Do your research:
When designing for mobile, you have to know your audience and the type of devices they’re using. Look at your analytics to determine what platforms and browsers are most popular for your audience. Also, take a look at the geographical regions that your clients reside in; ensure that your design is appropriate to your audience.

Get started:
Take a look at caniuse.com.
These websites have very useful information about the kinds of languages and scripts that are compatible with different mobile devices.

Seriously consider using a framework:
Using a framework is a good way to eliminate variability and improve consistency. The two most popular frameworks are Bootstrap and Foundation. Here at LAUNCH we prefer Bootstrap, but other companies swear by Foundation. Either way, the frameworks expedite the programming process and improve the websites accessibility from mobile devices. There are other frameworks that are more popular for mobile user experience elements. One such framework is called JQuery Mobile. The framework does not focus on page layout or structure, but rather on mobile usability and interface elements.

Remember the old days:
Don’t forget about those with older smartphones and other mobile devices. On some of these devices, almost all CSS and Javascript does not work. Make sure your responsive websites still function under these conditions.

Use an emulator to test compatibility:
There are many tools that will mimic various devices and display your website as it would appear on them. One emulator to consider is called “Firefox OS simulator.” This emulator provides an entire platform to explore, rather than just the browser. Another popular simulator through Firefox is called Fennec; it is a browser based system that allows you to resize your window to the desired device size. There are also other emulators specific to Android and IOS devices.

Keep it simple:
Don’t forget, whether it’s mobile web design or responsive development, the idea should be: “what do I include on the mobile version?” rather than “what do I omit from the desktop version?” When it comes to responsive design, simple, easy to navigate websites are very important.

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Most potential clients that call us here at LAUNCH, know that ranking well on search engines like Google is important. The understand the concept of having higher online visibility and the idea of getting more leads from their website. However, most of them don’t necessarily know how to get their companies listed well on these search engines. Often, a lower price point seems more appealing than understanding the fundamental concepts that drive traffic and generate revenue. There are many players in the digital marketing industry here in Edmonton, however, only a select few fully understand the cornerstones of online success through search engine optimization (SEO).

In some circles, SEO’s have gotten a bar rep for poor link building practices, spam and keyword stuffing. The truth is, however, SEO (correctly executed SEO) is still critical to a companies online success. There are several things that an experienced SEO can do for your business that nobody else can:

1)   Develop a Strategy to Increase Online Visibility.
Search engine optimization professionals have the ability to develop a complete online marketing strategy for a company. Through marketing software, SEO’s can identify market trends, strategies of competitors and potential opportunities through select search terms.

2)   Keyword research, Measurement & Improvement:
Which terms get more search traffic and which ones are most relevant to an organization? Is regional targeting an effective strategy for an organization? SEO’s can answer this and other questions in the search world.

3)   Funnels and Calls to Action
An experienced SEO can gather and interpret data to determine whether the content on your landing pages is properly converting your traffic. Whether the desired result is buying a product, registering for a subscription or getting a simple contact, an SEO has the tools to improve performance.

4)   Diagnosing Drops in Traffic
Sadly, many companies only seek out help from an SEO when their website experiences a drop in traffic or is blacklisted by Google. A professional SEO can diagnose and identify problems casing traffic loss or penalization.

5)   Reputation Management
Online reputation management can be one of the most challenging and time consuming services offered by an SEO. SEO’s can identify issues and develop strategies to improve client perception of an organization.

6)   Website Audits to Improve Search Traffic
There are many internal factors that influence how well a website ranks and the amount of traffic it receives. A professional SEO can diagnose and fix problem areas with content, structure, loading speed and much more. An SEO can help make a website more accessible for search robots and humans.

7)   Build Links, Social Signals and Traffic
A professional SEO can help an organization find opportunities to inbound links, social signals and other strategies to help get your content in front of more people.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ways an SEO can help your company gain online exposure. The important thing to take out of this article is that if you are planning to use your website to advertise your business, hiring an agency that knows SEO is essential. Having a sound SEO strategy gives you every opportunity to quickly recuperate the cost of your new website.

