Public relations – definition

Not everyone can explain what PR means, and it is worth knowing this concept. In short, it is a communication strategy that allows you to build a relationship between the company and its environment. They are not only customers, but also the local community and employees. It is also interesting that there is no single definition explaining what exactly this area does. The oldest ones, from the 1920s, focus primarily on the information function. Over time, other aspects were also taken into account, including analytical and consultative. One of the most popular definitions today is that of the American Public Relations Association. It puts emphasis on building relationships and commitment, and not only on creating opinions and publicity for the company.

PR and marketing – what are the differences?

In addition to explaining what PR is, you also need to distinguish between it and marketing. They are not the same, although the areas complement each other. Public relations is closely related to the company’s information policy, its relations with the environment, culture and management. In turn, marketing focuses on those activities related to the market and customers that are to increase the production process and create demand. This area is mainly aimed at meeting the needs of consumers and at the same time increasing the company’s revenues

PR is a narrower concept. It supports the marketing strategy, and sometimes it is also its important element and indirectly increases the interest in the offered products or services. Therefore, public relations can complement marketing and jointly achieve the goals set by the company. It facilitates building trust in the company, and this is important when it comes to making purchasing decisions. This PR largely creates its image, as well as informs about current events, which may be, for example, entering new markets, expanding operations or introducing new products to the offer.

Why is PR sometimes confused with marketing? This may be influenced by the fact that it is used as a communication tool between the enterprise and the community. It is therefore crucial to distinguish between the tasks carried out by these two areas. This is important especially from the perspective of entrepreneurs, because only then is it possible to develop an effective strategy ensuring success on the market.

Public relations – what for?

Well-thought-out, well-conducted PR activities mean that the company ceases to be anonymous. It gains recognition and thus can achieve its goals, and especially increase profits. Thanks to public relations, you can effectively distinguish yourself from the competition and gradually build a positive image, while gaining the trust of an increasing number of people. By combining this area in a skillful way with marketing, you can get closer to customers and meet their expectations. This is conducive to creating good opinions and associations.

There are still many companies that neglect PR. Sometimes this is due to a limited budget, but sometimes it is related to a misperception of this type of activity. There are people who wrongly equate public relations with lies and manipulation. Literally translated, the term means public relations. This area includes all activities that allow for contact with the environment and creating positive associations in the context of the company. They are aimed at two groups:

– Internal recipients – includes people within a given organization. This includes supervisory board, management, employees, shareholders, trade unions. In this case, PR is primarily used to integrate and motivate the entire team, but also to increase awareness of the mission, identity and goals of the company.
– External recipients – includes all people who are not directly related to the organization. These are mainly clients (including potential ones), media and various institutions.

In addition to the information and image function, PR also performs several others:

– coordination – allows to harmonize the activities undertaken in the company,
– stabilization – in crisis situations it helps to stabilize relations with the environment,
– persuasive – strengthens the positive attitude of recipients towards the company,
– contact – allows you to maintain good contacts with the environment,
– preventive – prevents problems from developing on a larger scale, allows them to be solved at an early stage.

Public relations activities

In fact, PR activities are very diverse. The most important are:

– Media relations – in other words, cooperation with the media. It is public relations that deals with maintaining contact with journalists, thanks to which information about the company, its achievements, etc. appear in the press, television and other channels. events.
– Crisis management – actions carried out in sudden, difficult and unexpected situations that may adversely affect the company’s image. Their goal is not to cover up the truth, but to take action that will remove the effects of the crisis or reduce them as much as possible.
– Corporate Identity (CI) – in other words, creating the identity of the organization. This area includes all activities that allow to build and consolidate a strictly defined way of perceiving the company among recipients. Attention to detail and consistency play an important role here. CI means, for example, logos, stamps, business cards or colors used by the company.
– Own publications – all publications issued by the company relating to its daily operations. It is not only leaflets and folders, but also financial reports, annual reports and even a website.
– Lobbying – activities aimed at gaining the favor of the media, authorities and other interested parties. They can be conducted both on a local and national scale. Lobbying helps to disseminate ideas important to the company.

In order for PR to help a company, it must be based on a carefully prepared strategy. Each step should be well thought out as a seemingly small mistake usually costs a lot. It should be noted that public relations activities are based on dialogue, i.e. two-way communication. This distinguishes this area from regular advertising which is one-sided and does not expect feedback. Currently, PR participates in communication with clients and is helpful at every stage of the company’s activity. It provides a lot of support during its establishment and building awareness, as well as later, when introducing new products to the market, conducting social campaigns and rebranding.

Public relations goals

The goals of PR can be divided into:

– strategic,
– operational.

A specific image of the company is a strategic goal. It determines the state that should be achieved by implementing the developed plan. Motivates and shows the correct course of action. An example of such a goal may be to improve the opinion about an organization in the industry or to strengthen the relationship between it and customers. Strategic goals focus on managing problems, image and relationships. They mostly influence and complement each other.

The operational goals are more precise, and their implementation facilitates the achievement of the set strategic goals. They are formulated taking into account the SMART principle, that is:
S – Specified,
M – Measurable,
A – Ambitious,
R – Realistic,
T – Time-Bound.

An example of an operational goal is to increase the number of members of the company’s loyalty program by 40% within 6 months. Each must be worded in such a way as to be detailed and, at the same time, measurable. It is also important that the operational goals motivate the company to act and develop. However, when establishing them, you need to make sure that you have the tools to implement them.

Formulating the goals that the company is to achieve through PR in the right way is important, because it is on this that the subsequent measurement of their effects depends. For the evaluation, you need tools that allow you to track the progress of organized campaigns and give you access to various statistics. Which are worth using? It largely depends on what exactly the company wants to achieve through public relations activities. For example, Google Analytics or Brand24 may prove useful (especially for media monitoring). When verifying the effects, certain indicators should be taken into account, such as:

– the number of mentions of the company, both on official channels and on internet forums, blogs, etc.,
– range of published content,
– traffic on the corporate website.

