LinkNow Media Blog Tag: search engine optimization

Is Your SEO Strategy Harmful or Helpful?

When we were first introduced to the Internet, we were baffled by how quickly we could get the information we wanted. With no more than a few keystrokes and clicks, we’d be scrolling through pages and pages of helpful information or hilarious entertainment. As time went on, those minor lags and wait-times even disappeared. Soon, we had instant access not only to information but to products. With those second-nature keystrokes and clicks, we could find whatever product we wanted and have it arrive on our doorstep by the end of the following week. In the last few years, even the real world has picked up with the rapid-fire pace of technology. Gone are the days of waiting weeks for orders to arrive. Often it only takes days. The instant gratification the Internet has rewarded us with has set the bar quite high for all services. We expect instantaneous results, no […]

What Is and Isn’t a Useful Metric for Improving Your Website

Everyone working in SEO knows that the golden rule for content is that it should be useful and relevant to searchers. Google has been saying this for years. And it’s a rule that we at LinkNow Media take advantage of. So it seems like a terrible irony that it’s so hard to find useful and relevant information about ranking metrics themselves. You’ll find one group of bloggers claiming that X metric is complete garbage. Then you’ll find another group who say it’s the most important. This is especially true when it comes metrics like bounce rate, pages per visit, and time-on-site. You have your for and against—and each side seems to suggest the other is behind the times. But maybe the problem isn’t so much that these are either good or bad. Maybe it’s that these metrics can be good in some contexts and not in others? Join us as […]

Trust Issues: What Was Behind the September 27th and October 2018 Algorithm Updates?

Whether you’re managing your own website or someone else’s, the last thing you want is to see your SERP ranking suddenly drop. As SEOs, we work hard for our Google rankings! We expect that with great content, great backlinks, and careful keyword research, we’ll get the rankings we deserve. And normally it’s true. But if one there’s one thing that every SEO knows, it’s that, aside from Google’s own engineers, no one knows how their search algorithm works. Which is why, every time Google updates their algorithm, the internet goes a bit nuts for a while. Some people’s rankings suddenly soar. Others plummet. And everyone’s asking themselves: what the heck happened?! The September 27th and October follow-up updates were no different. People panicked. Tweets were retweeted. Replies were written. Articles were posted. Comment threads exploded. Here at the LinkNow Media office though, everything was calm. Why you ask? We understand […]

Has Your Site Traffic Dropped? Check These 5 Issues First!

The fact is, SEO is all about trial and error. No matter how much time you put into optimizing your web design and content, there’s always a chance that suddenly, out of the blue, your traffic could drop. And it sucks. It really sucks. But it’s not the end of the world. Once you’ve gotten over the initial shock of it all, it’s time to get down to business and figure out what went wrong. The first thing you should do is check your Google Anaylitcs: do you notice any patterns in your web traffic that might explain it? For example, if it’s winter and you’re a landscaper, it could be that your content is optimized for lawn care at the expense of snow removal. Or maybe it’s a holiday and no one’s currently looking to have their well water tanks replaced? Second, double check that your code is updated […]

How to Take Advantage of User Intent for SEO

For a lot of small business owners, the world of SEO can seem overwhelming. If understanding the mysterious ranking systems that Google uses is hard enough, keeping up with the constant changes can feel downright impossible. Over the years, SEO experts have developed a few metrics that can help businesses to understand how searchable their pages are. These metrics give us hard facts about what works and what doesn’t. For SEO professionals like us, these numbers help explain to clients how well their pages are doing. The most important ones are: keyword and search engine rankings organic web traffic backlinks volume of searches conversion rates The problem is, Google often changes the things they prioritize. Which explains why user intent has become something of a game changer. User intent allows marketers and small business owners to determine a constant element in SEO. An element that Google puts before everything else. […]

You Can Now Add ‘Services’ to Your Google My Business Page

If you’re not a search engine optimization geek then you may not have noticed, but Google now allows businesses to add lists of services to their Google My Business (GMB) pages. The rollout appears to be happening quietly but also pretty quickly. We’ve tested a few GMB listings for our clients and it seems like about half of them have the option to add service menus. If this change sticks around, expect it to reach most of the North American GMB community in a few days. The change was reported on by various search engine marketing industry blogs over the last week. At LinkNow Media we’re always trying to find new ways to improve our clients’ local search rankings and we expect this will be a great tool moving into the future. What’s Changed? Have you ever performed a search for a laundromat near you? Go ahead and do it […]

White-Hat SEO: How Playing by the Rules Can Help You Win

If you want to make sure that your website ranks well on Google without facing any potential penalties that could end up hurting your brand, then you need to look take a close look at white-hat SEO. If you are unsure about what white-hat SEO really is and want more information about how this approach can help take your business to the next level, then don’t worry because we at LinkNow Media are here to help explain everything you need to know. The first thing that you need to understand about white-hat SEO techniques is that they are the most legitimate means of increasing your business’s visibility, and any dividend that you obtain from this endeavour will enhance your site’s online ranking capabilities without the risk of any penalties being incurred. One of the biggest concerns that many business owners have about adopting white-hat SEO techniques is that if they […]

Finding the Right Keywords for Your Small Business’s SEO Strategy

There are plenty of small businesses across the United States who shrug off a search optimization strategy thinking that it’s only for major brands and multi-national corporations. While there’s no question that big companies have huge teams of people working tooth and nail to make sure that their website appears within the top results of a Google search, that doesn’t mean you should roll over and let them take all your business. No matter the size of your business, it is essential to have an SEO strategy. When you take the time to invest in an SEO strategy, you are making sure that your business gets exposure 24 hours a day, seven days a week, gaining new customers in your area actively looking for the services you offer. People trust the results search engines give them. If you search for pizza in your area, you are most likely going to […]

301 Redirects

Have you ever clicked on a link to a website, only to see that link change in your address bar as the page loads? That’s a redirect. So, what is a 301 redirect? And does that mean there are multiple kinds of URL redirects? In fact, there are five types of redirects: 301, 302, 303, 307, and 308. But we’re here to focus in on 301. This redirect ensures that online traffic will reach the most recent version of a URL. Let’s say you created a page for your spa’s amazing manicure services, but then updated it and made an entirely new one. What’s going to happen to your backlinks then? If you don’t have a 301 redirect in place, they’re just going to take potential clients to an error page. By now this is starting to sound pretty important. But how do you work with these redirects? Behind the […]

Mobile-First: The Time is Now!

How often do you use your smartphone? For the majority of us in North America the answer would be every day. We’re on it for work, entertainment, socializing—we even use our phones to track our meals and health. There isn’t much a phone can’t do in this day and age and search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing are catering to mobile devices more and more. Because of this, it’s important that business owners do the same. While creating mobile-friendly websites was simply a suggestion a few years ago, it has now become a necessity, and that need for mobile is going to continue to grow. Mobile-first is not a new concept by any means. It’s been talked about quite a bit by SEOs and business owners since 2015. However, a recent tweet made February 2018 from the webmaster conference PubCon informed the world that Google plans to move a […]