How Long Does the ‘SEO Magic’ Take to Work?

The single most important question for a business or brand which is about to spend money on search engine optimization is how long it takes before results start coming in. Like if it was a such thing like SEO magic.

We’ve been asked that question countless times over, and frankly, there’s no direct answer.

The leading issue in trying to answer that question is that there are plenty of things that factor in – including but not limited to, the type of business, industry, marketing strategies, and web design.

Simply put, figuring out how long it takes for ‘SEO magic’ to work is relative to how it is done in the first place.

We’ve dealt with several businesses in the past who already had impractical expectations before coming in; they ask head-on if we can help them produce results in a couple of months because that is the ideal time frame they hear from their peers.

Sadly, for them and any future client, we tell them that SEO doesn’t walk on a straight line. In other words, there’s no uniform system or set of rules that govern how strategies should work and what methods should be avoided.

Where does the SEO magic come from?

Key in the term “SEO tips” in Google, and you are bombarded with thousands of opinions from everyone claiming to be experts. While there is nothing wrong with the overabundance of information, we take issue on those who cash in on misinformation, particularly about ‘SEO magical campaigns’ that produce results in no time.

You’re here because you want to know the truth. Don’t get me wrong – We’re not dissuading you from investing in SEO. You’re here for a reality check, and that is what we’re giving you. Don’t worry if you this confuses or scares you.

Everyone feels the same way when they ponder how long it’ll take for SEO to work. But before we delve on to the factors that affect the timeline and results, let’s make sure you know the basics of SEO.

What is SEO?

SEO deals with the optimization of the pages of a website in a way that achieves favorable rank in the search engine results pages (SERPS). It stands out from all other strategies with the same objective because it involves the use of free or “organic” methods.

SERPs contain links to pages, listings, videos, and other stuff that are relevant to a specific keyword phrase or search term. The results are ranked using an algorithm designed based on the search intent of the user.

SEO has the most impact on a website’s ranking, but it is a broad concept that is better understood by two attributes – on-page SEO and off-page SEO.

On-Page SEO

The only way to understand on-page SEO is by learning how a search engine like Google operates. Earlier, we said that search engines embrace an algorithm to examine content and rank pages through them. Google gathers content by using spiders or crawlers.

Search engines use a database (indexes) to save pertinent website info, including URLs. So, when someone searches “signs of a roof replacement,” Google displays results based on its indexes.

On-page SEO deals with optimizing a page on a website. The search engines take multiple factors into account when ranking pages. These factors include keyword use and stemming, internal links and anchor texts, mobile responsiveness, and distribution of page authority, to name a few.

Off-Page SEO

It also often receives the name of “link building,” and it obeys a good reason. Off-page SEO describes the process of creating a reputable inbound link profile for a website, using high-authority, relevant, and trustworthy links from other websites.

The reason why it receives the name “off-page” is that the work done is outside of the website. An excellent example is when you ask an authority site in the roofing industry to link to your blog post about the signs that a roof needs replacement.

When Will You See Results from Your Campaign?

Irrespective of the chosen SEO strategy, it takes time to see the results after the implementation. If you’re desperate to know how long you should wait, then the most sensible projection is four to seven months. This is the period when you begin to see results. In other words, we’re not saying you achieve utter success in less than a year.

The reason why we’d always come up with this modest projection is that there is a bevy of factors that affect the development of your campaign. We discuss these factors below:

Age

Being a newbie is the biggest challenge for every website trying to climb up to the search engine results pages. It’s like when you’re vying a job straight out of college, and everyone looks at you as an inexperienced prospect with a lot of risks and a few upsides.

For the most part, it takes Google a couple of months to index a newly published site. In other words, age plays a crucial factor in figuring out how long you have to wait for your website to appear on the first page of SERPs.

There are ways to help speed up your progress, i.e., obtaining links from authority sites (off-page SEO). Doing so means convincing high-ranking and relevant sites to link to you. If you’re successful in getting these links to your pages, you’re telling Google to index your site quicker.

History

Age and history are two different things SEO’s perspective. The former refers to the time that your site has been published on the web, while the latter talks about your site’s interaction history with the search engines.

Google hands out a score on every page of a website based on factors such as trustworthiness and reputability. This score or rating exemplifies your site’s propensity to climb in the search engine rankings.

Hence, the higher score your page gets, the more likely faster the climb to the first page of Google will be.

Penalties

We said earlier that there is no set of strict guidelines or rules in SEO, but don’t think Google and other search engines won’t penalize black hat strategies. Google hates websites that break its rules, although there’s no existing document that details these rules.

Any decent individual with minimal background in SEO knows what it means to break the rules, i.e., procuring backlinks from shady and spammy sources, posting duplicate content, and keyword stuffing.

If you’ve engaged in any of those black hat techniques before, it means your site has a tainted reputation online. Google and other search engines won’t forget previous penalties when they rank pages. But like everything in life, there’s always a second chance to redeem yourself.

SEO Magic: Final Words

As you see, doing ‘SEO magic’ is a lot more complicated than most people think, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Instead of probing into how long it’ll take for it to show results, the best approach is to set realistic goals and then establish an effective plan based on them. Instead of focusing on the time frame, you should weigh on the factors that affect your campaign.

SEO Practices: Why Only A Great Website Won’t Give You Any ROI

If you want to get ROI from your website, keep this in mind: Your website’s SEO Practices is more important than design. There’s no dispute that a website should have the best website design, with a creative branding structure that really sells your business to web visitors. Right? No-one wants an ugly website.

However, you must complete that sexy design with a well-planned marketing strategy. And it includes your SEO and other important aspect of your business plan.

The online marketing industry has fallen into somewhat of a dangerous trap of creating websites that are gorgeous, yes. But at the expense of fundamental SEO Practices that actually bring visitors to your site from search engines.

In other words, we see a lot of websites with insane design that actually never get seen on the SERP. Then, all you do in terms of web design gets lost and you’re stuck with a website that can’t be found. And with websites being perhaps the most important online marketing tool under your belt, that doesn’t really help.

The SEO Of Your Website Is #1 Priority

The list of fundamental SEO practices for websites doesn’t actually run that long. But you’d be surprised at just how many of them business owners miss when they built their new website.

