Byter - Digital Marketing & Social Media

How to properly structure your website

Jan 7, 2022 11:18:00 PM / by Byter Team posted in Digital Marketing, Search Engines, Web Design

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Website Structure

Structuring your site establishes how to organise your website’s content. Usually, a website often consists of content on a variety of related topics, presented on posts and pages. 

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HOW TO STRENGTHEN YOUR COPYWRITING & STORYTELLING SKILLS

Jan 7, 2022 11:14:33 PM / by Byter Team posted in Content Creation, Search Engines, Copywriting

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COPYWRITING AND BRANDING

Brand control is an illusion! 

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BYTER’S GUIDE: 31 GOOGLE ADVANCED SEARCH TIPS

Jan 7, 2022 11:00:16 PM / by Byter Team posted in SEO, Search Engines, Web Design

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Google is one of the biggest Internet search engines in the world, and you probably use it many times a day. However, unless you are a technology geek you probably won’t use it to its fullest potential. Google is packed with an extensive amount of data, it is mindboggling how businesses manage to strengthen their SEO. But they do manage to, don’t they? Well of course, through an advanced search! But what is it, and how is it done?

Google Advanced Search is a built-in feature that allows a user to specify additional requirements for a search. When this is used for browsing the Internet, an advanced search gives extra information to Google in order to help refine the results by eliminating the clutter you don’t need.

Even if you are a technology geek and can use Google like the best of them, I still suggest that you bookmark this article on Google Advanced Search tips. You’ll have these Byter tips on hand when you’re ready.

31 TIPS ON HOW TO SEARCH ON GOOGLE

Explicit phrase

An explicit phrase allows you to search for content on Google whilst giving you in-depth search results. For instance, imagine you wanted to find information on SEO. Instead of just typing it into Google, it would be more beneficial to search for the phrase explicitly.

For example, “Inbound marketing”

Exclude words

Imagine you want to search for more facts about Digital Marketing agencies, but you want to exclude any results which uses the word Social Media. To do this, simply use the (- sign) in front of the word you want to exclude.

For example, Digital Marketing Agency – Social Media

THIS or THAT

Typically when you conduct a search, Google will include all the terms specified by default. So, if you are looking for two or more terms to match then you can use ‘OR’ in-between. This enables you to focus your searches solely around your desired content.

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Does anyone actually know what SEO is and does?

Jan 7, 2022 10:53:31 PM / by Byter Team posted in Social Media, SEO, Search Engines

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The term SEO gets bandied around a lot, and many of us have a vague idea as to what it refers to, but most of us would have a hard time explaining exactly what it is? And why you would actually need it other than, “oh I remember reading blog ages ago and it said it was important”. if you want a more in-depth look at SEO and how it works and how to do it check out this other blog post on our website!

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Using Technology To Determine Market Demand

Jan 7, 2022 10:47:53 PM / by Byter Team posted in Digital Marketing, Marketing, Traffic, Search Engines

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Market demand is the total amount of goods and services that all consumers are willing and able to purchase at a specific price in a marketplace. In other words, it represents how much consumers can and will buy from suppliers at a given price level in a market.

Now, how do we determine market demand? What techniques and technologies can we adopt to help us understand what the market is demanding? Can SEO research aid us in determining market demand? People who opt to following their gut instincts when figuring out market demand can sometimes lead to incorrect analogies, which then leads to pointless campaigns, wasted money and time.

What are the benefits of calculating market demand

To help marketers and business start-ups there are great softwares, apps and technologies that gather correct data based on customer behaviours, this information can then be evidenced forecast to help evaluate whether a business venture is feasible or not, we’ll talk about these later.

On top of figuring out whether a product will sell or not, there are lots of other insightful reasons for calculating product demand that will help you make better-informed business decisions. For example, knowing how high the demand for a product is informs pricing strategies and being aware of the type of people who will be interested in your product helps craft marketing initiatives. 

What determines market demand?

There are several factors you need to be aware of when calculating market demand:

  • Number of people actively searching for a product like yours
  • How many people are willing to pay for a product like yours
  • How available your product is for purchase, considering your own company and your competitors selling the same/ similar products

What technology can help determine market demand?

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get on to the good stuff. You are probably wondering what technology is out there that can help you perform your market demand analysis. There’s two great tools you’ll need to make use of:

  • Search engine optimisation (SEO) tools

There are countless free SEO tools out there that you can use to gather insights about your product or service. These tools will tell you search volume, so you know how many times on average people are searching for the product each month, and keyword suggestions, which tells you how often people are searching for related terms. SEO tools can be a great source of inspiration as they will help you determine how frequently users are searching for your product and related terms. You can even filter your searches by location and time period which will give you specific brand insights that can inform your focus and decisions moving forward. 

