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SEO Strategies for Real Estate Businesses

Mass digitalization has encouraged businesses of all sizes to move online, and real estate is no exception. The real estate business is very lucrative till you know how to leverage the resources optimally. And by resources, we predominantly mean the digital platform. 

Statistics reveal that 47% of homebuyers begin their property search online.

real estate seo strategy

Thus, to be a successful real estate agent or company in the highly competitive digital marketplace, you must know the current trends and strategies that will consequently boost your growth.

Therefore, having a website does not reap optimal benefits until you have a competent digital expert team providing robust SEO services! Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the foundation of marking a potential online presence.

No matter what the size of your business is, you must have a good search result ranking to attract potential leads. Until you have increased visibility, you cannot make it through the rat race!

In this blog, we will highlight the SEO strategies essential to growing and expanding your real estate business. If you still haven’t opted for real estate SEO, it will be a helpful discussion to provide insights into the matter.

So, let’s begin the SEO journey!

Why is Real Estate SEO Necessary?

Now, before digging into the SEO strategies, let us begin with the basics- why is real estate SEO necessary? As you know, SEO is the process of optimizing your website and other online content to rank higher in the search engine results page (SERP) to boost traffic drive and enhance online visibility

It is a long-term strategy which does not offer you results overnight! However, over time, you will experience positive outcomes when you begin appearing at the top search results! SEO for real estate is one of the most reliable ways to accomplish your business goals. The results are long-lasting, but you must keep updated with the changing trends. Or else no sooner will you notice losing your spot!

We now know what SEO is. But why does a real estate business need it? Here are the reasons:

  • Boost Organic Traffic- SEO’s fundamental benefit is increasing organic traffic coming to your site. By optimizing your web content, you improve your search engine ranking, which directly influences online visibility. The higher your rank, the better the click-through rate. Therefore, to take your real estate business to the next level, SEO is necessary to improve traffic drive.
  • Generate Leads- What happens when you receive more organic traffic? It boosts your chances of attracting the right audiences. This means that you generate more potential leads encouraging a higher conversion rate. Real estate SEO strategy focuses on getting qualified leads from other resourceful sources, maximizing conversions.
  • Enhance Brand Awareness- Can there be any better way for brand exposure? In this era, the answer is no! We rely on the digital platform to discover new products, services, and brands. It is a powerful tool for promoting businesses. Undoubtedly, SEO plays a critical role in exposing your brand or business globally. Nobody will know about your real estate business until you are found online!
  • Increase Revenue- When you receive more qualified leads, the chances of conversion become higher. More conversion means more revenue. Targeting niche audiences through SEO is one of the effective measures to earn better quality leads or audiences willing to become clients. You do not have to worry much about convincing the audiences who are already interested in your product(s) or service(s). SEO assures you a higher return on investment (ROI).
  • Manage Brand Reputation- An impressive benefit of real estate SEO is that you can manage your online brand reputation by replying to reviews or answering questions. A positive review can have an influential impact on your brand’s reputation. It encourages others to make a purchase. Similarly, you can promptly reply to negative feedback and promote better consumer support. Either way, managing online reputation becomes much easier with effective SEO.

Hence, there is no doubt that SEO is the modern-day online marketing tool that assures promising results over time. It is an unavoidable element for brand promotion and boosting sales. 

Nonetheless, with too much information out there, you really must know which ones will fit best to meet the needs of your target audiences. Clearing up the dilemma, we have listed the top digital marketing strategies that will guide you through the process. Keep reading to learn about them.

Real Estate SEO Strategies

When the real estate marketplace is constantly changing, it is necessary you build a functional SEO strategy that will tailor your content to complement the evolving trends. In this way, you can make your marketing and sales funnel impactful. SEO helps in creating new entry points for leads to enter the funnel. This, in turn, guides the users directly to the conversion points on your site. 

Therefore, implementing the right SEO strategies is a prerequisite to boosting success in your real estate business.

10 Unmissable Real Estate SEO Strategies

Following are the unmissable strategies for SEO for real estate business:

  • Perform Website Audit

Every SEO strategy begins with a thorough website audit. Why is it necessary? A doctor cannot recommend treatment until he performs a check-up to probe into the problems and symptoms. A website audit has a similar function. It helps in detecting the strengths and weaknesses of your website. In other words, an audit evaluates the performance of your site, increasing the scope of improvements.

You can always refine your strategies if they are not offering the desired results. Website design, page speed, on-page SEO, technical SEO, content quality, user experience and accessibility are the primary metrics assessed through a website audit. Thus, it evaluates the overall performance of your website based on which you can optimize your strategies. 

  • Competitor Analysis

Knowing your competitors is necessary to understand who your challenges are. How can you construct a plan until you know your competition? Maybe you know the names of your industry competitors, but that is not enough. Comprehending their SEO strategy is the best way to understand what is working for them. Competition can vary from keyword to keyword!

Therefore, to acquire a complete insight into the scenario, conducting a competitor analysis is mandatory. You can learn from their gains and misses! The structure of their or even the type of content they are publishing- everything matters when you are building your action plan! 

  • Keyword Research

When aiming to reach the top of the search results, you must use valuable keywords in your website and other web content. What do we mean by valuable keywords? These are the keywords that are most searched by users on search engines. So, you must target those real estate keywords possessing high search volume and competition.

You can find such valuable keywords through keyword research using various platforms like Google Search Console, Google Trends, Keyword Tool, and others. You can even check the keywords you are already ranking for. Uncovering the top keywords can change the game entirely! Believe us!

  • Create High-Quality Content

The primary element in SEO is content. It is the determining factor for the search engine ranking of your real estate website. Creating high-quality content is the foremost priority of SEO. Today, content marketing strategy is significantly influential due to the massive exposure to diverse digital platforms. Users find more information on the Internet than anywhere else! Hence, ignoring the importance of high-quality content will be your greatest mistake!

We have been talking about high-quality content; do you know what that implies? Your content must be relevant, informative, well-formatted, and readable, providing a good user experience. Your audiences must find it useful and valuable. The power of content is immense until you experience it!

  • Use Real Estate Agents Schema Markup

Schema markup is also known as structured data. You can use this code in your website’s HTML to enable search engines to easily comprehend the information on your website. It helps the users to find the accurate information they are looking for. In other words, whenever you add real estate agents schema markup, your website appears instantly for a relevant search.

For real estate businesses, there are two types of schema markup- real estate listing and real estate agent. Whichever schema markup you use, your website will significantly benefit from it. You may even be able to replace a featured snippet. How does that sound?

  • Local SEO

Never should you forget that to establish globally, you must first establish locally. You must build local market dominance before you target reaching audiences at other locations. And don’t you think it is easy! The competition is tough, especially for startups and small-scale real estate businesses. So, a Google My Business (GMB) listing is a must-have to appear in the local search results. About 98% of consumers search online for local businesses (2023). We are sure the numbers will increase this year!

The GMB listing includes your company’s name, category, description, location, and contact details. A fully optimized GMB profile will help you rank high in the local searches. Apart from that, Google Maps optimization is another effective approach that enables potential leads to locate your business conveniently. It establishes trust and credibility as they find your business authentic. An accessible physical presence vouches for legitimacy. 

  • Generate Backlinks 

Getting referrals from other trusted sites works wonders in search engine ranking and increasing organic traffic. It is predominantly done through link-building strategies where you get other websites to link to your web pages. What happens through the link-building process? You receive high-quality inbound links (backlinks), which mark the authority of your web pages in search engines. Therefore, you establish trust and credibility as audiences find your business reputed and reliable.

These backlinks act as a “vote of confidence”- an essential element to encourage digital dominance. They validate the existence and authority of your business. So, how do you generate backlinks? There are multiple ways to get resourceful backlinks like guest blogging, publishing Skyscraper content, resource pages, broken links, etc. 

  • Optimize Website for Mobile Search

 Mobile web traffic accounts for nearly 60% of the total web traffic. It is not surprising that the numbers will rise in the following years. And more than 57% of the local searches come from mobile users. Therefore, your website must be mobile-friendly to reach maximum target audiences. It is highly essential because Google automatically crawls and indexes mobile-friendly websites first using mobile bots. These bots handle your website as a mobile device. Hence, you must focus on optimizing your website for mobile devices and tablets.

Developing a responsive layout, increasing page speed, compressing images, optimizing pop-ups, using readable font, and changing button size and placement are the significant strategies employed to improve mobile-friendliness. So, focus on mobile search to not miss out on a large percentage of your target audiences! 

  • Test and Tweak 

There are no set rules for a successful real estate SEO strategy! What works for others may not work for you! The only way to find the right recipe for a delicious meal is to experiment with the ingredients! And that is exactly what you must do- test and tweak your strategies. The secret to improving the conversion rate is continuous improvisation of the techniques and testing their performance. In this way, you will stay updated with the changing trends and receive better results.

