When creating a mobile-friendly site you have three options:

• Responsive Design - Google recommends Responsive Web Design because it's the easiest to set up and maintain.
• Dynamic serving - Uses the same URL regardless of device.
• Separate URLs - Serves different HTML to each device, and on separate URLs.

Because most of the indexing on your site comes from the mobile site it’s important you ensure that both versions of your website contain the same content! You also need to remember to put the same metadata (title and meta description) on your mobile version and desktop version of your site.

The use of video content on the internet is becoming more and more popular and Google indexes videos from millions of sites. Videos can appear in several different places on Google, including the main search results page, Video mode, Google Images, and Discover.

Best Practices for Images on your Website

To help Google find and index your images:

• Use HTML image elements to embed images
• Use an image sitemap
• Responsive images
• Use supported image formats
• Optimise for speed and quality

To optimise the image landing pages:

• Check your page title and description - avoid vague descriptives such as ‘home’ for homepage, don’t make titles unnecessarily long and avoid using too many keywords.
• Add structured data
• Use descriptive filenames, titles, and alt text
• Opt out of Google Images inline linking
• Optimise for SafeSearch

Best Practices for Videos on your Website:

• Ensure your video can be found by Google by making sure they are available on public web pages. Include an HTML tag and create a video sitemap.
• Make sure your videos can be indexed.
• Include a high quality thumbnail - BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, and SVG and minimum 60 x 30 pixels (larger is preferred).
• Describe your video using structured data.
• Use stable URLs.

Responsive Web Design
Responsive web design ensures your site is optimised to work across all devices. It automatically adjusts to fit on the device and browser, ensuring all the content is displayed properly. For most businesses, a responsive website is the perfect solution to ensure your site can be accessed on all devices. It’s a cost effective solution and easy to maintain.

• Save your business money long term
• Positive user experience
• Increased visibility in search results
• Faster site loading

It makes most sense to opt for a responsive web site from the outset - Google favours responsive websites in search rankings as they provide a better user experience than sites that are not mobile friendly. More importantly, you will be less likely to miss out on potential leads - visitors to your optimised site will be able to view all the content regardless of the device they are using.

Need help developing your business website that is responsive and mobile friendly? Contact Creative Remedy for a free consultation.

​If you don’t currently have a Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) you are missing out on a fantastic, free tool that gives your customers access to vital information such as your business operating hours, contact details, location and much more besides.
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Google is a huge deal when it comes to search engines - it has 92.66% of the search engine market share (Search Engine Market Share Worldwide - June 2023) indeed its name has become synonymous for searching online for something.

Why You Need a Google Business Profile
If your business has contact with customers, including those with a physical location such as a hairdressers, or you provide services requiring meeting with customers at other locations such as a plumber or electrician then you are eligible to set up a Google Business Profile. Google Business Profile gives you the opportunity to list your business location on Google Maps and Google local search results - your target audience will have instant access to your exact location and any other important information they may need:

• Your business location
• Contact details
• Opening times / closing times
• Payment options
• Contact details
• Link to your website
  
  

One of the best things about this tool is that it doesn’t cost you anything! You are able to advertise your business, its location and even post updates with pictures and other information all for free. You’ll even get access to insights on how your profile is performing, including the number of views on your posts and how many users viewed your profile.

Getting seen online is not always easy, competition is tough and it’s hard to know if anyone will see your business. A Google Business Profile puts your business on Google maps and Google search making it much easier for customers to find you online and makes your physical business location easier to find too.

• Improve your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Showcase your products and services
• Get more reviews
• Be better than your competition
• Get more sales and enquiries

A Google Business Profile Can Help Your Business Grow
Your business profile will be among the first Google search results after the sponsored ads. Being near the top of the search results has many obvious advantages including increasing traffic to your website. Not only that, your profile will appear higher in local search results - helping you target your audience.

Another great advantage of your Google Business Profile is the customer reviews - reviews are essential in order build trust and credibility.

Increase Visibility, Increase Awareness, Increase Sales
There really are no reasons not to set up your Google Business Profile - if you need help setting yours up we can help guide you through the process, including showing you how to update your business details and add posts to your profile.

