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What are internal links?

Internal links are hyperlinks inside your website that lead to a page inside your website. External links are links that link to webpages outside of your website. Internal links are normally used to point to important information on your site, especially content that might be relevant to the visitor.

 

There are different types of internal links. Along with the links on your homepage, post feed, menu, etc., you can include internal links in your content. These links are known as contextual links. Contextual links are useful, and point website users to engaging and interesting content. Additionally, they help search engines find which content on your website is related and help the search engine determine its value from there.

 

The more links an important page receives, the more crucial it will seem to various search engines. This means that well-used internal links are incredibly useful to your SEO.

 

Internal vs. external links

All websites, even online storefronts, consist of internal and external links. While internal links connect posts and pages within your website, external links connect pages to different websites.

 

Why are internal links important?

Internal links are useful and important to use if you’re managing a website. Three reasons why you should be using internal links include:

 

• Helping users navigate a website more easily.

• Assisting with establishing information hierarchy for a website.

• Helping to spread ranking power – link equity – around websites.

 

Best internal link strategy

 

1. Figure out the best structure for your website

A good practice for website structure is to imagine it being organized like a pyramid. At the top of the pyramid is your homepage, then below that you would have grouped content divided into key categories. The further down you go, the more you will find individual pages that are not parts of the main content categories, but still might be important. If done properly, your website’s menu should reflect this structure.

 

It can really help to visualize your website structure if you write each page of your site on a post-it notes and then place them on a large table or wall so you can rearrange them as needed. Does that article on how to return your product belong in the Support section? Or maybe the Frequently Asked Questions page? Or perhaps you need links from both areas?

 

2. Determine what your most important content is

It’s necessary to determine what your most important website content is – your cornerstone content. To put it simply, this is your best and most complete content, and serves as the core of your business. These are the posts you want people to discover when searching for products or topics that you specialize in.

 

If you want to let Google know that this is your most important content, you should be adding multiple links from different pages on your site. That’s where contextual links come in.

 

3. Include contextual links

When you’ve accumulated multiple articles that you’ve written about a specific topic, they should be linked to each other. This will demonstrate to search engines and your users that these articles are topically related. This can be done by linking directly from sentences in your own copy or by adding links at the end of the post, or even better, from both locations.

 

4. Think about adding a related post section

Consider adding a related post section to your website. There are countless add-ons and plugins which can add complete related post sections to your posts. This can be an effective way to expand your post reach to more visitors. Think about testing it out is you use one, however. You want to make sure the related posts are actually related posts

 

If you’re unsure, then link to posts manually and put the link to that post at the bottom of the article.

 

5. Add links for hierarchical pages

If your website includes hierarchical pages, try linking parent pages to their child pages and vice versa. Also, don’t forget to link sibling pages to each other. These specific pages should be related to one another on a well-organized website, which is why connecting them makes the most sense.

 

6. Include links to your most recent posts

It’s a great habit to make sure that every time you publish a new piece of content on your site, you add links to the new content from older pages. Remember to try to make sure that when you do this, the pages that you are linking from are topically related to the new content. Google prefers if the contextual links are relevant to the topic the visitor is reading.

 

Adding internal links to your most recent content is a great way to ensure that search engine crawlers find the new content and index it when they follow the links from other pages on your website.

 

7. Add navigational links

If you want to make your cornerstone more authoritative, add links to it from the homepage or the top navigation menu. This method should be done with the pages that are the most imperative to your business. This is going to give the posts or pages on your site more value.

 

8. Insert links to your taxonomies

Taxonomies, such as tags and categories, assist in organizing a website and helping users and Google understand what your posted content is about. For example, if you have a blog, it could be helpful to add internal links to the taxonomies that post belongs to.

 

9. Input links to your most popular posts

Inputting links to your site’s most popular posts or pages is another important point to consider. You should be creating these sections in the sidebar or the footer of your website so that they show up on all pages and posts.

 

10. Anchor text

After you decide which links should be included on a page and which ones should be granted link value, it’s necessary that you incorporate the proper anchor text.

 

Your anchor text should look natural when used in your copy and you should avoid using generic terms like ‘click here’ or ‘read more’.  Generic anchor text doesn’t tell Google, or the reader, where the link is taking them. Using descriptive anchor text means that your reader knows where the link is going, and you can even include keywords to boost the value of the link with Google.

 

An example of great anchor text would be: “Let REM help you with a new business website” vs. “REM makes great websites. Click here to learn more.”

 

11. Orphaned Content and Internal Linking

Orphaned content are pages on your website that do not have any internal links connecting them. This makes it difficult for users to find, and harder for search engines to crawl. In this process, you need to determine what pages you want to be found, deleted, or optimized for search engines.

 

Conclusion:

Utilizing internal links correctly is incredibly important in optimizing the success of your website and boosting your content through search engines. If you follow the strategies and tips outlined above with the implementation of internal links, your SEO and users will thank you.

 

REM offers a robust Search Engine Optimization service that can help your site rank higher in Google Search Results. Our expert team of digital marketers will make sure that your site has the correct SEO setup and meets all of Google’s requirements. We even take care of fixing your internal links for you!

 

Speak with our Marketing Director to see if REM can help you get noticed online.

 

 

Your website is a critical part of your organization’s story, marketing efforts and digital presence in the big bad online world. You spend time and money creating an online experience that would attract and drive certain behaviors from your target audiences. But somehow your site has a high “bounce rate.” So, what exactly does that mean?

 

Well, a bounce, in simple terms, means people are coming to one of your web pages and leaving without staying for less than 10 seconds. While they are there, they are not clicking on any links, your Call to Action (CTA), or another page.

 

The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who do this versus those who interact with your site. The average bounce rate falls between 41% and 55% and the ideal is 26% to 40%. Anything above and even below could mean your site has a problem and is not performing to the best of its ability.

 

To find out your site’s bounce rate look at the individual channels and pages in the behavior column of Google Analytics. If you are scoring above 55%, “Houston we have a problem,” or even worse, we have several problems. It could mean bad content, misleading descriptions, a poor navigation experience or design. Most importantly it’s a sign that users are not doing what you want them to do on your site; they aren’t converting. And this can have an impact on your SEO rankings. In fact, one industry study found a strong relationship between time on site and rankings.

