How to Boost your Google My Business Listing

by actovision | Mar 22, 2022 | SEO

So you are all done with your Google My Business Listing but then still can’t see any results as such. This blog will help you to understand the necessities required for search engine visibility. It’s a big challenge to get results when Digital Marketing and Search Engine Optimization are concerned. So it’s always a good practice to keep your listings updated like correct address, phone details, store hours and so on. Sometimes very simple things could bring a twist to your Google My Business Listing and could make a difference globally.

Address Accuracy
Well, you have updated your store address perfectly but check if it follows recognized guidelines. Any non-uniformity could have a bad effect on search results. Always follow the guidelines of acceptable formatting of address laid out by your country.

Geocode Specification
Google My Business Listing generates geocodes to locate your store in Google Maps. So it’s very important to ensure your listing has precise geocodes which would help your customer find your store easily. Undoubtedly at times, it becomes very difficult to search for your business in a metropolitan area. So be extra mindful of this factor.

Listing Categories
Google has a smart algorithm that helps to give the best result closely aligned with customer queries. With each update, the listing visibility becomes more relevant. So it’s very important to be precise with your listing categories. Do not make overbroad categories but provide accurate characteristics of your business to get better results.

Review Response
More reviews you have more the exposure your business gets. Encourage your customer to leave feedback regarding your business service or product at Google My Business Listing. Sometimes negative feedback could leave a bad reputation for your business. So it’s always better to respond to both positive and negative reviews to share your views towards the customers. This would definitely improve your listing.

Create Content
Always try to engage your customer with new materials. Share content related to your business which is a great way to boost your local page ranking. Make use of Google Posts which allows publishing events, and promotions that directly update Google Search and Google Maps.

Upload Images
Many stores neglect or avoid uploading images in their Google My Business Listing. A relevant image upload will help the customers on their online search. Customers do like to view product images, store design, signage, and so on before visiting a business. Uploading relevant images might have a massive effect on your local ranking.

Always remember every bit helps for any business growth. Do not avoid these guidelines to get a good result in Google My Business Listing. If you are running a website and would like to boost your online presence you can always contact us for Search Engine Optimization or Social Media Marketing and would be happy to help you.

Improve your Website Today:

You have uploaded your website and you love it. But did you ever think, about what your customers think about your website? Whenever we create a website, it’s no doubt that we create it with our own choices and preferences. From design to navigation, we decide all. But if you still find that your site traffic is low, then do not panic but take a closer look at your site. A few free changes to your website would result in drastic improvements.

When people visit your site, they are looking for solutions. Give them all the necessary information they are looking for so that they do not go elsewhere. It’s very important to be focused on your business offers and answer your customer’s queries immediately.

It is very important to keep your website hassle-free and simple for your site visitors to know what you have to offer in just a few seconds. Provide the most important information at the top of your screen so that it avoids your visitors to scroll down. Put ample space between headlines, paragraphs, and graphics. Your website should be easy to navigate and read.

Content is one of the most important parts of the website. Try to write your content simple so that it’s understandable for all types of visitors. Your content should be free from grammatical and spelling mistakes. Such mistakes create a bad impression on your visitors and the site may look unprofessional.

Last but not least, provide value and an easy way for your visitors to find answers, and you’ll significantly improve the overall results of your website without spending a lot of money.

New Google Analytics:

The search engine giant, Google has come up with an improved version of Google Analytics on Wednesday. The upgraded version comes with lots of new features. In addition to faster performance and a streamlined UI, the new Analytics is full of improved and entirely new functionality.

Users now can create multiple dashboards, up to 20 per user; and each dashboard can contain up to 12 widgets. Users can also set interaction goals, graph and compare certain metrics over time, and toggle between multiple profiles and sites while focusing on a single report.

Right now, Google Analytics users can switch between the old and new versions of the product. Google is working on Analytics are soliciting feedback and is also prepping for even more new features in the future.

 Optimize your Url Structure:

 Discussion about URL structure for websites, in the context of SEO.

Today I would like to address one of the most overlooked issues of on-page SEO “The URL structure”. Though, many webmasters still have second thoughts regarding the contribution and effectiveness of SEO-friendly Url. But I would like to part myself from those geeks.
Even if you have a look over the Google webmaster central blog regarding Url structure you will find that they have recommended keeping your Url structure as simple as possible. I have always insisted my clients build such Url structure that itself acts as a title and can be termed as pretty Url. Let’s see, how we can make the best use of our Urls through proper Url structure.

1. Using keywords in URL to increase relevancy:

We usually think about keyword relevancy while selecting the domain name but often neglect the same logic while building internal pages. Always try to have a keyword-relevant page name.  This gives additional weight and relevancy to the search term you are targeting.
For example, we are having an internal service page on SEO and internet marketing.

