What Is a Sitemap and Why You Need It
You probably spend a lot of time and effort making sure all the important pages of your website are optimized for search engines. You do this to increase the chances that your website will rank high in search results. Yet, there’s a chance that not all of your website’s important pages will show up in search results, no matter how well optimized they are. The reason for that is search engines use automated discovery programs called web crawlers to “crawl” through your site and all its web pages. Once a page...
What Small Businesses Need to Know about Cybersecurity
In today’s business world, if you want to remain competitive, connecting your SMB to the internet is essential. Getting online is the best way to reach out to potential customers, but there’s a catch. Cybercrime is a very real threat, and it has the potential to wreak havoc on your business with devastating consequences. In 2017, the Ponemon Institute released a whitepaper describing the state of cybersecurity in small and medium-sized businesses (SMB). It found that as many as 58 percent of all malware attacks are targeted at SMB operations, because...
How to Get Your Website Indexed by Google
Did you know that your website will not show up on Google if it’s not indexed? That’s how important indexing is! It’s the key to getting traffic to your website and unlocking organic growth. It’s also the start of your website’s SEO journey and the beginning of an important relationship you’ll have with Google. Indexing happens when a search engine recognizes pages of your website by crawling them using an automated discovery program called a spider. It catalogs your website’s pages on Google, giving them an identity through the URLs that show...
What Are Web Push Notifications and How to Use Them
Small business owners are finding it harder and harder to get people's attention these days. Formerly reliable communication channels like email, SMS messages, and display ads aren't performing like they used to. Such is the ever-changing landscape of online marketing. Advancements in technology and new consumer behaviors keep business owners on their toes, always looking for the marketing channels with the highest visibility. Right now, people's eyes are on notifications. Whether they appear on their phone or their desktop, web push notifications get a lot of attention. They're clickable messages that a website can...
Domain Hijacking and How to Protect Yourself
A website’s domain name is the web address that people type into their browsers to visit the site. For example, Amazon’s domain name is www.amazon.com. A domain name is usually some form of the business name and a huge part of a business’ identity. People type it in when they access your website, and they see it at the top of their browser on every visit. That’s why your domain name is one of the most valuable assets you own—if it didn’t exist, people wouldn’t be able to access your website. Being such a...
How to Do Keyword Research for Your SEO Strategy
Researching keywords is an extremely important part of SEO, because the keywords you choose will be your target. Keywords give direction to your SEO strategy. To understand what this means, first, you have to understand what keywords are and how search engines utilize them. When you use a search engine like Google, you enter a word or group of words to search. Those are keywords. You can ask a question, type in the name of something or someone you want to know more about, or anything else. The search engine takes your keywords...