 

Sometimes a website can have a naturally high bounce rate. Therefore, it can be very important to check with a digital marketing specialist who can determine the cause. For example, what if your website has a name that is very similar or identical to another company in a different industry. ‘ABC cleaners’ could be a dry-cleaning company or a window washing company.

 

Another reason for a naturally high bounce rate would be if your city or street has the same name as another place. Websites in Cambridge, Ontario will sometimes get visitors from Cambridge, Massachusetts or Cambridge, England. Those visitors will naturally bounce once they realize they are on the same page.

 

Let’s get down to business and explore some of the top reasons your site could be failing to engage your audience and causing a legitimate bounce rate issue.

 

Three words: content, content, content

With so much information on the web it’s a rare thing for someone to accidently end up on your site. People use google to search for information and visit the sites they think have it. If your content doesn’t measure up, they’re leaving. Content must meet the users’ expectations, or they will bounce to another site.

 

Following a few basic rules can help:

 

1. Create content that matches with your visitors’ search intentions. Your website should focus on the reasons and problems a visitor may have and try to address them.
2. Keep your phrases short. Writing for the web is quite different than writing for a printed publication. Sentences should be short and include key words to improve your SEO rankings, especially in your headings.
3. Think about the user journey and improve internal linking. Where do you want them to go and what do you want them to do while they are on your site?
4. Invite visitors to your call-to-actions. Make it simple and easy.
5. Keep educating! Tell them about related blog content on your site and keep them longer.
6. Follow good design principles. Make your page scannable with easy-to-read headers. Break up your content with engaging images. Make sure your important information is loaded and visible within 3 seconds of the page coming up.

 

Look around for an honest opinion from a colleague, a professional copywriter or even a loyal customer to review your content and adjust accordingly. You may also consider hiring a writer or a good content strategist.

 

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REM offers content marketing and blog writing as some of our digital marketing services. Our professional writers produce content that is engaging, and you don’t have to do anything, just review it once before we post it online. Speak to your REM representative or contact our Marketing Director for a free, no-obligation conversation about how we can help.

 

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Slow Load

Studies show the average online attention span is about 8 seconds. And on top of that, most people will leave if your site doesn’t load in less than 3.9 seconds! You don’t want your visitors to spend those precious seconds of their attention watching a throbber (the loading icon), or they’re going to bounce. There are millions of other web pages. Patience is not an online virtue.

 

Rethink whether you want that big video file to automatically play and take a closer look at those scripts. Take advice from the Google and run a Page Speed Insights test to find out their recommendations. Other tools include Lighthouse reports, Pingdom or GTmetrix. If your page is taking longer than a few seconds you need to fix it.

 

Keeping it Real

Real titles and real descriptions matter. Your title tag and meta descriptions play a key role in setting visitor expectations. When your content doesn’t line up, people bounce. Nobody likes to be misled, nor do they have time for it. Accurate titles and descriptions are necessary; consider these your first impression. If you falsely advertise, they will simply return to the search engine and go to the next best page.

 

Good meta descriptions do the following:

 

1. Explain the organization or the purpose of the page - Provide information a user is looking for like the product or services offered, the location and operating hours.
2. Pull direct content - Think of using a quote or perhaps the first couple of sentences that summarize the content of the page. Chances are a lot of your key words are found there.
3. Summarize - If you primarily sharing information, Google suggests summarizing the entire page. This will give search engines more opportunities to find your page.
4. Share differentiators - If your site is supporting a specific product, share what makes it the best in your description.

 

The lesson here is to be accurate and be descriptive. This will bring the right visitors to your site and encourage them to stay.

 

Navigation

Nothing is more frustrating than landing on a page and not being able to find the menu, the next step or good grief, the link to buy to your product. Poor design creates problems for users who want to browse your site resulting in, you guessed it, the bounce!

 

If your content is good, your titles and descriptions on point maybe it’s time to hire a designer to identify potential issues. Work with them to ensure the menu, links and any CTAs are self-explanatory and easily accessible. This will improve your user experience and your bounce rate.

 

Be friendly to the phone

Global web traffic on mobile phones has surged in recent years and as of November 2022, 60.28 percent of all web traffic came through mobile phones. If your website is not mobile friendly you are doing your organization a huge disservice.

 

Consider these common mistakes of unfriendly websites:

 

• Content is too wide, going past the screen
• Links are too close making them inaccessible on small screens
• Text is too small, meaning your users are spending too much time trying to accommodate your content

 

Websites that are not optimized for mobile do not look good on mobile devices AND they probably don’t load very fast, either. Take the time to explore the site from your own mobile device or to find out how your site measures up by trying Google's mobile friendly test. Alienating the majority of web traffic is only going to increase your site’s bounce rates.

 

REM designs beautiful, user-friendly websites for businesses who want a great user-experience and a fast-loading website design.

 

Error 404

We’ve all been there and usually we give it our best effort and click that link a few times just to be sure. If your bounce rate is really, really high, with visitors only spending a few seconds on the page, chances are they’ve hit a blank page or 404 error message.

To replicate a user’s experience try looking at the page from popular browsers, Safari on desktop and Chrome on mobile. Then find the time or expertise to help you fix broken links, errors, and ensure those blank pages stop your visitors from bouncing.

 

Don’t ask for the kitchen sink

Only ask for what you really need. If you try to collect too much information from your visitors,’ they will bounce! Requesting maiden names, social security numbers and financial information will deter people from staying on the site. People are wary and they have the right to be with the number of online phishing scams out there. The SlashNext State of Phishing report found over 255 million attacks in over six months in 2022 alone! 

 

Take the time to build trust and inform your users. If they stay and learn, your bounce rate will go down and your SEO rankings will go up.

 

Never ignore your bounce rate

How long someone stays on a page can help you determine the success or failure of a website. SEO isn’t just about key words, titles and tagging. It’s about strategic content and design, navigation, and most importantly engagement. Just think about how much time, energy and money went into building your site. Start with those critical pages and try a few improvements. Check back in a few weeks and see if they’re making a difference.

 

You want to know that those efforts are paying off and you’re living up to your visitors’ expectations. Monitoring your bounce rate can be a simple and effective way to take your site to the next level!