Ideas & inspiration credit to Rand Fishkin

The post Why Choose a Web Design Agency With a Focus on SEO? appeared first on LAUNCH Edmonton Web Design Company.

The world of SEO is frontier country. Really, meaningful statistics on search rankings only go back about eight years. Think about that: the whole industry of search engine optimization—those sophisticated techniques that keep you and your client’s websites high in search results—is basically just in the second grade. That’s infancy.

But that’s still enough time for some key ideas in SEO to become well known and widely accepted. Strong keyword use, healthy links and savvy social media campaigns are still the foundation of any relevant SEO strategy. This will likely hold true indefinitely unless Google does something unfathomable with their famously secret and storied algorithm. (Cracking the esoteric code is like SEO voodoo, with experts constantly debating what factors affect rankings).

Google subtly tweaks their algorithm hundreds of times a year, which can mean big consequences for how certain kinds of pages rank. That means SEO changes quickly so it’s wise to keep your ear to the ground to suss out the trends and innovations you need to know to keep your content competitive. And this stuff matters: the higher you rank in search, the more traffic your website gets and ultimately the more your business thrives. Here are a few things to keep on your radar for SEO and content marketing in 2014.

Changes to Google search

As already stated, Google is the big boy, the Grand Poobah, of the Internet. It is the most visited site and is by far the most widely used search engine by a long shot with more than two-thirds of all searches. Last year there were nearly six billion Google searches—every single day. It’s been reported that the search giant accounted for an insane 40 per cent of all Internet traffic. They are by far the most influential force online by any measure.

So every change they make to their ranking system—and they make about two daily—can either help or hurt millions of website rankings. In 2013 they made considerable efforts to stop people from fooling their algorithm by unscrupulous link building, instead of actually doing the hard work of making a quality website that people might enjoy. Basically it means Google is doing whatever it can to discourage weak websites that succeed only on dodgy schemes to rank high.

This could either hurt or harm your website, depending on how good your content is. If you’ve based your SEO on sketchy link building at the expense of compelling and original content, you’ve likely taken a hit in the rankings. But if you’re wise enough to realize that having noteworthy and interesting content is the truth path to SEO success—say, by being cool enough that people want to link to it organically—then this is good news. As always, err on the side of quality.

Mobile rising

You only have to spend a few minutes in public to see that people are glued to their smartphones and/or tablets. Be it on the bus, walking down the sidewalk or sitting on a bench, people are taking every opportunity they get to use their digital devices to go online. Either they’re shopping online, (likely) laughing at cat pictures or reading reviews for local restaurants.

So what does that mean for you? Well, it means you should cater to the growing number of folks who are mobile Internet users (or start posting pictures of cats on your site). A great first step, if it’s something you haven’t already done, is to optimize your content for mobile use. It’s called responsive design and it’s basically a scalable version of your website that works with the smaller screen size of a phone or a tablet. Have you ever squinted at microscopic font of an unscaled website on your gadget screen? It’s straining on the eyes and awkward to use. That can be a real turn-off for people who’d like to use your website with their mobile devices.

It all boils down to good design. Any decent web design company understands the importance of responsive design and will include it in their services. And a good website developer will also make sure that you have one unified URL for your desktop/mobile sites—in contrast to designs where there are separate URLs for your mobile and non-mobile sites. A single URL with responsive design ensures that you’ll always get the right website no matter if you’re viewing it on a big screen or a little screen; and it keeps your sites from getting fragmented and weakening your SEO.

If you haven’t already invested in responsive design, 2014 is a great time to do so.

Content, content, content

Now, more than ever, content matters. With Google cracking down on spammy websites, 2014 is the perfect time to make sure you have the best website possible by updating it regularly with interesting and relevant content that matters to your customers. The idea is organic growth, which means you get attention from the strength of your content. That attention translates into people sharing your stuff by linking to it. That, and smart keyword use, is the best way to boost your search ranking—and Google’s algorithm changes are making that more and more true every day.

