In this article, we will talk about the components of local marketing and the rules for working with them.

What is included in the marketing of locations

Maps

Probably the most important tool with which to start working with location marketing.

Fortunately (and unfortunately), maps are not only Google.

Maps are OpenStreetMaps (Instagram, Garmin, Maps.me take data from them), Foursquare (they take data from Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Snapchat, Twitter, Uber, etc.). Maps are all the same Waze, HereWeGo, and other navigators that your potential customers use every day.

To make maps an effective tool for attracting customers, you need to place relevant information about the company and outlets on each of them.

Basic Information:

• a single standard of the name;
• correct logo;
• current description;
• correct addresses and phone numbers;
• working hours of outlets;
• current site address;
• alternative communication methods.

Additional Information:

• photos;
• tags on the cards should be where the business is located;
• there should be no duplicates on the map;
• answers to all (including negative) customer reviews;
• list of services;
• business status (work or not);
• additional options (e.g. Wi-Fi).

Catalogs

Directories and bulletin boards essentially cover three needs:

• Any catalog is another platform for the sale of goods and services on which a part of your target audience “lives”.
• Any directory is an eternal backlink that boosts the site’s ranking for search engines.
• Any catalog is another way to “cannibalize” the search engine for a brand or category query.

The first and second points have reservations (not all CAs are in directories, not all eternal links are needed, etc.), but collectively directories, as platforms for improving the online presence index, are a very good tool. Plus, the same Google increases the ranking of an individual business in search results if you use the same name, phone number, and address.

Advertising

No one canceled the advertisement. In principle, even if you do not do any of the above, you can collect local requests using advertising that is configured to show within a certain radius from the outlet.

Location Reputation Management

Communication with users is the key to successful location marketing, regardless of which tools you use:

• publish news and announcements;
• work with reviews;
• promptly answer customer questions;
• interact with the audience in the comments.

Each platform on which you can place a business has its own algorithms for assessing the quality of work with user feedback.

But, regardless of the metrics, the algorithms take into account:

1. The consistency of publications, so it is important to compose a sequence of publications, tone-of-voice brand in all channels (both posts and communication with users), a way to respond to negatives, and adhere to these constants if they prove their effectiveness.
2. Speed ​​of responses. Much depends on how quickly you respond to reviews, comments, and messages. For example, the same company status on Facebook depends on the speed of responses, and a Google map user can quickly change his mind and delete a negative review if he immediately receives a response.

Analytics

Last but not least. If you are not the first day in marketing, then you should not be told about metrics. But it’s worthwhile to talk about an additional level of metrics that can be collected from the Google My Business (and which rarely is used by anyone): calls, constructed routes, transitions to the site, the workload of offline locations, etc.

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In connection with the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) and the upcoming crisis, owners of online businesses have a reasonable question: “How does quarantine affect Internet marketing?” Many inexperienced (and even experienced) specialists are now in a panic. What will happen next?

1. Demand reduction

Obviously, demand will decline in almost all areas. In the first days as active as possible. But it is not critical. If absolutely apocalyptic events will not occur: disconnection of the Internet and so on. I assume that the overall decrease in activity will fluctuate between 10–20%.

2. Growth in information demand

E-commerce fades into the background. In the first place – news and articles. People do not go to buy cars, apartments, and refrigerators (unnecessarily). But the latest quarantine news is interesting.

Of course, basic needs still need to be addressed. If you sell something essential for people’s lives and you have a delivery – wait for growth.

3. Change in demand

Another obvious fact: people will begin to look for different things and in different ways. Not dramatically, but differently. At a minimum, qualifying words to queries appear: with delivery, cheap, in stock, etc.

4. Deferred demand formation

Some users planned large purchases. Someone will do them. And someone will postpone the purchase until the end of the turbulent period. This will lead to two things: a non-seasonal surge in activity after quarantine is completed and an increase in information requests during it.

That is, now, who planned to buy something, at best, will collect information about what and where to buy, which and why.

All these points will in one way or another affect search results. Everybody knows that Google has sophisticated ranking algorithms and they take into account hundreds of factors. This means that the demand and interest of users affect the results of issuance. Therefore, even in a conditional vacuum, if all competitors froze their activity, the output would change with a change in demand. And competitors are not asleep.

A few words about competition

Someone will fall off. Or generally closes – this the worst-case scenario. A big part of your competitors will stop SEO-work, until better times (and here they are wrong). And someone will increase momentum.

SEO is too long. Today you start – in a year you will be glad. You stop today – in a year you will sob. Since against the background of quarantine and crisis, new players will enter the arena to take the place of the fallen. Therefore, SEO must be run just the same!

1. 1. We monitor demand and adapt.
   2. Analysis of the target audience: what and how they will look for – we adapt and help find it.
   3. There were some moves in the backlog – it’s time to implement.
      I recommend changing something global on the site in the off-season. Less risk, less loss. And quarantine is just the perfect off-season!
   4. We create content. It’s time to blow the dust off the pages of the blog and update that latest article of 2017.

Soberly assess financial opportunities. We advise you to invest in SEO, but first of all, really assess your capabilities. Calculate, taking into account possible pessimistic scenarios, will you have enough money? If not, it is better to wait and leave the minimum necessary for survival.

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If you are striving to improve the position of the company right now, you cannot do without the old and familiar internet marketing tools. Moreover, this year some of them will bring surprises.

1. Content marketing

Content remains a key element of online marketing for a number of reasons:

• it is a base on the quality of which the success of other areas depends: SEO, SMM, newsletters, etc.;
• you decide which format of content you prefer — detailed blogs, short posts on social networks, videos, infographics, or a mix of all of the above;
• this is one of the most inexpensive types of online promotion with a high percentage of leads.

