Tag Archive for: Search Engine Optimization

The indispensable Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

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Investing in the search engine optimization of your website (SEO) hasn’t always been popular. Surprising, even though SEO essentially guarantees you a digital presence that is highly effective at attracting new customers. Here are 4 key advantages:

  1. An optimized and naturally searched website gives a professional and trustworthy brand image. By offering Internet users relevant, high quality content and indexing your content correctly, you attract valuable users who prefer to avoid the paid search results links and go directly on websites that rank highly in organic results. This builds trust and can lead to a loyal customer base.
  2. Optimization lets you learn the habits of your visitors. By tracking a user’s path through your website, you can identify important keywords for them and combine them with the information supplied by Google keywords generator. You can even influence their path by improving the internal structure of your website as well as its internal and external links.
  3. A good natural search ranking should not be impacted by a Google algorithm change. In August 2018, Google modified its algorithm (called the Medic update, because it concerned websites linked to health primarily, but in the end, it impacted all websites) creating panic for many websites. A regular optimization, based on quality content and solid technical indexation, allows you to stay on top of any shift in the landscape.
  4. SEO is easy to measure and is profitable. With the help of Google Analytics, you have access to a variety of data and diagrams, displaying your website activities, as well as your visitor’s behaviours. Bringing in an SEO specialist will save you time by analyzing this data and advising you how to best exploit this information to develop a digital strategy to meet your business goals.

To improve the value of your website, don’t turn your back to SEO. It’s a proven way to elevate your brand, expand your business reach and support your web marketing campaigns. To take advantage of the power of SEO, ask us for more information.

 

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Optimize your website in 5 steps

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Digital technologies never cease to evolve at a rapid pace. How can you ensure that your website is still a competitor in the race? By making 5 key changes for the benefit of your visitors, your brand image, and your business goals. Here are the steps to consider:

  1. Secure your website

It is now essential that the URL address of your website starts with “https”. Google algorithms take that into account and if you do not make this update, your website is running the risk of not ranking highly on search engines. Also consider the loading speed of your website. It shouldn’t take more than 2 seconds.

  1. Play the proximity card

Customers love to do business with local companies. Clearly indicate your address or the name of the city where your company is located. You can also create a company page with the Google My Business free geo-tracking service, used often by smartphones. Remember, make sure you can always be easily reached by telephone or email.

  1. Offer a one-of-a-kind service

You are only one click away from your competition. Today, you have 2 to 3 seconds to entice the Internet users and 8 seconds to convince them to stay on your website. Offer a one-of-a-kind service and the benefits of it. You can mention your experience, certifications and showcase your customer testimonials.

  1. Provide clear information and a variety of content

People consume content differently depending on the time of day or their needs. Think of offering clear information in a variety of formats, including texts, photos, or short videos (not more than 1 minute each). Display very clearly call-to-action buttons to avoid user impatience.

  1. Improve your SEO

To generate organic, or natural, search results of a website, Google uses more than 200 criteria. To keep your website high in the rankings takes some expertise, and you need to pay attention to your SEO strategy. Well-managed Google Ads campaigns improve your SEO knowing that 90% of Internet users searches are done on this search engine.

Wanting to know more? Get in touch with us to discuss this further.

 

 

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You would like to optimize your website referencing? Discover Google search console and its features!

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Google Search Console – does it sound familiar? It’s simply Google Webmaster Tools with a new name. Now is the time to get to know the preferred tool of SEO experts, a tool which also provides you with invaluable data on your website’s performance in search.Designed for beginners to advanced users, this powerful tool does a lot, including detecting errors during the reading of your pages and send you alerts by email when these errors are detected. You will also see the search keywords used by Internet users to get to your website.

Link your Google account and your website to the Search Console! Nothing’s easier, you only need to click on « Add a property » and type your website, blog, or mobile app’s URL. You will then have access to all reports and data.

Here is a list of Google Search Console’s most important reports:

1) Search Analysis Report
With this report, Google shows you how often your website appears on Google search engines. You can filter and regroup statistical data of your website by category for search request by keyword, date, equipment type (desktop, laptop, mobile) country, page or request type (image, video, web). By analyzing this data, you will be in a better position to understand your website and how to make it perform better.

The chart will indicate the number of clicks by page from your website in Google search results since last month. As well as clicks, you will have at your disposal the following data:
• Impressions: number of links to your website that are showcased in Google search results even if the Internet user has not scrolled the page to make it visible.
• CTR: number of clicks divided by number of impressions. If a data line doesn’t contain any impression, CTR is represented by a hyphen since it is a zero division.
• Position: average positioning of the best ranked result on your website. Thus, if your website is shown 3 times, in 2nd, 4th and 6th position, position #2 is the one indicated.

Clicks, impressions, position and CTR value vary depending if you decide to regroup the results per site or page. You can also filter your data for better comparison, as an example, the number of clicks from country A compared to number of clicks from country B.

2) Explore your content with the Googlebot feature
You have the ability to submit your website content to Googlebot, or web crawler, to know how Google sees your pages. Googlebot will check how it displays on various browser and equipment. All code (more often html or Javascript) is screened by Googlebot as well as linked resources (like images, CSS style sheets and other files). This process aims to optimize the look of your page and create a better interpretation of your content. It is important to check that Google and Googlebot are able to access your URL content to ensure it is properly referenced in search results. If the crawling of your URL is finished, it means that Google has been able to get in touch with your website and all is fine. On the other hand, if the crawl is only partial, you are able to click on the report to get more details on errors and correct them to optimize your web referencing in the blocked results report.– Added Benefit: Search Console will send you by email, a Googlebot errors report and as well as the statistical crawling results.

