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Mobile First Websites


Tuesday February 19, 2019

Reading Time: 8 minutes
mobile first web development
Google Now Crawls Mobile BEFORE the Desktop Version

What You Need to Know About Mobile-First Indexing

You might remember that in our last blog, we discussed the importance of ‘thinking mobile’ while establishing your 2019 SEO and marketing plans. Since Google’s 2018 rollout of mobile-first search engine indexing, Webconsuls clients have had many questions about how this new process impacts their rankings—and how they can best adapt their search strategy to the mobile-first indexing system.

One of the most important things to remember is that mobile-first indexing is about gathering – not ranking – content. Google will now crawl your company’s mobile site to establish search-engine rankings before it crawls your desktop site. This means that if you have a desktop-only website, your search engine rankings will suffer. It also means that to remain competitive online, you must give proper attention to your mobile/responsive site. (That’s where our digital achievers come in!)

The What & Why of Mobile-First Indexing

Since 2015, mobile search has surpassed desktop searches—and mobile usage continues to accelerate. In a March 2018 Google blog, the search-engine giant explained the reasoning behind its recent shift to mobile-first indexing:

“To recap, our crawling, indexing and ranking systems have typically used the desktop version of a page’s content, which may cause issues for mobile searchers when that version is vastly different from the mobile version. Mobile-first indexing means that we’ll use the mobile version of the page for indexing and ranking, to better help our – primarily mobile – users find what they are looking for.”

In lay terms, Google’s mobile-first indexing means that:

  1. Desktop-only sites will not perform as well on Google rankings as responsive or hybrid sites, since they lose mobile users (which are growing exponentially).
  2. Desktop pages will still be crawled, but not at the same frequency as mobile pages crawled by Google’s smartphone agent.
  3. When it caches pages, Google now saves the mobile version of your site instead of the desktop version.
  4. Responsive and mobile-friendly sites help content to load faster, which improves Google rankings (since slow-loading content is penalized).
  5. Content is still critical when it comes to your mobile site. Don’t deprive mobile users of content or strip your mobile site down to basics. Just remember to format content for usability on smaller screens.

Next Steps: How to Meet Google’s Mobile-First Indexing Standards

  1. Remember that mobile users are now the rule, rather than the exception. Stop thinking of your desktop site as the main event. Your mobile site is now primary, so it should never be an afterthought.
  2. Keep in mind mobile users behave differently than desktop users. For example, mobile users tend to consumer more visual media like images and video. Ask your digital marketing consultant how you can harness the power of visual media (and other elements) to better serve your mobile audience.
  3. Click here to use Google’s “Mobile-Friendly Test” for your website. If the results say that your mobile presence needs work, Webconsuls digital achievers can help you update your site and integrate mobile-friendly tactics into your overall marketing plan.
  4. Work with an SEO and web development professional to ensure that your mobile site delivers an optimal user experience. Do pages load quickly? Are images and dynamic features are optimized for fast loading? Is your site easy to navigate on a small device?
  5. Ask web developers about using the open-source AMP framework, which helps websites render faster on tablets, phones and phablet devices. To learn more about AMP, call Webconsuls at 949.701.4714 or visit the AMP Project online.
  6. Make the most of your Google Search Console. If you have not yet set this up, ask a Webconsuls team member about using Search Console tools to measure your mobile site performance, fix search issues and enhance your rankings.

Think Mobile With Webconsuls

If you have been dragging your feet on developing a responsive or mobile-friendly web design, there’s no time to waste. As Google moves forward with its mobile-first indexing approach and mobile users continue to insist on an enhanced UX, there’s no room for websites that translate poorly to mobile use.

When you partner with our elite team of Nashville digital marketing experts, we offer integrated digital solutions that move your brand—and your search rankings—forward. Putting our mobile development experience to work for you, we tailor services to meet your budget and marketing objectives while teaching you the “why” behind it all. Get started now by calling a Webconsuls’ managing partner at 949.701.4714. For your convenience, you can also submit your confidential inquiry online, 24/7. Our digital achievers will be in touch promptly to answer your questions!

