Important Factors Related to Web Hosting for Small Businesses
If you have built a website and want to start your own small business or startup, there are certain factors you need to keep in mind. Before you can launch your website, reliable website hosting is what you need. If you don’t have an idea about why web hosting is important for any website, let me clarify it with an example so that you can understand my viewpoint easily.
Website hosting is used for hosting your website on the internet. In other words, it is where your website resides online so that everyone can access it. Just like you access your email using Gmail or Hotmail, you log in to the respective website, and that’s how you access your emails. In a similar fashion, you need a hosting server where all the data of your website is stored so that anyone can access your portal through the World Wide Web.
Choosing the Right Hosting Service
There are millions of website hosting servers available online, so you can obviously select any one of them, right? Not quite, as not all of them suit your business and requirements perfectly. The price factor is also a major hurdle as small businesses or startups cannot afford to spend thousands of dollars on just the hosting aspect.
Suppose that your website is based on Whmcs template, so you will need website hosting to run WordPress. But do you know what WordPress requires? What specification, related to hardware or software you need, especially to smoothly run an e-commerce portal. So, what are the factors you specifically need in this regard?
Most important factors in a bit of detail now
1. Your Budget
Before going for a hosting web service, you need to be clear about your monthly, quarterly, or yearly budget, whatever may be the case. Then you need to think about whether you can actually afford to host service or not. There may be hosting services that are providing all the facilities and features you are looking for, but they may charge an amount that is out of your budget.
So, it is better to think about the budget factor before anything else. You may also get to know some details about cloudways reviews in this concern, to make a better decision.
2. Traffic on your Website
The traffic that you are anticipating on your website is also an essential factor in this concern. The type of web hosting that you are looking for must be relevant to the traffic you have in mind. Surely, no company looks forward to low traffic, and everyone anticipates that they will get a good number of eyeballs. But in some cases, like in e-commerce ventures dealing with contact lenses and eyewear, the traffic can be a bit difficult to predict, especially in the initial few days.
If you are investing heavily in digital marketing, there are good chances that you will get more than fair traffic as a result. In this case, you need an excellent windows VPS hosting service that can provide you good support in case of heavy traffic. Learn more about GPU Dedicated Server and Windows Virtual Desktop Azure from cloud hosting providers
3. Security Aspect
Probably the most important aspect you need to confirm before you sign the dotted line. Security threats for everyone using the internet and especially companies is a significant issue. Companies cannot only lose data and valuable information about their customers, but their reputation can take a hit as a result. No individual would like to do business with a company or remain a customer whose website is not secure enough to safeguard their personal information like a credit card number or email address.
On the website, too, there must be some measures taken by the web hosting service to maintain a smooth flow. This can be termed as a factor related to heavy traffic, but when we talk about the security aspect, this is related to the performance of the website. Hackers or anyone having malicious intentions can harm your website in multiple ways.
As mentioned before, related to the smooth flow of the website, there are chances that your landing page and homepage can be defamed. A visitor on these pages will see some different content as posted by the hacker as he has all the control over your website in this scenario. That’s why I am putting much emphasis on the kind of web hosting you are about to hire.
Small businesses and startups need to think about ways to safeguard their businesses right from the start. And up till now, I have just discussed some aspects related to hackers only. There are scenarios like ransomware, which can be very dangerous for a company. In such scenarios, a company may not just lose their website to the hackers, but also have to pay a hefty sum.
4. The Reputation of the Hosting Service
Another critical issue, you need to be wary of the fact that not everything that is marketed on the internet turns out to be real. You need to investigate and get all the information about hosting services before partnering with them. A hosting service may show that they are one of the best in the business and have a number of clients, but that all may be false or misleading. So you need to research and find like this way “best-shared hosting in India” or “Where to get a cheap VPS in Thailand“. After checking a few reviews you decide what’s the best fit for your business.
Until you get to know about the hosting service from a friend or a person who has actually used it, you cannot say for sure that service is right for you. On many websites and blogs, banner ads and other promotional material related to web hosting is displayed. Some of the materials posted on this website are purely sponsored. And that’s why you cannot believe what is mentioned in it. You need to know about their reputation and service level through different means.
