Tips for Dominating SEO in 2015

If you are looking to improve your website’s SEO, there are a few things that you need to consider. Today’s market is filled with competition, and more competition means it is getting harder to remain on top when it comes to your search engine rankings. That is why it’s important to stay current in knowing the ever-changing SEO rules that dictate how your site performs online. As information grows on the worldwide web and commerce expands, you need to remain on the cutting edge of SEO tactics and techniques, such as the ones shared below.

Tweak Your Keyword Knowledge

Keywords are an integral part of SEO, but if you are not seeing the same results from prior years, you need to change your strategy. To improve your website’s SEO, you will need to think outside the box. Expand your SEO vocabulary by seeking alternative terms that people use to find the same content. Use mid-tier and long-tail keywords to maintain your presence on the web. Don’t just recycle the same old stuff you know – be creative.

Update Your Content

Never ignore your website’s content. The old saying is true when it comes to marketing your business: content is king. The higher in quality your content, the better your ranking will be in the search engine. You need to have content that is relevant, fresh, and original. Use evergreen content as part of this strategy, or regularly update your site with news and information about your business. Improve your website’s appearance and ease of use in its navigation features. Create a mobile website platform for your business. Utilizing these strategies keeps users engaged, and more activity to your site means a higher search engine ranking.

Use Links Wisely

Backlinks are critical when you want to improve your website’s SEO. However, do so carefully.

One form of backlinking you can use to increase your search engine visibility is to add internal links to your content. This helps increase the time users spend on your website, which in turn improves your website’s bounce rate. Bounce rate is important because it dictates whether your website has any value in the search rankings. The longer users stay on a webpage, the better your bounce rate, and the more likely you will rank higher. However, if users are leaving frequently with little time spent on the site, search engines are going to notice.

Furthermore, it is important to note that external links also provide you with an opportunity to improve your website’s SEO. However, be careful when doing so. You do not want to use links that are irrelevant to your business, and you most certainly do not want you use links that contain spam. Go for high-quality links, and never overdo it by littering your page with link after link. Doing so will not only turn off customers but will also negatively affect your standing with Google.

Go Local with Google

Register with Google My Business. With more and more people using mobile devices to help them find what they need online, marketers are taking notice. Studies are showing that an overwhelming number of users are using their mobile devices to search for local businesses in order to fulfill their customer needs. By using Google My Business, your website is optimized for local traffic by putting your business information on Google Search, Maps and Google+ – making it easier for customers to find you.

SEO Success is Not Overnight Success

Dominating SEO in your market is not something that can provide immediate gratification. The search engines take time to account for your changes and results depend on your diligence and your patience. To improve your website’s SEO, keep track of the changes you make so that you can decide whether you need to modify your strategy. Website SEO is a long-term effort in marketing your business. The changes you make now will have a lasting impact on the future.

Reasons to Prevent Bugs From Ruining Your Online Business

 

Having an idea for an online business is a wonderful thing. However, you then need to make sure that your site always continues to run well. This can be much easier said than done. Nowadays, modern computer software and hardware is very complicated. It can often break down without warning, even if the equipment is new. There are many viruses that can also wreak havoc on a website if the proper precautions are not taken. Occasionally, a problem might occur because of a simple error in the coding written by the person who designed the site. Whatever the reason, you must do whatever you can to avoid these bugs and glitches from occurring in the first place. Here are some of the main reasons why it is important to prevent bugs from ruining your online business.

1. The functionality of your site can be affected

When people visit your site, you want them to have a pleasant experience. This means that the website should work perfectly for them. The pages should transition flawlessly. When a person clicks on something, the correct action should be performed. If these things are not happening as they should, it will eventually result in many of your customers becoming frustrated with your website. People only have so much patience. They will eventually start to think that they would have an easier time if they visited the websites of your competitors. This is the thing that you want to avoid at all costs.

2. The reputation of your business will be damaged

Reputation is something that is so important in business. It takes a long time to build up a solid reputation, but only a day or two of glitches and bugs to ruin it forever. If your site has repeated problems that prevent people from using it correctly, this will be discussed on many online forums. You will not be able to keep your technical issues a secret forever. If these bugs persist on your website, you will eventually become known as a troubled site. This will cripple your business, as people will be reluctant to shop there. Even if you completely fix the problems, how can the public completely trust you again?

