0 Why Updating Your Website is a Key SEO Strategy?

• Website Design
• by Alex Stepman
• 04.24.2022

The Internet can be defined in many ways, but the sheer quantity of available experience begs a simple definition. At the Organic SEO blog, we prefer to call the Internet "a dynamic space." Like humanity, the Internet evolves; unlike humanity, this evolution is speedy. To keep pace with the evolving, speedy nature of the Internet, the best websites continually offer new content. The best websites also periodically update their look, feel, and functionalities. Think about your favorite website. How often does your favorite website update its content? How often does your favorite website update its design or layout? The answer to both of these questions is "quite often."   The crucial lesson of organic SEO Optimize your website for both search engines and users. By maintaining fresh and relevant content, you will continue to attract new and returning visitors. You will also impress search engines. Remember, from Google's perspective, the goal is to deliver the most relevant results and ensure the user is 100% satisfied with these results. Beyond content, however, minor changes to a website's infrastructure can make the website more appealing to users and search engines. For example, think about your website's ease of navigation. Improving your website's layout will satisfy your visitors, and when you satisfy your visitors, you satisfy the search engines. To a search engine like Google, change is good. Google, the great beast of the evolving Internet, is always hungry for new information. This information might be new content, but it also might be a new design or development element. Google does not distinguish between types of change; it makes no difference if a change is applied to website content or website design. As long as the website is not outdated, any change is considered new content. If you have not updated your website's design recently, this should be your timely reminder. If you operate an industry-specific website, please remember: that your website has likely been optimized for your specific industry, so any change should be relevant to that industry. Now, SEO is not the only reason to update a website. As a leader in website optimization and online marketing, we strive to make it easy for others to keep their websites up-to-date. Many websites follow our FREE recommendations for organic website optimization, and many websites have used our helpful information to maintain daily online success. Browse our Organic SEO Blog for helpful advice if you're new to SEO. SEO is a marketing strategy applied to the website's visual elements and structure that makes your website discoverable in search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing to the point where your website becomes your money-making tool.

