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Archives for October 2021

What A Local Citation Builder Can Do For Your Business

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Citations are online business listings that contain practical information about a business. Citation building can help companies to take control of their data online to ensure it is accurate, complete and widely displayed. It is essential for a business to have accurate information so that customers can easily find their contact information.

At Unwired Web Solutions, we are experts in local citation building in Canada. We work with your business to:

  • create new listings on websites they are not yet listed on
  • claim listings that already exist
  • update data on listings
  • remove harmful duplicate listings from sites

Local SEO Value

Citations are important because they hold local SEO value to help improve ranking in local search engines. Search engines such as Google compare the data displayed on citation sites with the business data it holds. When it sees a high-level updated confirmation, it can then build confidence in the business’s location and services offered. This is when Google will boost the business ranking in local search results.

When it comes to building citations, many local small businesses will build them from a list or use a submission service to take care of it for them. The problem in this comes when a company makes a change relating to the name, phone number, address, or removal of a service that affects their primary category. Even modifying opening hours could cause a problem.

Businesses who are not using services for local citation building in Canada may have to log in to each site and update the details one by one. This creates a process then where you will have to wait for the page to be found and crawled again by a Google bot. The updated details will take some time to start filtering through, with some lower tier sites taking months to be crawled again.

Data Aggregator Submissions

A popular way of building local citations is through data aggregators by API connection or via a custom dashboard. Data aggregators lease their data to various companies, which then creates bulk business citations on a wide variety of sites. This data is then uploaded in bulk through the data aggregators.

Manual Submissions

Some citation builders will update submissions manually. When this is the case, you would want each campaign to be handled by one agent and overseen by a manager to review and approve listings to ensure all submissions maintain the highest quality.

Linking To Website

While citations are not linked to a website, they can contain a link to the main business website. These listings can appear on many websites, including online directory’s, event sites, news and blog sites, and review sites.

Our experts in local citation building in Canada understand the complexities of handling all information across various platforms. A business must have the same information across the web so that search engines can recognize it and can relay it to their customers on Google Local/Maps. 

Contact our team at Unwired Web Solutions today to learn more about citation building for your business. 

What Plugins Are Slowing Down Your WordPress Site?

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WordPress is a great platform to host a website. But from time to time, these websites can be slowed to a snail’s pace. Many times the speed of your website is slowing down due to plugins, So it is essential to figure out which ones are causing your site harm.

At Unwired Web Solutions our team of experts offer a selection of services from creating a content management system for small business to figuring out which plugin is slowing your WordPress site. No matter what your needs are for your business, our team is here to help.

Slow Site

Not only is a slow site annoying for your customers, but Google is also watching how fast your site runs and is ranking you according to your speed. When your business relies on the Internet, you cannot afford to ignore site speed issues. Experts believe that each time your website fails to load slower than three-second timeframe you risk losing a customer. Slow load time is one of the major contributors to site abandonment.

It is vital to monitor your site speed regularly to eliminate issues that could be slowing it down. When you use WordPress it is even more important as it relies on plugins to improve functionality and boost the user experience.

Don’t shy away from plugins simply because they could slow down your site. It is just essential that you identify which plugins may be the culprits of a decrease in speed in your website. While staying on top of these things can be tricky, our experts at Unwired Web Solutions are here to help.

Quantity or Quality?

You may assume that is the quantity of plugins that you have for your site that will slow it down; however, this is not always true. According to WordPress experts, it is common for business websites to have around 20 to 30 plugins installed, and for larger business sites it can quite easily reach 50 to 60 plugins.

With these websites regularly having a large number of plugins it stands to reason that it’s not the quantity that can cause the most damage to your site speed. It is truly about the quality of the plugins that are the real issue.

Always make sure you opt for plugins that are made by professionals and have a good reputation with great reviews. These plugins should follow WordPress coding standards and should not negatively impact your site speed or performance.

Regularly Check Speed and Performance

By regularly checking the speed and performance of your WordPress website you can be sure your customers are not being turned away because they are waiting too long for your page to load. Google offers an easy and simple way to check your site speed. Their page speed insights tool is free to use by simply entering your URL and letting it do the work analyzing your site.

If you do find that your site has dramatically slowed, chances are that it’s because of a rogue problem plugin. Our experts at Unwired Web Solutions can help find the plugin that may be causing the problems and help to get your site back up to speed. Contact us today to find out more about our WordPress services. We also offer various other services such as content management systems for small businesses, local SEO, website design, social media marketing, and more!

How To Assess Your Website With Google Lighthouse

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Google Lighthouse is an open-source automated tool that measures the quality of web pages. It can audit performance, search engine optimization, and accessibility, helping you get an accurate reading of your website design. With Google’s Lighthouse, you can essentially see your website through Google’s eyes which could be crucial to the success of your online business.

Keeping up with Algorithm Updates

Trying to keep up with the numerous algorithm updates from Google can be tough. Many people are unaware that their website has an unfavourable design or content flaws that may be costing them when it comes to ranking. But Google does offer a host of free tools designed to help improve websites, and one such tool is Google Lighthouse.