 

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If you don’t have the time to do this yourself, or in-house, speak to your REM representative or our Marketing Director so our expert team can help take this off your plate. You can then focus on running your business and helping clients, while we take care of making sure people can find you online.

 

 

Everyone needs Search Engine Optimization.

 

Search engine optimization is a constantly evolving area of expertise. Even before the rapid changes brought on by the pandemic, we would see daily or weekly updates on SEO strategy.

 

Every business owner knows that showing up on the first page of Google is important to getting traffic and therefore customers to their website. Google has held the dominant search engine position for years, still accounting for over 85% of all searches done online.

 

Avoiding search engine optimization and relying on word of mouth or print advertising is no longer a feasible option for reaching new generations of consumers who make most of their buying decisions online.

 

Trust REM to help you with your SEO

At REM, we help our customers to get noticed online. Part of that process, after building you a beautifully designed website, is optimising your site to show up in search results. We work hard for each of our clients to improve their PageRank on a steady basis.

 

To keep up with the constantly changing world of SEO, our team must be constantly learning from the SEO community. The process is even more difficult because the main companies, like Google, don’t give out their ‘trademarked’ information.

 

When Google releases an update to their search algorithms, the entire SEO community braces for the impact. Then the SEO managers start to discuss the changes and see what affects the updates have had on their sites.

 

There have been multiple times where SEO updates have completely changed a sites PageRank, but when you look at the official update, there won’t be anything that should affect the site. We do wonder sometimes if Google tries to sneak out unofficial updates, this is always a hot topic of discussion in SEO groups.

 

So how do we do it?

First, our team is fully trained on all the basics of SEO. Having a complete and thorough grasp of the fundamentals is important to start playing around with the nuances of SEO.

 

If you need to brush up on specific topics relating to the world of SEO, we can’t recommend the site Search Engine Journal enough. Anyone doing digital marketing should read the SEO articles on this site.  The main link to the site is: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/

 

However, beginners should start by reading their SEO Basics eBook:

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-guide/?itm_source=site-search&itm_medium=site-search&itm_campaign=site-search

 

Follow that with this post on the basics for a successful SEO campaign. This post will also start to bring all the basic concepts into focus and show you how to apply them to your site:

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-basics-to-be-successful/343811/?itm_source=site-search&itm_medium=site-search&itm_campaign=site-search

 

Once you have the basics down

Okay, you’ve read through all the basics. Now it’s time to start to narrow down your knowledge to the area that is going to help your site the most.

 

Ask yourself what your site needs first. Should you focus on Mobile SEO because all your clients visit your site on their mobile devices? Or perhaps Local SEO should be your focus as most of your customers live within your immediate vicinity?

 

Here are some examples of the menu options on Search Engine Journal’s site:

• ENTERPRISE SEO
• GOOGLE ALGORITHM UPDATES
• INTERNATIONAL SEO
• LINK BUILDING
• LOCAL SEO
• MOBILE SEO
• ON-PAGE SEO
• TECHNICAL SEO
• VERTICAL SEO

 

Obviously, if you have the time and inclination, you should try to read all these sections as they can be very helpful to your overall understanding of SEO best practices.

 

Google algorithm updates

This is a quick list of sites we read just specifically for Google Algorithm updates. Each time a new update comes out, you might need to adjust your SEO strategy or update your site to meet new requirements. If you don’t, you could suddenly lose all the SEO work you’ve done.

 

• https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-algorithm-history/
• https://searchengineland.com/google-seo-news-google-algorithm-updates
• https://www.seroundtable.com/category/google-updates

 

Daily blogs for the latest updates

Here is a list of the websites that we visit each day for the latest information. Some sites don’t update daily, so it’s good to have a large list of favourite sites, and then you should have some new information everyday.

 

If it does seem quiet, don’t get complacent, the next Google update could result in hundreds of posts that you need to read. So, if it’s quiet, use that time to hone up on fundamentals or explore new areas of interest in the SEO field.

 

Search Engine Journal

“Search Engine Journal is dedicated to producing the latest search news, the best guides and how-to’s for the SEO and marketer community.”

 

This is easily one of our favourite resources. The articles are well organized and easy to read and understand. In fact, this is the first site I give to our marketing team. If you can’t grasp the concepts on this blog, you’re really going to struggle with SEO overall. Remember that REM can help do your SEO for you if you are already frustrated by this point.

 

Semrush Blog

“Semrush's digital marketing blog is an innovative resource for content strategy, content marketing, SEO, SEM, PPC, social media and more.”

 

Semrush is best known for its suite of SEO tools that can help you to do keyword research, site audits, and other key SEO tasks. The Semrush blog has a huge amount of very helpful SEO knowledge which you can learn from even if you don’t use their software. They do a good job of giving general advice which isn’t specific to just their tools.

 

Search Engine Land

“Breaking news, updates, insights, analysis and guides covering SEO, PPC and all things search from the Search Engine Land team and subject matter experts.”

 

A top site for getting the latest trends, breaking stories, and cutting-edge news in the SEO world. We highly recommend following the site or their newsletter so that you get notifications as soon as new content is available.

 

The Ahrefs Blog

“The Ahrefs Blog. Expand your SEO and marketing knowledge with detailed tutorials and case studies. The benefits are obvious: free, passive traffic to your website, month after month.”

 

A highly popular SEO blog, Ahrefs has been around since 2011. The author, Tim Soulo, has written top SEO content for years. He has created some of the most shared content and some of his posts can generate thousands of links, comments, and shares. If you want to learn about SEO, you need to be reading this blog because your competitor probably is.

 

The Moz Blog

“The industry's top wizards, doctors, and other experts offer their best advice, research, how-tos, and insights—all in the name of helping you level-up your SEO and online marketing skills.”

 

The Moz blog has been around since 2004, but it welcomed new management around 2014. The site has evolved into a top resource on the web for anything related to online marketing. The main focus of the site is definitely SEO, and it is the home to the largest online SEO community. This is a great blog and community if you want to be an SEO superstar.

 

Search Engine Watch

“Search Engine Watch provides news and information about search engines and search engine marketing. Search Engine Watch was started by Danny Sullivan in 1996.”

 

Search Engine Roundtable

“A well-rounded view on search engines and search engine marketing from five segments of the Web population represented by senior members of the major SEO/SEM forums on the Internet.”