2. Hierarchy structure within URL:

A logical hierarchy-based URL structure helps users to figure out how pages are correlated with each other. It also facilitates proper categorizing of the webpage by search spider.

Ex:

a)Good URL: http://www.your_domain.com/compact-system-cameras/Sony/NEX-5-Black-18-55-lens/

Bad URL: http://www.your_domain.com/online.store/products/77650/show.html

3. Canonicalise www and Non-www :

Again, I would like to address one of the tiny issues often unnoticed by developers and webmasters “duplicate content”. The non-www URL is returning the same page as the www version. This means that it is effectively creating two exact copies of the same website.

The solution is either you can use a canonical tag (<meta name=” canonical” content=”http://www.websys.co.in” />) or you can use a 301 redirect for a non-www URL.

4. Handling non-Secure HTTPS pages:

This is an advanced level of correcting duplicate content that usually arises on that website which uses a relative URL structure for navigation. In such cases when a user enters into any secure pages using an HTTPS connection and navigates to other pages from there, the URL retains the HTTPS connection. So you are having the same content for both HTTP and HTTPS pages.
To overcome this issue, make sure that for all none secured areas or pages, the HTTPS versions is having a 301 redirected pointing to the corrected HTTP versions.

5. The Trailing Slash:

This is another duplicate content issue. The problem in such cases arises from those websites which render the same content for both Elsie. with and without the trailing slash. Correcting the issue is straight forward and can be fixed with a simple 301 redirect rule for all pages without a trailing slash pointing to the version with a trailing slash.

6. Rendering Index file:

Almost 8 among 10 websites are suffering from this issue. It happens when your root directory is projecting the same page as that of the index file (index.html or index.php or index.aspx etc.).
For example http://www.your_domain.com/ and http://www.your_domain.com/index.php render the same page that flags the issue of duplicate content

This can be corrected by canonical tag in index.php or using 301 redirects of all such URLs.

7. Handling Category IDs:

Many websites especially those having CMS and shopping cart, use category id as an HTTP request for passing product ids through the header. In such cases, the Url structure becomes quite ugly.

For ex: http://www.example.com/product.aspx?ID=11526&IT=5f7d3d

These letters and symbols in a URL mean absolutely nothing to either a human visitor or a search engine spider.
My advice will be, that developers can programmatically define these category ids corresponding to their unique product name so that such type of URL can transform from an ugly URL to a pretty URL.

Best Ways to Rank on Top of Google Search

by actovision | Nov 9, 2021 | SEO

No matter whether you are just entering the market or operating for some time, occupying the top rank on Google search must be at the back of your mind. However, with ever-evolving algorithms and extensive competition in the market, it’s quite challenging to occupy and retain the top places of Google.

In this blog, we will explore some smartest steps you need to adopt in order to achieve your goal.

Win the Top Rank on Google Search: Best Practices

Following strategies are preached and practised by the trusted experts of digital marketing services. It’s time that you start implementing these.

Create Long-Form Content

Let us start with blogging. These days, we can find that most of the sites occupying the top spots feature long-form content.

Don’t get us wrong. It has nothing to do with length or the number of words.

Basically, it can be assumed that long content is more in-depth and offers a comprehensive outline of the topic. Google seeks to offer valuable insights to the users. The sites that satisfy this criterion have a higher chance to win a high rank.

Further, exhaustive and engaging content drives more traffic to the site due to its varied information and increases dwell time. Since people get ample information on the site, they can share their preferred information while mentioning or linking to the site.

All these lead Google to consider the site to be a valuable source of information.

Optimize for Google Answer Box

Google Answer Box results are more prominent than all the other results. If your content appears in this section, it will gain extensive visibility and exposure. Naturally, it will drive more clicks and traffic. If you want to appear in this section, your site must have lots of merits. It’s better to engage professional SEO services instead of trying amateur hands since it requires extensive effort and experience.

Sometimes, this result is also noted as a zero-click search result. That’s because people can get adequate information right from the answer box and they don’t click. This may make you think that appearing in Google Answer Box is equal to losing traffic.

Well, let’s bust this misconception. Google Answer Box plays a significant role in branding. It helps to create a reputation, brand recognition, and reliability.

Improve Internal Linking Structure

Site architecture is crucial for the search engine bots to properly crawl and index the web pages. This is done by internal links.

A study by Moz asserts that an optimal website structure has a shape of a pyramid with links between the pages. For instance, the homepage is connected to the main category pages and those are linked with related products/service pages.

Other than creating site architecture, it also helps to float link juice from one page to another. This, in turn, will boost the SEO potential of the web pages.

This needs to be done right from the time of website development. Therefore, hire a reputed website development company to build your website maintaining proper structure.

