CodeTactic

The end of the month brings with it one of the biggest sporting events in the world: the Super Bowl. The first Sunday of February marks the 49th edition of this event, in where the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots will battle it out to see who wins the coveted title.

For those of you who are a little unfamiliar with the event, here’s what you need to know:

After Thanksgiving, the Super Bowl is the largest day for food consumption in the US

It is among the most watched television broadcast in the US

Last year, it garnered 111.5 million viewers, making it the most watched TV program in US history

It ranks third in the most watched annual sports events in the world

Additionally, the Super Bowl is famous for its ads, in where brands can spend outrageous amounts of money to broadcast their commercials. But it is not only in ads where they are spending. Social media plays a huge rule in the advertising game as well.

All these facts though mean one thing: the Super Bowl is a HUGE opportunity to show off your brand, even if you are not in the United States, and one you do not want to miss!

Promote your promotions on Social Media

Restaurants, are you listening? I’m specifically talking to you. No one likes to watch a game without food, especially on a day like Super Bowl Sunday. Having a special offer or promotion or discount what-not is a great way to show your interest and support for the Super Bowl, even if you are not in the US or know anything about American Football. It is still watched by millions of people, even by people here in Vancouver. So, whether it is a BOGO (buy one, get one free) or some killer deals on delivery and take-out, promote it on your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Remember, it is one of the busiest days for food after Thanksgiving, and since it is going to be on a Sunday, a lot of people are going to order take-out or hold parties in which they will need food. Posting it on your social media sites will allow people to share your specials and communicate it with others previously unaware of your product or service.

In the example above, we can see a pizza place that is offering a discount on their orders for the Super Bowl. Relevant hashtags such as #NFL and #Vancouver are included, to refer to the event itself and the location of the offering, a great move for local SEO. Notice the offer is not only text, but is accompanied by an image that is related to the event. This is not rocket science – any skilled content marketer with a knack for design can pull this off.

Note: You want to do this ahead of time, at least two weeks in advance to create the right buzz.

#Hashtags matter – even offline

Whether you are using existing ones or creating your own, hashtags are extremely important for you brand’s visibility online and subsequent identification. Pre-existing hashtags are not only good your SEO, but in making your posts more visible and easy to find. As I mentioned in my post of SEO tips on how to #growonline, using these types of hashtags are important even if they are not currently popular or trending such as #SEO, #onlinemarketing or #socialmediamarketing. They keep your audience connected, and make it easier for potential customers to find you. Then, come the trending hashtags, which in this case would be words like #Seahawks and #SuperBowl. Finally, is the campaign hashtag, which will make your business stand out and differentiate itself from the crowd. The most famous example was that of Esurance, with their #EnsuranceSave30 hashtag.

Hashtags are now taking a central role in advertising not only on social media, but offline it as well. In last year’s Super Bowl commercials, hashtags showed up 50% more than the year before. A combination of campaign slogans, brand names and just general industry-specific hashtags were used. This shows the tremendous transformative power hashtags have in advertising campaigns to drive and connect users with a brand.

Give the people what they want

A lot of brands feel like they cannot jump in on the Super Bowl because they are “too boring” or “too different”. This could not be more wrong. Every brand should jump in. Finding where you can merge the two, and be successful at it is the art (and where your social media marketing team comes in).

Even if your business does not have anything to do with sports or American football, does not mean you cannot participate in the event. Directly or indirectly. Giving people content related to the Super Bowl, is another way of participating in this event. Sharing recipes, decoration or game ideas on Pinterest is a good way to relate to Super Bowl-ers. Other examples include polls, tips of the event, which do not cause major criticism or require much expertise. Remember, people like to follow brand on social media that seem relatable and real, and show interest in their interests. Blogging about the Super Bowl, creating boards on Pinterest, or any other content marketing tecnique can be a great way to gain attention.

Social Media is less of a risky investment

I cannot stress this any further. Every year, companies spend millions of dollars trying to get commercial airtime for their brand on the Super Bowl. The same thing goes on social media, but on a lower risk, and with less restrictions. You do not have to ‘buy’ your spot on social media, but make sure you stand out. Trying to stand out on social media and let your business’ name be heard during the Super Bowl can be great strides in terms of exposure for your brand.

While some of them can seem to be successes, the returns later do not seem to promising. One example of this is RadioShack’s Goodbye ‘80s commercial, aired in the previous Super Bowl. Initial reports were very promising, with lots of people saying it was a master stroke and a great way to promote the dying brand. Today however, the picture does not look very rosy for RadioShack, with news headlines saying that it’s Super Bowl ad made it go bust.

Social media campaigns do not require million dollar investments, and are designed for events that happen in real-time, like the Super Bowl is. Twitter is a great example for this. The pace at which it moves makes it easy to connect with other users and share experiences as they are living it – during a commercial or half-time, or throughout the game.

Ahhh, hashtags. Whether you love them or you hate them, there’s no escaping them. The hashtag phenomenon has turned into a culture has permeated everything from songs, to TV shows, and most importantly, social media.

But besides invading everything you know, hashtags are also a great way for brands and businesses to interact with people and reach out to customers who otherwise would never have heard about them. Hashtags are one of the best ways to keep track of what is being said on social media. Most social media marketers know (or at least savvy ones) how to incorporate them into their posts to increase their messages’ reach.

And just like hashtags have taken over a number of platforms, including sites like Google+, Twitter and Instagram, it has managed to make its way into search engines and SEO. Looking things up with a hashtag will pull up results from Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest, to name a few. Put just applying a bunch of hashtags will not help. Nor will it be effective. See, when you put a hashtag before a set of words, these become a link if you may.

The point is, hashtags are here to stay. And while they are here, why not use them to your advantage and #growonline? After all, every business wants to grow, amirite?

Here are some basic suggestions you can take today to grow your business’ exposure online, or #growonline:

Do your research: Just like keyword research in SEO, research your hashtags before you decide to use one. Especially if the hashtag you want to use is currently a trending topic on Twitter. Not doing your research can result in embarrassing situations, or worse yet, making yourself more of a ghost online. Using the appropriate words can make a huge difference in your reach and get you engaging with more potential clients. Hashtags.org is a good place to start for hashtag ideas.

Don’t forget your keywords: This one may seem a little obvious, but it is still important enough to mention. Hashtags that are based on your keywords will help increase the number of visitors to your website, which ultimately helps your SEO. As mentioned before, Google now takes hashtags into search considerations. Keywords play a key role in SEO, and so do effective hashtags. Hashtags are like keywords in that sense, serving the same purpose of targeting a specific set of words and yielding results when people do a simple search. Having said that, hashtags are a discovery tool, which fits perfectly into every business’ need: to be discovered by more people (who will then turn into clients), and to #growonline. See more: How to use hashtags effectively

Use location to your advantage: This is very important to brick and mortar stores or businesses that are in need of business, locally. If you are a restaurant or a shop-owner, being seen by customers in your city is key to your growth. One way to connect with your customers is through social media, and using location-based hashtags will expand your reach even further with local customers. Using the name of your city, like #Vancouver in our case, as a hashtag can do this. Plus, geographical hashtags will give a great boost to your local SEO.

