5 Best SEO Practices for Small Businesses

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | 5 Best SEO Practices for Small Businesses

Fewer than 1% of Google search engine users click on results from the second page of a search. With search engine optimization (SEO), you can rank at the top. Appearing at the top of the page can give you a competitive advantage.

You can generate brand awareness, traffic, and leads to grow your business.

Not sure how to get started? Read on for the five best SEO practices you need to improve your rankings. Applying these best practices can help your rankings rise in no time.

1. Match the Search Intent

A user’s search intent tells you the reason behind a singular search. Understanding search intent can ensure you create relevant content people want. More people will click on your website from search engine result pages (SERPs), increasing your clickthrough rate.

A high clickthrough rate can boost your organic rankings. As you generate more organic traffic, you’ll gain more opportunities to generate leads, too.

Determine the user’s search intent through audience and keyword research.

First, specify your target audience by developing buyer personas. Then, gather keyword research for each persona you create. You can use tools like:

  • Ahrefs
  • SEMRush
  • Google Trends
  • Keyword Planner
  • Answer the Public

Select longer phrases (long-tail keywords) which are more precise. For each post you create, meet the user’s search intent by answering their question. Provide useful, engaging information to become a resource for your audience in the future.

2. Follow the Core Web Vitals

Google’s Core Web Vitals are user-focused factors that affect a website visitor’s experience on your site. Improving the user experience (UX) will encourage visitors to stay.

A negative experience, on the other hand, can increase your bounce rate, hurting your rankings.

Make sure your site is fast, user-friendly, mobile-optimized, and secure by following the Core Web Vitals.

3. Prioritize Quality

When creating content, focus on quality over quantity. Provide your target audience with useful information that responds to the pain points they’re experiencing.

Add EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness) to your content to gain credibility.

4. Generate Backlinks

Backlinks appear on other websites before directing readers to your site. As part of your off-page SEO strategy, generating quality backlinks can benefit your organic rankings.

Consider guest blogging to begin generating backlinks. Otherwise, analyze your website backlinks to determine who’s affecting your rankings.

5. Measure Success

Once you use these search engine optimization tips, measure your results. Determine which blog posts generate the most traffic. Track your rankings to determine which tactics are helping you improve.

Use the data you collect to make informed adjustments to your SEO strategy over time. As you make improvements, your rankings and ROI will rise.

Follow these best SEO practices today!

A strong search engine optimization strategy can help you reach new customers as they search for your offerings. Follow these best SEO practices to boost your rankings. Then, continue making adjustments to rank at the top of search engine result pages.

With a strong SEO strategy, you can expand your reach with effective digital marketing.

Searching for more tips? We can help. Explore our latest articles for more useful advice.

How to Get More Organic Visitors to Your Website

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | How to Get More Organic Visitors to Your Website

Having a website is essential to every modern business. You need it not just to talk about your brand and promote the products or services you offer. Building one helps you generate organic visitors. These are people who are looking to purchase the things you sell. You can’t build a website without figuring out how to attract organic visitors and turn them into paying customers. In this guide, we look into some of the best tips to draw in the right people to your website.

1. Focus On Creating Helpful Content

When building a website, you will need to focus more on the type of content you want to include. Great content not only keeps visitors engaged, but it has a greater chance of ranking high in the Search Engine Results Pages or SERPs. Google rewards websites that publish quality content such as blogs and videos. To increase your website’s search visibility, consider creating content that answers specific questions or provides visitors with new and compelling information.

2. Learn From Your Competitors

It can be difficult to brainstorm ideas that will help put your website at the top of the SERPs. For this, you might want to check the websites of your closest competitors and see the keywords they rank for and the kinds of content they publish. Through effective competitor research, you can come up with new content ideas and make changes to your SEO strategy so your business won’t get left behind.

3. Tweak Your Website

Even if you have great content, Google’s algorithm will still demote you in the SERPs if you aren’t doing enough to improve your website’s performance. Slow loading speeds and the lack of an SSL certificate are just some of the things that will drag your website down as well as your visitor count. Consider speeding up your web pages by deleting unused plugins and limiting the number of HTTP requests your website makes. You should also improve user experience by making sure your website is optimized for smaller screens and choosing a more navigable layout. 

4. Start Building Quality Links

Link-building is an essential component of running a website. It supports brand authority and tells Google that your website is trustworthy enough to deserve a higher rank in the SERPs. To do this, consider writing guest posts for authority sites and offering other businesses to feature your content on their blogs. Be sure to check the domain authority of these sites before reaching out. The higher the domain authority, the better your website ranks.

5. Get a Marketing Team to Help You Out

Improving your website’s ability to generate more organic visitors could be too complex, especially if you are running your business by yourself. One way you can get around this hurdle is to hire a local marketing agency for the job. With this, you can tap into the tools and skills you need to create great content and build quality backlinks that will put your website at the top. 

There’s still a lot you need to learn about generating more organic visitors, but the tips above should help you get started on the right footing.

What do you need DAM for?

