Category Archives: search engine optimization

improve-page-speed
Categories search engine optimization Web Design

How to Make Your Website Faster

What’s more terrible than a slow internet connection? A website that takes a long time to load completely. In the struggle to make web design more appealing to visitors, many webmasters and web developers end up creating websites loading slowly.

If you’re not thinking about how to make your site run faster, think again. A slow website places your business at a disadvantage, even if your digital marketing strategy is excellent. In fact, a slow-loading web page results in fewer and disappointed visitors and might impact your SEO ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs).

This article will explore proven tips on how to improve website loading speed and get the best results for your brand. Read on to find out.

Why Do You Need to Improve Website Loading Speed?

A fast-loading web page is crucial to your online campaign. But why is faster page speed important? We look at the reasons below:

1. User Experience

Your prospective visitors are more likely to engage and interact with your content or purchase an item if the process is faster. For instance, if the checkout pages take a long time to load completely, they may be tempted to leave and patronize another brand.

This same scenario plays out if they want to fill out a form, save an item to their cart, or browse through different web pages on your website. Thus, you should make your website faster to improve your user experience.

2. Conversions

Every webmaster wants to generate more leads and conversions on their website. One of the best ways to do that is to increase loading speed. According to research, a 0.1-second improvement in your google page performance will increase your funnel progression and conversion rates.

3. Web Page Usage

The usability of your website depends on how fast does your website load. Users cannot take quick actions if web design elements such as buttons, menus, and navigation panels don’t load quickly.

Thus, it is important to check website loading time and plan how to make your site run faster.

4. SEO Considerations

Search engines such as Google consider faster page speed and user experience when ranking websites on local and national SERPs.

Thus, if your website isn’t ranking higher on local searches, you may have to think of how to load page faster.

Ways to Improve Website Speed

According to a survey, 47% of online customers expect a web page to load completely in 2 seconds or less. Thus you’d have to include how to speed up web page loading and other digital marketing strategies.

How do you ensure google ranking site performance for speed? Practice the following tips:

Compress Images

One of the issues that might hamper your website loading speed is your images. High-quality and large images make a site look beautiful. However, they are one of the major causes of websites loading slowly.

One of the foolproof ways on how to improve website loading speed is to compress and optimize your website images. But do you know how to make photo loads faster on website? Practice these steps:

● Save your pictures in JPG formats instead of PNG.

● Only use PNG formats for web design or graphics.

● Use SVG formats for your logos and shapes.

● Install WP Smush plugin for your website to reduce your image sizes and weights without affecting their quality.

● Use manual compression tools such as Tinypng, Squoosh, or Attrock.

Reducing and compressing your website images will speed up website.

Remove Popups

Animated GIFs make your website come alive. But at the same time, they happen to slow website loading speed. Take a critical look at your website and ascertain if the popups are too many.

You should remove unnecessary popups or place them down the page. You can also reduce each popup’s number of frames and resize the dimension to increase your page speed score.

Sometimes, less is more. Try simplifying your website by removing popups to enable you to reload web pages faster.

Remove Ads

Another reason your website may be loading slowly is the number of ads on the web page. Uploading ads on the web page is another way of grabbing your visitors’ attention. However, when there are too many on a web page, it takes several seconds to load completely.

Review your website to limit the ads to only a few per page. The fewer ads, the faster page speed.  

Delete Unnecessary Plugins

Another way you can increase loading speed of your website is to remove unnecessary plugins. Incorporating too many plugins on your website can significantly hamper its loading speed.

More so, outdated plugins pose a cybersecurity threat and compatibility errors, slowing down page speed. Review the plugins on your website and disable or delete anyone you don’t need.

Caching

Caching is also another way you can improve your page speed. It is simply the process of storing the content of your website on the users’ browser and displaying it the exact way when they visit with the same browser again.

Caching is essential to reload web pages faster, delivering the same content for repeat visitors. Thus, the server will require less time to reload the same web pages. There are several ways to cache your website. They include:

● Activating it on the server level for the host to handle it.

● Use a free caching plugin such as W3 Total Cache and activate it by navigating to General Settings > Page Cache > Enable.

Minimize JavaScript, CSS, and HTML

Your website comprises programming languages and codes such as CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. A lot of these codes on your website can cause your web pages to load slowly.