Really, it’s a blend of sacrificing these fundamentals for design elements- or billable hours being allocated towards the design rather than the skeletal framework of the site. Fundamental SEO includes factors like:

Keyword optimization
Title tags
Meta Descriptions
Alt tags
Site maps
Crawl accessibility
Snippers/schema markups
URL

These are all pretty non-negotiable when it comes to being seen on the SERP and taking a leading spot on page 1- but they seem to be common factors not quite hitting the mark on a lot of developed websites out there.

A Websites Design Doesn’t Boost Your SERP Ranking

But it does affect other analytics like bounce rate, page session and even conversion rate.

Which is why a harmonious blend of strong SEO Practices and visual design makes for the perfect website. It just seems that it’s one or the other out there with many web agencies.

It’s not an industry trend that we are happy to see.

Is SEO Practices More Important Than Design?

Short answer- yes.

Detailed answer? It’s not really that simple. Is getting seen online more important than how you are seen?

It’s a hard question to answer. One on hand, if no-one ever finds your website due to poor SERP ranking, that means no business for you. On the other hand, though, there are chances people find very easily on the SERP. But then, people bounce out of your site really quickly if your website isn’t visually appealing and user-friendly.

The most fair way to analyze these questions is to assess the goal of your website development in general. If you don’t feel the need to be seen on the SERP and execute alternative online strategies, design away. But most businesses want to be seen on search engines:

62.9% of online users conduct searches for products and services on Google
67% of online users only use Google to search for products and services
51% of people convert after using Google to search for products and services

In that case, building a site that is perfectly optimized for search engines is crucial- and so yes, SEO triumphs web design to ultimately satisfy business goals. Building a skeletal framework that is strong, strategic and well executed will put you in a good spot for maximum exposure, and design elements can be created around the core of the site.

Don’t Forget- Website Design Still Matters!

We’ve truly noticed it’s one or the other, because we sometimes see sites that are beautifully optimized- but are downright ugly.

One of the hardest parts about online marketing is that you are creating content and elements that have to both appease search engine crawlers and real live humans. And that is difficult. Really difficult.

That’s why the design elements of your site still really matter, and why great website developers are hard to find- one with a perfect balance of technical and visual development. The design of your website speaks to your branding and the quality of your services, and remains the last step between a potential customer and confirmed lead generation.

It draws users in, and keeps them engaged with your brand. It’s like sticking a billboard up in the most high traffic area, but the billboard is comprised of cardboard and sharpie markers. People will see you, but they’ll drive right on by (or to another competitor in this case.)

Website Design & SEO Go (Almost) Hand In Hand

Like we said, great website design is difficult because it demands both a technical understanding of search engines and visual creativity. The two can very easily exist together (and should for that matter) but it takes finding a developer that builds with both in mind. Be sure to discuss your visual goals, but also inquire about the SEO framework these design elements are being built around. You’d be surprised at what may be missing.

SSL Certificates & Website Safety

SSL Certificates & Website Safety (What You Might Not Know)

Following the release of Google Chrome, it became a dangerously common misconception that websites without an SSL certificate are unsafe, and should likely be avoided. Let’s read out below the importance of SSL Certificates & Website Safety.

And while this is true, we often struggle to communicate to our clients that even websites with an SSL certificate alone aren’t actually all that safe either.

SSL certificates fail to come in as a last line of defense for more complex security breaches. While your site certainly needs an SSL certificate- e-commerce or not- there are other safety protocols you have to consider if web safety is a top priority for you.

What is an SSL Certificate?

Secure sockets layer.

That’s what it stands for- a secure sockets layer.

Not a glamorous sounding addition to your website by any means, but these certificates play an important role in data encryption. They quickly became a best practice in website security, for good reason as well. SSL certificates establish an encrypted link between a web server and a browser.

If you don’t want the entire world knowing what you’re sending across the net, you sure do need an SSL certificate.

Where Did The “Not Secure” Warning Come From?

Google and Mozilla are pushing hard for webmasters and the like to adopt HTTPS.

(Don’t worry- we’ll cover HTTPS too.)

At the end of the day, the only way for these Internet mammoths to push HTTPS adoption is by flagging sites that don’t have SSL certificates.

Wait, Wait- HTTPS?

You’ll see the https extension in front of most websites these days.

The web can be a very unsafe place without proper safety protocols, and HTTPS offers the most robust combination of safety certifications to keep your website as secure as possible.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure was built off it’s older counterpart HTTP- Hypertext Transfer Protocol.

The difference between the two? HTTPS uses SSL certificates for data encryption. HTTPS makes online shopping and mobile banking possible- information passed over an HTTPS network is generally not compromised by outsiders.

HTTP speaks more to the way data is communicated between two parties over the Internet. It doesn’t necessarily address the safety of how that is done, just how it’s done in general.

HTTPS is the perfect combo of data communication and data encryption.

Google Will Flag Websites Without SSL Certificates

Rightfully so. Websites without SSL certificates aren’t secure.

Like we said, the world wide web isn’t a safe place these days and website security isn’t really optional anymore.

The proof is in the pudding. The cyber security industry is worth over 241 billion dollars and shows no sign of slowing down.

The “not secure warning” is totally legit.

But don’t assume that https websites are automatically safe- above SSL certificates, there are other security protocols your site really, really should have.

SSL certificates can’t protect a website from malware infections, viruses or the website than spreading that malware. Even the padlock in the address bar doesn’t necessarily indicate secure- it simply indicates that the info shared between that websites server and the browser is secure.

PSA- infected websites over an HTTPS network will actually continue to ensure the integrity of the malware or virus, all the way until it reaches the final victim- the websites visitors.

SSL Certificates and HTTPS Certificates STILL Don’t Equal Maximum Website Security

As easy as we would like to make this, there really is no “one size fits all” solution for website security.

Even if a website has had SSL & HTTPS forced upon it, it doesn’t actually mean the website is secure.

Without additional security measures, such as WAF (Website Application Firewall) or access controls, an HHTPS site can still be hacked and be dangerous to visitors. Data encryption is vital, yes, but it’s only piece of the web security puzzle.

You need to look at website security as a strategic, well planned conjunction of protection, detection, response and backups.

Our number one tip to get going, however?

Make sure you choose the right SSL certificate.

Domain Validated SSL Certificates

These SSL certificates show that a domain is registered, and that a site admin is running the URL.

It’s quite easy to obtain- this certificate authority can typically validate through email, DNS or HTTP.