The goal is to attract more organic traffic and enhance user experience. It aids higher chances of conversions and sales. Therefore, never stop experimenting!

  • Track Performance

After implementing the strategies, how do you know the results? You need SEO analysis or monitoring of the performance of your SEO strategies. It provides a better understanding of how well your website has been optimized and what you should do to improve its effectiveness. Using various key performance indicators (KPIs), you can track your website’s performance. The KPIs are the metrics providing insights into the results.

KPIs basically comprise search engine ranking, organic traffic, user experience, session duration, click-through rate, bounce rate, and conversion rate. These are the fundamental factors that determine whether you have accomplished your SEO goal(s).

Well, now you know what makes up a good SEO strategy for real estate businesses. Unfortunately, some business owners may still be dubious about whether it is worth all the investment- time and money! We will come to that in the next section.

The ROI of Real Estate SEO

1,389% is the average ROI of real estate SEO for 10 months. Does it sound appealing? The longer you run your SEO campaign, the higher the ROI! Another interesting fact is that SEO drives 300% more traffic than any other social media campaign. The long-term SEO game assures increased profits over time, and you will genuinely want to take the long shot!

Conclusion

Opting for best SEO packages from a reputed service provider will be the best thing you can do to boost your business growth. There is no better way to become digitally recognized than to employ dedicated SEO strategies for real estate businesses. You get traffic, higher ranking, more leads, increased conversions, better brand exposure, and boosted revenue. What more do you ask for? So, are you ready to make a glorious start to 2024?

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Blogs

How to Improve Your Website’s Conversion Rate?

Are you struggling to get visitors to take the desired action on your website? Are you experiencing reduced profitability?

As a general rule of thumb, a conversion rate between 2% to 5% is considered pretty desirable. Unfortunately, for most websites, it is only 0.1% to 0.2%. It means you get only 1 to 2 customers among 1000 visitors. It is indeed a pretty bad score after you have put a lot of effort into optimizing your website!

Driving traffic to your website is cardinal, but if you are unable to convert them into customers, all your marketing strategies are a waste of time and money.

Your website is your online hub where visitors learn about your business, products, and services. So, you must encourage visitors to stay and explore your website. The longer they spend time on your website, the better the chances of conversions. And with a higher conversion rate, you receive an increased return on investment (ROI).

Statistics reveal that nearly 48% of visitors leave the primary landing page without delving deeper. What should you do in such a scenario? You require optimizing your conversion rate to receive highly qualified leads, boost revenue, and lower acquisition costs. In other words, conversion rate optimization (CRO) increases the percentage of website visitors taking desired actions.

In this blog, we will discuss the various strategies that can get you more customers with the traffic you already have. We will share with you the best tips for optimizing the conversion rate:

Read on to learn about the various marketing efforts. 

Define Your Conversion Goals

Before you begin optimizing your conversion rate, you have to recognize your conversion goal. Conversion goals help you to dispose of your conversion actions for easy optimization of your campaign objectives. In simple words, what do you want your visitors to do on your website? Do you want them to sign up for a newsletter, download a white paper or make a purchase?

The actions that you want your visitors to take are categorized together, which contributes to your conversion goals. For example, if your conversion goal is “purchase”, then all your conversion actions will focus on the “purchase” category, like purchase through select apps or online purchases.

Why is it important to define your conversion goals?

  1. Well-structured grouping for advanced optimization- Your conversion actions are automatically grouped into appropriate conversion goals that are most profitable for your business. You can unlock optimization and bidding opportunities.
  2. Streamline conversion management- You can refine your conversion goals whenever creating a campaign to get the most out of it. Thus, it effectively helps in accomplishing your business objectives.
  3. Boost campaign performance- When you set account-default goals, your search engine gathers data from the valuable conversions, helping you in smart bidding. It improves your overall campaign performance.

Therefore, defining your conversion goals must be your primary focus for effective conversion rate optimization. It lets you plan the strategy that will work best for attaining your business objectives.

Boost Understand Your Target Audience

Recognizing and understanding your target audience is crucial to maximize the results of CRO. Target audience refers to the group of people who are more likely interested in your products or services. Thus, they are the potential leads leading to conversions.

When you understand the needs and preferences of your target audience, you can customize your website and marketing campaigns accordingly, increasing the chances of conversions. For example, if you sell energy drinks, your target audience includes people between 30 to 45 years old who are more likely sportspersons, gym-goers, and athletes. Therefore, your efforts must focus on reaching these audiences and addressing their distinctive needs. You have a better chance of receiving new customers.

Now, the target audience is not restricted to gender and age. Factors like interests, income, buying habits, and location also define the target audience. Precisely, the more specific is your target audience, the more impactful will be your CRO efforts.  

Boost Remove Distractions

How long do you expect your audiences to stay on your website if it pulls them in too many directions? Nothing can be worse than a bad user experience! For a compelling user experience, you must optimize your website for easy use and navigation. A great user experience is essential to engage your audience deeper into marketing collateral. In other words, remove unnecessary elements from your website.

According to statistics, 65% of website visitors refuse to fill a form with too many fields.

It means that even if anyone is willing to fill out a form, he will leave it right away when required to fill too many fields! Isn’t it one of the easiest ways to slaughter the conversion rate?

So, how do you make your website engaging?

  • Make your website responsive and mobile-friendly.
  • Avoid adding too many fields in the forms.
  • Keep your content crisp and informative.
  • Create an eye-catching landing page.
  • Use clear and striking call-to-action (CTA) buttons.
  • Provide clear contact information.
  • Set a pop-up cookie so that it appears only once per visitor.
  • Offer a seamless checkout process.

Once you encourage optimal audience engagement through a gripping user experience, you have reached halfway to achieving your conversion goal!

Test Different Strategies

Test and tweak! Optimizing conversion rate is a continuous process of fine-tuning your website and marketing strategies. So, testing is the key to comprehending what works best for your target audience, which will significantly increase your conversion rate.

After creating a new campaign or adding some changes to your website, you can perform A/B testing to compare the two versions of a similar campaign or website to recognize which performs better. You can finalize the creative based on the results.

Testing helps in advanced customization based on your target audience’s culture and language while providing insight into their preferences. Hence, you have a better approach to optimizing web pages and marketing campaigns.

A/B testing is a prevalent method, while there are other ways to test various strategies for lead conversion:

  1. Explore different call-to-action buttons.
  2. Try different placements for promotional messages and ads.
  3. Use multiple content formats, including infographics, videos, and e-books.
  4. Examine audience response to different features.
  5. Conduct usability tests to understand user experience.

Experimenting with multiple variables only improves your conversion rate. So, keep testing and tweaking!

Track Your Results

You can only make improvements in our performance when you track the results. To enhance your CRO efforts, you must assess and monitor it. For better comprehension of how successful is your conversion rate optimization, calculating it is obligatory.

By evaluating the data, you can identify the strengths and weaknesses and make relative modifications. It boosts your scope for improvements that considerably affect the conversion rate. When you upgrade your website and marketing campaigns as per the performance data, you get closer to accomplishing your desired results.

We have shared the tips that will help you calculate CRO:

  • Monitor the key performance indicators (KPIs) like click-through rate, bounce rate, and conversion rate.
  • Track customer feedback to recognize the areas of improvement.
  • Examine the conversion data regularly to track trends and patterns.
  • Keep testing various approaches and track performance.

Now, you are all set to boost your website’s conversion rate!

Wrapping It Up!

To build a successful online business, increasing the conversion rate of your website is a prerequisite. Your marketing efforts are futile unless you generate a pretty impressive conversion rate. Nonetheless, it is not about hard work but smart work. When you define your conversion goals and target audience, you can create and optimize your website and campaign content as per the requirements. And do not stop experimenting! Keep upgrading because it is the sure shot key to success!

Undoubtedly, you will initially experience failures! But do not give up. You are never out of ideas and following the above tips, we are sure no sooner will you witness positive outcomes. Just keep testing and tweaking!  

Was this a helpful read? Do you want to receive more such valuable insights? Sign up for your email list at Black Marlin Technologies. Download the free CRO checklist and learn how to transform your visitors into customers.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q. What does conversion mean in digital marketing?

Ans. Conversion is the action taken by a website visitor in response to a call to action. It typically includes subscribing to a newsletter, signing up for a webinar, downloading a free e-book, and purchasing a product or service.

Q. Why is conversion rate optimization necessary?

Ans. Conversion rate optimization is essential to acquire more customers and generate higher revenue. In other words, it helps in business growth by increasing the percentage of website visitors taking the desired actions. It lowers the cost of acquisition and improves the return on investment.