2. SMM 

High-quality content is ready — excellent, now you should think about its promotion in those social networks where your target audience “lives”. The number of advertisers is increasing, the cost of ads is increasing, which means that costs for paid advertising are growing and it’s becoming harder to attract customers. Therefore, it is important to know the basic algorithms and how they affect the position of the company.

For example, the Facebook algorithm introduced in 2017 is responsible for the principle of ranking videos in the user’s news feed.

The values ​​are:

• user preferences — they watch videos or scroll through;
• user interest — watch the entire video or just the beginning;
• involvement — whether they like posts with video content, share them with friends, leave comments, etc.

Based on these criteria, a personalized selection of video content is made in the feed of each user.

Tip

You should not strive to fulfill the plan by filling in the blanks with random clips. Only the content requested by the audience is quoted.

3. SEO

Every day, search engines process more than 6.5 billion queries — an impressive number. In 93% of cases, people go online to find the information they need, and in 79% of cases, they use Google.

Facts to Know:

• 51% of traffic to business sites is generated through organic search, another 10% is obtained using paid search, and 5% is redirected from social networks;
• in half of the cases, requests consist of 4 words or more;
• long publications containing more than 1000 words are more important than short ones in terms of ranking;
• requests from smartphones have become more popular than searches from other gadgets;
• 30% of requests from mobile phones relate to a local search for goods and services.

Tip

The priority is to optimize the content of the site for mobile and voice searches. Small businesses should consider the opportunities that the growing popularity of local search provides. At a minimum, add company data on Google Maps and in the databases of other virtual maps.

4. Analytics

Without tracking key metrics, it’s impossible to figure out what needs to be fixed and how to do it. The new version of Search Console, launched by Google, will help facilitate work. Among the useful functionality:

• access to business account data for 16 months — now you can view the items in the results for this period and compare them with current data;
• performance report showing search traffic, its sources, user requests (including from smartphones), pages with the largest and smallest CTRs in search results, etc.;
• an indexing report that gives an understanding of which web pages the site has been indexed and what to do with those that generated the error.

5. Understanding customer psychology

People are under the vigilant attention of brands, every minute trying to impose their goods or services — on the street, in transport, on TV or gadgets. The vast majority of such advertising not only does not help the client satisfy his needs, but is also specifically annoying. Hence the banner blindness and blocking of advertising messages: every 5th user does this.

Tip

Customer loyalty is not won by low prices, but by communication built on sincerity and mutual understanding. Reach out to readers as if they were your friends: show the importance of their opinions, be positive, respond to comments in time.

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When companies are trying to improve the performance of their sites, it is important to remember that you need to focus on numerous factors at the same time. As in life and in digital marketing, we tend to pay all attention to one or two important elements, neglecting something else, which could be just as important.

If the task is to achieve more in search results, it will take more than just SEO. The website itself must also be well designed, otherwise, the company risks to waste all the organic funds that were created at the initial stage.

SEO and web design work together more smoothly than many can imagine. Their components are mixed and combined with each other so well that when implemented correctly, site visitors should not notice anything that you have created; they should just start navigating your site.

So what are the elements where SEO and web design work so closely together?

Mobility

Anyone who is even a little familiar with SEO or web design should already know how important it is to make a website mobile.

In fact, if you have not taken the time to do this, you are already behind.

Google made mobility a ranking factor in 2015.

Then, the search giant introduced mobile indexing in 2017. It’s clear how much importance Google attaches to web application mobility, but many websites still haven’t fixed this shortcoming.

The number of people searching on desktop computers has been declining for several years, while the number of people searching on mobile devices has been steadily increasing.

More than half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices, which means that more than half of your audience is also likely to be on their mobile phones.

Without a mobile site design, you can unknowingly alienate half of your users.

A website with a high bounce rate due to improper download to your phone or tablet will send bad signals to Google, and its rating may drop sharply.

Easily readable design

If you’ve worked on improving SEO, you’ve probably spent a lot of time on content.

Some people may not be aware of the enormous impact that website design can have on content, or at least on its presentation.

Poor web design can make it impossible for users to read the information they came for.

Pages with content blocks in strange places and too many hyperlinks that do not serve a clear purpose, essentially drive off any audience that you manage to attract to your site.

And if no one can get the information they want, what’s the point of coming here again?

Everyone was probably on a website with text that was impossible to read due to poor page design.

Perhaps it was light text on a pure white background or dark color on black. Such designs often resemble the terrible sites of the mid and late 1990s.

But the problem is not always in color. The text can also be too large or small or written in a not readable font.

Like websites that are not suitable for mobile devices, websites that are difficult to read on any device or desktop computer will quickly discourage users.

Web designers understand how to create websites that will make it easier for users to perceive the content so that you get the most of your money.

Space, line length, and any additional elements, such as images, can affect how people pay attention to your site. Also, remember to consider people with disabilities by choosing an inclusive web design format.

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Unique in content and high-quality material will help to more actively attract visitors and increase popularity among systems. Leading search engines are very supportive of these indicators. And do not welcome low informative or copied content.

Such material may well lead to lower positions for search results and even the exclusion of site pages from its accounting database. It requires constant and regular updating, as this is one of the most important signs of the site’s life. Such resources have quite significant advantages.

In addition, the quality of the content will contribute to its popularity among visitors. Therefore, in no case should you neglect such an important area of ​​your work. And although certain forces and material means will be required to solve this issue, all efforts, when implementing the correct approach, will be fully compensated and with substantial benefits.