Final Word
We are sure that by now, Our readers are aware of the fact that even getting a WordPress website online is not easy fact. You need to be on your toes, really, to get a web hosting service that suits your business perfectly and remember that this is not just about hosting so that your website can run fast. It is all about your online presence. For small businesses in startups, a great start is what is required so that they can offer potential customers exactly what they have in mind.
If you think that you can add something valuable to this blog or want to ask a question you have in mind, you are more than welcome. For any type of feedback, too, please use the comments section below.
Top 7 Digital Marketing Strategies you can’t ignore in 2020
With so many people gravitating towards digital platforms, a great opportunity has come forward for marketers. They can effectively reach out to thousands of people in a matter of seconds. But as we all know, “with great power comes great responsibility!”. The marketers have to bear the responsibility to be prompt, consistent, and creative.
The only constant thing about Digital marketing is that it’s dynamic. Ironic, isn’t it? But it is the truth. When you are running campaigns on digital media, you have to keep asking yourself: What’s new? And to keep up with the trends, you have to innovate.
Sounds worrisome, right? But don’t worry, we have brought to you eight of the most effective digital marketing strategies of 2020. Read the entire blog and find out the what’s and how’s of these strategies.
Here is the unavoidable digital marketing Strategies for 2020:
You have a plethora of choices in digital marketing trends and strategies. All supported by valid and verified statistics and logic. However, too many options often confuse marketers, and they have a hard time deciding what will be the best set of strategies for them. We are sharing some of the techniques that work for all.
Programmatic Advertising
Those of you who are not familiar with programmatic advertising, it is an ad-buying automation process supported by artificial intelligence or AI. This enables brands and marketers to target a more specific niche of audiences. An excellent example of programmatic advertising is real-time bidding.
Due to its speed, it promises a better conversion rate and lower customer acquisition costs. This type of advertising is quickly taking over the market and changing the face of b2b marketing strategies. According to eMarketer, 86.2% of digital display ads will be programmed by 2020 in the USA.
Source: upgrad
Chatbots
Chatbots are AI-based technology that uses instant messaging to chat with your consumers or clients in real-time. They are available round the clock and can assist your site visitors at any point in time. Trust us when we say that they will be an integral part of digital marketing for a long time.
Chatbots not only respond instantly but also automate repetitive tasks. They provide an enhanced customer experience on lesser investment.
Surveys show that:
- 63% of visitors prefer messaging an online chatbot to communicate with a business or brand
- It is assumed that by 2022, chatbots will help companies to save over $8 billion per year
- 80% of companies prefer to chatbots themselves & B2b marketing companies go through 90%
Video Marketing
Video marketing is one of the most powerful digital marketing strategies that you can leverage for your di strategy, not just for 2020 but also for the following years. Videos are by far the most popular way that people want to learn about a product. So, it’s high time that you put those explainer videos to use.
Here are some mind-blowing facts about video marketing:
- 70% of consumers claim to have shared a brand video
- 72% of businesses have reported a growth owing to video marketing
- 65% and 39% of executives visit the marketer’s website and call a vendor respectively after viewing a video
However, there is one factor you must keep in mind, and that is to male the videos mobile friendly.
Source: singlegrain
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a form of third party endorsement or word-of-mouth marketing that leverages key leaders’ authority to circulate your brand message to a broader audience. Influencers are essentially social media personalities who have a huge follower base. They can help you spread the word using their personal channels.
Influence marketing is considered to be more authentic than conventional advertising. The following numbers suggest the effectiveness of influence marketing:
- 63% of consumers rely more on influencers’ opinion than promotional content from brands
- 58% of people have admitted to having bought a product based on influencer recommendations.
Thus brands are now shifting from self-promotional content to influencer marketing.
Content Marketing
Content marketing still dominates SEO. Google executives suggest that, rather than running after SEO trends, marketers should make sure that their companies’ websites have fast loading speed, authoritative links, and valuable content.
Useful content not only helps brands to improve their SEO ranking but also allows them to gain authority and build trust among audiences and customers. Let’s look at some vital statistics in this context:
- Content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing, while it generates three times as many leads.
- SMBs that publish blogs generate 126% more leads than those that don’t.