It includes the owner proving they own and run the domain, and saving a text file in the public web root of their domain.

Organization Validated SSL Certificates

Building off domain validated SSL certificates, organization validated certificates not only prove ownership of a domain, but also proves the existence of an organization or company that stand behind the domain.

Your organization or company’s details are shown online, just like individual ownership ins domain validated SSL certificates.

Extended Validation SSL Certificates

Again, building on the above, extended certificates demand even more information and proof of ownership than domain or organization validation.

It signifies an even higher level of security and ownership, those these take longer to obtain.

Take a look at the domain bar when you look at PayPal; there is no doubt of the organization, ownership and their authenticity.

At the validation level, extended validation SSL Certificates are the most secure. If applicable, look to extended validation certificates as part of your end security game.

Single Name & Wildcard SSL Certificates

Single-name SSL certificates protect one subdomain.

Great for forgotten subdomains, or site evolution, there is always a place for single name SSl certificates.

Just be aware, however, that a certificate for one subdomain will only apply to that exact, specific domain- not even the branches of it.

A certificate for www.website.com won’t apply to mail.website.com.

On the other hand, wildcard SSL certificates secure a number of subdomains for just one single domain.

Again, we would love to make this easy for you, but wildcard SSL certificates only protect the subdomains of one single domain.

They don’t protect multiple domains, even if they are all related.

That’s where multidomain SSL certificates come into play.

Multidomain SSL Certificates

These giants provide security for several different domains, through one extension.

This extension is the SAN extension. (As if you wanted anymore acronyms thrown your way, we know.)

SAN extension= subject alternative name.

With multi domain SSL certificates, you can combine multiple hostnames even if they’re not from the same domain.

Complex? Yes. Many sites don’t need to go as far as multidomain SSL certificates, but they are there- and for those that need them, you NEED them.

So, I hope you understand everything about SSL Certificates & Website Safety. feel free to Contact us for any Consultation about web design, SEO, Marketing.

Rad Website: What Does Rad Stand For?

What Does RAD Stand For?

You might be wondering why we chose RAD websites as our name. While we do think of ourselves as pretty awesome, that isn’t the reason why. We believe that to succeed in the online world today, you need to think radically different than your competition. Like in a Steve Job-ish kind of way.

According to Urban Dictionary (and of course we believe everything the Urban Dictionary has to say), RAD means totally cool. It is an abbreviation of ‘radical’–a term made popular by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles television show. RAD is primarily used on the West Coast by people who find words like ‘cool’ and ‘awesome’ to be tired and overused. RAD is generally considered to be much higher praise.

While RAD has a couple of different meanings, to us, it stands for Really Awesome Design. We are passionate about how the website looks and we don’t just take any project that comes away. We believe in this overhyped, oversaturated world, success comes by being unique. A website should showcase your personality, your abilities, and who you are as a company.

Why is being RAD important?

You might believe calling yourself RAD is silly (and childish), but we boldly disagree. Having a RAD website is more than just the look and feel of a website. It is also how the website operates and how you navigate through it. Without a good user experience, your customers will quickly bounce off and go to another website – most likely your competition.

When we take on a project, what do we do ensures that your design sense comes through. For starters, we know all the latest design trends and we couple that with the latest WordPress technology which is like a Mike Tyson one-two punch.

For every client, we assign a project manager who will outline with you the exact process and ensures deadlines and expectations are met. Your project manager will communicate with our various team members, ensuring that your vision is reached. The project manager has a critical job of being the go-between between you, the client, and the men and women who specialize in their area of expertise.

While design is what we are passionate about, equally as important is the backend stuff. This is the programming of the actual website and what happens after all the design elements have been created.

Your website is sometimes the only thing your customers see before they decide on a purchasing decision. You want that sucker to be so eye-poppingly RAD Website that it attracts customers up the wazoo.

And you’re in luck. Because when you hire us, that’s what you get. Now we’re going to dive into a couple of elements that you need in order to get a RAD website.

Visual Website Design (AKA “RAD-icalness Stuff”)

Many people come to us, wondering how we can start. How do you make your site look great? The answer is both simple and hard at the same time: start with your brand. Ask yourself, “What do I want to accomplish with this page?” If a page doesn’t have a clear purpose, consider getting rid of it.

Your brand is your image. Everything from the colours you use to the fonts you choose affects people’s perception of who you are. What do you want people to think when they see your site? Edgy, modern, satirical, professional?

You can convey those things through your design. Just take a look at the psychology of colour – different colours convey different emotions. Red and orange are bold colours. Green is eco-friendly. Blue emphasizes trustworthiness. Beyond colour, you also have font choice. And yes, there is a psychology behind font choice as well. In fact, almost everything you choose as a secret psychological effect.

Regardless of the font, you choose for your logo and branding efforts, you should always choose readability over emotional feel for your main body font. Typically, that means sans serif fonts, as they read the best on the web.

Lastly, we’ll talk about photographs and images. They, of course, are a major part of website design and yet so many people do it wrong. Great photographs and images add that extra wow factor to your website. They help explain a key point and give the eyes a break. And they definitely help sell your products and services. For example, if you’re an eCommerce site, you want your product photos to be high-quality and show tons of different angles.

Technical side of a Website (AKA “Geeky Stuff”)

The Geeky Stuff can be a whole blog post by itself but we’re just going to talk about one important aspect: mobile friendly designs. Why? Because over the last couple of years this is the one aspect of the Geeky Stuff that has changed drastically.

Mobile First Design

Every year people spend more and more time on their mobile devices, but many (if not most) websites still aren’t fully optimized to account for different screen sizes and load times. In fact, smartphones now account for over 51% of all online traffic, and tablets came in at just over 12%. And that number is growing.
Mobile optimization takes a look at site design, site structure, page speed, and more to make sure you’re not inadvertently turning mobile visitors away.

Here are some other things to look out for when designing a website that are supercritical.

• Site Speed
• SSL encryption
• Google Analytics
• Google Business

So What’s A Non-Designer To Do?

Call us at RAD websites of course. We’ll do a free consultation, giving you suggestions on how to build a new website or overhaul your existing one. We are here to lend a helping hand, not pressure you into buying something you don’t need. So give us a call and let’s talk.

How to Use Free Keyword planners for SEO and PPC Strategies

I know. I know. You’re freaking out at my headline because you know I hate pay-per-click (PPC), but don’t. I know what I’m doing. Let me explain How to Use Free Keyword planners.

