watching your videos. YouTube is more likely to promote your channel via search and recommended videos if you have a boost in your watch time. That is how this video sharing platform rewards a channel that creates good content.

You can improve your watch time if you publish videos that have a longer duration. Well, that is fundamental. Just length of the video is not the only factor to consider. Focus on the quality of the video too. Only if your videos are lengthy and filled with quality, people like to watch you. That is exactly how watch time is improved. Since SEO experts say that the average length of the videos in page one of YouTube is 14 minutes and 50 seconds, it is better to make videos that are in and around this length.

4. Concentrate on the first 15 seconds

In the previous point, we have discussed the watch time and how it impacts the visibility of your channel. If the viewers are hitting the back button after a couple of seconds, your watch time is destined to go low. As a result, the visibility of your YouTube channel shrinks. However, there is this tip or the best practice you can follow to avoid this issue.

Did you ever think what makes a viewer decide whether to hit the back button or continue watching the video? The answer is simple. Viewers have short attention time on Youtube. They will see your first fifteen seconds of your video, based on that experience they decide whether to stay or not. Therefore, the first 15 seconds of the videos play a crucial part. Make sure you have something in the first 10 to 20 seconds of the videos that glues your viewers.

Here are the best practices to improve watch time:
Preview: At the beginning of the video itself state what is your video about and what are your viewers going to gain from it. After seeing the preview, your viewers will be more likely to stick on the video for a longer period of time. For instance, you can add a 20-seconds section called “What you are going to learn in this episode?” at the beginning of a video.
Proof: Explain how your pitch has worked and back it up with previous success stories. For example, “Our clients have tried this strategy many times, and it worked.”
Preview: The preview which we have earlier talked is different from this one. Keep this preview bit lengthy compared to the earlier one and also be more specific. Here you should show fresh information that viewers have not seen before this point. For instance: “Here are the 10 ways to optimize your YouTube channel.”

5. Optimize your channel trailer

What is a channel trailer? It is a small video created to help visitors learn about a YouTube channel. This is something similar to movie trailers. Make sure you enable the channel trailer. Doing so will display the trailer automatically at the top of your YouTube channel Page for new visitors.

This trailer is a visual About Us of a Youtube page. Since it is not displayed for the already subscribed viewer, it is a great medium to convert your new visitors into subscribers. Here are the best practices you need to follow while creating a channel trailer:

  • Keep your channel trailer in between 30 to 90 seconds.
  • Give a quick intro of you and your channel.
  • Explain the type of videos you are going to post.
  • Include frequency and timing of your posting.
  • Ask to subscribe.

6. Post compelling thumbnail

Thumbnails act like a door to your videos. A viewer judges a channel based on many things such as business name, length of a video, quality of a video, channel trailer, and thumbnails. Since we already talked about the rest, let us discuss thumbnails at this point.

Youtube advertises other videos through thumbnails in its sidebar. So you need to put efforts to make your thumbnails unique and attractive. The same thing happens when your video is listed after a search is conducted on Youtube.

Youtube usually ranks a video with great thumbnail better than the others, even if the quality is not that high. This is because good thumbnails improve click-through rate, which is also a ranking factor. Here are some tips for creating thumbnails.

  • Use large texts, so that viewers can read.
  • Make use of arrow and other symbols.
  • Mark or highlight important region.
  • Add unexpected, surprising or unusual pictures related to the video.
  • Make sure picture quality is high.

7. Make playlists

Playlists help you to organize your YouTube channel. So, with the help of playlists try to keep the videos in a categorical format. Making playlist will improve your Youtube channel optimization efforts in multiple ways. Here we are mentioning some.

  • Provides more visibility for not so popular videos.
  • Increases the rank of a video.
  • Motivates you to create videos with better content.
  • Improves watch time sessions.
  • Enhances user experience by providing related videos.
  • Here are the steps you need to follow to create a playlist on Youtube.
  • Go to the video you want to add in a playlist.
  • Click on “add to” under the video.
  • Next, click on create a new playlist, and enter the name of the playlist.
  • Go through the privacy carefully.
  • Click on the create button.

8. Promote your videos on social media

Just ask yourself one simple question. How your customers will come to know about your YouTube channel and videos? The answer to this is social media marketing. Promoting your videos on social media is a part of SMM strategy. It will help you to target a new audience. As a result, the traffic from social media will flow towards your channel.

A platform such as Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, and Pinterest have millions and millions of users. If you do it in the right way, you can utilize these platforms to improve ranking and subscribers. Here are some ways to utilize social media platforms.