You should minimize these codes by removing unnecessary elements and spaces to lower the size of your web page. You can use Closure Complier and Uglify JS2 to minimize JavaScript, HTML minifier to minimize HTML, and CSSNano and csso to minimize CSS.

How to Test Website’s Loading Speed

How fast does your website load? You may not know the answer to that if you don’t conduct a test. There are several free tools available to test the loading speed of your website.

One of such tools is Google’s PageSpeed Insights. It shows you your page speed score for mobile and PC devices.

According to the platform:

● 0 to 19 is Slow.

● 50 to 89 is Moderate.

● 90 to 100 is Fast.

You can use PageSpeed Insights to check the page speed of your competitors’ websites and deploy those strategies mentioned above to speed up website.

Other tools include:

● Pingdom.

● WebPageTest.

● Uptrends.

● Google Mobile Site Speed Test.

GTMetrix

How Website Speed Impacts Your Business and SEO

Ensuring your website ranks higher on local SERPs goes beyond optimizing your website for specific keywords. In an official blog post, Google highlighted that site speed is also considered for ranking higher on local and national SEO. Thus, if your website’s loading speed is slow, it won’t rank higher on local searches.

Faster page speed improves the user experience of your customers and visitors. When a web page is slow, users will leave and visit a competitor’s website. It also increases your leads and conversions as users can navigate smoothly across your web pages.

If your web page doesn’t load quicker, you lose out on customers and visitors. Thus, you should implement strategies to improve your website speed.

Make Your Website Faster for Better Ranking

Knowing how to improve website loading speed is essential to SEO and your business’s bottom line. Practice these tips to increase loading speed of your website:

● Compress images.

● Minimize coding languages.

● Remove unnecessary ads and plugins.

● Implement caching.

● Remove ads.

These strategies are bound to speed up website in no time.

Conclusion

Page speed is an essential aspect of ranking higher on local and national SEO. You need to increase loading speed if your website is loading slowly. Thankfully, we’ve proven steps on how to make my blog load faster. So, what are you waiting for?

google-map-pack
Categories search engine optimization Uncategorized

Map Pack

No one is a stranger to map packs. There’s a high possibility that you’ve made use of it in your car, on your personal computer, and even on your smartphones – even if you don’t realize it. The world is a digital village, and everything we need can be gotten within a few clicks.

If you’re driving and need directions to an unfamiliar location, all you have to do is use the Google 3 pack navigation on your car or smartphone. The same functionality plays when you want to locate the nearest fast food joint near you.

Businesses are taking advantage of this unique opportunity to put themselves in front of their customers. Thus, you should consider getting your business on the map pack beyond your web analytics and web design.

Do you want to improve your Google My Business ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs)? Do you want to use digital marketing to improve your local brand on google map listings? Google map packs are one of the strategies to deploy.

This article will explore everything you need to know about Google map pack and how to get your business on google maps.

Google Map Pack: What It Is & How It Works

Google Map Pack (or Google 3 pack) is what appears at the top of the SERPs when for local keyword searches. You typically see the google map packs when ‘near me’ searches are carried out by users interested in a particular brand, service, or product.

It looks just like this:

It is nicknamed google 3 pack or local 3 pack because it only displays 3 businesses about your search query. From the above image, you can spot the 3 businesses displayed for the search query ‘fast food near salt lake city ut.’

These google map citations for local SEO are accompanied by business location and direction, phone number, website address, customer reviews, and other information.

How does it work?

It’s simple. When someone types a local search query, Google curates the 3 highly ranked businesses in the vicinity. It used to be 7 but google limited it to display the best 3. In some cases, you might see a sponsored ad displayed alongside the 3 businesses.

The bottom line is google maps target people who need a local brand or service.

rank-in-map-pack

Why Is It Important for Your Business?

Digital marketing strategy is all about identifying what works and using it to your advantage. Google local map pack is an excellent strategy to thrive beyond your competition and register more conversions for your business.

How?

● You get more clicks. According to research, the google 3 pack listings receive 75% of total clicks on local SERPs. This means that if your brand gets displayed on the local pack google, you will get more website visitors, phone calls from customers, and more people getting directions to your premises.

● More visibility. Map pack SEO appears at the top of SERPs, just above organic results. It’s the first thing a user sees when entering a local search. This means you get more visibility compared to local organic search results.