So the reality is, no SEO strategy is going to get your website at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) in a short period of time. As discussed in other posts, SEO takes at least a couple months before you start seeing results. That being said, some new businesses do not have that luxury of time.

For them, PPC offers a few advantages SEO don’t, such as: position on the page (paid search dominates above-the-fold content. A user will always see the paid search Ads, even if they choose to scroll past them), improved Ads (PPC Ads are just that: advertisements.

Free Keyword Planners and PPC

As you can see, with PPC you have far more space for delivering your marketing messages), visual product Ads (Google provides the option of visual shopping Ads [Product Listing Ads, or PLAs] that can help a user see what they will be clicking on.

This kind of Ad can really improve the click-through rate by offering a feature not available in organic search). Other advantages include targeting (PPC provides a laser-targeted way to get in front of potential customers based on time of day, day of the week, geography, language, device, etc.) speed (PPC campaigns can be created in days and ramped up in weeks) and agility.

Speed provides agility. Want to test a new product? A new marketing message? You can get rapid feedback on a new product launch (or minimum viable product) by running a short PPC Ad campaign.

But whether you’re running an SEO or PPC campaign, one thing that is pertinent to both is keyword research. What Is Keyword Research?

SEO keyword research is the process of identifying what words and phrases people type in when they are trying to find information about a specific topic online” (DemandJump). It can give you insight into the demand for certain keywords, and what it takes to compete for the top position in SERP.

Why Do You Need A Keyword Research Tool?

In order to do keyword research, you need to use a keyword planner that will ***? And because I love my clients so much, I would never deprive them of any opportunity that could work in their favour. So that’s why I am going to show you how to use free keyword planners for SEO and PPC strategies. No client gets left behind.

First, you must understand that there are many keyword planners for SEO and PPC out there on the market. However, for the purpose of this article I will discuss the one most people are familiar with, i.e, Google Keyword Planner (an SEO keyword planner tool for PPC campaigns), along with a few others including Answer the Public and Google Keyword Planner.

Google Keyword Planner

According to Google, its Keyword Planner “helps you research keywords for your Search campaigns”. It provides another way to create search campaigns that are centred around in depth keyword research.

You can use this free tool to discover new keywords related to your business and see estimates of the searches they receive and the cost to target them. Not only is it free, but it is not difficult to use, especially as Google has an easy to read Guide.

You can use Keyword Planner to discover new keywords related to your brand. It will show you estimates of the searches those keywords receive along with the cost to target them. However, when creating an online campaign, you must know how to effectively use this free resource for successful outcomes. So how do you do that?

Find Relevant Keywords

Google Keyword Planner can help you discover new keywords that your target audience uses when searching for brands like yours. You can find quality, relevant keywords you never thought of with GKP:

By filter: If your brand has a physical storefront and you want to target people searching around your area, you can use GKP’s filter that lets you see a keyword’s popularity based on location. While a specific keyword might have a high search volume in a wide area in general, this filter allows you to see if that same keyword is widely used in your targeted area by:

Keyword: If you already have a keyword that you know is solid, type in the keyword and GKP will generate several long-tail keywords from which to choose.
Landing page: if you type in the URL for any page on your website, the GKP will scan that page and create relevant keywords based on the content on that page.
Product category: If you pick a product category that best describes your brand, the GKP will help you discover keywords that are frequently searched for by users of similar brands.

Refine Your Keyword Search

As mentioned, Google Keyword Planner gives you options to filter for relevant keywords. You can also refine your budget and audience. Here are the choices for filtering when you are setting up your keyword plan:

Discover new keywords – lets you generate new keyword ideas by typing in a phrase or website.
Using multiple keywords lists lets you combine two individual lists to create new keyword combinations.
Get search volume and forecast – know trends by seeing the historical and trending data for keywords.
Review performance forecasts for clicks and costs to understand performance projections for a keyword list based on average bids and your budget.

After completing your filter and running the report, you still have another option to further filter based on data range, reach, monthly searches, keywords competitors looked at, etc.

See What Your Competitors Are Paying

Not only can Google Keyword Planner show you what keywords your competitors are looking at, but it can show you what they’re paying for these keywords. It can also assist you with finding effective keywords that fit your budget.

Keyword costs are often dependent on how competitive they are. I.e. depending on how many people are bidding on them, the competition level will be ranked low, medium or high. As you can imagine, the higher the rank the more costly the keyword. As such, it can be quite costly to rank at the top of SERP. That’s why the Google Keyword Planner is a handy tool to provide insights into keyword targeting.

However, although the GKP is a great free tool for PPC campaigns or getting started in SEO, in many ways it is still limited. For example, the GKP can only be used for specific purposes, so it requires SEO experts like myself switching between tools to meet all the needs of my clients.

AnswerThePublic

Another free keyword planner for SEO and PPC strategies is: AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic is a search listening tool that “listens into autocomplete data from search engines like Google then quickly cranks out every useful phrase and question people are asking around your keyword”.

It’s a treasure trove of useful information that can help you plan your SEO and PPC strategies. With AnswerThePublic you:

Meet your customers exactly where they are
Keep your finger firmly on the pulse
Uncover hidden treasures
Stop wasting time on gut-feel and guesswork
Make solid business decisions: take fewer risks
Streamline your content production

AnswerThePublic provides FREE searches (over 500k a month!). If unlimited searches is what you need, then you can upgrade to one of their pro or education plans. How else can you use AnswerThePublic for SEO and PPC strategies?

By tracking shifts in brand perceptions and spotting seasonal trends.
By easily comparing search behaviour changes over time in your research. Btw, did you know 20% of daily Google searches have never been seen before?
By creating folders to organise your search, i.e. Collections.
By exporting your results to CSV.
By producing high resolution images.

Conclusion

As I mentioned at the beginning, there are many free keyword planners for SEO and PPC strategies. Some are not totally free–you have to upgrade at some point. I didn’t even get to:

DemandJump’s SEO keyword research tool,
Keyword Magic tool,
Amazon Keyword tool,
Reddit’s KeyworddIt,
Ahrefs Keyword Generator, among others.

Instead, I showed you how to use Google’s Keyword Planner and AnswerThePublic as great starting points for your SEO and PPC strategies. Want us to go through some of the others? Let us know in the comments below. Know a few free keyword planners that have produced favourable results? Why not share with our audience?