Think about your content: Keep your posts about what your brand stands for. Hashtags about what your brand does helps improve the SEO of each post, making them more discoverable. Now, I don’t mean don’t use non-brand related hashtags, which are also important for discoverability and to stay human in the eyes of your customers, but keep in mind which hashtags are relevant to your brand. These hashtags are not necessarily trending, but are related to your posts’ content. For example, at CodeTactic, we use a lot of content hashtags such as #socialmedia and #onlinemarketing. Using these hashtags help our posts stay on the conversations around these topics, but also help one’s content marketing efforts. Hashtags help content to be seen, and help maximise your efforts in the content you create. Reposting old content is a great time to use hashtags.

Use hashtags in your titles:  Most of the ideas mentioned here are about posts on social media, but what about other types of posts? Say, blog posts? Including hashtags in blog posts is a great way to leverage your on page SEO. Doing this helps good content be found and discovered. When people share a piece of content, the thing that will firstmost appear is the title of the piece. There being a hashtag already in it will make it social media ready and visibility so much better.

If used correctly, hashtags are a great way to market your brand and make your business #growonline. Their nature makes them a great way for customers to discover you, which is why it is slowly creeping into SEO. Take advantage of hashtags now that it is in its infant stage, as this will turn into a boom rather quickly.

Promoting your business online can get tough, especially if you are without proper guidance. If you need help, we can be of your use! Our SEO services include keyword research, on and off-site page optimization, and elements important to discoverability such as content creation of blog articles, press releases and personalized visuals.

Content marketing has come a long way. It has gone from being just a buzzword to an integral part of many businesses marketing plans.

And for good reason. The internet has become a busy marketplace where businesses have to fight for attention. Amongst the heaps of click-bait and deceptive content, high-quality content stands out. At first, the idea of paying for content seemed ridiculous. But as the amount of content increases online, the need to gain people’s attention became top-priority. And what better way than through content that is actually able to attain and retain customer’s attention?

Thus, the idea of paying for content arose. While this strategy is on the rise, there is still a long way to go. According to data from the Content Marketing Institute, 39% of B2C marketers are using a documented content strategy, while on the B2B front it is 44%. We are talking about roughly 50% still remaining. If you are in the 50%, here are some reasons why you should convince your business to invest in paid content marketing:

People prefer content over ads: Consumers tend to favor content over ads. Ads are less viewed less favorably by customers, and are generally ignored when doing a search. When people are doing a search, it is usually to find out more about a particular subject, or see whether they should purchase a certain product. Running into ads is not really in their spectrum. Content is viewed as a more credible source of information, so you want to put your money where the actions really is. Lots of content marketing tools exist nowadays to help ease the process for businesses.

SEO depends on it: More and more, the worlds of content marketing and SEO are intertwining. Great content can actually increase the traffic and leads to your website. And one clear sign that SEO is taking content marketing into serious consideration is Google and Facebook’s recent changes. Both have begun to implement measures to find and detect quality over quantity. Google’s algorithm for example favors content that is high-quality and original. Their recent roll-out of a In-depth article search feature further proves my point.

Learn how to optimize your content marketing plans (even if you are not an SEO expert!)

We also realized the growing importance of content marketing in different aspects of SEO and after a meating with our content marketing team in Vancouver, decided to include them in our SEO plans.

Content marketing delivers a high ROI: This is probably one of the strongest points in convincing management to invest in paid content marketing. A lot of the struggles in online marketing is that the ROI cannot be measured or proven. This is not the case with content marketing – as long as you have a clear content marketing plan, of course. The ROI is higher when it comes to content marketing, not just because it requires less investment to get measurable results, but because it is more effective in comparison to other methods of advertising. The ROI of content marketing outweighed that of paid search by more than three times! Similar results are when it comes to generating leads and blogging on a regular basis. The cost per leads for content marketing is significantly less than the one of paid search. Another good thing about content marketing is that the content does not disappear, unlike in ads or other temporary methods.

Less expensive than other marketing methods: Next time someone tries to tell you that they don’t want to spend on content marketing because it is “too expensive”, remind them that content marketing is less expensive than other traditional forms of marketing. Yet we can’t avoid the cost question. No business likes to spend extra money on things, and this point will be one of first things brought up. But as I mentioned in my last point, content marketing is more effective at bringing leads and sales than other methods. The point should not be so much the cost, but on how much you will save by investing in it. If the discussion becomes about time and resources, you can always outsource your content marketing services. That way, employees will not have to take time away to write articles or blog.

See more: Why Your Business Should Have a Blog

Increases customer trust and retention: Any marketer/salesman/business person knows the value of a customer and how expensive it is to lose one. Content marketing is a great way to retain customers. By providing them with customized content, you are able to speak to them and build a relationship with them. Customers that are engaged with your content are going to be more likely to see what you have to say. Getting their attention is key. Another point where content marketing wins is at the point after purchase. Sending them content in the form of say, a newsletter or through your blog can really make them turn into a repeat and loyal customer.

Businesses don’t like to pay for things just for the heck of it. Make sure your content marketing plans have a clear goal and results are measurable. And if you need help, you can always get some from an external source. Many digital marketing companies can aid in the creation of a strategy, as well as create content and promote it for it. We are one of them.

Our Vancouver content marketing team can help you create a strategy and produce different types of content for your brand’s promotion. We are experienced in creating and writing blog articles, videos, or any other type of element of visual marketing that will help boost your brand in the online sphera.

Akbar’s Own is recognized as one of the Best Indian Restaurants in Vancouver by the “Best of the City Dining” awards. Akbar’s joins a group of other selected restaurants as recipients of this award organized by Westender, a local newspaper in Vancouver.

Prominent Indian restaurant, Akbar’s Own received one of the ‘Best Indian Restaurant’ awards by Westender’s Best of the City Dining. Westender awards restaurants on an annual basis, in where users get to vote on their top dining choices in Vancouver. Awards were given out in a series of categories, such as type of cuisine offered, neighborhood and eating occasion. Akbar’s Own came in second place for the category Best Indian restaurant in Vancouver. “We take this award with a lot of pride,” states Amar Maroke, Manager of Akbar’s Own. “The fact that people were the determining factor in this award makes it all the more special. It is nice to be recognized in such a competitive environment as is the restaurant industry in Vancouver”.

The restaurant industry is both a highly competitive and thriving industry in Vancouver. With 70% of businesses failing within their first year, it is considered to be a high-risk business to get into. That does not seem to deter restaurateurs though. According to the British Columbia Restaurant and Foodservices Association, 500 to 600 restaurants open each year. Running for over a decade, Akbar’s Own is a household name for Vancouver’s residents. It is considered one of the Indian restaurants in Vancouver that was able to succeed over the years and carve out a name for itself.

Customers who come eat at this restaurant’s establishment on Broadway will find themselves with a series of traditional North Indian dishes to choose from. Minutes away from the heart of the city, Akbar’s Own has become many customer’s preferred Indian restaurant in Vancouver. Chicken tikka, palak paneer and tandoori chicken are some of this restaurant’s signature dishes. Besides its restaurant, Akbar’s Own also offers services for Indian catering in Vancouver.

