According to the study by the online ad network, Google’s top listing in the organic search results attracts nearly 33% of traffic with the second one drawing about 18% of the traffic. From there it becomes very competitive for the other platforms to secure as much traffic as they possibly can. In such a case, there’s a need for all the necessary help that you can come across.

However, getting penalized by Google for obvious mistakes and consequently dropping in search engine optimization (SEO) rankings could be detrimental to any given website. But in some cases, such problems occur as a result of ever changing or evolving Google algorithms. In this regard, you need to take drastic measures immediately you find out that your SEO rankings have taken a sudden tumble, or else your site will be at the risk of losing organic search obscurity. And this crucial step entails fixing the following listed six cardinal SEO mistakes:

1. Avoid Keyword Stuffing

Do you have the habit of using the same keywords over and over again? If so, it is time you changed your style to have your content make sense. But if you are looking to optimize your work by repeating keywords then you are in for a rude shock.

Besides discouraging visitors from reading and understanding your content, it also gives a signal to the search engine that you are trying to outsmart the algorithms. As such, Google does not really go down well with keyword stuffing.

To overcome such issues, just make good use of some online tools such as Live Keyword Analysis or rather, you can use Addme.com to establish the keyword density in your content. In this way, you can reduce the excess number of keywords to a density of about 1.5%. You can mention the keywords in the main title (if necessary), in the description, the opening paragraph and at least twice in the main body of your content. Also, ensure that the words used, sound more natural to make sense to the reader and Google in particular. This move aims at helping you in regaining the lost SEO rankings on Google.

2. Check the Speed of your Website

According to the survey carried out by Gomez.com and Akamai, a good number of online users are always expecting the web page to load their work within the shortest time possible. But if it doesn’t go their way, they eventually abandon your site and move to the next. If this is one of the reasons that make your SEO ranking to go down, then it is prudent that you find the solution as soon as possible. Therefore, the only way out is to make sure that the loading time is a little bit faster through optimization of images, leveraging browser caching, activating resource compression and minifying codes.

You can, however, achieve your goal by using the free online tool such as PageSpeed Insights to determine the speed of your webpage. On the other hand, you can have a look at actionable recommendations as directed by the online tool to improve the load time speed of your website.

3. You should Never Buy Links

It takes time for your site to achieve decent rankings in Google, Yahoo & Bing. Unfortunately, many people resort to shortcuts which lead them into problems. As a matter of fact, buying of links is one of the short-cuts that individuals turn to in a bid to make their websites successful. This is a bad idea especially if the links are coming from unreliable sources. When Google finds out, your ranking drops drastically thus taking you back to square one.

To avoid falling into such traps, never get lured into an SEO ad that is promising a lot of links with a first-page ranking at a lower price. Just ignore it to stay out of trouble. Most importantly, you need to know that links from spammy, untrustworthy websites and social media networking are likely to hurt your site as well. In fact, a number of such companies will always give you enticing stories that claim to give you protection through the creation of the link wheel or link pyramid pointing to the intermediary pages.

Even though these links might work for a while, Google evolves continuously and within no time, it might become stricter with any spam content. Likely it will lead to the closure of your webpage.

4. Become Mobile Friendly

It is important to ensure that your website is mobile friendly due to Google’s idea of prioritizing mobile use. Apparently, 85% of web pages in the mobile search results follow the mobile-friendly approach. And that is why you need to join the trend in order to have a good flow of traffic.

At some point where your web pages are not responsive, most of those trying to view your content will experience difficulties. As a result, your rankings will equally be affected and the visitor inquiries and conversations will also be affected in the same way. Eventually, users will be compelled to look elsewhere once they realize your website is of no help to them when using handheld devices such as mobile phones or tablets.

5. Reduce the number of Ads on your Website

According to the recent changes to AdSense rules, more stringent measures are going to be in place to check on those sites which have more ads rather than the publisher provided content. So, if you feel this new rules will affect you, this is the right time to change your strategy or risk your SEO rankings to go down.

