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Is Your Site Mobile Responsive?

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Most businesses focus on making their website mobile-friendly but not mobile-responsive. While it might seem like a subtle semantic difference, a responsive website makes a website more user-friendly and accessible, according to custom web development specialists.

Defining Mobile Responsive Websites

A mobile-friendly website only adjusts the page size on a smart device or tablet; it does not alter the layout. A mobile-responsive website changes the layout and may add buttons or tabs depending on the device. For example, a company can include a call button for a smartphone or mobile layout, allowing consumers to touch to dial.

Unlike traditional methods for creating mobile sites, a business no longer needs to maintain a different website for each device. A responsive website is a single system, meaning a company only needs one URL. The system allows for a flexible layout, allowing sites to change according to the screen size and device used.

More users than ever are using smartphones to access digital content. If a company fails to use mobile responsive designs, consumers will often abandon the web page. Also, if a website takes over three seconds to load, consumers will move on to the next search result.

Understanding the Benefits of a Mobile Responsive Design

A mobile-responsive web design is vital to marketplace success. Consumers want easy-to-navigate pages, regardless of the device they use. They also want companies to accommodate their shopping and viewing needs depending on their device. If your business has yet to update its website to a mobile-responsive design, consider the benefits of the upgrade.

Improved User Experience

The design provides a better user experience across multiple devices. The responsive approach ensures specific devices have appropriate features to make the experience more approachable. For example, smartphone users can scroll up and down to read or explore the website; they do not need to scroll horizontally or zoom in on text.

Increased Efficiency

With only one URL, companies can save money. Before RWDs, it was common for a business to have multiple URLs for different device sizes, meaning it had to pay for the hosting of multiple sites. Also, the company had to pay in-house or contracted designers to create each variation.

Also, a responsive design makes it easier to update your website. You or your team can make quick design edits once rather than several times across multiple sites.

Better Reach

Because the website automatically adjusts to the user’s device, it is more accessible. Satisfied phone and tablet users will convert more often. With over 57% of internet users accessing sites from multiple devices, a company is bound to expand its reach with responsive design.

Higher Search Rankings

Google announced mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor all the way back in 2015. It only makes sense that improved mobile responsiveness will increase your website rankings. Also, higher rankings typically equate to higher conversions and more profit.

Hiring a Web Development Company To Handle Responsive Design

People assume that a custom web development service is expensive. While specialized services do cost money, you always need to put the costs in perspective.

If you do not hire a web development company to design your new responsive website, you will need to hire an in-house team to do it. To hire a team, you will need to recruit talent, invest in training, pay benefits, etc. Your expenses skyrocket. While a large corporation might be able to eat the costs of an in-house team, most small and medium-sized businesses cannot.

Hiring an outside service is usually more affordable. If you want to learn more about responsive web design or digital marketing, contact Unwired Web Solutions, a reputable full-service digital marketing agency in Canada.

Why Your Local Business Isn’t Getting Indexed On Google

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Many businesses invest a lot of money into web design and content creation, and while those investments typically pay off, sometimes, there is a disconnect between effort and results. Local SEO services explain that there are several reasons a company might have a functional website and not have a listing in Google. Thankfully, understanding those reasons can also help a company fix the problem.

1. Lacking a Google Business Profile

If a company wants customers to find it in Google’s local listings, it must have a business profile. Google provides guidelines for creating a profile that includes basic information like the business name and address.

As a business owner, you want to take your time to read through the guidelines and follow them strictly. While the information is provided as guidelines, it is actually a set of rules. If you do not follow the recommendations precisely, your business will not be listed.

2. Poor Content Quality

Besides following strict rules for filling out your business profile, you will also need to focus on content strategy. Google has strict policies regarding content quality and topics. For example, the search engine will not list sites that include:

  • Biased work
  • Thin content
  • Hate speech
  • Abusive language
  • Misleading information

Also, Google does not list plagiarized or duplicate content. Sometimes, a website is flagged for plagiarism when it doesn’t contain any copied work. The error is possible when canonical tags point to multiple pages. Website designers should use 301 redirect tags for duplicate content.