There is no single, strictly defined method for analyzing the effects of PR, which can be quite a problem for companies. In addition, this area is gradually entering other areas, supplementing them (e.g. marketing), and this is an additional obstacle. Although analyzing the effectiveness of public relations is not always easy, it is worth taking on this task to see if the company is actually going in the right direction.

Keep in mind that PR plays a very important role. Currently, the reputation and perception of the company are extremely valuable. Often they are the ones that largely allow you to achieve success in the industry, and one mistake is enough to lose your position that has been built for many months or years.

With the spread of the Internet, many customers have moved to the network – including yours. That is why it is worth following the trends, becoming part of the Internet reality. Launching your own website is just the beginning, thanks to which you can reach a wide group of potential customers.

Online marketing, or what?

Online marketing is defined as all activities that support the sale of products / services and help in building the image via the Internet. At the same time, great emphasis is placed on building and maintaining a good brand-consumer relationship. All because the recipient in this case plays a much greater role compared to traditional marketing. The user is not a passive recipient of advertising messages, but has the opportunity to conduct a dialogue with the brand, express his own opinions, etc.

Online Marketing Activities

Online marketing is a very complex issue that involves many different activities. The possibility of implementing a strategy on several levels at the same time can bring much better and faster results.

Positioning
High positions in search results are desirable to increase brand awareness and generate a lot of traffic on the website. Search engine marketing helps in this, the main element of which is page positioning. Therefore, it is about developing such a strategy, thanks to which the company website will occupy the highest possible positions for specific keywords – those that are most often entered by users who will potentially be interested in purchasing a given product or service.

Google Ads advertising
Google Ads advertising is a way to appear, for example, in paid search results, i.e. those that appear above organic results. This means that the advertising message is displayed to the user after entering a specific phrase. This increases the chance of being clicked and redirected to the website. The advantage of Google Ads is its huge range and high efficiency. Therefore, this option is often used by companies that want immediate results.

Video marketing
It is an internet marketing strategy that aims primarily to build a brand image, strengthen awareness and promote specific products. Various forms of communication can be used in video marketing, e.g. video blogs, webinars, video guides, video reviews. Obviously, advertising on the YouTube platform plays a very important role in this case.

Content marketing
Content marketing should be understood as activities that oscillate around good-quality content. It is about providing useful texts in the form of a blog, sponsored articles, newsletters, e-books, reports, etc. The goals behind content marketing can be different – it can support seo, it can build an expert image or, on the contrary, for example, the image of the brand of a “buddy”. Correctly conducted and consistent activities in the area of content increase brand trust and understanding.

Email Marketing
In this case, e-mail becomes the communication tool. This form of marketing aims to build consumer loyalty, create a specific image of the company and build specific relationships with customers. One of the most frequently used forms of e-mail marketing is the newsletter. It reaches the audience by providing valuable content in an accessible form – so as to encourage clicking and going to the website. Through the newsletter, you can inform about current promotions, new products, industry events, etc. It is very important that the user has the opportunity to unsubscribe from the newsletter.

Viral Marketing
Viral marketing is based on the concept of the dissemination of information by users. Achieving this goal is only possible with valuable content – one that arouses interest. Then it is transferred in the form of shares, e.g. on profiles in social media.

Remarketing
Remarketing is defined as the activity of repeating the advertising message to users who visited specific products or visited the company’s website. This is done using the so-called cookies. In this form, there is great potential, because it allows you to more effectively reach potential customers who were interested in the offer in the past. At the same time, it makes it possible to stand out from the competition.

Blogosphere
An element of internet marketing is also the use of the blogosphere. It’s about working with bloggers who can test a given product / service and then write a review. Sometimes the cooperation concerns the placement of advertising banners or texts, etc.

Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing takes advantage of the fact that most people use smartphones and dedicated applications. It is through them that you can help potential customers make purchasing decisions while tracking their location and preferences. What is it in practice? A person using a smartphone and having data transfer turned on may receive information about discounts, rebates or offers of the day when he passes by your store, restaurant, etc. This type of marketing is highly effective. In addition, the company appears to be modern and following the current trends.

Why is it worth implementing online marketing?

In the era of the widespread use of the Internet and the presence of potential customers on the web, it is worth becoming interested in online marketing. It is a tool that, if used correctly, will bring you a lot of benefits.

A chance to reach a larger group of potential customers
Do you have a small group of regular customers? While this is very good news, you can have many more. Thanks to internet marketing, you will reach new people potentially interested in your products / services. Internet marketing allows you to be where your potential customers are – even when your business is not directly related to online sales. Remember that many users – before making a purchase decision – look for information on the web. So it’s good to strengthen your image.

Attractive cost of the activities carried out
Internet marketing is a much more cost-effective option than many other forms of advertising. This is due to a simple fact: the company can choose from many tools – depending on the budget and the goal to be obtained. It is very often the case that the cost of internet marketing, SEO or social media is much lower compared to traditional marketing because we do not shoot at the barn, but only selected users – selected on the basis of the likelihood of their purchase.

Establishing interaction with customers
Modern customers want to know who is behind the advertising message, they want to have free contact with the company. Internet marketing creates such an opportunity, among others thanks to activities on social networks. Building positive relationships with consumers not only strengthens ties, but above all has a positive effect on trust and loyalty. Pleasant experiences from cooperation – not only at the time of making a purchase – influence purchasing decisions in the future.

Quick performance measurement
You don’t have to wait long to assess the effectiveness of your activities. In the case of internet marketing, you can track the effectiveness of the campaign on an ongoing basis using many useful tools. You can analyze conversions, sales, subscriptions and many other metrics. Thanks to this, you will know which channels to reach network users in order to turn them into real customers.

Reaching out with unobtrusive advertising
Nobody likes to be attacked by direct forms of advertising that clearly solicit a purchase. Internet marketing meets this goal by offering many different methods of reaching recipients – in a completely subtle and natural way. Effect? The chance of making a purchase is much greater. An example is running a blog as part of content marketing. By posting advisory articles with links to specific products / services that solve the problem, you increase the chance of making a purchase. Such an effect would not have been achieved if the advertisement had been placed “directly”.

