Google’s Mobile Search Update

You may have noticed a new layout while searching Google recently on your mobile device. Around the end of May, Google released an updated visual layout for the mobile search results page. This refresh was released to introduce a more modern and user friendly layout. Google say “we’re unveiling a visual refresh of the mobile search results page to better guide you through the information available on the web.” This was referenced on the Google blog here.

The familiar green font on the ads has now been changed to a black label with a simple ‘Ad’ reference. See below for reference:

As you’ll see from the above image, what Google have implemented is an opportunity for companies online to introduce their branding to users on the web before even landing on your site. This is done by using the favicon image which is uploaded on most websites. You’ll generally see this small icon on your browser tab while searching from a desktop or laptop.

What does this mean for me?

In order to take advantage of this update, you’ll need to make sure your website has an active favicon set and specified. There are some rules behind this:

  • Your website and the favicon need to be crawlable to Google (meaning you need to ensure your site is fully accessible to Google’s Spider). This can be a complicated issue, but we can help you with this if required – Contact Us
  • The favicon should be similar to your overall branding on your website. This will allow users to identify and recognise your brand online with ease.
  • Google will resize your favicon to 16px x 16px. They recommend uploading your file in multiples of 48px square to ensure clarity. For example, 48×48 or 96×96 etc.
  • Any favicon that Google see to be inappropriate will be removed and replaced with a default icon image.

At 2Cubed Web Design & Development, we can assist you with any of the needs above, allowing you to take advantage of this latest Google update. We offer a number of services to help you grow your online presence. Check out our list of services – https://2cubed.ie/services/

Contact us today for more information on the services we provide – Contact Us

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5 Great Content Marketing Tips

5 Great Content Marketing Tips

June 5, 2019

As traditional marketing has become less effective in this modern digital age more and more have turned their focus towards content marketing for their marketing needs. Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing content that can not only attract your target audience but actively retain them which will mean the chances of customers turning into conversions on your website will greatly increase. Content marketing allows you to actively develop a relationship with both new and existing clients.

Here are 5 great content marketing tips to ensure that your content is the best it can be:

Create Great Content

Just simply creating lots of fresh content isn’t enough, you need to ensure it’s good relevant content. When it comes to content the approach of “Quality over Quantity” should always be taken. By having great content users will be happy which will create a positive user experience.

Understand your Target Audience

Before you start to write your content you should always first be clear in your mind of whom this content will be targeted at. By knowing the target demographic you are creating content for you will be able to tweak and tailor your content to best meet the needs of this market of readers which will ensure that they will find the content relevant and useful.

Social Sharing

When you have published some great content to your blog don’t sit back and relax! Now you need to ensure that your content gets maximum exposure. A great way of doing this is sharing your blog post on your social media channels such as facebook, twitter, Linkedin etc… It is also a smart move to enable social media sharing on your blog posts which will encourage readers to share your content. The more your post is then shared the more exposure and web traffic you will get.

Simple Language

Keep your content simple and easy to read! Don’t make your content too intelectual with big words that are going to be a chore to read and understand. Keep it simple, straightforward and to the point, that what users want and that’s the kind of content that they will appreciate.

Calls to Action

All great content should contain effective calls to action. Such as click here to read more, click here to share our post etc… By having these call to actions you will promote readers to further engage with and share your content which can lead to it being exposed to others who would not have seen it otherwise maximising your content exposure and website traction.

If you can incorporate these 5 content marketing tips into the future creation of your content then you should see an increase in your website’s level of success as a direct result.

To inquire about content marketing with 2Cubed please get in touch today!

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Website Speed & User Experience

The link between Website Speed and User Experience

May 22, 2019

There is an intrinsic link between Website Speed and User Experience. There is a direct correlation between website speed & user experience, when the website speed is fast, it can greatly contribute to your website delivering a positive user experience, likewise a slow or frustrating website speed can lead to your website delivering a very negative user experience.

Considering the fact that user experience is one of the main determining factors of a website’s success this in turn means that a huge focus should always be placed on ensuring that your website’s speed is optimised to perform as efficiently as possible.

Here are some key ways to ensure that your website’s speed is fast:

Effectively Optimising Images:

If the images on your website aren’t effectively optimized then they can cause your website speed to suffer greatly. The best way to ensure that your images are optimised correctly is to compress them. Image compression is when you reduce the size of an image file without reducing the quality of the image.

Reduce Redirects

Redirects are instructions that automatically take users to another location. It’s important to only have redirects when necessary as each and every redirect that you have on your website will affect your overall website speed. If you have any existing redirects that are no longer necessary then make sure to remove them to increase your website speed.