3. Exceeding a Crawl Budget

Depending on the size of a website, Google may not index every page. Google bots index a specific number of pages per site; the actual pages are up to you. If you are unfamiliar with the term “crawl budget” or do not understand web design, it is best to hire a professional web design service for help.

4. Complex Coding

For Google to properly index a website, it needs to understand the coding language used. Too many people attempt DIY web design without the proper knowledge or tools, which can lead to overly complex coding, which might work on your page, but is confusing for search engine bots.

If you want to know whether your site is doing well in search engines, use software or tools like an SEO analysis tool. The analysis should help you understand the issues Google or other sites are having with your website.

5. Poor SEO and Website Design

If a website is not optimized for search engines, it will not perform well. SEO goes beyond content creation. A business must also ensure that a site’s technical SEO is on par with best practices. For example, if a website takes too long to load, Google will not index the page.

Slow loading can stem from hosting issues to too much content. To improve website performance, a company should follow the latest algorithm updates. Also, tools like webpagetest.org or Googles page speed insights to learn more.

Ideally, a company will work with an in-house team of specialists or a contracted service. An in-house team is not feasible for many businesses because the costs associated with recruiting, training, and keeping a dedicated web design staff are too much.

The better option is to hire a web design and digital marketing firm. The company already has the specialists you need; you do not have to invest in salaries, benefits, etc.

Are you ready to improve your website and search engine rankings? Contact Unwired Web Solutions, a well-respected web design and digital marketing service in Canada. The company offers everything from local SEO to content and social media marketing. If you are ready to get your business listed, Unwired is your solution.

Outdated Website? How Our Experts Can Help Bring Your Business Into the Future

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Website design and development services aren’t a one-time deal — after a while, pages become outdated and their search engine optimization not as effective. Fortunately, web design experts can help you stay current with refreshed layouts, upgraded code and high-quality content. If you see a dip in website traffic, professionals can reverse that trend with the following solutions.

Identify Outdated Site Content

Search engines update their algorithms frequently, and most of the time, the changes go under the radar unless you know what to look for. As a result, your webpages may start performing poorly without any changes on your end.

Website development experts track algorithm updates to align sites with new criteria. One of the first steps is reviewing your landing pages and blog posts to identify outdated pages. A good way to do so is by checking the analytics for each page; you should refresh pages with low visitations or click-through rates.

A refresh keeps the page’s information but introduces more effective keywords and SEO techniques. For example, if a blog post includes awkwardly used key phrases, a refresh integrates the new keywords more naturally. It’s also essential to keep refreshed content as evergreen as possible to remain relevant year-round.

Improve User Experience

When visitors arrive on your website, they shouldn’t have to think about navigation. Instead, it should be intuitive, allowing them to smoothly research and purchase their desired products or services. Website design can hinder or help the user experience through layout, font choices and even loading times.

One excellent way to ensure intuitive navigation is clear labelling. For example, your banner should explain its links in concise, straightforward language. Don’t use wordplay here, as it may confuse and frustrate visitors, causing them to bounce to another company’s website.

Additionally, you should prioritize functionality. All links should lead to a live page; broken links can make your business look unprofessional or even shady, so fix or remove them. Your pages shouldn’t take more than four seconds to load, as customers won’t wait around longer than that.

Create Consistent Messaging

Every aspect of your website should align with your brand:

  • Landing pages
  • Blogs
  • Meta descriptions
  • Meta tags

Depending on the scope of your website, this can be a big task. Fortunately, a professional web developer can ensure your content, design and metadata reinforce your company’s voice and values.

Additionally, expert assistance during a rebrand makes for a smooth transition, which means minimal interruption to your operations. As a result, you can hit the ground running, using that momentum to boost your metrics.