Q. How do I calculate the conversion rate?

Ans. Conversion rate is calculated by the number of visitors and the number of actions taken. For example, if you have 1000 visitors and 20 of them take action, then your conversion rate is 20/1000 or 2%.

Q. What are the elements I should test for CRO?A.

Ans. The elements you must test for CRO are content (headings, subheadings, captions, bullets, and call-to-action), images (size, type, and quality), videos (duration, type, auto play or not), search boxes, email signup forms (number of fields, field labels, and form validation), and navigation structure.

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7 Higher Education Digital Marketing Trends for 2024

From the past few years, we have witnessed tough competition in the field of digital marketing place. With this, it is important to keep an eye on the various aspects of digital trends. And the Education sector is one of the most vital sectors in which digital marketing trends can bring a change for good.

As we know that, from time to time we notice different updates or trends in this division. Thus, it is very important to focus on the higher education digital marketing trends that will help in revolutionizing the education industry for better. The digital marketing techniques and algorithms are changing at a fast pace and to stay ahead in this curve, you need to follow the mentioned below 7 higher education digital marketing trends for 2024. These marketing trends change the higher education setting with new communication channels to make new ways of learning.

7 HIGHER EDUCATION DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS FOR 2024

Here are our top 7 Higher Education Digital Marketing Trends for 2024 that keep you ahead in this stiff competitive curve.

Live video content will keep you ahead

Video marketing is still at the top position when it comes to transparency. Most of the higher education universities and colleges are trying to add live video content in their marketing strategy that will provide the students with complete details about the inside of the universities. In 2024 we will notice that universities are more & more experimenting on Facebook stories, Snapchat, Instagram Stories, Youtube videos to provide students with clear content that is important. Nowadays, students are looking for first-hand genuine view of what’s happening at the university they are planning to get admission.

Social Media Content

Without any doubt, social media is an essential aspect of higher education that provides all the important resources to students. To engage your audiences you need more people to follow your social media channels and enhance your brand awareness. With the changing marketing trends, higher education institutes need to become an authentic brand. If you do not create a good link with your audience via social media platforms you can’t stand out in a cut-throat industry. Once you create a good link with your audience you can discuss various aspects related to your education plan with the right people. Don’t try to reach a wide audience initially. Provide education via social media that will help them to reach their goals.

Create Your education-based Marketing Channel

A few years back when you need to reach the maximum audience you use brochures and newsletters to reach the mailbox. But with digital marketing trends, you can easily step ahead into the internet & social medium and spend immensely to target the right audience. At the same time, it is important to use the right content so that your money and time are not wasted. Your website is a perfect way to market your business and to reach the maximum number of audience.

AI to Automate Digital Marketing

When it comes to digital trends no one can ignore Artificial intelligence. The AI technology not only keeps the process user friendly but also makes it less complicated. To make a place in this competitive environment it is important to integrate AI technology in your education marketing plan. If you are not currently using Artificial intelligence in your campaigns and sequential remarketing, then you are missing out on a huge audience. This new trend in education can be used to offer personalized experiences to the students. The Artificial intelligence-powered mobile applications will not surely replace trainers but authorize them. So, it is time to connect with digital marketing-agency and start working on the process to reap benefits later.

Chatbots 

The universities and colleges are continuously adopting latest technologies and it is predicted that Chatbots will become a well-known feature on the homepage of institution websites in one or another. The technology is developing at a fast pace and is certainly becoming more available to education-based institutions. We know people love mobile apps and digital platforms for interaction because of round the clock services and high-quality responses. Chatbots are playing a major role in providing complete customer support and will continue to rise further in institutions.

Digital Marketing Tools

When it comes to digital marketing trends, how can we ignore digital marketing tools? There are “n” numbers of tools that higher education based channels can use in their marketing efforts to improve customer acquisition rates. You can connect with a digital marketing agency and discuss the digital marketing tools that you can integrate into your marketing strategies such as SEO, SMO, automated email, content, SEO site crawlers, social media scheduling tools, and many more. .

Voice Search 

Last in the list, but not least, according to market reports, more than 20% of mobile searches on Google are done through voice search options. To make your higher education process a powerful one by the end of 2024, you need to add voice recognition digital trends in your plan. The voice search percentage will boost up to 50% in the upcoming years. 

voice search

 As we know, social media giants like Facebook is a key player in the search game and has developed voice recognition technology at a fast rate. You can now find all the details on Facebook via Voice assistant. However, this trend will provide you with accurate information and further will strengthen online search competition in 2024 with universities having to make sure that their university website ranks remarkably well in the search engine rankings to gain from the technology. Voice assistant will be an important part of the student journey and the colleges and institutions need to be prepared and optimized for the same.

Conclusion:

In a nutshell, we can say that the above listed higher education based trends are both digital and technological. The technology and digital trends in higher education are becoming more delicate and human-based, but the means to make the process more genuine is relying on automation and new technology. In the upcoming years, we will see a change in the education system pattern. Certainly, the marketing practices will remain the same but in upcoming years we’ll also see some newly budding digital and technological trends come to the border.

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Step-by-Step Guide: How to Build a Website from Scratch

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Build a Website from Scratch
In the present
digital landscape, a well-designed website can open the gateway to numerous opportunities. Whether you are a freelance blogger or trying to establish an ecommerce business, a solid digital presence can scale your business, helping you to establish your brand and stay ahead of your competitors.

According to Netcraft, there are more than 1 billion websites globally. 

However, website designing may seem an intimidating task, especially if you do not have firsthand experience. So, as a beginner, you will be baffled as to where to start from. But, believe us, with the right elements and some basic knowledge, you can create an attractive, informative, and well-organized website.

We are here to guide you on how to build a website from scratch so that in no time, you will have a fully operational website shaping your digital dreams into reality! Let’s do it like a pro!  

A Beginner’s Guide to Build a Website from Scratch

It is possible to build a website without coding and programming skills when you have a concrete plan and a distinct strategy for implementation. In this blog, we will steer you through the process from identifying your goals to launching your website. Stick with us as we will make everything streamlined for easy understanding and successful results.

Know Your Goals-

Why are you creating a website? What is the purpose of the website? Is it to generate brand awareness? Is it to sell products? Who is your target audience? When you have discovered the answers to these questions, you have a crystal-clear goal. It will help you plan your website, like the theme, architecture, site interface, potential pages, type of content, and other features. When building a website from scratch, your strategy will be deeply rooted in your goals.

Pick Your Platform-

To create a website, you will need an appropriate platform that will meet your requirements. There are several platforms or website builders to ease your website-building process, even when you do not have any understanding of the technical aspects. The best part is using these DIY tools anyone can build a website without knowing coding!

From themes to templates, web builders have unique features dedicated to ecommerce, portfolio, and blogging websites. Some platforms also support domain registration and hosting. Nonetheless, when you choose a platform, consider factors like user-friendliness, mobile responsiveness, hosting services, etc. Some notable website builders are WordPress, Shopify, GoDaddy, Hostinger, and Wix.

Decide on a Domain Name-

The next step to creating a website from scratch is to choose a domain name for your business. What is a domain name? The domain name is a unique address of your business on the Internet. It is related to the physical IP address on the web. So, keep it simple and accordant to your business. You can pick a free domain name or a custom one.

However, always remember that the domain name is your digital identity. Therefore, ensure it is impactful so your target audience can easily remember it. Performing keyword research and checking your competitor’s domain name can provide you with prospective ideas.

Website Customization-

Now, it is time to organize the elements. Begin with selecting a template or theme. These are pre-designed layouts that help you to draft your website’s appearance. The layout or template of your website defines user experience. Thus, before settling on a specific theme, research and plan meticulously.

Once you choose a template, start adding other elements that induce life to your website. These elements specifically include colors, fonts, white space, contrast, background, images, text size, and static page. The way you map out your website will generate the first impression on viewers. 

  • Build Site Architecture- Is it an ecommerce site or a company portfolio? Depending on the purpose of your website, the web pages will vary. You must be very speculative when determining the pages you will require. Along with the Homepage, your site will have many other pages featuring various aspects of your business. These supporting pages are the building blocks of your website, delivering the intended message. Typically, every website comprises of the following pages:
  • Home PageIt is the landing page that includes your business name, logo, and navigation menu. The Homepage connects all the other pages, aiding easy navigation.
  • About PageThe second most important page on your website is the About page. Here, you will highlight your story and introduce yourself to the visitors. 
  • Product or Service PageWhat are you offering to your visitors? Are you selling products? Do you want your visitors to make a direct purchase? If it is an ecommerce site, you must create a catalogue page to exhibit the items.
  • Testimonials PageReviews and feedback from existing clients are essential in depicting a business’s trustworthiness. A testimonials page encourages prospective customers to take actions like subscribe or buy.
  • FAQ PageAnswering the frequently asked questions helps visitors learn more about your products or services.
  • Blog Page Blogging is one of the smartest ways for content marketing. You can publish blogs related to your business and products to promote audience engagement and generate interest.
  • Contact and Support Page Including your physical address, phone number, and email address is mandatory so interested visitors can reach you instantly. Also, link your social media accounts to the contact page for maximum impact.
  • Set Up Payment Gateway (if required)If you have an ecommerce site, it means you facilitate online shopping. Thus, your site needs a storefront layout where all the products will be listed, and customers can navigate through the lists to choose and buy the desired products.