0 Drag and Drop Websites: Are They Worth Your Time?

• Website Design
• by Alex Stepman
• 03.27.2022

Are you thinking about building your own website? If you're a business owner and hope to make money from your website, a custom-made site is your best option. Custom-made websites are designed and built from the ground up, with the idea to generate online profit and new leads.  Before deciding on who will build your website, you should know your available options.  Content Management System websites (CMS). These websites do not require programming knowledge. Anyone who has access to the website management can add/remove website pages, modify design options to meet your needs, and add/remove website content such as text, images, videos, pdf files, etc. What you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) website. A website that does not require programming knowledge to manage the website design and layout. These websites are also known as Drag And Drop websites. They are similar to CMS websites. A custom website is written with the help of the programming languages supported by web browsers. For example, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or any other programming language comes to your mind. These websites require programming knowledge, but they are the best option to meet your current and future needs. The website is not limited to design, layout, features, or functionalities.   What type of website should you choose? There could be multiple reasons why you might want to build a website.  Informational website. The website does nothing but displays information to website visitors. It is information about your brand, products and services, and your business contact details most of the time. Web-based application website. To most internet users, these websites look and feel like simple websites, but these websites do a lot more. A website might collect users' personal information that will be used to tailor products and services to precise people. Or a website might perform complicated mathematical calculations, keep track of inventory, payment processing, email reminders, etc. Because a website serves the purpose of a program, and it is a program that lives online, it got a name - a web-based application. Lead generation website. A website built to gain new customers, profit, and success for your business. Any website can become a lead generation website, but first, website visitors must be able to engage with your website and communicate to you through your website. You also need to promote your website online to start generating leads.   The Pros And Cons of Drag & Drop Websites Drag and drop sites can be a good option for individuals or small businesses with a limited budget and a need for a basic website structure. A drag and drop site easily integrates various elements into a simple template design. With a drag and drop website, you could wake up in the morning with an idea for a website and build your website before lunch! It is hard to decide what website to select with many different options. We will simplify this process by explaining the pros and cons of each website type.   Content Management System (CMS) CMS websites are the best option for those who would like to update their website without programming knowledge. Most Content Management Systems have an administrative area that is password protected. Once logged in, you can change your website theme, colors, font style, add/remove pages, update text, and inspire your website with images and videos.    Examples of the CMS systems There are many CMS systems out there, some of them are paid, and some are free to use. The most common CMS systems are: WordPress Wix Squarespace Joomla! Shopify Progress Sitefinity GoDaddy Website Builder Weebly Drupal Blogger While most CMS systems are meant to be used without programming knowledge, some of the systems extend the simplicity of use by offering drag and drop functionality. For example, you can select an image drag and drop it to the desired location. The same functionality can be applied to any element on the page, be it a text, video, image, or anything else used to design and layout your website.     Benefits of CMS Systems No programming knowledge is required to manage your website. Update website design and layout in minutes by applying a new website theme. Transform your website into a web-based application in minutes. Has basic SEO functionalities to promote your website online. The Disadvantage of SMC Systems Not everything is free. Most premium website themes have an additional cost. Additional functionalities might have a monthly cost to use them. As your business grows, a dedicated website developer will be required to update, maintain and add missing features to the CMS system.   Most CMS systems are not built for your business, and it is inevitable to have system limitations to meet your goals.   What you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) website. WYSIWYG websites do not require any programming knowledge. Such websites are usually built with the help of software that is installed on your computer or has a web-based version that performs the same as if it is installed on your computer. Such websites are built by selecting components of your choice, dragging them on your screen, and dropping them in precise locations. WYSIWYG website builders work similarly to photo editing software such as Photoshop. You simply drag and drop elements like rectangular, circle, or text blocks on your screen. To transform a text into a link, you highlight text and apply links to them.    Benefits of WYSIWYG Website No programming knowledge is required to manage your website. Has basic SEO functionalities to promote your website online. The Disadvantage of WYSIWYG Website Builders You can't simply change the entire website theme. You must build a new website to meet your design and layout requirements. Most WYSIWYG editors cannot apply a change to multiple pages of your website. Each page must be updated individually. Most editors will require you to build two website versions, one for desktop and one for mobile use. As a result, you will have to manage two websites. Most editors are unable to build a web-based application or data-driven websites.    A Custom Website A custom website always requires programming knowledge to maintain the design, layout, or additional functionalities that you might need. You may add or remove features to your website, and you are not restricted in any way because the website is not associated with any specific platform or a CMS system.  Additionally, custom-made websites are also SEO friendly, making it much easier to update and promote such a website than any other website you can think of. Unlimited customization options are suitable when technology changes or new things available today that were not available yesterday.   Benefits of a Custom Website Design Bring your imagination to reality with unlimited design and layout options. Unrestricted website functionalities. If such technology exists, it can be applied to your website. Unlimited marketing opportunities. Make your website appear on the first page of search results by optimizing it for search engines. A Disadvantage of a Custom Website Design You need to have programming knowledge to apply any website modifications.  Many web design companies offer template websites to use for various clients. Template-designed websites share a similar look, feel, and functionality. In contrast, a web design company like SEO SPARTA of Bucks County, PA, offers custom designs crafted for each unique brand. We feel these custom-made sites are more attractive and certainly more marketable. If you're considering hiring a design company to build a custom-made website, we encourage you to contact us. We will provide you with a free consultation about website design, layout, and guided milestones to the successful launch of your project.

