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The post Mastering the art of SEO is crucial for online success first appeared on Philadelphia - South Jersey Marketing Company.

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The post The Power of Google First Page SEO and PPC first appeared on Philadelphia - South Jersey Marketing Company.

Site speed is an important factor in SEO because it can directly affect the user experience and engagement on a website. A fast-loading site can lead to better user engagement, increased time spent on site, and lower bounce rates. These positive signals can indirectly impact the site’s search engine rankings.

Search engines, such as Google, aim to provide the best user experience possible. As a result, they consider site speed as a ranking factor. Google has even explicitly stated that site speed is a ranking factor for mobile search results.

In addition to ranking factors, site speed also impacts user behavior. Research shows that users are more likely to abandon a site that takes too long to load, and this can lead to a higher bounce rate. High bounce rates can signal to search engines that the site is not providing a good user experience, and may result in a lower search ranking.

Therefore, it’s essential for website owners and SEO professionals to prioritize site speed in order to improve user experience, decrease bounce rates, and ultimately improve search engine rankings.

To increase your site speed, there are several steps you can take:

1. Optimize images: Large image files can slow down your site. You can optimize images by compressing them, reducing their size, or using a content delivery network (CDN) to serve them.
2. Use a caching plugin: A caching plugin can help your site load faster by storing frequently accessed data in the user’s browser cache.
3. Minimize HTTP requests: The more HTTP requests your site makes, the slower it will be. You can reduce the number of requests by combining and minifying CSS and JavaScript files.
4. Use a content delivery network (CDN): A CDN can speed up your site by delivering content from servers that are geographically closer to your users.
5. Reduce server response time: Slow server response time can cause delays in page loading. You can improve server response time by upgrading your hosting plan or optimizing your server settings.
6. Use a fast-loading WordPress theme: A lightweight theme can help your site load faster by reducing the number of unnecessary elements.

By implementing these strategies, you can improve your site speed and potentially improve your SEO performance.

The post The Importance of Website Speed and 6 Steps To Increase Speed first appeared on Philadelphia - South Jersey Marketing Company.

Every internet surfer is familiar with a search engine. Whether it is Google or Bing, search engines are handy tools that can pull answers quickly from around the web. Many use them, but a lot less understand how they work their magic. If you can understand how search engines work, you can browse even faster throughout the web and leverage your knowledge by using it to benefit your business. Here is a brief summary of how search engines work according to South Jersey SEO companies and the developers themselves. 

What Is Search Engine Crawling? 

Search engines crawl the web constantly. Where does crawling fit into the search engine’s process? Crawling is the first step to keeping the search engine up to date and on top of any changes on the web. Simply put, crawling means traveling through the internet to scan over code and content. Crawling is done by various systems of bots and cookies that ping URLs to check how their content will fit into the overall rankings for particular search terms. 

What Is A Search Engine Index? 

After the crawling process is completed, a search engine will store all the information in an index. An index is a database that houses all the content they discovered that is worthy of showing to searchers. The search engine index is essentially the list of results you see when you enter a search query into the search bar on Google or another search engine site.

Search Engine Rankings

After the index has been filled up and cleared out of any invaluable content, the search engine will rank the pieces of content for each search query in order. The top spot is obviously the most lucrative and trusted. As you go down the list, the quality of URLs, in the search engine’s eyes, will decrease. There are many different ways search engines assess where a piece of content should rank. Algorithms are designed with certain principles in mind such as user-friendliness, design, and the amount of content on the page. The goal of a search engine is to have the most relevant information appear when a keyword associated with that information is searched. The search engine rankings are where digital marketers get their hands dirty. Digital marketing companies learn the algorithm so they can develop content for their clients that will boost organic traffic. 

If you have any questions or concerns about your company’s search engine optimization practices, reach out to Accularis Marketing Solutions at 1-856-793-9440! 

The post How Do Search Engines Work? first appeared on Philadelphia - South Jersey Marketing Company.

Now that your digital presence has a heartbeat with a functional website and social presence, it is time to move on to content marketing and how your content helps with search engine optimization (SEO). Early on, it can be tough developing your content style and figuring out what is the most valuable in terms of boosting your search engine ranking. One of the most valuable forms of content marketing is onsite blog writing. Whether you do it in-house or hire one of the many South Jersey marketing companies out there, here are some best practices for blog writing. 