Here are a few of some great free SEO tools:

  1. Aherfs’ free SEO tools 
  2. Google Analytics 
  3. Keyword Hero
  • Social Media Platforms 

Social media platforms can give you a wealth of data that you can use to inform all kinds of decisions you make related to products, marketing strategies and your overall brand identity. By simply searching specific keywords you can see all related posts informing you who’s talking about them, the general sentiment behind, where people are talking about them and what they’re saying.

  • Social Media Insights

A great way to further understand market demands is on social platforms. Instagram has a built in feature for business accounts called Instagram insights, providing information on customer demographics, high and low content interaction, gains and losses on follower count, post reach and so much more (read more about instagram analytics here). Using this free built in feature on your social media accounts can provide you a greater understanding of what your customers like to see, what they demand for and what type of content really resonates with them. 

What other methods can I use to determine market demand?

There are other, more traditional, methods for calculating market demand. For example, you could carry out surveys or questionnaires either on social media or via email. Aim to reach as many people as possible with this method because the greater the scope you create, the more accurate and informative your market research will be. 

Another promising method is planning and executing experiments which, although these can be expensive and time-consuming, offer very informative results. An example of this might be offering a new product at a discounted price for a limited time which will encourage a large number of purchases. From this, you can determine who’s interested in your product and gather feedback from those who have bought it. 

Thinking up a new business idea can be really exciting, but knowing your idea will work is even better. We hope you’ve found this article useful, and if you have any questions we’d love to hear from you! You can contact us here

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Combatting Google’s New Page Experience Algorithm

Jan 7, 2022 10:46:49 PM / by Byter Team posted in Marketing, Traffic, Search Engines

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From May 2021 your website traffic might go down (or up). Why? Because Google is implementing a brand new algorithm designed to change the way websites rank on search results. Google’s aim is to provide a positive experience for users interacting on the web. That’s why they have come up with a way to measure and prioritise user experience. Welcome to the page experience algorithm. 

In this post, we’re going to explain to you what the new algorithm is, and show you how to combat it so that when May comes around your traffic doesn’t plummet. You’re welcome. 

An explanation of the Google Page Experience update

By introducing the following three metrics, Google hopes to decrease common frustrations users have whilst interacting with web pages:

  • What speed does the page load at?
  • How soon is the page interactive?
  • How stable is the page?

By prioritising the webpages that positively satisfy these metrics, Google hopes to recommend those which are easy to use and well-maintained first. 

If you want to really get to grips with the upcoming changes, here’s our breakdown of the technical details…

These are the core web vitals that will impact your site’s traffic: 

  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

This is the main metric for page load speed. It measures how long users have to wait before large blocks of content load such as images, videos and chunks of text. Page content that takes more than 4 seconds to load will rank poorly, to improve your LCP measure, consider doing the following:

  • Scale down image sizes so they load faster
  • Use a size loading optimizer plugin
  • Boost server speed

 

  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

We’ve all been there, opened a page and tried to click on something before it’s fully loaded, and then by the time it does load, a shift occurs that changes the location of where we clicked. It’s a real pain and this metric measures just that. Unexpected element shifts can cause unwanted interactions, to avoid this make sure elements on your page do not suddenly change in size between the first and final loading. 

 

  • First Input Delay (FID)

This one measures how soon you can interact with elements on a page, or how quickly these interactive elements respond to user action. A good measure for this is 100 milliseconds, and anything longer than 300 milliseconds is, well, too long. You can improve on this by using a good programmer to test, audit and optimise the code. 

What will make pages rank high?

Any pages that are tailored to answering specific queries from a targeted audience to influence conversion rates will be ranking high once the new Google algorithm takes off. This is because conversion rate optimisation (CRO) techniques also influence the user experience (UX). Simply put, Google will be looking at how effective your conversion strategies are in prompting users to take the desired action. 

Our recommendation is this:

  • Quality content should remain your top priority. 
  • SEO continues to be relevant.
  • Regular testing is essential.

Combatting the update

We don’t want to worry you, we just want to prepare you… Here are some actions you can start taking to ensure your site continues to rank well after the update:

We hope this post has helped you get to grips with the changes coming in May. If you need any help ensuring your page content meets the requirements of the new Google algorithm update, feel free to contact us. We’d love to assist! 