Who is online marketing for?

A great advantage of internet marketing and at the same time an advantage over traditional marketing is the fact that it is a solution beneficial for every company – regardless of the profile, industry, size, etc.

The fact that marketing activities are carried out online does not mean that the company has to deal with online sales. All you need to do is have a corporate website through which potential customers will be able to reach you and contact you.

Online marketing is so universal that through appropriate activities it will be possible to reach potential customers interested in e.g. construction services, cleaning services, rental of tools, etc.

Where to start?

The starting point for online marketing activities is the website. It is the element that connects the company with potential customers. However, in order for it to be visible, you need to build a range. This is what internet marketing helps with: from positioning to cooperation with the blogosphere.

Remember, however, that you must conduct internet marketing in accordance with your strategy. Random actions will not bring the expected effectiveness. That is why it is worth using the support of specialists who will suggest solutions adequate to the expectations, needs and specificity of the industry.

Sa ibaba ipinakita namin ang recagestag stagesthat na maaari mong asahan kapag nag-a-apply sa amin

Pag-uusap sa telepono kasama ang HR (20-30 min)

Kung ang iyong karanasan at kasanayan ay umaangkop sa profile ng posisyon, aanyayahan ka namin sa unang yugto ng pangangalap. Ito ay isang 20-30 minutong pag-uusap sa telepono kasama ang HR. Sa pag-uusap na ito, malalaman mo ang tungkol sa Paraphrase Online Group at ang papel na iyong na-apply. Kami naman ay hihilingin na tanungin ka tungkol sa mga detalyeng nauugnay sa iyong karera, kakayahan at pagganyak na magtrabaho sa ganitong posisyon. Pag-uusapan din namin ang tungkol sa iyong mga inaasahan sa pananalapi at pagkakaroon, upang matiyak na ang lahat ng mga kundisyong nauugnay sa pagtatrabaho sa amin ay kaakit-akit sa iyo.

Panayam sa rekrutment kasama ang mga miyembro ng koponan (1h)

Kung ang aming mga impression pagkatapos ng unang pakikipanayam ay positibo, aanyayahan ka namin sa isang oras na pakikipanayam sa mga tao mula sa koponan kung saan mo isinumite ang iyong aplikasyon. Ito ay isang magandang pagkakataon para malaman mo kung paano ito magtrabaho sa kagawaran na ito, kaya ihanda ang iyong mga katanungan – ikalulugod naming sagutin ang mga ito. Gusto naming magtanong ng mga katanungan na magpapahintulot sa amin na mas mahusay na suriin ang iyong mga kakayahang kinakailangan para sa posisyon na ito. Maaari mong asahan ang mga katanungan batay sa mga tukoy na sitwasyon na maaari mong makasalamuha habang nagtatrabaho sa amin. Papayagan kaming mas masuri nang mas mabuti kung magagawa mo nang maayos ang papel na ito at makakatikim ka sa hinihintay mo sa amin. Sa simula ng pagpupulong, aanyayahan ka naming makumpleto ang isang maikling sikolohikal na pagsubok, tatagal ng hindi hihigit sa 10 minuto.

Opsyonal – isang gawain (aabutin ka ng halos 1 oras ng iyong sariling oras + 30 minuto para sa isang pagpupulong na nakatuon sa pagtalakay sa gawain)

Para sa ilang mga pangangalap, nagpapakilala rin kami ng isang gawain upang matulungan kaming suriin ang iyong diskarte sa paglutas ng mga tukoy na problema. Para sa amin, ito ay isa sa mga pinakamahusay na paraan upang subukan ang mga kakayahan at tiyaking ang pinakamahusay na mga manlalaro ay sasali sa aming koponan. Bibigyan ka namin ng isang oras upang makumpleto ang gawain – humigit-kumulang. 2-3 araw, sisiguraduhin din naming hindi mo na gugugol ng higit sa isang oras ng iyong sariling oras dito. Matapos mong makumpleto ang gawain, mag-aayos kami ng isang maikling pagpupulong upang talakayin ito.

Madalas naming pinagsasama ang yugtong ito sa isang pakikipanayam sa pangangalap, hinihiling sa iyo na maghanda ng isang solusyon sa isang problema bago ang pagpupulong.

Sino ang makikilala mo?

Ang pagpupulong ay palaging dinaluhan ng iyong bagong manager, ibig sabihin, ang taong makikipagtulungan ka nang higit. Gusto namin na mas makilala kayo. Ito rin ang pinakamahusay na oras upang sabihin sa iyo ang tungkol sa koponan na iyong inilapat at alisin ang anumang mga pagdududa.

Anong mga katanungan ang maaari mong asahan sa pakikipanayam?

Nagtatanong kami tungkol sa mga isyu na nauugnay sa papel na iyong inilapat.

Gumagamit kami ng mga katanungang pang-sitwasyon, ibig sabihin, mga katanungang tumutukoy sa iyong tukoy na nakaraang karanasan, at bilang karagdagan sa mga tumutukoy sa mga sitwasyong hipotikal. Tinutulungan nila kaming mas maunawaan kung paano ka nagpapatakbo at kung paano ka lalapit sa paglutas ng problema.

Ginagamit namin ang pamamaraan ng STAR (situation – sitwasyon, task – gawain, action – pagkilos, result – resulta) para dito. Kailangan namin hindi lamang isang paglalarawan ng sitwasyon na kinaharap mo, ngunit higit sa lahat impormasyon sa kung paano mo ito hinarap. Maging tiyak sa pagsagot sa mga naturang katanungan.

Nagsasagawa rin kami ng isang maikling pagsubok na magsasabi sa amin ng higit pa tungkol sa iyong mga kakayahang panlipunan at pangunahing mga ugali ng pagkatao. Salamat sa ito, susuriin namin kung nasa parehong wavelength kami.

Panghuli, kumpirmahin namin ang mga kondisyong pampinansyal at ang iyong kakayahang magamit.

