Today, I want to cover on-site search engine optimization (on-site or on-page SEO) and review all of the parts of your website that you’ll want to make sure are in top shape, in order to turbocharge your rankings on Google and other search engines.

We will cover Robots.txt, Sitemaps, Content Optimization, Duplicate Content, Hidden Content. Mobile-Friendly Site Structure, Page Speed, URL Structure, Site Security / HTTPS, Title Tags, Meta Description, Keywords, H1 H2 H3 Tags, Google Site Verification, Structured Data / Schema.org, and Rich Snippets.

I would like to begin with some takeaways to keep in mind throughout.

The first is that websites need to be machine-friendly and the most important machine is GoogleBot.

With all of the code needed to build a website and putting them together, it might seem counterintuitive to say they need to be machine-friendly, but if your website is not built to be read by Google, you will not be able to rank. The early code for the web was just about display and handling. It didn’t easily allow the web crawlers to understand what it is that they’re seeing.

To meet the high standards for ranking on Page 1 of Google for your most important keywords, you must add meta elements to the end markup of your page templates, and then make a regular practice of testing your site’s SEO, and update your site’s code and structure as needed.

We are going to focus this article on-site architecture and HTML code. These are the two most important pillars of effective on-page SEO.

I will cover the what, why and how of effective website architecture with a focus on SEO.  We are going to start small so you don’t get too overwhelmed.

We’re going to start with crawling, after all before you can walk or run.  You have to learn how to crawl.

Can search engines easily get around your site?

Google, Bing and Yahoo crawl your website to populate their indexes. Whether you are an individual or a business, these search engines are really important, and display results based on their crawling.

Bad or incomplete crawling can be influenced by a number of factors. [Read more…]

If you run an online business or a website, or manage a New York SEO company you already know how important SEO is for determining the success of your venture.

Simply put, SEO is one of the cost-effective digital marketing forms which can help you boost the traffic to your website organically. However, that is easier said than done. Enhancing your website’s traffic with the help of SEO is not an easy task as it seems to be.

Truth be told, no one-size-fits-all SEO solution would be beneficial for all websites. But if you keep the spirits high, you can gradually achieve the desired results by adopting the best SEO practices.

You also need to keep an eye on the latest trends in the industry, which you will find in the infographic below!

Let’s check out some of the most important SEO tactics and trends to follow in 2019. [Read more…]

Social media is probably the most appealing digital marketing channel at the moment to the vast majority of business owners.

It allows for an unprecedented level of connectivity by providing direct lines of communication between brands and users, instant feedback, and a more natural way to exchange information.

Facebook still reigns supreme among the present social media channels. It has more than 2 billion monthly active users, which is almost a third of the world’s population! With this vast user volume, there’s no surprise that 65 million business pages are promoting products and services through the platform.

The team behind SERPwatch created a handy infographic presenting the latest trends in the digital marketing world. Let’s have a quick overview why Facebook is so important this year, after which you can consult the infographic and learn about other essential marketing channels.

Facebook Today

User engagement is very important for Facebook. Posts and pages you interact with frequently – watching a video, hitting the ‘like’ or ‘share’ button, or adding a comment – tend to show up more on your feed.

How To Do Well on Facebook

If you haven’t hopped aboard the video content creation train just yet, now would be a great time to do so. The primary reason to do so is that nearly 64% of consumers say that watching a marketing video on Facebook influences their purchasing decision.

Putting ads on Facebook is more than useful for any brand awareness or lead generation campaign. To stand out, however, you may want to keep the following Facebook advertising tips in mind:

• The most effective advertisements have images (which improve ad effectiveness by 75-90%)
• The ideal ad title is about four words long
• Your link description should have about 15 words

People love good stories on Facebook, and top-performing posts have more than 1,500 words. These tend to rake about 22.6% more likes.

Other useful tips for your posts are as follows:

•  The best time to post is between 1 and 3 PM.
• If you’re using a video, square formats work best on Facebook, unlike landscape formats.

The Future of Facebook

It seems that Facebook intends to take engagement even further with more fun features like 360-degree photos/videos and Facebook Live to cover events of all kinds. We are also not so far away from Facebook’s augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications. It is very likely that we’ll see those very soon.

Facebook might be extremely popular as a social media platform, but it’s just one of the many digital marketing channels you can use for your business.

To see other interesting digital marketing trends, have a look at the infographic below:

[Read more…]

Gone are the days when businesses used print media, radio stations, and hanging billboards to advertise goods and services. Thanks to recent technological advancements, even email, SMS marketing and online advertising are undergoing major changes. Now, the hottest way to push sales are with mobile devices. 

Can you remember the last time you were without your smartphone for a whole day?

In 2019, the number of smartphone users is expected to increase to 2.5 billion people from 2.1 billion in 2016. Smartphone ownership rates also increased from 10% of the world’s population in 2011 to about 36% at the end of 2018.

