As we are getting to the end of 2019, we are doing some reflection about the past 365 days and the challenges that were brought to the table. It was a fantastic year; working, learning, growing and discovering new heights in the world of business, entrepreneurship and marketing that made us wiser, better and eager to start the next chapter.
Among the everyday work for our clients, our weekly task was providing fresh info about hot topics for our blog readers, with the aim to inform, help and develop a relationship that will be profitable both, for us and our readers.
As a result, here are the top 11 articles we’ve published during the course of 2019 covering the fields of SEO, branding, digital marketing and their relationship to web development and the interrelations between the team’s work.
Which one did you like the most?
Table of Contents
- 1. Reasons Why the SEO Specialist Is Your Ticket to Page 1 on Google
- 2. Quality Content Marketing: How It Gives You a Head Start
- 3. Why SEOs and Web Developers Need to Work Together: Their Relationship Explained
- 4. Reasons Why Your Small Business Must Have a Website
- 5. Who Else Wants SEO Tools and Tips That Show Results
- 6. The Secret of Successful Teamwork in a Digital Agency
- 7. How to Win Your On-Page SEO Game
- 8. Brand-Damaging Mistakes E-Commerce Sites Make Too Often
- 9. 4 Common SEO Mistakes that Every E-Commerce Website Has
- 10. How Can You Tell That You’ve Been Hit by Negative SEO and How to Fight It Smart
- 11. SEO 2020: Position Zero and Its Importance for Ecommerce Sites
1. Reasons Why the SEO Specialist Is Your Ticket to Page 1 on Google
We live in a fast-paced, ever-changing digital world. That is a fact. We pay our bills; buy various products weighing from 1 gram to 1 tonne and costing from 1 cent to millions of dollars just with a click of the mouse or tap on the screen. It is frightening how easy and available has become the process of buying things. All you need is to have an internet connection and a smartphone or a computer.
- A strong rivalry of brands
- SEO Basics
- Organic search is the way to go
- Creating trust and credibility
- Increased traffic and engagement at a local level
- SEO is a long-term strategy
2. Quality Content Marketing: How It Gives You a Head Start
When it comes to marketing a small business online, you are probably aware of how tough it can be getting your brand widely recognised. You can pay for a well-designed website and have a registered profile on every social media platform but if you don’t provide your potential buyers with relevant information in the form of quality content then, surely, Google won’t recognise your attempts to place your brand on the market.
- What is quality content marketing?
- Rules to create quality
- How can quality content help your business?
3. Why SEOs and Web Developers Need to Work Together: Their Relationship Explained
Both the web developers and SEO specialists work their way to satisfy the client in completely different ways. Today, they need to work together so that the client would not only be satisfied with the visual appearance on the net but also to be offered a chance their brand to be recognised first locally, then nationally and finally – globally. Having a website is utterly important for your business, but that is just the start. If you need your business to bring more profit on the table, you must appear in searches on Google – and for this, you need an SEO specialist. Here are the most important reasons why web developers and SEO specialists should work together.
- Compatibility brings results
- Dealing with errors
- Enable speed and security
- Both are risk-takers
- The perfect digital marketing team
4. Reasons Why Your Small Business Must Have a Website
When you are ready to do some shopping online, the products that you are looking for always get you to the websites of big, popular companies that already have lots of online customers and a well-developed website that engages the visitor. You would normally purchase what you need, maybe get in touch with some staff from the customer service if you have some questions, pay and if you are satisfied with the whole experience you would come back again. Well, that is why big companies take advantage of the internet. So how would a small business company compete with these big companies?
If you think about it a bit harder, you would realise that even big companies had started from scratch and had to build up their reputation online along with developing their brand. In fact, being relevant online is a complex process that depends on many factors including popularity, advertising, marketing, branding, SEO and digital marketing. But in order for everything to work, there is one thing that must be done right first – having a well-developed website. So, here are some very important reasons why it is imperative for small businesses to have a website.