- 81% of B2B marketers believe content marketing helps them gain credibility and reliability.
Prefer reading:
SEO A/B Split testing
A/B split testing is an amazing way to segregate the variables in your campaign and figure out which versions perform better. This form of polling or testing helps marketers with a more analytical form of marketing, owing to which they can identify loopholes and implement necessary changes in their campaigns.
You can also implement A/B testing in SEO. SEO A/B testing helps to make the most of SEOs on your website and provides you with insight into variables that determine the rankings. If you can implement this strategy effectively and leverage the right tools, you can secure a great ROI, despite a small budget.
User-generated content
Source: tintup
User-generated content, also known as UGC, is a precious resource for marketers in the digital era. All you have to do is motivate your audiences or customers to promote your product or service by offering them a small incentive such as a small discount or by partnering with them on a noble cause. This, too, is like a word-of-mouth form of marketing.
Always remember that people trust their peers more than brands. Like testimonials or reviews, user-generated content endorses customer satisfaction, which is the ultimate form of marketing.
Here are some stats that demonstrate the power of UGC:
- A study shows that 90% of buyers have said that user-generated content impacts their purchase decisions
- 97% of 18-29-year-olds said that they were extremely convinced by such content
The bottom line is
Even though digital marketing is a lot of hard work, it never fails to yield results when done right. Instead of dreading its vastness, try to enjoy its versatility. You can do a lot with your campaign; you can go creative, quirky, even weird.
Just remember, it’s your brand, and it’s your platform. Utilize the power of the internet and put it out there.
Fred? Panda? Hummingbird? Google Algorithm Updates That You Should Know About
Users may not pay much attention to it, but if you’re a business or does anything near the realm of digital marketing, you understand the importance of keeping tabs on Google algorithm updates. They may have simple names like Panda, Hummingbird, and Fred, but they’re intrinsic to the massive and complex system Google uses to help provide the best possible results for user queries.
In this article, we give you a brief history of some of the most significant Google algorithm updates, why you should know about them, and how it can impact your online business.
Noteworthy Google Algorithm Updates Over the Years
From … to … these algorithms have largely shaped the way we use the internet. Get to know what they are, when they came about, and how it should be noted as you strategize your digital marketing efforts.
Panda (February 2011)
This Google update essentially prevents websites with poor quality content (duplicate, plagiarized, user-generated spam, keyword stuffing) from working their way into Google’s top search results. The search filter is updated periodically, which means that sites previously hit could go back into the green if they’ve made the right changes. In the same way, websites that may not have been flagged previously could be caught by the succeeding updates.
How it works:
Panda assigns a quality score to web pages, which is used as a ranking factor. While launched in 2011, it was in 2016 when it became permanently incorporated into Google’s core algorithm. The frequency of update rollouts has also increased, allowing for both penalties and recoveries to happen faster.
What to do:
To make sure your website isn’t penalized, run regular checks for content duplication, thin content, and keyword stuffing. To help with this, you can use a site crawler like SEO Powersuite’s Website Auditor. The tool’s Content Editor analyzes the pages of your top competitors and gives SEO tips based on successful content found in Google search. It also helps you avoid penalties by creating pages without accidental keyword stuffing. And as for your accidental duplicate content, you can use tools like Copyscape to see if your content is duplicated anywhere on the internet.
Penguin (April 2012)
This update was launched to better catch sites Google sees as spamming its search results through practices like purchasing links or getting them through link networks to boost Google rankings.
How it works:
Similar to Panda, whenever a new Penguin update is rolled out, websites that have taken the necessary action to remove bad links or to remove spammy ones could regain rankings. Conversely, websites not previously caught could be flagged by the new Penguin update, while “false positives,” or those caught by mistake could get a fresh start.
What to do:
To keep from being penalized by Penguin, monitor your link profile’s growth and perform regular audits using backlink checkers like SEO SpyGlass. The tool’s Summary dashboard presents a progress graph of your link’s profile growth. Unusual spikes that might be flagged could be a result of a negative SEO attack by your competitors.