● Map packs dominate mobile searches. According to research, 3 of 4 persons who carry out a local search on their devices visit the brand within 24 hours. Since google 3 pack ads appear at the top of SERPs, your business is more likely to be visited.

● Boost brand reputation. Appearing on the google 3 pack listings promotes your brand reputation. It means google trusts your business to the point of showcasing it to others.

● Customers get more information about your business. Another uniqueness to google local map pack is that your potential customers can learn about your business faster than ever. They can see your contact address, phone number, directions, website, and what others say about your brand. All of this information can influence the buying decisions of your customers.

These points make google map pack beneficial and essential for your business.

How to Rank in Map Pack

Do you know how to get in the Google 3 pack during local SEO searches? There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for making this happen.

Google map pack requirements are constantly evolving. However, there are specific steps to take to improve your google my business rankings, enhancing your chance of being on the google 3 pack listings. They include:

1. Optimize Google My Business Listing

Thinking of how to get your business on google maps? One of the best places to start is your google my business listing. If you don’t have one created, you need to create and optimize your business.

Google My Business is a unique resource to enlist your business to appear on SERPs where specific keywords are being searched. If you don’t have a google my business account, you need to create one. Google My Business improve local ranking and can help you outrank your rivals.

After creating your GMB page, you need to optimize it to appear on google map packs. Follow these steps:

● Use your exact business name.

● Remove erroneous information and duplicate listings.

● Input your business information such as category, map location, phone number, URL, hours of operation, etc.

● Writing a winning copy for your business description.

● Upload high-quality pictures.

These tips will help optimize google map listing for your business.

2. Get Online Reviews

Another way you can get your business on google 3 pack listing is to generate online customer reviews. People are on the lookout for companies they can trust. Before patronizing a business online, they’d want to read what others say about it. There’s a maps performance reviews on the google map pack with ratings on it.

A business with more positive reviews can rank higher on local SEOs and even get a spot on the Google map packs. Follow these tips to build your map reviews:

● Ask your customers for feedback after each purchase.

● Include a GMB link or QR code in your payment receipts.

● Showcase your ratings on your website and direct your visitors to your GMB page.

When you get a lot of positive reviews and high ratings, your business will get featured on the map pack SEO.

3. Build Citations

Another way you can also get your business on the google map listing is to build your local citations. It is the simple process of getting your business name mentioned with or without a backlink to your website.

You can build your google map citations for local SEO by:

● Submitting it to online directories such as Bing Places for Business, Yahoo Business Listings, Yelp, Yellow Pages, Whitepages, etc.

● Creating social media pages on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

● Incorporating local search engines such as Google, Bing Places, and Yahoo Local.

● Getting reviewed by websites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp.

● Get your business featured on local websites with high domain authority and news blogs.

what-is-map-pack

What Is Google Map Category List?

Google map category list describes the nature of your business to your customers. It is one of the crucial factors that influences your local SEO ranking. For instance, if you register your business under the category Hotel, it will show up on Google Maps and google map pack when people search for ‘Hotels near me.’

Your business will be assigned a place label for your customers to locate quickly based on the chosen category.  

How to Get Your Business on Google Maps

Are you looking for how to get your business on Google Maps? Follow these steps:

● Sign in to Google Maps.

● You can add your business to the map in 3 different ways. You can click the menu icon and select Add your business. You can also right-click anywhere on the map and select Add your business. Alternatively, you can simply enter your correct address on the search bar and select Add your business on the Business Profile.

Does Google Maps Affect SEO Rankings?

Google map packs are a crucial aspect of ranking higher on SERPs. Why? It’s positioned at the top of search results, giving businesses more visibility than organic results at the bottom.

Due to its position, the google 3 pack can get you more clicks. On the plus side, it’s a unique way of improving your brand reputation and placing your business in front of businesses that need your services.

Conclusion

Google map pack is a free and innovative tool that literally puts your business on the map. Chances are your competitors are already thinking about it, so why not beat them to it?

Importance of Blogging
Categories search engine optimization

The Importance of Blogs

Every website needs a voice. That’s what blogs are all about. When people visit and interact with your website, they want to see that personal side of the business beyond the catchy web design and graphics. They want to connect to your business and what it offers. One of the best ways to reveal that while maintaining digital marketing campaigns is through a blog.