 

This blog does a great job of keeping you up to date on the conversations and news happening behind the scenes in the world of SEO. The site curates the most interesting threads (conversations) taking place in SEM (search engine marketing) forums on the web. They bring in experts to summarize the threads and provide even more detail.

 

Neil Patel’s Blog

“Your #1 resource for digital marketing tips, trends, and strategy to help you build a successful online business.”

 

If you work in the field of SEO, marketing, or blogging, then you have probably already heard of Neil Patel. His articles are very easy to read, and he breaks down complicated process into easy-to-digest nuggets of SEO goodness. We highly recommend reading and watching as much of his content as you possibly can to up your SEO game.

 

Yoast SEO

“Yoast helps you with your website optimization, whether it be through our widely used SEO software or our online SEO courses: we're here to help.”

 

Yoast is a very popular SEO plug-in for WordPress websites. If your website is built on WordPress, there is a high probability that you are using Yoast for your SEO. REM uses a CMS called [email protected] which let’s you do SEO optimization without an additional plug-in, but for WordPress users this is the best option available. Luckily, the blog covers all SEO issues and trends and not just ones specific to WordPress. It is still definitely worth the read.

 

Backlinko Blog

“Backlinko is an SEO blog that focuses on actionable SEO tips, strategies and case studies.”

 

This blog used to have more regular posts until it was recently bought out by a larger competitor. The blog has a wealth of knowledge in the past articles, including some of the best blog posts on how to optimise and write content for SEO.

 

Raven

“The #1 Source for Internet Marketing Agencies. We write tips for digital marketers and we create beginner through advanced guides for search engine optimization.”

 

Searchmetrics

“In our blog we write about current issues in the areas of online marketing and SEO and show interesting statistics and trends.”

 

Cognitive SEO

“We have written and optimized - for our own blog or other pages - thousands of articles and SEO friendly blog posts in the last 10 years.”

 

Google Search Central Blog

“The Google Search Central Blog is where you can find official Google Search core algorithm updates, announcements of new Google Search features, and SEO best practices. Subscribe to our RSS feed and get the latest updates in your favorite feed reader.”

 

In Conclusion

We hope this article has helped give you a viable resource of blogs to follow as you work on your SEO journey. The sheer volume of content and the constantly changing best practices mean that you need to know most of these tactics to be competitive with other sites.

 

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the weight of how much work this could be, remember that REM can help you by doing your site’s SEO for you. Our costs are designed to fit most budgets and the SEO work is completely hands-off so you can focus on selling or other important areas of your growth.

 

Speak to your REM Sales rep today, or use our contact form to speak to our Marketing Director to get started on how to get your site noticed online.

 

 

Ranking higher in Google is a common marketing goal many businesses have, but in 2022 it can be more challenging to achieve than ever before.

 

That doesn’t mean you can’t succeed in gaining higher rankings, you just need to implement the right strategy to help you get there. Here are some tips and tricks to help increase your rankings.

 

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1.  Move your focus to user experience

Hard-to-use websites that are inaccessible and difficult to navigate are a sure-fire way to frustrate users within seconds and lead them to visit other sites in order to address their needs. Error pages, confusing site structures, messy pages, and dead links are all aspects that can potentially drive audiences away from your website if you don’t look for these issues and address them head-on.

 

Comb through your site to find the problems and barriers that make it a challenge to navigate easily. Optimize your content for mobile, break up chunks of text into shorter paragraphs, and keep headings brief and easy to read. Fix any dead or hanging links and tidy up your sub-folders.

 

Improving these barriers can help improve your rankings and decrease your bounce rate. Contact REM to get a new custom business website design that converts visitors into sales.

 

2. Incorporate targeted keywords into your content

Keywords are arguably one of the most important aspects for you to focus on when learning about SEO. Keywords combine what people and Google are looking for by isolating the most common search terms. This is where you come in.

 

Incorporating keywords needs to be done with care and an understanding about where to include them without throwing them in as much as possible with no real strategy or goal in mind. Google Ads can help you discover your broad search intent, and including keywords in your copy should feel natural, not forced, so be strategic with how you implement them into your website to gain the most success.

 

Book a free no-obligation consultation with our Marketing Director to discuss how REM’s marketing team can help you with Keyword Research.

 

3. Generate backlinks

Generating backlinks is a crucial aspect of SEO performance. If you’re not familiar with the process of back-linking, it refers to other websites linking to yours in a post, article, etc. It is an effective way to help improve your website’s traffic, as people are more likely to visit if they click on an external link through another reliable domain.

 

Organic links can be obtained if you’re prioritizing high-quality content with a people-first mindset. This can help you gain the trust and respect of others, and lead to other industry members referencing your site. You can open up this process to include:

• Testimonials
• Guest blog posts
• Implementing shareable content
• Become listed in industry directories

 

4. Introduce routine site audits

Regular site audits can help you determine how your website is performing and if it’s as user-friendly as possible. Site auditing can also flag issues you may have missed or overlooked, like broken links and slower loading times.

 

REM can perform an Online Presence Audit which includes a website audit and site speed testing. Contact our Marketing Director or your sales rep to book an Online Presence Audit today.

 

5. Speed up your website

The functionality of your website will directly impact the consumer experience and can influence whether they stay on your site. You want your content to speak for itself but to do that your site needs to be accessible and quick when users access it. We live in an instant information society where people want answers and solutions right away, so it’s imperative that your website meets these standards.

 

Now is the time to declutter your site remove anything that might be slowing it down. Delete old plugins, compress images, and clean up your code.

 

6. Make your page title and meta description better

First impressions are important. Your page title and meta description will be the first things your audience ever sees and can influence whether they decide to click on your website. You should be able to easily edit these two aspects without too much hassle, but there’s some points to keep in mind:

• Your page title should not run on too long – keep it between 30-60 characters
• Similarly, your meta description should not exceed 160 characters
• Incorporate a target keyword
• Be unique and think outside of the box

 

7. Learn the importance of internal links

Internal links refer users back to other pages on your website. This is an excellent way to encourage users to stay on your site and engage with your past content. Linking related posts in an article, for example, can provide audiences with the information they’re researching for without leaving your website to search elsewhere for the information they need.

 

8. Write quality content and improve past posts

The content you write should be SEO-focused and created with the intention of effectively educating and communicating with your desired audiences. Since SEO is an ongoing process, it’s important to look for ways you can keep improving what you post.

