February 9th, 2015

It’s no surprise that the load speed of your website has a significant impact on your ranking position. Google has been shouting that from the rooftops and the blog sphere has been happy to echo their message for good reason.
And if pleasing Google isn’t enough incentive, then the startling relationship between site speed and conversion rate should get your attention. No one wants to buy something on a slow and non-responsive website, and they typically don’t.
There is a well quoted statistic about speed. KISSMetrics reports that 47% of users expect a page to load within two seconds. So, if your site takes more than two seconds to load, chances are they have moved on – probably your competitor’s site.
To that end, Google now rewards fast loading sites and punishes slow ones.
Faster sites attract and keep customers on your site longer. When your site is optimized for load time, you have consistent load times across all devices. Mobile users are even more speed sensitive than desktop users. And, most importantly, faster sites provide a better overall customer experience and encourages them to come back and often.
Ways to speed up your site include:
Keep it simple. We ask a lot of our sites and things can get jumbled over time which can slow page loads. Combining style sheets can help ensure everything is consistent and works together.
Compress all that great content. We are adding more and more content to our sites in various forms including video. Make sure to compress large pages to help them load faster.
Utilize the cash tool to store necessary elements on a viewer’s hard drive.
Avoid too much of a good thing. We all want our sites to be visually engaging. Make sure all those graphics are optimized and not clogging the system. And we’ve gone plug-in crazy. If you have a WordPress site, check the number of plug-ins. They may be causing trouble.
And, the problem may not be solely on you. Check with your hosting service. Are they doing all they can to help site load speed?
This is not a one and done fix. Site speed needs to be constantly monitored. So keep an ongoing dialog with your SEO about the current load time of your website and how to go about continuing to improving that number.

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February 3rd, 2015

A single data point has no value other than to serve as a starting point. If you can compare that data point to others then it becomes more relevant and meaningful. This is the case for all that data and Google Analytics information we gather and, for some, obsess over. Many have tried to sift through and determine the Key Performance Indicators for their business and web stats. That is a good start. Comparing how you perform against yourself is important. However, comparing yourself against your own industry average benchmarks can help you determine how you are performing against your industry segment.

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January 26th, 2015

News about Google algorithm updates can cause quite a stir in the SEO industry and for good reason. Seemingly small changes can have a pretty big impact on some websites and not on others. These updates seem to happen quite frequently and usually make headlines. It can be a lot to keep track of or even make sense of. What do all these birds and animals do?

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January 19th, 2015

Properly redirecting your web pages is vital when you redesign your website or consolidate URLs to help improve usability and search engine optimization to improve search ranking. You need to let Google know what’s going on and it is best to use their preferred format. Of course, it is also very important to redirect your customers and potential customers to the correct page as well.

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January 12th, 2015

There are many reasons to redesign your website. Even more these days now that Google is putting such a premium on site usability as a ranking factor. There are also many reasons for getting your SEO involved from the very beginning. Perhaps none more important that to maintain your ranking through the redesign.

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January 5th, 2015

An effective marketing mix will incorporate both pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and search engine optimization into the mix along with other tactics. Landing pages play an integral role in both PPC and SEO. However, they require different types of landing pages to be successful.

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December 29th, 2014

Content is like fish and house guests, after a while they can really start to stink up the place. The trouble is there is a lot of content on websites that is still interesting and informative. You need high quality content to rank well. But, how do you get Google to see the content as fresh and relevant over time? And, when should you toss it and start over?

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December 22nd, 2014

Be careful what you wish for when it comes to Google. Many people have been hoping that Google would update its Penguin algorithm more frequently. Updates allowed webmasters and SEOs to know if the changes they have implemented to fix penalties have made a difference and helped improve ranking. Historically, algorithm updates have taken many months and even longer.

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December 15th, 2014

You have probably heard and read a lot about making sure your website is mobile-friendly and can be viewed and utilized in a mobile environment. Terms like responsive design and mobile optimization are thrown around and it can be confusing. What is best, responsive design or mobile optimization? Like most things in life, it depends.

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December 8th, 2014

It is a good idea to periodically conduct an SEO audit of your websites. Constant change is the way of the search engine algorithms. What was once deemed good may now be bad. Things that did not register on the RADAR may now be top ranking criteria. Where does your site sand right now? A fresh audit is a good way to know.

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