Author: infogenix

The Holiday Algorithm

Posted on by infogenix

The Holiday Algorithm

If you work in the medical or health industries, you may have heard of the dreaded algorithm change that occurs during the winter months. The gift-giving holidays are coming up, and Google has learned that people search more for products and gifts. So, to get the best search engine results, they place more importance on retail instead of other queries.

So, what does this mean for you, if you own a medical business?

What Is an Algorithm Change?

In the world of the Internet, nothing is constant. Search engines like Google roll out changes every day, to make sure that their search engine is best serving the people that use it. The major and minor algorithm changes that have rolled out over the years can affect your rankings. You may remember your SEO specialists talking about algorithm changes that negatively affect websites with thin content, or websites that aren’t optimized for mobile phones. These algorithm changes, while they seem to happen at random, are a targeted way to best reflect user intent and the current trends of the Internet.

What Does This Have to Do With the Holidays?

If you think about your own personal Internet usage, what time of the year are you Google-searching retail the most? Most would answer just after Black Friday, to just after Christmas Day. That’s when retail stores have their deals, to get more people in the door to buy their products. The search engines are aware of this, and adjust the algorithm to better serve these retail searches.

As a result, the search engines are focusing less on the good SEO practices you’ve worked hard on, like your meta titles, descriptions, and keywords. They are looking for product descriptions, lists, and deals. If you’re not selling a product, the search engines won’t pay as much attention.

What Can I do?

First of all, don’t panic.

This algorithm change is only temporary. You may see your rankings and traffic fluctuate from November to January, but you can expect these numbers to go back up after the holiday rush. Just keep following the SEO best practices, and creating informative and engaging content about your services, and you should be fine.

If you’re wondering how to best follow the SEO best practice guidelines, give a call to one of our SEO specialists today! We have over 10 years of experience doing SEO work for all industries–especially medical. We will be happy to help!

Posted in SEO

How User Experience Influences SEO

Posted on by infogenix

How User Experience Influences SEO

Creating a great website is one thing, but generating the traffic you need to drive sales is another challenge altogether. Unfortunately, millions of business owners across the world struggle with search engine optimization, even after they have focused on generating unique content and filling their blogs with the perfect keywords. However, one aspect that many budding web designers struggle with is user experience.

What Is User Experience?

Put simply, user experience is how visitors interact with your site, and what they think of your page after they are done. While an easy-to-use website prompts visitors to navigate deeper into other pages of the website exposing them to more content, a confusing page might prompt them to jump ship sooner—which can hurt that specific pages visibility significantly. In fact, research has shown that visitor behavior affects organic rankings, with over 70% of users abandoning pages if the content is confusing and unoptimized. Fortunately, you can improve your website’s search engine optimization by focusing on user experience.

5 Easy Ways to Improve User Experience

Make Content Easy To Scan

Web readers like content that gets right to the point, which is why you should avoid packing your pages full of single-spaced text. Instead, use white space and formatting marks like bullets, headers, and italicized text. Focus on quality over quantity, and don’t be afraid to link to your sources.

Avoid Background Music

Just because you can make your favorite song autoplay whenever a new user visits your website doesn’t mean you should. In addition to potentially annoying anyone who visits your website, background music can slow down your page and make it hard for people to visit your website in public settings like their office.

Focus On Page Speed

Research has shown that 87% of users tend to abandon webpages that load slower than two seconds, which is why you should do everything you can to ensure fast page load speeds and that your website is mobile responsive. Avoid adding things like images that are bigger than they need to be, interactive tools that don’t need to be there, and bulky, inefficient code.

Use Great Pictures

Great pictures do more than make your website more interesting. With the right images, you can create the exact look and feel that you are going for, which can put people in the right frame of mind to spend some time on your website, blog, or online store.

Hire Professionals

If you aren’t sure where to start with improving your user experience, consider hiring a team of professionals to handle the job, such as the experts at Infogenix. In addition to helping with everything from web design to content updates, these professionals understand the intricacies of search engine optimization and can help your website to stand out from the crowd.

A New Site for a New Year

Posted on by infogenix

A New Site for a New Year

It’s nearly 2017, and we live in a world so technologically advanced that people don’t even bat an eye when they hear about technology like self-driving cars and pocket-sized mobile printers. However, even in a society of smart watches and home automation, many businesses are offering customers outdated, unsightly, and poorly-functioning webpages. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, your lackluster website may be the tipping point that drives consumers elsewhere.

This new year, in addition to your own list of goals, make a few for your business, including revamping your website. Responsive, attractive, and optimized websites can make a great first impression with web visitors, improve your conversion rates, and ultimately drive your sales.

Signs Your Website Needs A New Year’s Makeover

Wondering whether or not your website needs an update? Read through these signs that your site needs to be overhauled, and how working with the right web design company can help.

Pages Load Slowly

One of the hallmarks of an unprofessional website is pages that take forever to load. Loading problems are caused by a long list of offenders, ranging from music that plays automatically to the wrong image format to bulky, unnecessary code. Unfortunately, even a few seconds of lag could be enough to send potential customers running. Research has shown that 53% of web users abandon a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load, which is why every business owner should spend the time to evaluate the load speed of their site.

If your website loads slowly, consider having your entire website rebuilt by a professional web design company like Infogenix. In addition to preserving and optimizing the content that you have produced over the years, the web experts here at Infogenix can help you to streamline your website, improve the flow of your pages, and update the look of your site.

Traffic Is Low

Web traffic isn’t always easy to come by, with the top Google listing nabbing nearly 33% of your potential customers. The further down your search ranking, the less likely clients are to find your website and research your company, which is why SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is so important.

Search engines like Google use a complex set of algorithms to determine which websites are relevant to any given search. Among other things, these web crawlers look for keyword usage, meta tags, headlines, and updated content. SEO services like Infogenix can carefully evaluate your website, updating your content, settings, and headlines to more closely align with what search engines are looking for—improving your search ranking and encouraging traffic.

Your Conversion Rates Are Terrible

When it comes to your website, what are your goals? Are you trying to encourage people to buy from your online store or do you want people to follow your blog? Your success or failure at being able to guide people towards your goals is known as your website’s conversion rate. The higher your conversion rate, the more likely your web visitors are to use your website like you want them to.

Unfortunately, poor conversion rates often mean that your website is non-functional, confusing, or filled with pages that fail to load properly. The national average for conversion rates across all industries is 2.35%, with the top 25% of businesses averaging about 5.31%. If your conversion rates are lower than the national average, or you simply want to strengthen your site’s performance, consider having a professional evaluate your website to check for problems.

Don’t let your website fall short of phenomenal. Enlist the help of our team at Infogenix. With over seventeen years of experience and a deep understanding of design, SEO, and conversion strategies, our innovative Utah web design company can make your business shine online.