03 Dec
Uncategorized

4 Ways to Promote Your Business Website

You’ve put the time, money, and effort into creating a stunning website for your business. Now, your goal needs to be sharing it with as many people as possible. While there are numerous ways to market a website, it requires sound planning, proper execution, and expertise to make your efforts bear fruit. For business owners looking for the best practices to market their website, this article by eSeospace will take you through some simple and efficient ways to do just that.

 

Have Unique Branding

Having unique branding allows you to distinguish your business from competitors. Various aspects go into creating a brand image such as the color scheme, font styles, design guidelines, and more. While you may feel the need to hire a professional graphic designer for handling your branding needs, it will come at a heavy cost. A great alternative is using free online graphic design software for creating amazing social media posts, marketing emails, website graphics, blog images, and more through a few simple clicks.

Similarly, when creating a logo for your brand, use a free online logo maker and download various designs to use as a part of your market testing activities. The logo is the centerpiece of your branding and plays an important role in creating brand awareness and recall. Finalize the logo which gets the highest response through your test marketing campaigns as it is convincing customers to interact with your brand.

 

Invest in SEO

The best way to drive high intent relevant audience to your website is through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO covers various activities such as keyword research, content creation, page indexing, analytics, and more. All these activities contribute towards the common goal of having your website rank higher on the search engine results page (SERP).

Ranking your website on the first page of Google translates to a tremendous increase in traffic. The majority of users rarely go before the first page of search results, hence ranking higher is an excellent way to outperform your competition. According to research, which involved studying upto a billion Google searches, more than 25% of individuals preferred to click on the first Google result. Additionally, this result was considered to be more trustworthy than others.

Compared to other marketing avenues, SEO is cost-effective, increases organic traffic, and improves your chances of making conversions.

 

Use Relevant Plugins

Whether it be design or SEO, there is always a plugin that can help you do the job better and faster. And there is no platform better than WordPress which allows seamless plugin integration. Hence, it comes as no surprise that around 1/3rd of all websites on the web are made using WordPress, as reported by WebsiteSetup. Here are a few plugins you should look to use:

  • Broken Link Checker: It notifies you of any broken links on your website which can hurt SEO performance. For websites with thousands of pages, this plugin is a lifesaver.
  • WP Review: This helps to incorporate product/blog/service reviews seamlessly into your website. Additionally, these reviews can be integrated to show on SERP, increasing the chances of a new customer clicking on your link.
  • TablePress: Using this plugin, you can easily create tables on any page of your website. For instance, you can create a price comparison table explaining services you sell under each price band.

 

Utilize Social Media

Whether your goal is to reach more people, increase website conversions or bring customers back to your website, social media can do it all. By running a targeted social media campaign, you can reach thousands of customers in your niche daily. This can translate into website visits, purchases, or simply brand awareness. Popular ways to make your audience engage with your content include organizing giveaways, hosting contests, starting catchy trends and referral programs.

When setting up your social profiles, ensure to mention your website in your bio and consistently in posts and stories. Prominent platforms to promote your brand include Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Pinterest.

Successfully marketing your website requires a combination of various activities as mentioned above. The key is to be consistent in your efforts and connect with your customers through as many channels as possible.

 

03 Dec
Uncategorized

Essential Tips for Boosting Domain Authority

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a digital marketing mainstay, and rightfully so. With backlinks as its proverbial backbone, most SEO discussions will eventually address Domain Authority, the gift of Follow backlinks. But what exactly is this metric, and more importantly, how can one leverage it effectively? Let us explore this ever-prominent subject as we delve into essential tips for boosting Domain Authority.

 

What is Domain Authority?

