Tuesday 30 July 2019

5 Huge Warning Signs of a Bad SEO or Digital Marketing Agency

With the increase in the demand for SEO, the industry is rapidly growing with an enormous quantity of digital marketing agency. There is no doubt that nowadays everyone wants to grab a strong online presence for their webpage and has only one goal in mind, i.e., to be on the top of the first page in the SERPs.

But to make this wish a reality, you need to make sure that your website is full to search engine optimized.

How does SEO work? 


To make SEO work on your webpage, you must follow a mix of On-Page and Off-Page SEO techniques. Some of these techniques are quite technical, and you might require a professional to implement them, for example, setting up SSL, increasing the speed of your site, and enhancing the user experience, etc. Non-technical practices such as the addition of quality content, keywords, and meta-tags, getting high-quality backlinks, reviews, and listings require only SEO guidelines and policies shared by the search engines.

The field of SEO is extremely dynamic and not confined to the practices mentioned above. So, if you are thinking about getting to the top without any help, then we will recommend that you hire an agency or company that offers digital marketing services as cannot study one article on SEO and decide to call yourself a master of the field while others spend years of mastering and perfecting the skill.

Choosing the Right Digital Marketing Agency to Perform SEO




The market is currently overwhelmed by the number of companies offering SEO services. They try to prove that they are the “best” in the market. Have you ever wondered; if there were so many “best SEO Agencies” in the market, then wouldn’t all sites be on the first page of Google?

So, today, we will discuss the red flags that can easily tell whether an SEO or digital marketing agency is terrible news for your business:


  • Specific Number of Links

Companies that offer a specific number of monthly links or a promise to provide you with a particular amount of links on your website are for surely using black hat techniques. We all know that SEO is a time-consuming procedure, and anything that has submitted on high-quality sites is always reviewed. You can never be too sure about what will be accepted after the site owner has considered.

A company using automated links which can be irrelevant for the business or using black hat techniques to improve the link ratio is useless and harmful. Link building that involves SEO strategies and proper SEO work that can take a lot of time. It is always recommended to go for the technique that lasts longer and has a more engaging impact on the site. Other methods such as PBNs, etc. last shorter, a figure can be displayed, but you can never have the desired output, and worse can even get manual action from Google. 

  • Pre-determined Amount of Traffic 

Even though good SEO brings the right amount of traffic on your site, it is not easy to provide an estimate of the traffic that will end on your website. Any agency that promises you a specified number of people on the site is undoubtedly lying to you. 

It is easier to release bots on the site that will increase the number of traffic on the “Analytics” page, but they leave no impact on your business and do not contribute in helping the company in any way. 

  • Lack of Transparency

When you have worked for a company, and the project is deemed as successful; what do you do? You put it in your CV or portfolio. SEO Companies who are biased enough not to let their clients’ go through the results of their previous projects encourage a lack of transparency. These companies do not have anything on the record to show you.
It recommended that before investing in hiring and SEO, always look for reviews and testimonial references. If you are unable to find any, you know you should be looking for another agency. 

  • Instant Ranking on Top Pages

An agency trying to bluff with the people who are interested in their services will promise you high rankings within a short period. A company who claims to give you top page ranking in a short time are bad news. Their technique usually ends with them explaining several problems that your website has and will make you realize that you need to fix the issues to get the desired results.  Once the contract finished, businesses end up with a combination of keywords with zero to no monthly search volume. 

  • Cold Emails

Cold emails are the epitome of blind marketing. When a company wants to spread its name without targeting a relevant audience, they pitch to random email lists hoping to score a contract. It shows a lack of technique and inadequate knowledge regarding digital marketing. 

Agencies sending cold emails have probably purchased a bulk of emails from a provider or scraped them. That means that they have no clue about what you do in your business. They claim to work for someone and a proficient in something they don’t know. Some companies are deeply involved in this technique of spam based marketing, which is why they end up in the spam folder of your email. 

Conclusion

Let’s conclude this article with a few key points that you must consider before hiring someone to perform SEO for your website. 
  1. Keep in mind that SEO is not a short-term procedure, and it involves a lot of techniques and processes. 
  2. You can never be too sure about the figures and results that you would be reaching because of your SEO strategies. 
  3. Google changes policies now and then so it is essential to understand and remain up to date with the plans. 
We hope that this article will help you in identifying shady agencies and individuals practicing black hat SEO skills. If you are looking to invest in affordable SEO services, then make sure that the company being hired has a good track record with proven results.