Ask Your Team What Customers Are Asking About 

A blog post shouldn’t just be about throwing paragraphs together and slapping in a keyword or two. An onsite blog post should engage your target audience and give them a more in-depth look at what your company is all about. A blog post with high engagement will help blast out the backlink of the keyword way further. Topics matter. Your team is the first point of contact a lot of the time and fields the most questions from your clients. Your best bet is to ask what they see and generate topics from there. 

Utilize Your Data   

If your website and marketing campaign initiatives like email are set up properly, you should have a lot of useful data to work off of. Utilize this data to your advantage when creating onsite content. For example, your email marketing should have details on the open rate. Take a look at the products or services pushed in the emails with the highest open rates. Those are the products or services that already have proof that there is interest around them, and make the most sense to have a topic built around them. This will help with engagement and can be used as a resource to understand your offerings further. 

Understand The Power Of Google

Google is the most powerful and important search engine out there. Google has a large array of tools that can help you learn more about your audience. Google Trends allows you to take a look at your keywords and check out their volume as well as other related topics that could help with creating rich content. At the bottom of Google’s SERP, a section for related content ideas and questions appear based on what you have searched. This section can be very helpful in brainstorming some quality topics. 

Don’t Be Afraid To Use Long Keyword Phrases

A lot of the time, people avoid longer keyword phrases due to the feeling of them being too hyper-focused on a specific topic. However, a blog post can have a better click-thru rate and enhanced ability to convert if it answers a specific question that helps customers through the buying process. In this situation, longer keyword phrases are very useful if your blog answers specific questions. Longer keyword phrases can help rank for popular questions amongst potential consumers and directly answer their questions through a blog post. 

These are some of the many ways to develop keyword-enriched content for your website. If you have any questions or concerns about your business’s marketing practices, reach out to Accularis Marketing Solutions at 856-793-9440!

The post Tips & Tricks For Creating Blog Posts With SEO In Mind first appeared on Philadelphia - South Jersey Marketing Company.

When search engine optimization (SEO) comes to mind, you likely jump right to Google. This assumption totally makes sense. Google is by far the most powerful and popular search engine out, no debate is needed. Google is not the only search engine, however. Other search engines can be more powerful (for your business) than Google. Nowhere near as big or popular, but potentially just as lucrative. A search engine that gets left out and might not come up in the conversation is YouTube. 

Youtube is most definitely a search engine that can provide significant value for your organization. YouTube is a video library that utilizes a search bar similar to Google’s search bar. YouTube has its own algorithm to aid in what appears first in the SERPs. Exactly like Google. The benefit of a strong YouTube presence is managing another avenue to capture web traffic for your brand and direct them to your site. We will discuss how South Jersey SEO companies and organizations can use YouTube to help out themselves and their clients. 

The same way you would start off practicing SEO to improve your Google search ranking, you start off on the same foot for YouTube SEO as well. That first step is keyword research. Keyword research is a little different for YouTube. YouTube contains longer keyword phrases such as “how to…” or “review of…” The best way to research keywords for YouTube is to look at your current keywords for Google and see if they provide video results. Usually, your keyword list will have a decent-sized list of video recommendations associated with that keyword. Those video recommendations usually contain a couple of YouTube videos. That is where you want to be. 

After your keywords are decided, you are now able to come up with the idea of your first video and its title. Once the video is shot and ready for publishing, you will need to write your video title. The video title should include your keyword as well as a solution to the problem the keyword speaks to. If the keyword phrase is “how to install a car exhaust” then the title could look like “How to Install a Car Exhaust: A Step by Step Walkthrough.” A clear title that includes your keyword focus and an answer to the end user’s problem is important for a great video on YouTube. 

Your optimized title and video are completed. The next step is to take a look at the YouTube tags feature. YouTube’s tag feature allows the publisher to enter relevant keywords that aid the algorithm in where and when your video should appear. The tags should be super relevant to your topic to make sure the video appears in front of the right audience. Keep the number of tags under 12 and at least 6. Too many tags may hurt your search ranking on YouTube rather than help it. 

The video is ready to go. Publish away! The job isn’t entirely done yet though. YouTube, like Google, will prioritize well-received content. There is a reason in descriptions of videos and within the videos themselves publishers ask to “like, comment, share, and subscribe.” The number of likes, comments, shares, and subscribes helps YouTube place its content in a favorable position. A video with a high amount will get your video placed above other videos in the pack. The best way to increase these metrics is by your content quality and offering great pieces of information that lead to discussion in the comments or in your next video. 