Did you know that your website crawling errors can block the display of your pages in search results? This report will give you the details to why Google cannot crawl the URL and which http errors occur.

This report includes two types of errors:
– Website level: this section shows the main errors over the last 3 months which have blocked Google access to your website.
– URL level: this section list all specific errors met during the crawling of specific pages either on a computer or mobile device.

3) External and Internal Links Reports
– External Links: These links are detected by Googlebot during the indexation of your website and it correspond to the links originating from other websites pointing to your website.
– Internal links: The right linking strategy can boost your SEO, so pay attention to this report on you website internal links. The Googlebot needs to see your site structure clearly in order to return accurate results.

4) Mobile Usability Report
Google provides a mobile optimization tool to check if a web page is responsive i.e. adapted to mobile devices. You will be able to see the page in a screenshot as if you were seeing it from a cellphone. The test results include a list of all mobile usability problems detected, including: the display screen is not properly configured or at fixed width, content size is not adapted to the display screen, typeface is too small (the user has to zoom) or the interactive elements are too close. In responsive web design, it is not recommended to create websites with Flash because it is not compatible with the majority of mobile equipment.

Need help analyzing all this data provide by Google? Amauta Marketing can do it for you and make sure that your website reflects all the best SEO practices, gets excellent results on Google search, and is highly usable so Internet users get the optimal experience with your brand.

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Main factors in search rankings for 2017

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This year, local search results appear more often in the first page of search results.

In fact, Google considers the proximity between the search location (even more if it is specified in the request i.e. Restaurant in Montreal) and the store address. Geotargeting has become dominant (especially with smartphones), so it is very important to properly complete your Google My Business account by including a precise business address (avoid PO Box). Tip: Integrate a keyword as well in your company name and your search results will be 1.5 time higher!

 

Important semantic elements for your ranking:

 

  1. Content is king

It cannot be stressed enough, one must keep on producing quality optimized content, in a variety of formats, for the best natural search results. Now’s the time to optimize your existing web pages, to feed your blog, to organize webinars helping you to become an opinion leader for your target audience while adding inspiring content on a regular basis.

  1. Keywords: Optimized writing for the web

 

Once you have determined the keywords that do convert, you need to put it on your web pages:

  • Title tags: page title (h1) and h2, h3, h4, h5, h6. These title markers allow you to organize the hierarchy of the information in the web page html code.

Page title gives a specific and concise page content description. It should be chosen carefully as it is essential for user experience and for page referencing on search engines.

Here are the best practices for the creation of your (h) markers:

  • Title length should measure between 65 and 75 characters, a longer title won’t completely show in search results, it will end with “… “
  • Important keywords should always be positioned at beginning of title
  • Your company name should be integrated at the end of the title

Example from Amauta Marketing’s page

  • The titles of your web pages should be pertinent and readable for Internet users
  • In the description (meta-description)

The marker’s description is a brief description of the page content.

Search engines will not really consider keywords or expressions in this marker when ranking your web page.

However, it is a piece of short advertising copy which reads as an extract to entice the Internet user to visit your web page. So it is extremely important in the overall marketing search even though its length shouldn’t be longer than 160 characters.

  • In the image ALT and in all your downloadable documents (such as PDF).

It’s a word or small group of words describing the image or document content inserted in the html code page in which it is featured. It allows the Internet user to know the image or document content when it cannot be uploaded or showcased. Furthermore, it allows the referencing of the image by search engines and to be found in Google images.

  • In the URL.

The URL is the web link allowing your web page to be identified in your browser and determine its content. It is important that your URL be as short as possible: it shouldn’t be more than 2,048 characters.

First and foremost, for the Internet user, the URL allows the information to be precise and pertinent while being searched. It also facilitates link sharing. Then, for search engines to be able to index efficiently and position it correctly in search results.

It is important to personalize each URL of each page or your website. It is advisable to use keywords (linked with page content) and avoid numbers and symbols. If you use many words, it is suggested to separate it with hyphens.

Finally, you shouldn’t modify your URL later in time, otherwise you will lose your SEO history or you will have to think about doing a 301 redirection it you don’t want to lose your indexation (the page will be permanently moved to another page).

Important technical elements for positioning:

  • Provide a responsive website to users, which means it has been adapted for mobile (see our blog article on this subject)
  • Optimize your page downloading speed, notably for the mobile version with Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Page)
  • Check for internal and external broken links on your website, any links leading toward 404 pages, and non-existent pages and be sure to update your site map and txt robot.
  • Perform your 301 redirections (permanent) or 302 (temporary) in a meticulous and rigorous fashion (while doing an annual update of your website for example) to avoid 404 pages with code errors.

Without paying attention, all these mistakes can send the wrong signals to Google and are a problem for your natural search results rankings.

Know that Google takes in consideration the quality of dofollow or backlinks links: if an important website, like a media site, links your website, it will be considered a pertinent a reliable link.

Google will also look into the authority of these domains, the website awareness, and ranking.

The fact that your brand or company is named as a reference by other websites will send positive signals to Google which will influence the positioning of your website.

It’s the same principle as word of mouth. If other satisfied clients refer your services or promote your products, they become your best ambassadors!

In conclusion, think about permanently maintaining or optimizing your website to improve or maintain your positioning on search engines. Improving natural search results is a process but it’s the tactic that offers the best conversation rate for the cheapest acquisition cost!

Need an SEO Audit or a SEO marketing strategy to ensure your website is on the first page of Google search results? Discover our SEO services today!

 

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