Additionally, the metrics Penguin takes into consideration are integrated into SEO SpyGlass’ Penalty Risk formula. So when you go the Penalty Risk tab, you can sort your backlink list from highest to lowest. If you find links with a risk of over 50%, check if they’re malicious. If they are, add them to the disavow file, download it, and submit it to Google’s Disavow Links Tool.
Hummingbird (August 2013)
This update is a search platform designed to better focus on the meaning behind the words used in search queries.
How it works:
This algorithm allows Google to better interpret search intent by ensuring that the entire query (the entire sentence and the conversation being made) is taken into account as opposed to just the words. The aim is to make pages that match the meaning do better, instead of ranking pages that match just a few words.
As noted by Search Engine Land, this is done by using natural language processing that relies on latent semantic indexing, co-occurring terms, and synonyms.
What to do:
When performing keyword research, expand it by focusing on the concepts behind the keywords, analyze related searches, co-occurring terms, and synonyms. To help with this, you can use tools like RankTracker’s Keyword Research module to get ideas from Google Related Searches, Google Related Questions, and Google Autocomplete suggestions.
Mobile-Friendly (April 2015)
Google’s Mobile-Friendly update has become one of the more significant updates. Designed to give a boost to mobile-friendly pages in Google’s mobile search results, it’s become a crucial element businesses have to consider when strategizing their digital marketing efforts.
How it works:
Since the 2015 update, subsequent search updates have maintained the direction of focusing on mobile versions of websites as opposed to desktop versions. These days, Google ranks websites based on how fast and user-friendly their mobile versions are.
What to do:
As you might have surmised, it’s a must that you optimize your pages for mobile search, focusing on speed and usability. To make it easier, Google’s mobile-friendly and speed tests show you which elements of your pages need to be improved.
RankBrain (October 2015)
In its most basic sense, RankBrain is what Google calls its machine-learning artificial intelligence system that it uses to help process search results.
How it works:
Part of the Hummingbird algorithm update, RankBrain helps Google understand the meaning and intention behind queries, which allows the system to provide the best matches in response to those queries.
While the exact formula has been kept under wraps, RankBrain basically takes into account a user’s search history, synonyms, and implied words, providing a customized user experience.
What to do:
With the help of tools like WebSite Auditor’s TF-IDF, you can optimize your pages for relevance and comprehensiveness through a competitive analysis. The TF-IDF tool allows you to discover entire lists of relevant terms and concepts used by your top-ranking competitors. When you’re able to add those terms to your content, your search relevance will achieve a significant increase.
Medic (May 2018)
The Google Medic update, in essence, was one that leaned more on affecting websites that have to do with potentially life-altering decisions such as those in the medical field, finance, law, and education.
How it works:
In its simplest sense, the Google Medic update implemented some of the E-A-T (expertise, authority, trust) signals from their Quality Rater Guidelines document.
What you can do:
The tricky part about this update is that to this day, there remains no proven recovery strategy for Medic if you’ve been previously flagged. While there are suggestions coming from experts such as publishing content from experts to lend credibility to your website and building entities for your brand, these solutions are not sure-fire ways to adjust to this update.
Instead, Search Engine Land notes that the only reliable way to increase authority is by growing your backlink profile. Using backlink research tools like SEO SpyGlass and borrowing backlink ideas from your competitors appears to be the way.
These kinds of tools enable you to find potential backlink gaps you might have. According to Search Engine Land, the best prospects are high-authority websites that link to two or more of your competitors. This basically signals that those websites are interested in your niche, but do not have an exclusive relationship with any one company.
Bert (October 2019)
The update is Google’s neural network-based technique for NLP pre-training. The acronym stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. This system basically helps computers understand language more like humans do.
How it works:
While Panda, Hummingbird, and RankBrain strayed more away from keywords when it comes to analyzing search queries, BERT’s use of NLP amplifies this and serves as the culmination of this effort. The update, therefore, allows Google to understand search queries, interpret text, and identify entities and relationships between entities with much more nuance.
What you can do:
This update rewards good copy, meaningful copy. As such, strive for a style of writing that’s more expository, moving away from fluff. It would also be beneficial to perform entity research when creating copy, which means including relevant entities to create context for your content.