Recent Update To Google Privacy Policy
Google recently updated the inactivity period for a Google Account for two years (across all of their accounts and services). The change is now active and applies to any Google Account that hasn’t been used or signed into within a two year timeframe. The earliest date that inactive accounts (and any content) will be eligible for deletion would be December 2023.

You will receive reminder emails if your account is inactive before any action is taken so you’ll have plenty of time to sign-in and prevent your accounts from being deleted if you still wish to keep them.

Find out more about Google’s inactivity policy here.

Need more help? Contact us for more information.

What is SEO?
In simple terms Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is anything we do to improve the ranking of our website on search engine results. So that's everything from your website design to your content.

• Metadata - Website metadata such as page titles, content descriptions etc... all help to ensure search engines receive important information about the content of each page of your website. This must be relevant for your website to come up in search results.
• Alt tags - Alt tags provide text information for images to allow search engines such as Google to read the information and include the images on the search engine rankings.
• Internal links - Another essential for SEO, internal links help search engines navigate your website. Good internal links will lead search engines and visitors to your most important pages.
• External links - If another website has a link on their page that takes the user to your website then this is what’s known as an external link. This is a great way to improve your website's rankings; your designer will utilise all marketing strategies to help build external links to your website.
• Blogs - Any blogs you write also help to boost your website's ranking. Content needs to be relevant; mobile friendly to ensure you reach all your customers, and regularly updated.
• Mobile friendly website - Over 50% of internet browsing takes place on a mobile device so to really make sure your website is reaching a wide audience you need to ensure it is optimised for mobile devices.
• Domain age - When it comes to SEO it really makes a difference how old your website is so choose your domain name carefully, you want it to last!
• Content - In order to boost your rankings your content needs to be unique and relevant.
• Social interaction - Engaging with your audience will vastly improve your search engine rankings. Consider creating new campaigns to promote and share on social media; post engaging content on social media; be conversational but most importantly be yourself!
• Use power words - Words that draw your audience in and direct them to your site are a great way to improve your SEO. Some examples of power words include: Insane, Best, Scientifically, Fast, Effective. All these examples have an emotional draw that encourages the audience to click for more.

 
How to prepare content that is SEO ready for your website
In order for your website content to improve your SEO it’s essential you have relevant keywords and key phrases:

• Make a list of key phrases that focus on your products and services - do your research to ensure you don’t miss any great keywords.
• Make sure you use web resolution image files (lower resolution than you would use for print).
• Make sure you structure your content - think Introduction, Main Body and Conclusion. Write it in a way that reflects your personality to really engage your audience.
• Call To Action (CTA) - always end any content with a great Call To Action, whether that’s as simple as a ‘Buy Now’ button or a more subtle question you ask your audience to keep them interested.
• Word count - some SEO experts say 1000 or 2000, some are more, some are less; content around 300-500 words is not too much that it puts the reader off but enough to keep their interest and keep them coming back for more.

 
Most importantly, seek out a good web developer and marketeer and discuss your needs with them. It’s low cost with the potential to boost your business and it’s an essential way of keeping ahead of your competitors.
 
Got any burning SEO questions relevant to your existing website? Drop your questions below, we are happy to help.

Myth 2: SEO is instant.
Busted: SEO work completed this week might not be indexed by search engines for days, even many weeks. It takes a while sometimes for search engines to crawl and index your website pages.


Myth 3: I just need to fill my website with keywords...right?
Busted: SEO is more about good quality relevant content that isn't too repetitive. It still has to make sense to the reader! 


Myth 4: SEO is very expensive. 
Busted: You can get good results on a small budget if you invest time in creating good content and building online relationships.


Myth 5: I'm finished... my website is complete and I have added my chosen keywords to my website, social media? I don't need that... what is the point?
Busted: Your website is never finished! Search engine optimisation is always on-going, don't forget your competitors change with trends, you have to always be on your toes. Social media activity can have a significant effect on your SEO work. Don't forget millions of people login to Facebook daily, being connected to this hive of activity is going to have an impact on your results over time.


Do you have any SEO myths you would like busted? If so, please share them here: