5 Benefits Of Hiring an SEO Company

April 30, 2022 by David Henderson

Understanding the 5 Primary Benefits of Hiring an SEO Company

Search engine optimization is something most businesses know they need to compete in the digital landscape. Still, many do not know enough about the concept to pull it off alone effectively. An SEO company in Kitchener understands the intricacies of best web practices and can help a business successfully incorporate such practices into its digital operations, but the company must first seek out assistance. If you are unsure of the need for an SEO service, consider the five primary benefits of hiring these experts in web design and marketing.

1. Audience Identification

While there is a lot that goes into effective SEO, identifying target markets is a significant aspect of it. To choose appropriate keywords and topics for pages and blog posts, a business needs to determine its key demographics. Does the company want to attract middle-aged, style-focused, politically active urbanites, or is it after young, chic, artistic city dwellers?

Knowing the people who represent your business is critical to SEO success. An experienced web design firm will know how to dig into your analytics and identify your core market.

2. Competition Research

While identifying a target audience is crucial to business and SEO success, identifying and understanding your competition is also critical. When looking at search engine rankings, you will often find that the advertisers with the most clout and fastest content development strategies make it to the top listings the most. For small businesses to make a dent in rankings, they need to be ahead of the competition.

SEO firms can help businesses get ahead by diving into the topics competitors cover and identifying weak points in their strategy. Perhaps the firm can identify a keyword or set of phrases a competitor is using inadequately or not at all. Analyzing the competition often provides insights into your own strategy and potential improvements.

3. Website Improvements

When you look at your website, what do you see and experience? Are you dealing with slow load times or static pages? An SEO firm can help you identify weak points in your web design and make corrections to improve performance.

Load time, file size, images, content, keywords, meta tags, and more play a role in how search engines view and rank your website. A skilled web design firm can help your business get the recognition and views it deserves through page and image optimization for SEO.

4. Experience

The main reason you should use a web design and SEO company is their experience. Most people understand that anyone can develop the fundamental skills to build and establish a website with time. Still, developing those skills takes a significant amount of time, which most businesses cannot afford.

Working with a seasoned SEO company means you are getting access to people who know the fundamentals and have excelled at web design. Working with an SEO firm is the best way to ensure your digital marketing efforts are seen and effective.

5. Website Usability

SEO and web standards are constantly changing and evolving. Usability and accessibility concerns are essential to business operations. Modern consumers want mobile-friendly designs and instant gratification. While you cannot always promise a gratifying experience, with the help of an SEO firm, it is possible to ensure usability and accessibility, providing a streamlined and confident consumer experience.

When was the last time you updated your company’s website? Web development and SEO practices are constantly evolving and moving forward; if your website and its pages are stagnant, you need to start making changes, especially if you want to improve performance. Contact Unwired Web Solutions to discuss strategy options, web design techniques, and content marketing efforts. The company’s seasoned professionals can help you determine what’s next for your business.

Why Image Optimization Matters

March 3, 2022 by David Henderson

If you’re like most business owners, you’re always looking for ways to improve your website’s performance. And if you’re not already using image optimization techniques, then you’re definitely missing out on some major benefits! Image optimization can make a big difference in the speed and performance of your site. So why not give it a try? You may be surprised at how much of a difference it makes. In this post, we’ll take a look at why image optimization matters, and we’ll give you some tips on how to get started. So read on to find out more!

Whether you are building your own website or working with a website builder like Unwired Web Solutions, you need to understand why image optimization is important. But before we even dive into how to do image optimization, it is important to talk about what it is.

What Is Image Optimization?

There are two main aspects of image optimization. The first is resizing images while maintaining quality, and the second involves image optimization for SEO with relevant keywords. But why is this so important?

Page Speed – Oversized images that are not optimized can make a website slow and clunky. Users will not wait for your website to load if it takes too long. By optimizing your image sizes, you can speed up the loading time and reduce the number of people who will exit quickly.

User experience – Google takes user experience into account when ranking sites. If your website is bogged down with large images that take a long time to load, your users will not be getting the best experience. Sites are expected to load quickly, so making sure your images are correctly optimized is one of the best ways to meet user expectations.

SEO – Image optimization can help ensure that your site ranks in searches on Google. It can also be beneficial to the overall SEO of your website.

How To Optimize Images

As previously mentioned, images should be optimized for both aesthetics and SEO. When optimizing your images, you want to make sure that they still look good after they’ve been compressed. This means avoiding any drastic reductions in quality – you don’t want your images to look pixelated or blurry. All images should be optimized for web viewing while still maintaining their quality. They should also be named appropriately for SEO purposes.

The following are a list of ways you can take your images to the next level in optimization:

File type

When creating an image for your website, you will have to choose a file type to save it. Some of the most common include JPEG, PNG, and GIF. JPEGs will work for most images on your site except for those with a transparent background. This type of file option is ideal because they allow for higher quality images with smaller file sizes. PNGs are ideal for images that don’t have a lot of color, are transparent, or don’t have a lot of text. However, PNGs will require larger file sizes.

GIFs are a little different as they are great for animation. They can compress images into smaller file sizes, much like JPEGs, but the color range is more limited, making it a poor choice for photography.

Image Name

Most people don’t give a second thought to what they name their images, but in terms of SEO, it matters a lot. Google will crawl the file names of your images to make sure they are what you say the image is.

It is vital to name your images with descriptive and keyword-rich phrases in mind. For example, if you leave your image named “dsc184293.jpg,” it will be a missed SEO opportunity. Instead, name the image after the photograph, such as “red-high-heel-shoes.jpg”.

File Size

It is unnecessary to have large files on your website, and it will have a negative effect on your site’s performance. Since most people will not wait longer than 3 seconds for an image to load on a website, resizing and compression is a vital step in uploading images to your site. You will want to make sure your photos have been reduced in size while preserving the quality of your images.

Alt Images Tags

The alt image tags, also called alt attributes, are the text alternatives to your photos when they fail to load on your website. They are also used to describe what your images are all about to people with visual impairments. Also used by search engines, your alt image tags can help your organic ranking.

Be sure always to use plain, descriptive language. If your image is of a product with a model or serial number, include it in the description. Including a keyword in the alt image tag is also a great way to help with SEO.

The Image Process

Images are a key part of website design, but creating great photos is only the first step. Image optimization is an essential part of the image process associated with website design.

By following these tips, you can help to ensure that your images are helping your website rather than hindering it. Optimizing your images for both aesthetics and SEO purposes is a crucial part of any successful website. So, don’t wait any longer, start optimizing your images today or contact us for help! We are rated as the top SEO company in Kitchener and can help with all aspects of web design.

Ways to Get Better Ranking for Content Images

February 4, 2022 by David Henderson

Not only are images integral for readers to successfully interact with your content, but they are essential for search engine optimization. Regardless of the topic you are presenting, the goal remains the same, to provide engaging images and content that will actually reach your audience and beyond. One way to improve your search engine rankings is to optimize your images to ensure your content is competitive. Learn tips for image optimization that boost engagement and find out who to contact for a reliable and innovative SEO company in Kitchener.

Reduce the File Size Without Sacrificing Quality

If keeping readers on your page is the primary goal, images can’t have a substantial delay while loading. For most customers, the average anticipated load time for images and other content is within two seconds. If images remain in the high-quality format that photographers often deliver, the load time can be far greater than either you or your customers will appreciate. The best way to combat a lag in loading is to reduce the file size in image optimization for SEO.

File Size vs. Image Size

Note that file size and image size are different. A common point of confusion is resizing an image to learn that load times remain slow. Resizing an image simply means that the image’s dimensions have been altered. The file size, the amount of space required for storage on the server, must be reduced for the load time to be affected.

Compression Tips and Tools

Compressing images will automatically resize files for better load times. However, be cautious about double-checking the images for quality. Too much compression can leave an image with poor rendering that falls flat with users. Many different tools are available for free and purchase that can help optimize images for web publication to make the process easier.

TinyPNG
Adobe Photoshop
Yoast SEO
ShortPixel
ImageOptim
SVG options

Maximize Alt Text And Understanding Its Purpose

Alternative text is a textual description of an image. Some website developers mistakenly cram keywords in alt text and are unaware that unnecessary packing leads to confusion and unmatched leads. The best SEO practice is straightforward, concise alt text that meets your site’s needs and increases accessibility for all users.

Google’s Directive

Google’s ranking system for alt text is based on clarity and accuracy with keywords in context with the site. Cramming makes it difficult, if not impossible, to meet Google’s crawling needs to properly index and rank your images and location.

Website Accessibility

Alt text wasn’t only created with search engine ranking in mind. The alternative text makes the internet a more accessible place for all users. With appropriate and accurate alt text, not only will you meet accessibility standards with your website, but you are more likely to reach more significant audiences than before.

Create a Sitemap Including Visual Content

Sitemaps help search crawlers pick out the appropriate information and index it carefully for ranking returns. Most websites already have sitemaps in place as part of standard contracts and organizational methods. However, image indexing is not always a part of the sitemap, but for SEO, it should be.

Organization Equals Location

Organizing images alongside other page information helps crawlers locate your data more efficiently. The way that people choose to set up sitemaps can vary, but keeping a friendly sitemap for your audience, rather than XML alone, is ideal for increasing user engagement and search results.