  • Inform your followers about the upcoming videos.
  • Discuss the content in the videos in the comment section.
  • Collect the feedback to improve the quality of videos.
  • Release the trailer on social media, so that people will know when the video will be available and what it is about. In short, you can promote as well as create suspense among followers.
  • Engage your audience by asking a fun question, and also answers their questions.
  • Share the videos that have fewer numbers of views.
  • Repost the videos that were successful in the past, so that your new followers do not miss them.

9. Say keywords in the video

One of the lesser-known facts about Youtube videos is that content spoken in the video can technically impact the search engine ranking. Yes, Google has made some changes in its algorithm. Now the algorithm can crawl videos, images, and transcriptions. So, anything you say in the video can either positively or negatively influence your ranking.

Therefore, along with putting the keyword in the title of your video, you must say keywords throughout the video to ensure a higher ranking. Note that you do not overdo it. Let your keywords appear natural and match the content of the video. Saying the keyword numerous times is considered as stuffing, Google punishes such activities by lowering the ranking. So, read the Youtube guidelines, and stay on the safer side.

10. Gain user interaction signals

Along with watch time, video length, title, description and click through rate, user interaction is also an important ranking signal. These signals help search engines to understand how active your audience is and how much authority you have on a particular subject.

As a business owner, your job does not finish after creating high-quality content. In fact, your work begins with creating the fresh superior content. So, once you post the video, you should focus on generating user interaction signals. Here are some ways to do so:

  • Share the videos on Facebook, Twitter, and other similar platforms.
  • Join the conversation taking place in the comment section.
  • Link your videos to other videos of your channel.
  • Encourage your viewers to comment on their views and opinions.
  • Be gentle to criticism and publicly accept the mistakes committed.

11. Compelling language and year

Last but not least, language and year are the important ingredients to increase reach and views. Here is how they play their part in your Youtube success story.

The language you use plays a role of attracting the visitors and improving click-through rates. Along with the video quality, a compelling language used in the title is equally important. Make sure you write video titles in such a way that all the videos appear as a part of one collection.

The other smart method to improve click-through rate is by adding a year. For instance, “Places to visit in England, 2019” looks a lot better and up to date than just “Places to visit in England.” Although the year is irrelevant in this case, it still tells the viewers about the freshness of the content. As a result, viewers usually tend to click the video that has a year in its description.

google my business

Google My Business FAQs

By | Digital Marketing, Google, Online reputation, Website

Google My Business is a free tool for business owners to manage their online presence across Google Search and Google Maps. It helps your customers to find you when they search for a business like yours. Hence having a Google My Business page is an integral part of digital marketing. If you have not claimed your listing yet, do it now.

If you are a new business owner, or if you are new to Google My Business, you may have many questions. To answer all your queries, we are listing all the common Google My Business frequently asked questions, and answering them. Read this blog post, and get all the answers for your queries at one place. Here we go.

1. What is Google My Business Q&As?

Google wants to provide all the information at one place. A typical Google My Business page has information about opening and closing times, address, contact number, reviews, map, pictures, directions, link to the business website and business description. These are the most basic questions that potential customers try to find an answer before making a contact.

However, there can be some more questions that should be answered. For instance, whether the business has a parking space? Or is the business handicap friendly? So, Google has smartly come up with the GMB Q&As. Google My Business Questions and Answers are crowdsourced. In other words, anyone can question, and anyone can answer the question. The best part is that your customers will get to know your business more closely. In addition to that, you will know what are the consumer concerns and how to satisfy them.

2. How much does it cost?

Google My Business is absolutely free. Do not pay any kind of amount to any person. There are many scams that try to charge you for setting up your GMB page. Do not fall for these scams. Setting up Google My Business is as simple as creating a Facebook account. Adding the correct business name, phone number, address, description, pictures and videos, and other important details is all it takes to set up. The whole process is, simple, effortless, and less time-consuming. Even a person who is new to Google My Business can create his page within a couple of minutes.

3. Why do I need Google My Business If I already have my own website?

GMB is not a substitute for your website. Your website and Google My Business page, go hand in hand. So, having both a website and Google My business account can work in favor of you and improve your search engine optimization and other digital marketing efforts.

The main purpose of Google My Business is to give your local business a public identity and presence on Google, so that, when a customer searches for a business like yours reaches you. In simple words, the information you provide can appear on Google Search and Maps and help your website to get more exposure and customers. Since Google My Business costs nothing, there is no reason to ignore it.