SEO trends come and go but the core principals have stayed constant. There are going to be content marketing fads as the experts try to work their voodoo on search rankings. But you’ll always see good results if you use a strategy of updating your website with consistent and high-quality content coupled with a coordinated social media campaign. But, as with anything, it’s wise to learn as much as you can about SEO strategy. The field changes quickly and the competition gets stiffer every day.

Best of luck to you and your SEO in 2014!

The post SEO and content marketing – what to watch for in 2014 appeared first on LAUNCH Edmonton Web Design Company.

Google is the most powerful tool in history for gathering information. With just a couple of taps on the keyboard you can access a dizzying range of information on everything from theoretical physics to cats—especially cats. But Google doesn’t just curate information from the far-reaching corners of the World Wide Web; it also uses its complex algorithms to gather information on you.

The search engine giant tracks what you search for and uses that information to help advertisers target you with specially-tailored marketing. Have you been browsing reviews of new cars? Expect to see some ads for Volkswagen and Chevrolet popping up during your travels through the Internet. When it works well, these targeted ads can help consumers stumble on new products they didn’t know they wanted. In theory, it’s a win-win for both the sellers and the shoppers.

But there’s a flip side. Suppose you were searching for something private, something you’d prefer that your coworkers or friends didn’t know about. Maybe it’s sensitive stuff, dealing with financial struggles or health issues. Say that a colleague or friend happened upon your browser and, knowing that Google targets its users with ads based on their search history, sees a bunch of banner ads for adult diapers or debt consolidation—essentially broadcasting information you might not have been ready to share.

This, argued a Canadian man last January, is exactly what happened to him. The unnamed man said that he’d used Google to look for information on Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machines that help people suffering from sleep apnea. Soon after his searches he began to see ads for CPAP machines on websites he visited—websites totally unrelated to sleep apnea like weather and news sites. He felt that Google was using sensitive information to target him with ads, violating his privacy, and he lodged a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Canada’s privacy experts agreed: Google was breaching the man’s privacy.

“Google’s online advertising service used sensitive information about individuals’ online activities to target them with health-related advertisements, contrary to Canadian privacy law,” states a news release from the privacy commissioner from January 15, 2014. “Online behavioural advertising guidelines issued by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada two years ago make clear that advertisers should avoid collecting sensitive personal information, such as individuals’ health information, for the purpose of delivering tailored ads.”

In fact, Google has a policy in place meant to prevent these kinds of things from happening. The policy states that “Google will not associate sensitive interest categories with your cookie (such as those based on race, religion, sexual orientation, health, or sensitive financial categories) and will not use these categories when showing you interest-based ads.”

So what went wrong here? Google blamed the advertisers involved. The search engine company doesn’t generally produce the ads—that’s the job of the advertisers themselves. Instead the companies are asked to conform to Google’s policies, stating in a release that “Google requires all advertisers using this platform to agree to specific policies which prohibit all forms of interest based advertising involving sensitive categories, including the use of user lists based on “health or medical information.””

Canada’s privacy commissioner wasn’t satisfied. They want Google to do a better job of keeping tabs on advertisements to make sure they are in line with company guidelines. Google agreed. Now, the company is promising to take some concrete steps to avoid another CPAP misstep. Google said that by June they’d provide their advertisers with more information on what was appropriate for remarketing campaigns, beef up their automated review system, increase staff training on the issue, and boost their monitoring of marketing campaigns. And they’ve stopped CPAP marketing campaigns.

The privacy commissioner acknowledged that Google is certainly not the only one at fault. Interim Privacy Commissioner Chantal Bernier stated that: “We also have concerns about whether other advertising networks are complying with Canadian privacy law. We will be contacting various advertising stakeholders in the near future to share these investigation results and remind them of their privacy obligations.” That means advertisers will have to be very careful not to step over the line and target their marketing campaigns using sensitive information.

The Internet has become such an ingrained part of life for so many people that we can forget that it’s still developing as a technology and as a concept. The ethical problems around privacy and advertisers are still being sorted. And we’re in a frontier time when it comes to rules about collecting people’s personal information. Expect to see more stories like this as the boundaries of the Internet become more and more established. That, and be careful what you search for.

