July 2017 - HQ SEO

Mobile First! Not Desktop! Please C’mon DO IT

Posted on July 20, 2017May 16, 2019 by Tom Buckland

Last week or a few weeks back we posted a web design post that talked about the number 1 mistake we believe 90% of web designers make. This is essentially listening to clients too much. Also it mentioned that SEO is not integrated into the site from the very start. This makes coming in later so much more difficult. Of course if you have SEO experience you will know this, but the majority of designers actually just start with the design and hence have issues with marketing the site later on.

In this post we are going to talk about another common mistake. Luckily less so nowadays, but one that still deserves its own post. This is building sites for desktops?. And only looking at mobile halfway through the process or even just sticking a responsive theme on that and calling it a day.

Mobile is now the primary search tool for the majority of users.

That?s big news if you didn?t know.

Generally for business related results I think the figure is actually still tipped to desktop but mobile should be looked at first for a number of reasons.

Websites are designed to work on desktops, themes are generally built for desktop and laptop use, text, platforms, images are all pre-optimised to work on a larger screen, and although you might think this is a good thing, I can tell you it is not. It does make designing a website for desktops very easy but it also has a ton of problems when it comes to designing a site for mobile. Most of which can be resolved simply if you just start with mobile design.

Let?s think of a business that get?s exactly half its traffic from desktops and half from mobile or tablet devices. Instantly you think you should put about 50% of your time into designing the mobile site and 50% into the design of the desktop site. But this is not the case the exact reason we mentioned above.

Platforms and plugins are designed to work on desktop meaning it will take you about a tenth of the time to configure a plugin or build a webpage for a desktop, because everything is already there for you do to this. As a result, you want to spend more time thinking about, strategizing and designing the mobile version of the site.

There are very easy ways you can check the current mobile design of your site, I personally just use tools like this one and also a Google chrome plugin that you can install and check the site as you go along. This makes designing a mobile responsive website less painful. So that?s why you SHOULD do it, now let?s take a look at some of the elements you should include. These are the very basic conversion rate optimisation rules that you should implement whether you are a business owner designing your own site, or you are a developer that needs to implement a mobile friendly site for a client. This is the checklist we use during each build on our sites.

CRO Checklist for Mobile Web Design

Mobile site load time ? This is relatively straight forward ? As you probably already know site?s load a different version on mobile and as a result you should be testing how fast this version loads on mobile and tablet devices. If it is too slow then you need to implement some site speed optimisation or get in touch with us if you have no idea what that is.
Above the fold ? The ATF section on mobile is even more important than the ATF on desktops, mainly because if it is too cluttered or doesn?t tell people what you do in 5 seconds people are more likely to bounce back to the search results as they want to find instant answers and have even less patience on mobile devices.
Images ? These load even slower on mobiles than laptops and computers, as a result if you have a website that is very image heavy then ensure all of these images are not too big and correctly configured for mobile devices, so they load the correct version and also implement the correct image optimisation. Don?t over optimise, ensure all your images have the correct alt tags in, and make sure they aren?t massive and take days to load!
Clickable number ? This is such a tiny CRO elemtent but one that is so important for mobile devices. This let?s people click to call your business when they are on a phone. It also works on desktop but during our testing there aren?t as many direct click to callers from desktop devices (Which makes sense)
Keep it simple & short ? People do not want to read 2000 words of text of have to scroll down a massive sales page. This is one of the elements where you really need to decide how your target audience is searching, if it is from desktops then you can have a slightly longer page, if it is from mobile have more emphasis on clicking to call, emailing or just filling out a very SHORT contact form.
Be careful of video ? Videos eat data and if you have a 5 minute explainer video on your website, prospects may not want to use all their precious data on watching your video! As a result, make sure you don?t have too much video content on the site, especially on the homepage of the website.
Short contact forms ? This is a big one. People can generally type about 10 times faster than they can text. If you have a huge contact form on your homepage or contact page, people will be turned off on filling it out on their mobile devices and might try to remember to do it on desktop. That?s not a risk I?d be willing to take.

And that?s pretty much it.

Link Generation to Homepage or Inner Pages?

Posted on July 12, 2017May 16, 2019 by Tom Buckland

This is a question I get from a lot of clients so I wanted to just do a very quick post on what I think and why.

You should be building all types of links to all types of pages (with the exception of policy pages, contact etc) any page that has the potential to convert clients/customers should have links to it.

Saying this we don’t all have a ?100,000 a month link building budget. So the next stage or the real question should be how should I best use my money or time to build links and where should they be built too?