Ads seem to make a good number of users to leave your site and this causes the user experience metrics to drop. For Google, it means that your site no longer holds any value to the visitors and you are likely to get demoted. In addition to that, Ads are the main cause of ad blocking as indicated by the report published by PageFair and Adobe. Therefore, you need to minimize the number of ads on your webpage to avoid being penalized with no payoff.

6. Handle Technical Issues as soon as Possible

Problems such as poor hosting, network outages, server downtown, and slow connectivity can have a negative impact on your SEO rankings. It gets more severe if the problem is persistence whereby Google will be forced to abandon attempted crawls on the webpage within a stipulated time frame. In such a case, you need to identify the main problem and try to fix it. It may not be easy for you to establish the real cause of this issue but you need to find a way out if you want to stay in the competition. Otherwise, you can solve the problem using online tools such as Downforeveryoneorjustme or use any of the web hostings like the Liquidweb.

Let us demonstrate the real importance of social media marketing and the type of online marketing services we provide to make sure you stay ahead of the pack

Why is Social Media Important?

Let us start at the basics. AMA (American Marketing Association) describes marketing as a process or activity that has to do with the creation, communication and delivery of offerings that are valuable to customers.

Social media marketing, on the other hand, aims at building a brand and increasing its visibility by building interrelationships and communicating with potential clients. Therefore the two concepts appear to be closely related to each other.

It is undeniable that social networks are one of the world’s fastest growing sectors. But with an estimated annual growth rate of 25 percent in the next 5 years, this is certainly the right time to invest in social media in case you have not done it by now.

Examples of Social Media Networking Sites

Because of the exponential growth of the internet marketing industry, numerous social and digital media networking sites have sprung up, with each one of them having unique objectives and characteristics. Here is a brief description of a few of them:

Facebook	Twitter
Boasting of 1.55 billion active users, this is the largest and possibly the most powerful social network on the globe. Regardless of the size of your business you must be on Facebook having positive engagement with your customers.	Dubbed the in the moment’ platform, this network has 255 million active users. It is the ideal marketing tool if your business wants to interact with people (and it is prepared to get a reply). The secret of using it effectively is to be fast and smart.

Instagram	LinkedIn
Images are powerful, and this visual platform allows users to post comment and share via digital media. Over time, Instagram has proved itself to be quite adaptable and innovative.	This is this is considered to be a social marketing site for professionals. It mainly concentrates on b2b marketing (business-to-business), as opposed to b2c marketing (business-to-consumer).

Other social network sites of note include YouTube, Pinterest, Foursquare , Google + and Snapchat. 

Social Media Marketing Strategy

If you have a social media presence but you lack the right strategy and plan, this can have adverse effects on your business. We have developed a checklist that can help to strengthen your social media marketing strategy and streamline your internet marketing activities:

• Set your goals – Start by thinking big and then narrow it down. Ask yourself if you need to enhance customer loyalty.
• Understand your target customers. Use demographics and then look at psychographics.
• Select the digital media you will use to relate with your audience. This can be a video, podcast, blog and so on.
• Choose a Social Network Strategy. Concentrate on a network that will add value. A social network may have over one hundred million users, but it may not contribute to the objectives of your brand.
• Conduct Assessment and Testing. Determine what constitutes success for you. You must continually review your social media strategy in order to understand its effectiveness. Engaging with your audience will reveal what is effective and what is not.

Advantages of Social Media Marketing

Some people might have recognized that social media marketing is what they need to connect to customers. But if you are still thinking about going into social media marketing, consider the facts below:

Social media marketing raises awareness about your brand.78 percent of small enterprises use social media to draw in new customers. Moreover, 1 out of every 3 customers has stated they use social media to find new products and services.

Social media helps in brand validation. A well structured social media presence tells customers that their brand is dynamic and focused on consumer interaction.63 percent of people who search for business on the internet are more inclined to go for the ones with a helpful social media presence.