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Gosh, you might think, I’d better pay this company to register me with these hundreds of important search engines! But not so fast. These unsolicited calls/messages/emails are almost always the work of an SEO snake oil salesman. There is a lot of nuance and technique to improving your website’s search ranking. To someone just starting out, this onslaught of tips and tricks can quickly become confusing or even intimidating. Because of this there is a head-spinning amount of information and, unfortunately, disinformation. The cold callers are taking advantage of this disinformation to run a scam that is useless at best for your website’s performance.

First, consider the claim that there are hundreds of search engines that you have somehow failed to register with. There are really only a handful of search engines that really matter. Google alone gets more than two-thirds of all searches with the rest of the pie divided by four other search engines: Microsoft, Yahoo!, Ask and AOL. To suggest that there are somehow dozens of other important search engines is simply false.

Secondly, the value of registering your website at all is debatable. As you’ll likely hear over and over when it comes to SEO, the best way to improve your search rankings is to have quality links. Registering your website does not get you quality links. Having interesting and important content is what gets you quality links. To suggest that you need to register your website before Google can find it is disingenuous—Google will likely find your website just fine as long as you’ve been linked to a couple of times. And it’s quick and easy to analyze your website’s weak spots by using Google Webmaster Tools. It also has the considerable advantage of being free.

Speaking of free: why would you need someone to help you register your website? Despite protestations to the contrary from people who would hope to profit off of inexperience, registering your website (if you even bother to do it) is simple and free. A quick search on—where else?—Google shows that the process is not complicated or time consuming. Paying someone to do this service, which would likely offer you no benefits, makes absolutely zero sense.

Finally, consider that most classic of childhood advice: “don’t talk to strangers.” Who are these people, these cold callers and spam email senders? Are they from a reputable company that specializes in real, effective SEO strategies? Due diligence suggests some research: check out their website. If their listed services are vague or nonexistent, it’s likely they fit in the aforementioned snake oil category.

Hopefully by this stage of the Internet we’ve all learned how to recognize a scam email. However, if you’re the type of person who’d be tempted to send some money to a Nigerian prince who wants to share his bulging bank account with you, take heed. Random emails promising to improve your SEO through search engine registration are almost certainly a scam. Consider that employees at Google have even received emails offering to help register google.com with major search engines. To think that the most visited website in history would benefit from some unsolicited registration services is pretty funny.

Basically, if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. If someone is offering you some magic beans that will boost your search rankings simply through registering your website, they’re likely just trying to milk you for a quick buck. These kinds of people are a scourge and have the extremely unfortunate side effect of making the whole SEO industry look dodgy. But real SEO professionals can be a godsend for boosting traffic to your website—which, almost always, is an amazing boost to your business. So don’t hesitate to research SEO or contact experts.

But, like in most things in life, the results are proportional to the effort. All the thousands of blogs on how to improve your site’s web presence can be distilled into one core concept: good pages get good rankings. So work on your content—work on having interesting, useful and inspiring things to say and share through your website. That way, people will want link to your page and you’ll soon find yourself climbing higher and higher on search rankings. And that’s the best kind of SEO there is.

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Do Twitter or Facebook affect Google ranking?
The short answer? No, not directly.

Those studying SEO often see that high-ranking pages have a lot of Facebook likes or Twitter followers. It’s not unthinkable to consider that Google gives some weight to this social media presence. These sites are popular on Facebook and Twitter and rate high in Google searches, so they must be connected right? However, it’s more likely that high-quality and popular content is causing more people to link to the page and bump it up the ranking—which gets people to notice it on social media. If you’ve got good content people are going to like it and link to it, moving it up the search results.

Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, released a video last month talking about how the search giant factors Facebook and Twitter signals into their ranking algorithm. Cutts said that Google basically gives no special treatment to Facebook or Twitter pages—they’re treated just like regular pages. He says there’s no direct relationship between Facebook likes or retweets and higher search rankings.