Part of Akbar’s success and recognition was due to Vancouver web design and digital marketing company CodeTactic Media Inc. CodeTactic helped increase Akbar’s visibility online and traffic through its SEO services. “Despite enjoying relative success in its restaurant and catering services, this Indian restaurant was lagging behind online,” explains Gonzalo Ortiz de Zevallos, Senior Account Executive at CodeTactic. “Not showing up on Google’s top results is almost like betraying your business, slaying customers to competitors who rank higher”. With its affordable services for SEO in Vancouver, CodeTactic helps businesses improve their Google rank.

Trying to be #1 on Google is like a game of rat and mouse between you and your competitors. The rankings keep on changing, and getting on top is a battle. Getting to that coveted number one spot (and staying there) is a challenge.

But who does not want to be on top? Or bring more customers to their business? As rhetorical as these questions may seem for anyone mildly familiar with SEO services, not enough businesses are making them. Or at least not enough businesses are taking the appropriate steps to get there.

See more: SEO mistakes everyone commits

One easy way to gain more visibility on search engines and customers is to optimize for local SEO. What does that mean? Read ahead…

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO is search engine optimization specialized for a particular geographic location. Businesses that are interested in being found in a specific location indulge in this form of SEO. Getting traffic or visibility in a search result that is tailored to a location can be useful for people looking for things nearby them.

Does my business need it?

If you are a brick and mortar store, or a business with a physical location, they you qualify for local SEO. So whether you are the owner of a tiny restaurant or a retail clothing store, you are going to want to optimize for local SEO. Why? Because you want people who are close to you to come to your store.

Now that you know what local SEO is, here’s a look at 5 ways in which you can leverage your business for local SEO:

Get your citations on: Citations are what is referred to as any site that has your company’s crucial information on their page. This crucial information is your businesses’ name, address and phone number. Also known as NAP, these three elements should be correctly listed on your different online profiles – Facebook, Yelp, and Google+, to name a few. Inaccuracies in one of these areas can lead to a negative experience with your business. Not only that, but having the wrong information on citations can lead to a negative ranking factor for your business. Google considers NAP consistency as one of their local ranking factors, and checks to see if a business exists through the accuracy of them.

Create a Local Google+ page: After citations, the single most important thing to local SEO is having a Local business page on Google. Without this, visibility and ranking is much more difficult to achieve. Google+ pages are the first things to show up when people search for things, so not having one can definitely make you lose out to competition. Not only is it from Google, but encouraged by them. Google created this feature for businesses to show up easier on their search and maps features. Crucial information to customers like opening hours and addresses are easily viewed from here. If you don’t have one yet, you can set up your business on Google through theirhow to create a local business page.

Set up your Social Media profiles: Social media accounts are another way to get more exposure for your business. When searching for a good or service nearby, people often run into Facebook, Twitter, and even TripAdvisor accounts. In order to be found, fill out important geographical information such as city and state, without forgetting to provide a link to your website. Don’t just have an account listing your name and have a couple of posts here and there. A dead business with little engagement, few likes and no responses to customers’ posts does not give a good impression to potential customers. Make sure you have someone who is managing your social media full-time to avoid this from happening.

Directory listings: Placing yourself in directory listings can be tedious, but like any necessary good, it is something that must be done. Each entry in a local directory or a review website gives you a chance to have another citation on Google (as I explained before, Google loves citations) and a shot at improving your ranking. Sometimes, you will find that your business is already listed on a site, like review site Yelp for example. Claiming ownership will allow you to have more control over your business online and fix any mistakes in NAP, if there were to begin with.

Have Reviews: Reviews are an important part of local SEO. When people search for things on Google, the first thing that shows up before your website are Google places. Due to their order of appearance, chances are that people are going to view the reviews attached to that Google place before they see your website. Reviews on other sites like Yelp and Urbanspoon are also relevant.

Although client reviews are not exactly under your control, it is still a great component to have when people search for your business. I am not insinuating you create fake reviews or pay people to write positive things about your business, but encourage clients to review their experience in your establishment or service. Genuine reviews go a long way, and in the case of a negative or terrible review, you can always respond to them. That is what online reputation management is for, after all.

If your business depends on customers in the same physical location as you are, local SEO is the way to go. As you can see, the factors that apply to SEO also apply to local SEO, but local SEO also has some extra factors to take into consideration. Implementing these steps will help your business rise in the search engine rankings and become more visible.

There is nothing sadder than a piece of writing that has never been read. One way to fix this? Optimizing your content for SEO. If you think about it, content marketing and SEO go hand in hand. In a perfect marriage, SEO helps people find your and your content, and good content is a way of doing better on Google. Anyone who knows a bit about having a content marketing plan knows that the formula does not lie in just writing well, but in being found.

But what about those who don’t know much about SEO? I mean, SEO can be scarily complicated, even for so-called SEO gurus. Constant updates to Panda, Penguin and other of Google’s animal-denominated algorithms keep on changing, making it even more impossible for content marketers who know very little about SEO to catch up.

If you are in a similar situation, this article is for you. If you know very little or nothing about SEO but want to optimize your page’s content to gain maximum visibility, read on.

First things first: the Importance of keywords in Content Marketing and SEO

The first thing you should know about optimizing your content is choosing the right words, or keywords. As the name suggests, your keyword should be a word or string of words that sum up your content, tying it together like a theme. It should also be something people are likely to search for when looking for content like yours. If you are wondering ‘but how do I know what keywords people will look for?’ Try Google Adwords’ Keyword Planner. This tool that has worked wonders for me, and best thing of all, it’s free!

Keyword selection is a major component of SEO, and should be the first thing you look at when optimizing your content. But remember: use, not abuse. Including keywords in your writing should be done in a natural manner which makes sense when read. Doing so will not only help you not only be found, but rank higher on Google as well. Avoiding to do so might make you end up blacklisted on Google. Take a look at our list of the most common mistakes in SEO for future reference.

Check your Titles

I cannot stress the importance of titles in SEO. A title is probably the most important item/factor/element/whatever-you-want-to-call-it on your page. Not only is the title the first thing search engines register when looking at your site, but the first thing people see when they are doing a search. Including your main keyword in the title is a must.

The title of your article or page should not only be catchy, but include your keywords. I often am caught up in the catchy title vs. keyword-driven, SEO-friendly title dilemma when writing. The key is combining both. Reevaluate your title at the end of writing your piece and make sure it embodies the content of your page without missing out on your key words.

…and headings, and subheadings

Like titles, including your keywords in your headings is important for SEO. You don’t have to do so in every heading and subheading, because it would be impossible keep viewers on your page. But at least include it in one heading. Doing so helps Google know that your content is about that keyword, and not just a bunch of gibberish to appear on Google. The headings appear as <h1> and <h2> in your HTML code.

Readable images = findable images

Believe it or not, the text behind your image is also pertinent to improving your findability online. Known as the alternate text or “alt” tags on HTML, this feature allows you to include a description that suits what the image is about. Doing so allows Google to make sense of your image and place them on Google Images. Next time you are putting an image on your page, (which I am hoping you do, in the name of visual marketing) make sure the “alt” tag is properly filled in. If a keyword can be fitted there naturally, then better. The point of including a descriptive alt tag is for people to find your image, and page, consequently, when they search for phrases similar to the one you placed in your tag.