More research reveals that people check their smartphones an average of 80 times in 24 hours, and spend more than five hours a day on their phones. What these numbers mean to marketers is that smartphones are the perfect medium to advertise their goods to potential customers.

Smartphones have changed the mode of interaction between brands and consumers. Today, people have twice as many interactions with brands on their mobile devices than any other platform – TV and in-store inclusive.

Actions that required a desktop computer can now be done conveniently using a smartphone. Consumers can even buy products online and receive orders without visiting a store.

There are many mobile marketing strategies available based

 on the objectives and overall business strategy of the company. They include SMS marketing, app-based marketing, email marketing, and location-based marketing.

The best ways to succeed with mobile marketing include understanding your audience’s needs, designing content suitable for mobile platforms, and using SMS/MMS marketing and mobile apps.

Incorporating these guides into your mobile marketing strategies will increase the value of advertisements your customers will receive, as well as the chances of them purchasing from your company.

For more insights on how you can use mobile marketing to your advantage, and examples of brands that have used mobile marketing to increase sales and generate brand awareness, check out the infographic below:  

[Read more…]

According to Sikich, 70% of digital marketers see email marketing as a top channel for ROI. High praise for sure, especially when you consider how much of a return on investment a channel must have in order for that amount of experts to agree on its effectiveness.

However, studies show that about 30% of marketers are not quite satisfied with this promotional method. And, as it turns out, 30% is still a lot.

Countless forum posts and articles question the effectiveness of emails when used as a marketing channel. While the specific problems people have with email marketing vary, a general consensus among those doubting its effectiveness is that this strategy simply does not generate enough leads to be a worthwhile channel.

So, why do some companies get great results from email outreach while others struggle to generate any leads? As it turns out, the only thing separating the two groups can be summed up to two words: email optimization.

In most cases, email optimization is what makes the difference between good marketing and not so good marketing.  Email optimization is how to adapt the emails you’re sending to the specific requirements of your targeted audience.

Email optimization also entails making sure your emails differ from the other thousand messages that arrive in your audience’s inbox every day. It is how you get your emails to go viral, for the right reasons.

The following infographic, brought to you by the team behind 99 Firms, shows precisely how email optimization can optimize your outreach campaign and allow you to get the most out of it. [Read more…]

Any business, regardless of the industry, needs to have a good reputation. It comes with a lot of benefits and paves the way for success, bringing a loyal following and making a business stand out from the competition.

The tricky part is that it takes a long time to build a good reputation, and just a single crisis can have a significant impact on the image of the business. And once the reputation is ruined, it is hard to bounce back and it can even lead to a business shuttering its doors.

That’s why it’s crucial to ensure that businesses are protected from risks that can tarnish their reputations, and the key is to determine reputational risks and know how to mitigate them. This is where having insurance policies that protect reputation come in. Here are some of the things business owners need to know about their online presence:

Protect against Cyber Liability

A data breach or cyber attack is a common risk that can tarnish the reputation of any business. While the General Liability insurance covers risks related to property damage and injuries incurred, it is not enough to protect against cyber attacks or exposures including data breach, system failure, rights to intellectual property, and system failure. Cyber Liability insurance protects against these risks and exposures that are not usually covered by the General Liability insurance. [Read more…]

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<img src="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB2aWV3Qm94PSIwIDAgMTAyNCA3ODIzIiB3aWR0aD0iMTAyNCIgaGVpZ2h0PSI3ODIzIiBkYXRhLXU9Imh0dHAlM0ElMkYlMkZ3d3cucmVwdXRhdGlvbnJoaW5vLmNvbSUyRndwLWNvbnRlbnQlMkZ1cGxvYWRzJTJGMjAxNyUyRjEyJTJGRkoxMDE3MTQ0NS1yZXZpc2VkdjQtMDEucG5nIiBkYXRhLXc9IjEwMjQiIGRhdGEtaD0iNzgyMyIgeG1sbnM9Imh0dHA6Ly93d3cudzMub3JnLzIwMDAvc3ZnIj48L3N2Zz4=" data-spai="1" width="100%" alt="Why Online Reputation Matters for Business"/><br /> <a href="http://www.reputationrhino.com/online-reputation-matters-business/"><br /> </a>

Why Online Reputation Matters for Business, courtesy of Reputation Rhino

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<img src=”http://www.reputationrhino.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/FJ10171444-revisedV2-01.png” width=”100%” alt=”Why Online Reputation Matters for Individuals”><br /><br /> <a href=”http://www.reputationrhino.com/online-reputation-matters-individuals/”><br /><br /> </a><br /> <p><strong>Why Online Reputation Matters for Individuals</strong>, courtesy of <a href=”http://www.reputationrhino.com/online-reputation-matters-individuals/”>Reputation Rhino</a></p><br /> <p>