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Keyword Search Volume: Are People Searching For Your Keywords?

Jan 7, 2022 10:18:00 PM / by Byter Team posted in Digital Marketing, Marketing, SEO, Search Engines, Sales and marketing

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Keyword Volume is an estimation of the number of searches per month for a certain keyword or key-phrase.

Higher search volume means more potential traffic to your website, but really high volume keywords can often be more competitive as well as more broadly targeted.

You may think that you should always pick the highest volume keyword possible, but that’s not always the case!

Here are some important considerations for keyword volume:

High Volume Keywords

High volume keywords are often very competitive and broadly targeted.

Although ranking for such keywords can send a lot of traffic to your website, it may not be worth the effort because they are too competitive and will require too much time and money to rank.

For example, let’s take the keyword “computers”.

You can see that although the search volume is high, the keyword difficulty is “high” according to this tool from ahrefs.

High volume keywords might also not be worth it because the keyword phrase is too broad and often won’t lead to conversions on your website.

In this case, the search intent isn’t explicitly clear.

Some people searching for that keyword might be looking for information about computers, while others might be shopping for a new computer.

People searching for this keyword are less likely to actually buy a computer than someone searching for a specific brand or type of computer.

High-volume keywords might be worth targeting if you have the resources to outperform the competition.

Such keyword phrases can take longer to rank for, but they can drive a lot of traffic to your website.

Medium Volume Keywords (Medium-Tail Keywords)

Medium tail keywords can drive a significant amount of traffic to your web pages and can also be specific enough to drive targeted traffic and conversions.

Although there is no strict definition, medium tail keywords generally contain 2-3 words.

For example, if you are selling a specific type of computer like business laptops, then ranking for “business laptops” might be more worthwhile than trying to rank for “computers”.

Although the search volume is lower, the phrase is more targeted towards someone likely to buy what you are selling.

The keyword phrase is still competitive, but probably not as competitive as “computers”.

Long-Tail Keywords

Keywords that have 3+ words are often referred to as long-tail keywords.

Although these keyword phrases can be lower in volume in comparison to short-tail keywords, they often send highly targeted traffic that is more interested in what you have to offer.

For example, if you are selling a specific type of computer, like a Dynabook Toshiba Terca, then you might be better off targeting the phrase “Dynabook Toshiba Terca” instead of “computers” or even “laptop computers”.

You will receive less traffic for that search term, but the traffic you do receive will be much more likely to buy and you will also have less difficulty ranking for that lower volume keyword phrase.

When creating informational content like blog articles, sometimes you can get traffic for long-tail keywords by simply including them on the page.

Some long-tail keywords have very low search volume, but the cumulative traffic from lots of long-tail keywords can add up. In fact, an estimated 70% of all search traffic comes from long-tail searches!

Conclusion

Keyword search volume is an important factor in keyword research, but you won’t always want to pick the highest volume keyword possible.

Finding the right match between search volume and user intent is vital when selecting your keywords!

The good news is that you don’t need to get hung up on picking the “perfect keyword.”

By writing long-form content, web pages tend to rank for multiple keywords, even keywords that you are not intentionally targeting. Ranking for multiple keywords can result in additional traffic to your web page.

www.byter.com

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Search Intent: What Do Users Really Want?

Jan 7, 2022 10:17:01 PM / by Byter Team posted in Digital Marketing, Marketing, SEO, Search Engines

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Search intent is understanding what type of information users are searching for when they enter a search phrase.

Understanding this is crucial because to rank a web page in the search engines, the type of content you create must match the content that the searcher is looking for.

Otherwise, your chances of ranking and attracting the right traffic are low.

Yes, that’s right, even if you have your optimisation perfect, you still might not rank.

Here’s how it works:

Understanding What Users Are Truly Looking For When They Search

When people search on Google, it’s not always clear exactly what they are searching for.

For instance, if someone searches “pool,” what are they actually looking for? A swimming pool, or the game of pool (billiards)?

If someone types “cookies,” are they looking for a recipe for cookies, or are they trying to understand the cookies that are stored in their browser?

You can see how a search query could mean many things!

Search engines tweak their algorithms to make sure they are displaying the results for what people want – even when it’s not explicitly clear.

These are just some simple examples of disambiguation, but search intent goes further.

Categories of Search Intent

We can categorise search intent into several categories:

1) Informational Intent

Information intent means users are looking to get more information on a topic.