A blog is an online journal that reveals instructions, information, or tips in reverse. This means that the latest posts appear first, and much older posts appear the latest. Effective blogging for business means that your website is regularly updated with content to fulfill your brand objectives.

Thus, you can say blogs are either formal or informal articles written to showcase your expertise on a certain topic. One of the goals of blogging is to get your website found. When you create a blog post, you’ve added an opportunity for your website to appear on search engine result pages (SERPs). Thus, search engine optimization for blog posts can be achieved.

Blogs are also important in converting your visitors into customers. If your articles are engaging and fun, they could generate leads and sales for your e-commerce business. On the plus side, blogs are a long-term investment in your digital marketing. No matter how long an article has been posted, it can still gain traffic and generate conversions for your website.

This article will explore the importance of blogging for business and digital marketing.

What Is the Purpose of a Blog?

Blogs are unique to each brand and website, as they provide different functionality to them. However, their core purpose includes:

1. Improve Your Website SEO

One of the reasons to start a blog is that it can optimize your website for SEO. When drafting a blog post, you can include keywords and backlinks to improve your web page rankings on SERPs.

Thus, you can optimize blog post for SEO by incorporating some keywords and a call-to-action that will get people interested in your products and services.

2. Improve Your Credibility

People want to patronize a brand that is credible and reliable. Creating blog topics about your brand shows visitors that you’re an expert in your niche.

Thus, you must ensure it is factually correct when writing your article. You should also take your time to proofread and edit any errors in your article. It goes a long way in developing your credibility.

3. Helps Visitors Understand Your Unique Offerings

Blogging helps mere visitors to understand what your business is all about. You can incorporate your products and service while offering high-quality content to your audience. This plants an image into the mind of your audience.

However, it is essential to spread those products and services meagerly throughout your blog – as web visitors may get disinterested if they see too many product ads.

4. Helps Develop A Unique Brand Voice

Another reason why blogging is important is that it develops your brand voice. People are not only looking to purchase your service when they land on your page. They also want to connect and interact with your brand.

When you consistently post articles maintaining a style guide, your visitors will be able to identify your brand voice.

5. Extend Your Marketing Offerings

Having a blog expands your marketing offerings. For instance, when you publish an article, you can share it on your social media pages for more engagement. You can also create a weekly newsletter you can share with email subscribers.

Blog on digital marketing really helps you achieve more with your online campaigns.

Benefits of Blogging

You don’t have to own a business to engage in personal blogging. It comes with several benefits. Some of these benefits include:

● It helps hone your writing skill. Blogging consistently helps improve your writing skills in ways you never imagined. It will help you pay attention to your usage of words, punctuations, style, tense, structure, and flow.

● It serves as a journal of your progress. Blogging, for some people, is an emotional outlet to fully express themselves in ways talking to someone wouldn’t. For others, it’s a journal and reminder of a specific period in their lives. Blogging about your personal experience can be quite therapeutic and may help you overcome mental issues.

● It gives you more confidence. When you blog and receive excellent feedback and critique for your work, it encourages you to become better. You’d become more confident to write more.

● Potential to make money off of it. Personal blogging can open up opportunities to make money from it via freelance gigs. You can develop yourself as a copywriter, B2B writer, or content writer for any niche you take up.

● You become more organized. Effective blogging allows you to gather your thoughts and examine your standpoint on certain socio-political issues.

● You become more knowledgeable. Blogging opens up the window to learn, unlearn, and relearn new things about life.

If you ever wondered, “Do people still blog?” Yes, they do. And looking at these benefits, you should too.

Is Blogging Good for Business?

Effective blogging is essential in smashing your brand objectives as fast as possible. If pulled off correctly, the digital marketing efforts of your website will yield massive results. However, the key lies in your consistency.

You have to curate high-quality, engaging articles and instructional guides that your audience will help nurture, grow, and convert your visitors into customers. More so, blogging sets you apart from your rivals.

Is blogging good for business? Absolutely.

blogging-for-business

Benefits of Blogging for Business

In our previous section, we discussed the benefits of blogging personally. How does it play out for businesses? What are its benefits?

● Increase traffic. Effective blogging for businesses will increase your website’s daily and monthly traffic. According to statistics from HubSpot, a website with an active blog has 55% more visitors than those who do not.