Reading Time: 8 minutes

While content still reigns in 2019, Google is making some technical and search-related changes that are bound to impact every business’s SEO and search marketing strategy. Consider these tips from our digital achievers as you adapt your SEO strategy to a new year and create a complementary action plan for content marketing, paid search and social media management.

  1. Think Mobile.

If you have yet to develop a responsive web design, the time is now. As part of its commitment to optimizing the user’s search experience, Google is making big waves in 2019 with a mobile-first indexing approach (which actually started last year). This means Google’s bots use “mobile eyes” to crawl your responsive site before crawling your desktop site. If your website isn’t responsive or translates poorly to phone, tablet and phablet use, Google will still index your desktop site—but your rankings will likely drop. Ask Webconsuls how we can help with new and adapted responsive designs and search strategy.

  1. Think Beyond Keyword Strings.

Search engines have gotten smarter since the days of exact-match keyword strings. What’s important today is creating high-quality, accurate and authentic content that’s useful to users andmeets their search intent. Google and other search engines can now pick up the subtleties of concepts and topics rather than simply ranking for a particular word-for-word phrase. Using the latest keyword-research techniques and our in-depth understanding of 2019 Google logarithms, Webconsuls provides content marketing, SEO strategy and digital marketing consulting services that ensure your content rises to Google’s complex expectations.

  1. Don’t Neglect Voice Search.

Thousands of homes now rely on the artificial intelligence assistance of their favorite Google Home or Amazon Echo—which throws yet another boomerang into the already complicated search mix. Although Webconsuls doesn’t recommend hanging your SEO hat on the outdated idea of keyword stuffing, we also teach clients that long-tailed keywords and exact search terms enable more accurate voice search.

  1. Listen to Your Audience.

It can be tempting to immerse yourself in Google research, spend all day reading SEO blogs and try to refine your SEO strategy in a vacuum. Instead of being a student of Google, become a student of your target audience. Before you write or optimize an article, conduct research about your target audience, consume media from their primary influencers, listen to their search vocabulary and build buyer personas that give you a focused marketing direction. If this sounds overwhelming, Webconsuls provides digital marketing consulting services tailored to your needs. Our digital achievers stick with you through each phase of the marketing and SEO process while teaching you to implement timely SEO strategies on your own. After all, what good is a consulting service if it doesn’t teach, equip and empower you to make positive change?

  1. Technical SEO Matters.

Aside from on- and off-page SEO, Google holds your website to a technical standard. Technical SEO is the process of optimizing your web pages so Google can effectively access, crawl and interpret your website. Technical SEO has little to do with content or website promotion, and more to do with your site’s infrastructure. Here are three tips for improving your site’s technical SEO. 

  1. Obtain SSL certification.If your site is unencrypted and does not yet have an SSL certificate, Google flags your site as “unsecure.” This is concerning to visitors and detrimental to your search results. At Webconsuls, we can help you address this problem by obtaining and installing an SSL certificate.
  2. Prioritize loading speed.Best-in-class websites should load within three seconds or less. If your website is clunky and slow, Google will lower your ranking and visitors will leave before they’ve gotten to know you. Webconsuls makes sure your desktop and mobile pages load quickly and meet Google’s rigorous technical standards.
  3. Talk to Webconsuls about AMP-ing up your site. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs) are designed to load even faster than mobile-responsive designs, and this speed protocol is gathering momentum in 2019. We’ll make sure your new website is incorporating these fast-loading page structures, where applicable, for optimal user experience.

Partner With Webconsuls During 2019

Meet the team of digital achievers that’s changing the SEO landscape in Nashville and beyond. With SEO, digital marketing and consulting services tailored to your branding needs, we provide integrated digital solutions that move your brand—and your search rankings—forward. We’re experts in search strategy and the latest Google logarithms, and we’re ready to ready to put decades of collective marketing expertise to work for you. Happy New Year! Welcome to a new (and exciting) year of search!

