Category Archives: Uncategorized

responsive-design-website

4 Common Mistakes To Avoid While Creating a Responsive Website

Leave a reply

Mobile usage has escalated enormously in the past few years. It has surpassed desktop
searches in 2015 and is still growing. And it’s not just mobile, people are accessing the web via
Tablets, Netbooks and even smart TVs. Overall it’s safe to say that the way people accessed
the web has changed completely.

But it took some time for the marketers to pick up the change. On one hand, we had
mesmerizing desktop websites, on the other hand, there were slow loading websites with a lot
of bloated images for mobiles and tablet users, just opposite to what they expect.

In this difficult time, responsive websites came to marketer’s rescue. However, it’s not a
magical tool that will boost conversion rate on its own. You have to pay attention to even the
minutest details and make sure there are no issues.

We are sharing the top 4 common mistakes that marketers make when creating a responsive website and how to avoid them.

1. Bloated images

It’s crucial to keep in mind that responsive website makes use of a single markup for all
devices. So to ensure that you are sending the right image to the right device, use following
tricks.

  • Run images though ImageMagick for an optimal size.
  • Maintain high depth even after reducing the image size by using Lossy Compression.
  • Use multiple servers to render images.

2. Slow load page time

Mobile and tablet users are always on the go, so if your page load time is slow, you are losing
on a lot of prospects. According to a recent research, more than 40% of the visitors will
abandon a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.Mobile users command a seamless web suffering, and fast loading pages are a big part of it. Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to analyze your site’s performance. It provides you with valuable information using which you can boost the speed of your website.

3. Long forms?

Ain’t nobody got time for that. If a site visitor is on your contact page, it means he is HIGHLY interested, losing him at this point is like losing a definite sale. The best way to compel the visitors to fill your form is to keep it short and simple. Don’t ask for too much information at once. First get basic info like Name, Phone number, and Email address — you can ask for more information later. A good case in point is Expedia. Little did anyone knew that a small mistake, like placing a long form will cost them a whopping 12 million dollars. Don’t make that mistake. Keep it short and simple, you will get much more leads.

4. Not taking mobile users intent into consideration

Responsive design doesn’t take mobile users goal into consideration. So you have to pay attention to it, Make sure that your mobile site is easy to navigate, especially for the dudes with big, fat fingers. Also, cramping a lot of content will do more harm than good. You are distracting the users from taking an action by putting long titles and a lot of text on the screen. Also, make sure that your site design is neat and clean. So that users can get wherever they want in no time.

Looking to build a responsive website? We can help. Just connect with one of our Sales reps to get started.

Top features of our Google Mobile Friendly Website:

  • Responsive website recognized by Google as mobile friendly.
  • Click-to-Call, Click-to-Email and Click-to-Text features.
  • Advanced mobile lead tracking and analytics.

Your Customers Can Now Book Appointments Directly From Google Search Results

Leave a reply

Google rolled out it’s “booking feature” for selected businesses back in December 2016. Back then, it was only available for only spa and salon owners, and in selected cities. But now they have expanded it and more business owners can now allow their customers to book appointments directly from the search result. Here’s the official statement from Google – https://www.blog.google/topics/small-business/easy-booking-button-businesses-google/

Google-Local-Listing

All you have to do is to login to your Google My business Console. When logged in, you will see a new button “SIGN UP FOR BOOKINGS” within in the “Accept bookings on Google” section.

Google-My-Business-Dashboard

The next step is to select a booking provider. You can enroll with a scheduling provider from Google’s list here. Once you’ve enrolled, your business will be ready to accept bookings in few days.

Google-Scheduling-Partners

Once the integration is successful, you will be able to see how well your business is doing. You can track the number of bookings as well as how much money you’ve made from these bookings from Google.

But be informed that as of now, it’s only available to select business types and within the US only.

Google-Bookings

Google says it will be adding the booking option in other countries and business categories soon – so stay tuned!