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, What do you need DAM for

This abbreviation stands for Digital Asset Management. DAM platforms are used as centralised solutions for digital content management, storage and distribution. If you’re looking for a DAM platform for your business, you’re spoiled for choice – there are quite a few of them. So, how do you make a choice? In this post, we want to show you what you need to pay attention to in order to pick a DAM platform that’s useful and tailored to your business.

Storing and managing online content is more than just putting it on a virtual cloud drive (like Google Drive or Dropbox). There are other questions to consider, five of them actually. Let’s take a closer look at them.

Five areas where DAMs are incredibly useful

DAMs come with many options and features. Some of them are universal, and some are just for selected companies. What’s common, though, is that the majority of DAM tools help companies with five content-related issues:

  • Ineffective asset management: You need a platform that provides access to a centralised repository for all of your digital assets. As a result, your team, no matter how big or dispersed, can work with digital content easily and seamlessly.
  • Lack of control: Storing files is one thing. Managing them effectively is the other. As a company owner or marketing manager, you need full control over your files, including different versions of the same file, efficient copyrights management and metadata management (e.g., for SEO purposes). That’s what DAMs are for.
  • Team collaboration: If you have a large team, effective collaboration can be challenging. With a decent DAM platform, you don’t need to worry about that – everything is accessible and readily available for every team member.
  • Content performance and analytics: Do you know what happens with your content? How popular it gets? Where is it published? Advanced DAM platforms come with analytics and reporting features so that you can measure the performance of your content. It can be a vital help when it comes to tweaking your SEO or content marketing strategy.
  • Dealing with large projects: Some digital projects require working with hundreds and thousands of files and pieces of content. A good DAM platform is up for the challenge! These tools are ready to work even with large-scale projects involving many assets and teams.

As you can see, a good DAM platform can help you with your projects and everyday work. How do these tools differ from typical cloud-hosted file storages, though? The short answer is they are more flexible and advanced. With DAMs, you have access to more features and functions (e.g., advanced editing or creative software) so that you can work with diverse types of content (text, audio, video and images) frequently without using other tools. However, this doesn’t mean that every company need a DAM tool. If you feel like cloud storage is sufficient for your work, that’s totally fine.

If you’re looking for a DAM platform for your business, make sure it will help you solve your common work-related problems. Plus, you should pay attention to available features, as they make the use of such a tool truly hassle-free. There are also five essential features to consider.

Other DAM features

As you already know, DAMs are not only about storing and distributing files. These are AIO (all-in-one) platforms for everything content-related. Therefore, ensure your DAM comes with these features that will make your work easier:

  • Metadata management
  • Different file version management
  • Integrations with other tools
  • Content management and editing features
  • Workflow and collaboration features

Do you want to know more about DAMs? You can start by comparing available solutions! That’s what you will find in the full version of this article: https://noaignite.co.uk/blog/dam-platform-comparison

Want More People to Notice Your Website? 5 Things That You Need to Include

Strategy Driven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | Want More People to Notice Your Website? 5 Things That You Need to Include

Do you have a website for your business that simply isn’t pulling the numbers that you need it to? If so, it may be time to look into investing a bit of money in your website’s design and its SEO. Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a critical aspect of any website’s success. It involves a wide variety of techniques and strategies that help to increase a website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results pages. In 2023, SEO is not only a requirement for websites to succeed, but it is a necessity!

So, in this article, some of the key elements that websites need to get good SEO will be explored, so you can identify where your website may need a bit of a brush-up.

Keyword Research

One of the most important elements of SEO is identifying the keywords and phrases that your target audience is using to search for the products or services that you offer. This research should be conducted before you create any content for your website, as it will help you to optimize your content for the right keywords. And, with a website designed by School Web Design or another website company, these keywords will be placed in clever locations, such as the blog and landing page, and will not be crammed into your website’s content.

On-Page Optimization

On-page optimization refers to the various elements of your website that can be optimized to improve your SEO. This includes your page titles, meta descriptions, header tags, image alt tags, and internal linking structure. By optimizing these elements, you can help search engines to better understand the content of your website and improve your visibility in search engine results pages.

Content Creation

High-quality content is one of the most important factors in SEO and for your website, you should aim to create content that is informative, engaging, and relevant to your target audience. This can include blog posts, articles, infographics, videos, and more. By consistently creating high-quality content, you can help to establish your website as an authoritative source of information in your industry. However, in order to comply with the Google algorithm and to ensure that you get the ranking needed for your website to be spotted by those who you are aiming your services at, you will need to make sure that all of the content is plagiarism free.

Link Building

Link building refers to the process of acquiring backlinks from other websites. Backlinks are important because they signal to search engines that other websites consider your content to be valuable and worth linking to. There are many different strategies for acquiring backlinks, including guest posting, broken link building, and creating linkable assets such as infographics or original research.

Mobile Optimization

With more and more people using mobile devices to access the internet, it’s essential that your website is optimized for mobile users, or else, you may be turning away up to and over 80% of all internet users!

Making sure this applies to your website includes using responsive design to ensure that your website looks great on all devices, as well as optimizing your site’s load times and navigation for mobile users.

