Unwired Web Solutions

Success... Optimized.

Archives for June 2021

How To Build An Effective Local SEO Strategy

by

Why should you bother with local SEO? This is a common question that we often get asked here at Unwired Web Solutions. While it may not seem significant on the surface, if you want to gain any attention to your business from the internet, you need to focus on local SEO. 

Think of it this way… when you are searching for a nearby restaurant, the first thing you do is go to Google and search for “restaurants near me.” This is where local SEO comes into play. If you are a local restaurant, you want to show up first in the listings. Our local SEO services Kitchener specialists can help your business rank higher in Google through local SEO search functions. 

Local SEO services help to improve your business’s online visibility by people in the community who are searching for businesses like yours. In addition, having a higher ranking on local search results will attract many more potential customers in the vicinity, helping to achieve a better organic search presence. Local SEO is so important because 46% of all searches done on Google revolve around local information. 

Local SEO practices can also improve overall online brand awareness and help to generate more website traffic, in-store traffic, and conversions for small businesses. Without local SEO, your business may struggle to stand out amidst the sea of competitors. 

How To Build a Local SEO Strategy

Any local SEO strategy should start by creating a Google Business Profile page. This is the most effective way to rank higher in both Google search local results and Google maps. After filling in all the appropriate information, this information will be used by Google to provide users with essential details about your business. This information may include the company address, website, contact details, hours, and customer reviews. 

Adding as much information as possible to Google Business Profile will make it possible to appear in Google search results at a higher ranking. 

Boost Your Social Media

Although some people just don’t like social media, it is undeniably essential for small businesses. For local SEO, search ranking is not just determined by your profile on Google alone. Claim and complete your business profile on popular social media and listing sites such as Yelp and Facebook, just as you did with Google Business Profile. 

By growing and nurturing your online presence across various sites, your business will maximize its local SEO and increase visibility across multiple search engines. 

Optimize Local Content

Once people are directed to your business’s website, it is important to have up-to-date, relevant information. Content is the foundation of digital marketing strategies, and there is no better way to leverage that than by creating posts that relate to a local issue. This is a great way to attract attention to your business and drive customers to your site. 

Some local content you could include on our website may consist of blogs centred around local news or events, videos about your personal services, or a page that addresses customer’s frequently asked questions. Look at competitors and see what content they may be using to drive more customers to your site. 

Optimize for Mobile Devices

With most people now owning a smartphone, it is estimated that 60% of all people are now searching on a mobile device rather than a desktop or laptop computer. Studies have also shown that 61% of all mobile searchers are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-friendly site. 

When creating a website, many people don’t realize it may look different in mobile versions. A site needs to be optimized to work properly on a smaller screen, and if it isn’t, this can affect your SEO ranking. 

Our local SEO services Kitchener specialists can help set up your website, so your business is included in local search results. Contact us today to learn how Unwired Web Solutions helps small businesses with local SEO. 

What Is A Site Crawler

by

Understanding what a site crawler is and how it indexes websites can be a confusing topic. While everyone does it a little differently, the overall concepts are the same. When you enter a search query into a search engine and get back a list of matches, you have benefited from the work of the site crawler. A site crawler is essentially a “bot” that is a vital component of the SEO ranking process. Here at Unwired Web Solutions, we are an SEO company with experts who can index your website so the crawlers can find and rank it more easily. 

How They Work

Site crawlers are complex algorithms meant to scan and understand a large volume of information which is then used to determine if a search term is a connection. It works by crawling a website, scanning content, and visiting links (URLs). All of this information is stored on a massive database and indexed according to relevance and keywords. 

Google uses this information to send the best websites to the top spots on search results. They give these coveted spots to the best, most reliable, most accurate, and most interesting content while others are shuffled down the list. However, not all websites will be “crawled” if they’re not “crawler friendly.” 

Unable to Be “Crawled”

If a website is unable to be crawled, it may as well not even exist. Without getting crawled, it has zero chance of driving any organic traffic to the site. Organic traffic is an indicator of a quality website, so no traffic will be visiting the site without the parameters set up for web crawlers. 

Two common types of crawlers can get content from a website:

  • Site crawlers: these crawlers attempt to crawl an entire site at one time, starting with the homepage. It will simply grab links and continue to crawl the content on the site. This is often called “spidering.”
  • Page crawlers: These crawlers specifically crawl a single page or blog post. 