Initially, let us demystify Domain Authority (DA). That is, explain exactly what is – and what it is not.
DA is a metric created by Moz, whose purpose is to gauge a domain’s authority. Authority in this context refers to a domain’s expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness – the E.A.T. of SEO. To gauge it, DA scores take into account backlinks from other high-DA domains, the total number of backlinks, and more. It follows that a higher DA translates into a higher probability of ranking higher in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
DA scores will slightly vary across platforms; for example, Ahrefs tackles the same concept in Domain Rating (DR). In all cases, DA scores will be clearly visible in platforms’ dashboards, and will rank websites on a scale of 1 to 100:

However, DA is not an SEO factor per se. Moz definitively says as much on their DA score in the above article:

“Domain Authority is not a Google ranking factor and has no effect on the SERPs”.

We will return to the latter part of this disclaimer, but the former too bears noting. DA does inform your SEO, but it is not a literal ranking factor Google uses.

 

The value of Domain Authority for SEO

Then what is the value of DA, you may wonder. Despite not being a literal SEO ranking factor, it does offer three main, distinct benefits.

#1 Higher SEO ROI

First, DA sees widespread use by SEO professionals to help them gauge SEO ROI – as it is notoriously hard to measure properly. As a professional, you certainly need to know how much you can earn from your SEO endeavors. DA helps you do so by providing a solid metric that contextualizes your market position, which can inform potential returns. If your DA score is low, for example, you may find more value in link-building. If it is high, you may confidently budget for more content marketing as your DA backs it up.

#2 A better grasp of your competition

Second, on the subject of your market position, DA offers an excellent indicator. That is to say; you may analyze your competitors’ DA scores and get a firmer grasp on where they stand in relation to you.

This bears some significance on its own as a way of properly understanding DA as a metric. Moz itself advises this comparative use over absolutes:

“DA is best used as a comparative metric when investigating the sites within your target SERPs that may have more powerful link profiles than you do — your true competitors.”

It thus follows that your DA is primarily a competitor analysis tool. As they continue to assert, there are no DA absolutes; only “better” scores “within the context of a particular competitive landscape”.

#3 Higher SERPs rankings

Boosting Domain Authority most certainly increases your probability of ranking higher in SERPs. Neither Moz’s disclaimer nor Google’s official rejections should have one believe a solid DA doesn’t affect SERPs at all. It may not do so directly, but holistically catering to DA aligns with SEO practices and produces tangible results.

Ahrefs initially notes that Google has a sitewide score that “maps to similar things”, according to Google’s John Mueller. Second, and most notably, their research that follows also echoes the findings of many SEO professionals:

So, even if its benefits are indirect or sums of a greater whole, DA definitely warrants attention.

 

Boosting Domain Authority

So, how exactly can you boost your DA? Perhaps unsurprisingly, the best way to do so lies in link-building and proper SEO. At the heart of DA stands backlink quantity and quality, after all, and SEO agrees.

In order, then, you may consider the following practices.

#1 Audit your links

As a starting point, you should ideally begin by conducting a thorough website link audit. This will allow you to deduce if your DA score is needlessly suffering from link oversights, bad links, and more.

As you do, you may examine different metrics and engage in corresponding practices, such as:

  • The number of backlinks; you may begin by gauging your overall number of external backlinks. Especially if your website is newer, working toward a great DA score will take time and require its backlink fuel.
  • Backlink quality; backlink numbers only tell half the story, however. Next, you may examine your backlink quality – the DA of websites that link to yours. Many low-DA backlinks may produce traffic, but they will not secure conversions or help your DA score.
  • Bad links; moreover, some backlinks may actively harm your DA score. Examine your backlinks to determine if spammy or otherwise dubious websites link to yours, and promptly remove them.
  • Broken links; next, you may examine links both internal and external to identify any broken links. Restoring ones of either type will only benefit your website on the whole, including its DA. For broken external links specifically, you will need to reach out to other webmasters to resolve the issue.
  • Unbranded mentions; conversely, you may identify mentions of your brand or content that don’t accompany a backlink. In those cases, you have effectively already earned other outlets’ backlinks, so you may simply contact them and request them.
  • Poor internal links; finally, you may examine if your internal links are in order. This includes proper, descriptive anchor texts, the absence of orphaned pages, and more, as we’ll cover next.