Lastly, be sure your video has an eye-catching thumbnail. YouTube won’t dock you directly for a poor video thumbnail. However, a poor thumbnail can affect your clicks, which will affect your YouTube rankings. Be sure that the video thumbnail stands out and explains the topic you are trying to convey in the video. These tips can help out with your business by allowing you to capture a new audience from a different search engine. 
If you have any questions or concerns about your organization’s current search engine optimization (SEO) practices, reach out to Accularis Marketing Solutions at 1-856-793-9440!

The post Best Practices for YouTube SEO first appeared on Philadelphia - South Jersey Marketing Company.

Over the years, the practice of marketing your brand and organization has evolved immensely. The space of digital marketing has grown and expanded since the dot com boom of the 90s. Within the last few years, digital marketing avenues have overtaken traditional marketing initiatives for many organizations. One major digital marketing avenue that has been popularized and practiced heavily is onsite search engine optimization (SEO). For some organizations, this could be the main focus of their marketing efforts. For others, SEO might not be on their radar. Let’s talk about how SEO works and how it benefits companies of all sizes, especially local, smaller organizations.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engine optimization is the process of improving your website to increase its visibility when people search for terms related to your business within search engines like Google, Bing, and so forth. Higher visibility brings more attention to your site that can lead to a potential or current customer interacting with your business. 

Visibility is measured by search ranking. Your search rank is the position of your page within the search results for a particular query. Each query is titled as a keyword. Each keyword has two main characteristics. These two characteristics are volume and difficulty. Volume is the overall search volume for the keyword or in other words, audience size. Difficulty ranks how hard it is to rank for the keyword and maintain a high rank for it. Certain keywords will offer more value than others depending on the organization and their industry. Keywords can be broken down into three categories. These three categories are local, regional, and national keywords.

The Difference Between Local, Regional, & National Keywords

There are three different categories of keywords. Each category has a different level of reach and difficulty to rank for. Local keywords are keywords that are local to your area. For example, if you are a restaurant in Mt. Laurel, NJ, a local keyword could be “Mexican restaurants in Mt. Laurel, NJ.” Local keywords focus on a smaller area in comparison to regional and national keywords. Local keywords are easier to rank for than regional and national keywords due to less competition. 

Generally, local keywords are a lot more specific and focused while regional and national keywords are broader and spread out. Regional keywords are in the middle of the pack in terms of difficulty. An example of this could be a mechanic trying to rank for a keyword like “car repair in New Jersey.” The difficulty increases due to the keyword describing all of New Jersey rather than one city in New Jersey. Again, the difficulty reflects the competition for the keyword. There is a lot more car mechanics trying to rank for “car repair in New Jersey” in comparison to a restaurant ranking for “Mexican restaurant in Mt. Laurel, NJ.” 

National keywords are the most difficult to rank for but have the most search volume. An example of a national keyword could be a tire company trying to ranks for “tires.” The keyword “tires” is very broad and has the most competitors due to many tire companies being present across the whole country. The differences between industries and categories of keywords make keyword research very important. Organizations will have different needs and budgets for search engine optimization as well as the services they offer. All these details dictate what keywords make the most sense for the organization to go after and rank high for.

How Does Ranking for Keywords Work?

After keyword research is conducted, the efforts begin to rank for them. Your SEO efforts are divided into two categories, on-site and off-site. On-site SEO is the practice of making changes to your own website to improve your search rank. Off-site SEO is focusing on external factors that impact your website’s rankings. For the purposes of our discussion, we will place our focus on on-site SEO efforts. 

On-site SEO encompasses many different ways to improve search rankings. One of these ways is providing valuable in-depth content on your website to ensure your audience stays on your web pages. Website content can come in numerous forms such as written content like blogs, e-books, and white papers or enticing visual displays. Your content should be informative, engaging, and consistent. 

Another great on-site SEO practice is optimizing your title tags, meta descriptions, and image alt tags. All these tags and descriptions should be filled out with unique information that suits what is being described. Targeted keywords and ideal length ranges should be followed to optimize properly. 

Website design is a key factor for on-site SEO efforts to be improved. Your website should be designed with all devices and connections in mind. Web traffic can come from numerous devices which view your site at various display styles. It is important to have a responsive, mobile-friendly website to ensure that audiences can view and interact with your website properly on any device. Secondly, your web pages’ load times should be optimized. Your audience has various levels of connection. Your website should avoid putting strain on a person’s connection and be able to load in most circumstances. Your load times can be improved by switching hosting providers, reduction of image sizes, clean coding practices, and much more. On-site SEO efforts don’t stop at these three key points, however.

