nettsolutions, Author at Nett Solutions Blog

Mobile SEO Tips: How to Help Your Website Rank Better

07/27/202311/04/2024 nettsolutions

While online, consumers all over the world spend more than half of their time browsing websites on a mobile device. But users may not be able to find your website in the first place if it’s not optimized for mobile. And that can have a serious impact on your rankings.

What can you do about that? Our Orange County SEO agency shares a few ideas to inspire you below.

Responsive Design is a Must

Mobile devices generate more than 60% of organic search engine traffic, so customers should be able to visit your site and enjoy a user-friendly experience on any device. Otherwise, you risk losing them: one survey found that 60% of consumers abandon transactions because of a poor user experience.

That’s why using responsive web design is a must for every mobile SEO strategy. Images, text, and other key page elements will be scaled to the appropriate dimensions for the user’s screen.

As Google gives preference to mobile-friendly sites that provide a positive user experience, responsive web design can help boost your SEO ranking.

Maximize Page Load Times

Page speed is critical. If your pages take longer than three seconds to load, you risk losing visitors and their business. Google also considers page speed a major aspect of quality websites and a positive user experience. If your pages take too long to load on mobile devices, it’s time to fix that.

You can increase page speed by:

Compressing images
Reducing redirects
Caching pages
Decreasing JavaScript, HTML, and CSS code

These are just a few ideas to help you get started. Keep making improvements until you get load times down to three seconds or less.

Target Local Customers

“Near me” searches have increased dramatically in the past decade, as smartphones and smart speakers allow consumers to find local providers with minimal effort.

More than 75% of people visit a brick-and-mortar location within 24 hours of running a local search on their mobile device, and almost 30% of those searches lead to a purchase.

Optimizing your site for local searches can increase your visibility on mobile. Create content with a local focus, set up a Google Business Profile, and enable customers to review your services. All this can make your site easier to find for local searches.

Create Mobile-Friendly Content

All content on your site should be easy to read and view on a mobile device. It also needs to keep visitors engaged enough to stay on your site and explore.

Try these tips:

Keep paragraphs concise to help visitors skim text
Embrace white space for easy readability
Use brief, punchy headlines
Break up text with videos and images (compressed, of course!)

Mobile-friendly content is essential for a great user experience, so optimize yours to boost your ranking.

Need a little help to take your rankings higher? Leave it to our Orange County SEO agency!

We’ll create a bespoke SEO strategy to increase your visibility and deliver a stronger user experience. Get in touch now to learn more!

Struggling for Content Ideas? Here are 6 Simple Tips

09/22/202211/04/2024 nettsolutions

Generating ideas for new content can be a challenge, but our Orange County SEO team has six tips for you to try!

Stay Updated on News Stories in Your Industry and Local Area

Tracking the latest events in your industry and local area can provide you with exciting content ideas.

For example, new regulations may come into force that require your business to adjust the way you work or the services you provide. You could write an in-depth post about the reasons for these changes, how they’ll affect customers, and other key points.

Similarly, an event taking place in your area — such as a business expo or conference — could inspire a number of posts. Could you interview any thought leaders in attendance? How about covering your business’s role in an important community event (e.g. raising money for a local charity)?

Listen to Podcasts Related to Your Niche

Podcasters discussing topics related to your industry, products, or services can provide you with valuable content inspiration. And with more than 2 million podcasts from all over the world, you have plenty to choose from.

Can you expand on what has already been covered in a podcast or approach a topic from a fresh perspective? Mention any podcasts that inspire you directly in your blog post, video, or podcast for transparency, then share your own thoughts on discussions or news.

Repurpose Old Content

Take a look at a blog post, how-to guide, or video you published months or years ago. Can you make something new out of it?

Let’s say you have a blog post offering advice to startups trying social media marketing for the first time. You could take any tips that are still relevant and use them as the basis for a new video or podcast. Repurposing your content will help you save time that you would otherwise spend trying to generate entirely new ideas.

Welcome Ideas from Across Your Company

Don’t just look to your content team to generate ideas: invite everyone in your company to suggest ideas. People from across different departments will have experience, insights, and opinions that could inspire a wealth of new content.

And your content may be less likely to become repetitive or stale as a result.

Check Comments Sections for Helpful Reader Insights

How do readers or viewers respond to content? Read their comments on your site, YouTube, Facebook, etc. to harvest ideas. You may see a question or criticism that inspires a new blog post or video.

Study Your Best Content to Discover What Works

Identify the highest-performing content you have published, and explore those posts, videos, or podcasts in detail. Why do they work so well? Why have they attracted so much attention? Consider how you can build new content around your findings.