Hi! I’m AJ… the Best SEO in Canada. Are you still unsure after reading How to Use Free Keyword Planners for SEO and PPC Strategies? Don’t worry. I’m here to help. My team and I have over 10 years of experience doing SEO. We can work with you to use any keyword planner to generate the most relevant keywords for your SEO and PPC strategy. Give us a call or send us an email. You’ll be glad you did.

How To Increase Traffic for Beginners

Know matter what type of business you run – whether it’s online or offline – you should know what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is and why it’s important to increase traffic to your website which will ultimately bring you sales. First, we’re going to start with the basics.

Good SEO Practices Vs. Bad SEO Practices: A Simple Guide

Twenty-first century websites are usually built and maintained following the standard set by the search engine giant, Google. These standards include Search Engine Optimization (SEO) best practices. As such, webmasters such as the Best SEO in Canada strive to follow good SEO practices that are ethical and up to date with the latest developments of ranking algorithms.

In the past, webmasters employed bad SEO practices such as keyword and banner stuffing, link building and cloaking in order to rank on Google’s first page.

However, Google’s latest algorithms make those practices almost impossible. Nevertheless, there are always unscrupulous webmasters who try to get around Google’s best practices.

Whether you are new to website development or a seasoned veteran at building websites, here is a simple guide to Good SEO Practices vs. Bad SEO Practices, so you can beware when making SEO decisions while building or maintaining your websites.

Good SEO Practices

Good SEO practices consist of what is called “white hat” techniques. These include:

● Security Certificate:

Up to recently, most people did not know what the ‘https’ at the beginning of a domain stood for. However, they understood that if a site had this “lock”, it meant the site could be trusted.

Today, Google has added security certificates as a requirement in their list of best practices for SEO. So websites with the https automatically rank higher in their search results.

HTTPS stands for hypertext transfer Protocol Secure, and enables websites to be more secure by encrypting the information sent between the visitor to the site and the server. It has been a Google ranking factor since 2014.

You can tell if your site is already using HTTPS by checking the loading bar in your browser. If there’s a lock icon before the URL, then it means your site is secure. If there is no lock, then you need to ‘buy’ one by installing an SSL certificate.

Due to Google’s standards, most web hosts offer these in their packages. If yours does not, you can depend on AJ Frey, owner of Best SEO in Canada, to pickup one for you.

This is a one-time installment, and once done, you can expect security on all your pages, including those you may add in the future.

● Placement of your target keyword / phrase:

Google’s best practices suggest that your target keyword / phrase should be in at least these three places. These are your title tag, heading and URL. Let’s take a closer look at each:

a) Title tag

According to Google, title tags should be written that accurately describe the page’s content. If you’re targeting a specific keyword or phrase, then this should do precisely that. However, search engine optimization isn’t just about improving rankings, but also enticing clicks. This is why your title tags must also be compelling.

N/B: Readability always comes first. Your title tag must make sense to the searcher. For example, if your target keyword/phrase is “saskatoon berry pie cheap,” then that doesn’t make sense as a title tag. Rearrange the words so it makes sense, even if you have to add stop words—Google is smart enough to understand what you mean. At Best SEO in Canada, AJ Frey knows just how to do this for you.

Finally, keep your title tags under 60 characters and use only “title case” for titles.

b) Heading (H1)

In addition to your title tag, your target keyword / phrase should also be in your heading. N/B: Every page should have a visible H1 heading on the page, and it should include your target keyword/phrase where it makes sense.

c) URL

The third place according to Google, where you target keyword / phrase should be is in your URL. According to Mozilla, “URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator.

A URL is nothing more than the address of a given unique resource on the Web. In theory, each valid URL points to a unique resource. Such resources can be an HTML page, a CSS document, an image, etc.”

Your URL should be short and descriptive, according to Google, as long URLs may intimidate web searchers. As such, it is not always best SEO practice to use the exact target query as your URL.

N/B: Earlier we noted that it was okay to add stop words to your title tags. However, it is good SEO practice to remove stop words from your URL. What are stop words? Words such as The, Is/Are, At and On. There are others, and different search engines have different criteria for stop words.

Finally, your keywords/phrases in URLs should be relevant to your page’s content.

● Match search intent:

Another good SEO practice is to match search intent. This means to align your title and the description of your page with search intent. Nobody wants to see product pages in the search results for “how to make blueberry grunt.” Clearly, these people are in learning mode, not buying mode.

Google understands this, which is why all of the top results will be blog posts—not pages selling blueberries, lemon and sugar.

The opposite is true for a query like “where can I buy blueberries.”

People aren’t looking for a blueberry grunt recipe; they’re looking to buy some blueberries. This is why most of the top 10 results are going to get ecommerce category pages, not blog posts.

Matching search intent goes beyond creating a certain type of content. It’s also about creating the content from a particular angle and in a specific format. Which brings us to the next good SEO practice.

● Write thorough and relevant content on a regular basis:

How do you rank for more queries? By making your content more thorough and relevant. But how do you do that? Here are a few tips:

Complete sentences with good spelling and grammar. There are a few reputable software programmes that offer spelling and grammar corrections, so there is no excuse for poor grammar and typographical errors on your website. This would not be a good SEO practice.
Make sure that your content is unique and original. There is nothing wrong with publishing content that is written by others, however, it must be unique and original.
Well-labelled images: If you use images in your content, ensure that each is properly labelled. If in case the images cannot load, at least the searcher can know what the image is about by reading the label.
Make sure that your content is relevant. Quality over quantity. While the length of your content may be important in certain contexts, at the end of the day, it must be relevant to your searchers’ queries. Btw, this not only applies to blog posts, but also to other types of content on your website.

N/B: Publishing new content on a regular basis is a good SEO practice, but it is also important to keep a balance between content produced by the website and content offered to the website by an author, in exchange for a link in the author bio. In this case, it is better not to publish, than to break this rule.

● Relevant internal links:

Internal links are those from one page on your website to another. Adding internal links from other relevant pages is a very good SEO practice. This is one of the foundations of Google’s ranking algorithm and remains important even today.

Internal links also help Google understand what a page is about. Look for suitable places to add internal links on pages that fit the bill.

Unfortunately, Google discontinued public PageRank scores in 2016, so there’s no way to check them anymore. But in general, the more links a page has—from both external and internal sources—the higher its PageRank.