● Gain new customers. Besides generating traffic to your website, blogging allows your brand to gain new customers. People are always interested in engaging content. When you keep publishing content about a subject matter, it will influence their buying habits.

● Build trust. One of the ways you can build trust with your customers is by effective blogging. When you post content regularly, they subconsciously see your brand as reliable and trustworthy.

● Reveal what you can do. You can show how experienced your brand is through blogging. It acts as a form of portfolio for your customers, as you have the opportunity of posting images alongside quality content.

● Build your network. One of the ways to stand out and thrive in a sea of competition is through blogging. Consistent blogging helps you to grow a community based on your niche. Your brand becomes the talk of the digital space when the niche is mentioned.

● Improve your SERPs ranking. Do blog posts help SEO? Yes. Frequent blogging gives you more opportunities for your website to rank higher in SERPs. All you have to do is optimize your blog pages for specific keywords.

All of these benefits are why blogging is important for business. If you haven’t started blogging for your brand, you should.

Why Is Blogging Important for SEO?

Effective blogging gives your brand more opportunities to stand out from your competition and rank higher on SERPs. How? You can optimize each article for specific keywords that Google can provide to answer people’s queries.

You can create ‘How to’ guides and tips to address a specific issue your potential customers may be looking for. The best way to pull it off is to incorporate on-page optimization for your blog posts. Does blogging increase SEO for your business? Definitely.

Optimize Blog Post for SEO

How do you optimize blog post for SEO and attract more visitors to your website? Practice these tips:

● Carry out keyword research. You need to conduct keyword research to know what your potential audience is looking for. You can come up with some of them, but you need additional guidance to effectively blog. Keyword research tools include Ahrefs, Ubersuggest, SEMrush, Google Keyword Planner, SECockpit, Moz, KWFinder, KeywordTool, etc.

● Write an interesting blog title. After researching the keywords, you need to pen an interesting blog title. It must not be over the top. Come up with a blog title while incorporating the main keywords in it. You can use the SERP Snippet Optimization Tool to reveal what your blog post will look like during SERPs.

● Link to other pages on your website. While writing an article, you should link to other web pages on your website. It creates a seamless relationship between your web pages. It increases the likelihood of your readers sharing your content and other blogs, giving you a backlink.

● Structure your blog. Google considers the structure and flow of your blog as a factor to rank it higher. Thus, you should ensure fluidity in your article. Your blog should contain headings, subheadings, bullet points, and numbered lists.

● Write authentic content. Google frowns at plagiarism. You should ensure that your content is not only high-quality but original. You can use Grammarly to scan your content for grammar and plagiarism before publishing them.

● Include images. Your article should contain a couple of images to make them more fun to read.

● Add a meta description. A meta description is a short description of what your article is all about. Most readers pay attention to them before clicking on any link. You should include a meta description to any article.

SEO for blog posts can be achievable when you practice these tips.

Social Media vs Blogging

When it comes to digital marketing, employers are often confused about which strategy is efficient between social media and blogging. Those strategies are distinct but are crucial to your marketing campaigns.

What are their differences?

Social Media

Blogging

Short-form posts

Long-form posts

Sharing interactive content to attract social media users

Publishing content on your website to rank higher on SERPs and

Content is posted on social media platforms

Content is posted on WordPress or the blog section of your website.

Posts are event-driven

Long lasting relevance

Takes less time to create social media content

Takes a longer time to create blog posts.

Both of these digital marketing strategies are crucial for businesses. Thus, you should take advantage of them.

Optimize Blog Content for Search Engines

How do you optimize blog post for SEO? It’s pretty easy:

● Carry out keyword research.

● Create an engaging blog title.

● Write high-quality, original content.

● Include images in your content.

● Add internal links to your other web pages.

● Structure your articles with headings, subheadings, bullet points, and numbered lists.

These noteworthy tips are bound to optimize SEO for blog posts.

Conclusion

Effective blogging is good for business, and now you know why. Take advantage of the tips above to improve your digital marketing and gain massive results.

google-tag-manager
Categories search engine optimization

What Is Google Tag Manager?

If you’re new to SEO, you probably do not know what is google tag manager. However, it is an important component in digital marketing; thus, it is recommended for your business.

Google tag manager (GTM) is a unique tag management system that allows webmasters to collect web analytics, measurement codes, and tags and deploy them directly to your mobile app or website. The tag manager helps you make quick decisions about your website or mobile app without modifying the code.

