The statistics don’t lie. If your website takes just one extra second to load, your pageview rate will drop by 11%. And since most people consider 3 seconds to be a sufficient amount of time for a page to load, that means that every second of your website’s loading time counts. If you’re reading this and asking yourself, “what’s the big deal? These young whippersnappers can learn to wait just one more second!” then you’re likely having a senior moment. The truth is, if your ultimate goal is to increase your conversions by up to 7%, then you should forget about your “learn to live with it” motto and try these 5 techniques to improve your website speed.

#1: Do You Really Need All Those Plugins?

If you’re really serious about boosting your loading time, take this opportunity to consider what can stay and what should go in the throw-away pile. Don’t get us wrong, plugins and add-ons are excellent tools for enhancing the look and functionality of your website. But they can also be a major factor in your website speed. Reassess what you have and determine if you can trim any fat. If you have an unhealthy attachment to your plugins or add-ons and you need a little more convincing, test your plug-in performance here. If your website is a mess, don’t expect an easy clean up. Instead of tearing your hair out trying to fix all your speed issues, it can sometimes be easier (though just as heartbreaking) to start all over again. If your website needs a major overhaul, consider hiring a professional web design team to get you started on the right track. 

#2: Say “Yes” to Browser Caching

Once your website has introduced itself to a new user, make sure they stay well acquainted by enabling browser caching. When you click on a website for the first time, the website elements will be stored in your temporary storage so that any revisits will load faster. A user has the choice to delete their temporary files, but generally, we tend to forget these files even exists. How do you enable browsing caching? Check your admin dashboard or contact your website builder….said the computer to your website.

#3: Make Use of a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

What is a content delivery network? Essentially, a CDN is a” is a collection of global servers that caches and delivers content such as images, videos, and Javascript files,” according to MaxCDN.com. Having website elements stored or downloaded across a network of connected servers will boost loading times because a single server does not have to load every component of a website. It may seem complicated, but if you think of a CDN like a network of physical cables that are all attached to each other all over the world, you can easily imagine that a file sitting down the street will get to you a lot faster than one that has to travel all the way across the world through that mess of cables. The purpose of a CDN is to eliminate the unnecessary wait times by downloading website files to networks all over the world. So no matter where you are, a website should load quickly. 

#4: Optimize Your Images

It’s pretty tempting to drag and drop and forget about it. But as a matter of fact, images can really slow down your website load time. Fortunately, fixing your pretty pictures should be pretty easy, and the way to fix it is extremely quick and non-invasive.

The Smaller the Better

Guess what? Your pictures don’t need to be that big. This is one of the main image faux-pas. How small should your image be? That really depends on too many factors to list, but try to crop them within your page width size.

JPEG or PNG

JPEG files should be the number one choice for image sizes unless your picture is something like word art or text, in which case save as a PNG. For more information about choosing the right image, click here.

Proper HTML Code

Make sure that you don’t have any in your code. If an image is supposed to be there, the image source should be within the quotation marks. If there isn’t supposed to be an image, get rid of it. Empty src codes still take up your browser’s time.

#5: Shop Around for Another Web Host

If these techniques still aren’t helping to increase your website speed, then you might want to consider switching web hosts.  You could do everything possible to optimize your website performance, but if the web host simply doesn’t have the juice to deliver a fast response time, start shopping around for a host that works for you. Alternatively, see if your plan comes with upgrades. 

Boosting Your Website Speed Improves SEO

There are only benefits to improving your website speed, but you may have to shell out some money to fix it. But considering the possibility of increased conversions, the investment will be well worth it. And with better website speed comes improved SEO, which consequently exposes your website to more users. If you want to bring your website into the new year with a faster load time, improved conversions, top-of-the-line performance and beautiful design, consult with a professional web design and SEO firm, like Awkward Media, to change the pace of your business. 

The post 5 Ways to Improve Your Website Speed appeared first on Awkward Media.

Imagine they’re looking for the exact services you provide, but your name doesn’t even show up in their search results. Agonizing, right? That’s what SEO Toronto is for. So, here are a few essential SEO tips for small businesses in Toronto 

Keyword Analysis for SEO Toronto

First things first, it’s all about the keywords. Before you launch a Toronto SEO campaign, you’ll need to determine what keywords your audience actually uses. The best way to do this is by analyzing keywords from competitors using advanced SEO tools, such as SEMRush and Ahrefs, and building your strategy around those keywords. You must focus on specific, less competitive keywords that attract more relevant traffic.

On-Page SEO Optimization

Simply put, on-page SEO refers to optimizing individual pages on your website to generate higher revenue through more relevant traffic. This includes optimizing meta titles, descriptions, headers, and content with targeted keywords. If you imagine your website is like the front of a store, all these elements, such as meta titles and descriptions, are the window displays that encourage or deter users from coming in. 