The navigation must be seamless and prompt to ensure buyers do not get disappointed and leave your site. It is a significant section of an ecommerce website defining your credibility. Pick a reliable digital storefront like UPI or PayPal. These are easy to use, supporting smooth transactions. As you build a website from scratch, prioritize user experience since it significantly impacts trust and loyalty.

Create Content-

When you have finally mapped out your site, it is time to add content to the pages. Content forms the core of a website’s performance. It considerably affects search result rankings, audience engagement, lead generation, and conversions. So, your content must be valuable, serving a purpose to audiences. It must be informative with strategically placed keywords, relatable, and accurate.

Give your website a voice. Focus on creating high-quality content to establish your domain authority and foster client relationships. Add HD-quality photos wherever needed. Photos are a distinctive way of expression. They make your website attractive and aid a better understanding of content. It is easier to remember photos, as well! 

Test and Hone-

You are almost ready to let your website go live! Are you excited? Of course, you are! But wait! Did you test your website’s functionality, accessibility, and compatibility? Is your content readable? Did you check for mobile responsiveness? How is the user experience? All these factors are responsible for your website’s performance.

Today, in the mobile-first indexing era, having a mobile-friendly website is immensely crucial if you do not want to get lost in the crowd! Check if all the pages are working and if they have contact forms. Additionally, the user interface must be captivating and well-optimized. You can ask your friends or family members for their valuable feedback. 

Get Set Launch-

Finally, all your efforts about how to make a website from scratch are coming to life! It’s time to publish your website to the world! If all the basic elements are in place and working perfectly, all you have to do now is launch your website. Once your website goes live, promote it to your social media channels to expand reach and attract more traffic. The more you promote, the higher the views.

Keep Tweaking-

Nothing in the digital landscape is permanent. The search engine algorithms keep changing. There is a fair chance you will miss out on the race if you do not stay updated with the latest trends. Therefore, update your website content frequently so they do not become stale and outdated. Such content does not fetch the audience’s attention and gradually loses value. Whether it is blogs or videos, schedule a calendar, repurpose old content, and update. Adding fresh content is a secret to improving your website’s performance. 

Key Takeaways

Designing the first website without any coding experience can be challenging. Luckily, we have platforms or website builders with unlimited customization features requiring no hardcore skills. When you have successfully created a website, you can take it a long way!

There are no limits to refining your website. You can perform search engine optimization (SEO) and track results to secure a high rank in the search results and increase visibility. Other digital marketing elements like content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and performance marketing can readily improve your site’s domain authority, credibility, and reputation. We will discuss it in another post. For now, let’s hope you will soon run a successful website!

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SEO Audit Checklist 2024: A Comprehensive Guide

SEO Marketing Company IndiaA good search engine optimization (SEO) strategy can indeed change the online game drastically. By game, we mean online visibility and traffic drive to any webpage or website. However, what if you do not receive the expected results? In other words, your website rank is nowhere within the top three options on the search engine results page (SERP).

Perhaps, a thorough SEO audit can fix the issues and get your web page ahead of the competition. Search engine optimization audit is the fundamental requisite to inspect the various technical and on-page issues affecting your website’s SEO health!

So today, we will talk about the diverse aspects of SEO audit checklists and the ways to perform them. We assure you will no longer fret about your website’s ranking!

1. SEO Audit: Significance and Impact

What do you understand by audit? In general, it means to examine or investigate. Similarly, an SEO audit indicates the assessment of a website in the aspect of its search engine friendliness.
When a website is search engine friendly, it enables easy indexing. It means the website is content-rich, and a search engine can derive high-quality information from it. Thus, a search engine can easily organize information, allowing instantaneous query responses.

In simple terms, you call a website optimized when it is easily discoverable by a search engine.

So, a search engine optimization audit is important because:

  • It helps in optimizing a website
  • Aids in attaining higher SERP rankings
  • Keeps a website up-to-date through advanced developments
  • It allows a website to stay in sync with the ranking algorithm

Hence, it is evident that an SEO audit is a health checkup of your website’s SEO! The process utilizes various tools to monitor the essential parameters for effective SEO.

Before further delay, let us focus on the SEO checklist responsible for your website’s performance.

2. Preparing for an SEO Audit

Since an audit proposes insights about improving your SEO strategies for enhanced site performance, it is based on gathering essential data and analytics. For a proactive, comprehensive site structure evaluation, Google Search Console and Google Analytics are the primary tools used to collect a website’s analytics data. This data is the core of the audit process.

Apart from the analytics data, SEO Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are used to assess and measure an SEO campaign’s effectiveness and performance.

SEO KPIs play a significant role in:

  • Evaluating SEO effectiveness by accessing quantifiable data to track visibility, organic traffic, and conversion rates.
  • Comparing performance to improve and evolve.
  • Making strategic decisions through data insights.

Check out the top SEO KPIs of 2023:

i. Organic traffic
ii. Organic conversion rate
iii. Bounce rate
iv. Click-through rate (CTR)
v. Keyword rankings
vi. Load time
vii. Number of backlinks
viii. Domain authority
ix. Average session duration
x. Pageviews

Therefore, the analytics and KPIs are the cornerstone of SEO audit that help in reaching out to your target audience.

3. Technical SEO Checks

An SEO audit comprises technical and non-technical factors. Technical SEO analysis is specifically based on external components that have nothing to do with your website’s content or links. It revolves around the aspects affecting the visibility and accessibility of your website to search engines.

To simplify, a technical SEO audit monitors the indexing and crawling of a website. It substantially influences the user’s experience (UX). Thus, a technical audit evaluates the factors responsible for indexing, crawling, visibility, and UX.

So, how do you review your website’s technical SEO? Let us check it out.

  • Check the configuration and navigation of the website
  • Ensure that the website is registered with Google Search Console and Bing webmaster tools
  • Check for error pages and broken links
  • Review XML Sitemaps and robots.txt file of the website
  • Check whether the site has SEO-friendly URLs
  • Examine duplicate content and canonicalization
  • Review the HTTPS status of the website
  • Ensure the Breadcrumb menu is active
  • Check for mobile optimization
  • Whether the website’s 404 is customized

Note: A complete technical SEO audit takes only a few hours. It must be conducted every three months for effective results and enhanced performance.

4. On-Page SEO Analysis

On-page SEO audit is the most crucial segment of the entire audit process. It determines the optimization of your website content to boost visibility and improve target audience relevance.

Thus, after fixing the technical issues in the SEO audit, you need to focus on on-page SEO optimization to enable search engines to recognize your website’s content meaning. It is necessary that individual web pages must be fully optimized for search engine crawlers to receive the right signals.

On-page SEO audit is performed in the following ways:

  • Optimize the titles and meta descriptions
  • Ensure that the website has proper formatting with an H1 tag and that the headings are organized as per hierarchy
  • Optimize the website’s content through keyword research
  • Review the internal linking structure for better search rank
  • Check the file names and alt tags for images, including the content delivery network (CDN).
  • Review the correct use of banner ads
  •  Check for broken links and duplicate content
  •  Examine the user-friendliness of the website

5. Content Quality and Relevance

In SEO, content is the king! It is the quality and relevance of content in any website that is extensively responsible for better search result ranking, higher organic traffic, and increased conversions. In other words, the better the content matches to search query, the better the ranking.

Therefore, content quality assessment is crucial to achieving the best SEO strategies. It dictates the website indexing factor. Apart from content, multimedia elements like images and videos are also part of a website. They provide additional text information, increasing content relevance.

Whenever there is a search query, search engines look for indexed websites that match the user’s requirements. The set algorithms evaluate the entire process. These algorithms generate search result rankings.

Now, what to look for in an SEO content audit?

i. Language– Assign content to a particular language or region.
ii. Text– The relevance of content to a search query.
iii. Title– It refers to the main topic of a website that acts as a relevance criterion.
iv. Multimedia– It indicates images, videos, and graphics in a website proposing extra text information while making the content more engaging.
v. Local terms- Using local terms depicting a particular region is an effective SEO strategy implementation.

6. Site Structure and Navigation Audit

A website structure, also called site architecture, affects SEO performance to a considerable extent. A well-structured website must have well-organized and well-connected pages for easy navigation and improved user experience.

How does site structure affect SEO?