How Google Local Search Works – Google Will Now Show Search Results Based on the Google Users Location Instead of the Domain Name

Leave a reply

Google’s paramount goal is to provide the users with most relevant search results. Today 1 in 5 searches on Google is related to location, so providing locally relevant search results is of utmost priority. Google is changing how Google local search works. Till now the country of service was indicated by the country code top-level domain name (ccTLD). For example “google.co.uk” for the United Kingdom. But from now on, Google will determine the country of service based on your location. If you’re in the UK, even manually typing “google.com” and searching something will not fetch you results from the USA, instead, it will show results based on your current location, i.e. the UK.

Google-Homepage

However, Google has cleared that they have just changed the way they labeled Google search results and maps, and not the way it works.

In case your country of service doesn’t change as per the location, you can update it by going into the Settings > Search Settings in the footer and then navigate to Region Settings.

Google-Region-Setttings

From the Google Search Blog:

So if you live in Australia, you’ll automatically receive the country service for Australia, but when you travel to New Zealand, your results will switch automatically to the country service for New Zealand. Upon return to Australia, you will seamlessly revert back to the Australian country service.

Google is hopeful that this update will ensure that the users will get the most relevant search results, and will ultimately improve the overall search experience.

man-holding-iphone

How To Move Your M-DOT URLS To New Responsive Website – A Step By Step Guide

Leave a reply

Google has released a 4 step tutorial on how to move your m-dot URL’s to your newly created
responsive websites in a “Googlebot friendly” way.

Below are the steps Google outlined (in green). Plus we have added our own steps in between
to give you a clear path to work on.

1. First Thing first, get your responsive site ready.seperating-mobile-URLs-diagram

2. Collect all the data from your M-dot website like conversion rate, traffic etc. So that you can compare it with the new responsive site & know how your new website is performing.

3. 301 redirect to the new responsive URLs from your old URLs. You will have to do it for each URL’s separately, it is daunting but necessary.

301-redirection-diagram

4. Sometimes, there are images or a white paper that is in use & ranking well. You will have to find them out and redirect them to your main site so that you don’t lose traffic.

5. Your site might have some Mobile-URL specific configuration like conditional redirects, make sure you remove it.

6. Setup rel=canonical on the responsive URLs pointing to themselves.

7. You can encourage the search engines spider to recrawl your M-URL by resubmitting your M.site Google search console & Bing Webmaster Tools Sitemaps. By doing so, they will reindex your site faster and become aware of the new 301 Redirects.

8. Keep an eye on the progress by monitoring the index status of the old M.site on Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

9. In about 3 months or more, Google will drop the M URLs out of the index. But only after they become aware of the 301 redirects.

10. Update the important links to the Old M.site & have them point to the new URLs.

11. Make sure you change the new old M.site to the new one on all your marketing and promotional materials.

Editing Your Google My Business Listing Just Got Easier!

Leave a reply

Editing your Google Business Listing? If you have a verified business in Google My Business, you can now update your business info directly from Google search engine result page, provided you’re logged in to your Google My Business account.

Here’s how it works. Just type your business name in the Google search box and you will see a menu right above the search results. Again, you need to be logged into your account in order for this to work. Upon clicking the edit info button, you will find all the editable fields highlighted.

Google-My-Business-Screenshot

 

You can upload photos, see the number of views, check and respond to the reviews and even access detailed information about your site metrics and Google My Business metrics. And the best part is, you can do it from any device, be it desktop or mobile.

To provide accurate and updated information to the users, Google heavily relies on the business owners. Google knows that if they want valuable content for free, they have to make the process simple and easy.

And, who better suited to provide accurate content than the business owner, right? Google’s perfect plan to outsource the business info-update process just got a little more efficient. This not only maintains the value, it increases it for Google, businesses, and customers. A win-win situation for everyone!

YouTube-Logo

YOUTUBE LAUNCHES “BREAKING NEWS” SECTION TO KEEP ITS USERS UPDATED

Leave a reply

YouTube, has introduced a Breaking News section on its homepage, it shows a collection of videos pertaining worldwide news and events. The feature appears on both mobile, as well as desktop devices.

The Barcelona attack being the very recent major incident happened across the world, the Breaking News section was showing videos related to it. The section shows region-specific videos displayed in horizontal scrollable format, the section includes options like ‘Recommended’, ‘Watch It Again’, and ‘Recently Uploaded’.