4. Does Google My Business have a mobile app?

Yes, Google My Business has a mobile app, and it is free. And this is one of the reasons why people love GMB. The mobile app allows you to do everything you do in your web account. Here are the main features:
Edit or add new information directly through the Profile Editor.
Click photos and enhance them with a range of excellent filters, and post in your Profile.
Create posts for new events, offers, and launches.
Know who is interacting with your GMB profile, and continue the connection. You can do this by using Customer tab. A Customer tab allows you to respond to reviews, messages directly with customers.
So, it can be said that Google makes it easy to manage your Google My Business page by providing a free mobile application.

5. Do I need to create a business website?

No. It is not necessary to build a website to create a Google My Business page. However, it will be good if you own a website. Just like social media accounts or pages boost the visibility of your business website, Google My Business improves organic traffic.

The good news is that Google My Business offers you to generate a simple website for free. Google does this with the help of website builder, which uses the information present in Google My Business profile. Although this website will be a simple one, you can customize it to suit your business.

6. How do I manage multiple business locations?

This is one of the frequently asked Google My Business questions. Managing multiple business locations is easy with Google My Business. Based on the number of location, there are two methods. If there are few locations, you can set up every single location under one Google login. In case, if you have ten or more locations, you can use the bulk upload tool. A bulk upload tool is a tool which helps you to upload numerous business locations at once. If you want to upload or edit your locations, you can go to Google My Business Locations.

7. What should I do if my listing is claimed by someone else?

In rare cases, you can see a “someone else has already verified this listing” message when you try to verify your Google My Business listing. If this is the case, then you have nothing to worry. GMB gives you an option to reclaim your listing. All you need to do is a request for admin rights and submit a transfer of the ownership request. Google will try to contact the existing owner to verify the transfer. If the owner does not respond within the period of seven days, then the current owner is unverified, and a verification code is sent to confirm his or her identity.

8. I am an individual practitioner. Can I set up a Google My Business listing?

Yes, it is possible. In fact, Google My Business is more popular among local business and individual practitioners such as lawyers, tutors, doctors, dentists, real estate agents, carpenters, painters, electricians or plumbers. What if there are multiple practitioners who belong to a common organization at one location? Digital marketing experts usually advise creating a listing for all the practitioners separately, in such cases. Not doing so will affect the visibility of the individual practitioners of the same organization. As the result, having a listing will not serve the purpose of owning a listing.

9. Can I skip business address on Google as I work from home?

No, you cannot leave the address field blank. However, Google My Business provides an option that resolves this issue. That is you can hide your business address by listing your business as a service area. Google gives you an option to provide the areas and cities that you cover. You can also choose to remove a service area entirely. If you are not sure about the service area listed in the GMB listing, you can go now and update the location.

10. I am shifting to a new address. How to update?

In most cases, the new address might be occupied by a business before you. If this is the case, then you must find out who the business owner is and mark the listing as closed. Closing the old listing before updating your new address is important for two reasons. One, customers of old business will not mistake you for the old business in your new address. Two, your potential customers will contact you at the correct place. Once the address is changed, your other information can also change such as a phone number, and office hours. So update all the information.

What if your new address is not occupied by a former business? Well, this makes your work easy. The only thing you need to do is update your listing.

Google Webmaster Tools

How to add your Website to Google Webmaster Tools / Search Console

By | Google, Website, WordPress Website

Google Webmaster was later changed to Search Console by Google, and they are used to maintain and monitor your website existence in the Google Search Results.

To rank your site in Google Search Results, it’s not mandatory to sign up for a Search Console but doing so will help you in understanding every update on your website. You will be able to know how Google is looking for your site as well as how it optimize them in the search results in a legitimate way.

 Who can make use of Search Console?

Business owners, SEO Specialists, Digital Marketer, Site Administrator, App Developer, Web Developer, etc.

Why use Search Console?

  • To check out whether your site is getting accessed on Google Search Results.
  • Submit new content for fast and immediate crawling.
  • To remove content that you need not show them in the search results.
  • To know the visual engagement.
  • Maintaining your site from every aspect from search performance to significant disruption.
  • To resolve any spam issues or malware on your site when found.

What URL should you use on the Website Property?

Helps in recording the date only for the https version of your site, in this case, you need to add HTTP and https as two single versions to the search console.

How to Add your website to Google Search Console?

Proceed below to find out the simple steps through which you can add your website to the Search Console.

  1. You need to have a Google Account to sign up for a Search Console. If you do not have then first create a Gmail Account to proceed further.
  1. Once after creating a Google account, visit Search Console page and sign into your Google Account.
  1. Click on the Add a Property (red button) to add your site to the search console.
  1. You need to type your site URL into the box and then click on the Add button in blue color for further steps.
  1. You will get a new dialog up, click on the Alternate Methods and select the HTML Tag, copy the code.
  1. Go to your WordPress website, log in and choose the SEO from the Menu option on the left-hand side of your Dashboard.
  1. Click on the SEO to expand them for the options, choose general and click on the webmaster tools from the dialog box.
  1. You will find Google Verification code under Webmaster tools, paste the copied code from the Webmaster tools and click on save changes.
  1. Click verify on the Search Console once you have made the changes in your SEO part.