                           What the alt tag for your image looks like on HTML

Meta descriptions

If you have dwelled in the world of digital marketing or SEO, you are bound to have heard the  phrase “meta description”. For those who are unfamiliar, meta descriptions are the text that appears under your title on search engines. Having said that, the importance of it being keyword-friendly is evident. But like I have countlessly mentioned, a proper meta description should not only invite Google’s search engines, but viewers as well. Stuffing a bunch of keywords is not the point. Catchy and keyword-friendly is the way to go.

                              The meta description, ladies and gentlemen.

Link smartly

Hyperlinks on your page, also known as anchor text links, are extremely powerful to users and search engines, telling them to go somewhere else – another page on your website, a blog article, or even an external source with relevant information. While readers are given an idea of what type of content the link is going to lead them to, search engines can know whether the link is relevant or useful in the context it is in. Linking something to the words “click here” are futile, and a severe waste of a link. Neither the user nor the search engine will have an idea of what the link is about. The words you use to describe the link are extremely important and should be chosen wisely.

While SEO is not all about content optimization, it is a major part. We’ve tried to make it simple for you, and not go way too into the world of SEO. Mainly, it is all about keeping your keywords in mind, (prior to choosing the right ones, of course) and making some tiny tweaks here and there.

When was the last time that you took a hard look at your business’ Facebook page and wondered: is this really helping us bring new business? Or, is it really reflecting what our brand is all about?

Facebook has 665 million active users logging on each day to its page on average. As a business owner, chances are that one of the first things you did online after your website, was create your Facebook page. There’s a reasonwhy you and your business should not quit Facebook. If you haven’t got one yet, take a quick look at our “How to create a Facebook page” article.

Follow these six steps to make your Facebook page stand out, grow your fan base and extend your reach on this social media giant.

  Start with the Cover photo & Profile Picture

They are the face of your brand’s Facebook page. Just as with websites, you have only 2 seconds to attract your visitors’ attention.

Your timeline cover photo and profile picture can achieve and retain that attention.

– Your optimal Timeline cover photo should be: 851px x 315px

In this example, the Slice of Chicago’s Facebook page shows their brand’s attitude, contact information, description and a little bit of seasonal spirit.

– Your profile picture: 160px x 160px

Your profile picture is the most important image on your timeline. It is the face and image of your brand. Out of all the graphics on your Facebook page, the profile picture is the one that shows up the most: on every reply, every comment and every post. Make sure the image that represents your brand is clear and not pixelated.

                                  Guinness, showing what they do best.

Here are some free tools that can help you create eye-catching Facebook covers and profile pictures:

Timeline Covers Pro

Canva

Complete your info to reflect your brand.

It’s true. People hardly ever read. However, your information is not only good for showing a description of your company or brand.

This information will get indexed by Google and Facebook itself. Allowing your page to show in Facebook results when people look for companies in your industry.

Identify yourself with one word (or small phrase)

Part of the huge success of platforms like Twitter and Instagram was due to the #hashtag trend. Brands can identify themselves and “own” a hashtag as a marketing campaign.

Perfect example: #EnsuranceSave30 | The Esurance campaign

Why it works:

     Identifies the core of the marketing message in 3 simple words.

     Esurance built up the momentum prior to the big release.

Result:

     @Ensurance follower’s count grew from 8,900 to 155,000

Post, post & post.

Content is king, as they say. Your visitor goes to your Facebook page to find something.What has your brand been up to?

Post daily.

You don’t want to clog your Facebook feed with unnecessary content. Posting at least once a day ensures that your activity is shown and you get your message out there.

Post smart.

I can talk all day about posting smart. The main point of it is: Make sure to post relevant content in a friendly, personal tone, accompanied by a nice graphic that goes with  your topic. Perhaps, even, a good call to action.

Post again.

I’ve mentioned that your Facebook feed answers the question of “What has your brand been up to lately?”. You want to show that your brand is active, so don’t stop posting.

Review & proofread.

A good post can make a big impact. However, an embarrassing mistake in your social media management can make things go really wrong. The “delete” button doesn’t really exist on the Internet.

Have you ever felt that big corporations don’t HEAR the customer?

Don’t stop.

Posting, creating the right visual marketing, and putting in the time to engage with your customers will get you results. It does take time, but don’t stop.

Happy New Year everyone! 2014 has gone by quickly, and while the New Year has just begun, speculations of trends in the web design world have already begun. Here’s our list of what we expect to be the top trends dominating the world of web design this year.

More Scrolling: Mobile users seem to dictate a lot of trends in design, a notorious one beingresponsive web design. One of the main complaints users have with websites on mobile it that they take too long to load on their devices. By removing links on pages and implementing everything in one place, loading time decreases. In this regard, website navigation is transitioning from clicking to scrolling. And users prefer it: 76% of website visitors scroll on web pages. It is easier for them to find content on one page. Because of this trend, you will begin to see more websites become longer in length.

Hidden navigation menus: Hidden navigation menus are starting to become a trend in most websites. This has been around in web apps for mobile and tablet, but not so much for desktops. And no, it is not a tactic to confuse the visitor and make them stay longer on your page to figure things out. By hiding the navigation menu bar, visitors are forced to focus on the visual presented and are not distracted by other elements. It helps create a more clean, clear design on your site. This is helpful for a website’s homepage for instance, where you want to leave a lasting first impression on the visitor.

One page navigation: Visual storytelling is rising in popularity for its incredible way to convert users. And with people’s attention span reaching only 8 seconds, using images and other types of visuals to gain user’s attention are hotcakes. Single page designs are in-line with the idea of  storytelling. By keeping written content to a minimum while expanding on the use of visuals, storytelling becomes more powerful. Not only that, but because everything is in one page, scrolling is necessary, a feature which is not only shown to convert users faster, but makes for a great way to tell a brand’s story.

Interactive Infographics: The popularity of infographics only further makes the case for us being visual beings. Because 90% of the information that is transmitted to our brains is visual, infographics proved to be a great way convey information and actually remember it. A new trend for 2015 is webgraphics, interactive infographics which basically do that – interact with the user. By allowing the user to interact with the information presented, they are prone to be more interested with the information itself, and most importantly, remember it.

High-quality, customized images: This is hardly a new trend, but large images seem to stay. Images will continue to reign this year, but only if they are customized and professional-looking. Not only are digital marketers interested in pushing visual content marketing saying so, but backed up by statistics. 40% of consumers are more likely to engage with brands that use high quality professional images and photography on their websites. By using customized images, you give your brand a unique, professional look and step away from having to take pictures off the internet for your site. While not everyone is a designer, you can ask your web design or marketing team whether they have these services. We for example, include customized images in our content marketing plans.

Flat design: This was a rising trend in 2014 but signs show that this type of design will still dominate this year. As a response to design that tried to ‘wow’ the viewer with flash and other elements, flat design arose. Microsoft was one of the first to use this with their  interface. Flat design is minimalist in approach with bright colors, two-dimensional illustrations to give the viewer an impression of a clean design and open space. Its simplified style allows it to work seamlessly with responsive web design by reducing load times on mobile phones.