 

This can mean going back and looking through old articles, blog posts, etc. and finding little ways you can make them better. Look for missed opportunities to implement keywords and internal links, and enhance readability, having an evolving content strategy that critically analyzes the performance of past posts can be hugely helpful in creating more successful SEO-driven work in the future.

 

REM can help with content writing services, editing and even just how to pick the right topic for your posts. With the correct, evergreen content, a blog post can be useful to visitors (and search engines) for years!

 

9. Use short, descriptive URLs

This is another way to easily improve your on-page SEO. Tweaking your URL structure can make a big difference in the appearance of user-friendliness on SERPs. Because it doesn’t take a lot of effort to do, just remember to keep URLs readable and concise, and use keywords when possible.

 

Note: If you do change the URLs on your site, remember to setup 301 redirects so that you don’t lose any Google rankings you’ve already earned.

 

10. Continue to learn about SEO

SEO is a constantly evolving discipline that requires a strong dedication and ongoing learning. It’s crucial to keep yourself in the loop and to stay ahead of trends.

 

There are countless resources available to help you continue your SEO education, so put all of those tools to good use and continue to implement the strategies you learn about in your SEO journey.

 

To give you an idea of how important this is, our Marketing Director reads 40-50 posts each week to stay up to date on the latest in SEO and Digital Marketing.

 

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Secure your SEO success

This post is just the beginning with the endless ways you can work towards improving your SEO and securing success. Try implementing these tips into your SEO strategy, and you’ll see higher rankings in no time.

 

Remember that if you don’t have the time or internal resources to complete these tasks in-house, REM can provide digital marketing services that work within your budget to help you achieve your goals get noticed online.

 

 

Designing and building websites is our game, and we love it. We believe in our customers, what they do, and how they do it – our goal is to provide them with the platform that they need to be successful. Aside from their websites, a key component to their success is recognition, in the digital era that we live in ignoring Search Engine Optimization (SEO) could be detrimental to a business.

 

One of the most frequent questions that we get when a site goes live is “Why don’t I show up in Google searches?” The answer isn’t that easy, there are a lot of moving parts when it comes to SEO rankings and I’m here to tell you, it’s not something that can happen overnight.  Optimizing your website, social media platforms and brand recognition are the key components to your success, each of which requires constant review and effort. Search engine optimization is a long-term investment, and if you start early your return will be fruitful.

 

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Out with the Old, In with the New.

There was a time in the not-so-distant past where search engine indexing was driven by adding meta tags and descriptions to your website. You would choose a handful of keywords that best described your business and used the to drive traffic to your website. Don’t get me wrong, keywords are still very important to your website, however they are no longer the main driving force.

 

Gone are the days of individuals typing in one keyword into a search engine to find specific products or services. Consumers are now using search tools like Google Now and Siri to find what their looking for, which leads way to the concept of “Natural Language Search.”

 

“Natural language search allows users to speak or type into a device using their everyday language rather than keywords. Users can use full sentences in their native language as if they are speaking to another human, leaving the computer to transform the query into something it can understand.”

 

When building a plan for your search engine optimization, you’ll need to shift your focus from individual keywords to broader, ever changing, natural language searches.

 

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How long does it take?

In a recent blog from Josh Steimle at Forbes.com a comprehensive bird’s eye view of what your SEO plan entails is showcased, and we couldn’t articulate it any better than this:

 

Month 1

Research and discovery, website audit, keyword strategy, and planning. If research and discovery can be done quickly, then technical changes may start being made to the website within the first month. In other cases, a thorough research and discovery phase can last more than one month.

 

Month 2 

Begin technical SEO work, that is, making modification to the website based on site audit results. In some cases, the website needs to be overhauled, and this of itself can take months. Other SEO activities such as working on the link profile and building content can be done at the same time the overhaul is happening. If you find yourself in this overhaul situation, you’ll be doing “SEO” but you still won’t be seeing any results at all, since the changes being made will only start to have an impact once they’re finished.

 

Month 3

Start focusing on content creation. Blogging, FAQs, whitepapers, articles, expanded product and company information, etc. Ideally you would have started on this right after the strategy and planning, but often budgets restrict what can be done at once, and so a technical overhaul needs to come first. This being the case, you might start seeing some improvements in rankings by the end of this month. If those rankings are translating into leads or sales then even better, but you wouldn’t necessarily expect them yet.

 

Month 4 

Continued content creation, technical optimization of the website, and development of a healthy link profile (which may include cleaning up low quality links). By this month you could expect to see a marked increase in rankings, traffic, and lead generation. It won’t be anywhere close to the improvements you should 12 months into your SEO efforts, but it should be significant enough that you know SEO is working.

 

Month 5 

By this month or perhaps earlier in the process you may have started incorporating social media management into your plan to amplify your content and increase direct traffic to your website. This can lead to a healthy, natural link profile, and of course generate leads in and of itself. You would continue with content creation and perhaps engage in some PR or media outreach. You should be seeing more and more traffic coming in from SEO at this point, and your leads should be growing as a result.

 

Month 6 

If your traffic has reached 5,000 visitors per month or more by this point, you could benefit from adding conversion rate optimization to your efforts to improve how the traffic you’re receiving converts into leads and/or sales. From this point on, your activities may be consistently focused on content creation and promoting that content, or you may be doing things that are more creative. The specific activities can vary greatly depending on what type of company you are and what kind of website you have.

 

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It's a Long-Term Investment

As you’ll note from this plan provided by Josh Steimle, SEO practices are a long-term investment and when you have a plan in place and a team to support and guide you through the process, you’ll start to generate leads.

 

This is the success we want from you, feel free to reach out to us to help you get started and build out a plan to boost your SEO efforts.

 

 

Now that you understand the basic elements to building a website for your small business, the next step is to zero in on two areas of your website that can be overlooked and shouldn’t be: Content and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

 

Before we get into the nitty gritty, one thing you must ask yourself before building out your content and making SEO plan is:

 

What is the purpose of your website?

 

Knowing the purpose of your website is crucial, it will help you create content that delivers the message that you intend. Do you want your website to be simple? Do you want your website to be a large eCommerce platform? You need to clearly showcase what your company is all about. This allows you to create a site that isn’t convoluted and filled with nonsensical information. It allows you to present only the information that you need while sticking to your brand.