Why Should Local Companies Practice On-Site SEO?

Previously, we discussed the three main categories of keywords. A lot of the time, small and local companies feel as if they don’t have the capital to carry out on-site SEO strategies that make a difference. However, this is not the case. A proper local keyword strategy can be extremely beneficial for small businesses. Local keywords have less volume, but less competition as well. A top-five ranking for a local keyword can serve to be a lot more lucrative than simply ranking top-hundred for a national keyword. A local keyword on-site SEO strategy can allow your organization to capture an audience that is close to your service area that they may have never seen through other marketing initiatives. “Googling” your issues is the number one way to find a new organization to give your business to. The value of a local SEO campaign is endless. 

A local keyword strategy will allow your organization to not only increase visibility in their area but uncover solutions to possible operational issues as well. A strong digital presence can aid your organization in becoming more efficient. For example, optimizing your website might allow your audience to have an easier time finding your business rather than calling your store to ask for directions. You could potentially take your services or products and make them available for purchase online, which allows your organization to breathe when focusing on brick and motor sales. An on-site SEO strategy goes far beyond marketing.

How Can A Third-Party SEO Agency Help?

If your organization is on the smaller side, you might not have the manpower or time to devote to carrying out a local SEO strategy. Luckily, local South Jersey SEO companies exist that can take initiative for your organization at a lower price than hiring a full-time marketing employee. An SEO agency can provide its expertise and become a partner that teaches your organization the details of not only SEO but other digital marketing initiatives that could be valuable as well. A local SEO agency will be able to deliver more time and pivot local SEO efforts if needed while your organization can focus on what it does best on the operations side. 

If you have any questions about search engine optimization or other digital marketing services, reach out to Accularis Marketing Solutions at 1-(856)-793-9440!    

The post The Importance of Onsite SEO for Local Companies first appeared on Philadelphia - South Jersey Marketing Company.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing your search engine visibility by improving your onsite and offsite content to be cleaner, unique, and keyword-enriched. The more visibility your web pages receive, the higher the chance of your organization being seen by prospective and current customers. Our experts from different SEO companies in South Jersey helped give a brief introduction to SEO and what it is all about.

When Did The Concept of SEO Begin?

The concept of SEO began in 1997 as search engines began popping up on the internet. These early, new forms of search engines were primarily directory driven and competed with each other on providing the best websites around the web as per their editors. These search engine sites started developing different algorithms and characteristics to look for when ranking sites at a particular spot. As expected, sites that did not cooperate with the algorithm were ranked lower than the ones that did. Thus, the practice of SEO was born. Search engines change their algorithm immensely over the years and still update routinely. The practice of SEO is determining how your website can best fit this algorithm to drive your page rank up. As the popularity of digital advertising and purchasing has increased significantly since 1997, the value of SEO has also increased.

How Does SEO Work?

Major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo use automated bots that regularly crawl web pages around the internet. These bots collect information about each page and place them in an index. Once in the index, the proprietary algorithms of each search engine determine what pages get ranked at what spots for a given search query. The algorithms take into account hundreds of different factors that can be updated or altered at any time to little extents or huge extents. Each search engine query or keyword phrase has its own set of pages that are ranked in a certain order for when the given keyword phrase is searched. Keywords are extremely important because these are the words that searchers or potential customers are using to find products or services. Depending on what your organization does, certain keywords are extremely important to rank high for.

How Do You Practice SEO For Your Organization?

If you are looking into SEO and not sure about the process, let us start it off for you. The first thing you want to look into is keyword research. Determine whether you want to go after local, regional, or national keywords. The bigger the area, the more search volume that is available. For example, if you want to rank for “marketing agencies”, it is going to have a lot more volume than “marketing agencies in NJ”. That doesn’t mean just go after the keywords with the most volume. You want to find keywords that are relevant to your organization that have good volume in relation to the difficulty of ranking high. National keywords are a lot harder to rank for than local keywords. Once keywords are determined, you begin editing your onsite and offsite content by adding keywords into your content that link back to web pages on your site. Examples of content could be press releases, blog posts, blog comments, meta-information, and much more. Aside from keyword research and link building, user experience is immensely important as well. Cleaning up your code and making your website clean and concise are extremely important for SEO purposes. In some cases, you may want to consider a full redesign. This is just the surface of how to practice SEO within your organization, small or large.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding SEO, reach out to our team at Accularis Marketing Solutions at 1-856-793-9440!

The post What is Search Engine Optimization? first appeared on Philadelphia - South Jersey Marketing Company.