Anchor Text Optimization

An anchor text is used for linking pages and help Google understand the motif of the page. Using keywords is a brilliant practice to guide Google bot to easily comprehend your page content and rank the site higher.

Here are 5 types of anchor texts that you may use:

Exact Match Anchor Text: Such an anchor text uses a keyword that mirrors the page you are linking to. For instance, if one of your keywords is home decor, using “home decor” while linking a page that enlists various types of decorations is an exact match anchor text.

Partial Match Anchor Text: Such a text includes a variation of the primary keyword on the page you are linking to. For instance, “DIY home decor ideas” can be a partial match anchor text as it consists of the phrases your site is trying to rank for.

Generic Anchor Text: Such an anchor text is a generic phrase that links to other pages. Some of its instances may include “click here”, “learn more”, etc.

Branded Anchor Text: As the name suggests, here the anchor text uses the brand name. Say, if your brand name is XYZ, linking “XYZ” to one of your posts will be an instance of a branded anchor text. However, overusing this type of anchor text can seem to be manipulative and suspicious to Google. So it’s better to avoid using it more than once.

Naked Link: If you use the URL as an anchor, it is considered a naked link. These are not an ideal option as they affect readability. While it’s easy to read an anchor text like “excellent home decor ideas”, reading “https://www.xyz.com/story/excellent-home-decor-ideas” is not so smooth!

Check out this blog to learn all about anchor texts.

Full-Proof Guest Posting Strategy

You all know that guest posting is essential for placing your site in front of a wide array of audiences and earning a backlink from a reputed site helps to improve your domain authority. But, you may not know that it’s not a smart move to post blogs on every guest posting site you come across.

Here are a few tips to bear in mind:

• Select relevant websites with high domain authority.
• Check out previously posted articles on the site to get an idea of their expectations.
• Pick topics that will interest the target audience of the site.
• Support your claims with high-authority sources.
• Abide by the blog submission guidelines mentioned on the guest posting site.

Make Use of Rich Snippets

Displaying rich snippets in your Google results is a great way to earn more clicks which in turn, makes Google acknowledge your demand, and improves your rank. The structured data on your page HTML will help Google in displaying proper rich snippets for the searchers. It may include ratings, price, stock availability, etc.

What Factors Can Bring Your Website Traffic Down?

by actovision | Mar 10, 2020 | SEO

So you have your website running. Business is good, the sales are coming in, and everything is on track…

Then you notice something.

Your site analytics show that for some reason, your website is not getting as many visitors as it used to. True, all businesses strive for more traffic. Human nature (and SEO services!) drives us towards getting more and more traffic to our web property. This is simply because more traffic to your website means greater customer outreach, quality engagement, more sales and ultimately more business. After all, that’s what we strive for. So obviously a drop in site traffic is something that should be taken very, very seriously.

What can cause your website traffic to drop?

Drop-in web traffic can be the result of many factors, but broadly they can be classified into two types:

• Direct factors
• Indirect factors

Let us look at some of these in detail:

Direct Factors
These are factors that are directly related to your website, and can benefit should you or the digital marketing services engaged by you act upon promptly.

• Low-Quality Content-

Ask any digital marketing company the one factor that drives traffic, and they’ll give you the same answer: high quality, relevant content. In 2019, there are 1,518,207,412 websites on the internet (source: millforbusiness.com). That’s a pretty big number! So you can imagine that the only sites which will be able to drive quality traffic are the ones providing rich and useful content to the customers. So pay close attention to your content strategy, post regularly and be active on social media.

• Using Outdated Keywords-

If your site has been active for many years, chances are that you are still targeting keywords that have become obsolete. Appropriate and targeted keyword research by competent SEO agency in India will help to improve your site’s ranking on SERP’s.

• Technical Issues-

Often, a site’s performance online is affected by technical glitches. Broken links, server overloads, recent site overhauls and more can affect how search engines index your site and drive traffic. So be careful.

• User Experience (UX)-

How your users experience your site is vital to whether they become loyal patrons or not. According to Matthew Martin of Spade Design, your UX directly affects your site rankings and hence the business. To be sure to deliver a solid UX, consider hiring a professional website development company.

• Think As Your Customers Do-

would you rather visit a site with a clean, pleasing design and lightning-fast pages which clearly defines what you want from it, or a sluggish, cluttered mess that hurts your eyes? The choice is no choice at all.

Indirect factors:
This refers to factors that are not directly related to your website but can still contribute towards bringing down your traffic.

• Algorithm Changes-

Search Engines (especially Google) are always looking for ways to deliver the most relevant results to users by making changes to their search algorithm. For example, on 12th March 2019, Google launched the March 2019 Core Algorithm Update. As with any update, the changes will have an effect on the rankings and traffic of most sites. While you can do very little regarding how search engines update themselves, you can always consult with a digital marketing company that provides SEO services in India to make sure you can take advantage of the changes and improve your traffic.