Yay! You have added your website to the Google Search Console now.

web Page Speed Optimization

Tips To Reduce Your Web Page Load Time

By | Search Engine Optimizaion, Website

Page load time is an important part of user experience. If you want to give a good user experience to your visitors, then you need to keep your page load time to the minimum. Apart from that page load time is a ranking factor and one of the key aspects of search engine optimization (SEO). Therefore, today, we are presenting tips to reduce your web page load time.

Know Your Present Page Speed

There are several tools available on the Internet to check the current speed of your web page. Most of these online tools will not only find your page speed but also give some valuable inputs and suggestions to fix existing issues. Below are the popular online tools to check page speed:
● Google’s Page Speed Insights
● GTMetrix
● Yahoo’s Yslow

Opt The Hosting Option That Matches Your Needs

Beginners usually opt the one which costs less. Usually, there is less traffic in the beginning. Cheap hosting may work good for a while, but when you start to gain traffic, you need to upgrade it. There are three different types of hosting available:
1. Shared Hosting
2. VPS Hosting
3. Dedicated Server

Shared hosting is the cheapest among the three hosting options. Here you share some resources like CPU and disk space with other sites. It hardly costs you 5 to 6 British Pounds.

Similar to Shared Hosting, in VPS hosting you have to share your server, but there is a difference. Here you have dedicated portions of the server’s resources.

Dedicated Server is for those, who don’t want to share the server. Here you are responsible for your maintenance. It gives you more space and complete control.

Minimize Your File Size

It is a well-known fact that small files open quickly. So it is one of the best practices to keep the file size to the minimum without compromising the quality. The best way to minimize your file size is by compressing it. Run a compression audit and compress all the files, which have a scope.

Enable Browser Caching

Here is how enabling browser caching makes your website to load faster on the visitors’ device. When visitors visit your site, the elements of your websites are stored in their hard drive in a cache. Therefore, when your visitors visit your site next time, your site opens quickly.

Deactivate Unnecessary Plugins

Using too many plugins may contribute to your web page load time and make your web page slow. Therefore, it is best to use only those plugins which are needed and skip the rest. Moreover, experts suggest to switch off the plugins, which are not in use.

WordPress Themes To Choose

7 Things To Consider When Choosing A WordPress Theme

By | Digital Marketing, Google, Website, WordPress Website

Today, themes can influence search engine ranking and user experience. Selecting a theme solely based on appearance is not a good idea. There are several things that you need to keep in mind before picking a WordPress theme for your website. Therefore, in this blog post, we are going to present the top seven things that you need to consider before selecting a WordPress theme.

Simplicity

You might have come across many good but complicated themes. And you might have picked some already. That’s exactly where you are going wrong. Your goal should be of providing what an Internet user is looking for. A complicated theme might confuse the visitor. Therefore, always choose themes, which are simple.

Is The Theme Responsive?

This is one of the most important questions to ask before using a theme. You get traffic from desktop, mobile, tablet and many other devices. Therefore, you need to make sure that the theme is responsive across all screen sizes. To check whether a theme is responsive or not, copy the theme URL and paste it in Google’s mobile-friendly test.

Browser Compatibility

Today their several browsers available for free to browse through the Internet. Your potential customers or visitors might be using Google Chrome, Edge, Firefox or any other browser. Therefore, make sure the theme which you are going to use is compatible across all the popular browser.

SEO Friendliness

Search engine optimization is the most important aspect of your website. If you are looking for a better search engine ranking or want to retain the existing ranking, then you should not use themes that are not SEO friendly. Take some technical help to discover whether the theme is SEO friendly or not.

Reviews and Ratings

How do you know a film is good before watching it? By seeing its star rating and reviews. Similarly, themes are rated and reviewed by the WordPress community. You can see the rating and go through the reviews of a theme to judge it. A theme which is downloaded and loved by thousands of people is mostly the good one.

Social Media Integration

Social Media Marketing is an important part of digital marketing. That is the reason why your theme should be ready for social media. If you are selecting a theme, prefer the one which has fully integrated social media widgets.

Security

Security must be your top-most priority. But how to know whether a theme is secure are not? The easiest method is to read the reviews. Users tend to pick security issues quickly and post reviews. Furthermore, avoid themes that have no reviews or lesser reviews.