#2 Solidify your internal links

Notably, boosting Domain Authority is not exclusively a matter for external links. Domain Authority also relies on Page Authority (PA); to simplify this factor, your DA will largely reflect your average PA. PA, however, hinges on both external links and proper internal links to ensure “juice transfers”. So before delving into such practices, you may begin by solidifying your internal links.

As you address this factor, you may also tackle common SEO concerns, further solidifying your website. You may do so through such practices as:

  • Ensuring all pages are being linked to; first, all your pages should be linked to by other pages. User-wise, this solidifies your website’s structure and helps produce a better User Experience (UX). SEO-wise, this allows crawlers to index your pages more quickly.
  • Linking to relevant, quality pages; linking indiscriminately pleases neither users nor Google, however. As you ensure your internal links are in order, you may also examine your links’ relevance. As a rule of thumb, you may align your links with your sales funnel, nudging your users along your desired customer journey.
  • Using relevant anchor text; finally, your anchor texts also help Google contextualize your content’s subject. Conversely, irrelevant anchor texts may often have adverse effects. If possible, try to ensure your anchor texts contain the essence of your linked pages’ topics.

#3 Engage in high-DA link-building

With your foundations in order, you may now safely look outward toward high-DA link-building. This process certainly takes time and requires considerable effort, but it is by far the best way to boost your DA.

There are multiple ways to do so, and thoroughly covering this subject would require an array of articles. Here, for text economy, we may discuss the most prominent and arguably most effective among them; the skyscraper technique. Coined by Backlinko’s Brian Dean, Hubspot visualizes this technique as the following checklist:

The essence of this technique is fairly simple, and offers a very natural way to acquire high-DA backlinks. Backlinko simplifies it down to three steps, which we may cover in order:

  1. “Find link-worthy content”. First, with your keyword insights and competitor analyses in hand, you may identify link-worthy content within your industry. Such content will typically address your keywords of choice and the usual search intent that follows them.
  2. “Make something even better”. Then, you may work toward expanding on what said content offers. Perhaps that is depth, requiring that you go deeper or cite more reputable sources. Perhaps it’s visuals, instructing you to use more visually pleasing images or more informative graphs. In all cases, you should strive to surpass the content you’ve identified to earn your backlinks over it.
  3. “Reach out to the right people”. Finally, you may contact high-DA websites that host or link back to said content and offer them your own. You may identify such websites through your backlink analysis tools, professional circles, and more. In all cases, a friendly email offering tangible value will most often be well-received.

Following this process, you should also begin to craft more link-worthy content on the whole over time. Doing so consistently does depend on your resources, time, and other factors, but it should allow your content to organically earn its backlinks without your direct assistance. Should you achieve this, your SEO and DA will both thank you.

 

Conclusion

To summarize, boosting Domain Authority is certainly not an easy endeavor. It spans across internal and external links and hinges on link quality, quantity, and a wealth of other factors. It is well worth your time, however, as research continues to show. While far from exhaustive, hopefully, this article helped steer you in the right direction toward an excellent DA.

11 Nov
Business

7 Tips to Secure Your Small Business Site

You rely on your commercial site to take care of customers and grow your business, but what do you know about cybersecurity? A single hack could reduce your company to ruins and lead to customer distrust. Take steps to secure your site and all the time, money, and energy you invested in your entity.

 

1.) Design a Secure Site

Instead of using free software, let a professional web developer build your commercial site. Use reputable online platforms and reviews to compare costs and delivery times. Ask providers “how much should you charge as a freelance web developer?” Dependable and experienced developers have rates between $15 and $30 an hour, but you may want to spend more, as you cannot skimp on-site security.