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This article will help primarily those who already have some knowledge in advancement, but this knowledge is not systematized, and it is difficult to separate the truth from the wrong judgments. But many delusions are very dangerous.

So, the most important and most unpleasant delusion of a beginner is that you can move up to the top without links, simply by writing high-quality unique content and doing internal optimization.

Filling the site and optimizing it is very important, this is the first step in the promotion of any site – but you won’t go to the top. It is necessary to use external factors – links, articles. They will spend money on them, and this frightens many beginners. Do not be afraid of costs – with proper promotion, they will pay off and sites will be profitable.

Misconceptions with internal optimization:

1. The higher the density of keywords, the better. In fact, it is enough to mention a keyword in the text a couple of times, as well as include it in the title tag and, if possible, in the title and subheadings of the page (h1-h6 tags).
2. All keywords should be enclosed in the strong, b, i, etc. tags. You cannot do this, because the effect of these tags is minimal and the negative impact on the readability of the text is large. Select only worth a couple of times.
3. The higher the keyword on the page, the better. This is wrong, because the top and them – the concepts are conditional and depend on the layout. Search engines do not pay attention to this.
4. Under each keyword you need to make a separate page. With all the desire that does not work. After all, each high-frequency request corresponds to a set of medium-and low-frequency keywords, and it is quite natural that each page is promoted by several words. But do not promote the page more than 10-15 keywords, it will lead to an unjustified increase in the budget.
5. You can not make graphic headers. Many make a graphic “header” of the site, and above it in small print, keywords are written – this is the way to the ban. Make beautiful headlines, and you can register keywords in other places, for example, make the heading <h1> under the site header, changing its design via css.
6. The more pages on the site – the better. The number of pages should be optimal. On a small business site, a small company with 500 pages with optimized texts can be suspicious of search engines, since visitors clearly don’t need them. But a small information section does not hurt.
7. Navigation can not be done using scripts. You can, if necessary, but in this case it should be duplicated at the bottom of the pages in text form.
8. Non-unique content is evil. Of course, you need to strive for the uniqueness of the texts, but if on the site some of the texts are copied, then there will be nothing terrible. Plus, the uniqueness is that they are more likely to be interesting to visitors. Less copying – possible problems with copyright and the ranking of these pages in search engines. There is the problem of content theft; it has not been solved yet.
9. It is necessary to buy an old domain for the site, it is easier to promote. This is not always the case, especially if this old domain is under sanctions, as well as if it was just idle without a site.
10.Text for the site, you can write yourself. It is possible, but not necessary, if you doubt your literacy. It is better to turn to professional copywriters.

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Content marketing is still a relatively new phenomenon. Only a few years ago, marketers treated the content mainly as a supplement. Content played a minor role rather than a key role in business.

It has changed. Marketing of the past used unilateral conversations with consumers, while modern marketing opens the door to two-way conversations and customer relations as never before. This translates into the success of many enterprises. Content is one of the best tools for gaining trust, building a brand, generating website traffic and acquiring leads.

Next year, entrepreneurs will continue to invest in content marketing because it has a high level of competitiveness compared to other tools.

If you want to keep up with the trends that have shown their effectiveness, think about using a team of specialists creating relevant and interesting content for your target audience.

The strategy will become more important.
The power of content is powerful, but it will not solve every business goal you set. This tactic requires a flagship strategy to maximize their effectiveness and ensure audience involvement.

Companies have different goals, so content strategies do not work the same. However, general goals such as generating leads and SEO are commonplace, and from that onwards, companies can adapt strategies that meet the most important goals.

What will be the trends in social media?

Video marketing is rightly called the future of content marketing. And it will also be one of the best trends in creating websites. Cisco specialists believe that in 2019 the amount of video will take up 80% of all internet traffic. Also, many marketers claim that the social media segment will be dominated by content video. The wide introduction of the video format opens up many possibilities, which are for example:

• Convenience in the process of self-service;
• Interaction only when needed;
• Providing information in a timely manner and no need to have sales staff.

The most important thing is that the video answer the main questions of customers. A special trend that deserves attention is streaming. In many industries, this technique has shown how effective it can be to use live streaming to maintain the brand’s reputation. There is a simple explanation – a business that uses live streaming is highly trusted. Companies that use this method show their clients – we have nothing to hide.

According to research, people spend much more time on the Internet than watching TV. For this reason, it can be predicted that companies will spend less money on TV commercials, and more on online video, social media and online advertising.

Moreover, as experts predict, chatbots will become more popular and more frequently used by companies.

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The post Advanced Tactics to Combine Your Social Media and Content Marketing appeared first on SEO TECH GUEST BLOG.

Each business goes through three stages of development with a social network:

Interest: when a business learns to be interesting for its subscribers and they return to read news, comment, repost, share this news.
Benefit: a very important stage, we help subscribers expand their horizons, we give useful information for making decisions, facilitate their choice.
Necessity: at this stage, the business receives conversions from activity on social networks. The product at the subscriber is on the surface of consciousness, and in case of need of a product, the subscriber remembers your business.
The biggest mistake of the content strategy is its absence, as well as the decision not to revise the effectiveness of its actions, not to find new ways of development.

True content strategy on Facebook

1. What you want to tell your audience (a story about your products, services, their benefits).
2. What you have to say.
3. What the audience wants to hear (useful information that educates the audience and makes life easier for them).

According to the international study “Wave”, entertainment is the key task of human presence in social networks. Entertainment content should be associated with the main mission and unique business advantage.

Entertainment content includes:

• humor (professional jokes, cards, motivators);
• book, music, movies;
• contests;
• unofficial posts.