Core Updates (2017-Present)
This is how Google refers to bigger updates. But while Core updates are significant to how the search engine works and ranks websites, the world has seen transparency about those updates decrease as years go by.
What you can do:
Because of the lack of transparency, what SEO professionals would do is to track post-update ranking shifts to see how it has affected the landscape. To be more specific, you can track SERP history for keywords you’re targeting. So say an update rolls out, you can check which of your competitors have moved up or down the rankings – taking all the available data surrounding it to make an intelligent guess about what the contributing factors are.
Final words
As we rely more and more on Google for an increasing number of our digital needs, both personally and professionally, we need to keep tabs on how this ecosystem can affect the way we do business. Doing so would make you more agile when it comes to making the appropriate pivots to maintain an edge over the competition.
Which updates did you find most significant to your industry? Sound off in the comments below.
Free Backlink Checker – Check Backlinks of Any Websites
Do you want to see who is linking with your website or what kind of links are being used by your competition? Well, if yes then you seriously need to get information about the best backlink checker tools available on the internet. In this brief traction, we are going to tell our audience about the backlink checker tools that can help you in getting detailed information about any backlink you want. There are hundreds of online backlink tracking tools, but the majority of them are not reliable and would not provide you with complete information about the links.
Below we have discussed the best online backlink checker tools, but before we move towards that section, we would like you to know about the importance of backlinks. A backlink is a URL link that attaches your website without another one. If we see it from the eyes of the search engine, then you must know that these backlinks are just like the vote of confidence that you get from other websites. The more quality links you would have on your website, the better would be your chances to rank on the higher positions of the search engine!
Reliable backlink checker tools found in 2020
The backlink checker tools mentioned below have a good reputation all across the globe and are recommended by SEO experts.
Backlink checker by SearchEngineReports
This free backlink checker is out of hundreds of free and reliable tools offered by this website. This online tool is free and has no limitations to use. To check backlinks open SearchEngineReports on your browser, and from there you have to navigate the SEO backlink tools. In this section, you will find this backlink checker. This is an extremely easy to use backlink tracker that can be used by anyone. When you open this free online backlink checker, you would see an upload bar in which you have to add the links to the website. After the link is inserted, you have to click ‘Check Backlinks’ button.
You can get information about the anchor text used with the URL, the domain authority score, the link type, the referring domains as well as the referring IPs in the backlink!
Link Miner
The Link Miner tool is one of the best-designated tools for checking backlinks. This tool belongs to Mangools and so to run this tool, you must have an account with the website. The link miner can initially help you find out the most top-quality backlinks for your website, and after mining the links, it can provide you with all the important details about the link. This backlink checker tool’s free version is limited, so if you need a tool regularly, you need to connect with a paid package offered by the website.
Uber Suggest
Uber suggests another online tool that belongs to the famous Neil Patel website. This website’s core service is to suggest and find keywords to users, but you must know that this tool also has a feature that can help you find out backlinks and check them for all sorts of details. The tool can also tell you about the backlinks that are broken or have been lost by your website. Some of the important details that you get with this backlink checker tool are the amount of traffic pouring with the link, the credibility of the link, the keyword or anchor text under which the link is hidden and also the referring IPs. This is one of the friendliest tools that you can find online for free!
Ahref
Ahref is another platform that can provide you with different seo related services. The backlink maker and backlink checker tool by Ahref are both reliable tools that can help you in improving the seo score of your site. You can easily use the credibility of backlinks used on a website with Ahref. This tool will completely examine the links that you have entered and will tell you whether they are good or bad for your site. You will also get information about the DDA score, the link type and also the traffic coming on the site through this link!
Backlink checker by SST
Small SEO Tools, as the name suggests, is a website that can provide you with SEO related services. Every tool offered by this website is free and extremely reliable. The backlink checker tool by SST is a very informative tool and quite useful for search engine optimization. This online tool can easily save you from bad or broken links that are harmful to your website. It can also help you in fixing the links that can be recycled by your website. You can not only check the links on your website, but you can also find out the links used by your competition. This will help you beat them!