0 SEO 101: The Importance of Website Structure

• Website Design
• by Alex Stepman
• 04.20.2020

In the SEO world, we don't talk about the "best" content. We talk about relevant content. Relevance speaks to the quality of the information. As we've noted before: Good writing feels necessary--writing that stays with the reader. Good writing makes an impression. Good writing is meaningful. Read: "How to Build an Optimized Website: Content" However, relevant content is useless (and irrelevant) if no one can find it. Google and its users must be guided to your content. This is the function of website taxonomy--or website structure. Website Taxonomy = Website Structure The word taxonomy is often associated with biology. Taxonomy is also often used to describe website structure. Like a biological taxonomy, a good website is not merely a series of pages. A good website is a carefully-crafted structure that describes, identifies, and classifies pages by topics and sub-topics. Applied to any collection of information, a taxonomy is a simple yet powerful tool for guiding people to relevant information. SEO works with search engine algorithms to achieve the same purpose. When a website structure follows a logical taxonomy, the description, identification, and classification of content is seamless. From a search engine's perspective, a seamless structure means speedy and efficient indexing. (In case you're unfamiliar with indexing, here's an overview from Kissmetrics). A seamless structure also means your content can be easily shared. Read: "Content Marketing: How to Create Sharable Content" Finally, a seamless structure also guarantees a website's ease of use. As you might know, usability is a major component of Google's ranking. Creating an engaging user experience (UX) means your browsers will view your website positively, inspiring return visits. Your structure should be developed before you even begin building your website. As a practice, too, developing a website structure can help you refine your business offering. You can create a structure in any number of ways, but SEO Sparta often tells its clients to think about a new website in terms of a home page, category page, and product pages. Website Structure: Your Home Page A home page is the first page of your website, which contains links to all relevant categories. A home page should include the most basic information about your business or website. On your home page, you want to be specific but general about your offering. Describe your offering clearly. Just remember: You will go into detail later, with your category and product pages. If you're a hair salon in Bucks County, PA, for example, your home page will promote this simple fact. Website Structure: Category Pages A category page is a place to use longer-tail keywords (instead of single words, phrases and/or sentences). A category page refines your offering into more nuanced subsections. As Hallam notes in its article on creating a website taxonomy: These pages should be the main focus for link building and should regularly have internal links pointing towards them whenever the topic is mentioned on a new page or post, this way they will be the most likely page to be picked and promoted by search engines for the topic they cover. Being an ideal place for people to enter the website on they act as key landing pages and can be used for paid advertising. If you're a hair salon in Bucks County, your category pages might detail your services: Women's Styling or Men's Styling, for example. Website Structure: Product Pages Your most specific pages, your product pages, should focus on a sole product or service. You want to describe your products, one-page-per-product. Product pages will not necessarily rank high in search engines for general queries but they will be helpful in the context of your website, and for more specific queries. If you're a hair salon in Bucks County, your product pages will detail the specific services you offer under your category pages: Keratin treatments, for example, under the category Women's styling. An SEO Company That Understands Website Structure: SEO Sparta Much of the work of structuring a website falls upon your website designer and developer. However, the more input you have in the process, the better. And, of course, you want to make sure your developer understands the basics of website structure and how a good structure influences a site's SEO. To build an effective, fully-optimized website, you need a web development company that understands SEO. SEO Sparta is a rare company that offers a host of SEO and marketing professionals to optimize your website. We are currently working with our clients to emerge from the current pandemic stronger and more resilient. Check out our limited-time website design special for one current offering. And if you have any questions about applying digital marketing strategies, including SEO, to your website, please do not hesitate to contact us today. Cover Photo Source:Hierarchy Structure

0 You Probably Need to Refresh Your Website

• Website Design
• by Alex Stepman
• 03.03.2020

It's almost springtime in the Northern hemisphere. In this season of renewal, is now the time to "refresh your website? (Photo source).  Most major e-commerce brands refresh their websites with seasonally-appropriate images and content quite often--monthly, weekly, or even daily. The J. Crew of today looks a lot different than the J.Crew of last December. If the big guys are doing it, why shouldn't the little guys do it, too?  Even smaller, local websites can benefit from seasonally (or daily) refreshed content. The presumed problem for most website owners is time--the smallest companies believe they just don't have the time for a simple homepage refresh, let alone a blog post.  However, even small content changes can reap large benefits. Brian Dean of Backlinko, for example, has detailed how he made only a few changes to a blog post to generate a 50% increase in traffic in seven days (check out strategy #2 here). Will you generate a 50% increase in traffic in a week? To be fair, SEO Sparta tells our own local SEO Philadelphia-area clients that a website refresh may or may not double your traffic. On the other hand, a website refresh will inevitably boost traffic to some degree, and if you have a great website conversion strategy, that boost may lead to more profits.  So we often tell our clients to let go of the tired excuse, "I don't have the time!"  Make the time!  Once you do make the time to refresh your website, you might wonder: Now what? First things first: Decide how much you want to change. Do you merely need a "refresh"? Or is your website calling for a major "update"? Website Update vs. Website Refresh: What's the Difference?  Website Update If you own a small website, it's important to understand the difference between a "website update" and a "website refresh." These terms are often used interchangeably, and many SEO writers take them to mean the same thing. At SEO Sparta, we think it's helpful to distinguish between the two.  A website update is a major change. Ideally, working with an SEO-friendly website developer, you will update your website as often you update your brand and build your offering. This sort of update could happen yearly or bi-annually. You want to make sure you don't perform major changes too often. For better or worse, an update can have a major impact on your SEO. Here's what Jayson DeMers has to say about major website updates:  "There are many good reasons for updating a website, and because of the rapid evolution of technology, you’ll need to update multiple times over the course of your company’s development. When you update your website, you’re bound to experience some SEO shakeups — even if you’re extra careful, at least a handful of keyword ranking movements will be inevitable. "The evolution of technology" is essentially the algorithms. So it can be a good idea to track the algorithm changes and evolve with the search engines, if necessary.  In any case, if you're planning to perform a major update soon, we suggest contacting your SEO firm--or at the very least, reading Jayson's article. Website Refresh A website refresh might simply include new seasonally-appropriate graphics, new contact information, or new content. Ideally, you will refresh your website quite often--weekly or even daily. However, make sure you save the complicated work for your website developer. To perform a simple "refresh"  on your own, you might update your blog (as outlined by Brian Dean above) with new content and tags. If you're handy with basic coding,  you might work with your website developer and/or designer to change the graphics on your home page--to, say, seasonally-appropriate imagery.  In the next few weeks, we will explore both website updates and website refreshes in more detail. For now, if you have any immediate questions, please feel free to call SEO Sparta: 215-900-9398