Images Source

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/creative-agency-meeting-group-business-people-407327212?src=yBkPyi6ZT2Zjee6mMHCgQw-1-3&studio=1

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/businessman-seo-marketing-strategy-working-concept-226757146?src=K_6PjTAz55rX1f-1yPvOcw-1-15&studio=1

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/two-guys-girl-drinking-juice-office-790590634?src=yBkPyi6ZT2Zjee6mMHCgQw-1-7&studio=1


Monday 29 July 2019

Changes Needed for Improved WebPage Performance

There are numerous ways of improving web-page performance. Each of the methods varies from one to the other Besides, and it also works differently for each person.
Users left with no patience. Hence, they want the website to load faster, quicker, and of course, user-friendly to navigate. There are three core areas to focus on.
  1. Hardware i.e. Web Server
  2. Server Side Scripting
  3. Front-end Performance
Those mentioned above are the three main areas to focus on web development. With that thought in mind, we have a curated blog that shows the necessary changes needed for the improved webpage performance. Curious to know? Let us check out the blog! 

HTTP Requests

HTTP stands for the Hypertext Transfer Protocol. The requests from the HTTP are numbered whenever a browser fetches the information, picture, or file from the server. 

As per the statistics, the HTTP requests tend to consume 80% of the webpage loading time. Besides, the browser will limit the requests to 4-8 connections per domain. Hence, this will result in using more HTTP requests. It will take longer to load as retrieving the data consumes time. 

So, try to minimize the HTTP requests by combining the CSS or JavaScript files. In addition to that, you can also reduce the number of images used. If they are huge, compress them to for fewer HTTP requests. 

Inline CSS and JavaScript

It’s by default that the browsers fetch the external CSS and JavaScript. When the user shifts from the landing page, the browser will store the stylesheets and of course, the JavaScript files.

If you are using plenty of CSS and JavaScript files in the HTML document, then you unable to take full advantage of the web-browser’s caching features.  

Speed-Optimized Theme

If you are a WordPress user, then you can improve the webpage performance by using the speed-optimized themes available for free and paid versions. For someone who lacks in coding, this turns out to be a brilliant option in optimizing the speed.

Also Read
Top 8 SEO Plugins For WordPress Website

Minimize Resources

When the web developers design the website, they use plenty of spaces, indentations, and line breaks for secure communication within the team. While this is helpful to them, it does make the webpage look clutter and longer. It also increases the page-loading time.

Therefore, a simple way to resolve it is by minimizing the resources that make the coding languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript leaner. You can also use the plugins for page loading time. 

Fixing Broken Links

Broken links tend to upset the customers and make the UX look poor. It also slows down the speed of the website. So, one has to check the broken links. If you try to do it manually, then it will undoubtedly become a tedious task. 

Thus, use the tools and plugins available to take care of the broken links. Once, you have installed the tool or plugin, then it will monitor all the links and gives notification via email or WordPress dashboard. 

Compressing Images

According to the statistics, 60% of the average bytes loads per page, this is around 1504 KB. Images consequently consume a large amount of the HTTP requests. Most of the times, we tend to download the photos from the stock and without knowing the size and later uploading it on the server without optimizing the images for the web that leads to a slower response.

If you find yourself in such a situation, then you can install the plugins that automatically optimizes the images. There are even software options available Image Optimizer and Compressor.io for optimizations. 

Dedicated Hosting

Last but not least comes the dedicated hosting options. If you are using the shared hosting option and not happy with the output, then it is high time to shift towards the dedicated hosting plans. It’s costly, but the investment is worth it.

One does not have to deal with the traffic surges and other small problems that occur in slowing down the web-page performance. But, when you have a dedicated hosting option, many advantages on your way. 

Time is money, especially when it comes to web-page performance. As we mentioned earlier, visitors go away from the websites that run slow; one has to make subsequent efforts in improvising it. 

The above seven changes help optimize web-page performance. Apart from the ones mentioned above, there are plenty of ways to try. So, go ahead and bring changes to your website. If you like the blog, then do share and drop suggestions in the comment section below. 

Monday 15 July 2019

Social Media and the Role it Plays in our Lives

Social media plays such a vital role in our lives now. We can’t imagine life without it. This has become a global phenomenon and still widely spread. Social media is a medium that reaches people all around the globe. People are so connected these days; it is true that in the last 15 years, social media has taken the world by storm. Not so long ago was life still black and white? It was still a life where cell phones have not taken our lives completely and where we still use telephones to connect. The internet was used restrictedly, but this was just 10 -15 years back, and till then, social media management and the internet has taken our lives by storm. It is estimated that in the next 15 -20 years, everyone will have access to the internet.