Before the use of google tag manager, webmasters may have to deal with the stress of editing an entire code because of a minor edit. Worst case scenario, you’d have to hire a web developer to change the code every time. The tag manager put all of that stress in the past.

We will discuss how google tag manager works and how you can incorporate it into your website and/or mobile app.

What is Google Tag?

Are you wondering what are Google tags? Google tag is a free management software from the search engine giant that allows webmasters and editors to install variations of codes to their website and mobile apps. These codes and tags include web analytics codes, google analytics event codes, remarketing tags, conversion scripts, google ads, and even custom codes like JavaScript.

People mistake Google Tag for Google Analytics. The fascinating aspect of the two software is that they’re both unique in implementation, and it is even recommended to use both of them for your website or mobile app.

What is google tag manager used for? It is used in launching several digital activities, including:

● Clicks

● Scrolls

● Downloads

● Videos

● Forms

Google tag manager also allows you to test the tags and codes to ensure they’re triggered (launched) when you load a page, click a button, or perform a task within the website or mobile app.

How Google Tag Manager Works

Ever wondered how google tag manager works? We are going to explore the technicalities right here. Google tag manager can be installed on your website and have its container tag. This gives you the freedom to plug different websites’ codes without rewriting codes for individual web pages.

You can use the software to monitor what’s going on on your website and mobile apps. Thus, instead of manually including different codes and tags, you can automatically use google tag manager to implement them on your site. What’s more? You can even implement codes for multiple web pages at the same time.

Once the manager is installed and connected to your website, an interface will pop up, allowing you to input snippets of codes and tags. After that is done, the interface will load the modifications on your website.

The webmaster, editor, or web developer can implement google tag triggers for what happens when a certain action is carried out within the website. We will explore that shortly.

Google Tag Triggers

One of the major components of Google tag manager is the triggers. Google tag triggers are special events that occur on a web page when an action is carried out. Initially named rules, triggers are meant to fire tags according to your directives.

All the information for the tags will be collected and stored in a web analytical software of your choosing. This is why using Google Analytics alongside Google tag manager will make a perfect fit for your web design and digital marketing.

Some of the triggers include:

Page Views

Page views trigger fire tags when web pages are loaded by browsers. There are different types of google tag manager page view triggers. They include:

● Consent Initialization. These triggers are designed to ensure consent is accepted by the user before firing any other triggers. Each web container has a Consent initialization – All Pages trigger by default. However, you can set it so that a user must consent to it before firing it.

● Initialization. This trigger is designed to fire all other corresponding triggers on a website, except the consent initialization trigger. Every web container has the Initialization – All Pages trigger by default.

● Page View. This triggers fires immediately after a web page is loaded.

● DOM Ready. This trigger is launched after the browser has loaded the web page into HTML and the Document Object Model is fully ready to be parsed.

● Window Loaded. This trigger fires after a web page has been fully loaded with images, web design, and scripts.

Clicks

Clicks triggers come alive and fire tags based on click conditions. Thus, when different web page sections are clicked on, the trigger fires the tag. Google Analytics track clicks on page views and makes information available when you check it.

You can set the trigger to fire when elements such as links, images, buttons, forms, etc., are clicked.

User Engagement

The user engagement trigger fires a tag when users fill and submit a form. However, you’d have to set all the variables to permit the trigger to fire the tag. Some variables include form classes, ID, target, element, URL, and text.

Other triggers in the Google tag manager include:

● Timer trigger

● JavaScript error trigger

● Custom event trigger

● YouTube video trigger

● Scroll depth trigger

● Element visibility trigger

All of these triggers need to be defined before going into action and collecting data for your web analytics.

Setting Up Google Tag Manager

Google tag manager for SEO can be set up for your website by following these simple steps.

● Go to Google Tag Manager and create and link it to your Google account.

● Create a web container for the website or mobile app. Web containers are code that will be installed directly on your website and contain all the tags you want to implement.

● Copy the code shown and paste it into your website pages. The code allows Google to seamlessly communicate with your website and verify the website ownership.

● After the web container has been installed, click on the Chrome Tag Manager on your website. It will open a tag manager screen for you to add a new tag.

● Click on Tag Settings > Universal Analytics and select the trigger for the tag.

● Activate the trigger or click the ‘+’ sign to create a new tag trigger.