- Everybody uses the Internet
- It makes your business legitimate
- Improves your marketing campaign
- E-commerce doesn’t stop increasing
- Building connections with your customers is much easier
5. Who Else Wants SEO Tools and Tips That Show Results
The Internet offers limitless opportunities to get your hands on tools that can help you develop your SEO skills and give results to your clients. However, if you are a beginner or you are willing to mix it up a little regarding the tools and strategy you are using, then read on to find out what works for us.
- AHREFS – for research and analysis
- SCREAMING FROG – research and analysis
- Building SEO Strategy
- Monitoring your SEO Strategy
- Weekly research on competitors
- Use the SEO tools
- Performance check
- Writing an SEO report
6. The Secret of Successful Teamwork in a Digital Agency
“When people work toward a common goal, they are driven, passionate and purposeful”. These words by Richard Branson define the concept of teamwork. Very often the completion of a task or a project regardless of its size depends on the many skills different people have. Hence, a team of professionals and experts specialised in various fields can achieve a lot if they all join forces.
- Brainstorming sessions are a must
- Communication should be open and two-way
- Organisation and flow of the tasks need to be consistent
- Respect is never overrated
7. How to Win Your On-Page SEO Game
Despite some claims that are buzzing online (which are fuelled by paid social media ads promoters) that SEO is dead, there are reports by the Forrester Research which state that not only is SEO alive and kicking but it is the number one source of targeted traffic to websites. Plus, the importance of SEO is expected to increase even more in the next couple of years.
- Find the right keywords
- Original content
- A memorable domain name
- Title tag
- Meta description
- Alt descriptions on images
- Internal and external linking
8. Brand-Damaging Mistakes E-Commerce Sites Make Too Often
Starting an eCommerce business is a huge challenge, to say the least. Taking into consideration how much of an influence Amazon has on a worldwide scale, it is safe to say that eCommerce beginners and challengers on the market can easily crash and burn before they have the chance to establish themselves as a quality brand. And, no, that might not be due to low-quality products and services or premature launching of the brand. The truth is that your eCommerce site was probably built with mistakes that hurt its online existence in the very beginning. Do you know which are these?
- Unattractive design
- Confusing navigation
- Bad web hosting
- No target audience
- Complex shopping process
9. 4 Common SEO Mistakes that Every E-Commerce Website Has
Lots of online business owners face tough challenges when the success of their business is put to the test. They are not able to make huge profits because, simply, their website is nowhere to be found on the Google search page results. The root of this problem lies in the neglect of the importance of SEO. In fact, what one should do first, is check whether their eCommerce site is SEO optimised and whether there are mistakes that are doing the most harm. The chances that there are, are huge. Here are the most common mistakes.
- The URL structure
- Targeting the same keywords for multiple category pages
- The crawling budget spends time on irrelevant pages
- Non-optimised product category pages.
10. How Can You Tell That You’ve Been Hit by Negative SEO and How to Fight It Smart
Does it feel like Google has been hating on you lately? Do you see problems with your website in the shape of spam links to your site with unrelated keywords, viruses and malicious codes, and fake social profiles of your company? If the answer is YES, we have some bad news for you: You’ve been hit by negative SEO, and now Google might penalize you or even ban your website for good.
- What type of negative SEO can harm my website
- How can you find these problems
- Use Google Analytics / Webmaster Tools / Searchmetrics / SEMrush
- Do a backlink audit
- Look out for unnatural IPs
- Check for duplicate content
- How to fight in a smart way
11. SEO 2020: Position Zero and Its Importance for Ecommerce Sites
All digital marketing agencies have one goal: make their client get found online. For this to happen, the client must appear at the top of the search engine results page (SERP). However, Google keeps changing the rules, continually making it a bit hard to keep up with new rules. What worked two or three years ago, doesn’t have the same effect today, and what is even challenging for all the marketers out there, it seems that it will continue with the changes. Mastering those new rules and getting two steps ahead is only possible if you are always up to date with the changes and design your strategy plan according to them. Otherwise, you will be devoured by competitors… gone forever in the abyss of oblivion (read: the second page of Google SERP).
So, how to keep up in the upcoming 2020? The answer is: by mastering Position Zero.
- What is position zero
- How to optimise the site for Position Zero
- Position zero and Ecommerce Sites