Social media marketing can enhance customer loyalty. 71 percent of consumers who got a quick response to queries on social media platforms would endorse the brand to others.

Instagram has proven to be extremely innovative

Over time, Instagram has proved itself to be quite adaptable and innovative. For example it copied and mainstreamed the Snapchat stories’ concept, and in the process increased the number of its users by over 300 million. The platform has also been quick to adopt other functionalities, including live video and Snapchat-themed selfie filters. In addition, in the past few years, it has adopted an algorithm-based news feed just like Facebook. This gives advertisers and developers more control over what users are able to view. For businesses, Instagram’s knack for continuous reinvention will potentially pay off due to the projected steady growth of its users in future.

Whereas Facebook enjoys more reach because it has more users, Instagram is peerless when it comes to engagement a more important metric. Engagement is the extent of how the user interacts with the posted content, for example how much they share, like and comment. Research indicates that Instagram’s engagement rate is three times that of Facebook. To put these numbers in better perspective, the engagement rate of Twitter is one thirtieth that of Instagram.

The difference in engagement rates is attributable to Instagram’s visual DNA. The human brain can process visual content more efficiently, and the content is retained for longer periods when compared to text content. Even better, most of the engagements is positive because Instagram does not have a dislike’ button.

Unlike Facebook, Instagram is welcoming brand content

Facebook’s decision to control brand content came about because people complained about excessive commercialization by businesses. But on Instagram, branded content does not feel as intrusive. Basically, a beautiful image remains that way, whether it is from a company or from a friend.

From recent indications, Instagram is intensifying its support for brands. Using the explore’ tab, companies and people can connect outside their circle, and this presents limitless marketing opportunities. Instagram has also ventured into the inn-app shopping arena where businesses are able to tag products in the posts they put up on the platform.

Instagram ad tools have improved tremendously

Businesses on Instagram are now able target customers with the same precision and simplicity that made Facebook the king of targeted ads. As a result the number of advertisers, who mainly comprised of small and medium-sized businesses, increased by 100 percent last year to stand at 2 million. It is projected that Instagram’s advertising revenues will triple by the year 2019 to stand at $11 billion, which means business that get in now will be ahead of their competitors and are likely to stand out.

More advanced Instagram business tools are on the way

Recently, Instagram updated its Application Programming Interface (API), which essentially means new Instagram tools, especially those made by third parties, are on the way. Businesses will then have the capacity to post and measure results more efficiently.

A similar update in earlier times helped to turn Twitter and Facebook into critical marketing channels for businesses. User-friendly tools allowed companies to program multiple posts and measure the resultant engagement without needing to scroll through and analyze individual feeds. The new Instagram API will also be a game changer in the same manner.

However it is important to remember Facebook owns Instagram, and it still remains an important platform for companies to connect with their target audiences. Almost a third of the human race use Facebook ,and the ad revenue of Instagram is still far less than that of Facebook. But for any business that is seeking to enhance connections with its customers, it is increasingly important to adopt a complementary approach. Instagram has come of age, and its capacity to innovate and enhanced user engagement means it will continue to be an important platform in the days ahead.

Bounce rate is probably one of the most undervalued and underestimated metrics of any website’s search engine optimization campaign. But what is bounce rate and why is it so essential? Well, that’s certainly a very interesting question to ask and unfortunately, Google doesn’t really help you answer it.

Therefore, the first thing we need to do is explain what bounce means in search engine optimization terms. So a bounce is basically when someone uses Google in order to look for a product or service online, finds your website, clicks on it and then clicks the “Back” button on his/her browser in order to get back to the original Google search engine results page. While to some people this may sound like something very complicated, in truth it’s not.

Why Does Bounce Rate Matter?

Google interprets the actions of everyone that uses their search engine, on a very large scale. Since there are billions of searches performed every day on Google, it’s safe to say that there’s a tremendous amount of data that people are looking for and because of that, the search engine giant makes various assumptions about websites and users that some may even think are impossible.