  • Search engines can locate and index all the pages on the website
  • Generate authority through internal links
  • Visitors can easily find the relevant content

Typically, the internal links in a website comprise the site structure. These links help search engines find and rank web pages. The internal link structure is known as website navigation.

Hence, during an SEO audit, ensure the site structure complies with a well-established internal linking strategy for superior UX and potential SEO.

7. Mobile Optimization and Responsiveness Audit

Do you have a mobile-friendly website? It is a very relevant question if you are wondering why your website has a poor rank! In the present-day scenario, mobile devices are an essential tool to access the internet, social media, search engines, and other digital platforms.

It is best to say that without a smartphone, our lives are aimless! Hence, mobile optimization is of utmost necessity to boost the overall user experience and improve search engine rankings.

Your website must be designed to be responsive to various screen sizes, user interfaces, and loading speeds.

What happens when you have a mobile-optimized website?

i. Increased organic traffic
ii. Higher engagement
iii. Better conversion rate
Hence, alongside enhanced UX and search ranking, with mobile optimization, you receive better business!

8. Page Load Speed and Performance Audit

For an outstanding SEO result, page load speed is utterly necessary. It refers to the loading speed of content on a web page. Having a fast load speed results in higher rankings in SERP.

When users have to wait longer for a page to load, it contributes to a negative impression of their experience. Many may even prefer to leave the page and move to another site.

The prevalent metrics to determine the page speed are:

  • Time to First Byte (TTFB)- The time taken to begin page loading
  • First Content-ful Paint (FCP)- The time taken to view the first page element
  • Onload Time- The time taken to load a page fully

Now, let us consider the best tools used to analyze page speed during a search engine optimization audit:

i. Google PageSpeed Insights
ii. Google Lighthouse
iii. WebPage Test
iv. GTmetrix
v. Pingdom Website Speed Test
vi. Website Checker

There are solutions to improve the page load speed of a website. Check them out here:

  • Compress the images without compromising their quality
  • Use the right image formats like JPEG, PNG, and WebP
  • Minimize JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
  • Decrease HTTP requests
  • Implement a CDN (Content Delivery Network)
  • Allow browser caching

9. Backlink Profile and Authority

Backlink profile analysis is another significant checklist for an SEO audit. Backlinks are considered as votes of trust from other websites. The quality and quantity of backlinks determine the ranking of a web page. The more the backlinks, the higher the website rank.

Note: The quality of backlinks is more important than the quantity.
It is not necessary that too many backlinks can make a webpage rank high. Rather, a few high-quality backlinks can do wonders!
So, what determines a high-quality backlink?

i. Relevance
ii. Authority
iii. Dofollow links

As an element of off-page SEO, backlinks help increase visibility, create brand awareness, and enhance domain authority. Thus, identify the toxic links and examine your competitor’s backlink profile to improve your opportunities.

10. Social Media Integration

Social media do not directly influence the ranking of a website in SERPs. Nevertheless, social media integration for SEO indirectly affects visibility and organic search rankings through links and metrics. Likes, comments, and shares generate brand awareness, credibility, and consumer loyalty. Thus, it elevates traffic and visibility, influencing SERP rankings indirectly.

Also, social media plays a significant role in assessing a brand’s digital reputation.

Social media strategies that can improve SEO results include:

a. Unified keyword alignment
b. Social link-sharing buttons on the website
c. Include links in videos and presentations
d. Incorporate links in social profiles
e. Boost content creator’s profile
f. Build relationships
g. Use analytical tools to increase content engagement and lifespan
h. Optimize social media profiles
i. Generate links and social media scope
j. Boost positive acknowledgements

To conclude, integrating social media in SEO strategy is a fruitful tactic to lay a powerful online impact.

11. Local SEO and Geographic Targeting

Whenever performing an SEO audit, local SEO assessment is crucial for businesses targeting a particular geographic location. Optimizing your local SEO will lead to higher traffic, better leads, and more conversions. Hence, you can take complete advantage of the local market and target your competition.

Here is the checklist for local SEO audit:

  • Optimize GMB (Google My Business) listing
  • Optimize voice search
  • Collect and respond to customer reviews
  • Verify NAP (name, address, phone number) consistency in all listings
  • Assess local search rankings and citations
  • Create content based on local keywords

Local SEO is pretty lucrative when you follow the trends and keep updated!

12. User Experience (UX) and Engagement Metrics

SEO and user experience (UX) conclude a symbiotic relationship. Positive user experience implies visitors can easily find the information they are looking for. Thus, the better the UX, the better the SEO.
Bounce rate and page loading speed affect UX considerably. The former is a user engagement metric determining how quickly or frequently visitors bounce after viewing a single page. While the latter determines the loading speed of a page, which affects UX immensely.

So, how to determine UX and engagement metrics?

i. The average time on a page
ii. The dwell time on a page
iii. Click-through Rate (CTR)
iv. Bounce rate
v. Exit rate

All of the above user experience metrics can help you determine the SEO-ability of your website.

13. Security and HTTPS Implementation

For search engine optimization and rankings, website security and HTTPS implementation are vital as they promote a positive page experience, laying a comprehensive impact on SEO performance. Apart from establishing credibility, they help in website ranking improvement by reducing bounce rates. It also enhances visitor’s confidence resulting in higher conversions.

However, to implement HTTPS and SSL, you require an SSL certificate from a service provider. After installing the certificate on your server and updating URLs, you can use HTTPS.

Check out the ways to improve website security for better SEO performance:

  • Update software
  • Use secure host
  • Encrypt the login pages
  • Keep backup data
  • Use strong passwords
  • Keep the website clean

14. Monitoring and Reporting

For a comprehensive SEO audit, monitoring and reporting is essential to track the effectiveness of the applied strategies. There is always a scope to improve when you are aware of the lags and high points.
In general, SEO monitoring and reporting allow you to evaluate the SEO performance and understand the areas of improvement. Also, it helps in monitoring competitors, avoiding penalties, and, above all, improving SEO rankings.

The top SEO monitoring tools in 2023 are:

  • ContentKing
  • Seolyzer
  • Oncrawl
  • Seoability
  • Seomater
  • Ahrefs
  • Google Data Studio and Google Analytics
  • Moz Pro
  • SEMrush
  • Woorank

15. Staying Updated with SEO Trends

After you have collected all the data, it is time to focus on the emerging SEO trends and updates to monitor and evaluate the rising competition while improving website speed and organic search performance. From algorithm updates to innovative search intent tools, 2024 is a year to leverage SEO in the true sense!

We have introduced some of the most popular SEO trends at the present time. Let us have a look:

i. First-hand Experience (E-EAT: Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust)
ii. Audience-targeted content
iii. Emphasis on content creator’s authority
iv. Quality and not quantity content
v. A.I content
vi. CTR and SERP changes
vii. SEO automation
viii. SEO competitor analysis
ix. Product page SEO
x. Integrated image SEO
xi. Reduced crawl frequency
xii. Fast load
xiii. High performance

When you weave these SEO trends, you can always enjoy the upper hand in the race!

16. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q. Why should I perform an SEO audit?
A. An SEO audit helps identify issues related to the website’s speed, performance, ranking, sitemaps, security, and others. It is a valuable way to diagnose problems so that you can fix them for the best results.

Q. What are the various types of SEO audits?
A. SEO audit involves technical SEO, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and local SEO. They provide insights into the overall performance of a website.

Q. How long does it take to perform an SEO audit?
A. Some audits may take several hours, while others may take 2 to 6 weeks. It depends on the size and complexity of the website.

Q. How often should I perform an SEO audit?
A. It is recommended to perform an SEO audit at least once every three months. It helps in improving SEO strategy effectiveness.

Conclusion

To wrap up, an SEO audit is the ultimate weapon to harness the real power of SEO best practices! Poor ranking, low visibility, less traffic, or reduced conversions, a comprehensive audit report can evaluate the problems and aid appropriate solutions. If you are worried about lower returns despite implementing a holistic SEO strategy, perhaps something is not working out right.

What best can you do to fix it? Of course, Ask us to perform an SEO audit!

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Blogs

How Useful can Google Maps Optimization be?

Do you feel that your business does not have a proper visibility on the Google maps? Or do you feel that it can’t be found anywhere in the local 3 pack? If the answer to all these questions is yes, then a Google Maps Marketing company can help you. It will help you maximize the exposure of your company on the search engines.

These professional firms help the businesses in capitalizing on the huge marketing opportunities and techniques with the help of Google maps marketing. They employ an integrated approach towards local SEO which helps in combining GMB that is Google My Business optimization, review generation, on site optimization as well as other such strategies. From ranked Google map results to local 3 packs listings, Google Maps Marketing services offer a different approach for all businesses.