When we talk about the internet, we can't ignore the social media sites be it Facebook or Instagram. These two sites have taken the world by storm and are conquering both the youth and the older generations. How social media gained popularity.

Social media - How it all began

When the social media sites of hi5 and Orkut was created and launched, it didn't impact the people too much because at that point the internet was not introduced in the cell phones at a cheap rate. The internet was accessible only through laptops and computers. Although these sites like hi5 and Orkut gained popularity, the youth and older generation alike didn't get addicted. The first internet services introduced in phones was in 1996, but the internet services were limited and really expensive, and this carried on till the year 2004 -05 when the internet services started becoming more popular in cell phones, it was around this year 2004 that the internet sensation Facebook was launched too and there’s no looking back.

With the introduction of cheaper internet rates and Facebook in 2004, the internet became a household name, and its popularity isn’t taking aback by anything since then. Let’s take a look at youth and the social media

Youth and Social Media 

 Previously the internet was accessible to people, but it didn't play such a pivotal role in their life. Yes, it connected everyone, but people would use the internet only using email, but with the dawn of Facebook and other social sites, it has completely taken away the time of the youth who spends about 5 -6 hours on the social media sites such Facebook, Instagram, and other such addictive sites. Facebook was created and used in 2006-07, and Instagram was launched in 2010 and has gotten the whole world hooked on them, and this is not slowing down thousands of people are creating their Facebook and Instagram account so as we're talking.

Effect of social media 

There is a widespread effect of social media, especially Instagram and Facebook. The most common negative effect is addiction.

Addiction 

The youth especially are addicted to these social media site, and social media control every aspect of their lives. They spend so much time on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and the latest addictive site TikTok. It can be assumed that social media has more addictive quality than cigarettes and alcohol, and this is alarming.

Sleeping Pattern 

Another effect of social media is unhealthy sleeping patterns. With the youth becoming increasingly addicted, they have unhealthy sleeping patterns. Because the youth use their social media until the late wee hours of the night, they generally lose their sleep. The social media sites are not only addictive, but it also affects the sleeping patterns because the youth would use the social media sites until the late hours of the night they generally fall asleep with their phones and wake up the next day holding on to their phones.

Depression

Another side effect of social media is poor mental health. It is found in studies that the excessive use of social media results in poor mental health and poor mood, which leads to numerous mood swings. It is found that the more time you spend on the internet or social media sites, the more it has adverse effects on your mood.

Unrealistic Expectation 

Because of the pressure to look good and present you in the best way at all time, this creates unrealistic expectations. For example, Instagram is a site where you upload your photos so generally the youth or the older generation would like to upload only photos where they look good, or they would like to upload photos of places they've visited. This instant need to look good and present yourself and your lifestyle in a grand manner lead to harming ways in which the individual either spends so much money to look good and spend money on their trips just so to look good on social sites and impress their followers on Instagram.

Ruins Body Image 

If you scrutinize Instagram, you'll see that the celebrities play a major role in it and the celebs would post a picture of their perfect body and rich lifestyle and this creates such a disparity between the celebs and the common man. The common man starts building negative body image, and they would also like to become more like the celebs, and this harms them more than anything else.

Briefly 

It is therefore important to curb our needs and use of social media. If we use social media in moderation then there are no ways we'll get addicted to it, and we can perform our daily functions without many troubles because social media really mess up with our daily functionality instead of doing our homework we spend our time on the social sites and this creates havoc to our daily lives.

Finally

To conclude, it is important to maintain moderation in life, be it in everything we do. So the same goes to social sites if we spend around 1 hour or at the most two hours on the social sites this doesn’t hamper with our daily lives and routine and it is good to be connected too.

Author Bio

Walter Moore is a notable management consultant and digital marketing expert. He is an experienced digital marketer and has helped e-commerce businesses in all niches gain with his effective marketing strategies and guidance.

Wednesday 10 July 2019

Instagram: The Perfect Social Networking Platform for Businesses

It has already been discovered that Instagram has been responsible for surpassing both Facebook as well as Twitter in terms of the total number of users who are active. Currently, Instagram is the most preferred social networking platform that most of the businesses use for marketing their business. Instagram is simple, convenient, and user-friendly. The growing popularity of Instagram is what has helped businesses to trust this platform more in comparison to the various other platforms that are there. There are few businesses that are still confused as to why Instagram is ideal for them as well. According to blog.hootsuite.com, there are almost 25 million businesses on Instagram.

Consider the list of reasons to find out why Instagram is going to be perfect for your newly established business.