Branded content:

• recommendations on goods and services, explanation and popularization;
• request for feedback, polls – you show real customers how much you are interested in their opinions, criticism, recommendations;
• projects with your partners, charitable, social;
  company’s news;
• posts “From the life of the office”, about employees who increase loyalty to your brand.

Personalities include:

• experts: internal – employees, external – partners,
• colleagues in the market;
• loyal customers;
• brand advocates;
• opinion leaders.

Industry content includes:

• trends;
• analytics;
• tips;
• reports;
• market news;
• infographics;
• translated materials;
• cases

Content Marketing Cycle
The first step in the content marketing cycle is to research and search for information, checking its relevance before creating a post. The creation phase includes branded content, as this is the author’s content. Industry or educational content is often borrowed content – in this case, it is the optimization stage.

At the publishing stage, the business usually ends up being active, as a result of which social networks do not work. But this is not correct, as the next stage comes – promotion, which includes organic or paid promotion. To be effective, to get the expected result you need to set yourself a certain plan. The goal that you set for Facebook should be specific, specific, measurable, achievable, definite in time.

The content database is a very important tool that allows you to do work in social networks systematically within the framework of the developed strategy, within the framework of the planned schedule.

The content base allows you to reduce the amount of time spent and increase the result that you will receive. The content database includes: key industry portals, sites that are interesting in the context of your promotion, media, resources of fellow experts (blogs, columns, accounts in social networks), youtube, etc. The content database takes up to 100 sources.

Next, every day you need to monitor the content base, find out what’s new, what’s useful appeared in the last 24 hours on these sources. Find interesting content that you want to share (it could be an article, photo, video, infographics).

The second stage is optimization, which includes writing a liner, selection of a thematic picture. Or you can take some of the content from the original article, and then seek comments from experts, partners, to make your own material. This is followed by publication, promotion and evaluation.

It is also important to keep track of what your competitors are doing, to see what they do, what they inspire, where they are going, to adjust their course of advancement.

Trend analysis is also important in terms of strategy. Special websites and applications, monitoring platforms that can understand the dynamics of the market, its direction and future prospects can help. This makes it possible to find unique themes for posts.

Strategy is always a dynamic. The strategy needs to be reviewed at least once every three months. Also important is the step-by-step implementation, the system implementation in your communication activities.

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Optimization for long searches

The use of keywords with a long tail — that is, descriptive search phrases of at least three words — is becoming more and more promising with each passing month.

First, in voice search, in calls to Alexa, Siri requests with a long tail make up almost 100% – and the popularity of voice search mechanisms is growing in geometric progression.

Good SEO practice for voice search is the insertion of whole probable questions into the H1, H2, H3 page headers, into the formation of titles and meta descriptions around them.

In addition, it has been noted that fragments of special FAQ pages or frequently asked questions appear in the upper results after a voice search more often than others.

Secondly, the update of the main Google algorithm is believed to be associated with a more advanced ability to assess how sites comply with the EAT search standards.

These standards are directly related to the ability of your site to get exactly the answers – EATingable answers to the narrow questions asked by the search engine.

EAT assumes that at the top of the issue, there are informative and original posts (for example, in an online store or manufacturer’s blog), other extensive knowledge bases, useful and attractive video materials – and all this answers rather narrow, precise, and therefore long questions.

The best SEO strategy for sites related to trade or production for sale is to find a format that fits your industry and devote time to regularly submitting high-quality educational content, creating and optimizing it for requests with a long tail.

And, of course, not forgetting to divert from these publications internal links to other selling pages of your site.

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5G technology

Therefore, IT professionals are trying to answer the question of who will benefit most from 5G technology. Some say it will be companies using 5G services. Others argue that most of the reasons for satisfaction will be service providers, especially those who have chosen the cloud. Still others express their opinion that telecommunication companies operating 5G networks will receive the greatest benefits.

5G technologies will certainly be welcomed by the company’s enthusiasm, primarily by those in which mobile workers work. During the trip, they often need to communicate with the head office, customers or other companies that work with them. Thanks to 5G technology, their performance will increase significantly, since connections based on 5G technology can transfer data as fast as any other wireless technology currently available.

Another advantage of 5G technology is equally important, if not more important. This is about security. Using publicly available Wi-Fi networks (and mobile workers very often use this method) seriously puts the user at risk that the confidential data sent to them will fall into the wrong hands. According to estimates, in the case of using public access networks, the security risk – compared to 5G networks – increases tenfold.

Using 5G has another advantage because you are using the same security system, because you are always on the same known network, so you know how to protect yourself from threats.

For cloud service providers based on 5G technology, return on investment costs (ROI) will be very profitable. The calculation is simple. The better and more reliable the network they offer, the more they earn. It is also important that after launching the 5G network, there are many streaming applications on the market that are currently not popular because the networks currently available have too little bandwidth. 5G technology will lead to a rapid increase in demand for such applications.

There is also no doubt that telecommunications companies will also benefit. In this case, households and enterprises will want all services offered by them to be based solely on 5G connections. So you can assume that cable modems and DSL technology will go on time.

Thus, it can be assumed that everyone will benefit, with a high probability that it can be said that the greatest benefits should be brought to enterprises. Further, there will likely be cloud service providers, and telecommunications companies will be in third place.

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VPS servers running in a virtualization cluster or cloud infrastructure adapt the most important functions of the cloud, although this type of service is not classified as a “real” cloud. In the event of a physical host failure or maintenance work, virtual machines can be moved to another node in the cluster. VPS offers the ability to take pictures or scale resources in the event of an increase in server load. However, much of this marketing, if we take into account the fact that the service is calculated as part of a monthly subscription, and not for the resources consumed, the scaling of the service is to change the server plan to a higher one without the ability to return to the previous configuration, and user data is stored in local RAID arrays, not cloud storage. Worse, hosting providers, as a rule, use rebooking and resale, which makes it difficult to talk about a full guarantee of computational computing resources. Regardless of these shortcomings, VPS services are a serious competition for virtual instances running in the cloud.