Local Search Engine Optimization Services for Google Maps

Optimization which is specifically geared up for Google maps marketing has evolved quickly into a very important ingredient for the local search engine optimization. It is very important for any business to rank at the top in the listings of Google maps in the local 3 pack as well as Google maps search results. The local maps SEO helps basically drives the highly qualified local traffic to different businesses. Resultantly, optimization of Google maps has now become a very strong investment for SEO marketing.

Marketing value in google maps

Google Maps Marketing services many a times display the listings of the local maps based on the location of the users and keywords searches. For instance, if a particular user is looking for “Sushi Japan”, Google will show geographically relevant results with local maps. Whether the user is based in japan or not, since they typed a group modifier in keywords query, Google displayed the local SERP.

How is it done?

Write exclusive Google posts : The experts would develop unique Google posts for the business to build prominence and relevance for the business. The copywriters that they have possess diverse industrial experience and thus they can easily chalk out persuasive posts.

Managerial reviews: Review count as well as ratings is factored in the results of the local search engines. They encourage the customers who are happy with the services of the business to write reviews and also respond to the present reviews as per the Google’s guidelines.

Post on the social media accounts frequently: The businesses which are quite active on the social media platforms rank much higher on the Google maps. The experts upload relevant content on the social accounts of the business for building prominence for the business.

Building high quality backlinks as well as local citations: The backlinks help the business in building prominence and the same is also true for the local citations. They develop high quality backlinks under Google maps optimization as well as local citations for the business to establishing its prominence.

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Blogs

HTTPS or HTTP: Which Is Better For SEO Today?

In March 2014, Matt Cutts, an American software engineer and is the former head of the web spam team at Google, gave the audience at SMX West a tip that making a site secure (SSL encryption ) was going to trend in 2014. He wanted to make sure that sites that utilize SSL encryption would see a ranking boost within Google, but at the time there were some individuals at Google that did not agree with him. But, only a couple of weeks ago, Google announced that using SSL encryption will provide sites a ranking boost within Googles search engine results pages (SERPs). Google also stated that the prime reason behind this move was over security and that they have started to see more and more webmasters adopting HTTPS.

If you have been doing online searches, you’ve probably noticed both HTTP and HTTPS sites. What is the difference between the two, and is it vital in terms of online marketing? In this informative post, we are going to tell everything, so read till the end.

HTTPS Vs HTTP

  • HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol

HTTP is a system for transmitting and receiving information over the Internet. HTTP, an application layer protocol, that means its focus is on how information is presented to the user. But, this option doesn’t care how data gets from Point X to Point Y.

  • HTTPS: Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol

The S at the end of the HTTP part of an URL means the website is secure. HTTPS was developed to let authorization and secured transactions. Also, exchanging confidential information requires to be secured so as to prevent unauthorized access, and HTTPS makes this happen. HTTPS is identical to HTTP in many ways, as it follows the same basic protocols. But, HTTPS provides an extra layer of security as it uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to move data. So, we can say HTTPS is just the secure version of HTTP. So, if users are guaranteed to have a secure website experience, then the answer to HTTP vs HTTPS becomes simple and they will prefer HTTPS.

Some Quick Facts about Secure Sites:

  1. About 85% users would abandon a purchase if the data sent over an insecure (HHTP) connection, indicating that the site insecurity could impact sales.
  2. Google Chrome labels HHTP sites as insecure and warning users that the connection is not secure.
  3. HTTPS websites load faster than HTTP and websites with faster loading speeds are more likely to rank better in search engines.
  4. About 40% of Google page one organic listing are HTTPS
  5. Since 2014, HTTPS has been a signal in Google’s Ranking Algorithm
  6. Over 50% of all desktop page loads are HTTPS connections, which is an all-time high.

SEO Advantages Of Switching To HTTPS

Switching to HTTPS will benefit you and the security of your site. Below are some key benefits:

Security

HTTPS includes security for your SEO goals and website by preventing tampering by third parties as well as making your site more secure for visitors. Apart from this, the encryption in the communication and URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) protects the transaction and browsing histories.

CTR

When compared to the blogs that do not run on SSL, you get high click through rate. We know that Click through Rate plays a big role in ranking boost.

Privacy

A lot of people believe that HTTPS provides protection only to websites using sensitive passwords. We really want to tell them that is it wrong. Even regular content sites benefit from SSL encryption. It affirms the website is the one the Web server must be conversing with.

Rankings

Back in 2014, it was confirmed by Google that the slight ranking boost of HTTPS sites. Therefore, SEOs and webmasters need to keep this point in mind.

The Process For Switching To HTTPS From HTTP?

The basic steps are:

1) Purchase an SSL certificate and a dedicated IP address from your web hosting company,

2) Install and configure the SSL certificate,

3) Configure any hard internal links within your website, from HTTP to HTTPS,

4) Update any code libraries (Like JavaScript, Ajax, etc) and any third-party plugins,

5) Redirect any external links you control to HTTP,

6) Update access applications to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS,

7) update your CDN’s SSL settings if you are using a content delivery network (CDN),

8) Implement 301 redirects on a page-by-page basis,

9) Update any links you use in marketing automation tools,

10) Update any landing pages and paid search links and

11) Set up an HTTPS site in Google Search Console and Google Analytics.

You shouldn’t be worried about switching HTTPS from HTTP as far as SEO is taken up. Google has been advising web administrators it is safe to do so for years now.

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Blogs

Why Your SEO Efforts Fails

Implementing the search engine optimization strategies is not sufficient for getting you on first page of the search results of Google.

With and effective SEO plan there are good chances that it is not working properly just like you hoped.

There’re various reasons because of which your SEO strategies might fail in getting you the coveted first page.

Below are some of the most common mistakes which you need to avoid:

1. You are not choosing the right keywords

Stating the best keyword for your business may be a little difficult, especially when you are working in a populated category.

Some of the most common keyword related mistakes include employing the single word keywords in place of the long tail keywords hoping to be noticed employing the popular keyword and targeting the keywords which are specific or not specific.

To give you the clear picture for “Trademark” searches, you can see that Google provided different results and not pretty sure that whether a person is looking for trademark agent, trademark services OR only wants to collect some information for trademark.

So if you notice the results here, it’s clear that unless you’re having a big brand company at the international level, it is really tough to get into the first page of Google search results.

You should choose the keywords which are specific for describing your business well but sufficiently broad that they would be typed in the search bar.

2. You are not employing the digital marketing tool

The digital marketing tool helps you in seeing what’s working for you and what is not so that you know where are your strategies strong and where you need assistance. Here are list of top free digital marketing tools that would help for any webmasters to run a successful campaign:

  • Google Trends
  • Google Keywords Planner
  • Google Analytics
  • Ahrefs
  • Similar Web
  • Opensite Explorer by Moz
  • Majestic SEO
  • Google Webmaster
  • SEMrush
  • SEO Profiler

Everything from goal trackers to analytic trackers fall under data visualization tool categories and all are important when you wish to see all your SEO efforts to succeed.

In case you’re just measuring success of all your SEO strategies through a rise in your business, you might not realize the results that you are anticipating. Optimizing the content of the website takes some time, efforts as well as continuous improvements. Treating SEO as one time project would just do this much and it is quite less.

An introduction to networking courses would offer you a competitive advantage required to fully grasping any kind of server related problem flagged on the website of your business. You should not let your efforts fail as you are not adjusting and adapting.

3. You are not targeting the right customers

Your SEO strategies need to keep revolving around what the customers or the potential customers look for while they require your products or services. In case you do not understand your customers, your SEO strategies would definitely fail.

Targeting wrong audience would not enhance your business even when your SEO strategies put you at the top on results of the search engines. Similarly, if you aren’t appearing in results of the search engine, people searching for your organization would not be able to look for you.

Take your time for understanding the various factors in getting right customers for your site. An old customer would not search the internet the similar way that a teenager would. Your keywords should represent the correct audience that brings you good business.

Getting right SEO strategies takes the method of trial and error. With a good amount of attention and less adjusting, you would be able to find your own way towards the very first page of the results of the search engine.

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Blogs

SEO for Startups: Launch Your Business with a Bang

It is indeed a thrilling venture when you decide to start your company! To become a successful entrepreneur is a dream of many aspirants. However, though everything sounds exciting, it is yet a challenging job. Especially today, when the competition has expanded to the digital realm!

There are definitely lots of things you must focus on- from developing your product(s) or service(s) to planning a cut-throat marketing strategy that will bring sales. When speaking of marketing strategy, it does not only imply billboards or pamphlet distribution but startup SEO, too.

SEO for Startups

For any startup to establish its footprint in the concrete world, it must find a good spot in the digital marketplace. In other words, to earn recognition and clients, you must first set an online foundation because the game begins from there!