If users do not wish to see the Breaking News section, they can remove it from their homepage, by clicking on ‘X’ if using a desktop or ‘Not Interested’ if using mobile.

Still, it is not clear if the ‘Breaking News’ will appear daily or only when some major incident occurs. The feature is live on live on the iOS and Android YouTube apps, as well as the desktop site.

Google-Maps-Icon

You Can Now Add Videos To Local Listings In Google Maps

Leave a reply

You can now add videos to local listings in the Google Maps using any Android device. Google is rolling it out slowly, so you might or might not see it right away. This feature is not only good for the business owners but the users as well. Because pictures tell an altogether different story while video remains close to reality. “Close” because of all those filters available for the videos.

Meanwhile, if you are a local guide and willing to earn some extra points, while helping the folks out here, start uploading videos of the business and local places. It is available only for local guides and Android users but can be seen and searched by anyone. You can take a 10-second video from the Google Maps app or can upload a 30-second video.

You can add videos to local listings in Google Maps:

  • From a place’s page
  • From “your contributions”
  • Via Google photos and Gallery app

How to upload a video to your local listing on Google Maps:

  • Search and select a place on Google Maps
  • Scroll down and tap “Add a photo”
  • Tap “Folder” and select a video. Only the first 30 seconds of a video can be added.

Visit the Google Help Center to learn more about sharing videos.

Google’s Q&A for Local Search Could Be The Next Big Thing

Leave a reply

Google started rolling out Questions and Answers (Q&A) feature for local search in the
beginning of August. As with all the testing, it was initially available, exclusively for
Android users via the Google Maps App, but eventually, they made it available to
everyone searching from a mobile device using either Safari or Chrome browsers.

Google’s Q&A could be a very useful tool for local businesses to help save time and trouble by providing simple answers to common questions.

The main motto behind introducing the Q&A into local search is to get the most
updated and relevant data about businesses and places. Q&A is always been one of the
best sources to get fresh content. Amazon has already tested it and employing it the
way it should be.

Here’s what Google Questions & Answers looks like on a mobile device.

Google-Q-&-A-Mobile-Device

However, the fear of spamming is real! The competitors, or even just a single angry employee
can ruin the entire Q&A section. Also, if a business has the authority to edit it, then it’s going to
be as genuine and real as the “testimonials and reviews” that they put on their own website.

Here’s what Google says:

“To make sure “Questions & answers” contains the most accurate and useful local info
possible, business owners can add frequently asked questions and answers as well. In
addition, when you (a customer) ask a question about a place, we notify the business
owner and other in-the-know users to see if they have knowledgeable answers to
contribute. When your question is answered, we notify you too.”

Let’s see how Google is going to tackle these issues. Meanwhile, you might want to start writing
content for the Q&A section. Reason being, Google has just launched it and is hungry for
content (data), they will hardly filter it out and will most likely accept just about anything you
post. You can actually benefit from the desperation of Google and ignorance of your
competitors.

Remember, the early bird gets the worm!

local-listings-quick-links-mobile-device

Now You Can Add Quick Links To Local Listings

Leave a reply

You can now add quick links to your local results, thanks to Google My Business’s latest update!
They have recently announced that local business owners will now be able to add quick links
to their local listings. Currently, it is visible only to select categories of businesses

But those who will be able to enjoy it can add the quick links using their Google My Business
account. It may prove to be beneficial to those who directly serve the customers. From the limited categories that will be able to avail this new feature, businesses like restaurants will reap the maximum benefits from it, since they can add direct links to online ordering menu, reviews and much more.

Google posted the news about adding quick links to local results on their release notes page saying:

Add links to specific actions like online orders or reservations. Make it easier for customers to
take action directly from your listing.

This new update is to make it easier for the users to take actions. By cutting short the process
from Google —> Website —> Action to Google —> Action.

The help center article has been updated to explain the steps for businesses to take to add
these URLs. Some of the actions include:

  • booking an appointment
  • placing an order
  • reserving a table
  • searching for items
  • viewing the menu

Here is a screenshot:

quick-links-local-listings-screenshot