Dedicated server resources are fully provided to one client. We can choose from a variety of predefined configurations that we can customize to suit your needs, by changing the type of processor, adding RAM, or plugging in expansion cards.

Dedicated servers are a specialized service that, to a greater extent than VPS or the cloud, allows you to achieve higher performance specific to certain areas of use, for example, when maintaining high-performance databases. I’m talking here about using local RAID arrays that offer high-performance I / O to bypass the SAN network or the ability to use the full bandwidth of network interfaces and the processing power of processors without the costs of the virtualizer.

The cloud offers one important function that is useless to search in VPS and dedicated servers. We are talking here about the possibility of simple, including fully automated scaling of resources, as well as a change in the level of use of server resources. Vertical scaling involves increasing or decreasing the computational resources of the virtual machine, horizontal scaling consists of creating subsequent instances in a cluster, and then evenly distributing traffic between them at the level of the load balancer.

High availability of VPS services is provided by running virtual machines in a virtualization cluster or in a cloud infrastructure. In the event of a failure of one host, the machines are transferred to another active node. In nonclustered environments, the failure of a physical host results in the inaccessibility of all clients.

A dedicated server does not provide any redundancy, although you can implement reliability configurations on two or more physical machines. High availability of dedicated servers can be implemented in many ways, depending on usage scenarios, for example, from load balancing to several equivalent web application servers to implementing virtualization clusters and private clouds to support business applications.

In the case of cloud computing, high availability is constantly included in its definition. All cloud elements — at the computing level, in the data warehouse, and on the network — are multiplied to ensure uninterrupted service and the required level of data security.

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In medical terms, it is also called computer vision syndrome. It arises from the effects on the eyes of a bright backlight monitor and general office or home lighting for a long time.

And no matter how safe the monitors, the long work behind them in any case leads to eye strain. Fortunately, there are simple methods and exercises that will help you solve this problem if you use them every day.

1. Adjust the position of your monitor

Yes, a simple adjustment of the position of your monitor will allow you to significantly reduce the strain on your eyes. In addition, adjust it so that the upper part of the monitor is just at the level of your eyes, so that while you are working on it, you are looking down at it, not up.

2. Adjust the optimum lighting

Never place the monitor so that it creates glare from natural or artificial lighting – this is very tiring eyes. The light should never be directed in front of or behind you, because it will create additional tension on your eyes.

If the fluorescent lamps can also be turned off, then you can protect yourself from natural light with cardboard visors or simply transfer to another place. You can also install a desk lamp next to it, which will create alternative lighting.

3. Use exercise 20-20-20

It is very simple: every 20 minutes, distract from work and look at any object at a distance of 20 yards for 20 seconds. This exercise will allow you to stretch the tense muscles of the eyelids and give them a break from the bright light of the monitor.

4. Wear glasses for monitors

Artificial lighting in combination with the natural and illuminated monitor inevitably affects the vision. If you work in conditions where there is no way to avoid a combination of such lighting, then the use of special computer glasses can be the solution.

They use special glass with a yellow tint, which compensates for the cold, blue light from the monitor. Sometimes they even use lenses that offer a small increase, harmless to the eyes, thereby making it more convenient to read small text from the monitor.

5. Put things close

Another simple way to relieve fatigue from the eyes is in a certain arrangement of your things near the table. You probably have things that you often use or just look at them. Place them near the monitor and look at them occasionally, just to be distracted from the monitor.

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What prevents to increase the number of sales?
There are many answers here, but we will try to highlight the main ones:

• The product that interested the buyer is not available. Most buyers refuse to purchase and are looking for the same product from other sellers.
• Long wait for feedback. Many buyers think that they are simply ignored.
• One delivery method. Often, sellers offer only one way to get the goods, and the buyer is not suitable at all, or there is no such service in his city.
• No exchange and return. Very often this stops the buyer, as there is always a risk that the product will not suit you.

If you are familiar with some of the above problems, then this article is for you. We offer you 11 methods for how to increase sales in your online store.

1. Technical support
Even if it seems to you that everything is fine with you, it will never be superfluous to check the technical side of your site. Go all the way as a regular user. Perhaps you have a complicated authorization, or the goods do not fall into the basket, or maybe a letter with an order confirmation to you simply does not come to you?

2. When describing the product keep clear
Remove all inaccuracies and vague phrases. The client must obtain the specific characteristics of the product of interest. For example, if you sell cosmetics, you must specify the composition, method of use, the country of origin and the final date of use.

3. Focus on the fullness of the range
Show the buyer that your online store has a full range of products that interests him. Customize your search engine so that it always leads the buyer to the page running goods. Check out the site navigation. It will be very cool if you take a video review of the goods.

4. Convince the customer that it is safe to buy in your online store
In connection with the increased growth of fraud in the network, as well as the existence of one-day shops, which disappear as soon as they receive money from consumers, people often do not risk making online purchases.

How to increase the turnover? Here are some tips for you:

• Post reviews of real buyers. And do not leave only good and laudatory, reviews should be real and informative.
• Show the people behind the scenes. This will give more confidence if the buyer knows who he is communicating with.
• Provide all certificates that guarantee the quality of the goods.

Pay special attention to the issue of exchange or return of goods. If the customer knows that he can easily return or exchange goods, he will not be afraid to make a purchase.

5. Compare prices
Make sure that your price does not differ from the price policy of competitors. Online shoppers almost always compare prices for a particular product. Moreover, it is very simple and easy to do in a few minutes. Increase sales will help you price monitoring service. Thus, you will learn about your main competitors and their pricing policy, you can instantly react to any changes in the online sales market. And it only seems to you that by reducing the price by 10%, you are losing something. On the contrary, in this way you will only benefit from the number of orders.

6. Delight your customers with surprises.
The word “free” will not leave anyone indifferent. Offer your customers free shipping when you buy 2 or more products, or give a little surprise. Such trifles will arrange the buyer and, most likely, he will return to your online store more than once.

7. Think of stocks to increase the amount of the purchase.
A very popular sentence “1 + 1 = 3” is when you get a third when you buy two products for free. Or an offer with a specific expiration date: for example, this product can be purchased at a discount only until the 25th day of this month.

8. Post on the site reviews from previous buyers
According to statistics, more than 70% of potential buyers take into account whether you have positive recommendations. By the way, with the help of reviews, you also increase your content.

9. Constantly improve your service
Take into account all comments about your online store. Analyze why some transactions failed. Maybe the sales consultants did not work well and did not respond in time, and the client, tired of waiting, went to another site? Or is your order form too long? Or are there no return conditions? Analyze all the options so as not to lose potential buyers.

10. Never Forget Your Customers
Congratulations on your birthday, make an sms-mailing about current promotions, send discount cards and free catalogs. A satisfied customer almost always becomes permanent. And you can also count on the fact that he will certainly advise you to his friends.

11. Take care of different shipping and payment methods
The customer should always have a choice how to get their goods. Most prefer to use the services of mail or transport companies, but there are customers who would be more convenient to receive the parcel by courier.

In your online store, you must provide the customer with different delivery and payment options. Someone prefers to make an advance payment for the goods, some trust more cash on delivery. The buyer should always have a choice.

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The post Ways To Achieve Online Business Success appeared first on SEO TECH GUEST BLOG.

To stay in touch with a large audience and a large customer base, it became necessary to be present on the Internet.

Before creating a website or pages in social networks, it is necessary to determine the meaning that you want to give to your online presence.

Be careful and clearly define your client type before jumping into the jungle of the Internet. Who would you like to reach?
The product that you sell is mainly intended for an audience of 15-25 years old or another age group?

Want to expand your target audience? Or strengthen communication with your favorite customers? You will need to provide answers to each of these questions before you consider developing your online presence.

Secondly, you can start exploring the best ways to reach a potential client: presence on social networks, developing a storefront site or creating a blog, attending a forum.

Increase the visibility of business through the site business card
The main purpose of the Internet presence for any business is to make it more visible, to find new potential customers.

For this, the website remains an important and basic tool.

Creating a pleasant and ergonomic website with the necessary information about the company is the most suitable way to start communicating on the Internet. Your business website is your business card. Not sure where to start creating the website.

Sell ​​through e-commerce website
In addition to simple online visibility, if you want to sell your products, then you need to create an online store that will advertise your products or services and allow your customer to pay immediately on the website.

There are many commercially available e-commerce platforms. They allow you to form the basis of your online store.

Remember that you should make an ergonomic interface, pleasant and easy to use, to facilitate the user’s way to make a purchase!

Improve your image
Finally, the third axis to use the Internet is to improve the image.

To achieve this goal, creating a blog or position as an expert on the forums will bring you visibility and communication with potential business partners who will read you.

In addition, the discussion of issues from your area strengthens the credibility of the company and its image. But this activity is very time consuming, so you need to define your content strategy precisely and strictly.

Determining the purpose of your online presence remains crucial. Feel free to define your landmarks and write down ideas. This will help you determine which channel is best for your purpose.

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The post Why You Need a Strong Business Online Presence appeared first on SEO TECH GUEST BLOG.

Direct factors affecting the ranking:

• The already mentioned social signals – the activity of users in a group / public page is monitored and analyzed by search robots, and links to communities often fall into the list with the main site.
• Traffic – if you create interesting materials on your site and publish links in social networks, users will follow them. Then they share links with their friends, share through their profiles in social networks – and traffic grows.
• Actually links. If they are not indexed, they still count towards bonuses to the utility of the resource for users.

Indirect factors:

• Behavioral. Their influence is enormous, and search engines actively follow many such indicators. For example, the depth of viewing, the total time on the page, failures. Agree, the user who sees the post in the feed and follows the link will be more interested and stay longer on the site, because it is from the target audience, your content is relevant to its interests.
• Search robots take into account any user interaction on the site and on social platforms, so select the social networking buttons on the site. Integration will benefit.

Social networks for SEO: 

Our optimizers conduct SMM audits to identify the factors that are most important to search engines:

• The presence of links to the site and the company’s accounts in important social networks.
• Clickability social buttons on the site.
• The presence of buttons “Share”.
• Availability of current contact numbers, email and physical addresses
• “Live” social networks of the company.
• Using hashtags in posts.
• Lighting new content on the site in social networks.
• Availability Open Graph markup.

That is the main thing – to have groups in social networks, integrate them with the site and not to throw. Because with links from social platforms, the situation is complicated.

Links from social networks do not convey reference weight, so they do not directly affect the ranking, but features of social networks can be used for traffic and social activity.

Twitter. Search engines love this social network very much, but the account should be popular: get likes, retweets, comments. So, if there are only bots in subscribers, there will be no sense.

