Why Web Hosting Is Important To Your SEO

You may not believe it, but SEO is more than just backlinks and keywords. There are many other ranking factors that search engines look at, some are very well known, but things like hosting are less talked about.

Your host can have a dramatic effect on your search engine rankings. This is usually due to loading speeds, but there's more to it than that. Here are just a few reasons why you need the best host if you want to gain more traffic.


Indirect Effects

As stated above, your rankings will usually suffer due to poor loading speeds. The indirect effect is that you might have a harder time getting links and visitors. Think about this for a moment. You visit two websites that are strikingly similar. The only major difference is that one of them loads slowly. Will you give a link to this website, even though it's a little inconvenient to use? Some people might feel reluctant about linking to your website or recommending it to others if it loads very slowly. Very bad loading speeds might also cause people to think that your website isn't working, which deceases your number of potential customers and readers.


Direct Effect

Google's search engine spiders are constantly crawling websites to see what has changed about them and indexing new pages. Google uses over 200 ranking factors for ranking a website. While the main ones are backlinks, relevancy and keyword usage, loading speed is another factor that will determine your rankings. If the spiders tell Google that your website is very slow, then your ranking might be lower than expected. This makes sense when you consider what Google is looking for. Google doesn't just want to connect people to relevant websites, they want to connect people to websites that have the best user experience. People hate going to slow, spammy websites, so Google does its best to ignore these pages. Site speed might just be one tiny factor, but this one factor can definitely hurt you. Consider switching to a faster host to improve your rankings.


Guilty by Association

This problem usually only affects the riskiest and cheapest Web hosts, but it can potentially happen regardless of how safe your host seems. People are always creating scam sites to make some quick money, but these sites are usually de-indexed after a while and they won't be seen in the major search engines. So, how does that affect you? Under certain circumstances you might seem guilty by association if your site is on the same IP address. For example, let's say that all of the websites on your server are spammy. Google will obviously block the IP address linked to that server. That means that each and every website will suffer the same cruel fate whether it's deserved or not. This is a rare problem, but it does exists. You see this often in the SEO hosting industry. SEO hosting is a type of hosting where you can get lots of IP addresses and put them all in the same cPanel all with the sole purpose of gaming the search engines. Google obviously doesn't like this type of hosting.


Server Location

An international server is great if you are doing international SEO, but it's not so great if your website is targeting domestic customers, and vice versa. Not only does server location impact loading speeds, but it also counts as another factor that Google considers when ranking websites. A server in your own country, or the country that you are targeting, will increase your rankings. If the server is somewhere else, then your rankings will suffer.


Uptime

Most hosts guarantee at least 99% uptime, which is good. However, some hosts cannot keep this promise and the uptime falls to 95% or less. This means that your website will be down and inaccessible for the time being. If the search engine spiders cannot access your website, then this can significantly impact your rankings because, once again, Google cares about the user experience. Nothing is worse for the user experience than a website that won't load whatsoever. You need to make sure you're getting an uptime between 99.9% to 99.99%. Keep in mind that a 99.9% uptime means that your site could be down for up to 40 minutes per month.


Conclusion

Web hosting can directly and indirectly affect your ranking if you choose the wrong host. Not only will people be unwilling to link to you if your host is bad, but Google will decrease your rankings because your website is slow and inaccessible. Be sure to choose a good host so that you don't have to worry about these problems.


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How Webinars Can Help Your Business

We once again witness a significant change in how the digital marketing game is being played, thanks to the fast-growing popularity of webinars.

Webinars work as online workshops or conferences that aim to educate its participants on a specific topic by providing helpful information through slides or live video streaming. The best thing about it is that it allows the audience to interact by raising concerns or asking questions, usually through a chatbox provided. It's simply like attending a seminar at the comfort of your own home or office.

Small and big businesses alike are starting to make use of this tool to reach out to their audience or to enhance employee training. If your business is not yet practicing it, here are some reasons why you should jump into the bandwagon of hosting webinars:


You can create a mailing list for future marketing campaign

People sign up for your webinar with their e-mail address. This gives you an opportunity to collect contacts that you can use for marketing services in the future. With this, you can create a mailing list which you can easily refer to in sending out invitations when you want to host a webinar again or email campaigns and newsletters about your product or service.


It can be profit-generating

Not dishing out a lot of cash to host a webinar is a good thing, but what's even better is how it can actually help your business generate income. While some webinars are free and open to the public, the idea of paid webinars is not at all new. You can always opt to charge attendees if you're confident the session will be well worth it. Likewise, you can record the whole webinar and sell it as a product that people can listen to whenever they want to.


Draw and engage audience

Webinars can result to good customer retention and loyalty. Hosting one gives them an impression that you are willing to help them be educated with what your product is about, and other related topics that can be useful to them. Come up with a compelling topic and make sure to provide a good program where audience can also ask questions and get answers, just like in any real seminar.