Tandaan na ang panayam ay oras din para magtanong ka sa anumang mga katanungan na maaaring abalahin ka sa konteksto ng iyong tungkulin at kumpanya.

Paano maghanda para sa isang pakikipanayam sa trabaho?

Ito ay laging nagkakahalaga ng pagiging handa at ito ay isa sa mga prinsipyo na pinahahalagahan namin sa Paraphrase Online Group. Maaari kang maghanda para sa pakikipanayam tulad ng sumusunod:

Basahin muli ang patalastas sa trabaho at alamin ang tungkol sa mga kinakailangan. Sa panahon ng pakikipanayam, magtutuon kami sa mga lugar na mahalaga sa amin sa konteksto ng oposisyong ito, at bibigyan ka ng anunsyo ng isang buong larawan ng kung sino ang hinahanap namin para sa partikular na papel na ito. Kaya’t ang karamihan sa mga kasagutan doon mismo.

Suriin ang iyong CV at isipin ang tungkol sa mga kasanayan na gagawing angkop sa iyo para sa trabahong ito. Mag-isip sa mga tuntunin ng mga nakamit, hal. Tukoy na mga bagay na pinamamahalaang mong pagbutihin, gawin nang mas mahusay, ang mga nagdala ng mga benepisyo sa kumpanya. Magdala ng ilang mga sitwasyon na kumpirmahin ang iyong mga kakayahan. Ito ang tatanungin namin sa iyo.

Suriin ang aming website, blog at Facebook – gawin ang iyong araling-bahay at kilalanin ang kumpanyang nais mong pagtatrabaho.

Ang Paraphrase Online Group ay walang pormal na dress code, kaya’t ang lahat na makilala mo sa pakikipanayam ay magsusuot ng maong at isang T-shirt kaysa isang suit.

Puna

Pagkatapos ng bawat yugto ng pangangalap, babalik kami sa mga kandidato na may feedback.

Kung positibo ito, mahusay iyan – makikipag-ugnay kami sa iyo upang kumpirmahin ang mga tuntunin ng kooperasyon. Ang susunod na hakbang ay ang mag-sign ng isang kasunduan sa kooperasyon. Para sa hangaring ito, makikipag-ugnay sa iyo ang isang tao mula sa aming Kagawaran ng Pamamahala.

Gayunpaman, kung magpapasya kami na ang iyong karanasan at kakayahan ay hindi umaangkop sa profile ng kandidato na hinahanap namin, makakatanggap ka ng impormasyon mula sa amin tungkol sa mga dahilan para sa naturang desisyon. Karaniwan kaming bumalik na may feedback sa loob ng ilang araw, ngunit kung ang proseso ng pangangalap ay dapat na pinalawak, ipapaalam namin sa iyo. Kung ang sagot ay hindi dumating sa oras – tiyaking ipaalala sa amin.

Ano ang dapat mong tandaan kapag nakikipag-usap sa online?

Sa oras na naka-iskedyul ang pagpupulong, mag-click sa link ng Google Meet na ipinadala namin sa iyo sa email at sumali sa pag-uusap. Nasa ibaba ang ilang mga tip na dapat tandaan bago makipagkita sa online.

– Pamilyarin ang iyong sarili sa Google Meet kung hindi mo pa nagamit ang tool na ito dati.
– Suriin ang kalidad ng iyong koneksyon sa internet.
– Suriin kung gumagana ang iyong mga headphone at mikropono.
– Maghanap ng isang tahimik na lugar kung saan maaari kang makipag-usap (mas mabuti na may likas na ilaw na nagniningning nang direkta sa iyong mukha).

Alok

Naging okay ang lahat? Malamig! Maligayang pagdating sa Paraphrase Online Group!

Theory, or what is this creation – JavaScript?

The website is in the form of code that is read by browsers and rendered as indicated. The next elements of the website are added via HTML tags. The appearance of the page requires adding an additional file, written in css. The most common styles are located in the style.css file.

Websites built on HTML and CSS are relatively simple. Creating complex websites requires the use of more technically advanced solutions, allowing for dynamic content delivery, HTML rendering at the server level, and processing information from users and saving them in a database. The use of additional technologies also makes the form of providing information on the website more attractive.

Building dynamic applications is possible thanks to a wide range of programming languages, extending the functionality of websites. One of the most popular programming languages in recent years has been JavaScript. This is confirmed, inter alia, by The 2020 State of the Octoverse report summarizing the activities of developers within the GitHub platform.

JavaScript was created in late 1995. Initially, it was used primarily to validate information entered by the user (e.g. the correctness of an e-mail address in a form), today it allows you to build dynamic websites. Thanks to the scripts, the website “lives” and reacts to the user’s actions – the image gallery becomes interactive, pop-ups can be closed, and Google Analytics collects information about the traffic on the site. JS is also responsible for other elements without which websites do not seem to meet modern standards:
– infinite scroll (i.e. loading subsequent elements, e.g. products without reloading the page),
– comments and ratings,
– internal linking,
– “the best” lists of products or articles.

The choice of JavaScript as the technology on which the website will be based allows you to place on it elements downloaded from external sources, for example the Google Maps API or API from social networks.

JavaScript code is in a file saved as .js (usually script.js) – a link to it is inserted in the head section of the page or immediately before the final body tag (which is recommended). However, some code fragments are also placed directly between html tags (e.g. the script responsible for Google Analytics), which allows the code to be executed (i.e. the appearance of a specific action on the page) before the entire HTML and CSS structure is loaded. Unfortunately, such treatments usually have a negative impact on the rendering speed of the website – so it is worth using this option to a limited extent.

Within websites built according to this standard, at first the HTML structure is loaded, which is then supplemented with CSS code. Finally, the JS code is executed according to the sequence of the following items in the file – top to bottom.

Client-side Rendering or Server Side Rendering?

JavaScript is a specific language – it can be executed on the server side (server-side) and on the browser side (client-side). Both options allow you to build a modern web application that is attractive to users and web robots.