 

2.) Train Your Employees

Imagine learning everything about keeping your website secure only to experience a cyberattack because an employee clicked on the wrong email attachment. Establish basic workplace security procedures, so your workers don’t become liabilities. Examples of helpful policies include using strong passwords, protecting customer information, and implementing internet-use guidelines.

 

3.) Back Up Data

Make a habit of backing up essential business data. Experts recommend you not rely on a single backup to store data you cannot do without. Instead, use external hard drives and cloud storage. Keeping hard copy records may seem tedious, but it’s a move that could save your business and your reputation.

 

4.) Use Antivirus Protection Software

You likely already know about antivirus protection software, but it’s a tip worth repeating. All tablets, phones, computers, and other devices with an internet connection could spell doom for your business. Install protective software against spyware, malware, and viruses. More importantly, install updates when they become available.

 

5.) Implement Proper Password Practices

While using strong passwords goes a long way in protecting your commercial site, you can do more. Change your passwords every three months and make sure your employees do the same. You could also require multifactor authentication to tighten cybersecurity further. If any of your vendors access sensitive business or customer data, see if they offer multifactor authentication.

 

6.) Use Payment Cards Carefully

Tread carefully if you use credit cards. For instance, payment processors and banks should implement anti-fraud services. Check to see whether you have security obligations with your payment processor or bank so you honor your agreement. If you must use less-secure programs to conduct business, keep them separate from payment systems. It’s a good idea to have separate computers or devices for using the internet and processing payments.

 

7.) Know What To Do During a Cyberattack

Despite your best efforts, your company may succumb to a cyberattack. How you respond during the attack can either help or hurt your recovery chances. When you first learn of the attack, contain it as much as possible, which could mean taking everything offline. Next, identify the damage, find out which systems suffered from the attack and determine whether you have compromised data. Even after mitigating a breach, stay on the ball. It’s vital that you seal entry points and make sure the hacker didn’t leave a back door for later entry.

Government regulations may require you to inform specific parties of the attack, such as law enforcement and government agencies. You should also let your public relations, legal, and marketing teams know about the attack in case they need to make a public statement or inform your customers.

Don’t let proper online security fall to the wayside. Following a few tips and practices could help you reach your business potential and protect your peace of mind. Let eSEO Space create a secure and functional website and help grow your business. Learn more.

04 Nov
Business

Understanding The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and Its Rules

When it comes to running a business, financial security is one of the things that is being constantly looked at. As a service provider, here at eSEOspace, we want to make sure that clients get their money’s worth. Having said that, this has transpired us to comply with the guidelines of the Financial Industry Regulatory  Authority (FINRA) to ensure financial security protection. This means that all the websites that eSEOspace creates are according to the compliance of FINRA and its rules. 

 

What is FINRA?

FINRA is short for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, where it is composed of members from exchange markets and brokerage firms. It is an independent, non-government organization that is designed to oversee and regulate the actions of its members. 

 

What is FINRA’s rule? 

FINRA’s rule serves as a guidance and protection to investors in the ever-changing market. It helps preserve the integrity of the market field and strengthen ties among investors and keep their investments secure.

 

Who is required to register with FINRA?

FINRA registration applies to both firms and individuals alike that are connected to the securities business of the organization. This includes people of the following position: directors, partners, salespersons, branch managers, etc. There is a certain qualification exam to pass as proof of knowledge in the said field.

 

 

How do I get a FINRA license?

Getting a FINRA license would require securities professionals to pass a series of qualifying exams. These tests will gauge one’s competence and ability in the said areas of the business before they become registered. Contact us today to learn more.

Woman designing a website and thinking about the ways web design impacts customer experience.
21 Oct
Web Design

7 Ways Web Design Impacts Customer Experience

Web design is one of the most important things in how people perceive your business. When they get to your site, they want to see an easy-to-use interface that stays the same no matter what device they use to look at it. But there are many more things you need to think about if you want to leave a good impression and achieve great results. And to help you figure all of them out, we’ll talk about the ways web design impacts customer experience.