Nonetheless, SEO is pretty demanding for new businesses since the online marketplace is already thronged with too many options. The competition is tough and not a cakewalk you can pass on like a breeze! You must develop a killer startup digital marketing strategy that will shower you with endless benefits. Don’t be amazed if we say SEO is your reliable, long-term game offering the much-deserved kick-start to your business!

It is the soul of your startup you cannot live without in the present era! So today, in this blog, we will discuss how to do SEO for a startup. If you are launching your business soon, follow this guide and thank us later. Before that, let’s understand why SEO for startups is so important.

Why Do You Need Startup SEO?

Most often, startups do not acknowledge SEO as a critical element to boost their early marketing gimmick despite 8.5 billion searches taking place per day on Google! It only results in regression and an ultimate crash! You are not even in the competition before you realize your failure!

Startups SEO

Thankfully, we have startup SEO to save us from the scenario! It is highly rewarding to new businesses because:

  • Better Search Result Ranking- The #1 result in Google search results has an average click-through rate of 27.6%. In general, the top three results on Google search receive 54.4% of all the clicks. So, do you recognize the significance of bagging a high rank on Google? The higher your rank, the more likely you will get increased clicks. And there is no surprise; you can achieve it only through an impactful SEO strategy.
  • Increased Organic Traffic- As you rank up the search engine, you become more visible to audiences. There is an exponential increase in click-through rate (CTR), which means more organic traffic drive. According to statistics, organic traffic accounts for 53.3% of a website’s traffic. It implies that SEO for startups is a crucial tool for attracting traffic to the website.
  • Enhanced Brand Awareness- Can there be any better exposure to your company than the online platform? You can reach your target audiences without conducting a canopy activity and shout over the microphone! And most importantly, you get a global exposure. It is not restricted to the local marketplace.
  • Boosted Customer Acquisition- SEO helps to generate qualified leads who are potential consumers. Therefore, conversions are often effortless since these leads are already interested in your business, product(s), or service(s). Your customer acquisition cost is reduced by 87.41% when you have a well-optimized SEO plan. It is exponentially beneficial to your startup business since, by all means, you will want to curtail investments.

Now, what are the best SEO practices for early-stage startups? We will discuss them in detail so that you can implement them to construct your strategy. 

Understanding the Basics of Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of enhancing the experience, authority, and performance of your website. Here is a beginner’s guide to SEO for new businesses:

  • Keyword Research- Keyword is the core of your SEO strategy. The ranking of your website depends considerably on keywords. What are keywords? They are the words or phrases that are most searched by users on Google or other search engines. So, you must use relevant and high-quality keywords in your website or content for easy crawling and indexing of the web pages. It improves your website ranking while increasing visibility.
  • On-Page Optimization- In SEO, content is the king. Therefore, create high-quality content which is informative, relevant, valuable, and useful to the audiences. In other words, your content must complement the needs of the target audiences. Place the keywords strategically and optimize title tags, meta descriptions, URLs and images for effective on-page optimization, boosting the click-through rate.
  • Technical SEO- Technical SEO is necessary for easy crawling and indexing of your web pages by search engines. It also makes your website more understandable and faster. Technical SEO includes elements like using a robots.txt file, adding structured data, putting an XML sitemap, and removing duplicate content and canonical texts.
  • Backlinks- Generating backlinks or employing a link-building strategy is one of the most effective ways to drive organic traffic for startups. When you link other websites to your site, you attract traffic from other reliable sources. It builds authority and establishes credibility, which is a determining factor for brand recognition and reputation. Guest posting , updating old content, building free tools, getting contextual links, etc., are successful link-building strategies.

Now, you know the fundamentals of SEO. It’s time to build a robust strategy for your startup business with the following guidelines.

Executing SEO Strategies for Startups

You know what makes up a good SEO strategy. Now, let us learn about them in detail and the various tactics employed to achieve the best results.

The Significance of Targeting Specific Keywords

Finding the right keywords relevant to your business must be your first step to building your startup SEO strategy. These keywords will help you rank in the search results, increasing your online visibility. A thorough keyword research is crucial to make rich, informative, and valuable content since search engines target the keywords for website ranking. Do you know what are the best ways to find your target keywords? Competitor analysis is always one of the most preferred approaches which recognize the keywords your competitors are targeting. Keyword research tools like Google Search Console, Google Trends, Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, etc., are also extensively used to find high-quality keywords.

Now, when you perform keyword research, you must remember:

  • Your keywords must be relevant to the target audience. It depends on the monthly search volume of the keywords.
  • The target keywords must be relevant to your business, product(s), or service(s). Remember that all the popular keywords may not be relevant to your startup business.
  • Consider target keyword competition- the more the popularity, the more the competition. However, being a startup business owner, keep track of your timeline and budget. Competitive keywords may not be feasible.

Website Content Optimization

There was a time when stuffing keywords in content was considered to be a good SEO practice. But today, content is more about delivering valuable information to target audiences than stuffing keywords! Search engine ranking for startups relies considerably on content quality and quantity. It is about publishing consistent, high-quality content with a well-formatted structure in the eyes of search engine algorithms and human readers, too. Google perceives your website as credible, resulting in better ranking.

We have shared important tips to optimize your content. Check them out:

  • Place your keywords strategically. Do not stuff them in your content.
  • Use semantically related keywords to establish an enhanced connection with your target audience.
  • Create an attractive and readable structure with H1, H2, H3, and H4 headings.
  • Optimize title, meta description, and Alt text to attract organic traffic.
  • Include captivating visuals for better audience engagement.
  • Add internal links for convenient navigation and improved user experience.
  • Keep your content up-to-date and accurate.

These are the two fundamental principles responsible for improved search result ranking, driving organic traffic, reducing bounce rates, acquiring credibility, and establishing brand recognition. In other words, SEO for startups is primarily based on these propositions.

Effective Tactics for Startups

SEO is not a fast-forward trick where you will receive results overnight! It is a long-term scheme, so do not assume it to be dead if you aren’t experiencing results even after a few months. It is like a slow-cooking meal that pays off the results after a long wait. Sometimes, it may take almost a year to notice measurable outcomes.

Nonetheless, you can boost its effectiveness by implementing some of the hottest trends, delivering extraordinary upshots! Website optimization for startups is indeed the cardinal element. But you must give a shot to the following tactics, which are the latest digital marketing trends exhibiting booming success!

Content Marketing-

More than 91% of businesses have achieved success through content marketing. To add on, the pandemic increased content marketing by 207%.

6 Key Points of SEO Optimization

Therefore, content marketing is undoubtedly one of the most effective tools to reach your target audience and encourage profitable actions. Content marketing focuses on creating and publishing high-quality content to attract new leads and retain existing consumers.

For any startup today, successful digital marketing is unthinkable without leveraging the potential of valuable content. Content marketing offers relevant and useful information about your business, service(s), and product(s) to your target audience, which is much more impactful than pitching!

You can do content marketing in numerous ways. These include email marketing, press releases, paid advertising, podcasts, videos, eBooks, infographics, etc. Content is the present and future of startup digital marketing. So, get creative and improve your ranking!

Social Media Marketing-

What is the first thing you do after waking up in the morning? Probably open your Twitter or Facebook account and scroll down for updates. Does that make sense? And you are not the only person because 61.4% of the world’s population is a social media user. Statistics reveal that the average daily time spent on social media accounts to 2h 24m. Therefore, not utilizing social media as a promotional tool is a fool’s job!

Social media marketing has increasingly gained popularity over the years due to the mobile-friendliness of most websites. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube are the most popular social media platforms with massive users. So, whether you share a post or post ads on these platforms, you increase online visibility while acquiring immense recognition. It can be one of the best digital marketing practices for early-stage startups.

Link Building Strategy-

How to improve website ranking for my startup? Why not focus on link building? As a startup, your primary concern is to enhance visibility. And to improve visibility, you have to rank high on SERPs. It is only then you can earn organic traffic and gradually build a client base. For this, you must prioritize link building services, which helps to drive organic traffic from other reputed sources while establishing your online authority.

However, you must ensure that every link your page is connecting to must be relevant. You should not link your page to a skincare website when your product is organic food! It is unethical and will do more harm than good. 93.8% of marketers believe link quality is more important than link quantity. Therefore, you must focus on generating top-quality links instead that will encourage higher audience engagement. Fixing broken links, asking publishers to link your brand mentions, responding to journalists’ requests, publishing press releases, adding infographics, and guest blogging are the popular link building strategies yielding enormous benefits. 

Budget-Friendly SEO Tools for Startup Businesses

Affordable SEO for startups is what you must be looking for. Right? Do not worry as many affordable SEO tools are offering premium grade features. They can help boost your online visibility and foster traffic growth. Relatively, SEO tools are much more inexpensive than paid ads!

We have listed some top all-in-one SEO platforms providing comprehensive solutions on keyword research, website analysis, backlink analysis, rank tracker, and other special features.