Reading Time: 11 minutes

blogging

You know you need to blog, but maybe you don’t know how to do it. Whether you’re launching a new business or want to refresh your brand’s digital presence, this blog will help you get started on creating content people actually want to read.

1. Set the groundwork

Before you start blogging, you have to cover the very basics. Ask yourself these questions:

  • What’s your blog’s purpose?
  • Who is your audience?
  • What do you want to get out of it?
  • What do you want your audience to get out of it?
  • How are you going to host it? (WordPress, within your website, etc.)

Arguably the most important of these questions is “Who is your audience?” Your blogging audience likely fits the same profile as your customers. It’s crucial to understand who they are and what they need so you can consistently deliver content that is relevant and valuable to them.

2. Generate topic ideas

Start collecting ideas for new blog posts. You never know where inspiration may strike, so make it a habit to write down ideas as they come to you. Set up a Google Alert for industry-related topics. Reading other headlines can help shape your headlines, and you might even be able to glean a blog post inspired by a recent news story.

Another great source for topic ideas is your customers. Think about frequent questions you get from your customers or common concerns they have. You can easily come up with a few topics that address those questions and concerns.

3. Create an editorial calendar

How much time are you or someone on your team able to devote to writing blog content every week? You don’t want to bite off more than you can chew. Sometimes, less is more, especially if that content is valuable.

It doesn’t matter if you post once a day or once a month, just as long as you’re doing it consistently and the final product is valuable.

An editorial calendar serves as a visual to-do list that shows all the content you’ve created, and all the content that’s to come. It also helps visualize dates so you can plan content around holidays, new product/service launches, special announcements, etc.

4. Find your voice

How do you want your blog to come across to readers? Blogging affords you a little more creative license than other media. Depending on your brand and industry, it might be OK to use more casual language, sentence fragments or even–gasp!–end a sentence with a preposition.

You don’t need to ignore the rules altogether à la e.e. Cummings. Just know that the rules of blogging are more flexible.

Whatever your voice, write like a human. Whether you’re writing a blog for an organic pet food company or a legal practice, write in a conversational, human tone. Readers can recognize disingenuous, promotional language from a mile away, and it’s a huge turnoff.

5. Focus on formatting

Blogging isn’t as simple as plunking away on a keyboard and clicking “Post.” You want readers to read your blog, and that requires formatting.

Studies on how users read online content have found that they don’t actually read at all. They scan. One study of five different writing styles found that a sample website “scored 58% higher in measured usability when it was written concisely, 47% higher when the text was scannable, and 27% higher when it was written in an objective style instead of the promotional style.”

Instead, we scan in an F-shaped pattern. By keeping this pattern and some blog formatting best practices in mind, you’ll be able to optimize your content for readers and search engines.

There are a few ways to make your text more scannable:

  • Chunky text: Thick blocks of text just won’t do. Readers scan text waiting for keywords and hyperlinks to jump out at them, so in addition to peppering in keyword-rich words and phrases, break up text into chunky paragraphs–five lines or fewer–and make it easier to scan.
  • Lists: Bulleted and numbered lists and bold, italicized and underlined text are simple ways to improve the scannability factor.
  • Subheads: Bigger, bolder text stands out against body text. Subheads break up the overarching topic into more scannable sections. It presents content in a more organized, less overwhelming fashion. You can also incorporate keywords into subheads to boost search engine performance, but don’t go overboard–a term known as keyword stuffing.

6. Cut the fluff

Cutting text isn’t always easy, especially if you’re the one who wrote it, but think of it this way: It doesn’t take 45 minutes to describe the plot of a 45 minute TV episode. Say what you need to say using the fewest amount of words possible.

There’s probably a paragraph that isn’t completely relevant, a sentence that can be trimmed down, or wordiness that can be made more concise.

Once you’re finished writing, go back and trim down the article. Then trim it down again. Bullet points and numbered lists are also easy ways to trim down text.