 

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Know Your Customer

In a previous blog post we discussed how to develop a buyer persona. Understanding the characteristics of your website audience will help shape the way you create and present your content. Remember, you can also have a secondary buyer persona and you don’t want to forget about this group as well. As you draft your content keep in mind who your customer is, detail your content to attract and keep their attention while visiting your website. This will benefit you in the long run and assist your sales process.

 

Use the Inverted Pyramid Model

If you haven’t heard of this yet, the inverted pyramid is a form of presenting information in writing, and it’s been around for decades. It suggests that you provide the most important information first, then as you make your way down the page you provide more specific information to support your message. For more information on the pyramid method take a look at this article.

 

Be Clear

It’s incredibly important that right off the bat you are extremely clear about what your business is all about. In a concise statement let the viewer know exactly what your business offers. If you look at REM’s home page, you’ll notice the first thing that you read is “We Provide Business Web Design & Development.” Our viewers know exactly what services and products we offer.

 

Keep it Simple

Remember, your content shouldn’t be paragraphs of information. The key to creating content is keeping it simple and easy to read. Your website should not act as an encyclopedia of your business, you want to keep it simple and concise. This includes the sentence structure, according to the Technical Communicators Association, a common plain English guideline says a sentence should be an average of 15-20 words. This will help your audience stay engaged with your content.

 

Write for the General Public

Depending on the business that you are in, one thing to keep in mind is that your audience will likely have no idea what you mean when you use industry-specific vernacular. You are the expert in your field, but this does not mean the individual that is viewing your website is. The rule of thumb is to create content for someone at a grade 7-9 reading level.

 

Add Calls to Action

Within your content you should strategically place calls to action, they are best used when they match the information that you are reading about. For example, on REM’s home page we have a “Blog Teaser” you will see teasers of our 3 most recent blog posts and as you scan over them you may see something interesting – there’s a “show all posts” call-to-action button right below the teasers to take you to our blog page. On our Website Design page, there is a call-to-action button that takes you directly to our Contact Us page that gives you all the options to get in touch with us.

 

Imagery

In addition to text, you want to make sure that you’re making use of imagery on your website. Placing pictures on your website assists in presenting your brand as well as informing the viewer about your company’s products and services. When building websites for our clients, our designers typically request images from you to showcase what your business is about. It’s always preferred and better to use your images, however stock photography is always an option.

 

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Keywords

Thinking strategically about keywords in your page content is a great start. Having them scattered throughout your website is even better if they are placed strategically. When selecting your keywords, you want to make sure your keywords are specific to your business. Another thing to keep in mind is build your list of keywords based on what your potential customers would be searching for. With a keyword dense website, you increase your chances of being ranked higher in search engines.

 

Keep It Current

Another great practice to increase your ranking is consistently updating your website. After you’ve spent all of this time building content and having it designed nicely, odds are you don’t want to make significant and multiple changes to it. Don’t worry – you don’t have to! Blogging is a great option to identify your website as being refreshed. If you’ve never blogged before, have no fear it’s easy! Blogging is meant to be an informal way of connecting with your audience, teaching them about your products and services and sharing news about your business. Blogging is also another area where you can apply business specific keywords.

 

Linking

Adding links to your website content is also beneficial for your SEO rankings. You can use internal and external links. Internal links are those that you add to your content that link to other pages on your website. External links are those that redirect your viewers to other high-quality websites. Be sure the links that you create on your website have a purpose and are done thoughtfully. For more information on how to achieve proper linking on your website for SEO purposes, I suggest checking this article out.

 

Optimizing Images

As we previously mentioned, imagery on your website is a great form of content to express and provide variety to people visiting your website. However, it is very important that your images are compressed and optimized to render quickly upon your web page loading. If you have large, high-resolution images that you’ve added to your website, they may take longer to load – this can damage your search engine ranking significantly. Another great trick you can apply to your images are adding alternate (aka ALT) tags and captions that are keyword specific.

 

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Final Thoughts

When you’re working on building a website for your small business, you need to take the time to make sure your website not only depicts your brand, but also your business. You need to make sure it’s user friendly and easy to navigate, concise and informative. Your content should be drafted strategically, easy to read and keyword dense.

 

At REM Web Solutions we have all of the tools to get you moving. It’s what we’re good at and we’ve built the software to prove it. Our CMS [email protected] allows you to add content, images, links and so much more with ease. Our designers work with you to ensure your brand is expressed through the look and feel of the site, they help you create a layout to ensure your content can be easily interpreted. Our developers work tirelessly to ensure your website functions the way that you need it to. Our customer success team will guide you through the entire process by providing training and answering questions throughout your lifetime with us.

 

In addition to these services, REM has a great marketing team that can help you implement all of these tricks and tips in the correct way to ensure you launch a website that not only looks and functions great, but brings you business.

 

If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us – we’re here to help!

 

 

It’s been over a year of some businesses struggling to stay alive as a result of the pandemic. This year has taught us how to restructure our teams, building work from home infrastructures, taking every precaution in the book for essential workers that are required to physically be around each other. This year has truly taken a toll on our businesses, unfortunately some were forced to close their doors, but many were able to adapt, and with the inevitable changes that we face moving forward we see new opportunities and new businesses rising from the ashes of COVID-19.

 

As we continue to soldier forward, now more than ever is the perfect time to re-evaluate your business’ online presence. Do you have one? Do you have social media accounts? If you do, are you easy to find? Are you attractive to your target audience? Are you reaching your target audience? These are a lot of questions I know, but having an online presence is the most important thing you can do for your business today and it’s extremely important to make sure you’re doing it right.

 

Websites

I know this sounds strange, since most companies do have websites, but it’s something that we need to bring up, having an updated website is incredibly important these days. Here are a few questions I suggest you ask yourself in regards to your website:

1. When was the last time you did a redesign on your website?

2. Is the information that you have on it accurate with the services and products that you have to offer?

3. Is your site responsive – meaning does your site automatically change based on the device it’s being used on?

4. Is your contact information up to date?

5. Do you have links to your active social media accounts on your website?

6. How are you ranking in terms of Search Engine Optimization?

7. Is your website AODA compliant? Should it be?

8. How are you informing your clients of changes on how you do business?

These are all very important questions that you need to be asking about your website, and if you don’t have a website yet, these are most definitely questions that you want to ask when designing your new website.