How to Optimize a Website for Crawlers

There are a few ways to build a site in such a way to ensure that search engine crawlers can get onto your site. The end result will mean more traffic to the site, enabling readers to find the content more effectively. 

The first place to start is by adding new content and optimizing pages. Having an RSS feed can help when you create new content. The search software can recognize it and crawl it faster. By ensuring your document structure is consistent when constructing an HTML page, the crawler knows where to look for the new content. Try and keep it as consistent as possible in the same place and under the same content section. 

As for content, it is extremely important to offer quality content. Crawlers can tell if the page is lacking pertinent information or if it doesn’t make sense. Also, having content and not just images on a page will help crawlers index the site more appropriately. Search engines are unable to find an image unless it has text or alt tag descriptions. 

Links are important for web crawlers. Websites should have links between pages so the crawler can quickly learn those pages exist. For example, if you are running a blog, you will want to have an archive page with links to every post. A sitemap page is also another great way to let a crawler know about many pages at once. Also, the more people who link to content, the more trustworthy the site seems to Google.

At Unwired Web Solutions, we are an SEO company that takes pride in helping businesses of all sizes expand their online presence. To learn more about configuring your site for Google crawlers, contact us today!

 

Are Thieves Stealing Your Content

by

You may be utilizing content optimization services and feeling pretty secure about your website, including your blog articles.  But, even though you are doing everything right in the world of online marketing, you could be the victim of “scraping.” 

How do you know you are a victim? Perhaps one day, you come across an article that looks very familiar. It only takes a second to recognize it because it is your content! Someone has taken all your hard work and posted it on their blog. 

In most cases, they have taken the entire piece, including images and links. They do this by “scraping” your blog’s RSS feed. Occasionally, they may change it up a bit. But the majority of the writing, images and links are all yours. No matter the situation, it is never pleasant to realize that someone has stolen your hard work. It is even worse if you have not been given credit for it. 

What to Do

The first thing you need to do is decide if you are going to do anything at all. It can be extremely frustrating to know that someone has used your hard work for their own gain. But, the amount of work that may be needed to get the article taken down may not be worth it.  

On rare occasions, you may find that it is a new blog owner who copied all of your work because they didn’t know any better. In fact, they may even think they are doing you a favour. 

If it appears to be someone starting out who possibly didn’t know any better and their contact information is right out there in the open, you may want to try emailing them. You may be surprised at the quick response you get with an apology and offer to take down the copied blog post. If they are genuinely clueless and didn’t realize that what they were doing was wrong, they will more than likely own up to it and take it down immediately. It is acceptable to give them 24 hours to take down the content. 

If you can’t get an answer from them, you can try contacting their hosting company. There are a few websites that can help to locate a hosting company for a specific site. Hosting companies can get into legal trouble if they are hosting a site that is violating Copywrite laws, so they will likely act quickly to help issue a notice to the site in question. 

Take It Further

More often than not, they will know exactly what they are doing and why it is wrong. Some people prefer to take it further by putting pressure on the blogger or contacting advertisers on the blog who has stolen content. You can also issue a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice against the site in question. 

However far you wish to take action is up to you. Just remember that at the end of the day, it may not be worth your time. Check to see if your site still ranks higher than thieve’s site. Just search Google for a sentence from your blog post (in quotation marks) and see if your site still ranks above the other. If so, you can rest assured that you are still doing better than the thief, even with them ripping off your material. 

To reduce the risk of “scraping,” include at least one link in each blog that points to another one of your blog posts. That way, if readers come across the stolen content, they may click on the link and be redirected back to your original blog. 

If you are having trouble with “scraping” or just need some help with your content, contact us today! We offer content optimization services to make sure your site ranks on top, no matter how many thieves try to steal your content!

How To Create Product Descriptions That Convert

by

Chances are, at some point in time, you have purchased an item online because the product description convinced you to click the “buy” button. Companies that know how to write product descriptions that convert deserve a round of applause. This is a skill that most people are not capable of achieving. 

Our website design company Waterloo specialists, know how to write descriptions that can get your customers clicking. Offering some suggestions, they advise starting with making sure you have great photos before beginning with the description. Once you have a good image of your product or service, you can start working on your SEO-rich product descriptions. 