0 HTTPS: Google's Ranking Signal for Security

• Website Design
• by Alex Stepman
• 02.12.2020

You might be familiar with HTTP, a fundamental part of web addresses since the beginning of the World Wide Web. HTTP stands for "Hyper Text Transfer Protocol." It is the primary technology that links users to websites. In a way, HTTP is the "web" in the World Wide Web. If you're not a webmaster, however, you may not know what HTTPS means. HTTPS stands for "Hyper Text Transfer Protocol" with an added element of security--Secure Sockets Layers (SSL). Netscape invented HTTPS in 1994 in response to the growing e-commerce market. Before this time (and after), consumers were hesitant to offer credit card numbers online. As eHow writes: "The Hypertext Transfer Protocol carries most of the traffic for the World Wide Web. However, it is a plain text format protocol and third parties can read details of HTTP transmissions through wire tapping. This knowledge discouraged consumers from giving their credit card details over the Internet. The HTTP Secure protocol, or HTTPS, was invented to address the security shortfall of HTTP." Depending on your age, you might remember a time when most consumers were hesitant to shop online. Amazon and eBay didn't arrive until 1995, and PayPal didn't enter the marketplace until 1998. (Google also arrived in 1998). Even then, it wasn't until the mid-2000s that e-commerce exploded and with it a pressing need for additional security.  Security as a Ranking Signal  Since then, of course, security has become an increasing concern for businesses and consumers alike. We only need to refer to any number of the recent data breaches to understand why Google has identified HTTPS as a ranking signal. As you might know, Google uses over 200 of these ranking signals to surface search results. The fact that Google has stated its preference for HTTPS as a ranking signal means, of course, that the search giant is focused on security. In blog post from 2014, Google wrote: "Security is a top priority for Google. We invest a lot in making sure that our services use industry-leading security, like strong HTTPS encryption by default. That means that people using Search, Gmail and Google Drive, for example, automatically have a secure connection to Google. Beyond our own stuff, we’re also working to make the Internet safer more broadly. A big part of that is making sure that websites people access from Google are secure." In our view from Philadelphia, Google's preference for HTTPS also signals a commerce-centered view of the Internet. After all, HTTPS was invented to secure transactions. By citing its preference for HTTPS, Google has essentially confirmed that the most relevant sites are often transactional. So what does this mean for your website?  The Internet is a place for transactions. If you have a good product, however, it's not so simple as building a website. As we often say at SEO Sparta, you need stellar website development, great content, and a secure connection. And those ranking signals? Knowing and utilizing the 200 or signals is the work of your SEO firm. Yes, SEO is about quality design and development as well as content. Yet, SEO is also about understanding the ranking signals. To truly succeed you need an SEO specialist who understands the signals--and the security.  (Credits: Banner Photo Source)