It does these things to ensure that users eventually find what they’re looking for. For instance, Google is fully aware of the fact that knives are indeed associated with swords. While as a human that conclusion is very easy to get to, for a robot like Google, that can be very difficult to grasp. In Google’s case, it has seen thousands of internet pages with the KW “knives” and it also detected that a great percentage of those internet pages also list the keyword “swords”. Because of that, in Google’s eyes, swords and knives are related.

In the same key, let’s picture a website that Google ranks on the 1st page for a specific keyword. As we all know, everyone wants to see their website on the first page of Google’s SERP. Now let’s consider that this website that ranks on the first page of Google receives a lot of traffic, yet a lot of that traffic leaves the website in five seconds or even sooner. To Google, that website isn’t that great or valuable because 95% of the people that clicked on it will leave in five seconds or sooner. So what can a website, in this case, gain in those five seconds or less? Everything about the traffic the website receives is carefully recorded by Google and in the end, Google will choose not to rank that website high for long and that’s because its goal is to offer the top ten search results for websites with relevant content.

How Does Google Measure a Bounce?

There is currently no information about the way Google measures a bounce. Our assumptions have been detailed above, yet it’s obvious that they aren’t perfect nor concrete. We’re actually continuously researching and trying to learn more about the topic, so this is a work in progress. The number one reason why Google doesn’t tell us how they calculate bounce rate is because if they were to reveal their secret, everyone would trick Google into thinking that their website has o% bounce rate.

How Can I Minimize My Sites Bounce Rate?

Minimizing your website’s bounce rate can be both easy and difficult and that’s because no 2 websites are the same. For example, an e-commerce website is much different from a service related website or a blog website. Our theories regarding bounce rate suggest that this rate is calculated differently depending on the type of website we’re talking about. So yes, if you had a hunch about it, you’re right: Google takes footprints into account and it also categorizes websites. The reason it needs to do so is because searchers can at times be pretty vague with their queries.

One thing you could do though in order to lower your bounce rate is to make sure that you build your websites for people and not for the search engines. This is exactly what a seasoned SEO company can help you with.

It’s actually very simple, but only if it’s performed by experienced internet marketers and SEO professionals.When coming up with a website, always try to emphasize with your audience and then put yourself in their shoes. What would you like to see on a website you’ve just clicked on to find the answer to your question? By establishing and delivering the message right away, not only will your bounce rate decrease, but you’re also going to rank a lot higher in Google.

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By: David Montalvo.

 

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We’re once again witnessing great changes in the SEO landscape and in 2016 there are quite a few ranking factors that Google has decided to leave behind. According to HubSpot, SEO is going to be completely different from what it is now in the next 5 years and marketers will have no choice but to adapt. However, this time, the changes Google made to their algorithm will force marketers to come up with completely new strategies. So with that being said, let’s take a closer look at these changes and how they’re going to affect you.

Mobile Internet Browsing is King

According to ComScore, last year mobile online browsing surpassed desktop browsing by a massive sixty percent. Because of that, you need to ensure that your website is properly optimized for all screen sizes. In fact, Google even released an algorithm last spring which penalizes websites that haven’t been optimized for mobile browsing. Even better news is the fact that based on info from a Forrester report, the majority of people are spending money in apps. Because of that, SEO marketers may need to greatly change their strategies. Namely, a great increase in in-app content and a lot more marketers linking to certain pages within applications.

Rich Answers are Gaining More Traction

Google is doing everything they can in order to improve their search. Thanks to its Rich Answers feature, they can easily answer search queries instead of just offering users a list of top sources that they can choose from.

Since 2 years ago, Rich Answers gained more traction in both utilization and offering. They basically offer answers to questions by way of:

• Forms.
• Maps.
• Slide Shares.
• Tables or charts.
• Answers generated by Google.
• Feature excerpts (pulled from third party websites).