Facebook. From the position of seo-promotion, Facebook looks mysterious: the links are hidden by the nofollow attribute, but our experts have repeatedly noticed that Google sees and indexes them. To what extent this is an accident, and not a pattern, we cannot say. In any case, this is not the only thing that search robots are looking at: there are also likes and reposts, which increase the authority of the site. Moreover, in this social network you can like not only posts, but also the page itself – and it is such likes that add credibility to the main site. In addition, it is one of the most influential social networks, it has great advertising opportunities and a more enthusiastic audience, especially in runet. Gathering a group on Facebook is about meeting the target audience almost face to face.

YouTube. Advance on YouTube from the point of view of SEO is justified if there is really interesting material relevant to the video format. Social activity, manifested in the number of views, subscribers and clicks on links, will attract traffic.

SMM and seo website promotion is a working tandem of Internet marketing, which is useful precisely because of its interconnectedness.
Difficult relations of search engines and links from social networks do not cancel the fact of usefulness for SEO user activity at any sites.
It is necessary to focus on content. Quality content will attract users from social networks and search.
For SMM and seo-promotion, the price varies, but for increasing brand awareness and conversion it’s better not to choose.

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More and more often you can come across the statement that the website is responsive. If you did not know this term before, the question that arose in your mind was: what is a responsive website? The answer to this question will be extremely … simple!

Responsive website, it is simply a page whose appearance is adapted to the size of the display of the device on which it is displayed!

So what does it mean in practice? Huge convenience in using this site and reduced bounce rate by users! Think about how many times you have abandoned the use of the website, just because using it on your phone or tablet was the biggest tussle? Tables that can not be seen in full, endless zooming in and out of the content … It all kills the pleasure of using the internet on mobile devices.

Does the site have to be responsIve 

Responsive websites have a much lower bounce rate for users, due to the greater comfort in using such sites. One should also remember about the constantly growing number of Internet users using mobile devices. Currently, most of the traffic on websites comes from smartphones, tablets, etc. So, taking this into account, it can be concluded that the page does not have to be responsive only in theory. To maximize the convenience of using your website – make sure that the site complies with the RWD.

Additional benefits of responsiveness

Responsive websites bring with them a few additional advantages, which may prove to be another proof that RWD is now a must. Here are the biggest advantages:

• higher position in search engines – on April 21, 2015, Google introduced an algorithm that checks the website’s compliance with RWD, the effect is simple responsive websites are promoted by the search engine, so it is a factor favoring positioning
• shorter loading time responsive websites are also often well optimized for charging – versions for smartphones usually use graphics files of lower resolution, thanks to which the website is displayed to the user much faster
• more users – the fact that the site is comfortable to use on any device will certainly increase the number of users. Websites incompatible with RWD have even over 60% bounce rate on mobile devices (i.e. more than 60% of users opt out of reading the page immediately after entry)

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Wherever the reality of Internet and business meets, changes take place very dynamically. What was sufficient yesterday may be obsolete tomorrow. The consequence is the outflow of customers from the online store and worse visibility of the site on Google. Perhaps it is largely responsible for this weak position – a poorly optimized website.

Today I have prepared a guide on the factors determining whether the website is outdated, and therefore ineffective and harmful to your interests. It is worth analyzing your website in this respect considering the following factors:

1. THE PARTY HAS A HIGH REJUVING RATIO
This is the first indication that the site may need remodeling. A high bounce rate means that people enter the site, but they exit it quickly. For some reason, she is unattractive to them. The increase of the bounce rate is also affected by the lack of the assumed interaction, i.e. the user does not go to the necessary subpage. There may be many reasons, such as slowly loading subpages and uninteresting and badly placed texts full of errors. Incorrectly matched keywords and bad navigation are also not compatible with UX rules. The reason may also be an unprofessional appearance, improper design, and even cliche – incorrect placement of the tracking code in Google Analytics.

2. THE PAGE IS NOT ADAPTED TO MOBILE DEVICES
For several years, Google has been strongly promoting websites adapted for convenient use on mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets. It does not end on promoting. The search engine favors such websites and places them higher in the ranking. This, in turn, translates into the position of a given page in the search results. Currently, more people are browsing the internet on a smartphone than on a laptop / desktop computer, so you need to consider this.

The best method is to invest in a responsive website. Reconstruction of the website in the rwd technology will automatically adjust all elements to the screen resolution on which it will be browsed. Most importantly, there is only one version, you do not need to create two separate – for computers and mobile devices. Responsive websites are much better rated by Google and constitute an important ranking factor.

3. THE APPEARANCE OF THE WEBSITE IS OBSERVED AND NON-EXTRATER
In the proverb “how they see you write so much” there is a lot of truth. The website’s appearance can either effectively attract customers’ attention or discourage them. Users prefer to buy products in aesthetically made online stores. The products are presented here in a transparent and attractive way, and the whole website looks modern and professional. This policy also applies to corporate websites. Most of us looking for information direct their steps to Google right away. Thinking is simple: a professional website = a professional company. Your site was designed 5-6 years ago and nothing has changed in its appearance? It probably requires a facelift or a completely new graphic design. One that is compatible with current website design principles (web design) and UX.

4. THE PAGE DOES NOT HAVE ANY ADDITIONAL FEATURES AND WILL HURT THIS CLICK
In order for the website to be modern and, importantly, effective, it should have useful functions that allow users to quickly and efficiently reach the information they need. These can be modules that enable easy and quick contact with the company, such as the contact form or livechat. Also important is the hierarchy of elements on the page, appropriately composed menu or placement of CTA buttons. The user should immediately after entering the website be able to identify the company name and profile of its activity. Internet users also acquire new habits in browsing the offers of various companies and expect that the company’s website will include a gallery of exemplary realizations or a list of clients with which the company has cooperated / cooperated. It is also worth remembering about such elements.