Tips For Mapping Success

There are tools available that sitemap. If you choose to take on the task, be sure to include the following information about each image for best results:

Title
Description
URL Location
Caption
License information

To learn more about improving the ranking of your content images or other SEO optimization, contact the professionals at Unwired Web Solutions in Kitchener today.

Top Reasons Why Your Site Isn’t Indexed on Google

January 21, 2022 by David Henderson

Having a website and making it visually appealing with easy functionality is only part of having an online business. You can create the best online experience for your customer, but if they can’t find your site, then what is the point? Unwired Web Solutions is an SEO company in Kitchener that can help get your website found.

If Google doesn’t index your site, you are not alone. Many sites are sitting idle because of various potential issues that are preventing Google from indexing. It is vital to know some of the most common problems causing your customers not to find your website. Our team has narrowed down the top reasons why this may be happening.

Your Site Is Not Mobile-Friendly

It is now mandatory to have a mobile-friendly website if you want to be indexed by Google. Since introducing its mobile-first indexing, you will lose rankings and traffic if your website is not optimized for viewing on a smartphone or tablet.

If your website is not mobile optimized, it doesn’t have to be complicated. You can add responsive design principles such as CSS media queries or fluid grids. These easy fixes can make sure that users find what they need without experiencing any navigation problems.

To find out if this is what may be causing your website not to be indexed by Google, try running your site through Google’s Mobile-Friendly Testing Tool.

Your Site Loads Slowly

Google is less likely to want to feature slow loading sites in the top results of their index. If your site takes too long to load, it could be due to various factors. Having too much content on a page for a user’s browser to handle could be a reason for slow loading time. It could also be due to an old-fashioned server with limited resources.

Many tools can help to let you know if your website is loading at a fast enough pace. Google Page Speed Insights is a helpful tool that could also identify what website sections need urgent attention. This tool can analyze a web page against five performance best practices such as minimizing connections, leveraging browser caching, reducing payload size, and more.

Your Content Needs Updating

Many people don’t realize how important well-written content is on a website. To succeed on Google, you must have minimal content that doesn’t have any significant issues and meets your competition levels. Content that is less than 1000 words does not do as well as content that is more than 1000 words.

The information on your website should be informative and needs to answer questions, provide information, or have a point of view that differs from other sites in the same niche as yours. If your content doesn’t meet these standards, Google will likely find another site with better quality content.

Good quality content should also incorporate SEO practices by adding relevant keywords throughout the text. Hiring an SEO company in Kitchener can ensure that your content is written correctly and can be indexed by Google.

Text isn’t the only thing that needs to be optimized for Google. Image optimization for SEO is also extremely important and can make or break your website views. If you have images on your website, they also need to be optimized, just like written content.

Your Site Isn’t Engaging

Believe it or not, Google can tell if your site is user-friendly and engaging. Your website will rank higher in search results if it’s easy for your customers to find what they’re looking for and navigate around your website without feeling frustrated.

Google doesn’t want to index sites with confusing navigation or ones that are just plain hard to use because there are too many distractions. If you have an eCommerce website and only have one product listed per category instead of several, this could also be why your content isn’t ranking well with Google.

Google wants to index sites that people enjoy sharing. If you can “wow” your readers with your content and have them share your blogs, you will rank better on Google. If your website is getting a lot of clicks and attention, Google knows it is something that people want.

All Domain Properties Are Not Added To GSC

You may have more than one variation of your domain, and this may be causing problems for you to be indexed on Google. Some older sites may have migrated from http:// to https:// But these variations may not have been added and verified in Google Search Console.

You will need to make sure that you’re not missing any of your domain variations when adding them to Google Search Console. You will also need to verify your ownership of all the domain properties to make sure that you are tracking the correct ones.

You Are Not Using A Sitemap

If you have a website, you need a sitemap. A sitemap is a list of all the pages on your site, which is one way for Google to find out what content you have. This tool can help to ensure that every page gets crawled and indexed by Google Search Console.

An informative sitemap can tell Google what the important pages of your site are and what you want to submit regularly for crawling and indexing. It is important to note the HTML sitemaps are depreciated in Google Search Console. XML sitemaps are now the preferred format.

It Can Be Challenging

Understanding why your site is not being indexed by Google can be a challenge. However, it is well worth solving if you want your customers to find you. Technical SEO, content, and links are all important in maintaining your site’s performance on Google. You will want to make sure you are getting your site out there in the correct manner.

Unwired Web Solutions can help make sure each page of your website is optimized for Google. The better Google can crawl, index, and rank your site, the better results you will see. Contact us today to learn how we can help get your indexed on Google, which means more potential customers coming your way!