Removing / Deleting Old Plugins

If your website currently has plugins installed that have become redundant and/or are no longer active then you should remove them as that will help to make your website load faster. Plugins can be very helpful and provide a range of great functions but be sure to only have the plugins you truly need installed, otherwise the more you have the slower your website speed will be.

Ensuring that your website speed and performance is always efficient as possible is an ongoing battle and something that will have to be done regularly. However the time spent on this is justified as the better your website speed is the better your user experience will be and this in turn will mean that your website will perform all the better and experience more success.

To inquire about website design and user experience with 2Cubed please get in touch today!

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Graphic Web Design

Why Graphic Web Design is more important than you think!

May 20, 2019

Graphic Web Design is a fundamental part of web design, it includes everything from back ground images, banners and button controls to color scheme, text style, and graphics. The impact that graphic design has on your website is merely not just aesthetic as many would first think. In fact the web design can actually be one of the most important factors right alongside SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) when it comes to determining whether your website will be a success or not. This is because people are visual creatures, people buy with their eyes first before anything else, which is exactly why traditional shops and businesses put their products in the window displays for passers by to notice.

Three important things in particular that graphic web design can help you achieve are the following:

Make a great first impression:

When customers first arrive on to your website you need to ensure the first impression they have is a positive one which will encourage them to stay on the site further and engage with the content. If they have a negative first impression they will most likely bounce off the site and statistics show that these people will likely be lost forever as potential customers as most won’t give the website a second chance. As the saying goes “you only get one chance at a first impression”.

Help you to stand out from the competition:

Graphic web design can help you to stand out from your competition. Having a graphic designer in charge of your web design instead of simply using a pre-designed template will mean that your website will have a web design that is bespoke which basically means that your website was developed with a unique web design that no one else has. This of course will help you to stand out from the crowd.

Accurately convey tone to customers:

Is your website meant to have a tone which is professional, lighthearted or humorous for example. The two best ways to convey tone to your customers is through text content and visual content. The latter is where graphic web design becomes important. Effective graphic design can give your website an air of professionalism. Visitors are more likely to consider your product/service to be professional if the overall website gives an appearance of professionalism.

2Cubed understand the importance of graphic web design in the web development process. Please feel free to view our portfolio which contains many of our past website designs for clients. We are very proud of the work we have done and strive to always be the best.

2Cubed have vast experience in creating unique and well-branded websites that promote your business professionally. We design tasteful, functional websites that are designed for and around your company and our award winning web design has created innovative and customer-centric sites that have delivered increased customer satisfaction and produced measurable return-on-investment for our clients. We offer well-designed and appointed websites for all levels of business. We believe that your website should fit your overall branding and company ethos, that’s why we pride ourselves in being ‘your web strategy’.

To inquire about getting your website designed with 2Cubed please get in touch today!

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5 Great Reasons Why You Should Develop Your Website on WordPress

WordPress is a content management system (CMS), which means it’s designed to help you organize and display the content on your website. The most popular CMS chosen by people to develop their website on is WordPress.

Here’s 5 great reasons why WordPress is the CMS platform of choice for many:

Free to use

WordPress is a free to use platform which means it’s perfect for those on a small budget especially for start up businesses. If you want to buy a specific theme to give your website a unique design there can be a small cost but to use and download the WordPress tool is absolutely free.

Easy to use interface

WordPress are renowned for their easy to use interface. It’s actually a very simple and fast process to get a WordPress website created and up running. While doing the more complex customisations may require some research beforehand most people will be able to get their website from beginning to live in a matter of minutes.  

Secure and Safe

WordPress is a cms that is very secure and safe. This is because WordPress makes it very simple to update your software and ensure it is all up to date. Ensuring your software is up to date will help to keep hackers away from your website. Updating your software couldn’t be easier as all you have to do to update plugins and themes is to click the checkboxes next to them and click the update button. There is also an option to enable auto updates so you won’t have to remember to manually check.

SEO Friendly

WordPress websites rank higher than other types of websites in search engines. Google and other search engines love WordPress and treat it favourably because as WordPress is very SEO friendly. WordPress also allows you the ability to use SEO plugins to further optimise and enhance your website’s SEO.

Easy to Customise

WordPress makes the process of customising your website easy regardless of whether you are tech savvy or not. To effectively use WordPress it is not a requirement to have prior knowledge of designing websites. WordPress offers users the choice of thousands of free templates and themes from which to choose from. WordPress themes are easy to customise and allow you to manually add custom functionality to your website through the use of plugins. This customisation allows you to put your own unique spin on your website.

WordPress is without a doubt the best CMS system to use. To inquire about using the WordPress CMS for your website get in touch with 2Cubed today.