Server-side rendering (SSR) is the most popular method of displaying web pages. The browser sends information to the server, which sends the response in the form of rendered HTML, which is displayed on our screen. The response speed depends on, among others:
– internet connection,
– server location (distance from the computer from which the query was sent),
– traffic on a given page (how many inquiries are sent at the same time),
– from website optimization, e.g. cache and the possibility of storing some files in the browser cache).

Each subsequent click causes the necessity to reload the page – the server sends a response containing HTML with the same elements as the previous subpage.

Client-side Rendering allows you to render responses on the client side – most often the web browser. In this case, in response to the browser request, the server sends a JavaScript file, which is responsible for creating the HTML structure and adding content to it. In the case of moving to the next subpage, the website does not have to be reloaded – JS downloads the necessary content from the server and complements the previously rendered HTML skeleton. The server response is faster and the Internet connection is less loaded.

Client-side rendering is usually faster, but due to the need to execute all JS code, the first loading of the website may be longer than with SSR. Client-side rendering – rendering a view only for a given browser may cause problems with effective website positioning.

Google vs. JS – a bumpy road to success

The possibilities offered by JavaScript code had a significant impact on its popularity. JS allows, among others to create dynamic pages, based on a template written in html + css, supplemented with data downloaded, for example, from databases. Moreover, the potential of this language allows you to manipulate templates, create additional elements and render the page “on the fly” – while the program is running. On this principle, in the first years of its existence, Wix site builder – rendered websites based on JS code.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, this solution is not conducive to ranking high in the Google search engine. Network robots from the Mountain View company for many years were not able to analyze JavaScript pages well, which in turn resulted in the inability to compete in SERPs. In recent years, Google has declared to improve its capabilities in this area, but the effectiveness of reading the code files is not always satisfactory.

SEO JavaScript pages requires, first of all, to know how Googlebot processes JS code. For static pages, the robot’s flowchart is quite simple.

Google checks if it can enter a given address (access for robots can be blocked in the robots.txt file or tag in <head>), then downloads the page data – HTML structure and at the same time checks what is on all links in the code. Then the CSS files are read and the page is sent for indexing. This process is different for JavaScript pages.

As you can see, the path that Googlebot has to travel is much more complicated. After downloading the HTML file, it downloads the CSS and JS code which is necessary to render the page. It then supplements it with resources from external sources (if any) and renders the page. The appearance of the page and the necessary elements of its structure are contained in the JS code, which allows you to manipulate individual fragments and adapt them to the user’s needs.

Rendering the code before it is indexed may take a long time and Google does not guarantee that it will get all the information we wanted to include on the page. It has to do with with the number of URLs the robot scans during the day – the so-called “Crawl budget”. Taking into account the needs of Googlebot allows it to effectively crawl under the page, which translates into the visibility of the site in search results.

Drawing a Googlebot path gives a clear overview of the complexity of positioning JavaScript-based pages. Unfortunately, it does not inform about the risks and problems that may arise during the next steps.

JS pages – what does Google see?

Websites based largely on JavaScript code have always been a big challenge for Google robots. Their indexation level is increasing, but they are still not as high as we could wish for.

Google renders pages differently than the average browser, and uses the page in a different way than the user. The algorithm of operation focuses primarily on the elements that are necessary to render the website. It may omit those it deems less important and, as a result, ignore them during indexing. This is problematic especially in a situation when these fragments contain the content of the page, which was intended to become a ticket to high positions in search results. Data dependent on cookies are particularly exposed to the risk of remaining invisible – if the content is served on their basis, Google will probably not reach it. Additional issues are also the speed at which the code is executed – bad optimization may extend the entire process and cause the robot to abandon it.

The second problem is the lack of Googlebot activity when visiting the website – Google does not scroll the page, does not click where the user is and blocks automatic video playback. Unlike other visitors to the site, it may not reach all the prepared content and not have a complete picture of the site.

Information on how Google renders our site can be obtained using the Mobile Optimization Test. After entering the address, Mobile Test will download the subpage indicated by us and return information about the rendering process – including messages about problems. A preview of the rendered page will also appear on the right.

You can also check the page in Google Search Console – “URL Check”. Both forms of site rendering control allow you to obtain the data necessary to introduce any changes and improve the indexation of the site based on JS.

Single Page Apps – React, Vue.js and other frameworks

Strong emphasis on the speed of data delivery and the popularity of technologies used in mobile applications has resulted in the growing popularity of Single Page Apps websites. This type of website has one html file, which is used to render subsequent subpages. The content is downloaded dynamically from the server through JS requests.

SPAs are fast and well received by users. During the visit, the browser downloads all static elements, the remaining content is read during the visit. Transitions between successive fragments of the page are dynamic – we avoid the moment of reloading the page. From the user’s position, it looks the same as in the case of more traditional pages – e.g. links in the menu have a familiar form, but after clicking on them, the browser does not download data from the next html file – in fact it remains in the basic index.html, and the content is downloaded are from the database and rendered with JS.

To build Single Page Apps, the AJAX model is used, which allows communication with the server in an asynchronous manner, which does not require the document to be refreshed with each user interaction with the site. Pages are built with what Wikipedia refers to as the “application framework” framework. The framework is responsible for the application structure, mechanism of operation, components and necessary libraries. The most popular frameworks include React, which is used to build application interfaces. Vue.js and Ember.js are also frequently used. The framework developed and promoted by Google is called “Angular”. The most popular frameworks allow for server-side rendering of websites (which is recommended from the perspective of easy page crawling by Googlebot) and take into account the requirements of mobile browsers.

As we mentioned earlier, Google is not always able to deal with these types of sites, which makes the positioning of some Single Page App based on JavaScript without proper optimization may be impossible. A good example is the website. The website provides a lot of historical information (taken from Wikipedia), but Google does not see its potential.

While in the case of a website of this type, the lack of presence in Google is not that significant, in the case of a store it can significantly affect the interest of customers. Pages created using popular frameworks – React, Vue.js or Angular, allow you to introduce elements necessary to appear in the Google index and serve content in a way that allows you to compete in terms of position.