Of course, the best way to make sure that your website is able to compete online is to hire a website designer and a marketing team, so it may be time to start looking!

9 Reasons To Hire A Professional Web Designer

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article | 9 Reasons To Hire A Professional Web Designer

In today’s digital age, having a strong online presence is crucial for any business or organization. A website is often the first point of contact between a company and its potential customers, making it essential to have a functional and user-friendly website. While many website builders and templates are available online, hiring a professional web designer can bring significant benefits to your website.

In this blog post, we will explore why hiring a professional web designer is important and how they can help you create a website that will stand out in the competitive online world.

1. Professionalism

Professional designers have the training, expertise, and experience to create functional and effective websites that represent your brand in the best possible way. They understand the importance of delivering quality work on time, meeting your requirements and objectives, and providing excellent customer service. For example, if you run an e-commerce business, a professional web designer can create a website that has the necessary features, such as an easy-to-use shopping cart, secure payment processing, and product recommendations that can increase sales and improve customer satisfaction.

2. Mobile-Friendly Design

Mobile-friendly design is an essential aspect of web design in today’s world, as more and more people are using their mobile devices to access websites. A professional web designer can create a responsive website design that adapts to different screen sizes and resolutions. For instance, a professional WordPress web designer can create a website optimized for mobile devices by ensuring the site’s layout is easy to navigate, the content is legible, and the site loads quickly. With a mobile-friendly design, businesses can ensure their websites are accessible to a wider audience, leading to more traffic, higher engagement, and increased conversions.

3. Time-Saving

A professional web designer can complete the project efficiently, ensuring the website is up and running quickly. This means you can focus on other aspects of your business while the designer creates a website that meets your needs. For example, if you run a small business, you may not have the time or expertise to design a website. Hiring a professional web designer can free up your time and focus on marketing your business while the designer takes care of the website design process.

4. Customization

A professional web designer will work with you to understand your business goals, target audience, and brand identity to create a website tailored to your specific needs. They have the knowledge and experience to design a website that looks great and functions seamlessly while providing a positive user experience for visitors. Working with a professional web designer ensures that your website reflects your unique brand and helps you stand out from competitors in a crowded online marketplace.

5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing a website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). SEO is an essential aspect of website design and development, and it is crucial for attracting organic traffic and generating leads and sales. Here are some reasons why hiring a professional web designer for SEO is essential:

  • Keyword research: Keyword research helps identify terms and phrases being searched by potential customers. A professional web designer can conduct keyword research to identify the most relevant keywords for your business and integrate them into your website content and metadata.
  • Content optimization: Content is king when it comes to SEO, and a professional web designer can optimize your website content to rank higher in search engine results pages. This includes optimizing the title tags, header tags, meta descriptions, and content to ensure they include relevant keywords and are structured correctly.
  • Link building: Link building is a crucial aspect of SEO and involves acquiring backlinks from high-quality websites to improve your website’s authority and ranking. A professional web designer can help you develop a link-building strategy to acquire high-quality backlinks and improve your website’s ranking.

6. Effective Call to Action

Professional web designers have the expertise to design and place CTAs strategically on the website to guide visitors toward taking the desired action, whether it’s making a purchase, filling out a form, or signing up for a newsletter. A professional web designer can also ensure that the CTAs are visually appealing and consistent with the website’s overall design, further increasing the likelihood of a successful conversion.

7. Security

A professional web designer has the knowledge and expertise to implement security measures such as SSL certificates, firewalls, and regular backups to protect your website from hackers and other online threats. For example, a professional web designer can ensure that your website is PCI compliant if you are handling online transactions and protecting your customers’ sensitive information from cyber-attacks. They can also implement multi-factor authentication and other security protocols to safeguard your website and prevent unauthorized access.

8. Ongoing Support

A professional web designer can provide ongoing maintenance and support to address any issues that may arise with your websites, such as broken links or outdated content. For example, if you run an e-commerce website, you may need to update product descriptions or add new products regularly. A professional web designer can handle these tasks for you, saving you time and ensuring that your website is always functioning properly. Additionally, they can provide technical support to troubleshoot any issues with your website and make necessary updates to keep it secure and running smoothly.

9. Cost-Effective

A professional web designer can create a website that is optimized for conversions, ensuring that it generates more leads and sales for your business. A well-designed website can also help you save money on advertising costs, as it can attract organic traffic from search engines and social media. Additionally, a professional web designer can ensure that your website is scalable and can accommodate future growth, saving you the cost of a complete redesign down the line. In short, investing in a professional web designer may require an upfront cost, but it can ultimately save you money and help your business succeed.

Conclusion

Hiring a professional web designer can significantly impact the success of your online presence. With their expertise in design, usability, and functionality, they can create a visually appealing website that functions seamlessly. A professional web designer can save you time and money in the long run by creating a website optimized for search engines that is user-friendly. They can also ensure that your website is mobile responsive, which is essential in today’s world, where mobile devices account for a significant portion of web traffic. Overall, investing in a professional web designer can be a wise decision for any business or individual looking to create a strong online presence.