Conclusion

Try these tips when brainstorming new content ideas to make the creative process easier. Want to get your content in front of a bigger audience? Need help with identifying strong keywords? Our Orange County SEO team is ready to help you!

Keyword Research: How to Get It Right

08/10/202211/04/2024 nettsolutions

In-depth keyword research is an essential part of building a successful SEO strategy and campaigns. Keywords tell search engines what each page on your site is related to and when it should be presented to searchers.

Not spending enough time on keyword research is a common SEO mistake. Without the right keywords, your website is less likely to appear when potential customers are looking for the exact products or services that you provide.

But researching your keywords will help you understand how to gain visibility on SERPs and get your site in front of buyers. Still, keyword research can be a complex, time-consuming process and difficult to get right.

To help make it easier for you, our Orange County SEO pros share four simple tips below!

Generate Ideas Relevant to Your Business and Industry

Start by brainstorming topics related to the products or services you sell, and your overall industry or niche, to generate ideas for potential keywords. For example, these might be topics that you already cover in your blog posts and videos, such as ‘home security’ or ‘beauty products’.

This process can help you get into a buyer’s mindset, and prompt you to think about what users will search for to find specific products or services.

Consider User Intent

User’s search intent is categorized into four types:

Informational: The user is looking to learn about a topic.
Navigational: The user is looking for a particular website or business.
Transactional: The user is ready to buy an item or use a service.
Commercial: The user is researching a product or service and needs a little more time to consider their purchase before they commit.

The user’s intent will affect the search terms they use, such as ‘how do I make chocolate cake’, ‘best men’s sneakers for basketball’ or ‘women’s jeans free shipping’.

Think about what type of search terms your target customers are likely to use at each stage of their journey.

Take Advantage of Tools

The right tools can make keyword research a little easier, especially if you’re new to the process.

You can use keyword research tools to find out what keywords competing websites use, for example, and they can help you turn your initial ideas into effective keywords. Free ones, such as Google Keyword Planner, are available, as well as paid platforms.

Work with SEO Pros for a Simpler Journey to Success

The most effective way to get your keywords right is to leave it to a professional team of SEO specialists.

They’ll handle every aspect of researching the best keywords for your business, whatever your industry and target audience. And you can leave everything else related to your SEO campaigns in their hands, too!

Our Orange County SEO experts are ready to boost your online visibility and help your business reach your ideal customers. Get in touch with our team to find out more and to receive your free Relevancy & Quality Score (RQS) Grader, packed with expert insights!

What are the Most Important SEO KPIs to Track?

05/10/202211/04/2024 nettsolutions

Setting goals is crucial for measuring the performance of your SEO campaigns and pinpointing problems that could hinder your success. That equates to less wasted time and (critically!) money.

While the nature of your business and your digital marketing strategy will determine the best SEO KPIs for you, there are still some that every company can benefit from tracking.

What are they? Join our Orange County SEO pros as we take a look.

Average Time on Page

Engagement is paramount: the more time a user spends on one of your webpages, the more likely they are to convert.

Measuring the average time on a page will show you which ones are the most and least engaging. Study your best pages and incorporate valuable elements into your worst to boost their performance.

Customer Lifetime Value

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) tracks each customer’s value to your business. Not just on the basis of a single purchase, but with regards to your entire relationship.

Analyzing CLV can introduce you to ways to strengthen relationships with your customers and keep them loyal for longer. And if you can boost customer retention by 5%, you could increase profitability by 25 to 95% overall.

ROI

Keeping track of ROI generated by your SEO processes will show you how profitable your campaigns are, and help you recognize which activities contribute to your ROI the most.

Tracking this KPI can help you avoid costly mistakes in the future, but it may take months before you start seeing ROI, so this is a more long-term KPI than some of the others.

Bounce Rate

A high bounce rate on a specific page means it simply isn’t engaging visitors and giving them no reason to stay. As a result, you could miss out on valuable opportunities to generate leads, convert customers, and build lasting relationships.

Track your bounce rate to reduce the risk of losing potential customers before they have a chance to discover what your business can do for them.

Conversion Rate

Conversions refer to a user taking a specific action and moving their relationship with your business to the next level. Common conversion goals include:

Buying a product
Downloading a free whitepaper/ebook
Completing and submitting a contact form
Subscribing to your weekly newsletter

When a user converts, you have a fantastic opportunity to foster a stronger connection with them. But if your conversion rates are low, you need to explore why they may not go through with the conversion and how you can direct users to take the desired action more effectively.