Features of Mobile Friendly Website

6 Reasons Why You Need A Mobile-Friendly Website

By | Search Engine Optimizaion, Social Media Marketing, Website

Gone are the days when people had a desktop as the only option to access the Internet. Today things have changed; one can surf the Internet using various devices such as smartphones, tablets, etc. And that is the reason why your website needs to provide good user experience across all the screen sizes. Here are the top six reasons why your website needs to be mobile friendly.

1. Mobile Friendliness Influences Search Ranking

Google has made two things clear from its mobile-friendly update. One, websites which are not mobile friendly are going to be penalized. Two, websites which are mobile friendly will be rewarded by improving its search engine ranking. Carryout mobile-friendly test to know whether your site is mobile friendly.

2. Dominance Of Mobile Traffic

Number of mobile Internet users has already surpassed the number desktop Internet users. This dominance of mobile traffic over desktop traffic makes Mobile SEO absolutely fundamental. Not having a mobile-friendly website usually leads to a poor user experience and causes a higher bounce rate. As a result, you will lose a majority of the potential customers.

3. User Behaviour

User behavior changes from device to device. Very fewer people know that mobile users tend to spend more money than computer users. That is exactly why providing poor mobile experience reduces the sales. Make sure that your website is properly optimized for mobile, and gain seamless sales.

4. Gain Local Customers

Local customers are more likely to make a purchase within 24 hours after the Google search. A mobile-friendly site can quickly convert these potential customers into customers. Here, proper display of a website is just only one feature. Mobile friendly websites have many other features that enhance the whole experience of a user. Below are the fundamental features of a mobile-friendly site:
● Loads quickly
● Have one-click call feature
● Maps and directions
● Make a reservation, etc.

5. Enhances Social Media Marketing

Studies reveal that approximately 90% of the Internet users use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. through their mobile. Hence, if you are running an SMM campaign, you should expect a huge mobile traffic to your website. If your website gives a poor mobile experience, you may not retain the traffic from social media. As the result of which, you will have limited conversions.

6. Desktop Users Are Also Mobile Users

You might already know that computer users, and mobile users overlap. In other words, the majority of the people use both mobile and desktop to access the Internet. A user may collect information about your product or service on a computer, and may decide to make a purchase using a mobile, or vice versa. Either way, it is going to affect the conversion rate. Making your website mobile friendly can fix this issue.

Google Crawl

Top Reasons Why Google Isn’t Indexing Your Website

By | Google, Search Engine Optimizaion, Website, WordPress Website

Getting your website indexed is one of the most important things in search engine optimization (SEO). An unindexed website is a website which isn’t a part of Google search index. If your site is not indexed, then searchers will not be able to find your content organically. There may be many reasons for your site not being indexed. In the blog post, we are presenting the top reasons why Google isn’t indexing your website.

Your Website Is Indexed Under www- Or Non-www Domain

Users don’t differentiate between http://example.com and http://www.example.com. They consider both as one and the same. But the fact is that www is subdomain. Therefore, to make sure both the sites are indexed, add both the sites to your GWT account. In addition to that set your preferred domain and verify ownership.

Absence Of Sitemap.xml

A sitemap.xml is a simple list of directions for Google to index your website. Therefore, sitemap.xml is necessary to get your website indexed. If you don’t have sitemap.xml, then through Google sitemap policy and create it. It is quite easy.

Crawl Errors

In the case of crawl errors, Google doesn’t crawl your website. Since it doesn’t crawl, your website doesn’t get indexed. Yes, to index a website, crawling is necessary. Take help of Google webmaster tools to identify crawl errors. Select your site, click on “crawl” and then click on “crawl errors.” That’s it, you will find crawl errors if they exist.

Duplicate Content

Not many people know that excessive duplicate content on a website can also be a reason for Google not indexing your website. If search engines discover that most of your content on your site is duplicated, then it may abort indexing your site. Moreover, content duplication is also a black hat method, avoid duplication of content completely.

Robots.txt

Robots.txt is usually used to tell a search engine not to index a particular part of your website. In some cases, a developer can by mistake block your site via robots.txt. This issue is easy to fix, and it takes no time. Just by removing the entry from the robot.txt, you can get your site indexed.

Privacy Settings

This issue is more common in WordPress websites. You or the developer may have kept the privacy settings ON. As a result of which, search engine may not be indexing your website. To check privacy settings, go to Admin and click on “settings” and then click on “privacy.” If the privacy setting is ON, then fix it.

Your Site Is Brand New

Indexing takes time, especially in the cases of new websites. If your website is new, Google may take few days or even weeks to index your website. Don’t forget to request Google Crawl and fetch your site. Make sure your website is free from above-mentioned issues and errors.