Which brings us to last, but not least:

● Get more backlinks:

Backlinks are another foundation of Google’s algorithm and remain one of the most important page ranking factors.

Google confirms this on their “how search works” page, where they state: “If other prominent websites on the subject link to the page, that’s a good sign that the information is of high quality”.

Finally, you should aim to build backlinks from authoritative and relevant pages and websites.

Bad SEO Practices

On the other hand, persons who wish to take the shortcut to ranking high on Google’s pages employ bad SEO practices referred to as “Black Hat” techniques. These include:

● Duplicate content:

Duplicate content is a very common practice, as some webmasters will publish content that has already been published elsewhere. In and of itself, that is not a bad thing; there are many sites with information you may think is useful for your visitors.

If your intent is not to try to rank for a certain keyword or “stealing” someone else’s work, then you should “no index and no follow” those pages so that you are not penalised by Google for bad SEO practice. Non-unique content is not good for SEO. Think about it: If search engines already have the same content in their index, why would they index your web page since it has nothing new to offer?

● Invisible text and keyword stuffing:

It is not as common today, but there was a time when “black hat” strategists used to include many keywords at the bottom of a webpage, but make them the same colour as the background so they weren’t very noticeable to the human eye.

Google has been known to penalise such practices. The same goes for “stuffing” keywords where they are irrelevant. Have you landed on a page with a keyword search and that page was filled with the keyword, and barely anything else?

That is an extreme example of what we’re stating. This is a very bad SEO practice. Not only will it discourage visitors to your site who are looking to read relevant information on their search term, but it is also a red flag for search engines such as Google that you are trying to manipulate their algorithms.

N/B: It is enough to mention your keywords in the title, description, opening paragraph and a few other places in the body of the text.

● Cloaking and redirecting:

“Cloaking”, a very common practice of old, is when webmasters hide the real destination of a link, while “redirecting” is sending multiple “keyword-rich” domains to a single website.

Now, there may be times when redirecting is necessary for your business. However, there is a thin line between redirecting to a subdomain or domain and buying several domains just for the purpose of redirecting their traffic to a single website.

Showing different versions of a page to web crawlers and visitors to a website was a common practice in the past, but due to Google’s best practices thankfully this has been discontinued.

However, in case you just arrived on the planet and do not know Google’s best practices, please be advised that using such “black hat” techniques now is considered a very bad SEO practice.

● Poor linking practices:

Going out and purchasing a Fiverr package promising you 5,000 links in 24 hours is not the right way to build links. You need to get links from relevant content and sites in your niche that have their own traffic.

There are many other bad SEO practices one can employ including guest posting for links and accepting low quality guest posts. However, we will continue that discussion in a later article.

Conclusion

Google’s best practices reward good SEO practices such as Security Certificates, applying keywords to title tags, headings and URLs, having unique and relevant content, using appropriate internal and backlinks, while penalise bad SEO practices, which we call “black hat” techniques such as keyword stuffing, excessive link building and cloaking.

If you wish to have a successful website that ranks high on Google’s pages, then it behooves you to master good SEO practices.

AJ Frey can help you to develop and maintain a successful website that sees you ranking on Google’s first page with no fear of penalty due to bad SEO practices.

He offers a comprehensive range of SEO services dedicated to driving traffic that meets your lead, acquisition, or sales objectives. You should start seeing results–qualified leads, sales and traffic–in approximately 3 months.

That’s it. A list of Good SEO practices vs. Bad SEO practices, which we hope will help you to stay in Google’s good books, and any other search engine you wish to rank on. We know there are others. Why not share them in the comments section below? Ready to let an SEO expert help you maintain good SEO practices on your website? Give us a call or send us an email.

How Do I Build Domain Authority with a New Site?

Working on a new site for it to rank on the first page of Google is no easy feat even for experienced developers who’ve done it countless times before. The scenario is the same, but newly-built business websites have unique needs and challenges to address. Then, the question remains for everybody: How Do I Build Domain Authority with a New Site?

Superb design, fail-proof content strategy, and a handful of marketing campaign ideas – you think you’ve got it all. But no, you haven’t touched the surface just yet.

The objective of every new site is to rank high on search engine results pages for high-volume and high competition keywords. If you watch some videos that explain how this works, you probably think it’s doable. Yes, it is, but it will take some time. Don’t expect to achieve something overnight. It simply doesn’t work that way.

A relatively new site comes with inherent disadvantages, including the lack of content history and backlink profile. Having a low domain authority is expected, and every other site out there has gone through this process, too.

The lack of domain authority makes it quite a challenge to keep up with the more established websites in the same niche or industry. But don’t lose hope. The reason why you’re here is that you intend to learn about building domain authority for your new site, and that’s what we’ll talk about for the rest of this blog.

The Value of Domain Authority

Google does its job by deciding which pages to show first when someone types a search term, say for instance, “how to replace a roofing shingle.” This search returns hundreds of thousands of relevant pages that contain or target the keyword phrase.

Since Google and other search engines genuinely care about convenient user experience, they will rank websites based on content relevance and a cluster of other parameters. This is where the concept of domain authority creeps in.

You won’t see your new site about roofing products/services on the first page of Google because there are older and more established competitors that rank for the same keywords. But since you are on the bottom, there’s no other way but up.

Domain authority is never about the metrics. It is not something that the search engines use to rank websites for their SERP. Instead, it is more of a barometer that determines how well your new website is expected to perform against everyone else.

Increasing your site’s domain authority doesn’t affect whatever your competing sites are doing, but it increases your chances of ranking high in the SERPs.

Ways to Build Domain Authority

Building domain authority with a new site is an indirect route of increasing its potential of finding its way on the first page of Google. Before you commit to doing the things that we’re about to discuss, you must acknowledge that this will only work with time. In others, there’s a waiting game in place. Be patient, and your website get rewarded eventually.

1 – Link Building

Google loves link building, and so you must embrace it, too. The rule is simple – have high quality and authority sites link to your website. If you’re successful at that, it creates an impression that those authority sites trust your brand or company.

It may sound cliché, but that is because it works since the search engines notice it right away. If you already did some link building before, be sure to perform a backlink audit. It gives you a clear picture of your backlink profile, including the existence of harmful backlinks.

Don’t get too excited about link building; we’ve seen a lot of people overdo it. The last thing you want is to damage your website’s reputation by linking to shady sites.