For marketers, this translates into the fact that audiences aren’t actually required to analyze the search rankings in order to find what they require. However, if you want an in-depth answer, then you’ll need to do that.

In 2016, having your content indexed in rich answers should be a priority. While getting recognized as a source for information is not going to be easy, it is indeed possible. Better yet, you can also improve your website traffic if you decide to get the feature snippet spot.

 Personal Assistants and Voice Search Have a Great Impact on SEO

A great driver behind changes in search engine optimization are personal assistants (voice activated), especially due to the fact that technology has now matured enough to allow for more accuracy. This means that instead of typing what you are looking for, you can just use your voice to do that.

Thanks to this option, you can search anything, anywhere and anytime. Better yet, these search assistants can deliver more accurate results by using your prior context and search history. For instance, if you’re buying clothes from the same online store and use voice activated personal assistants, then you may be provided with your favorite retailer as a top search results.

Lastly, it’s important to mention that there’s a lot more emphasis on local search engine optimization when using voice search. In general, people that use this type of search are in a rush and since they mostly want to find a nearby location, this is definitely going to become an important asset for any business that wants to rank in these queries.

 Social is Becoming More and More Important

You probably noticed by now that when you click an article in Facebook that the article is going to remain in-app. You won’t be routed to the website where the original article was posted on anymore. In this regard, it seems that Twitter is adopting the same strategy. This is going to greatly impact SEO and that’s because you won’t get traffic from social media anymore. To actually increase your SEO ranking, you’ll need to get more social signals, including mentions, comments, shares and likes.

But long-form content isn’t where Facebook stopped either. In fact, it decided to add a search feature that gains Google about three point five billion searches per day, instead of 1.5 billion. This is a very good stimulus for marketers to focus more on social media.

How Will SEO Stay the Same?

Do you feel like SEO completely changed in 2016? Well, it’s not really like that. There are a few things that will stay the same, as following:

Content is Still King

You’re probably used to this, but we’re going to reiterate the fact that content is still king. However, since the market is getting saturated, length starts to become a lot more important. Since Google and its algorithms can interpret meaning a lot better than before and with earned media and social sharing becoming more important, you need to ensure that your content is share worthy in order to make an impact on your website’s ranking.

Videos are Becoming More and More Important

Video marketing is becoming even more popular and the search engines seem to love them. In fact, compared to text, video is about fifty times more likely to get organic page ranks via Google. This piece of information should be enough for you to make some pretty effective changes to your SEO strategy for this year.

User Experience is Still Top Priority

We spoke a lot about SEO, but user experience is still essential for ranking and even Google agrees with that. Because of that, they are paying a lot more attention to page layout and the landing page experience, too.

According to UX experts, it’s a lot more important to understand your users than Google’s algorithms. That’s because doing so, you have a much higher chance of getting more organic traffic, distribution and sharing.

In Conclusion: Learn How You’re Searched If You Want To Be Found

It’s very clear for a lot of people that technology is changing a lot and it directly impacts the way we engage with others. This is especially true when it comes to the way users interact with the info at their fingertips and their devices. And since Google’s algorithms are leading the revolution, you need to learn how to adapt in this never-ending race in order to make sure you don’t lag behind.

Should businesses start thinking of a new location marketing strategy in 2016? Since more than fifty percent of computing is currently done on mobile devices, location marketing should be very important for every marketer in the new year. The strength of mobile and the ever increasing strategic value of location data are going to transform local marketing forever. So with that in mind, below we’re going to take a closer look at the top 6 trends that are changing the local marketing landscape this year.

1. Local Marketing Will Fully Rely On Location Data

For a very long time, businesses have treated location info, including phone numbers, addresses and also their names as a great passive asset that shields their brands. The way it goes is that if a company keeps its location info accurate, then it’s going to be easier for it to get more clients.