Concerns can be raised internally

Webinars are not only for your audience. Try to look at it in a way that will help internally or build relationship among your employees. Schedule a quick webinar at a convenient time, preferably during lunch break. Make sure that the tone of the session is more casual than stern so they can comfortably pitch in ideas or raise concerns in the chat box. You can set an agenda for the webinar, but be also prepared for questions and issues that will be raised even if it's beyond the given topic.


It's a cheap and efficient way for employee training

Another way for employees to benefit from a webinar is through using it as a training tool. Despite the presence of technology and all the wonders it brings, a company's best asset and secret weapon will always be its brain and manpower. Thus, it is always wise to constantly upgrade your team's skill to have better productivity and efficiency. This can be achieved through training and seminars. However, flying in an expert or an employee from another branch can be costly, with the plane ticket, accommodation, and other logistics. Webinars can help you skip on these expenses because you don't need to fly in anybody at all. You can choose to hire a proficient speaker or you can simply have slides prepared for the whole training.


About The Author: Amanda Smith is a blogger based in San Diego, California. She loves writing about technology and gadgets, health and wellness, fashion and interior design, and just about anything that tickles her fancy. When she's not writing, she's busy video conferencing with her nieces in London or is trying to catch up on her favorite sitcoms with her yellow Labrador, Chandler Tribbiani. You can catch more of her works at wordbaristas.com.

Did you find this article helpful? Does your business host webinars? Please let Amanda and myself know by leaving us your valued comments.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).


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Until my next post on Friday on why web hosting is important to your SEO, enjoy the rest of the week!

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Why Quality Over Quantity Is Better In SEO

Before all the Panda and Penguin updates, the majority of the SEO community focused on quantity in order to achieve results. Internet marketers were mass producing low quality content for submission and were targeting high volumes of low quality links to increase their search engine rankings. The search engine changes put a stop to many of those practices but there are still many Internet marketers with the quantity mindset. If you still are working under this mindset, here are several reasons why it's important to shift over to quality.


Reason #1: The Search Engines Reward Value

The most important thing that you should take away is that the search engines want to reward value. They want to help rank websites that are producing high quality content that are valuable for their users. They also want to reward sites that "earn" their links rather than artificially create them. Artificial links have a tendency to come from unrelated sources or from the same kinds of links. That's why you should aim for quality links that are hard to acquire.


Reason #2: Quality Content Gets Shared

Many Internet marketers are also finding that quality actually has a direct impact on their return on investment. Creating high quality content and marketing it to right the channels yields better results than putting out poor or mediocre content. People tend to share content that they find entertaining and interesting to their network.


Reason #3: Authority Is Important for Long Term Results

A site's authority is very important to the search engines. They determine whether a site is authoritative through links, social signals and content. By focusing on quality, your site will naturally gain social signals, mentions and links. If the focus is on using quantity to game the system, you will never build your site's authority and reap its benefits.


Reason #4: Soon, Quality May Be Measured

Google's authorship is a great tool for content publishers to market and publish their content. But it may also be a vehicle which Google uses to measure the quality of a site. There are rumors of Google planning to use +1s, the overall Google+ profile and the number of followers as part of their ranking factors. Rather than react to the changes when they happen, why not future proof for them.


Reason #5: Quality Builds Relationships

Focusing on quality is what leads to relationships, which then leads to links. For instance, guest posting is one of the most effective ways of link building today. For example, http://www.guestblogposter.com is a service that helps Internet marketers acquire quality links through guest posting. But it would not be possible to get these link opportunities without placing importance on quality first. It is infinitely more valuable to produce one piece of high quality content for a guest blog post than going to hundreds of blogs with lacklustre content.

I think we have evolved past the stage where we can submit our website to directories that would submit your site to 1000s of other directories. Sadly, those techniques are still out there but can hurt your rankings and metrics if you do not use them carefully. It is so much better to try and get your website or business some really good PR or good quality links that will bring in genuine and good traffic. These steps might seem a lot harder but the payoff is well worth it. You will see all your metrics improve if you take the time to give the search engines what they are asking for instead of trying to find all the loop holes possible. You will be safe from future penguin or panda updates and your site will be better than ever.


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Until my next post on Wednesday on how webinars can help your business, have a great week ahead!

© 2013. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.

Taking Your Brand Social? Follow These Steps!

Social Media has proven to be the stomping grounds for bountiful, data savvy and targetable consumers. This makes it a very attractive market to all forms of business. Because of the potential that lays in social media, companies often jump into the arena before they're ready, or even if they're not really fit to be there.