Instagram hashtags are on the rise

You already know about the Instagram hashtags and this is not something new. Hashtags are responsible for making the Instagram posts discoverable and people who are looking for the type of business that you are into will easily come across your business with the help of hashtags. Hashtags are considered to be one of the most straightforward ways of connecting with people who are interested in your business and the services and products that you are offering. If you use appropriate and relevant hashtags, you can be assured that you are going to get more customers, and this can even increase your business revenue. You can also use Like4Like in the caption so as to receive more likes on your posts.

Business profiles on Instagram

Businesses that are on Instagram can make use of the business profiles in order to make them look more professional. Business profiles have numerous advantages and you will have the option of adding your contact details as well. The contact details will help people to locate you or contact you in case if they have any kinds of questions. Apart from that, you will have the option of understanding how all your posts are performing.

You will get detailed knowledge regarding when your audience is active and also the kinds of content that they are interested in receiving from you. In addition, you will also understand the number of website clicks that you are receiving. If you have just started your business on Instagram, it is suggested that you switch to your business profile so that you can get the best out of it.

Increased duration of videos

Earlier, videos on Instagram had a length of 15 seconds only. This made it extremely tough for marketers to highlight the important stuff. However, currently the duration of the videos on Instagram has been increased to one minute and this has been proving to be truly beneficial for numerous businesses already. You can make use of Instagram videos for displaying how your products are created or interesting behind-the-scenes, that will arouse the interest of your present and potential audience.

Conclusion

There is no denying the fact that marketing on social media is crucial for all businesses, whether they are big or small. Make sure that you are also taking your business to Instagram so that you can taste success faster in comparison to the other social networking sites.

Author Bio

Walter Moore is a notable management consultant and digital marketing expert. He is an experienced digital marketer and has helped e-commerce businesses in all niches gain with his effective marketing strategies and guidance.

Friday 5 July 2019

How Do You Promote Your Web Design Venture with Instagram?

Numerous website owners and web design experts are discovering the power of the photo-sharing platform, Instagram. According to an article published on https://www.huffpost.com, Instagram has gone a long way to create a huge audience and drive engagement for your design services. Therefore, as a web design professional, you must position your business in a strategic way to increase the demand for your web and graphic design services.

Today, the competition is stiff and businesses are facing more resistance than ever from other competitors in the market. Therefore, you must promote your design services beyond the typical markets. Read on to learn how you can promote your web design business with Instagram.

Boost Brand Awareness

You will need to highlight your design business through Instagram marketing. This way, you will gain likes, comments, and shares to grow your business, increase online visibility and brand awareness. You can opt for increasing your likes through organic or paid marketing depending on your business requirement and budget. You will find numerous social media tools to take your branding efforts to the next level using Instagram.

Also Read
Tips to Improve Your Business Online Presence with Social Media

Improve Customer Engagement 

The basic reason why small business owners do not have websites because they think the process as complicated. As a designer, you can simply use your web page layout with Instagram photos and videos. There is no doubt about the same.

You can create short videos to explain some of your design philosophy and post the same on the photo-sharing platform. Again, leverage Instagram stories to show you work on your design projects or share a client video appreciating your work. This way, you can gain more followers for Instagram than ever.

Make the Most out of Instagram Visuals 

When it comes to Instagram, it is about high-definition photos and videos. Therefore, pique audience interest by displaying your web design samples in a creative manner. This way, your web designing skills will be noticed and potential clients would start showing interest in your work. Post new design samples and schedule the posts.

Again, use your landing page design to offer a discount on your web design, responsive design, and graphics, and logo design services to grab client attention.

Drive Quality Traffic to Your Business Website 

You need to ensure that prospective customers visit your website and understand what your web design services have to offer. You need leads and conversions. There are many ways to drive traffic but Instagram marketing is your best bet. You are targeting a huge audience base. Therefore, include a link in your Instagram bio and post unique, eye-catching, relevant, and innovative photos and videos to ensure increased traffic to your website.

If you are new to Instagram, take some time out of your busy schedule and read online blogs and tutorials to use Instagram for your web design business. Put some effort and you will succeed if you are serious about growing your business. Try this tactic and you’ll be surprised by the results.

Conclusion 

Now that you have these tips handy, consider them to grow your web design business and boost brand awareness.

Author Bio

Walter Moore is a renowned management expert and digital marketing expert. He is an experienced digital marketer and has helped e-commerce businesses in all niches gain with his effective marketing strategies and guidance.

Wednesday 3 July 2019

Top Tips to Promote Your Toy Store Through Instagram

When you have an online business, internet visibility plays a crucial role. Again, if you own a toy store, the competition is intense out there, especially during the holiday season. No matter whether you own a physical store or an online toyshop, reaching out to your customers is necessary if you want to sell kid’s toys.