We’ll take you through 7 essential things and explain why you need to focus on them. No matter what marketing strategy you choose for your business, you can improve it if you follow the tips that we’ll give you today. You’ll get more people to your site, and more visitors means more conversions.

Let’s get right into it.

 

1. Appearance

As soon as your visitors click on your website, their customer experience begins. The goal here is to not make your first impression the last. You want to intrigue the visitors and get them to explore your site further.

Of course, you don’t have to do anything complex for the looks to work. However, you must stay up-to-date and give people what they want to see. You can’t have a website that looks like it went live in 1996 and expect someone to spend time on it.

So, here are four trends that you need to have on your site at the moment.

  • Responsive Design. Your site needs to look great on all devices.
  • Bold Fonts. Everything must be easy to read, so don’t pick your fonts without thinking about them.
  • Interesting Images. These are here to get attention and improve retention.
  • Video. Sometimes, a good video is all that a lead needs to turn into a customer.

 

2. Clarity

You want your visitors to find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible. If they can’t navigate through your site, they won’t have a nice time using it, and that’s a problem. Hence, you want to create a system that is easy to figure out and use. You want it to work intuitively, so the people get grips with it right away.

However, you can be smart here and design the navigation to your advantage. Think about leading people from your most valued and read articles right to your high converting landing pages that bring revenue. That, right there, is how you make money online. Of course, you need to find a way to make it look like your landing page is where they wanted to end up. But if you manage to do this, the sky will be the limit for you.

 

3. Professionalism

You can use your web design to show how professional and well-suited your business is. Your visitors will convert much more easily if you assure them that your company is reputable and trustworthy. Luckily, this isn’t too hard to do, and you need to incorporate only a few new elements.

First off, you need a culture page. It’s a place on your website where you explain your approach to daily operations and your values. Then, you have to have pictures of your staff. The visitors want to see the real people behind the company, so give them a glimpse of who you really are. And finally, share with them some of the great feedback you’ve got from your satisfied customers.

 

4. Loading Times

We can’t talk about the ways web design impacts customer experience and not mention the load times. In essence, the quicker your site loads, the higher your retention rate will be. Visitors will love your pages as they feel snappy, and Google will love your site because its users love it.

It’s a scenario in which everyone wins. However, to get everything to load in under three seconds (which is what you should aim for), you may have to make cuts here and there. Make your images smaller and remove auto-play from your site altogether. A video or audio should play only if a user clicks on it.

Take note of small things like these and before you hire a web designer, tell them what you want. Do it this way, and you’ll save yourself a lot of time and stress.

 

5. Content

The way people experience content on your site also falls under web design. If you do everything as you should, what you write will always remain pleasant to the reader. You mustn’t sound negative, harsh, or rude.

Moreover, you need to be careful not to scare away the reader. Avoid things like disturbing images or getting too technical. All your posts and articles must be easy to read and understand, and the same goes for the videos as well.

 

6. Visibility

To put it simply: if your site is well-optimized and has a good SEO score, it will be simple to find it on Google. Your customers will only have to type in one of the keywords you rank for, and you’ll be right there. We don’t have to explain how that is good for customer experience.

As you can assume, good web design makes your site more visible, but why?

Well, search engine crawlers can understand your pages better. From them, they can figure out what your site and business are about, and they’ll rank you high. Now, you only need people to stay on your site when they click on it, and you’re all done.

 

7. Conversions

Whatever you do, the main goal of your web design should be to optimize your conversion rate. You can’t say that you’re getting results online if you aren’t converting visitors into customers. So, here are a couple of things you should focus on when designing your pages.

  • Color scheme. Use colors to make your CTAs more prominent. Make them stand out, but do it with taste. Make them desirable to click on, and people will do it.
  • Keep it simple. Don’t clutter your pages with busy backgrounds. Use sleek and modern designs to attract visitors.