How Does Lighthouse Work?

Google Lighthouse provides powerful insights that can help improve your website. With Google recently increasing its emphasis on-page experience, it is more important than ever to ensure your website makes the grade. By generating a Lighthouse report, you can access any web page’s experience and get valuable tips to help improve its performance.

Since Lighthouse is a Google application, it is the perfect way to see how Google may see your website. It can offer valuable, detailed information which can help you improve performance.

With a clear grading system, Lighthouse allows you to audit pages and find areas for improvement. You can get in-depth insights and find places where you can quickly and easily improve your page so it meets more of Google’s standards.

Using Lighthouses metrics can give you an idea of how fast your page loads and how quickly the user can interact properly with it. Google has found that loading speeds make a big difference in how people interact with the website, which is why it considers it to be an important aspect of a website.

Easy to Use

Even though Google Lighthouse gives you a fairly technical analysis of your website, you do not need to be tech-savvy to run it. In fact, it simply takes two clicks of the mouse to get all the information you need. Lighthouse can be run through developer tools or a Chrome add-on.

Each Lighthouse report has five categories, including performance, best practices, accessibility, SEO, and progressive web app. As Google has recently confirmed the aspects such as load speed and mobile experience factor into its algorithm, these metrics may give your business the ability to see how it’s performing in these crucial areas.

Once you have the reports from Google’s Lighthouse and follow their helpful tips on improving performance, you’ve got exactly what you need to make technical improvements to your site and increase your ranking. Once you’ve implemented your changes, you can then check back with Lighthouse to determine if your score has been improved.

The Difference Between Page Speed Insights and Google Insights

Page speed insights is another common application that people use to get information about their website.  There is one main difference between page speed insights and Google’s Lighthouse. Page speed insights only focus on page performance, whereas Google’s Lighthouse offers a complete picture of the user’s page experience by analyzing best practices, SEO, accessibility, and progressive web apps.

A Sneak Peek

Lighthouse can provide a sneak peek into how Google judges your web pages. With page experience becoming an increasingly important factor for Google, it needs to become equally important for website owners. If you would like more information about Google Lighthouse or are looking to upgrade your website design, contact Unwired Web Solutions today.

How To Retain Your SEO Ranking After A Website Redesign

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As the eCommerce market changes, it may be necessary to change your website to stay competitive in your industry. For most websites, it is best to overhaul your entire site every few years rather than make small changes here and there. However, there is often hesitation about opting for the redesign because it could cause problems with all the hard work you have done on your SEO. At Unwired Web Solutions, our experts offer search engine optimization services for websites that have been redesigned. Just because you have a new website doesn’t mean you should lose your placement within search rankings.

Maintain the Website URL Structure

When redesigning a website, all existing website URLs should be kept as is. This is especially true for pages that are ranking organically. Retaining this structure means that the web design team can upgrade the design and content of the page, but the website address will stay the same.

If you have spent time building up links and rankings for the page, changing the URL could run the risk of losing the SEO value of that page. To avoid losing any SEO ranking, audit your existing sitemap before starting a redesign. This can avoid any problems when linking new pages together, making adjustments to the navigation, or changing page names.

Be Careful with 301 Redirects

Many people find that at some point in the redesign process of their website, they will need to delete a page or change its URL address. If this is done, a 301 redirect must be set up correctly. If these redirects are not in place, visitors and search engines will receive a 404 error, stating that the page cannot be found. This will not only deter potential customers but can also negatively impact your SEO rankings.

Improve Your Web Content

A site redesign is a perfect opportunity to improve your website content. Most businesses don’t update their website content outside of a web project, so this is a perfect time to edit descriptions of your products and services while considering specific cues for the search engines, such as relevant headings and keywords. This is also the perfect opportunity to revisit blog posts that are not performing well and update the content. 

However, if you have pages that rank very well for a specific keyword, avoid drastically changing or deleting many critical headlines. The H1 and H2 tags on a web page are vital for SEO.

Closely Monitor Site

It is crucial to monitor a website for the first couple of months after the redesign. Even with the best quality control process, some website issues are very difficult to detect before launch.

Using Google’s search console can help to detect indexing errors, mobile functionality errors automatically, and crawl errors for your website. With Google being the most popular search engine globally, fixing errors related to their indexing is paramount.

After your new website has launched, run several speed tests and watch for slow load times, especially on the home page. With Google’s latest rollout, this is one function of a website that plays a significant role in SEO rankings.

A Long-Term Strategy

SEO is a long-term marketing strategy that is constantly changing. Search engines are consistently running updates and finding ways to improve indexing and their understanding of web content. When doing a redesign, the best way to keep your site ranking is to draw on the SEO progress you have already have in place.  

Our experts at Unwired Web Solutions are happy to help with any search engine optimization services when doing a redesign. Don’t lose out on all the hard work you have already put into a website. Contact our team today to learn how we can keep your site on the top rankings.