by Affordable Website Specialists | Jun 28, 2019 | Responsive Web Design MI, Search Engine Optimization, SEO
Responsive Web Design – Mobile Friendly – Why Is This Important?
Responsive web design works well on all devices – Computers, Tablets, and Phones. The content displays to fill the width of the viewing device.
In this age of mobile technology, users have become accustomed to completing instant transactions, perform major tasks, and gain quick access to important information on the fly, with a few clicks of a button. In order to keep up with the instantaneous nature of technology, businesses are running into the option to convert to responsive websites, or evaporate in terms of business conversion on their webpage. That means small businesses, and those built on static web pages requiring the “pinch and zoom” method for functionality, are being forced to adapt, or fade into the search engine abyss. And for great reason, as responsive websites offer a wide range of potential for advancement moving into the future of optimized web design.
The benefit of having a responsive website is the ability to show and hide different sections, buttons, and components of a page on multiple viewports, adjusting content to fit any screen size from iPhones, to tablets, to desktop, or your 80in’ Smart TV. Essentially, the website becomes responsive to the viewport its being seen on, adjusting its format to fit the most optimized version of your webpage to the screen. One that’s the most functional and easy to use for accessing important and critical content. Long gone are the hours spent using the “pinch and zoom” method to operate full screen web designs on a smartphone.
It’s important to note that having an attractive, responsive, and easy to use web design is critical for lead generation and business conversion, as most customers consider a business’s web design layout as the main consideration in trusting a company’s credibility. In spite of being unattractive, if your website takes too long to load, is difficult to use, not functional or user friendly; it will cause users to reject and mistrust the company’s services altogether making it unlikely your business will experience any conversion whatsoever.
Also, statistics show that nearly 55% of views to a website are mobile users and this trend is increasing. This makes the transition to a responsive website essential to sales and profitability. It also influences SEO rankings, as mobile friendly websites are now prioritized in authority among search engine rankings and Google search results. Businesses that have rolled out a mobile version of their website have experienced increases in sales as high as 62%, and for tablet versions, as high as 64%.
Affordable Website Specialists, provides high quality custom responsive website design and search engine optimization (SEO).
Call (248) 770-8408 today for more information or to schedule a FREE Consultation.
by Affordable Website Specialists | Jun 28, 2019 | Facebook For Business, Instagram For Business, Social Media Marketing, Twitter For Business
Social Media Marketing For Business – Understanding Algorithms
The rise of social media algorithms has changed the way companies do social media marketing. Before algorithms, post visibility used to be about when you posted or how often you posted throughout the day. Over time, this changed how social media worked given the millions of Facebook accounts created, and the amount of clutter accumulated across a general newsfeed. Algorithms were thus created as a way for users to see posts they are more likely to be interested in and engage with based on interaction. While some algorithms are still dictated by how long-ago posts were shared, they assist by suggesting similar accounts and users that share content closer to that in which they engage with frequently.
Therefore, the more you engage with certain brands, influencers, or people you know, the more likely they are to show up in your timeline and you in theirs as well. For algorithms to work, it requires businesses to strategically engage with their audience. By asking questions, tagging friends, using hashtags, call to actions, “like” and commenting on posts, it stimulates an interaction and encourages users to engage with your content more frequently.
Boosting a post is also a great way to generate traffic to your website or business page, as it allows your posts to show up organically within a timeline alongside posts that other users are engaging with regularly. The key difference is that these posts will appear as “Promoted” or “Sponsored”, yet they allow your business the exposure you are looking for when there are important messages needing to be shared with followers. This is one of the best ways to use advertising on social media as a tool to showcase your business easily without hassle.
Depending on the social media platform you choose, different platforms have different algorithms and require different ways of remaining relevant in order to engage with your audience. For instance, in order for Twitter to remain authentic to its original structure, it announced it would not use a fully algorithmic timeline in order for posts to remain live and in real-time. Therefore, the half-life of a tweet is 24 minutes, meaning tweets gets a majority of its interaction within the first half hour after being posted, and slowly tapers off afterward. For Facebook, its about 5 hours, and for Instagram its 19 hours.
Using demographics as a tool to gear your marketing strategy is a good way to leverage these algorithms in your favor. Knowing your audience helps you create content that targets these demographics in the future. As a business, connecting with influencers in your market helps to keep your business familiar with leading distributors in the industry, as well as suppliers, competitors, customers ect., and stay familiar with current trends taking place in the market.
The key takeaway in mastering algorithms for networking is to consistently engage with your customer base, and that means “like”, share, and comment, but most importantly- listen to your audience more than you post. Paying attention, helping them solve problems, and interacting with their posts will initiate that relationship relevance that allows you engage with them more often and show up in their news feed in the future.
Affordable Website Specialists provides high quality custom responsive website design, search engine optimization (SEO), and Social Media Marketing. Follow Us on Facebook!