Have a look:

  • SEO PowerSuiteIt comprises Rank Tracker, Website Auditor, SEO SpyGlass, and Link Assistant.
  • MangoolsIt is an SEO toolkit comprising KWFinder, SERPChecker, SERPWatcher, LinkMiner, and SiteProfiler.
  • SerpstatIt delivers a fully cloud-based SEO toolbox which includes Rank Tracking, Keyword Analysis, Website Analysis, Site Audit, Backlink Analysis, PPC Research, SEO Browser Extensions, Special Tools, and other features.
  • UbersuggestIt is a powerful integrated SEO tool from Neil Patel. The primary features are Keyword Discovery, Site Audit, Daily Rank Tracking, Competitor Analysis, Backlink Data, SEO Project Organization, SEO Browser Extension, and other features.
  • Raven ToolsThe core features are Marketing Reports, Competitor Domain Research, Site Auditor, SERP Rank Tracker, Keyword Rank Checker, Keyword Research, Backlink Checker and Link Spy, and Social Media.

Evaluating SEO Progress

Lastly, after implementing SEO tools for startups, never miss out on evaluating the progress or the results. You can make improvements and adjustments to boost the performance. You cannot figure out whether your strategies are working or not until you monitor the outcomes. Since SEO is a long-run game, evaluating or tracking is necessary to refine your approaches per the changing algorithm trends.

So, what are the metrics to track SEO performance?

  • Ranking- You must check your SERP rank whether it is moving up. It’s pretty obvious you cannot expect the top within a few months, but at least a rank on the first page is pretty impressive.
  • Organic Traffic- Ranking directly influences organic traffic drive. The higher your rank, the more the traffic. If you experience declining organic traffic, then check other metrics.
  • Local Metrics- Check Google Maps ranking, session location, number of local citations, etc.
  • Backlink Analysis- Assess referring domains, number of backlinks, and competitor’s link profile to recognize the missing spots.
  • Conversion Rate- Conversion doesn’t just mean purchase. It also implies actions like signing up for newsletters, form submissions, and email signups.

Optimize your strategy whenever required to keep updated with the algorithm changes. 

Case Studies of Successful Startups

We have provided two examples of startup SEO case studies that are currently winning over the digital marketplace. Let’s check out why.

  1. Mint

Mint is an online application where people can manage their finances anytime, anywhere. They scaled their business through strategic content marketing. Though we already have many such online platforms proposing similar services, Mint stands apart as it customized its content to millennials willing to have better control over their finances.

Mint achieved enormous success through personalized financial blogging that attracted a large section of organic traffic. The company also focused on paid advertising and social media marketing to generate buzz and become an engaging topic for discussion. 

  1. Hammr 

Hammr is a platform dedicated to the construction industry, offering functions like time tracking, payroll, compliance, and benefits. So, it is an all-in-one platform where contractors can keep track of everything.

What worked for Hammr was its effective branding and superior user experience. The clear CTA buttons, descriptive titles and meta descriptions have encouraged more contractors to become users. Also, consistent blog posting has helped it acquire immense popularity as audiences found it genuinely informational.

Key Takeaways

Startup SEO may be a demanding task. Yet it is nothing like unachievable! You can reap its benefits as soon as you start realizing its benefits and put effort into planning and building your strategy. Start with defining your objectives and marketing goals- you will automatically know what you should do. Focusing on the core elements of SEO, which include keyword analysis, content optimization, technical SEO, link building, and tracking performance, will pave the road to success.

Apart from that, stay true to your audiences. Publish accurate content, keep connected with your audiences, establish interactions, and encourage long-term relationships. We ensure your startup business will outshine with the right ingredients!

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9 Crucial Strategies to Boost Mobile App Store Ranking

Heard about ASO? ASO or App Store Optimization is the process of utilizing optimization strategies on mobile apps to rank them higher in an app stores search results. The higher your ranking in the app store, the better visible your app would be to potential users/customers which in turn would lead to higher downloads. The first thing that Apps Optimization India requires is a crucial understanding of the target customer base. For developers, it is important to know the keywords their potential customers are using to search for apps similar to the concerned app.

According to Forrester, 63% of apps are discovered through app store searches. This means that the best way for your app to get discovered is via app searches. We provide you with 9 crucial strategies to boost your app rankings in order to get discovered.

1. The App Design Elements

The icon/symbol of your app is the first thing that a user sees on stumbling upon your app. The icon you choose should be engaging enough to compel the user to open the app and download it. The icon should be such that it represents the essence of your app and clearly describes the function your app accomplishes. When it comes to the design of the app, the major focus should be on visuals and a user-friendly, easy-to-use interface. The app functionalities should be easily navigable and the aesthetics should be eye soothing.

2. App Downloads

Under the normal scenario, an app from any App store company initially requires about 5k to 10k downloads in a short amount of time. Upon gaining a such number of downloads, the app starts appearing as a ranked app. This demands that you take necessary steps to increase inbound to your app homepage or the product page. You can resort to SEO (Search Engine Optimization), PPC (Pay Per Click), email marketing, or cross-channel collaborative efforts. You need to zero-in on the marketing strategies that would attract most of your potential customers.

3. App Description & Screenshots

The description of the app should be such that it clearly describes the task it is bound to accomplish. Try to highlight the significant technical features that differentiate your app that other existing similar apps. Your app description should create a value for your app that conveys a positive image.

Secondly, you must always resort to the use of related keywords and learn more tactics about how to do ASO. It is mandatory for developers to carry out market research to establish the most common keywords that your potential customers use while looking for a similar app as yours. Better the keywords in your description, better the relevance your app would gain during searches, and more would be the app downloads.

Moreover, the description of your app should consist of appropriate screenshots that depict the specialties of your app. Screenshots should be used to confer the technical strengths and qualities of your app that cannot be easily depicted via words. It is a proven fact that if the UI of the app is phenomenal, the chances of it getting downloaded is higher. And what better way to showcase your UI skills than through screenshots?

4. Social Media Integration

Social media has become an indispensable part of ones life which makes it the best place to keep in touch with your users and also gain new users. Keep your users and potential customers engaged and in interaction with you by promoting your app in the online communities. The online communities provide a perfect platform to build a relationship with your customers and earn their loyalty. You need to create trendy, eye-catching content for the social media sites that would attract customers. The social media marketing strategies that you design should not be over-promotional but yet describe the best features of your app. Your content should be such that it creates a necessity for people to download your app.

5. Consistency

The next thing that people look for in an app is active user/download consistencies through mobile application store optimization. Once you have reached a threshold for initial app downloads, you should aim to maintain a consistency of around 20k new users each month until you have reached a stage where you no longer need to draw attention to your app but people themselves come to download the app.

6. Valuable Reviews

Gaining genuine valuable reviews from users with a positive experience enables new apps to build their credibility. This encourages people to download the app. Apart from depicting a high recommendation status for the app, reviews also showcase the apps ability to climb up the ranking ladder. In the same way, a number of poor reviews would lead to a decrease in your app’s ranking.

Another thing that developers should keep in mind is to never publish fabricated or fake reviews as they reflect poorly on your intentions. There have been cases where such reviews have led to the suspension of the app from numerous app stores.

7. Essential upgrades

Reviews and suggestions that your users provide are a great way to launch new upgrades for your app. This enables you to continue providing the best experience possible for your users, as well as continue maintaining your app ranking. App developers should aim to implement updates on a monthly basis and maintain the effectiveness of their app. Also, being consistent on the introduction of new upgrades depicts a dedication to offering optimal user experience. As they say, make your customers happy, and you are happy!

8. App Indexing

App Indexing is another method of mobile app optimization that enables users to improve their rankings on the app store. App Indexing is a method that allows Google to index apps just like it does with websites. Direct links to the apps appear in Google Search results, where users can just click the content and reach the apps product page on the App store. So basically, for a simple Google search, content within certain app product page will also be displayed as results.

9. Understanding of the App Stores

Before you launch your app in any app store, you should understand the differences they possess and latest ASO techniques. Both the Apple app store and Google play have key differences that a developer should be well-versed with. Both the app stores serve the same purpose of being a platform for launching apps, but each put a stronger emphasis on different aspects of the app. It is vital to completely understand the differences in order for the app developer to efficiently optimize their app within the app store. For example, Google Play relies much more on the description of the app than Apple store does, while the Apple app store considers keywords as a better indicator of relevance.

To conclude, generating consistent downloads for your app might not be the easiest task but following the principles of app store optimization would surely enable you to climb the ranking ladder within the app store. Always remember to utilize marketing strategies and best ASO services that are in-line with your potential customers so that you are better able to connect with them. Also, keep an eye on changing market trends to provide a continuous stream of efficient app upgrades for your customers. So, use these critical strategies to boost your app rankings and gain positive reviews and make some serious app sales/revenues.