3. Your security could be compromised

You might experience certain software glitches which leave your site vulnerable to cyber attacks. This can put the confidential information of your customers at risk. If this information falls into the hands of hackers, you could lose many of your longtime customers. Online shopping cart software from 1shoppingcart.com is known for being very safe and secure.

4. How do you prevent bugs and glitches?

Not all bugs and glitches are preventable, but you should always be proactive if you own a website. This means you need to test all of the various functions of your site every day. This will ensure that everything is running as it was designed. If you discover a problem, it can be fixed quickly, before your customers notice it and start complaining.

5 Reasons Why You Should Be Using WordPress for Your Content

WordPress is the single most popular Content Management System (CMS) in the world today. Over half of all websites use this as their CMS of choice. If you haven’t yet made the switch, it’s something you should be actively considering.

Here are five reasons why you should be using WordPress for your content.

1. WordPress is Perfect for SEO

 

Doing your best for Google is always something you need to think about. Adhere to their SEO standards by using WordPress.

WordPress is SEO friendly and it allows you to use SEO with some of the top free plugins. It’s easier than ever before to boost your site up the rankings through optimisation with WordPress. Since SEO is built-in, you don’t need to hire an SEO expert, either.

2. Thousands of Plugins at Your Disposal

 

Make your site unique in both the front end and the back end. There are thousands of free and paid plugins available for download immediately.
At the click of a button you can gain access to lots of nifty tools in seconds. There are plugins to help with everything from layout to SEO to social media.

3. A Platform You Can Trust

 

WordPress is a platform you can always trust. Marketing Land demonstrates that 78.8% of site owners surveyed use WordPress, and the ability to trust it is one of the primary reasons why.

It’s acquired its dominating position by developing strong relationships with its customer base. Furthermore, whenever there are any security scares the platform is normally updated in mere days. This makes it one of the best defences against hackers you can have.

4. A Free Platform with Support

 

The best part about WordPress is it costs you nothing to use and download. There are no premium features you’re compelled to pay for. Everything you see is what you get. It’s opensource software, so the community can freely edit it.

It still comes with a strong customer support system, though. WordPress has an enormous database of help articles novices and experts alike can use to craft their website in the way they see fit.

WordPress also comes with direct customer service, so you can send an email to the company and receive a reply within 24 hours. Many of the plugins and themes come with individualised customer support teams too. After all, this is how the makers encourage people to leave donations.

5. Make Your Site Unique with Awesome Themes

 

What makes WordPress stand apart from everything else is the fact no competitor can beat it when it comes to customisation. Forget hiring web designers and developers again. You can gain access to thousands of themes with a quick Google search.
Some of them are premium themes, so the makers charge a price for them, but you can easily search for a variety of free themes.

The benefit of having so many themes to choose from is you won’t find all your competitors using exactly the same themes. Most of these themes have various levels of customisation, so even if you and someone else has the same theme you can have two entirely different websites.

If you want, you can even hire graphic designers to change the code further. There are no restrictions.

WordPress is Number One

 

WordPress dominates on every front. The fact this opensource software is free enables it to reign supreme within the industry. We love WordPress because it offers so much to users, whilst asking nothing in return.

What you get with WordPress is a secure CMS, for free, with all the customisation options you could ever need.

This is truly the undisputed option for your content.

 

10 Things to Avoid Doing as a Freelancer

As a freelancer, you operate your own business how you want. However, there are some things you should avoid doing. These can cost you your time, reputation, and income potential.

1. Avoid Working for Free

If you’re not landing clients or have a small portfolio, you may feel inclined to work for free or discounted rates. However, in doing so, you are undervaluing yourself and your work and will never get you to the pay scale you want to be at. Instead, work on other passive income opportunities to invest your time in.

2. Avoid Spending Excess Money

As a freelancer, you don’t know for certain when you’re next dime will come in. This means you should create a budget and stick to it. Make your own coffee at home, drink more water, and stream movies online for free. Invest excess money back in your business for advertising and outsourcing tedious tasks.

3. Avoid Working with Picky Clients

Unless you are charging hourly, a picky client can be more trouble than value. No matter how brilliant your work is, you can never satisfy a picky client. Unless they are willing to compensate you for your excess time, it’s time you fired them.

4. Avoid Missing Deadlines

As the saying goes, time is money. Many clients realize this as well, and too many missed deadlines look bad on you and your client. You will suffer at the hands of bad reviews and never get the testimonial you deserve on your website to land future clients. Always pad your delivery time by an additional 2-3 days. It’s better to over deliver.