Typography: Hand in hand with large background images, typography is going to dominate 2015. The need to stand out from the rest has pushed for this trend, and this will only mean typography will get more versatile, responsive and functional in the future. A unique typography is yet another way to differentiate your website without having to do too much. Many websites have already begun to play with this trend, in terms of different fonts and sizes. For example, a dominating trend last year was the use of large fonts over image backgrounds. This helped focus a message, but also dictated reading sequence.

Nothing says “less is more” like a single page website. While this is no new trend (one page websites have been around since forever), single page designs have been rapidly gaining popularity for many small businesses and personal websites who do not need multiple pages of content and information. If you are thinking about making a website for a small project of yours that has a limited amount of content, such as a portfolio or a product promotion, you might want to invest in a single page design. Not only is it easier to manage and update but allows you the creative freedom to design a clean and uncluttered site that makes a bold statement. For more on the benefits of having a single page website, read on.

It’s better for Google

Appearing on Google’s top ranks is no longer just a wish of any SEO agency or digital marketer. Increasing your Google rank is important for your visibility. And with single page design,optimizing your website your SEO can be much easier to accomplish. In a multi-page site, the links are distributed throughout the pages, but in a single page design links are concentrated in one place. Ranking for one page is easier to accomplish than trying to do so for several. One of the factors Google looks at for determining your page rank is the quality of links coming into your website, also known as backlinks or inbound links. Because you technically only have one page on your website, you only need to be linked to one page.

Gives you a chance to stand out

Part of the popularity of single page designs is because of the opportunity it gives your brand to stand out. A single page layout is all you have got, so making it visually stunning is a priority. Having a single page website is uncommon, and if it looks different, it can leave a lasting impression on the visitor. If you look at any single page website, it looks like no other. This can put a lot of pressure on the web designer, but also gives them an opportunity to showcase their creativity.

Its cheaper

A single page website saves you on cost because they require less web space and are smaller, which can save you on hosting prices. Single page designs require less bandwidth than a multi-page site. Having lower bandwidth not only decreases hosting prices, but are better for users as well. This is helpful for many users who are accessing your site on their devices with limited data plans (another reason why responsive design is so important). A website with a reduced bandwidth will load quicker for the user, which will improve your bounce rates and other factors that affect traffic to your site.

Read more: Why is Good Web Design Important?

Users prefer it

Visitors prefer seeing a stunning visual and minimal content than lots of text and no images on a webpage. 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual, a principle single page design embraces wholeheartedly. Single page designs are also easier to use. Everything is in one place, which makes the navigation process easier.  Instead of browsing around multiple pages to find what they are looking for, users just need to know how to scroll. This avoids the problem of users not finding information or getting stuck somewhere in between your site. Scrolling is intuitive to a user, something Twitter and Facebook learnt early on and have adopted themselves.

Leads to more conversions

Single page websites are better at gaining conversions because of the nature of their design. One of the most important pages for gaining conversions are landing pages, and single page designs act similar to that. By keeping the design simple with a minimal number of links that would otherwise cause distraction, single page designs eliminate distractions and form a perfect scenario for placing a strong call-to-action. Another feature which makes single page designs a good place to gain conversions is because users only need to scroll down. Missing the call-to-action is more difficult to do than in other websites. It is then in the designer’s job to create interest throughout your page in order for the viewer to keep scrolling and take action.

Its easier to maintain

While this one may be a given, having a single page website is easier to manage. By restricting yourself to a single page, you are cutting your workload by half (or more than that). Just think about it this way: which is easier to maintain: a complex, multi-layered website with lots of content, or a single page site with limited content? Obviously the latter. With less content and pages to deal with on a single page site, there is less to fix and change. Maintenance is more streamlined and hassle free.

Tis the season to be…shopping?

The holiday season is one of the busiest times of the year for businesses. According to Yahoo’s Holiday Shopping Trends, 40% of annual sales are made in the two last months of the year. People are busy making purchases for Christmas, Hannukah, New Year or any other festive celebration. And from a business standpoint, these are dates one simply cannot afford to miss.

With the surge of online sales and e-commerce, web development has gained even more prominence. Marketers and businesses wishing to make their brand more known and maximize sales during the peak shopping season of the year have to realize the return on web development. There’s nothing like a good digital web campaign to drive traffic to your site and cha-ching to your pockets.

So without further ado, let’s look at some of the reasons why web development is so important for your business during the holiday season:

Helps your holiday SEO strategy: Part of promoting your product is getting it to show up on Google’s search engines. And for the holiday season, you want your website or products to show up first when people search for them. This is why it important to start your holiday SEO strategy with enough time for your products to be able to rank high. Remember, no matter what your SEO people tell you, ranking first in one month is hard, almost impossible if you ask.

SEO takes time. Optimizing your website’s URLs, title tags and meta descriptions to include the keywords you want shoppers to find your for is not an easy feat. Another organic way of improving your SEO is by adding social media buttons on your website. Whether Google wants to admit it or not, the amount of engagement is also a factor that seems to be related to your SEO rank, which seems to be a growing trend for SEO in 2015.

Online stores ease the buying process: Shopping online has become much more easy with the implementation of ecommerce and online stores. People no longer have to physically visit a store to view a product, but can visualize it from their laptop or mobile phone. Having an online store simplifies the buying process. Not only is it more convenient, but allows you to view a product without having to deal with lines and crowds.

Make sure you have a good web development team that will check your online store for any glitches or issues during the holidays, such as speeding up the checkout process, and ensuring the payment process works correctly. Traffic during the holidays online can be equally as bad as offline, so make sure your website (and servers!) can handle holiday stress.

Landing pages increase leads and sales: A great way to streamline your holiday shoppers is by creating specific landing pages with clear call-to-action buttons. Landing pages are great resources for holiday or other seasonal campaigns. Most people who are lead to your landing page do not do so by accident, but because they showed initial interest. Because of their simple nature, clear call-to-action and focused concept, they are known to convert more visitors than any other page on your website. See more: The importance of a landing page

Helps promote your brand on social media: the buying process has significantly changed in the last couple of years. 84% of buyers use some digital tool or another before and during their shopping experience, which shows that they are shopping in a completely different manner.

Not being present during the holiday season could mean the loss of many customers for your business. Social media has become a liaison between customers and your brand, and thus has become an important part of web development. Any new update in your holiday sale can be shared to a number of people within a matter on your seconds, which not only maximizes your exposure online, but can also increase sales during this season.

One of the major goals of a business online is to increase traffic to their website. But it doesn’t stop there. Traffic should then be turned into conversions or sales. While there are a number of ways to do this (email marketing, PPC ads), the most direct or asserted path is through a landing page. So if you are looking for a way to streamline your digital marketing efforts and convert traffic into leads, landing pages can be the key to successfully doing that.

How?

Well, landing pages were BORN to convert.

But before we move on to the importance of having a landing page, let’s start by defining what it is. And no, a landing page is not a page where you “land” on by mistake.

What is a Landing Page?