● Submit it, and you’re good to go.

You can check out this instructional video to see how:

<iframe width=”200″ height=”114″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/4AqanTBA9X4″ title=”YouTube video player” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen></iframe>

Google Tag Manager To Improve SEO Results

Google tag manager isn’t just a management software for implementing actions on a website or mobile app. It can also improve your SEO results and rank your website higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).

One of the uniqueness of GTM is that it allows you to add tags and triggers to improve your local and national SEO. With GTM, you can add <head> and <body> tags to your website – which are key in monitoring your SEO. Other parameters you can monitor your SEO performance includes:

● Scroll depth triggers. You can tell how many people scroll to read an article or landing page. This gives you an idea of how engaging the content is.

● Video view triggers. You can track how many people watch your videos with their respective watch times with video view triggers. With this information, you can improve the on-page optimization of your website.

● Button click triggers. You can monitor how many persons click your CTA links or fill out forms on your website. It gives you an idea of how satisfied a user is with your content.

All of these triggers including google tag manager google search console are crucial to improving your SEO.

Google Tag Manager VS Google Analytics

Contrary to what some people think, Google tag manager and Google Analytics do not perform the same action. In fact, their usage is distinct in that they complement each other.

Google tag manager is a management software that allows you to launch and test tags, codes, and other data on your website and/or mobile app. On the other hand, Google Analytics is an analytical tool that examines your website and app presence.

Thus, while you can launch codes with google tag manager, you can properly analyze them on Google Analytics. You can set your triggers to automatically release data to Google Analytics for you to track accordingly.

Hence, both tools are very helpful in ensuring you achieve a wholesome digital marketing experience.

google-tag-manager-vs-google-analytics

Should You Use Google Tag Manager?

Google Tag Manager allows you to launch code and tags to implement on your web pages without changing the entire code of the pages. It also helps improve your local and national SEO and ensures your web pages rank higher on SERPs via on-page optimization.

You can monitor and track several data from Google Analytics when you use Google tag manager for your website.

So, yes, you should use the software for your website.

Conclusion

Google tag manager is an innovative management tool that every webmaster needs. Thankfully, we have explored google tag manager overview, and you can go on and enjoy its unique benefits.

Google Reviews
Categories search engine optimization

What Is A Google Review?

Competition amongst businesses today is not only rife but stiff. Every day, brands embark on different digital marketing strategies to stand out. One of the areas that remained untapped is Google reviews.

It is a special service that allows customers to write unpaid reviews about a business or place they’ve visited for others to read. It’s a unique service that allows customers and clients to publicly share their experiences when they pay to visit a business or pay for a product or service online. These are typical examples of Google reviews.

Google Reviews is integrated into Google Maps and Google My Business platforms. Thus, if your brand doesn’t have a Google My Business page, you can’t get google reviews.

This article covers all you need to know about Google reviews for business and how to set them up.

Reasons Why Google Reviews Matter

If you have ever asked, “Do google reviews matter?” the answer is a resounding yes. We are going to explore why it does below:

1. It Boosts Local search engine optimization

One of the best ways to boost your local SEO is through google reviews. Search engines like Google always give users the best answers to their search queries.

While your on-page optimization is relevant in ranking higher in SERPs, google also considers what people are saying about your brand. These reviews help Google put those brands with excellent reviews before potential customers.

If you ignore the relevance of this, it will cost you the opportunity of expanding your local SEO. People who search google reviews by keywords can find and see reviews made by others.

2. It Increases Brand Credibility and Trust

According to research, 70% of people trust online reviews more than brand ads before patronizing said brand. Thus, google my business reviews helps improve your brand credibility and boost loyalty.

Google is a trusted search engine, and people are willing to extend that trust to their reviews. Trust and credibility are essential to generating more leads and sales.

3. Influences Buying Decisions

Most internet users are skeptical about buying stuff online. Google reviews can be that convincing nudge to make up their decisions about buying a product online. From the experiences of others who have used the same product or service, they’d get all the validation to patronize that brand.

How Do Google Reviews Work?

From what we’ve explored, you can see that Google reviews are crucial to digital marketing. If you ever wondered how to set up google reviews for my business, here’s how:

● Create a Google My Business Page. If you don’t have a Google My Business page, you need to create one and optimize it. You should input the following details on your GMB page: business name, contact numbers, address, URL, photos, and FAQs. Once it is approved, it will go live during SERPs.