7. Always include imagery

Use at least one image with your blog posts to break up the text and make it more visually appealing. This also helps social media pull imagery when sharing the blog on your social networks. Royalty-free images can be found on Flickr and Creative Commons.

8. End with a call-to-action

Blogging serves a dual purpose: to prove your credibility and value as a useful resource and to nurture readers into becoming clients. Your blog posts should end with some type of call to action, whether that’s to download a free guide, subscribe to your email list, learn more about your services or contact you for a free quote.

It can be difficult to blog on a consistent basis, especially if you aren’t confident in your writing chops or if you’re too busy running a business to spend a few hours a week blogging. Webconsuls is a digital strategy agency that specializes in content development. From topic generation to editorial calendar creation to churning out blogs on a weekly basis, we can help design a strategy that gets your business on track and improves search rankings.

Contact a Webconsuls Managing Partner directly at 949.701.4714 for a free consultation.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

custom attorney directory website

Welcome to Feature Friday.

A Custom DUI Attorney Directory

Today we’re featuring our custom design and development of California DUI Lawyers Association.

This client wanted a custom, user friendly directory of DUI attorneys in California. The goal of the website was to create a space where:

  1. People could find DUI attorneys in their area, review their profiles and credentials and click through directly to their website.
  2. DUI attorneys could sign up for the association and directory seamlessly through the website and pay annual fees.
  3. DUI attorneys could fill out and upload their profile using a custom, user friendly platform. Attorneys could post, learn about and sign up for association events.

Clean and User Friendly

The result was a clean, modern design with clear call to actions, a search feature and an interactive map for those seeking an attorney and a seamless process for attorneys to join and post and learn about professional development events.

Here is a list of custom development features:

  • A custom responsive website design
  • A custom content management system (CMS) with administrative access
  • A custom user interface (UI) for attorneys
  • A dynamic search map
  • Ad management
  • User management
  • Custom reports for individual attorneys
  • Attorney directory management
  • A custom search feature
  • An event management tool
  • A membership payment system
  • Dynamic email template management

Did we say “custom” enough? I think so.

Timeline and Process

This project took 12 weeks to complete, from inception to going live after testing. Our process is time tested and efficient – we know how to get down to the details, predict and avoid snags and roadblocks, provide mock ups that reflect the vision of the client and incorporate it all into an unmatched, user friendly, lead generating directory.

If you’re looking to build a custom legal directory website but have stalled because it seems like too much of an undertaking, we know what to do – we’re the digital team you’ve been looking for. To start your project email us at info@webconsuls.com or call us at 949-701-4714.

Reading Time: 5 minutes

 

San Clemente Fiesta

 

Sunday was the 55th anual San Clemente Fiesta and street fair. And as you can see from the above shot up Del Mar, it was a packed house. Lucky for us Ella has been spending the last few weeks at the Boys and Girls club getting ready for her “Prime Time” Dance review, so just in case you missed it I bring you “Ice Cream Freeze” as performed by the San Clemente Dance 7 & under group.

Feel free to sing along!

Ice Cream Freeze – (Let’s Chill)- by Hanna Montana (Miley Cyrus)

Everybody do your dance
Ain’t nothing better than an all night jam
Are you ready for something a little new tonight
I got a brand new step thing you’re gonna like yeah

C’mon boys
Gotta do what I do
Just follow my lead
Everybody let’s chill

Do the ice cream freeze
Strike your pose
Can you do the milkshake
Shake it shake it down low

Can you snow cone slide left to right
Put your hands in the air
We could party all night

Do the ice cream freeze
Strike your pose
Can you do the milkshake
Shake it shake it down low

Can you snow cone slide
Left to right
Put your hands in the air
We could perty all night

Shake it shake it shake it shake it shake it down low
Then do the ice cream freeze
All kind of stepping make you feel good
Triple step, butterfly, sugar foot (sugar sugar foot)