Back in the day, private blogging networks were considered an authority, but that’s no longer the case. Google is quite strict when it comes to the practice of spamming your links. Adding harmful backlinks to your website will do more harm than good on your domain authority score.

Focus on high authority sites and publications instead. You want to fill up your link building profile with wholesome and relevant links.

2 – Content Remains King

Content marketing is and will always be the foundation of a website. It’s an indispensable component of building your domain authority. The role of content is to keep the landing page in order while you simultaneously inject new stuff.

Google loves it when you regularly incorporate fresh content that is not only relevant to your niche but something that attracts prospective customers. Furthermore, adding new content provides new opportunities for backlinks and added keywords.

Don’t fall for automated or spun content to fill some pages of your new site. Everything must be new, original, and unique. Come up with something that Google sees as something that bears no resemblance of published content on the web.

3 – Social Media Boost

We’re not just talking about creating social media profiles and linking them to your new site.

To successfully build domain authority with a new website, you must up the ante by keeping those social platforms active. Google is on the lookout for social signals, i.e. shares, likes, and retweets of your content. These are invaluable things that Google uses in evaluating both page and domain authorities of new sites.

Come up with a strategy that will increase social proof of your content. It drives traffic to your pages and will eventually boost your authority score. We don’t have to tell you how crucial social media presence is in terms of driving online traffic.

Wrapping It Up

The pain of seeing your new website make slow progress must serve as a motivation. Don’t feel bad if your site isn’t on top of Google at the moment; we’ve all been there. As mentioned earlier, it takes time for results to come in, but don’t remain idle. Some people don’t see progress because they lack consistency. Put in the effort and time in building domain authority because it gives you proven results.

2021 SEO Changes

In this comprehensive Local SEO guide, we’re going to show you how you can win at search ranking in 2021.

Small and medium-sized businesses rely on local search more than ever. Seven out of 10 consumers search Google to obtain local information. So, if your business website isn’t optimized for local search, you’re likely missing out on more than half of your prospective clients.

With so many changes every year, you feel a ton of pressure to update your SEO strategy. But it won’t matter if you’re not into local SEO.

You lost some ground last year, but this year is your chance for redemption. Build upon local SEO to keep your brand relevant, and this article serves as your comprehensive SEO guide.

Good Local SEO Practices

Start with Google My Business listing – If you haven’t done so, set up a Google My Business listing. It’s the digital equivalent of the Yellow Pages. If you intend to rank in the local search, a GMB listing makes perfect sense.

There’s no reason to skip this step – it carries weight in local SEO, plus setting it up takes minutes. See to it that you put all the details about your business.

This must include your products/services, the main business category, and the secondary business category. Filling out the subcategory is critical in your Google Maps rank.

List your business in online directories – GMB isn’t the only listing out there. List your business in other relevant online directories, but don’t overdo it.

The key term is “relevant” since all the others are trash and won’t do your business any good concerning local SEO. Focus your effort and time on these directories:

Review your NAP information – Be consistent with the business information you put on your listings, especially the name and place. Google wants the information to be accurate for it to trust your business.

Even an honest mistake on inputting the wrong phone number could become a red flag for Google, giving it a reason to stop displaying your listing. Even the smallest details must be consistent, like how you write abbreviations and company suffixes. If you prefer “inc.” instead of “incorporated,” do it in all your listings.

Focus on local keywords – Shift your attention to local keywords this year, but don’t ignore the value of long-tail keywords for your business, too. If you didn’t climb up to the SERPs last year, you might have undermined keyword research value.

This time see to it that you compare search volumes for a couple of almost similar search terms. You may feel like there’s no point in it, but there’s a significant difference in impact for “roof repair, Vancouver” versus “roof repair, VBC.”

Rethink your SEO strategy by using local keywords – Once you’ve figured out a new set of local keywords, the next step is to optimize your business website with them.

This isn’t a newfound strategy, yet it’s still as useful and indispensable this year as it was a decade ago. Optimizing your site is no cakewalk as it involves several components that are worthy of a separate discussion.

Anyhow, the fundamental rule is for your homepage and the product/service pages to showcase the local keywords, specifically in the following:

1. Heading
2. Meta description
3. Title tags
4. Body
5. Footer

Gone were the days when you can insert keywords while ignoring the natural flow of content. Google hates keyword stuffing and unnatural placements, so see that you’re putting value to your content by flawlessly incorporating the local keywords.

Create local content – It only makes sense to fill your pages with local content since you’re shifting to local SEO this year. Unfortunately, your current content marketing strategy is all but local.

You’ve learned a while back that non-local content reaches a broader audience (and supposedly more web traffic), but you can’t take full advantage of it since you’re a local business. Maximizing your efforts in content marketing for an improved lead generation means creating local content.

Create a mobile-friendly website – You may skip this part if you’ve done this already, and we’d be surprised if you haven’t. You know how impactful a mobile-friendly website is for SEO in general, and it’s essential for local SEO, too.

Almost 40% of mobile searches are location focused. It means that almost half of consumers who stumble upon your site via a local search are using their mobile devices. Imagine the number of opportunities you’re missing out if your site isn’t mobile responsive. That’s scary.

Place value on inbound links – Inbound links boost local SEO when you know how to do it right. Put some effort in building those links this year but focus on the proven strategies.

Come up with a list of acquaintances who are in some way related to your business, i.e., wholesalers, contractors, business partners, and suppliers. Search for relevant pages on their respective websites where you’re allowed to place contextual links.

You’ll use this link to contact those businesses and then recommend the link placements. Aside from this strategy, you can also generate inbound links via guest posting. Offer to write content for related businesses with the condition that you place a link to your site.

Create location pages – If you happen to have branches of your business, then you must rank in local searches in those areas, too. The most convenient way to do this is by creating location pages.

Come up with a service page for each city instead of having just one service page for all your branches. You may optimize these pages for local search terms. But be sure that you use unique content for each page. The last thing you want is for Google to see it as duplicate content.

Final Thoughts

Though you’re setting your sights on local SEO for 2021, don’t turn your back on traditional SEO. Remember that Google factors in your website’s ranking in organic SERPs in local SEO.

The lack of implementation of some of the components of traditional SEO may even adversely affect local SEO.

Take this SEO guide and make the best of simple practices to make a profit of your website… but if you don´t have time, experience or any other related, then call us. Best SEO in Canada is here to help you out.