A landing page is a web page where visitors are directed to after they click on an advertisement with a call-to-action from your blog, social media or search engines. Here, they find more information on on the ad they clicked on, with a clear call-to-action, such as a sign up form. Landing pages are more specific than websites, and are usually used in marketing campaigns because of their effectiveness of converting visitors to leads. Because the nature of the page is to get you to take a specific action, the design of is quite simple: clear, concise text, maybe an image or a video, and a form to get what they were looking for – contact details in exchange for a free e-book, for example. Regardless of the fact that you are trying to sell a product or get more subscribers to your newsletter, a landing page is where you want to convert your visitors into leads. By including a form for visitors to fill, out, you collect valuable information for your database – names, email addresses – which allows you to continue to have a conversation with them in the future.

What are the benefits of having a landing page?

Leads to more conversions: Due to the nature of landing pages of being so specific and focused, the likelihood that they will be converted into leads is high. By providing users exactly what they were looking for, they are more likely to interact with your call to action can convert into a lead. A proper landing page that is simple and has a clear call to action, reduces problems such as high bounce rates and traffic that leads to nowhere which would normally happen in other web pages on your website. Think about it: instead of directing your visitor to your website and having them search for what they are looking for, wouldn’t it be better to just give it to them? Landing pages were created for converting visitors to leads, and if you do it properly, you can do just that. Formstack has a great guide on what a perfect landing page should look like.

Reduces your advertising costs: Placing an ad that does not produce any results in terms of leads or conversions is a loss. The purpose of a landing page is to solve that problem. Thus, the effectiveness of your ads increase: conversion rates are higher, which generates more leads and eventually sales. This in turn allows you to focus your advertising dollars on other efforts such as improving your social media reach, other keywords for your SEO efforts or making more PPC ads.

Helps better target your keywords: Keyword research and implementation is one of the main pillars of search engine optimization, or SEO. The purpose of creating specific keyword phrases for your business to drive traffic to your website is half the step of the way, but getting them to stay on it is another. Landing pages can be creating with this in mind, in where users can not only find you, but find exactly what they were searching for. Landing pages are especially helpful when it comes to long tail keywords, which are phrases that are typically three words or more. Sometimes, it is a little difficult to include these long tail keywords in your website’s main pages. Creating a landing page that will specifically cater to that keyword will be more likely to attract visitors and convert. One of the most common mistakes in SEO is the failure to adopt long tail keywords. Not only are they proven to be more effective in reaching customers already looking for specific products or services, but are less difficult to compete with in search engine rankings.

Metrics are easier to monitor: One of the major elements of digital marketing is the ability to monitor the effectiveness of your marketing decision through analytics. Getting the metrics from your website can help you better optimize them. Doing so in a landing page is much easier than in a normal web page. Whereas in another page on your website has links, text, images and other distractions, a landing page is stripped to the bare minimum. Elements such as bounce rates can be easier to monitor on a landing page because of the few elements it contains.

Enhances your content marketing efforts: As mentioned previously, a landing page should have very few elements to avoid distracting the viewer from taking action. What words and elements go on it, and how they are organized should be focus of yourcontent marketing plan. Not only should the words compel the viewer to take action, but the images, color and other media present should do so as well. Knowing what works and what does not is important. For example, including videos on landing pages increase conversion rates by 86% (stat from EyeviewDigital).

Landing pages are perfect places to include long-tail keywords.

Adding a video on your landing page can increase conversion by over 80%

The design and layout of your landing page is very important, as everything from images to colors can affect its conversion rate. Whether you are using a software to create landing pages or are using a web designer to do so, make sure they have the basics down first. If not, you can always go to our web design team in Vancouver for some help Remember, a great layout can make or break a viewer from becoming a lead. Regardless of how big or small you are, we’re here to help. Our plans start as low as $19/mo for web design.

Businesses large and small can now afford the luxury of having a responsive website with CodeTactic’s new low-cost web design plans. This Vancouver company offers all-inclusive plans in the web design realm beginning at $19/month.

CodeTactic Media, a Vancouver web design and digital marketing company, breaks the mold of responsive web design with its low-cost plans. Businesses that wish to improve or enhance their website by switching to a responsive web design can now do so at extremely affordable prices. Responsive web design is considered to be more expensive than static, more simple web design.

Responsive web design is a type of website design in where the content adjusts to the type of platform being used. This is done to ensure the best user experience for the viewer regardless of the device they are using – a mobile phone, a tablet, or a phablet, to name a few. It differentiates with mobile design because a separate website is not created for this device. Instead a single URL, content and domain is used for all devices.

The rise of ‘smart’ devices has lead to the need for websites to adapt to smaller, different types of screen sizes. As more devices that can access the internet are created, this need will rise. RWD, short for responsive web design, responds to this need. For the first time this year, internet use on mobile phones exceeded that of PCs in the United States. “Businesses have now realized that not only is there a need for a website to look good, but be viewable on a tablet and a smartphone.” expresses Gonzalo Ortiz de Zevallos, Co-Founder of CodeTactic. “At CodeTactic, we marry these two principles and offer them at the lowest cost possible to ensure that anyone can access this necessity – because that is what responsive web design has become”. All of CodeTactic’s web design plans include website packages that are developed with a responsive design that adapts to the specific platform being used.

The advantages of responsive web design are many. Having to manage a single site instead of two or multiple ones for each platform does not only mean a reduction in cost, but a reduction in time. Running two websites is more expensive not only in terms of monetary costs, but in management costs as well. Similarly, a single website means a single URL for all of your content, which helps streamline your SEO efforts. Google’s bots are less confused as to which pages to crawl and index.

Despite the many virtues of responsive web design, it is still considered a luxury for many. Making your website responsive is more expensive than a static, non-responsive site – a cost that businesses cannot afford. “If you are a startup or a small business, being noticed can sometimes be a real fight,” says Gonzalo. “Getting attention can be difficult, and one way to do this is through a beautiful website design that resonates on all levels.” This Vancouver web design company’s plans offers clients the opportunity to reap the benefits of responsive web design at a very affordable cost, starting at $19/month. Plans do not just give you the avenue to an affordable and responsive website, but come with unlimited updates.

Vancouver-based SEO company offers unique engagement plans to businesses and institutions alike. Starting at only $95/mo, CodeTactic’s new plans include content marketing, social media engagement and online reputation, elements that strengthen a brand presence online.

CodeTactic Media Inc, a web design and digital marketing company that specializes in social media management and SEO in Vancouver, offers comprehensive SEO plans at a very low cost.

CodeTactic’s SEO engagement plans offer businesses the unique opportunity to improve their image and positioning on relevant search engines by offering comprehensive plans at affordable prices. “As a Vancouver SEO company, our focus not only relies on improving businesses’ rank on Google, but presenting them in a way that will attract customers,” states Gonzalo Ortiz de Zevallos, Co-Founder of CodeTactic. “This is why our engagement plans do not only include SEO, but other elements that contribute in a brand’s digital marketing strategy.” CodeTactic’s digital marketing plans start as low as $95/mo.

SEO, or search engine optimization is a process that consists of affecting the position of a website in a search engines search results. The most common or sought-after search engine is Google, and the focus is on search results that come naturally and organically, not paid for. Ever since search engines gained prominence in the early decade of the 1990s, search engine optimization was practiced. The idea is quite simple: the higher in the search results you rank for a set of keywords or phrases, the more traffic you will receive to your site. This will increase the chances of your website being found, and also increase the chances of getting a visitor to make a purchase at your establishment – whether it is online or offline.