5 Smart SEO Techniques Every Business Can Use to Generate More Organic Traffic in 2021
It’s no wonder that an SEO strategy can make or break your business. It can hurt your website rankings and make it difficult to achieve your conversion and sales goals. By using the right SEO techniques, you can skyrocket your rankings, increase your website traffic, and make your business a huge success.
If you are wondering how you can boost your ROI by making small changes in your SEO strategy, you’ll find the answer in this post. Let’s explore the top five SEO techniques marketers can use to increase their website traffic and earn more sales.
1. Use Relevant Keywords
Google’s algorithm is updating from time to time. Its main focus is to understand users’ intent and provide them with the best and most relevant results that best answer their queries. Putting your best efforts into appearing your website on the first page of Google and using SEO-optimized content is the best idea. Determine the search terms that are relevant to your business will definitely drive traffic to your website and eventually, more conversions and sales.
Keyword research and competitor analysis can play a huge role in strengthening your SEO strategy. It is important to research thoroughly how your competitors are making the most of search terms to attract potential customers. Also, figure out which search terms their audience use to find their website.
By understanding the search intent, search volume, keyword density, type and other important attributes, you can come up with the most effective keywords for your business. Using long-tail keywords is a better idea to help your potential customers find your website. While creating a list of search terms, make sure to consider what type of devices your target audience is using when they visit your website. It will positively impact your website rankings.
You can use SEO tools such as SEMrush, MOZ, and Ahrefs to get related keyword and topics ideas that you can use in website content for better SEO results.
2. Long-form Content
It’s no wonder that content plays a dramatic role in generating organic traffic and highly qualified leads. In fact, the longer the content, the higher the chances of getting top rankings. Writing detailed and informative blog posts that satisfy user intent can do wonders. However, it is not necessary to write 1500 or more words for every post, sometimes information presented in bulleted points are enough to provide what users are looking for.
Remember, your ultimate goal will be to solve customers’ pain points by writing an informative post. You can improve your content marketing efforts by writing a long-form blog post. Repurposing your existing blog post that is performing well on Google is another great idea to improve rankings. By adding some relevant keywords and updated information, you can easily appear on the top SERPs.
3. Create SEO Friendly Video Content
Today nearly everyone prefers to watch videos to solve their problem. Businesses can take maximum advantage of it by creating more engaging and informative videos. Marketers can use video content to drive maximum engagement and more website traffic. Don’t forget to optimize your videos for YouTube, as it is the second most popular search engine that people are using to find what they are looking for. From an organic point of view, it is important to host your video through YouTube; otherwise it will become difficult for Google to understand the content.
You can add the relevant keywords in the text transcripts to increase the rankings of your video content. When you write a detailed video description that includes relevant keywords will help YouTube Spiders to understand what your video is all about. It will also help readers to know exactly what your video contains. By optimizing your video content, you can successfully build a massive list of subscribers that will eventually help increase the organic traffic and website rankings.
4. Internal Linking Matters
Interlinking is a great idea to guide your visitors to other site pages and keep them on your website for longer. It is an effective SEO strategy that can positively boost your website rankings. Avoid using too many internal links as it looks spam for readers. When it comes to adding links, make sure they are relevant to the content, and have the highest number of external links.
One of the best parts of using an internal linking strategy is that it makes it easier for your pages to easily index and rank. It increases your chances of getting more conversions and leads. Google also likes pages that have more links and gives more importance to the page compared to other website pages that have no internal links. Internal linking is a great way to give your low-value pages more value by adding links of the home page, about us, contact us, brochure design or any other service pages. You can also add contextual links on authoritative websites to improve your website credibility and reputation. According to a study it is found out that internal linking does help in increasing the ranking of specific keyword if it is linked on a domain that have good stats.
5. Don’t Underestimate the Power of Social Media
Stay active on social media and regularly update your digital marketing channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more with interesting images and videos. Social media marketing is a powerful way to attract a wider audience to drive more leads, user engagement and website traffic. For instance, if you are a web development company in Dubai and thinking to tap into potential customers that are actually interested in your services.
Wrapping it Up
By following these easy SEO tips will definitely increase the organic traffic that will help you get highly qualified leads and more sales. It is a great idea to stay up to date with Google algorithms to update your SEO strategy and come up with more effective SEO tactics to gain engagement and rankings.