It's always important to keep your brand reputation in mind in any marketing venture you take, so don't forget about it when going social! While reputation is incredibly important, determining some sort of ROI on your marketing investments is essential (read The Top 5 Reasons To Budget For SEM for reference here). Follow this guide and you should be on your way to a successful social investment!


Step 1: The Prep Work

Ask yourself some key questions before committing too many resources into a social endeavor. Figure out your goals for social media (likes, engagement, re-tweets, shares, offer claims, etc.). Can you commit the time and money to maintain a social media presence? Do you have a loyal customer following? Is your brand or product inherently social? Are people looking for you on social media? And do you have the technical abilities for social development (including design and development)? Understand where you can excel is important, if your brand fits the mould for a social campaign but you don't have the expertise or time to commit, outsource those hours to a professional who can help you create a successful campaign.


Step 2: The Daily Grind

Outline a clear strategy. Going into this process with a clear set of goals, expectations, and requirements will help keep you on track for social success. Make sure you delegate tasks and roles to people who can commit the time necessary for research, implementation, and most importantly, social monitoring. The biggest part of social media is the real time changes that occur. If you're not monitoring the social chatter, you will likely miss out on trending topics or social opportunities for your brand. There are plenty of free and paid tools out there that can help you "hear" what's going on out there (I recommend using Hootsuite).


Step 3: Measure Measure Measure

Measure your results. Set up monthly or bi-weekly meetings to review the success of your campaign. Are you meeting the goals you've set? Measuring success is important so that you can effectively allocate your business resources. If you've run into a lot of problems, don't see a lot of response, or don't have the time to fully commit, it's important to know when to cut your losses. Similarly, if you can measure areas of success you can push the envelope and take your brand/product to the top of its category.

Social media campaigns can be measured by social authority. The higher the importance and value of your social presence, the greater authority you will have. This is particularly important in terms of Search Engine Optimization and helping keep your website relevant. If you're unsure of your social authority or are looking for more resources on this, free tools such as Klout help estimate your general social authority.


About The Author: Sydney Hadden is a Digital Marketing Manager and contributing writer for Londes.com, a PPC and digital media marketing organization. Sydney's speciality is in paid search digital media.

Did you find this article helpful? Please let Sydney and myself know by leaving us your valued comments.

Would you like to guest post on the blog? Please use the Contact tab above to get in touch if you write business-related articles or articles on the topics of Internet Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing/Optimisation (SMO), Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Related articles:
What Is A Brand And Why Is It Important
Brand Awareness: The Real Purpose Of SEO


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Until my next post on Monday on why quality over quantity is better in SEO, have a relaxing and fun-filled weekend!

© 2013. This article is DMCA protected. Republication is prohibited.

How To Best Increase Efficiency And Profitability In Your Business

Often, an entrepreneur will have a great product but will have difficulty making a lot of money. When running a company, one must understand how to increase their efficiency of operations. When doing so, the business can get to the next level and begin generating profit. Furthermore, with the business environment so competitive and the economy performing poorly, it is more pertinent than ever to cut costs and increase revenue. Here are four tips on how to increase efficiency and profitability in a business.


Outsource

When using technology and the Internet, one can outsource some simple tasks. When hiring a contractor, the employees can concentrate on essential tasks that bring revenue to the business. Fortunately, there are plenty of resources on the Internet to find a virtual administrative assistant. Ideally, when hiring an assistant, the company should give the contractor a trial run. When doing so, both the contractor and employer can decide if there is a good fit. Without a doubt, a company that wants to grow must use a virtual assistant.


The cloud

A company should host all their files on the Internet. When putting files on the cloud, employees and contractors alike can access data from anywhere in the world. While it is important to have easy access to files, a business owner must choose a solid and reliable company. To find a reliable file host, ask for references from other entrepreneurs. Remember, people work from all over the world, and it is crucial for employees and contractors to have access to the same data at the same time.


Analytics

Most companies have a Web presence. While this is true, some businesses do not take advantage of their website enough. The easiest way to improve a website is to track the habits of visitors to the site. When using Google Analytics, the webmaster can understand where visitors are coming from, what they click on, and what causes them to leave. One must realize, to improve efficiency, it is crucial to understand the mindset of users.


Flexibility

Employees should have flexibility when it comes to working hours. Numerous studies have shown that employees are more efficient when they work hours that they choose and that are best for them. Remember, some people work much more efficiently in the morning while night owls prefer to start later in the day and work at night. There is a side benefit to allowing employees to choose their own hours; an organization will have an easier time recruiting workers when they allow workers flexibility in their shifts and they can appeal to a global market.

An entrepreneur who understands the importance of efficiency will succeed. Luckily, a business owner should have an easy time following these four tips. When followed, you'll be much more productive and profitable. One must remember that the difference between a profitable business and a failing business comes down purely to efficiency.


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Until my next post on Friday with steps to taking your brand social, enjoy the rest of the week!

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