Call (248) 770-8408 today for more information or to schedule a FREE Consultation. Send us your comments/questions by clicking here or e-mail sales@awspecialists.com.
by Affordable Website Specialists | Jun 28, 2019 | Responsive Web Design MI, Search Engine Optimization, SEO
How To Improve SEO for Business – Search Engine Optimization – Key Elements:
SEO is a constantly changing, but is a critically important function to running a successful business in 2019. The world has become so adapted to instant, quick to access, and easy to use service, that new metrics are constantly being added to how SEO is measured and ranked among search engines as technology advances. Recently, Google rolled out a new algorithm to its search engines prioritizing responsive websites over outdated static versions, once again changing the SEO criteria and forcing businesses who procrastinate to make these updates and adapt, or become obsolete.
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization is the organic and trusted way for businesses to position themselves in rank among search engine results. This is important, because if customers can’t find your services quickly, how are they going to be able to utilize them, or know that you exist? SEO is a means to optimize your website so that it is easily understood by search engines. Therefore, programming it in a way so that it ranks as an authority leader among other websites of its kind. For example, when a site ranks first as a result to given search criteria, this means the site is highly relevant to the search being performed, and the search engine recognizes it as the authority. These days, good SEO is seen as a measure that strengthens website quality, and strengthen this authority rank among search results.
Converting your site to a responsive or mobile friendly page is most important in terms of optimizing your site and making it easier for users to operate. Each year the amount of people using their mobile devices to search, browse, shop, engage and convert to customers increases dramatically, and users will abandon a website within 3 seconds if it takes too long to load, is difficult to use, looks outdated, or is unattractive. That being said, speed is also an important metric, and can be easily managed by preventing and fixing any issues that cause delays to your webpage loading time (large file sizes, outdated plug-ins, etc.).
Content optimization still remains an important SEO metric in 2019. This means, using keywords that are relevant to your business and the industry surrounding it increases the likelihood of your website to appear among related and similar search results. Keywords should be incorporated to optimize title tags, alt text, and meta descriptions, and should exist among your URL name as well. Internal and external linking is also a key player, as the more pages of authority your website is linked to within your content, the more likely your page is to rank higher in authority among search results, and register as higher quality.
The use of schema and structured data in SEO can do wonders to positively affect Google ranking, or negatively if done incorrectly. Structured data and schema serve to provide pieces of information that give insight into a deeper understanding of the content in a webpage, providing context, and helping to classify the page among informational searches. Relevance of a webpage also is ranked by how recently content has been updated on the page- making sure dated information is less likely to appear above recently published material.
AWS can place your website on top of the organic listings on Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Our Search Engine Optimization (SEO) methods deliver top rankings and we can prove it. Our SEO techniques are proprietary, involving valuable and closely held trade secrets. Of equal importance, our prices are less than half of what other companies charge. (Read More)
To receive information about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), please call (248) 770-8408 or e-mail sales@awspecialists.com.
by Affordable Website Specialists | Mar 19, 2018 | Google AdWords, Google AdWords Optimization
Before you fully get in over your head with Google AdWords, though, you need to make sure your business is really ready for this kind of pay-per-click campaign. Google Adwords, after all, isn’t a magic bullet for marketing success, and a poorly planned and ran AdWords campaign can easily lead to disaster.
Google AdWords Pros
- Results from AdWords can be instant. AdWords ads can be really helpful if you’re looking to drive traffic to your site quickly. Organic SEO can take weeks, sometimes months to take effect. AdWords is instant. A brand newly launched website can typically benefit from a Google AdWords campaign.
- Creating an AdWords campaign can be quick. You can be up and running on AdWords in a very short space of time. While there is a lot more to AdWords than just campaigns, ad groups, keywords and ads, these are the building blocks. And you can set them up very quickly. Do a bit of keyword research, decide on your budget, set up a campaign and a few ad groups, write some killer ad copy, and away you go! Your ads will appear as soon as they’ve been approved, which could be instantaneous.
- Fantastic exposure in the search results. You have the chance to appear on the first page of the Internet’s largest search engine! And what does that mean? Exposure, exposure, exposure. And you’re appearing to someone who’s actively searching for what you offer when they really need it. Timing is, as they say, everything!
- You can measure the results. You’ll be gathering a huge amount of data in a very quick time. If you want to see what happens when you drive a big number of visitors to your site, then this is the best way to learn.
- Your budget can be big or small. It can be done on a budget. AdWords doesn’t have to be expensive. You can specify how much you’re willing to spend, and set your maximum cost per click for your keywords, and then you only pay for clicks. This allows you to maintain control of your spend.
- You have full control of your ads. You can turn your adverts on and off at will. Turn on that fire hose, let the visitors come in, and when you have enough enquiries, just turn the advertising off.
Google AdWords Cons:
- You pay for each click to your website regardless of conversion.
- Clicks can cost from $1-$12 depending upon competition for certain keywords.
- The control panel to manage AdWords is complicated for a first-time user.
- Some people ignore AdWords since they know it is paid advertising and look below the ads to the Organic Search Results.
Actual Screenshot Results of One of Our Clients Using AdWords:
Contact Affordable Website Specialists today to learn more about Google AdWords and discuss if it makes sense for your business. (248) 770-8408 or sales@awspecialists.com