5. THE PAGE IS FREE TO LOAD
The loading time of a website is of enormous importance in SEO. PageSpeed ​​has a big impact on the bounce rate, which in turn – affects the position of our site on Google. The page should load as soon as possible. You need to analyze its structure in terms of elements that slow down the loading. You can use the free Google PageSpeed ​​Insights tool. Then you need to remove the moderators, which is done through many different activities. It can be a reduction in graphic size or a change of server provider. Above all, however, it is important to build the website itself and apply specific programming solutions. The factors independent of us, such as the speed of the users’ internet connection, are also important.

6. SELF-ADDING THE CONTENT IS DIFFICULT OR IMPOSSIBLE
The site is managed via content management systems (CMS). These activities include, for example, publishing new entries on the company blog, adding information about promotions, discounts, sales campaigns. It also adds new photos and texts as well as minor cosmetic changes. It’s good that you can do it yourself, right? This is the most feasible, also for people who do not know how to program. For this reason, it is better to build a site on well-known and widely used CMSs, such as WordPress. Investing in the proprietary system, whose service will be possible only by people directly involved in the project, may create problems in the future (it is enough if a person who knows how to get away from work).

Systems such as WordPress enable self and quick addition of content by the website owner itself or a delegate. Their handling is easy and transparent, and it is also possible to quickly add new functions on the website or to quickly change the arrangement of fields, etc. It is worth adding that some complex systems require turning off the whole page in a situation where we want to change something on it. This, of course, causes downtime, problems for users, the consequence of which is the increased bounce rate.

YOU CAN NOT EVALUATE THE SCALE OF NEEDED CHANGES? GET AUDIT SEO
To make a diagnosis, a test is necessary. Not every website or shop owner knows how to create websites, so it will be difficult for them to assess and specify all aspects that need to be corrected or changed. For this purpose, you can, for example, ask a professional company to conduct an SEO audit. During such a service, the SEO specialist will check with the help of advanced analytical tools, eg Sitemeans, that the site is correctly constructed and complies with the Google guidelines.

Under these terms, there are many small things that need to be checked (eg the structure of URLs for all subpages, redirections needed, 404 errors, broken links, etc.), and in case of errors – recommend correcting them. It is therefore a reasonable first step and a solid basis to assess the necessity and the degree of improvement needed on the website.

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE WEBSITE – SUMMARY
Continuous development and adaptation to the requirements of the search engine on the one hand, and the requirements of website users on the other are the conditions that necessitate ongoing updating of the website. Perhaps the reason for the worse results of your company or online store are not ineffective campaigns or SEO activities, but just an outdated, poorly optimized and slow-loading website that scares off. In today’s guide, I have presented the most important factors that prove the need to rebuild the website.

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The post Why Do I Need to Redesign My Website appeared first on SEO TECH GUEST BLOG.

WHAT IS THE SITEMAP?

It should also be remembered that simply posting the sitemap.xml file on the server does not mean that all subpages in our domain will be indexed right away. It takes time for Googlebot to review every URL included in the Sitemap, but you can speed up the process. To do this, you must add the path to the sitemap. xml file on the server in Google Search Console. Thanks to this, we not only partially speed up the operation of the crawlers, but we can also monitor if there are any errors related to the addresses placed in the sitemap. In addition, using Google Search Console gives you the option of updating your Sitemap if we make some changes to it. Every correctly made SEO optimization should always include the appropriate configuration of the sitemap file.

SHOULD BE A CONSTRUCTED SITEMAP?
Google in its guides for web-developers very clearly indicates what are the requirements for the correct configuration of the file with the sitemap.

• One of the most important rules is that all addresses that are in the sitemap are up-to-date. Any 404 errors or different types of redirects will make the site unattractive from Googlebot’s point of view.
• The URLs included in the sitemap should be accurate. If the address of our site is https://www. example. com/, then the sitemap can not be placed as https://example. com/, nor in the case of related addresses as . /page_domain. html.
• A Sitemap can contain up to 50,000 URLs. In turn, its size can not exceed 50MB. In the event that one of these conditions is not met, it is best to create a Sitemap index, i. e. a list indicating the location of all sitemap. xml files within the domain. It is created by dividing the maps into smaller parts. It is worth using a logical structure as in the case of determining the architecture of the page. In this way, separate files should be created for posts, subpages, information subpages, etc. Creating an index with sitemap files is especially recommended when positioning an online store in which there are many categories and products.
• If the site has different language versions also in the sitemap should be included information about the addresses for all translations. To do this, place the URL for each language version in the sitemap file and mark it using the hreflang attribute.

All the detailed information about the page map can be found on the official site sitemaps. org, which is a collection of all rules related to the correct creation of sitemap files.

HOW DOES THE SITEMAP AFFECT INDEXATION?
A correctly optimized sitemap file has a direct impact on the crawl budget in our domain. The way it affects updating the sitemap with all relevant URLs to indexing statistics can be illustrated by an example of one of our clients. At the end of February, the Sitemap file was updated. The chart below shows the first big jump in the number of pages indexed daily at the turn of February and March. It was caused by re-sending the revised version of the sitemap to Google Search Console.

The increase in indexing statistics in this example is only caused by the optimization of the Sitemap file.

Another increase in the indexing index is the effect of a correctly constructed map, on which Googlebot can efficiently navigate. It is also worth noting the decrease in the time spent downloading the site. This means that the crawler crawls the entire site much faster. In addition, the sitemap file for this client is dynamic, i. e. when adding or removing a URL on the page it is automatically updated. A sitemap file constructed in such a way allows you to be sure that in the case of subsequent structure modifications, indexing robots will analyze all introduced changes faster.

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