Naturally, you need to make them attractive and informative. Once these people are on your website (or inside the store), the content you put up there with relevant headings and formatting will be the guide that will make their experience fun. 

Nothing Beats Quality SEO Content

Content is a major pillar of SEO Toronto (no wonder content writers will never run out of jobs). Your website needs to have unforgettable content that not only attracts visitors but also keeps them there. Even better is if the content makes them purchase the services you’re offering. This reduces bounce rates and increases your chances of ranking higher on search engines. To create quality SEO content, you must:

• Write content that answers the questions your audience is asking.
• Keep your blog updated with fresh, relevant content.
• Use lists, how-tos, and videos to keep things lively and engaging.

Technical SEO: Forever and Always

Technical SEO Toronto is centered on optimizing the website’s backend to help search engines crawl and index your site better. You need to deal with any crawl errors and ensure that the website is responsive and user-friendly. Let’s think of your website as a car. The technical SEO is the engine that is responsible for how smoothly the car runs. The fewer issues there are for Google to detect, the better your SEO Toronto score.

Building High-Quality Backlinks

Backlinks are a crucial factor in SEO. They signal to search engines that your website is legitimate and reliable. One of the major focuses of your SEO strategy must be high-quality backlinks from within your industry. To earn solid backlinks, you can rely on:

• Guest blogging: Write articles for reputable sites in your industry to gain exposure and backlinks.
• Creating shareable content: Develop infographics, videos, or comprehensive guides that others will want to link to.

User Experience and Website Structure

The user sentiment score holds significant importance in determining your Toronto website’s SEO score. The better the user experience, the better their sentiments towards your website, and that’s what Google looks at. 

How can you improve the user experience? For starters, you need a navigable website that is genuinely easy for users to use. The cherry on top is an intuitive design with proper button placements and color options. This entire organization ultimately determines how happy users are when visiting your site. 

Keeping Up With Google’s Core Updates

Google frequently updates its algorithms, which can affect your website’s rankings. If you aren’t keeping up with these updates, you won’t be able to dominate your industry. Your Toronto SEO strategy must evolve with Google’s preferences. Monitor these updates properly and make sure your strategy is aligned with them. Tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics are a great help in this regard.

SEO Agency Toronto: When and Why

SEO can take years off your life if you don’t have an expert idea of how it works. Unless you want to risk bleeding money by trying everything yourself, it’s better to work with an experienced SEO agency Toronto to take care of this for you. Here at Awkward Media, we pride ourselves on bringing you record leads every month so you can rest assured your business is thriving, even on off days. 

Conclusion

Who doesn’t want a thriving business, right? SEO is a full-fledged discipline that can guarantee that your business will dominate the industry and bring in countless leads. However, SEO is not an easy thing to do. While it may appear simple, there are a plethora of nuances that go into it. If you don’t have the time to learn these nuances through trial and error, it’s better to get in touch with the premier SEO agency Toronto, such as Awkward Media, and start dominating your industry. 

The post Essential SEO Tips for Small Businesses in Toronto appeared first on Awkward Media.

SEO is a vital pillar for every online business that wants to survive and thrive in the market. Here’s a look at all that you need to know about SEO trends in Vancouver for 2024. 

SEO for Customer-Centric Marketing

SEO is your ally, especially now that it has become even more crucial for customer-centric marketing. Businesses always have and will need reliable data to help them understand consumer behavior. This ultimately allows them to tailor launch strategies for more conversions. New privacy laws like Quebec’s Law 25 and the move away from third-party cookies have also significantly contributed to this regard. 

Over 53% of all website traffic comes from organic search, making it a top source of data for understanding customer behavior. In addition, SEO Vancouver goes hand in hand with consumer marketing as it allows you to tailor your strategies to their behavior with certain products of your brand.

Generative AI and Search Generative Experience (SGE)

Google’s introduction of Search Generative Experience (SGE) has revolutionized how search results are delivered. It aims to provide users with quick, precise answers by interpreting the most relevant content available.

How does this affect your business? Your content needs to be well-structured and focused on user needs. To dominate a particular industry, you need to target relevant long-tail keywords and put up high-quality content that is niche-specific. Once Google notices that you are an authority on specific matters, you’ll automatically be positioned as an expert, and your visibility will increase.

AI in SEO Vancouver Processes

AI this, AI that; wherever you look, you find AI, and rightfully so. It has revolutionized every single aspect of our lives, and Vancouver SEO is no different. It’s better if you also ride the AI wave for your business if you want to leave your competition in the dust. The aim of using AI is to scale content production and automate repetitive tasks, such as monitoring site speed, fixing broken links, and optimizing structured data. However, you must remember that human oversight is unmatched when it comes to ensuring content quality. 