So does that mean you should shut down your Facebook or Twitter accounts? Far from it. Cutts himself says it well in the video: “Both of those services represent a fantastic avenue. It’s a way to drive visitors and traffic to your site and it’s a way to let people know about news related to you or your website. So I think they’re great ways to build up your personal brand. But don’t necessarily assume that just because there is a signal on Facebook or Twitter that Google is able to access that.”
The moral of the story is that Facebook and Twitter are fantastic and useful tools for driving traffic to your website, but don’t count on them to bump you up the search rankings. For that you’re going to have to rely on SEO and old fashioned high-quality content that people want to view and share.

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Social media is a huge, sometimes intimidating, world. Every week it seems there is some hot new platform where people are sharing more and more at faster and faster paces. With so much competition for attention it can be a major challenge to have your company noticed in the free-for-all of social media.

But don’t panic. With some strategy you can use social media to reach current and potential customers and create a loyal following in the process. The important thing is to plan.

You need to think about:

–        What you want to say

–        The best way to say it

–        How often you should say it

Common sense? Sure. And it’s also the best way to cut the clutter of your customer’s newsfeeds. Here are some easy tips for getting your business noticed on social media.

What to share

To share or not to share, that is the question. Better yet, when you’re using social media to market your business, you should be thinking about what to share.

It goes without saying that you want to use social media to promote your company. That is, you want to share what products and services you have to offer, what makes you better than your competition and so on. Social media is a great way to send out job notifications. It can also be used to help people understand your company better—the people who work there, your values, etc.

But it’s important that you don’t become TOO hung up on just marketing, marketing, marketing. Think about your own experiences on social media. What are the things that come up in your newsfeed that you find interesting? Maybe it’s a news story, some life tips or a good joke. Consider spicing up your social media presence with some of that: things that aren’t directly related to your business but could still be of interest to your followers.

That being said it’s best to remember to keep what you share appropriate. Off-colour jokes or insensitive remarks can be disastrous to a company’s image. A good rule of thumb: don’t post anything you wouldn’t be comfortable sharing with all the members of your family.

How to share

How you approach your posts can be just as important as what you post. It’s wise to sit down and think about what your social media voice and personality will be—should you be funny and witty, professional and reserved, or some combination? It’s important to find a balance. You shouldn’t be so uptight that you come across as a robot, but be careful not to overcompensate and be so casual that nobody takes your seriously.

Whatever you think is best it’s a good idea to be consistent. That is, decide your tone and stick with it to avoid confusion with your followers. You don’t want to sound like you have multiple personalities with different styles and voices.

Once you’ve figured out your approach, it’s time to interact. Social media is all about conversations—so get in there! Is one of your followers asking a question? Try to help them with a friendly answer. And all importantly, if someone raises a complaint about your company, publicly engage with them and do your best to handle their concerns. That will show everyone that you’re not just a faceless machine—you’re a company that cares about your customers and will reach out on a one-on-one basis.

What we’re talking about is connections on a human level. This is what social media really excels at. Often, a customer can feel quite small when faced with the machinery of huge corporations and bureaucracies. But social media is a mighty leveler: a well-versed tweet or Facebook post can be shared and viewed by hundreds, even thousands, of people. Harness this power by getting customers on your side by being friendly, helpful and sympathetic.

When to share

Like succeeding anywhere in life, often the most important key to success is simply showing up. Being on social media shows your customers that you’re engaged, dynamic and accessible. But after that you’ve got to decide how much you’re going to share.

You’re going to want to be like Goldilocks here: post too often and you’re going to annoy your followers; post too little and people will forget about you. There’s no real rule of thumb for how often to use social media. The best way to find your own sweet spot is through practice—see what works best for you and your company. If you find that people are willing to engage with you on social media on a daily or even hourly basis, then full speed ahead. But if your base responds better to more occasional interactions then space out your posts a bit.

The important thing to remember is that you should only post when you have something to say. That sounds pretty self-evident, but too often people talk for the sake of talking—not because they have something substantive to share. If you come across as a frantic poster desperately trying to catch the audience’s attention you’ll quickly turn off potential customers. Strike a balance and save your sharing for when you’ve got something interesting, thoughtful or helpful for your audience.

Now get out there!

Researching social media is a great way to start—but actually getting out there and trying it is even better. Get out there and start interacting with your audience. But remember to be thoughtful and consistent about what, how and how often you share.

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