 

Search Engine Optimization

This is one of the most common questions that we are asked about from our clients and prospective clients: “How do I get my website to show up on Google’s first page?” Search engine ranking is one of the most sought-after results and there are things you can do on your website to help increase your ranking such as having a responsive website, blogging, redesigning your content to ensure you have proper heading structures in place, and optimizing images that you have on your website. If you’re looking to boost your ranking, give us a shout – we’re here to help!

 

Social Media Marketing

The concept of social media marketing for businesses has really taken off over the past year. Businesses have turned to social media applications such as Instagram and TikTok to attract potential clients and highlight their products and services. Are you making the most of these applications to help generate business?

 

eCommerce

In a previous blog we touched on some of the eCommerce tools that we have available to you, with the increase of curbside pickup methods, businesses are now required to offer their products available to purchase online and picked up at a specified date and time. We have built solutions to help businesses meet the needs of their customers – allowing them to browse online, request quotes, and make purchases. This functionality has almost become an absolute requirement for the survival of businesses.

 

In conclusion the reality of face-to-face interactions is dwindling and it’s incredibly important that the world can find you online, not only should they be able to find you, but they should be able to KNOW you based on your website, social media, SEO and eCommerce platforms. Having a well-rounded online presence will directly increase your sales and we’re here to help you make sure you’re well prepared to tackle the new normal of business. Aside from our tools, our team is here to support you throughout your journey, make educated recommendations, provide you with industry knowledge to help increase your profits and guide you through your marketing efforts.

 

If you’re an existing client and are looking for suggestions on ways that you can improve your online presence, or if you’re a new business looking for some guidance feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]. We want to help you be the best you can be!

 

 

As you continue to lay the foundation of your Unique Selling Proposition another thing to keep in mind is where you fall in the Brand Triangle. What is this unheard-of triangle you ask? Well, it’s what we use to start the conversation of how you define the most valuable selling point of your business, from there you’ll be able to clearly develop marketing tactics that accurately reach your target audience. 

 

When attempting to sell products and services most business owners make the following statements:

1. We make the best product / created the best solution

2. Not only is our product/service the best, it is also the best price on the market

3. We provide the best customer service

This sounds familiar right? Majority of the time these three statements are made by business owners because they truly believe that they are the best at what they do or have. The main problem here is found in the term “majority”. If most people feel this way about what they are selling, this increases your competition in your go to market branding strategies. If everyone is saying the same thing how are we as consumers to decide?

 

This is where the brand triangle comes into play and works by helping you provide clarity to potential consumers as well as internal departments of your business. Up until this point you have likely positioned yourself in the middle of the triangle, in a sea of businesses that believe the exact same thing as you. The secret is to move yourself towards one of the three points of the triangle, which are:

1. Price

2. Quality

3. Customer Experience

This practice can be quite daunting – deciding how you want your target audience to feel about your what you’re selling and understand your market position is a big step and shouldn’t be taken too lightly. Let’s dive into some examples of each position on the brand triangle, hopefully it will help you decide where your business should be!

 

Price

A great example of how a business markets on price being their main selling point is Walmart. If you’re choosing to compete on price, you’re telling everyone that it’s the price of your product/service that makes you great and is why your potential customers to choose you. Walmart has done a fantastic job building out their branding strategy to solely focus on price. For example, if you open a flyer or view commercials, order online via their website, the main advertisements are “Always low prices”, “So. Many. Rollbacks” etc. When choosing to shop at Walmart one is not concerned about the quality of their purchase or the customer experience that they are receiving. People know what they are getting – products for low prices, anything beyond that is a bonus and is normally acceptable by consumers because that is what they are expecting based on the messaging they have received.

 

Quality

If you’re choosing to brand your product based on its quality, you’re offering up information to your target audience solely on how good your product or service is. For example, Apple: can you remember the last time you saw an Apple product go on sale? It’s a rare occasion and when it does happen, the sale is generally a minimal dollar amount off. Apple has positioned themselves as a brand that sells quality products and consumers are willing to pay a high dollar amount for it. Their focus on using the best technology and materials for all product lines and accessories inform their consumers that the quality of their product is the best on the market. You’ll also note that customer experience is not something they brand themselves as having the best of. How often do you walk by an apple store and it’s packed to the max inside with lines out the door? This is because their consumers are willing to give up the customer experience aspect of it, their willing to put aside the hoops they must jump through to get their product, and it works!

 

Customer Experience

The final position that you can take on brand representation is experience, and this means that you’re there for your consumers. Let’s take a look at a store such as Home Depot as an example. There is an array of products available to you that range from different prices and quality. However, the one thing that sets home depot aside is their customer experience. When you visit a home depot in each department there is at least one individual to assist you, you can ask them questions about what you’re trying to do and they’ll guide you through the process, make recommendations and help you stock up with what you need. They’ll load your cart for you, rent vehicles to make your job easier and much more. You’ll notice that Home Depot and their employees pride themselves on being there to help their customers.

 

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Once you determine where you fall on the brand triangle, it will help you define your Unique Selling Proposition, and build out your marketing plan. Take the time to identify where on the triangle is best suited for your business, products/services and your customers and start building out messaging. Once this has been completed, please note it is imperative that you stick with this brand, go all in and don’t divert from how you market yourself!

 

 

I remember the first time I heard SEO I was thoroughly confused, what does it mean? How does it work? As I started my journey of attempting to make sense of Search Engine Optimization, I found myself utterly confused, mainly because I had very little knowledge of key terminology. I wish I had taken a moment to understand the vernacular used as it would have been a great help. That being said, we compiled a list of terminology for your review, when you’re having SEO discussions; I hope you will feel slightly more informed than I did.

 

Please also note, the key terms below and their corresponding descriptions were not created by myself - I wish I was that good! I have compiled this list using the following sources, check them out for more terminology!

 

MOZ - https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/seo-glossary

 

PATHFINDER SEO - https://pathfinderseo.com/guide/seo-glossary/

 

SearchEngine Journal - https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-101/seo-glossary-terms-definitions/#close

 

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Crawling: The process by which search engines discover your web pages

De-indexed: a page or group of pages that are removed from Google’s index.