0 How to Build an Optimized Website: Website Development

• Website Design
• by Alex Stepman
• 12.11.2019

Spock is perhaps the most famous left-brained character--he'd be a great choice for a website developer (photo source).  In a prior post, we introduced a simple method for inexperienced website owners to build and optimize a new website. To build a successful website, consider four key jobs: 1. Website Design 2. Website Development 3. Content Creation 4. Conversion Optimization  To successfully complete these jobs, a new website owner may need the help of one or more experienced professionals. Unfortunately, many professionals--especially web design and development professionals--do not know how to build and optimize a website for online success.  As we noted in our previous post: For aspiring website owners, it is essential to guide the work so that optimization is considered from the beginning. To do so, you should possess a basic understanding of design, development, content creation, and conversions. Today we will discuss website development.  Website Development If website design describes a website's “front-of-the-house” appearance and usability, website development describes the “back-of-the-house” programming. Working in tandem with your designer, your developer should make your website work for both users and search engines like Google. Many new website owners presume the same person can perform both design and development. Of course, this is possible. In reality, most design folks have no aptitude for development, and vice versa.  Since these tasks are so different, requiring different parts of the brain, you will rarely find a pro who can perform both with skill.  Dominant right-brain folks are often more intuitive and creative. Website design is about the appearance and feeling of your website, so the best designers are often right-brained. Dominant left-brain folks are often more logical. Since website development is about the technical background of the website, the best developers are often left-brained people.  The Work of Web Development When your designer is finished creating the look and feel of your site, your developer will take control. The developer's work is based on the designer's work. Guiding this process you must assure that the designer creates a site that can be easily optimized. In certain cases, a website can not be optimized because the designer included unworkable elements. Web crawlers, for example, cannot index Flash technology. Coding each page, the developer will make the site browser-compatible while assuring the site loads quickly. Many developers can make a site work for browsers, but many of the same developers make mistakes that prevent search engines from crawling your website. As a result, your site will not be added to the search engines' databases--not because your site violates SEO guidelines, but because search engines have no access to your site. Simply put, many web developers simply do not know what they're talking about--especially in terms of website optimization.When hunting for a developer, make sure he/she can explain the technical elements to you in simple language. And, of course, make sure you learn a little about development so you can hire only the most intelligent, logical website developer--someone like Spock! Quality website development is the second step to a fully-optimized website Check back for part three: Content Creation.

0 How to Build an Optimized Website: Website Design

• Website Design
• by Alex Stepman
• 12.08.2019

You do not need a stock photo of a happy PC user to understand the value of website design... Search engine optimization (SEO) describes the techniques applied to a website to improve user experience and increase search engine exposure. An experienced SEO firm will optimize each of these elements. For a website owner, however, optimization might mean any technique that will help his/her site succeed online. This is like Google's view of SEO as making "small modifications to parts of your website."  In the end, the best form of SEO is SEO that works. Unfortunately, most website owners must cut through the techno-jargon of SEO firms to understand their meta tags from their backlinks.  Here's a tip: Optimize your website from the beginning. If you are thinking of building a website, and you want to assure your site is optimized for search engines, you've come to the right place.  How to Build an Optimized Website To build an optimized website, you need web design and development expertise or the help of a good web design and development team.  Unfortunately, not all web design and development professionals understand how to build websites optimized for search engines.  Most design and development teams can build a workable and attractive site--but if the site is not optimized, and does not attract and convert visitors, it is no more than a high-priced business card. In other words, a site without optimization is a waste of money. For aspiring website owners, then, it is essential to guide the work so that optimization is considered from the beginning. Building a Website: Four Key Jobs To build a fully-optimized website consider four key jobs: 1. Website Design 2. Website Development 3. Content Creation 4. Conversion Optimization  Website Design People often confuse website design and website development. Here's a simple view: Website development is the “back-of-the-house” programming of a website—how each page is coded and how the different pages interact with each other. Website design is the “front-of-the-house” appearance and usability of a website. To build an optimized website, choose a website designer who can build a beautiful website that is easy to navigate. "Easy-to-navigate" is the most important element of good website design. Visitors appreciate an easy-to-navigate website. More importantly, perhaps, search engines pay attention to design elements like ease of navigation when surfacing search results.  A poorly-designed website might not even be "crawled," and the site will not be added to the search engine's database.  To summarize: Quality website design is the first step to an optimized website that will attract and convert customers. Check back next week for part two: Website Development.