For example, if someone searched “how to ride a bike” they are looking for a guide. The search results will display articles or videos about how to ride a bike.

2) Commercial / Transactional Intent

Commercial or transactional intent refers to when a searcher is looking to purchase something or compare prices.

For example, if someone searches for “buy blue trek bike” they are likely looking to purchase. The search results will often display product pages, because this search is so specific.

Note: Just because users are looking for products doesn’t always mean your product page will rank! Google often prefers review-type content or lists of the best products to actual product pages!

3) Navigational Intent

Navigational intent occurs when a searcher is looking for a specific website or destination.

For example, searchers might type in a brand name “Ebay login” into the search engines when they want to find the login page to Ebay.com.

Why Is Search Intent Important?

The reason this is important is that it will be very difficult to rank for your chosen keyword if your content doesn’t meet the search intent for that keyword.

This is one of the biggest mistakes in trying to rank!

Google often changes the search results for a keyword based on what they think the correct search intent is, and often display more informational type pages vs transactional pages.

As an example, in the past, if someone searched for a health supplement, Google might have seen the search intent as “transactional” meaning people wanted to buy the product, and therefore displayed product pages.

It was easy for a brand that sold the health supplements to rank their product pages for that keyword.

But then Google changed the keyword intent to “informational,” and now only articles about the supplement are ranking. Now it would be very difficult for a brand to rank a product page there.

It’s the same keyword, but because Google determined the search intent differently, the type of content you’ll need to create will change!

This is a very common scenario, and why creating long-form content around your products or services gives you a higher chance for ranking versus trying to rank your product or service pages!

So how do you make sure you understand the search intent of the keyword?

It’s easy:

How To Determine Search Intent

The simplest way to determine search intent is to perform a search on Google and see what results come up.

For example, let’s take the word “email marketing software”.

A quick search shows that most of the results are lists of the top email marketing software.

If you’re running a business that sells email marketing software and you want to rank, you’ll need to create a piece of content that matches what Google is currently ranking.

www.byter.com

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How Do Search Engines Work?

Jan 7, 2022 10:15:06 PM / by Byter Team posted in SEO, Search Engines, Web Design

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On an entry level they work by having 3 basic functions: 

  1. Crawling the internet to find new web pages and documents

  2. Putting that content in a giant index / database

  3. Ranking that content on various factors

We are going to be going into this in a bit more detail now.

Crawling: How Does A Search Engine Crawl The Web?

Search engines discover new content by sending out search engine spiders, or crawlers, to find it.

Crawlers are computer programs or robots that find new content like web pages, PDF files, videos, and images by visiting links on web pages.

These crawlers can visit web pages very quickly which allows them to discover new websites, pages, and other content.

When creating new content, linking to it from existing pages on your site or from another site is a good way to make sure it gets discovered by the search engines.

Crawlers also tend to visit popular websites that create new content more frequently than smaller unknown websites. Getting a link from a popular website could result in your content getting discovered more rapidly

Creating a sitemap also helps search engines crawl your site. A good sitemap will link to every page on your site.

Signing up for a Google Console account is a good step to take if you want to see more data on pages that get Google has crawled. You can also see any crawling errors that may have occurred.

A few issues that might cause pages to not get crawled include poor navigation structure, redirect loops and server errors.

In the past, it was popular to “submit” your site to search engines, but this is no longer needed as they have become much more advanced at detecting new content that is published on the web!

Indexing: How Does A Search Engine Read and Store Website Information?

When crawlers discover new pages and content, they store the information in an index.

You can think of an index as a very large database containing all the web pages on the Internet that a search engine has found.

Search engines will analyse and fetch content from their index when searchers enter a search query.

By default, search engines will crawl and try to index every page on your site that they can find.

However, if you have pages you don’t want web searchers to be able to find through search engines, like private member-only pages, then use can use Robots Meta Tags will help.

You may also want to exclude pages that aren’t useful like tag and category pages in WordPress.

Ranking: How Does A Search Engine Rank Websites?

Search engines use algorithms to analyse websites and decide how to rank them for various search queries.

These algorithms assign scores to various ranking factors and then rank web pages with the best scores from highest to lowest.

Search engine algorithms also change over time in an effort to improve search results. Keep in mind that the goal of search engines is to provide quality content so that their users are satisfied with search results and keep using their search engine.

So what factors do search engines use to determine what content ranks at the top?

We discuss the top ranking factors in the next chapter!

www.byter.com

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