SEO is not just word specific, but can extend to video search and image search as well. Optimization is done to match the types of key terms or phrases people type into search engines like Google. In order to achieve this match, things such as editing the website’s code, editing the content and removing plugins and other elements that hamper the favorable appearance on a search engine are common practice. CodeTactic’s comprehensive SEO plans include this and more, all for the affordable price of $95/mo.

Besides the usual SEO tactics such as keyword research and HTML editing to optimize one’s website, there are other elements included in the plans, such as content marketing, engagement on social media and reputation management. More specifically, there are the creation of varied types of rich content such as images, videos, blog articles and press releases which are then distributed on social media sites. “Some elements are clearly underrated,” expressed Gonzalo. “A press release for example, includes video marketing, content marketing and SEO, all in one. Similarly, the exposure your brand gets on social media coupled with the power of great visual content is unmatched. Our team of experts on SEO in Vancouver recognized this flaw early on and decided to take advantage of it.” Promoting a site is a common SEO tactic to build the word on one’s brand and drive traffic to one’s site.

Picture this situation: you get constant phone calls from clients asking where they can find a piece of information on your website. Your analytics show high bounce rates and visiting competitors’ websites always gives you an uneasy feeling that you’re falling behind. Sound too familiar? You are not alone. These are some of the reasons why businesses go for a redesign of their website.

A redesign can be expensive though, and convincing others to do it can be difficult. Let’s look at six reasons why you should go from thinking of a redesign to executing one:

The design is not responsive: Your website should be designed thinking beyond just the desktop. Having aresponsive web design is imperative today. Mobile browsing has increased significantly over the past couple of years, and chances are that most people visit your site through their tablet or a smartphone. If they are not able to view your site properly and easily click on links, they will leave quickly. Not optimizing your site for them would be a grave mistake, not only in terms of viewers but of sales. This is why a incorporating a responsive web design is so important.

Not mobile-friendly vs Mobile-friendly

Conversion rates are low: One way to measure whether your site is connecting with customers  and leading to sales is through conversion rates. When checking your analytics to see how your website is performing in terms of search engine optimization, you might notice that your conversion rates are low and your bounce rate is high, then there is a problem. People that are visiting your site are exiting quickly, and are either not finding what they are looking for or are not liking what they see. A redesign could change this for the better. A website should engage and call your visitors to take a positive action (ie. make a purchase). Making your website appealing to others will encourage them to stay and invest in your brand.

You lack a proper CMS: Having your website on a proper CMS, or content management system allows you to make edits or changes on your website when you need to, and on a constant basis. Many companies use it to run their website, or blogs, because it diminishes the need to know programming or hand coding greatly. A good content management system will allow you to have more control and power over the content that goes on your website. An outdated CMS will make it hard for you to do so, which will only pull you back (and we all know how fast time moves on the internet and in the world of technology). A good CMS also fits into the principles of ESR or evolutionary site redesign, in where instead of going for redesigns or improvements every couple of years, it is a constant process.

A proper CMS allows you to make constant changes to your website, in line with the principles of ESR.

Not search engine optimized: Chances are your website’s design can be part of the reason why you are ranking low on the search engines. Google is constantly updating their algorithms and what was deemed acceptable could change in a matter of seconds. If your past designers did not optimize your website for SEO, they might be unintentionally committing some of the mistakes in SEO. While websites in the past were not built with SEO in mind, today’s are. A redesign can help correct simple mistakes in terms of coding or poor web structure.

Your website is hard to navigate: Ever heard of the phrase “less is more”? In the midst of you trying to create a “wow” factor in your homepage, you might scare away your viewers. Overindulgence in elements like flash, constant pop-ups, or trying to make an intricate and different type of home page might frustrate a user’s experience on your site. A simple, clean design done by a team of professional web designers, with a clear navigational bar will require less effort from the viewer’s side. Additionally, if users keep on running into broken links or can’t find key information on your site, like where to contact you or place an order, they will leave quickly and negatively affect your bounce rates.

Change in business direction: Whether you are undergoing a change in your businesses brand, or your business is shifting focus, a major change in your business strategy could be a great time to introduce a website redesign. Sometimes, changes can be a matter of colors and logos, but others it can go to mean a much more profound change of content. Additional features such as e-commerce tools, forums, or maybe even social media might be required. Updating your layout to reflect on these changes is a good idea.

Redesigning your website can be task that many fear because of the time, cost and planning that it undergoes. But is it worth it? Of course. Your website is your primary vehicle for promoting your business online. And if you have not done many changes in the past, it can be a little worrisome, but the good news is that you don’t have to do it alone. Partnering up with a good web design team can simplify the process for you.

Search engine optimization, as you may or may not already know, is a process to improve the visibility of a website for search engines. Optimizing your website for search engines is done with the aim of bringing more traffic and conversions to your site. The higher your website ranks on search engines like Google or Bing, the more visitors and traffic it will receive.

SEO can be further broken down into two categories: on-page SEO, and off-page SEO. The first, on-page SEO, that deals with SEO tactics to optimize your own webpages, is the most known or common type of SEO. Off-page SEO on the other hand is about the tactics you do outside of your website.  While the guidelines or rules for on-page SEO are more clear and straightforward – content, HTML fixes such as meta and Alt tag, titles, URLs, loading time – off-page SEO treads on more murkier waters. It’s all about link building and we all know how tough Google has been on cracking down on link exchanges and other schemes.

So, how are you supposed to do off-page SEO without getting penalized? Read on…

If done correctly, off-page SEO can be as important as on-site SEO, or even more. How, you ask? It all comes down to quality content.

As mentioned previously, off-site SEO deals with all the optimization that goes on beyond or out of your website. This can be done in a series of ways, such as through blogging and social media, for example (more on that later).

Why is Off-Page SEO important?

Off-Page SEO is important because search engines consider them to be a more reliable sign because the content is coming from an outside or third party source. The amount that your brand is mentioned on sites other that its own website, be it on social media, forums, or other blogs, goes to show that the product is interesting (or that their content is share-worthy).

Shares, likes and comments are accounted for by search engines as a ranking factor

We know now how important off-page SEO is. But how can it improve MY website’s ranking and traffic? Here are four ways how:

Blogging: Although you have your own blog and are managing the content, it is considered an off-page SEO tactic. Blogging is not only a great way to create new content on a regular basis, but gives Google the task of crawling and indexing a new page. This gives you a new opportunity to rank for another keyword, and to include links to your site and others. Writing about industry trends, how to’s and news will keep your audience engaged and give them another reason to visit your site. Creating a blog is extremely easy with platforms such as WordPress. Whether it is for yourself or for a client, the benefits of blogging are clear.

Social Networking: Believe it or not, social media is a great way to boost your SEO rankings. Each +1, like or retweet is seen as a positive sign about your brand, and gives search engines like Google an affirmation that your website is a source of credible information. This helps improve your ranking. Signing up on social media sites does not only give you exposure on popular networks such as Facebook and Twitter, but allows you to interact with people and promote your website at the same time. If you are not on these sites, consider getting some help from social media experts.

Every like counts?

