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Archives for May 2021

Do You Need A Website If You Have Social Media

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In this world of social media, one question that often comes up is, “Do I still need a website if I have social media?” The answer is simple. Yes. Our web design Kitchener experts explain why you still need a website, even if you have a business profile on all social media platforms. 

While social media is a great way to reach out to potential customers, a website is where you can educate people about your business. There is a long list of advantages to having your own website, even if you have a solid social media presence. 

Think of it this way; having your business on social media is like couch surfing. No matter how welcome you feel, you are always still in someone else’s home. With your website, you have your own home. 

Creative Freedom

When you have your own website, you get to choose the information that visitors see. You also get to decide how to present it in a way that reflects your brand. People will often remember your business based on the design of your website. With more creative freedom, you can present your information the way you desire. Twitter only has a 280 character limit, and Instagram stories max out at 15 seconds. On a website of your own, you can control how much you want to say or how long of a video you want your potential customers to see. 

Inspire More Trust

Having a website for your business and credibility among your customers go hand-in-hand. A 2017 Local Search Association survey found that search engines have a high level of trust with consumers. In fact, they recorded that when it comes time to make a purchase, the only source shoppers trust more than search engines is company websites. This compares to the steep decline found in the public’s trust of social media. Fake news scandals and data breaches are to thank for the lack of confidence in these platforms. 

When people search for a business, they commonly ask their phone or Alexa to look it up. They will very rarely look it up across social media. In fact, over 80 percent of the population relies on search to find what they are looking for. Without a website, your business or page is a lot less visible to people outside of social media networks. 

A website also gives you the freedom to influence how your business will appear in search results. By incorporating SEO practices, you can get your website to rank higher for the keywords that your audience uses. By using a Google Business Profile listing, you can also get better visibility to local customers. 

The Disappearance of Social Media Pages

If your only point of contact with your customers is through social media, the information is available at the discretion of the social network. If, for any reason, your account becomes suspended, your information disappears from public view until things get sorted out. If the network decides to ban your account altogether or close it down, your information is lost for good. 

Of course, losing your social media account is rare. However, it does happen. It is not just the fringe figures who get banned for extreme speech. There have been many cases of business profiles being shut down for mistaken identity or because spam got into their account. 

Beautiful, Strategic Websites

Bottom line, you need a website. There are so many options available to create beautiful, strategic websites it has never been easier to have an online presence. Here at Unwired Web Solutions, we provide web design Kitchener businesses can trust. We know the local market and have experience in building a reach in the local community.

If you are looking for a reliable SEO company that you can count on, reach out to us today! 

How Black Hat Techniques Could Be Destroying Your SEO

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If you have never heard of black hat techniques, you are not alone. Most people do not know the name of these techniques, but they are still guilty of using them whether they realize it or not. While most SEO and website owners don’t intentionally deceive search engines, ignorance is no excuse. Using these unethical strategies to get ahead in search ranking will inevitably get you penalized. Turn to our team of content marketing services Canada specialists if you believe there are black hat techniques on your site that may be hindering your objectives. 

Appearing in search results is vital for business growth, but there is a right and a wrong way to climb the ranking ladder. The dark art of black hat SEO is a practice against search engine guidelines that are often used to get a site ranking higher in search results. Instead of earning the right to rank highly with search engines, black hat techniques use back door ways to trick the search engines into driving more traffic to your site. 

The purpose of search engines like Google is to provide the best results when someone searches. They want to provide results that meet their requests and ensure a great search experience. They want their products to include the most accurate information for the customer without having any spam. 

Search engine algorithms have gotten more sophisticated over time, which is why you should never use black hat SEO techniques at all costs. They will eventually recognize and penalize those engaging in black hat SEO which would be damaging to your site. 

Keyword Stuffing

One of the most common types of black hat SEO techniques is keyword stuffing. Those creating their own websites often don’t understand the correct placement of keywords or how to use them. Stuffing keywords into the text on the page or filling content with irrelevant keywords will not only create a bad experience for users, it may also cause your page to rank for unrelated queries.  

Conduct regular keyword searches to find out what people are searching for, but don’t overuse them in your content. Try to concentrate on creating valuable content that focuses on topics over keywords. 

Poor Quality Content

Content is one of the most important factors in SEO. Google recently changed its algorithms to help find sites that offer great content while keeping the customer engaged. It recognizes sites that also provide original content. At one time, it could not acknowledge content that had been copied from other websites. However, Google and other search engines can now easily find sites that merely copy content from others to try and gain ranking status. 

Try and offer quality content with helpful information that will keep your customer engaged. Many businesses provide writing services to help with the text on your site. 

Link Farms

This may not seem like a bad idea to people just starting with their business, but Google will find you and punish you if you use a link farm. Link farms are collections of websites that are developed solely for the purpose of link building. Search engines rank websites by looking at the number of links that point to the site. The more links pointing give it credibility. 

People can pay a fee to a link farm and have a bunch of links pointed to their website. These link farms generally offer low-quality content and lots of links which makes them easily found by Google. While it may be tempting to pay for links to point at your website when you are a new business, having no links is better than getting punished by Google for being associated with a link farm. Once you have fantastic content, data, graphics and other valuable content on your site, you will naturally acquire backlinks over time. 

These are just a few examples of black hat SEO techniques that could likely damage your presence in search engines rather than improve it. By working with reputable content marketing services Canada experts, you can be assured that your site only utilizes white hat SEO techniques. These types of SEO techniques will enhance your ranking with search engines rather than hinder it. 

For more information on how we can help with your SEO, contact our team today!