The Basics

Let’s start with the basics. A product description is a summary that gives customers the info they need to know about a particular product. This may include details like product features, benefits, and common uses. A good description will consist of the what, who, and how all in at least 300 words. 

Writing these descriptions may take a bit of time, but think of it as a smart content marketing investment. Each description, if done correctly, can drive traffic to your store. It can also improve SEO and eventually increase sales. If your product descriptions are written poorly, they can turn potential customers off and leave them frustrated. Chances are they will leave your site and purchase from a competitor. 

 What to Include

When starting out, think about your audience. This will help to tailor your tone and language so they can connect with the words. How do they speak? Is it formal or informal? Are they using technical terms or slang? Some of the best ways to gather information about the tone of your copy are by turning to social media groups forums or comments to see what your target audience is talking about.

Remember to always stay true to your brand. If you stay on brand, your voice and tone will already match your demographic. 

One of the most important things to remember when writing product descriptions is to make the text as easy to read as possible. Everybody is in a rush all the time, which means most people who click on your product want to be able to quickly and easily read your description. Many people will only skim through your product descriptions so make sure the most important information is at the beginning. You will want to use short words and give as much information in as much detail as possible in as few words as possible. Bullet points and highlighted text can also be utilized to get your most important points across. 

There is no one size fits all template for product descriptions, so you need to be creative. If this is not your strong suit, think about hiring a writer that can help. 

Let Your Personality Shine Through

By adding in additional information, including real reviews, comments or messages about how your product benefited other customers, you can add value to your description. Don’t get too caught up in sounding too polished. Writing your own product descriptions can be a great way to give your brand personality. 

Our website design company Waterloo specialists, can assist you from the very beginning when setting up your business. Whether you need web design or content creation and management, our experts can help. Contact us today and get your product descriptions to start converting “window shoppers” into buyers!

Top 5 WordPress Tricks and Tips for Beginners

by

When starting with WordPress, it can be overwhelming. If you are beginning and are planning to dive into the wonderful world of WordPress, our experts have some tips and tricks to get you started. Creating your own website is no easy feat, so don’t be fooled by blog posts convincing you how easy it is. 

As a beginner, you will be able to learn some of the tricks of the trade, and with some help from a template, you may be able to create something you can be happy with. However, if you want a custom-designed WordPress site with all the bells and whistles, you may need to contact WordPress development company Canada experts. 

The first thing to remember when creating your WordPress site is that there is a lot of competition out there, so you will want to stand out from the crowd. By learning a few tricks and tips, you can make the most out of your new site. 

Choose the Right Theme

Start off right by choosing the best theme for your business. It may seem simple, but it is often the step that gets most overlooked. Don’t just choose a theme because it is the most popular. Choose one that suits your business best. Every business has different needs, so your theme should have features that fit whatever you are doing. 

Reduce Image Size

With Google’s new algorithm being released this month, your site must be running at the fastest speed possible. One way to do this is to make them smaller by compressing your images. This not only makes your site load faster, but it will also save on storage space. 

Several online tools can reduce the size of an image without reducing the quality. A couple of the best are ImageResize and Optimizilla. 

Harness the Power of SEO

Having a website optimized for SEO (search engine optimization) is critical for all online businesses. Having an SEO-friendly theme is a good start, but we also recommend using a plugin for SEO. There are many great options, but we like to recommend Yoast SEO, or The SEO Framework. These tools can help you to analyze your content and suggest improvements. They can also help with technical issues that can help make your life easier and get your site ranking better. 

Use Title Tags and Alt Text 

A picture can speak a thousand words, but only if it is appropriately tagged. Images can make your posts look good, and the site look professional. They can also help with SEO if they are labelled correctly. Alt-text is what your viewers are going to see if the image doesn’t load correctly. Title tags are working behind the scenes to help with SEO. Both should be short descriptions, just offering enough information about the picture. 

Add Facebook Comments

With over 2.5 billion users worldwide, Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms. By integrating comments on your blog, users can easily leave a message. They may also be more likely to share it on Facebook later. 

When starting with WordPress, you may be overwhelmed with everything you will need to learn. But if you stick with it, you can create an exciting website that your customers will appreciate. 

If you decide that website design isn’t for you, our WordPress development company Canada specialists can help. Contact Unwired Web Solutions today and learn how we can use our expertise and experience to customize a site that both you and your customers will love.