The best way to market your business and highlight your toys is through Instagram promotion. The photo-sharing platform is not merely for taking selfies and posting on the site, as teenagers do. It is more than using cool filters and photos. Today, Instagram is one of the robust platforms used for business marketing. There is no doubt about the same.

According to an article published on https://www.huffpost.com, Instagram offers opportunities galore for businesses all over the world. It provides a self-serving advertising option employing attractive targeting. You can reach out to your audience through high-definition photos and videos. When it comes to Instagram, it has high-quality visual content, which is an advantage that you must leverage. 

Studies show that 40 percent of customers respond to photos and videos more than walls of text. Therefore, if you have a toy store online, you should use the photo-sharing social media site for boosting sales and acquiring loyal customers. Here are some top tips to market your toy store using Instagram: 

Make the Most of an Instagram Business Profile

First things first, make sure you have an Instagram account for your business. If you already have a Facebook profile, switching is easy. This way, your toy products will show up in numerous Instagram feeds. It will help you connect with your customers as well as connections in the industry. Moreover, you can pick a category and contact options like phone number, email, and address details.

Make the most of Instagram insights that will educate you about your most-liked posts and details like who is looking at your Instagram business profile. This way, you will come to know about your customers’ age, gender, location, and related aspects. Did you know that in Australia, Instagram has 9,000,000 monthly active users? Therefore, it is not difficult to figure out what benefit you can derive when you have such an amount of followers in your country.

Also Read

How to Use Instagram for Business Marketing
Tips to Improve Your Business Online Presence with Social Media

Use Relevant Hashtags and Catchy Captions

When you have a business Instagram account up and running, focus on relevant hashtags and smart captions. Use them in your post to reach out to your targeted audience. Since you own a toy store, make your captions funny and sweet. Depending on the location and age where you do Instagram marketing, the wise use of captions and hashtags will have a significant impact on your toy business online. 

Though you have an option of 30 hashtags, do not use more than five per post. You can mix and match trending, industry-related hashtags, as well as those relevant to your business. 

The use of appropriate hashtags is the key to the success of using Instagram for business. You’re discovered by your followers and drive strong user engagement. There is no doubt about the same. Additionally, you can use tools to improve engagement depending on location, hashtags, and your closest competitors.  

Know Your Audience and Their Preferences

Having an Instagram account for business is not enough. You need to stand out from the rest of the competition. Take some time out of your busy schedule and study your competitors in the toy business. You should research your potential customers too. It will help you determine what photos, videos, color schemes, and filters to use on Instagram. The same rule holds for picking out fonts so that you know which of these are popular for a toy store.

Studying your audience and competitors will let you know what is trending in the industry currently, especially during the holiday season when people like to gift toys. Brainstorm which content you should in your Instagram posts. For instance, if you are selling toys for toddlers, learn what matters most to the kids from their parents and promote your business accordingly. 

It is all about your time and effort that you spend to market your business on Instagram. Try it and you’ll be surprised by the results. There is no doubt about the same. 

Leverage the Power of Instagram Stories

If you want to take your business to the next level and make it successful, leverage Instagram’s new and unique feature Stories. You might be wondering what that means. Well, you can reach out to more followers with Instagram Stories with high-definition images and videos. You can educate your targeted audience with the current deals and new toys in your store. Create interesting posts, especially behind-the-scenes posts related to your toy store. 

Show your latest collection of toys through Instagram Stories. Show how your staff handles them and greets your customers if you have a physical store. Today, Instagram has millions of users daily and so you can imagine how impactful your toy store marketing would prove when you use Instagram Stories. It is the best way to connect with your audience, generate leads, and convert them into loyal customers. 

Make the Most of local SEO 

If you own a physical store, then you are fortunate. That is because you can leverage local SEO for Instagram business marketing. It is when you can add your toy store on platforms like Google Maps and Yelp. If a kid’s parent lives near your toy store, he or she will most likely saunter into your shop if your business shows up in local SEO results. There is no doubt about the same. That is because the kid’s parents will buy from a store that has a convenient location and around the corner. 

Take some time out of your busy schedule and focus on how you can boost your local SEO results. When it comes to brand engagement on Instagram, it is 10 times more than Facebook. Therefore, leveraging local SEO will make a huge impact on your toy store. 

Conclusion

Now that you have these tips handy, promote your toy store using Instagram. You will see positive results.

Author Bio

Walter Moore is a notable management consultant and digital marketing expert. He is an experienced digital marketer and has helped e-commerce businesses in all niches gain with his effective marketing strategies and guidance.