SEO and optimization of JS pages

The solutions enabled by the JavaScript code have a positive impact on the speed of the website and its reception by users. However, seeing the page by potential customers is only half the battle – most of them reach our URL only when they find it in Google search results.

Optimizing web pages with a lot of JavaScript code requires changes that seem obvious to static pages.

Access for network robots
As mentioned earlier, Googlebot will first check if the URL it encounters is accessible to it. This applies to all resources within it – including JS and CSS files. Google’s rendering of JS pages requires full code access, so avoid blocking these resources in your robots.txt file.

Urls
One of the problems that can be encountered when optimizing a site based largely on JS, is the lack of “traditional” links to subsequent pages of the site. Googlebot focuses only on the links placed in the href attribute, in the <a> tag.

Another problem with URLs typical of sites with lots of JS is the use of URLs with “#”. The cross allows you to avoid the need to scroll through the document and move directly to the selected fragment.

One solution to these problems is to use the HTML5 History API. It allows you to manipulate the browser’s history – e.g. change the address in the browser’s address bar and change the content, without having to reload the subpage. The API is built into most frameworks (including React Router), which makes it much easier to build websites that allow for positioning in Google. Note – such solutions will not be effective with old versions of browsers.

Among other problems with URLs, it is also worth noting quite a lot of potential for duplicate pages, with addresses that differ in case of letters or slash at the end. Placing a canonical link in the <head> section fixes this problem. The address they contain will be unambiguous information for Google.

Sitemap.xml
The element that makes indexing the site much easier are files containing links to all addresses within the domain – sitemap. The sitemap is a list to which all addresses to which we want to invite the bot should be included.

Redirects and the problem of apparent errors 404
One of the important elements of the website optimization process is catching broken URLs and directing them to new, correct ones. Redirects 301, 302, etc. are performed within the server. However, in the case of the Single Page App, this solution cannot be applied. As the Google Help Center suggests, and as proven by Search Engine Land’s testing, proper use of JS code will work in a similar way.

Redirecting JS will allow you to redirect the address to the next subpage, but it will not give the answer typical for redirects made on the server. However, from the point of view of presence in search results, this is not a problem. Redirecting effectively replaces the old address with a new one that may go further in the ranking.

window.location.replace replaces the current document with the one at the given address. The address and contents of the original document will not be cached. This type of procedure is another example of the effective use of the previously mentioned HTML5 History API.

Other important server response codes for network robots include 404, “Not Found”. In the case of JS pages (although this problem also occurs with badly configured static pages), the lack of a document at the given address will be read by the server as a correct 200 answer. As a result, the search engine index may find non-existent addresses with no content. In order to overcome this problem and inform robots about the need to look at other subpages, it is worth supplementing the code with a fragment that allows you to get the desired answer from the server.

Loading delay
Page speed is one of the factors contributing to good website visibility. The optimal speed of content delivery and other content elements allows for comfortable use of the website without overloading the user’s internet connection. One of the most effective solutions is lazy loading – delaying the loading of certain website elements. Note – incorrect implementation may block access to important website resources and, as a result, prevent Googlebot from accessing key content for positioning.

When loading, priority should be given to the HTML structure that allows you to “build the page” and its content. Next in the queue are the graphics, which most often have the greatest impact on the amount of data downloaded to load your site. The use of lazy loading allows you to render successive elements visible on the screen in the first one, allowing for later loading of fragments available after scrolling below.

Titles, descriptions …
You can’t do effective SEO without optimizing your titles and descriptions. In the case of Single Page App pages, based on frameworks such as React, Ember or Angular, it is worth considering adding a module or library that allows for any modification of these tags. In the case of applications built on React, the most frequently chosen library is React Router and React Helmet. The Gatsby framework based on React is also becoming more and more popular.

Testing and troubleshooting JavaScript application SEO

Positioning of Javascript-based websites has not been possible for many years. The development of methods to deliver content to web crawlers is in line with improving Google’s ability to render and read JS sites. However, there is still a significant risk of errors when indexing the content of our website – the solution provided by Google is not perfect.

The guarantee of the appearance in the SERPs is to allow access to the site by Google robots and control the content displayed by them. For this purpose, it is worth not to limit yourself to testing the website, especially with the help of the previously indicated Google tools.

Dynamic rendering – ready for Googlebot

As part of improving the relationship between Googlebot and JavaScript, Google in its documentation suggests using various tricks that allow for better processing of JS code. One of them is dynamic rendering.

Dynamic rendering is based on identifying the client (e.g. a browser or a web robot) and providing him with a response tailored to his technical capabilities. In practice, when the query is made by the user (web browser), the page will be rendered in the normal way – the HTML file will be downloaded and the desired content will be downloaded from the database with the help of a request sent by a JS script. When Googlebot asks for a given URL, the server will send a render of the page containing static HTML, which will enable faster indexing of its content.

An API called Rendertron can be used to implement dynamic rendering, which works as a standalone HTTP server. It renders the contents of URLs readable by bots that don’t execute JavaScript correctly. Rendertron allows you to save the rendered file in the cache, which significantly speeds up the sending of responses to the bot. The data in the cache will be updated automatically at intervals specified by us.

Pre-rendered documents are also useful from the point of view of other clients – they allow you to prepare content suitable for readers used by the visually impaired.

SEO and JavaScript – summary

The growing emphasis on the speed of serving content will certainly result in a further increase in the popularity of the JavaScript language. Google also takes this into account and is constantly working to improve the indexing of the content accessible with the help of JS. Appropriate optimization and the use of bot-friendly solutions are the key to high positions in search results, even for Single Page App and other JS-based sites.

What is a Marketing Strategy?

Every brand should have a marketing strategy, regardless of size. It is a document analyzing the current situation of the company, as well as defining the goals of marketing activities and how to achieve them. It should be quite extensive and indicate the direction of marketing activities to obtain the best possible results. It can be called a guide for the team that will coordinate all activities related to marketing.

More specifically, the marketing strategy should include:
– strengths and weaknesses of the company,
– the goals he wants to achieve,
– how to implement them,
– defining the target group,
– defining the competition, as well as what the company has an advantage over it,
– costs of marketing activities.