This depends on 2 things. 1.) What you are trying to do when the visitor comes to your site. For example if someone visits HQ SEO we want to provide value to them. If they are a relevant prospect they will have a look around the site and potentially get in touch if they need any services. 2.) Your budget – This is key as if you don’t have the budget to rank competitive inner page keywords, then you shouldn’t be looking into trying to generate those types of links FIRST.

I stress first as there are free ways to do this, it is just a lot more difficult when your outreach prospects can see some sort of commercial value there.

So in conclusion I would recommend building backlinks to BOTH the homepage and any inner pages that have the potential to generate your website or company revenue. The velocity of links to build depends on the size of your site, authority you have and of course budget.

Cheers.

The #1 Error Old School Website Designers Make

Posted on July 6, 2017May 16, 2019 by Tom Buckland

Over the coming weeks and months we will be talking more about the design of a website rather than the SEO or marketing of that site. This is mainly because this is where the problems begin. People start by making mistakes with their website and then they try to resolve these mistakes with the SEO and digital marketing of this website. Problem is, the mistakes end up costing the business a hell of a lot of money in the long run, and the issues are so simple to resolve.

Top Designer Mistakes

Instead it?s time to resolve some myths about website design and why you should be building for the search engines at the same time as you are building for users and user experience. This is something we personally do, but very few designers do. As a result the site looks really nice, but functions terribly and from a UX and search engine point of view its just a nightmare. As a result you lose customers and clients, the cardinal sin of online marketing as a whole. This is also more common in old school website designers.

Spam Emails If we think back to 2005, site?s all looked pretty much the same, 95% of people looked on desktops or laptops first (mobile was just starting out with I.M.) and generally it was easier to build an OK looking website. So people started to copy everyone. You could get an agency creating a website for ?10,000 that would look very similar to a site that cost ?500 by a web design consultant. But things ticked along. Fast forward a decade and a bit and you have every Tom, Dick and Harry building website for ?100 and agencies charging ?20,000+ for what LOOKS like the same thing, I still get the tons of emails offering design and seo for ?100, as most likely do you?. But anyway that?s a rant for another day.

Today we are going to talk about what I believe to be the number 1 issues with older website designers. They are just creating for the sake of creating. For example if you have a website, you want it to look good?. But from WHOSE PERSPECTIVE.

This is the question you have to ask yourself before you even write the first bit of code or install wordpress.

Don?t build your website for yourself. Build it for your customers.

This is the number 1 designer issue.

?The client is always right!? ? That?s a phrase I know designers hate, as do I, but the point becomes even LESS valid when you think about tiny tweaks and changes to a site. When you ask a designer (or if you are a designer who has been asked by a client) you need to ask the key question: Will this generate your business more customers. Guess what? Slight colour changes and font sizes don?t do this. Providing extreme value does.

As most people know we are big advocates of the educated sell, you can see everything we do for clients right here, that?s because we have nothing to hide. When you are a designer or if you are a client in conversations with designers then ensure the designer is giving you the relevant advice but also give them space to do what they are meant to be doing.

A close #2 in the top designer mistakes of all time category is going to be building the sites as if it were a poster for your business. I?m not sure where this idea came from but it?s one that I think needs to be removed from the world of digital marketing and design in general. Your website should not look like a frecking leaflet. If you want that then guess what, get a leaflet designer! Instead you want to build your site as if it were a proposal. A proposal to a prospect or a lead that you want to close. Any potential customers can click around and should be seeing awesome amounts of value all over the site. If they can?t see this then I think you need to add more content and value on the website.

Remember.

SEO Aligned with Design.

If you ?try to do SEO after? then you are going to run into so many problems. One of the most common issues we see is websites that are designed from the point of view of 1.) The client and 2.) To look pretty.

Stop designing sites to look pretty.

Do you want someone to visit your site and say ?this looks pretty?? and then click off the site and never come back again.

Or would you rather someone click on the site and say ?this looks like a good business to work with.? It?s an obvious question of course but that?s what you should think of first in the design aspect. Think of this from the point of a GOOD BUSINESS. Provide insane amounts of value THROUGH smart design and you will be on a very powerful and profitable journey to generating more clients.

Conclusion

Don?t listen to what the client wants. They rarely know what they need and if they start with words like ?we think this would look good? and ?I like the look of? then stop them right there and ask them if they want a profitable business or an ego website (You want might to use different phrasing, client relations and all that.) If they start with ?we have tested? or ?during our market research we found? then listen VERY closely to what they are about to say. They are either incredibly good at lying or have done something that 99% of potential start-ups do not do and that?s proper market research.

And build the site with SEO in mind, don?t try to implement it after.

Month: July 2017