What Does Rad Mean? The Importance of a Rad Website

Rad Websites has been providing clients in Medicine Hat, Calgary and surrounding areas with award-winning ecommerce website design services since 2004. We are passionate about helping businesses succeed online through the right combination of stunning design, user friendly functionality and sound strategy. Founded on the idea that websites should be both effective and beautiful, we believe that our definition of rad can help your business to prosper in today’s digital marketplace. Here are some reasons why you need a rad website, built by Rad Websites!

What does rad mean?

Rad is a term that is said when something is so cool there isn’t a word to describe it. Rad is an adjective that means excellent or awesome and it can also mean powerful or intense. AJ Frey say’s rad means cooler than cool, and we think this is the best way to describe what a rad website is.

A rad website has all the latest SEO tools, so you can rank high on Google search results. It also has modern ecommerce with an interactive experience for your customers. Rad Websites builds rad websites for businesses like yours!

Our team is Canada’s Award Winning Ecommerce Website Design Agency located in Medicine Hat, AB. Get your company seen by more people by having a rad website built by us!

When it comes to web design and SEO, less is more

Website Design and SEO are two highly important aspects of every business. We take pride in building websites that are not only functional, but also beautifully designed with search engine optimization in mind.

Businesses in Medicine Hat have a unique opportunity with its proximity to Calgary, Edmonton and Lethbridge. With our help, you can be found on the web by customers from all over the province. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most important factors when it comes to getting new customers for your business. The importance of a website is evident for anyone who’s looking for new or better opportunities for their business. If you’re looking for an award winning company to design your website and manage your SEO, look no further than us!

Rad Architect and SEO Director of Growth Aj Frey says less is more. “It is important to focus on using the right keywords and phrases that will not only help your search ranking but also provide value to your visitors” he says.

Originality and copywriting can make or break your brand

Every day, you’re competing with new businesses popping up and the ever-changing SEO landscape. This makes it more important than ever to have an online presence that’s original and relevant. To do this, you need good content and copywriting. Publish consistently on your website or blog to keep people coming back for more. If you want your site to be among the best SEO in Canada, then you should use words that are fun, short and memorable. Keywords like: ‘rad’, ‘sick’, ‘awesome’.

When you are in business, it’s important to stay on the cutting edge and be creative. Which is why we recommend and work with Ghost Writers and Co. We have been working with them for years, and their copywriting is top-notch.

Is creativity worth paying for

At Rad Websites, you can expect to know what things cost. Our website designs are priced based on how complicated they are. We want to make sure you know what you’re getting for your money and that you’re not overpaying for something that’s too simple or paying for something way too advanced for your needs.
No matter what kind of design you’re looking for, we’ll create a package that’s perfect for you at the best price possible!

Rad also has some of the most affordable SEO in Canada, with packages starting as low as $699/month! But we don’t stop there: our company specializes in internet marketing and digital advertising strategies, PPC, Social Media Management and award winning Ecommerce so if you want more than just SEO services, Rad is the right place for you, we’ve got it all!

At Rad Websites, you will find creativity worth paying for – whether it be through retainer hours, blocks of development time or even by individual hourly service. That’s why people come to us time and time again for their project requirements because we set ourselves apart from other agencies.

We believe that good design should be accessible to everyone, regardless of budget. With rad pricing plans, high quality and affordable services – Rad Websites is definitely the best choice for any project requirement.

Brand consistency through web design

Brand consistency is an essential part of any successful online business. Your website should be aesthetically pleasing, easy to navigate and have the same feel as your other marketing materials. You need to look professional and trustworthy to win over new customers.
Good web design is essential for winning over new customers. Your website needs to look professional and have a trustworthy feel if you’re going to win clients online. Customers aren’t going to pick your site over another just because it has brighter colours or more interesting fonts. That being said, you need to think about how your website looks as well as how it works. People shop with their eyes first, so make sure that whatever you put on your site makes your business look good.

How we use technology to stand out from our competitors

We use technology to stand out from our competitors in the web design industry. In addition, we offer rad pricing that is more affordable than other similar agencies. We are one of Canada’s most trusted and successful companies offering rad website services with award winning Ecommerce.
Rad Websites provide clients with top notch solutions and leading edge features by constantly staying on top of the latest trends and always striving to make our clients business lives easier.

Why Every Business Needs a Rad Website Built By Rad Websites

A rad website is a necessity for any business that wants to stand out and maintain strong online position. Having a rad website built by Rad Websites will give you the tools and skills to keep up with the latest marketing techniques and keep your brand top-of-mind with customers.

Rad Websites is Canada’s Award winning Ecommere Website Design Agency, Located in Medicine Hat, AB. We Build Rad Websites! Why you need a rad website built by Rad Websites: A rad website is a necessity for any business that wants to maintain online visability.

A rad website will give you the tools and skills to keep up with the latest marketing techniques and keep your brand top-of-mind with customers. It doesn’t matter if it’s a family owned or operated small business or multinational corporation, everyone needs some help these days when it comes to keeping their site fresh, engaging and updated regularly.

For years, Rad Websites has been helping businesses like yours create stunning websites using the latest web design technologies, while staying within your budget. With so many different types of web designs available today (responsive/mobile-ready/Ecommerce) we can help you find a solution that fits your specific needs best. No matter what kind of site you’re looking for – whether it’s informational only or integrated with advanced ecommerce features – our team is always happy to help get things started from scratch or build on an existing framework.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed or just don’t know where to start, reach out to us and let us do what we are good at, so you can do what your good at. Your rad website should be more than just something pretty. It should also be functional, innovative and easy-to-navigate as well as load quickly no matter the device being used.

Rad Websites offers responsive templates that automatically adjust to fit whatever screen they’re displayed on, meaning users will never have to worry about viewing content across multiple platforms again – it all looks great no matter what device they use. Whether you are considering building an Ecommerce store or blog and require a robust CMS system or not – call now or book an appointment for your free consultation.

Why It’s Important To Keep SEO Momentum Going

It’s a great accomplishment when you reach the first page of Google. You probably have an influx of clients and a boost in revenue. All those blogs, white papers, website links, and digital marketing efforts are finally paying off. You’re successful enough that you don’t have time, or perhaps the will, to market yourself. After all you’re a success so that means you can take your foot off the pedal, right?

WRONG!