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Google Ads

3 Common Google Ads Mistakes to Avoid Making

Recently we discussed how to evaluate whether your PPC campaign is worth it? In this post we will discuss 3 common Google Ads mistakes that people make all too often in their PPC Campaigns.

Not enough ads per group

Less is certainly not more when it comes to ads in your ad group. Google recommends that it is best practice to have at least three ads per ad group. If you only have one ad then you aren’t giving Google’s machine learning technology the proper chance to analyze and prioritize the ads that are expected to perform better.

Bad Landing Page

While getting a lot of traffic from Google Ads is a good thing, if you aren’t getting conversions out of these hits then it’s simply a waste of money. One big reason why you may be failing to get conversions is if your landing page is poor, if your landing page is poor people will land on your page, be unimpressed and leave without you converting them which means they cost you money and you got nothing in return. To ensure that your landing page is good you should ensure the following:

  • It loads fast
  • It has a clear Call to Action
  • It’s easy to read and navigate
  • It speaks to the audience who your ad is targeted at

Not taking advantage of Location Settings

To ensure that the right people, your target market see your ad you need to configure the location settings. If you only wish for your ad to be seen in a specific county, province or country you can do so through here. For instance, if your ad is aimed at businesses in Wexford then it shouldn’t be appearing in Dublin, Cork etc.. By taking advantage of location settings you can ensure that your budget will be spent on the right places.

By ensuring that you avoid these 3 common Google Ads mistakes you will minimise the risk of wasting your ads budget and greatly increase your chances of getting your target market to see and click on your ads and most importantly get conversions to your website from your successful PPC campaign.

For advice and information on having a successful website contact 2Cubed today!

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Importance of Google Reviews for SEO

Whether it’s from word of mouth or testimonials reviews have always been an integral part of a business’s success. The positive impact of great reviews for a business cannot be underestimated nor can the negative impact of bad reviews.

Reviews help potential new customers to decide whether they should choose your business over another, having positive reviews from past clients will instill confidence in them that they will experience the same satisfaction as those before them who left the positive reviews. If your website for instance had no reviews then a customer may feel unsure whether they will receive a good service as they have no past precedent or frame of reference to base their decision off. Having reviews can provide this much needed clarity.

While getting reviews from customers has always been an exercise that is beneficial to businesses, the importance of Google Reviews for SEO has never been greater. By having Google reviews you can actively improve the visibility of your business on Google so this means that Google reviews are good for your SEO.

The reason Google reviews have become so important for SEO is that when people use the Google search engine Google will aim to generate the most relevant and beneficial results for local web searches as the quality and quantity of reviews on Google is one of the most important ranking factors for local SEO. Google looks to see how many reviews your business has and what your current average rating is and from here they will determine where exactly in the listings of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) you should appear. Google themselves have even stated in the past that the “highest-rated” businesses near you will be returned when you search with local intent. By having your listing appear high with a great rating and a lot of reviews potential customers will be a lot more likely to click on to your website over your competitors and you will be a lot more likely to get conversions from these people.

A great part of any SEO strategy is to ensure that you can regularly get customers to give your business a review.

The best way to encourage people to give your business a review is to ensure the following:

  • Great Customer Service

By offering all customers a great customer service they will be happy and happy customers are a lot more susceptible to give you a positive review and share their good experience.

  • Simple Review Process

As well as ensuring that the customer service you offer is great, the second thing you should do to encourage reviews is to make the actual process of leaving you a review simple, straightforward and easy. The easier the process is the more likely people will be to take a second and give you a review. Don’t make the customer work for it!

2Cubed provide award-winning web design and mobile app development services. If you would like to give 2Cubed Web Design a review please click the link below:

CLICK HERE TO GIVE REVIEW

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PPC Campaign

Is my PPC Campaign worth it?

April 30, 2019

Pay-per-click, commonly known as PPC, is a paid advertising strategy which is used to get your ad in front of your target demographic. When your PPC campaign is effective it can become a brilliant source of lead generation to your website. However conversely if your campaign is ineffective and is costing you money without giving you the leads and results you envisioned it can quickly become a very dear misadventure.

If you find yourself spending a lot of money on ads and PPC but still aren’t seeing good results then you need to take a step back and ask yourself the question “Is my PPC Campaign worth it?”. By taking a step back and evaluating the effectiveness or lack thereof of your campaign you can determine whether you need to tweak your campaign for better and improved results or whether you need to pause your campaign entirely and go back to the drawing board.