But I’m comin’ with a new thing
What do you need? (that’s right)
Now everybody wanna do the ice cream freeze (woohoo)

C’mon boys
Gotta do what I do
Just follow my lead
Everybody let’s chill

Do the ice cream freeze
Stike your pose
Can you do the milkshake
Shake it shake it down low

Can you snow cone slide
Left to right
Put your hands in the air
We could party all night

Do the ice cream freeze
Strike your pose
Can you do the milkshake
Shake it shake it downlow

Can you snow cone slide
Left to right
Put your hands in the air
We could party all night

Did I hear anyone say party?
We’re just gettin’ started (woo!)
Wanna take it from the top
Will you know I will

Now everybody let’s chill
Lights, camera, freeze
Everybody let’s go!

Do the ice cream freeze
Strike your pose
Can you do the milkshake
Shake it shake it down low

Can you snow cone slide
Left to right
Put your hands in the air
We could party all night

Do the ice cream freeze
Then you do the milkshake
Shake it shake it shake it shake it shake it

Do the snow cone slide
Put your hands in the air
Go crazy!
Everybody let’s chill…

Reading Time: < 1 minute

How Organized Consumer Purchasing Can Push Change.

Who else besides government is big enough to change the world?

We are.

CarrotMob, using mob mentality to push positive change.

The problem with corporations is that they will do anything for a buck.

The solution is that corporations will do anything for a buck!

Think you are too small to have an impact?

Try sleeping with a mosquito in the room…

Reading Time: 3 minutes

I found two food ideas that will spice up and perk up your summer.

The first is grilled poppers. Poppers are stuffed peppers, either hot or mild. While you can slice the peppers and clean them it is more fun to use a Jalapeno Pepper Roaster.

The recipe that comes with it is fine but takes a little work. If you want you can just stuff the peppers with cream cheese. Fun to make and taste great.

I like the taste of lemon. If I order dessert is is usually something like a lemon tart. I dug out my old ice cream maker and found a recipe for lemon sorbet. It is fantastic.

2 cups sugar
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice (about 6 lemons)
1 tablespoon lemon zest

Combine sugar and water and bring to a boil then simmer until sugar dissolves. Cool completely (overnight in the refrigerator). When cool add the lemon juice and the zest, stir to combine. Put in your machine and make the sorbet.

I had not used the ice cream maker for a few years. I had tried to make some low carb or low cal conconctions and was disappointed. Not now.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

In the not too distant future, you walk by your favorite restaurant, and your cell phone beeps, you have a new message, It is an offer for 10% your meal, with photos and video…

What makes this shiny new toy different is that it is reaching you via Bluetooth!

Range? Up to half a mile with the right hardware. In Europe proximity marketing via bluetooth has already been used at bus stops to market “High School Musical” with downloadable ringtones, wallpapers, and discount codes.

Once you have the server set up the cost to send a message to users in range? $0

Proximity Marketing via Bluetooth coming soon to a cellphone near you.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

The US wireless industry crossed 80% subscription penetration in Q207. Though the growth rate has slowed down, there is still plenty of room for growth over the next five years. 86-88% of the handsets sold in the US are now replacement devices. Time for an upgrade? The % contribution of data to service revenues jumped from 14.5% to almost 17% in Q207 and is certainly going to cross 20% by the end of this year. Considering the market was only at 6% in 2004, it is a significant improvement in 3 years. Verizon led in % data contribution to ARPU with 19% followed by AT&T at 17.3%, Sprint at 16.3%, and T-Mobile at 15%. If your users are not looking at your site via a handheld device now, they will be soon. Got .Mobi?

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Get Mobi Enabled

Got Dot Mobi?

With the explosion in handheld mobile devices, your users are no longer just browsing your site from a computer, they are now also viewing your site through their mobile phones.

Convergence is happening folks, and we do not see that taking place on your TV set or computer at home, but on that trusty little device that everyone seems to be walking around with, the ubiquitous mobile phone.