5. Avoid Taking on Too Many Projects at Once

You’re looking at the money, but overworking yourself will cause you to miss deadlines and become overstressed. Be sure to plan out each day and never overbook yourself. Pencil in some “me time” on your calendar.

6. Avoid Being Shy of Your Skills

As a freelancer, you may have multiple skills, so upsell them. Just because you’ve been hired as a website developer does not mean you can’t advise them on content they should have on their website. Upsell your skills in a manner that’s useful to your client. You are offering an invaluable service to them and saving them time since they won’t need to seek out other freelancers to do so. You are also increasing your cash flow with one client rather than two.

7. Avoid Undervaluing Your Services

Don’t fall into the trap of undervaluing your services just to win a contract. Show your clients what you are worth by actually charging for it. Show them your portfolio and explain to them the alternative of cheap and outsourced work.

8. Avoid Not Paying Taxes

Sure, there are many self-employed write-offs to take advantage of, however, wouldn’t it be better to receive something back than owe Uncle Sam? Pay your taxes quarterly, so you aren’t lumped up with any surprises come tax time.

9. Avoid Not Asking for Referrals

Testimonials are as good as a bonus. Ask for testimonials from your clients on your website or LinkedIn profile. This is a free marketing effort and may work better than a portfolio in some instances. Potential clients want to see feedback.

10. Avoid Word of Mouth Agreements

Trying to skip over a drawn up contract to quickly complete a project is a bad idea. You must protect yourself at all times. Draw up a general contract that can cover the basics and add an addendum in before your project is completed.

The above ten things should be avoided as a freelancer. In doing so, you’ll find you are saving time, money, and your sanity.

How to Hire a Freelancer in Four Easy Steps

More and more businesses are deciding a freelancer is the answer. They don’t want to hire someone on a full-time basis. Instead, they would rather hire a professional for a single project. This is common practice in a number of industries. But the world of freelancing isn’t a regulated one. You can’t open a book and find a list of reputable freelancers. You have to go through a mini hiring process.

It may not involve job interviews and spending months deliberating over the best candidate, but you do have to make checks. We have condensed this process into four easy steps. Read on to find out more.

 #1 Identifying Your Needs

Finding a freelancer is difficult when you don’t know what needs you need fulfilled. What do you actually need to have someone do? List it. It may sound like an easy question to answer, but a lot of businesses have no idea of the specifics before they go into this process.

As well as your needs, you should identify your goals. This is a list any potential freelancer should look at. They need to be sure that they can meet these goals.

From this point, you should craft a series of points that stipulate what the ideal freelancer should have. Points can include industry experience, qualifications, and the potential for being able to travel to a face-to-face meeting.

 #2 Finding the Man

Once you have an idea of what you need and why you need them, it’s the right time to start finding the person in question.

Firstly, look at your current workforce. Do any of them have any hidden talents that you’ve overlooked in the past? You may well have someone perfectly qualified already working for you. There’s no point wasting money on a freelance designer or writer when you have someone who can do that already.

If you’ve determined you do need to look outside your company, begin with professional networks like LinkedIn and Google+. Dig further and you can use freelance job boards to get a wider range of candidates.

#3 Test the Freelancer

You’ve now got a list of candidates who may fit your mould. Test the candidates by issuing some sort of test. This test really depends on what you want them to do. Take note that this isn’t always necessary and may offend some freelancers. A lot of veteran freelancers will not provide free work when they have been in the business for a long time. They would only do this for a particularly large corporation.

Be willing to accept some pre-existing work samples if the person has demonstrated a sufficient track record. Freelancers are wary of providing free samples as companies have been known to do this to get a lot of free work. When they have enough, they turn around and refuse to hire anybody.

#4 Hire the Person

After you’ve gone through all the testing it’s time to hire the right candidate. Make sure you have a contract ready and that it clearly states what the responsibilities of both parties are. You don’t want to run into contractual issues later on. Make sure the freelancer makes it clear they also understand the contract.

You should monitor the person for the first few days to ensure they really are the right fit for your project. The last thing you want is to hire someone only to have to plod along with them for weeks and months on end. It’s better for both parties if you raise any concerns you have early on.

Do all this and you should have no problems hiring the right freelancer for you!