 

Conclusion

As you can see, there are plenty of ways web design impacts customer experience. Be sure to spend some time thinking about it and figure out how to use those to your advantage. Follow our tips, and not only you’ll get more people to your site, but search engines will also love you more. Make your user experience better, and you’ll make more sales. So, it pays off to work on your web design.

 

 

Author bio

author

 

Richard Vance is a freelance writer and an SEO expert from New York. He helps companies from all over the U.S., and the world, improve their sites and achieve the results they’re after..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Photo used: https://unsplash.com/photos/v9FQR4tbIq8]
desk setup
20 Sep
Business

Apps That Save Small Business Owners Time, Money and Energy

How often do you find yourself trying to wear all the hats in your business? As a small business owner, you’re often your accountant, admin team and marketing department all rolled into one. Oh, and you also have to run the business, too! There are plenty of mobile apps available to help business owners like you free up some time and make life a little easier. eSEOspace recommends the following.

 

An App for Making Your Products Dazzle

When it comes to showing off your products, photographs make all the difference in the world. A poorly-lit and ineffectual image gives a bad impression, and could mean a lost sale.

 

Apps for Social Media and Marketing

As much as you might wish it would, your business won’t advertise itself. Maintaining a social media presence and putting together a solid marketing strategy can be a full-time job in itself.

Mailchimp is an email marketing tool that allows you to write and send targeted emails to customers. Use it to easily let people know about any offers you have on or notify customers when something is back in stock.

OptinMonster points out that all of the main social media platforms also have easy-to-use apps. Being able to access them from your phone can help you to manage your accounts while on the go.

 

Apps for Bookkeeping, Accounting and Payroll

Keeping your accounts compliant and up to date can be a long and laborious task, especially where it’s not your specialty. As your business grows, it will be important for you to have a system in place to help you stay organized in the easiest way possible.

Using a system like QuickBooks Enterprise will help you to keep track of sales, invoices, stock and more — and ERP: efficient enterprise resource planning can be the hot ticket. The software is robust enough to make sure you have everything you need while also being really user-friendly. You will have comprehensive oversight of your accounts at your fingertips, as well as the ability to make tailored reports and integrate with a wide range of other software so you truly provide for the needs of your growing business.

If you employ staff or use freelancers, you will also need a payroll system. QuickBooks has all the payroll services you will need and fully integrates with your other QuickBooks products. You can make unlimited payments to staff with next day, or even same day, deposits. Employees can also view their pay stubs and see what vacation day balances they have available.

Wave is another app that is designed with freelancers and small businesses in mind. The intention behind Wave was to encourage small business owners to feel empowered to manage their finances and to not be afraid of it.

 

Apps for Project Management

Keeping yourself organized when you have multiple projects on the go at once is tricky. This is where having a good system for project management is essential. With Basecamp, you can assign projects to both yourself and your employees while keeping track of them on the dashboard in the app. You can assign projects a due date and add any comments where you need to.

 

Trello is similar to Basecamp in that you can assign tasks to people and manage them with cards on a dashboard. Trello also automates a number of tasks to help save you time. For example, add recurring tasks that need to be completed on a weekly or monthly basis.

 

Apps for Video and Messaging

When running a business, you need to be able to contact your employees in real-time, especially when you need something urgently. According to Sherweb, Microsoft Teams offers a suite of services, including videoconferencing and instant messaging. As it is powered by Microsoft, it is also easy to share and access applications like Word and PowerPoint within the app.

Slack is another app that can be used for free in helping you to maintain communication with your employees. Use it to send instant direct messages and for larger group conversations. It can also be used to message people outside the company and is therefore good for building customer relationships.

 

To Conclude

While you may be responsible for holding different roles within your small business, make the process so much easier on yourself by using some of the above apps. They can help you with your day-to-day operations and also in scaling and growing the business, too.

 

[Image via Unsplash]

 

 

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