Hire Website Design and Development Services

While it’s possible to handle web development on your own, hiring custom website design services offers a wide range of benefits. For example, having a team analyze and update your content means you have more time for daily operations. You also get the advantage of experience and long-term trend tracking, ensuring your updates are on the cutting edge.

Of course, some business owners worry that outsourcing website development means cookie-cutter solutions, but that isn’t the case. In fact, working with professionals ensures you get a website tailored to your needs. The do-it-yourself approach can only take you so far if you don’t have a web design background, while a team works closely with your company to customize every detail of your site.

Unwired Web Solutions is the place to call if you’re looking for the best website design services. We can help you build a site from the ground up or refresh pages that aren’t performing well. We also offer other marketing services to boost website traffic, including content and social media marketing. For more information or to schedule a consultation, visit us online or give us a call today.

How Website Design Mistakes Could Hurt SEO

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6 Common Web Design Mistakes That Hurt SEO

Most businesses understand that a website is crucial for success in the modern marketplace. Unfortunately, many companies work with inexperienced website design services or attempt DIY solutions to save money, resulting in poor-performing sites. Without at least a foundational knowledge of SEO best practices, businesses are bound to make little mistakes that can hurt their performance in search engine rankings.

Website Mistakes That Hurt SEO

An effective website is about more than looking attractive; it must have substance. Also, the design and engineering of the site must allow for meaningful consumer interactions and engagement. SEO is about optimizing your site not only for search engines but also for the viewer, regardless of the device they use. When creating your website, try to avoid the following six SEO mistakes.

1. Poor Speed

A slow website speed is detrimental to a business. According to Google, slow speed affects a company’s ranking in search results because it compromises reputation and credibility. Over 45% of visitors to a page will not wait longer than three seconds for a page to load.

While there are many things you can do to improve webpage speed, the most significant contributor can include the hosting service you use. You want to invest in the best hosting experience to ensure your customers get rapid access to sites.

2. Poor Navigation

Consumers want to find what they are looking for quickly and easily. If your website does not provide clear navigation tabs, buttons, or features, your customers will become frustrated or bored and leave the site.

Many business owners lack the knowledge to implement effective navigation strategy and design. If you feel navigation and web design are outside your area of expertise, hire a full-service digital marketing and web design agency.

3. Non-Mobile Friendly Site

Mobile devices are the primary tool people use to access the web. If your site is not mobile-friendly, or better still, mobile-responsive, it will not perform well. Google will not even display non-mobile-friendly sites to mobile users.

Having a mobile-friendly site used to mean having a separate URL for the different devices. Today, you can build a responsive site with a flexible design. Responsive sites automatically adjust the page layout to fit a consumer’s screen size.

4. Low-Quality Content

Search engine algorithms are sophisticated. They can tell a web page’s quality by analyzing the text and links. If search engines like Google determine your content is spammy or low-quality, they will penalize you and remove your content from the results.

Consumers are also judges of content. When you spend time writing content, you want visitors to spend time reading it. A consumer will not waste time on irrelevant content.

When focusing on a content strategy, consider quality, uniqueness, and relevance. A digital marketing agency can help you design your SEO and content strategies.

5. Pop-ups

Over 90% of consumers hate pop-up ads, so much so that they will close out a page. Businesses perform better with pop-up-free designs. Consult a reputable digital marketing and web design service to learn more.

6. Missing CTA

A call to action tells a consumer what you want them to do, whether buying a product or subscribing to a newsletter. Too many companies invest in beautiful web design only to leave out the CTA. By ignoring the CTA, you effectively sabotage your conversion rates.

Improving Web Design With Professional Services

Most business owners do not understand web design or SEO strategies, which is fine. However, it is a mistake to ignore these essential tools. Instead of trying to master an entire field, you can hire an experienced web design and digital marketing firm. Contact Unwired Web Solutions to learn more.