However, many brands are starting to realize that publishers like Foursquare and Apple, but also data aggregators like Localeze can be excellent partners that can boost location data across the internet world where clients search, live and buy.

Because of that, many businesses today have a new goal: to ensure that their data is more accessible by making it available through major aggregators and publishers, but also select vertical market platforms.

Based on research from SIM Partners, companies that managed to boost the reach and accuracy of their location data by just twenty percent experienced a four hundred and fifty percent increase in traffic to their location pages, while their on-page action conversion rates increased by two hundred and sixteen percent.

2. Local Search Is A Priority For Google

Google stating that local knowledge graph results are soon going to be editable, releasing a Google My Business Application Program Interface and adding local search to their SQRG all signal the fact that local search is currently very important for Google.

Also, the drop of local business data from Google Plus may just be one of the many such disruptions to follow in the local search space.

3. Apps Will Take Advantage Of Location Marketing

More and more businesses are becoming aware how applications like Snapchat and Periscope can support direct response and advertising at a national level. For instance, Taco Bell promoted a biscuit taco giveaway by using Periscope, while Dunkin Donuts did something similar by using Snapchat.

National companies have what it takes to accurately track the success of such campaigns and then use the data in order to create more targeted and effective campaigns and that’s where local marketing starts to become more and more important. Soon we’re going to witness the use of more complex local marketing techniques for capitalizing on regional differences in local events, seasons and demographics.

If they are to take full advantage of micro-platforms, it’s important that businesses aggressively syndicate their location info to the previously mentioned data amplifiers and then share it with these applications.

4. Beacon Mania Will Experience Growth In The Coming Months

Location marketing relied heavily on beacons in 2015 and many big brands, including Target announced national implementations that would help consumers get what they need. According to BI, beacons accounted for about 4 billion dollars in in-store sales in the US in the previous year, a figure which is going to get another zero in 2016.

However, some early adopters have noticed a few cons in the beacon system, including high maintenance and limited range, especially for brands that have many locations.

This year, brands are going to be more serious about adopting beacons as they analyze other alternatives to generate more in-store sales and traffic, including new technologies such as IndoorAtlas. This technology actually relies on the magnetic signature of a building in order to make it easy for people to find the products they need. While beacons are certainly here to stay, businesses are going to use them a bit more selectively in order to properly target shoppers.

5. Mobile Wallets Are Going To Become Very Popular

While many companies are becoming fully aware of the limits of beacons usage, they also become aware of the massive opportunity they have to make more sales by means of mobile wallets. Based on info from Vibes, at least 50% of consumers want to get mobile wallet content every week and seventy percent of consumers said they would save a great offer to their mobile wallet if given the opportunity to do so.

Since many consumers are starting to use mobile wallets and given the fact Apple Pay has become so popular in such a short period of time, companies such as Pep Boys was very inspired to come up with a great mobile wallet offer that can boost sales and foot traffic.

Since about eighty percent of near me searches occur on mobile phones/tablets, more and more businesses are coming up with great strategies to convert searchers into buyers.

Yet the factor that’s going to really boost the use of mobile wallets this year is the fact they can be used for a wide range of apps, from coupons and all the way to mass transit.

6. Google Still Is The Search King

Even if Facebook and Apple are going to try to get their share of traffic, Google is still king when it comes to online searches. For instance, think about how Apple is making efforts in order to ensure that search is smarter and more predictive when using iOS 9. In such a world, Apple Search is a much better search tool and that’s because it can draw up many local data sources, including native application content.

Meanwhile, Facebook is gaining more ground as a local search platform and it’s not long until we’ll see it recommend local enterprise content in your queries and conversations about what to buy and where to go.

It’s very important for brands to be very attentive with the way people use alternatives to Google and then try to build relationships with those alternatives.

Conclusion
If they want to improve their local marketing in 2016, companies need to cater to the needs of mobile users, treat their location info as a scalable asset and also boost their local search ecosystem so it includes applications like Snapchat.