Importantly, a good marketing strategy should not only be applied on an ongoing basis, but also verified, updated or supplemented in accordance with the latest market realities, technological development, trends, etc. Thanks to this, it can support the company at every stage of its development and be a signpost for it. It is worth making efforts to create this document, because its professionalism and comprehensiveness will facilitate the management of the company’s activities.

Why is a marketing strategy created?

As already mentioned, the strategy is to determine the direction of marketing activities undertaken by the company. Its main goal should be to define how to conduct communication so that it is:
– better than the competition’s communication,
– adjusted to the needs, expectations and characteristics of the target group.

In addition, it is important to define the target itself, which will help to specify the actions.

The marketing strategy is created in order to avoid acting blindly and incurring unnecessary costs on unsuccessful and not bringing the expected results. It brings many benefits. Primarily:
– allows you to focus on the possibilities to be used and avoid threats,
– enables the identification of tools that will prove useful in fighting competition,
– allows you to recognize the competitive advantage of your company’s product over other similar products,
– helps to save time and money, setting the direction for creating effective campaigns,
– supports effective communication of the company with customers and partners,
– helps to increase sales and maximize profits.

A well-structured document of this type and its enforcement should directly contribute to increasing sales, acquiring new contacts, gaining new customers and retaining those who have already used the company’s services, while increasing their satisfaction.

How to create a good marketing strategy?

Creating a good and complete marketing strategy is certainly not easy. It requires a lot of analysis and reflection, as well as consultation with specialists. The key is to understand your product (what you sell) and the target group (the type of people who may be interested in your offer). You should look at the company’s activities objectively, putting yourself in the position of a potential customer, which is not always easy. It is necessary to extract from the offer what makes it unique and better than the offers of the competition.

You need to consider, among other things:
– what is the purpose of the product or service (e.g. meets specific needs, solves problems, provides unique experiences, etc.),
– how and to what extent the product is better than the competitors’ proposal,
– how it can be useful for a potential client.

It is also important to define exactly who this potential customer is. If you sell children’s goods, your target will be young parents, if you produce shovels and rakes, you will target gardeners, garden enthusiasts or perhaps professional gardeners, orchardists or farmers, if you offer cosmetic treatments, you will be primarily interested in women above a certain age limit. You always need to know who to turn to in marketing communication and adjust its form, content and message to the requirements and needs of a given target group.

The target fragment of the marketing strategy should be as extensive as possible. It is not enough to generally define who is a potential customer of the company. You should also look at the interests, habits, needs or lifestyle of the target people, as well as how they communicate. The target group can also be divided into segments based on various criteria and choose the one that appears to be the most profitable.

Marketing goals – what is it?

Once you’ve dealt with analyzing your offer and its target group, it’s time to define your company’s marketing goals. This is nothing more than assumptions about what you want to achieve through your marketing activities. You might think that there is nothing easier – probably every business owner wants to achieve the highest possible profit. However, for marketing purposes, it is about specifics. They can be related to different criteria. It is important, however, that they are specified in a fairly precise manner so that it is possible to determine whether or not they have been achieved. Marketing goals may include, for example:
– increasing sales,
– increasing awareness,
– acquiring a partner or sponsor,
– number of visits to the website,
– increasing the brand’s reputation (e.g. being perceived as an expert in a given field).

It is also very important to determine the scale of the expected effect and the time frame for achieving it. Marketing goals should certainly not be confused with a vision or wishes. They must be real, feasible and measurable!

How to define marketing goals?

Still not sure how to define marketing goals for your business? The so-called a SMART model that sets a very helpful framework. Each of the letters of the SMART abbreviation defines in this case the feature that the marketing goal should meet. What is it about?

– S (Specific) – specific, specific. The point is that the goal should be detailed enough to be related to real threats or opportunities. An example would be “getting 1000 new customers” (instead of getting more customers).
– M (Measurable) – measurable. The target must have an attribute that allows it to be measured or counted and checked that it has been achieved within the required range. Therefore, most often goals contain numerical data, as in the example above, or also percentages.
– A (Attainable) – achievable. Only work towards goals that are challenging but achievable. “Taking over the world” is not a realistic goal, but being number 1 in the industry in terms of sales is.
– R (Relevant) – important for a given business and related to the overall action strategy. The goal should be consistent with the entire marketing strategy, the realities of the industry, the needs of the target group, etc.
– T (Time-bound) – defined in time. There should be specific dates by which the target should be achieved. Only in this way will you check whether you have succeeded. By setting a time frame for yourself, you will also get more motivation to act. Otherwise, you can put things off “for sometime”.

In general, marketing goals can be divided into several groups. It is worth setting yourself at least a few tasks from each group. We distinguish mainly:
– strategic goals – aimed at increasing sales, revenues or market share, as well as creating and implementing an action plan for the next few years;
– tactical goals – used separately for each product according to the market situation, for example, increasing brand awareness, acquiring sales leads, improving customer service quality, increasing the number of returning customers, etc .;
– operational goals – related to the development of the marketing program, are the most specific, for example, to acquire a certain number of customers or sell a specific number of products.

In addition, a division into qualitative and quantitative goals as well as short-term and long-term goals can be distinguished.

Examples of marketing goals

What can your marketing goals look like? In line with the above principles, examples of well-defined goals include:
– achieving a specific turnover in a specific tax year (or an increase in relation to the previous year expressed as a percentage),
– introducing a new product to the market (specifying the so-called deadline, i.e. the date on which the goal can be achieved at the latest),
– acquiring a specific number of new customers,
– acquiring a specific number of returning customers,
– increasing the number of points of sale by a certain value,
– increasing the number of inquiries by a specific value,
– increasing the inflow of foreign orders by a certain value,
– increase in market share by a certain value,
– achieving a specific sales volume,
– improving the quality of customer service by a specific indicator,
– reducing the rate of abandoned carts in the online store by a certain value,
– Increase of Open Rate newsletters by a certain number.