Page Speeds

Users care about how quickly your pages load. And if that’s longer than 3 seconds, you’re less likely to keep them on your site.

Measure your speeds to find any pages that take longer than they should, and work on bringing those times down.

Want to build successful SEO campaigns?

Our Orange County SEO team will create bespoke ones for you and track essential KPIs to continually find new improvement opportunities. Get in touch with our experts today to get started!

Mobile-friendly Websites: What are the Most Important Elements?

05/14/202105/14/2021 nettsolutions

With more than 60 percent of Google searches originating from mobile devices, your website must be optimized to deliver a quality user experience on smartphones and tablets.

Otherwise, visitors might find browsing your site so frustrating they give up and try another. And one of your competitors could win their business instead.

But what makes a website mobile-friendly?

Let’s explore five of the most important elements.

Simple navigation

Navigating the best mobile-friendly websites is a breeze.

One of the most common setups is a hamburger icon (a stack of three short horizontal bars) in a corner of the page. Users can tap this to open a vertical menu.

And every page should feature plenty of space — clutter will only confuse and irritate users on smaller screens.

Unclear page titles and illegible text can also make browsing your site more trouble than it’s worth.

Straightforward CTAs to guide users

A call-to-action (CTA) tells users what you want them to do next. They should be simple to spot and easy to follow, e.g. “get your free quote”, “sign up now”.

Lead customers to your CTAs with concise content that explains why they need to take the specified action.

How can you draw attention to CTAs? Display text in eye-catching colors, make the buttons big, and use a font that visitors can read without needing to pinch-zoom.

Responsive design suited to all devices

Responsive design ensures your site will adapt to fit any screen, across all devices. Pages will reformat automatically to avoid poor layouts and cluttered content.

Your customers will enjoy a seamless experience no matter how many devices they switch between.

Click-to-call buttons for direct communication

Click-to-call buttons empower visitors with a fast, direct way to contact your business.

This saves them the time and potential irritation of scouring your website for a number/email address or completing a form.

Let’s say you run a local Italian restaurant. A hungry customer is in the mood for a pizza, so they use voice search to find businesses like yours. They try your site, and find a click-to-call button on your homepage.

This makes it incredibly easy for them to book a table within seconds of discovering your restaurant, without trying to find your contact page while they’re standing on the street.

Images optimized for mobile

Images that work fine on your desktop site may cause issues on mobile devices if they’re too big. They’ll increase load times and leave users waiting longer than they should to browse.

And that’s a real risk when more than half of mobile site visits will be abandoned if a page takes more than three seconds to load.

Resizing and compression will bring images down to a more manageable level for mobile devices. Prioritize speed and convenience over visual flair.

These five elements are essential in mobile-friendly websites, so frequently check your site’s performance to identify improvement opportunities.

Want to learn more about how a fantastic mobile site can help your business? Get in touch with our Orange County SEO specialists!

6 Tips to Enhance Your SEO Performance with Images

05/14/202105/14/2021 nettsolutions

Do you optimize images to improve your SEO performance? Or do you never consider their impact on your ranking?

If you aren’t taking the time to optimize your images, you could be missing an opportunity to drive more traffic to your site and boost your SERP position.

With the ongoing rise of visual search, images are returned for around 20 percent of Google searches. That’s why we named it one of our top SEO trends for 2021.

But what can you actually do to improve your SEO performance with images?

Be clear when naming image files

Descriptive file names are a must. Vague or generic names (e.g. “image001”) won’t help Google understand exactly what an image shows.

Think carefully about how a file name can help a search engine recognize the contents of an image. Be specific, descriptive, and include keywords (such as “men’s-black-Nike-sneakers”).

Take advantage of alt text

On a similar note, alt text brings a wealth of opportunities to increase an image’s visibility. Alt text is required under the American Disabilities Act (ADA) to ensure users with visual impairments understand what images contain (via screen readers or text-to-speech solutions).

But alt text also helps search engines clarify the contents of an image and the page it’s on. As with image file names, focus on clarity and precision. Include relevant keywords but be subtle (i.e. no stuffing).

Pick your image format carefully

JPEG and PNG are two of the most common image formats online (along with GIF and TIFF). But each has its advantages and drawbacks.

JPEG images tend to be of a lower quality but load faster than PNG. And with PNG, quality is higher but file sizes are bigger. So, choose carefully.

Always compress images before you publish

Uploading uncompressed images can have a serious impact on user experience: images, and the pages they’re on, will take longer to load. And users are more likely to abandon your site if they’re waiting too long — bounce probability rises 32 percent when page load jumps from one second to three seconds.