The Advantages of Custom Web Development

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One of the most important marketing strategies for businesses is to keep potential customers interested in your web content. While getting traffic to your website is essential, sites that are not user-friendly or lack appeal can quickly turn off visitors.

Businesses turn to custom web development because they need web pages that offer a dynamic interactive experience to keep customers coming back. At Unwired Web Solutions, we tailor our services to meet the needs and specifications of our clients. Here are some reasons why our services are important for your goals and your bottom line.

It’s Time To Step Outside the Box

The truth is you never get the entire package with template services. You always give up things you want on your website because choices are limited. There is nothing more frustrating and unproductive than tweaking your site with themes, graphics and optimization tools that don’t meet your needs. This is how we make the difference in website design: 

  • Initial consultation: We spend time with you to learn your unique objectives. Once we clearly understand your goals, we outline a strategy to meet them. The code we write goes hand-in-hand with your objectives.
  • Focused research: We engage in in-depth analysis to help distinguish your place in the market and understand your competition. We are constantly adapting your strategies to the current data.  
  • Creative design: Our first step is to understand your web design needs thoroughly. Our team is dedicated to a personalized approach. We work closely with your team to be certain objectives are realized. Since website creation requires flexibility, we will refine and adjust throughout the process until you give us the okay to launch. 
  • Personalized web development: Our testing process is comprehensive. We begin with code creation for your site. We start from the ground up, so your site is completely personalized to your expectations. We use beta sites to test for functionality. 
  • Strategic deployment: We get the details right in testing before your site goes live. Once your site is up and running, we connect it to social networks and search engines.
  • Ongoing maintenance: Our services don’t stop at deployment. A part of our commitment to you, we continue to monitor the website and perform maintenance.

It’s a Brave New Online Landscape

The pandemic ushered more companies online to conduct business. The upside is that more traffic means that more people are engaging with the online market. The critical issue is getting your brand noticed in a vast sea of businesses. As more companies enter the market, the need to employ new strategies is essential. These are three must-know areas for successful online marketing:

Focus: The digital realm is constantly evolving, and it’s easy to lose sight of goals. Our team helps you focus on what matters to your company to keep you competitive.

Functionality: If you want to establish your brand, you need custom web development functionality. With other businesses using quick-fix templates, your company stands out with a visually stunning and unique website.

Accessibility: High-value content is what customers seek. The pandemic has heightened the need for substantive and personalized information that speaks directly to their needs and establishes brand loyalty.

Get Web Solutions That Fit Your Business Goals

Unwired Web Solutions has the innovative web marketing services your business needs to get the competitive edge in a crowded online market. Our comprehensive suite of products combined with our professional web development team’s specialized knowledge is the advantage our clients need to reach their business objectives.

Our goal is to identify and provide services that work for your business and adapt strategies to keep your business out front. Contact us to learn more about our approach to custom web development.

Why Headings Are Important for SEO

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Consumers are constantly bombarded with content throughout the day. To keep up, people have developed short attention spans. Headers help readers to skim through information and determine what to read and why. It also breaks up chunks of information, so it appears less overwhelming. Did you know your SEO company also prioritizes headers because it helps with search engine optimization?

Why Google Cares About Headers

Google has built a solid reputation for being able to answer people’s most pressing questions. Its brand name has become synonymous with searching for information online. To accomplish this, Google uses algorithms to determine how well a page speaks to the specific query posed during a search.

Headers call out the importance of specific topics throughout a web page. If an article or page contains headers that include the keyword from the search query, the page might rank higher. While headers are not the only weighted factors Google considers, it is one of the most important.

How Headers Align With Featured Snippets

For years, companies competed for the position of the first result on a page. Now, companies work hard to earn search position zero or the featured snippet. Google sometimes uses a paragraph or a few sentences to answer a question. However, it often compiles a list of the headers in the article, particularly when those headers are numbered and form part of a process.

It’s important to note that headers do not necessarily carry weight by themselves. Instead, they provide context so that Google bots can better understand the bigger picture. This, in turn, increases the weight provided to the content, which also improves where it ranks.

Why the Specific Headers Do Not Matter

In the past, bloggers and marketers used Title formats for the title of the page or article. Then, they used H1 headers throughout the article. Over the years, this practice changed to make H2 the first subheader throughout the article. Reports from top Google workers imply that this might result more in cosmetic than SEO benefits.

Google does not, at present, seem to weigh different headers more than others. It might, however, help Google to organize information better. For example, H3 headers might create a list under a specific H2 header. Without that change, Google bots might not immediately understand how to organize the information in a featured snippet.

How Headers Align With Images

Google increasingly turns to images for context clues about the body of an article and vice versa. In fact, images can rank separately in searches, even when people do not explicitly look for images. Headings above photos are one of the contextual clues that Google uses to determine what images mean.

It’s worth noting that headings are not the only tools Google uses to understand images. It also relies on alt text and other markup data. Sometimes, even the name of the file can be helpful.

How the Right SEO Company Can Help

Google makes minor updates to its algorithm daily and makes more significant updates a few times each year. Whenever this happens, big websites wait with bated breath to see how the new algorithm might rank their websites. This is nerve-racking and can feel more like a gamble than a strategy. When you work with a trusted SEO company, we do the reverse engineering for you and adjust your content accordingly. This allows you to enjoy greater consistency in how well you rank.

An important consideration is that Google aims to create bots and search engines that follow the same line of thought as the people it serves. With this goal in mind, it continually encourages marketers to create high-quality content instead of focusing on SEO. 

Would you like to work with SEO professionals who write compelling content to nurture existing customers and attract new ones? Contact Unwired Web Solutions and ask for your free quote.