Press Releases: Contrary to popular belief, a press release is not just reserved for big companies releasing important breaking news stories. Through media such as images and video, as well as anchor text links and backlinks, you can drive traffic to your site. A press releases are a great way to expose your website to a series of news portals, which will pick up the story and, according to the news site that picks it up, can give tremendous exposure to your brand. Writing a press release is a highly technical thing that needs optimization of its own, so be sure that whoever writes it, knows more than just ‘a thing or two about’ how to write press release.

Social Bookmarking: By submitting your pages and blog posts to popular bookmarking sites like Digg, Reddit, Delicious and StumbleUpon, you can promote your site off-page and reach a greater number of users. Do not post ALL of your pages and blog articles here, however, be selective. Not doing so can be considered spam. Publishing your content on these sites sends a positive message to search engines.

Website-viewing and internet browsing is changing. People no longer view websites solely through their desktop, but through a multitude of devices: tablets, phones, phablets, and yes, even wearables. At the same time, the number of mobile devices accessing the web is growing at an exponential pace. Websites have no choice but to catch up and adapt to different screen sizes. Because let’s face it, a lot of the web isn’t optimized for non-desktop views.

In comes responsive web design. I’m sure a lot of you must have heard people talking about the importance of having responsive web design, yada yada yada. But do you really know what it is, and why is it important?

Read on… What is Responsive Web Design?

Responsive web design (RWD) is a type of website design in where the layout adapts to the device that is being used  (i.e a mobile phone, a tablet or a desktop). Instead of having multiple websites for different devices, responsive web design allows you to have a single URL and HTML code. Say that you are viewing a website on a mobile device for example. If is follows the principles of RWD, said website would reshape itself to the screen size of your phone. The content would appear in a single column view, and two columns in another device.

Coined by Ethan Marcotte in 2010, this approach “responds” to the needs of the user by using fluid, flexible images and content. Designed with the end user in mind, responsive web design aims to provide a better, or optimal user experience.

What are the Benefits of using Responsive Web Design?

Cost Reduction: There is a common perception that having a responsive site is more expensive, when in fact, does not have to be. But yes, in general, there are some cases where making your site responsive is seen as a more costly investment, but in the long-run it pays off. Having a single, unified website saves time and money. You no longer have to make two websites and manage them separately, which is not only more time-consuming, but less expensive. One centralized site, one single SEO strategy.

Forward-looking: Responsive web design is both forward-looking and progressive because it is designed keeping not just one device in mind, like mobile, but others as well. The nature of this type of web design is that it can adapt to any screen size, taking into account devices that are not yet in operation. This takes away the pain of having to develop a site for every new type of popular platform that will come into existence.

Customer-centric:  As I mentioned beforehand, responsive websites are designed with the end-user in mind: your customer. Whether the customer is viewing your site on a smart-TV or a tablet, they should be able to access it and get the information they need without much trouble.The goal of responsive web design is to provide an optimal user experience by resizing and reshaping itself to the user’s device. This way, the user will have to do less scrolling and make reading and viewing the site much easier. Likewise, responsive web design eliminates the need for having multiple versions of your site by having a single URL. And running into a mobile version of a site on a desktop is definitely NOT the idea of an optimal user experience. A single URL also benefits the user because it makes it easier for them to share content on social media.

SEO-friendly: A website that is designed in a responsive manner is much more SEO-friendly. Even Google recommends it. Having a mobile site and a desktop site confuses Google, which in the end can affect your website’s rank and SEO. Why? Because Google’s bots no longer have to crawl two websites with similar content and decide which one is authentic. With responsive design, your site has a single URL, instead of two; one for your mobile site and one for your website. Having a single URL and code makes it easier for Google’s robots to crawl on your site and index the pages and content that appears on it.

Higher Conversion Rates: User experience is related to conversion rates. If a user has a positive experience on your site, it is highly more likely that they will further engage with your brand. And what a better way to improve your user’s experience by using responsive design? A website that is responsive is optimized for any platform, regardless of which one it is. This in turn has its perks which can lead to higher conversion rates. A responsive site does not need to redirect itself for users, which reduces load time. Similarly, using agent-based redirection or user agents are avoided, which are known to have many errors and worsen the user experience.

If you need help in turning your static website into a responsive one, you might want to start with us. We are a Vancouver web design and digital marketing company. All of our web design plans include the development of websites that are adaptive and responsive in nature. Starting at $19/mo, our web design plans are very much affordable not just for Vancouver, but worldwide. We pride ourselves in having low cost web design plans in Vancouver.

Out with the old, in with the new.

As the year is coming to an end, it is a good time to reflect, set new goals for yourself and get rid of old habits. And who’s to say this cannot be done with SEO as well?

After all, this is the time when businesses are defining their budgets for the year to come – one of them being their marketing budget, of course. But whether you are just getting started with your business online, or are a savvy digital marketer, SEO is a concern. For everyone. Even for us, a company that does SEO in Vancouver.

Let’s look at some important trends for SEO in 2015:

Social Media integration with SEO: Despite the ongoing discussion about whether social signals affect SEO rankings, one thing is for sure: there is a correlation between the two. And with the recent demise of Google Authorship, I believe this correlation will slowly shift to causation. Whether Google wants to admit it or not, all seems to indicate that social signals will become an important factor in their algorithms.

Looking at the overarching reach of social media, searches are also being conducted on these platforms on a not so small basis. Youtube is considered to be the second largest search engine after Google with 3 billion searches a month. Facebook now let’s you search for old posts, and according to StatisticBrain, 2.1 billion search queries are conducted on Twitter every day.

YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google 

Implied links or brand mentions will hold more value: Due to the presence of link building schemes such as link buying, Google has started taking implied links into consideration. Also known as brand mentions, these are words or phrases on other websites that mention your brand without linking to it. This only emphasizes the fact that your links should appear as natural as possible, be it on your blog or website, or in any third-party source.Google is making a difference between implied links and traditional links, or hyperlinks. The newfound emphasis on implied or brand links are because they tend to be of more natural nature, and not part of a scheme for obtaining higher rankings or something.

Mobile optimization is being accounted for: This year, internet use on mobile exceeded that of PCs in the US. While this may not come as a surprise, the trends seem to show that mobile will continue to dominate over the next few years. With the rise of mobile analytics and optimization for mobile, having a design that works on mobile is becoming increasingly important. Companies, in fact are starting to put equal if not more emphasis in tracking mobile traffic and apps, if they have any. Poor loading time, high bounce rates and other factors which affect good web design will come into greater play.

  Left: Not mobile friendly site | Right: Mobile friendly site

Google seems to be doing it already. They have a section on their Webmaster’s accounts so that users can check for analytics and best SEO practices. More recently, they have been testing mobile friendly icons that will show up on a user to indicate which sites are mobile friendly and which are not.

Content Marketing will still be King:  With every new tweak in Google’s algorithms, it is becoming more and more difficult for people to cheat their way up in the search rankings. The algorithms are becoming more complex, and can now read between the lines. So what is left? Enter content marketing.

By creating and delivering content that is both fresh and relevant to readers, Google will reward you with a spot on their site. Marry that with keyword search, indexing and meta tags, and you’ve got yourself a coveted spot. Without a strong content marketing plan, your visibility will tank, and your SEO efforts will fail to deliver.

Don’t waste time on resolutions that don’t work.