Various tools and plugins can compress images for you. Aim to keep images below 100kb to reduce the risk of performance issues.

Incorporate images into sitemaps

Sitemaps are crucial for good SEO, as they help search engines discover a site’s pages.

Including images in your sitemap will increase the likelihood of a search engine indexing your images. And that could bring more traffic your way.

Either add images to your existing sitemap or create a new one just for your pictures.

Keep images mobile-friendly for smartphone users

Responsive images will scale to align with your site’s size on any device. This is so important when so many of us use smartphones to find products or services. For example, half of mobile users are more likely to use a business’s mobile site when shopping instead of downloading their app.

If you overlook responsiveness, you could chase users away with slow load times and poor overall performance.

Nett Solutions is an Orange County SEO agency with years of experience helping businesses just like yours rank higher through tailored campaigns. To find out how we’ll optimize your site and increase your visibility, get in touch today!

How can You Boost Engagement on Your Website?

10/07/201910/07/2019 nettsolutions

How engaging is your website?

If you can’t answer this question, it’s time to give it some thought.

And in this post on boosting engagement, our Orange County SEO experts give you plenty to think about. Let’s start with user experience.

The Power of Good UX

User experience (UX) is a key part of building and maintaining an engaging site, especially now that mobile search is so important to the digital marketing landscape.

Every business has to make sure its site gives visitors exactly what they’re looking for in the fastest time. The layout, presentation and content should all be designed for a smooth browsing experience.

Research by Google backs this up:

61 percent of users will jump to a different site if they can’t find what they’re looking for on yours quickly
50 percent will visit a business’s website less often if it’s not mobile-optimised, even if they like its products and services

So, the main factors to focus on:

Speed (fast load times, logical progression from page to page}
Convenience (value visitors’ time: show them what they’re looking for fast)
Mobile Optimization (make sure your site can be browsed on smartphones easily)

Keep Content Clear and Readable

It’s tempting to show off and pack your content with sophisticated language or technical jargon. But if you do this, you increase the odds of visitors clicking away out of boredom or frustration.

Here are some key points to keep in mind:

Content should be tailored to your target audience: speak their language and address their pain points.
Keep the layout clean and tidy with plenty of white space.
Use images and videos to break text up.
Make content valuable and ensure it serves a purpose.

Encourage Interaction

Invite visitors to communicate with your business and reach out to your customer support team to find out more about products or services. This can increase engagement and show users you value their input.

One effective way to do this is implementing live chat and / or chatbots. This lets visitors speak with an agent quickly and easily right on the website. There’s no need to login to an email account and draft a message or leave the browser to dial a number.

Live chat should be easy to access on every page. Don’t make users go searching high and low for it or they could click away to a business that makes things a little simpler.

Working with Experts

Working with a seasoned SEO team is a great way to boost your website’s engagement. Our Orange County SEO agency has helped many businesses give customers a better, smoother browsing and buying experience.

Want to know more? Get in touch with us today.

Local PPC Tips for Your Company

10/07/201910/07/2019 nettsolutions

Local PPC is a must for reaching customers when we all have smartphones, with research showing almost half of mobile searches are for local businesses.

And that makes sense. While we might have flipped through a phonebook for restaurants, tailors, plumbers or other service-providers within our local area in days gone by, today we can just ask Google to find them for us.

You can use this convenience and accessibility to your advantage, boosting your company’s visibility for nearby customers.

How? We’ve pulled together some key local PPC tips to help you get started.

Get Colloquial

One simple but solid way to attract local buyers is to speak in a language they recognize.

This doesn’t mean you need to pepper your PPC ads with slang you hear on the streets to try and seem cool, but dropping relevant references helps establish your business as part of the community.

For example, if you know consumers like calling your products by a specific term, feel free to adopt it in your content. Show you understand your audience and know how to communicate with them at their level.

Include Call Extensions for Direct Contact

Adding call extensions to your PPC ads empowers consumers with an easy way to interact with your brand.

Just by tapping a call button, a customer can book a table in your restaurant, schedule a haircut or plan anything else in a matter of seconds. It saves them having to search your website for your number and is far faster than using an online booking system.

Keep Your Google My Business Updated

Google My Business is a must-have element of your online marketing.

Make sure you take advantage of it. Add photos of your establishment, products and even staff or customers (provided they’re happy to be included). Show your business off with professional, clear images.

You can manage your company’s presence on Google Maps and in search results to keep all information updated. Using out-of-date images, contact details or even an incorrect location doesn’t just look amateurish — it means your customers can’t find you when they need to.