You need to be sure before you delete a PPC campaign because when you do you will lose all of its data and will be unable to retrieve any of it back. Before you delete an underperforming campaign you should first evaluate it and see if you can apply some tweaks to fix it and turn it into a strong performing campaign. To ensure your PPC campaign can perform as strongly as possible ensure that you have considered and took the following into account:

Evaluate Your Chosen Keywords:

For any PPC campaign to be successful it needs to incorporate the right keywords. These keywords need to be relevant to your target demographic. By undergoing proper keyword research before you start your campaign you can minimise the risk that you will incorporate irrelevant keywords in your campaign.

Landing Page Optimisation:

Your landing page will be the first impression for the users who you will get through your PPC campaign. Thus it is vital that your homepage gives a good first impression, by ensuring that the page is correctly optimised to give a good user experience you will increase your chances of getting conversions from your paid traffic. There is no point getting people to your website just for them to have a bad user experience and bounce, that will simply cost you money and give you nothing in return.

Created Ads:

Lastly you need to ensure that the ads themselves that you create need to be appealing and enticing enough to get people to click on them. To ensure that your ad speaks to your target audience incorporate the main keywords (which you will have discovered from your keyword research) into them and include a snippet that will act as a powerful and intriguing call to action.

Before you give up on your PPC campaign make the tweaks. By making these tweaks you should see an improvement in your PPC campaign and generate better results. For advice and information on having a successful website get in touch with 2Cubed today!

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Three Ways Your Web Design May Be Damaging your SEO

3 Ways Your Web Design May Be Damaging your SEO

April 25, 2019

As we have touched on before having a great Web Design employed throughout your website is very important to ensure that your website delivers a great user experience. We all know that a great user experience is great for SEO however if not properly done correctly web design can inadvertently end up actually damaging your SEO.

Three Ways Your Web Design May Be Damaging your SEO that you need to look for are:

Bad or no optimisation of Header Tags

Header tags (H1, H2, H3 etc..) are important for SEO as they help Google to determine what the content on your page is actually about. H1 should always be your page title and H2 tags need to accurately clarify what the page is about and what it contains. The other tags can be used when you go more in-depth.

Image Optimisation

A major factor in any web design is that it needs to visually be beautiful and pleasing to the eye of any user. To ensure that your images are successfully optimised you need to ensure the following three things have been done:

      • Ensure that relevant alt text has been applied to all your images.
      • Ensure that your image is compressed
      • Ensure that you have the correct image format

Non Mobile-Friendly Design

Since Google introduced Mobile-First Indexing the question of whether your website and web design is mobile friendly or not has become an extremely important one. Mobile-First Indexing means that Google will look at how your website performs on mobile first rather than on Desktop and from this judgement they will determine where your website will rank. Therefore if your web design for mobile is poor your SEO will be severely damaged.

If you can ensure that these three things are done then you will greatly reduce the chances of your web design damaging your SEO.

Mobile-First Indexing

Mobile-First Indexing and SEO

April 23, 2019

Mobile-First indexing was introduced by Google as an effort to make websites on the internet more mobile friendly. According to trends more users use mobile than desktop when browsing, so in accordance with this user behaviour trend Google have placed a higher emphasis on how a website is designed and works on mobile than on desktop. At its core mobile-first indexing means that when Google index websites and determine their ranking on a wide range of factors that they are basing their judgement firstly on how the website looks and performs on mobile rather than desktop. Since Google now actually indexes sites on a mobile first approach it means that they are first ranking your site on how responsive and how well designed it is for mobile.

If you are unsure whether your website is being negatively impacted it’s important to remember not to panic. According to Google themselves if your website is already responsive on mobile or if both versions on mobile and desktop are the same already then your rankings may not be affected at all.

However, it should be noted that even if your website is a very responsive site to rank well with mobile-first indexing in practice you need to ensure that both your website’s mobile page speed and it’s load time are fast and efficient and that all images are optimised correctly so that the user experience on mobile is not compromised or hindered in any way. By ensuring that your website looks great on a mobile device firstly you can be safe in the knowledge that it will then translate brilliant to other devices. That’s because if you design for the smallest screen first it will be a lot easier to successfully replicate on a big screen rather than if you were to take the opposite approach.

Designing for mobile first means that you have to design within it’s tighter limitations, while initially this may sound like a negative, it is actually a good thing because it will force you to really prioritize the content you display as you will have no room for extra fluff or fat. This helps to ensure that the all important user experience you deliver will be the best possible. When Google looks at your website as part of mobile-first indexing and determines that you are delivering an optimal user experience as well as having a website that looks and works well on mobile they will look favourably upon you and you will rank well so obviously it is great for your SEO.

For advice and information on having a successful website get in touch with 2Cubed today!

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