• Changing Trends-

Industry trends and customer preferences will always change over time, and while you may not be able to control how they change, you can always build your marketing strategy around it. Share your brand info with your digital marketing services, and they can help you to identify the latest trends and how to leverage the same to your advantage.

How Can Startups Benefit From Digital Marketing?

by actovision | Jan 31, 2020 | SEO

You are living in a digital world, where all buying decisions are largely dependent on your online presence. Gone are those days when the popularity of a brand solely depended on the years of its existence and deliverance of quality products, e.g. Nokia, Reebok, Raymond, Woodland, Park Avenue, Gillette, and others. Although these businesses are still doing well and are held in high esteem, they are not the only ones competing for consumer attention today. A number of new companies have established themselves in the industry with the help of enhanced digital marketing services, that too in a much shorter period of time.

Nowadays, if you wish to start a new business, you no longer need to worry about being thrust against these big names. Effective digital marketing campaigns will make you at least a Duke, if not the King, in your niche. You will be competing against the big names but, your existence will not be sidelined. If you have a strong identity online, your business will be highlighted, thus attracting more traffic. Also, the digital marketing campaigns give rise to measurable results, be it traffic, leads or conversions. Read on to know further about the necessity of digital marketing services for your startup.

Top 5 Reasons Why Digital Marketing Should Be A Priority

Entrepreneurship is the mantra of today as startups are springing up everywhere and new businesses are growing at a pace never observed before. However, it is also true that about 50% of these start-ups fall flat within the first four years [Reference: (https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/11/startup-statistics-small-business.html)]. The failures occur due to various reasons and we probed into the details to find out that marketing is one of them [Reference: (https://www.cbinsights.com/research-reports/The-20-Reasons-Startups-Fail.pdf)].

Besides the fear of failure, there are other reasons why startups should opt for a robust digital marketing strategy.

• Establishment of Brand Identity
  What is a Brand Identity Design? The visible elements of a business-like, its Logo, Typeface, Tagline, and others that distinguish the Brand from its competition, together constitute the Brand identity of that particular business. You may create your own Identity easily, but, how will you make your target customers aware of your brand? The costs of traditional marketing can go well beyond the financial resources of a startup or a small business. So, what other option do you have?
  Enter “Online Marketing and Promotion”
  An average of 40% of the world population, including Europe, Asia and the remote areas of Africa have an internet connection today [Reference: (http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/)]. If you wish to create awareness of your business and establish your Brand Identity, online marketing services are one of the most effective and affordable ways to do that. You can hire from some of the best, experienced digital marketing companies in India to help you reach out to your target audience.
• Social Media Awareness
  Over 1 Billion people in the world are active daily on their social media accounts [Reference: (https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/)]. This is too big a number to ignore if you are looking for ways to reach out to your target customers. Digital marketing experts, who have been in the industry for a long time and, who are well acquainted with the latest trends, use careful methods to make your brand socially visible. Once, you become popular in social media, word-of-mouth promotion will be triggered and your business will get that first kick in the journey to reach the top rungs of success.
• Increased Lead Generation
  Generating high quality leads for your business is a task that only the most efficient online marketing experts can accomplish. Content Marketing, E-mail Marketing, Social Media Marketing are a few of the enhanced ways to generate leads for your business. The marketers are responsible for producing free eBooks, Webinars, Videos, Newsletters and etc to create the “Buzz” required to generate leads.
• Reputation Management
  Your customers rely heavily on Google and other search engines to get an idea about the quality of your services/products. They rely on the reviews, customer testimonials, and video testimonials to find out all about your reputation. Apart from creating awareness of your brand, an internet marketing agency India continuously tracks and manages your online reputation and takes measures to improve it on the web.
• Optimization Of Conversion Rate
  The digital analytics are measurable and, the strategies can be altered based on the observations. This is one of the best things about an online marketing campaign. In order to optimize the conversion rates, you need to know how many conversions are occurring at the present moment. Only an experienced marketer with sound knowledge of analytics tools like Google Analytics, can understand all the metrics and change the existing strategies accordingly.

Do you see how effective digital marketing can speed up your business promotion and marketing endeavors? It will be quicker, more effective and way affordable than traditional marketing. Furthermore, everything can be strategically measured and analyzed. Talk to a marketing consultant from a reputable agency to know about the importance of professional digital marketing services. He/she will give you further insight into the web world to make you understand the complete process of online marketing and promotion. Creating a startup is easy but ensuring its success, in the long run, is difficult without a proper marketing plan.

So, enhance your knowledge, resolve your queries and create a successful plan to market your startup business today.