Why Structured Data is Important

Structured data helps search engines understand and index your content, which directly leads to higher visibility. Ever heard of Google EEAT? It stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. 

It’s a framework that Google uses to evaluate how credible and high-quality your content is. By using structured data to emphasize EEAT, you can ensure that Google interprets your content correctly and quickly. 

Gone are The Days

The metrics for measuring SEO Vancouver success are changing. If you’re still relying on traditional indicators like keyword rankings, you’re missing out on a lot of revenue.

When evaluating your SEO performance, always consider factors like zero-click results, user engagement, and the customer journey. The major focus needs to be on the content and overall user experience you provide your users with. Remember: Happy users equals higher revenue. 

Search Behaviors: What to Focus on

In 2024, even the notion of search engines has changed dramatically. Normally, you’d think of search engines like Google, Firefox, and Edge. However, now, even platforms like TikTok and YouTube are becoming popular search engines, especially for the younger demographic. This essentially means you need to pay more attention to video formats and tailor content to these new platforms. 

SEO Agency Vancouver to The Rescue

While all these tips sound extremely useful (and they are), they are time-consuming if you aren’t experienced in implementing them. To save yourself time and focus on other aspects of the business without having to worry about SEO, you should get help from an experienced SEO agency Vancouver that has been doing this for decades. 

Conclusion

2024 is ripe with modern innovations that have changed the way you need to look at SEO. While the fundamentals are the same for the most part, the steps that come after are the ones that are helping some businesses lead their industries. These tips will help you stay ahead of the curve in 2024 while working with a premier SEO agency in Vancouver, such as Awkward Media to conquer SEO Vancouver and be the favorite in the eyes of Google and visitors alike. 

The post SEO Trends in Vancouver: What You Need to Know for 2024 appeared first on Awkward Media.

“Marketing is moving toward video over static content, and YouTube is emerging yet again as a key player.” – Business Insider In this post, we’re going to go over the 3 main reasons why your business NEEDS to have a fully optimized YouTube channel.

1. Further Build Your Brand

A YouTube channel will help to build your business’s identity which will furthermore build the trust of your new and existing customers. It’s an opportunity to give your business a face and voice that will become easily recognizable. Since YouTube is a social media platform that you want to tie in with your existing accounts, it’s important to be consistent with your colour scheme, logo, tone, etc. From a watermark to a channel header, YouTube already offers a lot of personalization options to help make your page your own. Additionally, YouTube gives you the chance to use video to speak for you, your brand, and your product/service. That’s why this is the perfect place for your Explainer Video as it will summarize everything your company does – quick and easy.

 2. Offer Additional Content

If done right, video content is timeless. A YouTube page will let you build an achieve of content for your current (and potential) customers to enjoy. Many will consider this content to be a “bonus” or an additional perk. As long as they don’t feel pressured to make a purchase through you –

 Tips:

• Create a ‘channel trailer’ to give viewers an idea of the content you share
• Have a consistent posting schedule
• Focus on making high-quality videos
• Offer informative and/or entertaining content

More and more people are turning to YouTube to learn new skills which is why it’s the perfect place to expand on your knowledge and provide additional information about your product or service.

 3. Increase Search-ability

Next to Google, YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world. This means, if properly optimized, YouTube will be a great platform to connect with consumer’s that are looking for something you offer. That being said, with so much content being uploaded, it’s important to stand out of the crowd and ensure that your videos (and page) can be easily found. Every element will help with your results, including: titles, metadata, engaging calls-to-action, etc.

The post 3 Reasons Why Your Business NEEDS A YouTube Channel in 2020 appeared first on Awkward Media.

1. INCLUDE A CALL-TO-ACTION

There are many ways to be more interactive across your different Social Media accounts. One way to get engagement from your audience is to add a high-quality CTA at the end of your post. A CTA (call-to-action)  will set a specific intention and give your audience directions to act upon. Make sure it’s clear and simple, in order to be the most effective.

• Ask them to Like, Comment, and Share the posts with their friends.
• Ask them fun questions to create conversation in the comment section.
• Ask them to enter a featured Giveaway

2. Respond to Comments

Beyond including a CTA, you must then follow through. Consider this your way of displaying your companies customer service.

• Respond (preferably within a few hours of the comment being left)
• Have a mature response. Especially when dealing with negativity
• Be friendly and personable
• Ask a follow-up question if possible to continue conversation

If there’s comments, respond to these comments whether they’re positive or negative. Show appreciation towards the positive posts and respond with an understanding and possible resolution towards the negative ones.

The post 3 Simple Ways to Engage Your Social Media Audience appeared first on Awkward Media.