Indexing: The storing and organizing of content found during crawling

Intent: what users really want from the words they typed into a search bar

Organic: Earned placement in search results opposed to paid advertisements

Query: Words typed into a search bar.

Ranking: Ordering search results by relevance to the query

Search Engine: is a software program that is designed to carry out web searches

SERP: Is an acronym for “search engine results page” – what you see after a search

Traffic: when users visit your website

White Hat: Search engine optimization practices that comply with Google’s quality guidelines

Black Hat: Search engine optimization practices that violate Google’s quality guidelines

Bots: these are what scour the Internet to find content, a.k.a crawlers or spiders

Cache: a saved version of your web page

Cloaking: showing different content to search engines than you show to human visitors

Engagement: Data that represents how searchers interact with your site from search results

JavaScript: A programming language that adds dynamic elements to static web pages

Navigation: A list of links that help visitors navigate to other pages on your website

Sitemap: A list of URLs on your site that crawlers can use to discover and index our content

Alt text: Alternative text is the text in HTML code that describes the images on web pages

Anchor text: the text with which you link to pages

Header tags: An HTML element used to designate headings on your page

Image compression: Making image file sizes smaller without degrading the image’s quality resulting in a faster speed of page loading

SSL certificate: A “Secure Sockets Layer” used to encrypt data passed between the web server and browser of the searcher.

Click-Through Rate (CTR): The rate (expressed in a percentage) at which users click on an organic search result. This is calculated by dividing the total number of organic clicks by the total number of impressions then multiplying by 100.

CMS: Is an acronym for Content Management System. A web-based application that lets people create, upload and manage digital assets

Content: Words, images, videos, or sounds that convey information that is meant to be distributed to and consumed by an audience

CSS: Cascading Style Sheets describe how HTML elements (e.g., colour, fonts) should appear on webpages and adapt when viewed on different devices

Google Analytics: a free web analytics program that can be used to track audience behaviour, traffic acquisition sources, content performance and more

Keyword: A word, words, or phrase that an SEO professional or marketer targets for the purpose of matching and ranking for what users are searching for

Meta Tags: information that appears in the HTML source code of a webpage to describe its contents to search engines.

Responsive Website: A website designed to automatically adapt to a user’s screen size, whether it’s being viewed on a desktop or mobile device

Title Tag: An HTML meta tag that acts as the title of a webpage. This is typically the tag search engines use when displaying search listings. It should include strategic and relevant keywords for that specific page

User Experience (UX): The overall feeling users are left with after interacting with a brand, its online presence, and its product/services

Content is King: An often-used phrase which emphasizes the importance of content to search engine optimization. The search engines value content because it’s proof of your relevance and expertise

Mobile-First Indexing: In 2018, Google started crawling and indexing web pages based on the mobile versions of websites instead of the desktop version

 

 

Welcome back to our Marketing 101 series! In our last blog we discussed Buyer Personas, what they are, why they are important, how to use them, who benefits from them and we briefly touched on when you can use them. Once you’ve developed your Buyer Persona, the next step is to figure out how to intrigue them – we do this using the Unique Selling Proposition.

 

What is a Unique Selling Proposition?

Your Unique Selling Proposition is what you use to communicate to your target audience. Within this proposition, you will define what you’re selling and why it’s exclusive to your business. In other words: why choose you over another business?

 

What’s your problem?

The key to creating a succinct unique selling proposition is having a clear understanding of who your target audience is. Once you have created your buyer personas, you should be capable of understanding what they want and build a narrative that identifies the problems you’re solving for them. During this process, you should always keep in mind what the specific buying behaviours are of your target market. Using this knowledge will allow you to develop a statement that will persuade a buyer to choose you.

 

What’s in it for them?

Aside from buying behaviours, another piece of the proposition puzzle that should be identified are the benefits. Yes, you have a great product and here are the reasons why your customer should choose you over a competitor. What is it that you offer that sets you aside? Is it customer support? Low prices? Do you have a quicker turnaround time, are you more flexible? Are your products and services versatile? Take a step back and stack yourself up against the competition and clearly define what the customer has to gain by choosing you.

 

Take an oath.

Now that you’ve identified the problem, explained how you’re going to solve it, presented the benefits of choosing your company the final bit of information that you should relay to your potential customers is your commitment to them. Taking ownership and an oath to ensure their satisfaction is crucial. It provides your customer with ease of mind knowing you’re invested in their success.

 

Break it down!

At this point in the process you’ve likely created a paragraph worth of words and this is where things get tricky. For the unique selling proposition to be effective, you’ll need to rework it down to 1-2 sentences. Why? The proposition is meant to act like an “elevator speech” it should be used constantly throughout your marketing campaign. Having a short and concise message allows you to portray your proposition clearly and effectively for potential customers to easily digest.

 

Here are some great examples of unique selling propositions:

 

FedEx Corporation
When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.

 

Mars, Incorporated
The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand.

 

De Beers
A diamond is forever.

 

Ben & Jerry’s
We make the best possible ice cream in the best possible way.

 

Page Eleven Paper Goods
This is not your ordinary datebook.

 

Show it off

Now that you’ve created your unique selling proposition it is imperative that you make use of it anywhere and everywhere. This statement is your brand, it defines your business, your products and services and it is what customers should think of when they hear your business name. From inception during sales, on your website, social media, marketing campaigns etc. you proposition should be front and centre, and why shouldn’t it? You’ve invested blood, sweat and tears (hopefully not too much) creating representation of you and your business – wear it proud!

 

How do we fit in?

When creating your website with REM Web Solutions, our designers will ensure that your unique selling proposition is displayed perfectly on your website. We will also do our very best to illustrate your proposition through the design, by choosing reflective colours, images and much more. Our development team promises to build a site that will reiterate your proposition to your potential customers as they navigate information that is presented to them. Our customer success/support team will tag along throughout your journey with REM helping you apply best practices on how to convey your USP using our standard modules.

 

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At the end of the day, I’d like to think our Unique Selling Proposition is “Customer Success Comes First” it’s the phrase that makes us who we are and collectively, every day, we are working towards customer satisfaction. If you need some help building out your marketing plan, feel free to contact us and we can help point you in the right direction!