● Send a link for your customers to review. After creating the GMB page, click the ‘Get More Reviews’ and copy the link. Send the link to your customers and ask them to leave a review for your business. You can also ask your customers to search your brand name and leave reviews.

Write Google Review

Apart from get google reviews from your customers, you can also write a review after visiting or purchasing products from a brand. Your reviews on such pages can help the business improve its visibility, make more sales, and help prospective customers make informed decisions.

After searching for a local business and looking it up on the Google My Business, you can scroll down to the Write A Review panel. You can set a rating and leave a review.

Edit Google Review

You can also edit a google my business review after posting it publicly. You can edit a review for several reasons. Your reviews could be posted in error, and you might need to correct a few things.

Maybe you’ve had a mixed experience with a brand and might need to update your new experiences, then an edited review might come in handy. Simply locate the review you made earlier and click edit to edit and publish it.

Delete Google Review

Businesses looking to outshine others may deploy fake and negative reviews on your Google My Business page. These reviews may damage your reputation if you’re not careful handling them.

If the review is negative and you know the customer, you can go under it to appreciate them for their response and promise to give them excellent customer service the next time they pay a visit.

If you suspect a review, you can flag it as fake, promoting a competitor, or inappropriate. It will be investigated and removed by Google. You can also report the negative review to Google Small Business Support, who will decide to remove it.

How To Improve Google Reviews

There are several methods on how to improve google reviews for business. Some of these methods include:

● Ask your customer for feedback after the purchase. During employee meetings, train your staff to ask happy customers to leave a rating on the GMB page.

● Include a link to a GMB page in the receipts. Another creative tactic is to include a link to your GMB page for customers to leave a review. You can also include a QR code for customers to scan directly on their devices, which will lead them to the review panel.

● Showcase your ratings on your website. If you’ve got a lot of positive reviews on your GMB page, you can display it on your website to grab your prospective and new customers.

● Offer a discount to your customers if they leave a review. Everyone loves a discount, including your customers. You can offer them a discount on their next purchase if they leave a review. They’d happily accept it.

These google review tips will improve your ratings and reviews in no time.

GMB Page Reviews

Set Up Google Reviews For My Business

Setting up a google review for businesses is quite easy. Follow these simple steps on how to set up google reviews for my business:

Using A Computer

● Sign into your Business Profile Manager and select the profile for your business.

● Locate the Home button and click on it.

● Click the ‘Get more reviews’ and copy the unique URL.

● You can share that link with your customers to drop a review.

Using A Smartphone

● Download the Google My Business app available on Android and iOS devices.

● Select the profile for your brand

● Proceed to Customers > Reviews

● Copy the URL to share with your customers.

How To Embed Google Review On Website

In one of our suggestions on how to improve google reviews, we talked about displaying them on your website. But how do you embed google reviews on google?

● Create an account with an embed creator. Some of them include Tagembed, Embedsocial, Taggbox, etc.

● Navigate their accounts to add your Google My Business URL and wait for the widgets to be created.

● Copy the widget code and paste it into the website HTML code and run it. It will appear on the web design.

Google My Business Reviews Guidelines

Google reviews are regulated by the search engine. It has released a google my business reviews for all brands and customers to follow. Some of the general rules include:

● Reviews should be free from restricted or prohibited content

● Fake, spam and illegal reviews will be removed

● Sexually explicit, offensive, and dangerous reviews will be removed when flagged.

● Off-topic, repetitive, and gibberish reviews will be removed.

You can check the comprehensive Google My Business Review Guidelines for more information.

Google Reviews Tips

To stand out and thrive beyond your competition, you need to practice the following digital marketing via google reviews tips.

● Ask your customers at your physical premises for a review after item purchase

● Send your customers a follow-up email with a link to review your brand directly.

● Add a review link on your website to direct users to your GMB page.

● Respond respectfully to bad reviews from your customers.

● Report fake, offensive, or inappropriate reviews to google for removal.

● Include a QR code on your payslips.

These google review tips will improve your web analytics and make your rank higher in SERPs.

Conclusion

Google reviews is a fascinating digital marketing strategy to get your business in front of your customers and generate more sales and social clout. Try out the best practices as explored in the article for great results.