Avoid Targeting Irrelevant Locations

Exclude locations from your PPC campaign to avoid wasting money on customers outside your local areas. Obviously, if you ship your product around the country or world, you can still be marketing on a wider scale.

Otherwise, when you want to reach local buyers only, refine your target locations for a more cost-effective strategy.

Work with a Professional Team

Nett Solutions is an Orange County digital marketing agency committed to helping businesses of all sizes reach your goals.

We’ll work with you to create a bespoke PPC campaign targeting your local audience for maximum impact.

Want to learn more? Just get in touch with our friendly, hard-working team for your FREE marketing analysis!

Making the Most of Ad Extensions for Better Marketing

10/07/201910/07/2019 nettsolutions

You want to reach as many customers as you can. That’s an obvious element of any effective marketing campaign.

But are you doing everything in your power to achieve better results?

If you’re not using extensions in your PPC ads, the answer may be a resounding ‘no’.

Extensions are a simple but impactful way to increase ads’ appeal and reach a bigger audience. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at what they are, how they work and how you need to take advantage of them for better results.

Expanding Your Ads’ Power

Ad extensions give you the chance to inject extra details into your ads beyond the headline and copy. Implementing multiple extensions increases your ads’ ability to stand out from others and encourage clicks.

Ad extensions reveal more about your business, your products / services, and your site too. Using the following types of ad extensions can make a big impact on your paid marketing:

Sitelinks

A sitelink is simple: it’s a link to a specific page on your website. You can use these to promote sales, popular products or special events.

For example, if you’re hosting a one-off webinar in the coming weeks, you can include a sitelink to the respective page inviting prospects to sign up for it. Obviously, this should be relevant to the ad and appear as an organic element rather than a forced promotion.

Location Extensions

Adding location extensions to your ads gives searchers clear details on how to find your business or the branch nearest to them.

These also show the company isn’t online-only and may prompt them to visit in person. Research supports this: 78 percent of local-mobile searches lead to offline sales.

Call extensions

A call extension is a direct way to communicate with your customers. You can include a phone number for your local or main base, reducing the time it takes for searchers to get in touch.

These are most effective on mobile ads as customers are already on their smartphones and in a position to call you. Call extensions are especially helpful if your business is targeting local buyers rather than a wider audience.

Review Extensions

Want to show prospects all the nice things people have said about you?

You can include third-party feedback / coverage in your ads using review extensions. These boost your company’s credibility and may help you secure searchers’ trust sooner than you might otherwise.

Creating a Bespoke Advertising Campaign for Your Business

Want to launch a tailored PPC campaign for your company?

Our Orange County digital marketing team leverages ad extensions and other effective techniques to maximize your ads’ impact. Get in touch now and we’ll give you a FREE marketing analysis!

Yelp Advertising in Orange County

07/24/201907/24/2019 nettsolutions

We’re excited to announce that Nett Solutions is a Yelp Advertising Partner. We’re
now able to support and manage Yelp Ads campaigns for all of our clients – both large and
small. We have special rates that we can pass on to you as well as reporting and management
tools! Keep reading to find out why you should pay attention to your business’ Yelp pages and
where you can learn more about Yelp.
Why is Yelp Important?

Yelp is a transactional platform consumers visit when they’re looking to purchase
from a local business.
In the U.S., Yelp had 94.3M unique visitors on desktop and mobile and is the 20th
most-visited internet property for desktop and mobile combined.*
According to Nielsen, consumers rank Yelp as the #1 review site for finding local
businesses and 79% of consumers make a purchase within a week after visiting
Yelp.

What are Yelp Ads?

The Yelp Ads program is broken into two parts: Cost-per-click advertising and
Enhanced Profiles.
- Cost-per-click advertising is performance-based, so you pay when Yelp users
  click on your ad.
- The Enhanced Profile upgrades your Yelp Business Page, so you’re able to
  add a call-to-action button, a photo slideshow, and more to your page.

Do Yelp Ads Work?

Yelp Ads work for businesses across categories – everything from realtors to auto
dealers to plumbers, and more! Check out our local and national success stories.
You don’t need many reviews to see success from Yelp Ads.
- Nearly half of Yelp Advertisers have fewer than 5 reviews when they sign
  up.**

We’re looking forward to discussing ways we can help your business use Yelp. Reach out to
us to learn more about how to get started with Yelp Ads.
*ComScore, March 2017
** Methodology Results from 29,836 Yelp Advertisers in the US. Analysis of customer leads was measured from the month
prior to advertising, to the 12th month of the advertising program.