Various tools help to measure marketing goals. It is also worth using the so-called Key Performance Indicators (KPI), i.e. key performance indicators that allow you to measure the progress of given processes.

What are marketing indicators and why should you measure them?

KPIs are measures that allow you to evaluate the activities carried out by a given company. Thanks to them, it is possible to check whether the solutions implemented so far bring results. Thus, you can locate and fix problems and modify certain aspects of the strategy to increase its effectiveness. Currently, entrepreneurs have access to many methods of measuring their effectiveness in the field of marketing, which turns out to be extremely helpful. However, it is worth remembering that usually it is not worth monitoring the status of all indicators, because there are simply too many of them and they can cause information chaos. So what is worth paying special attention to?

– Traffic on the website – more people reaching it, more potential customers. You can also check who the visitors are and where they come from, and thus better adjust its structure and content to their needs.
– Conversion Rate – If more traffic doesn’t translate into more orders or inquiries, something is wrong. Perhaps potential customers are not finding what they are looking for or are facing technical problems.
– Proportion of sales leads to customers – if not much of the so-called sales leads become clients, it also heralds some problems, e.g. in the area of ​​customer service.
– Cost of acquiring a lead – it is also worth checking how much time and money should be spent to get a single lead. This may indicate insufficient effectiveness of the activities carried out.
– Lead revenue in relation to the source – it is also good to know what revenue each obtained lead brings and compare it with the costs. This indicator will also help you determine which lead source is the most profitable.
– Social media reach and user engagement – this is a good method of checking your brand position and influence, among other things.

These are just a few examples of important data that allow you to check how the implemented solutions in the field of marketing work and to what extent the goals included in the marketing strategy are being achieved. The premise is simple – set goals and start achieving them by monitoring your progress on an ongoing basis. In practice, however, it is difficult. That is why there are not many really good marketing specialists!

Core Web Vitals – website quality comes first

For a long time, Google has placed great emphasis on the speed and readability of the presented content. One of the first elements of these changes was certainly the shift towards users of mobile devices (also known as “Mobilegeddon”), which in 2015 electrified SEOs and web developers. The next ones include the need to ensure the security of the website and its users, or SSL. Now it is turning to user experience.

In May 2021, page quality will become part of the Google algorithm and will have an impact on the site’s position in the search engine ranking. According to official sources, the quality of the website will not matter more than the content, but it will allow you to promote websites that convey them in a manner tailored to the user’s needs.

The quality of the website will be analyzed in terms of several factors mentioned earlier:
– adaptation to mobile devices (mobile-first indexing for all websites from March 2021);
– browsing safety – no harmful and misleading content, i.e. malware and phishing elements;
– HTTPS;
– no full-screen ads that prevent access to website content.

In addition, there is also Core Web Vitals, known in USA as Basic Internet Indicators. The pointers are designed to help you gauge the user experience of page loading and availability during and after rendering.

Google emphasizes that work on the method of testing the quality of the website will be continued. In the coming years, the list of factors taken into account will certainly change and will be expanded with new points. We will be informed about the changes in advance, the search engine will also give us time to adapt our websites to the new requirements.

Basic Internet Indicators – let’s take a closer look at them

One of the more controversial seo-themes is website speed. In specialist groups, more than once or twice, we have witnessed long discussions about how a high PageSpeed Insights score improves a page’s position. It is true that the site’s rating in the tool does not translate directly into search engine rankings. It is known, however, that a website that has no problems with displaying its content correctly even with a weaker Internet connection will be welcomed warmly by users. This, in turn, will translate into the length of the visit, the willingness to share the link and the chance to achieve the conversion we set.

The research carried out by the tools I mentioned in the page speed article checks specific elements of the site, but does not provide full information about the experience of a less-one user. Their analysis is necessary, but it focuses on aspects of the website other than Basic Internet Indicators.

Core Web Vitals allow us to define the experiences that our website users experience. The data allowing to determine the website quality level is collected based on the actual visits to the website. Thanks to this, the behavior of the website is examined on a wide cross-section of cases – different speeds of network connections, sizes and technological capabilities of devices.

Core Web Vitals in the current version focuses on three elements:
– the largest rendering of the content,
– delay on first action,
– collective shift of the layout.

As I mentioned before, Google is planning to expand its website quality analysis and we can expect that this list will expand in the coming years. Google does not exclude the possibility of modifying current indicators, e.g. extending the scope of research.

LCP – Largest Contentful Paint – Largest content rendering

LCP determines the rendering time of the largest fragment of the page visible in the browser window (everything we see before scrolling). The elements that are taken into account are:
– graphics,
– video,
– an element containing background graphics, downloaded using the url (…) function in CSS,
– block elements (e.g. <p>, <div>, <ul>, <ol>, <hx>, etc.).

If the content of individual tags extends below the scroll line, these fragments are not taken into account in the analysis. In the case of graphics, the analysis is based on the smallest size reached by the element. If the graphic is rendered smaller than the values specified in the tag during rendering, its rendered size will be crucial for the analysis. When the graphic is stretched, the size of the sample taken for testing will depend on the values specified in the CSS.

How do you know which item is the largest? Web pages render in stages, and the HTML code is read in order – from the first line to the last. Therefore, as your site renders, the object marked “largest” will change. A given fragment of the page is defined as the “greatest rendering of content” only when it is fully loaded. Note – If the user moves the screen while rendering the page, further changes to “largest contentful paint” will not be taken into account.

What about items that load off-screen and only later appear within the user’s view? In most cases, these extracts will not be reported. In the opposite situation – when they render within the viewport and are pushed below the scroll line, they will still be taken into account and may be included in the final result.

Highest Content Render – Score

In PageSpeed Insight, values are provided in two ways:
– as a percentage, collected on the basis of data collected from users in the last 28 days. LCP was satisfactory in 39% of the cases,
– in seconds, based on tests performed during the page load simulation.

PageSpeed Insights analyzes data on the specified address. For more detailed information about pages within the entire domain, you may want to check out the Google Search Console and one of the newest tabs labeled “Basic Internet Indicators”. There are two reports available on the page displayed on mobile devices and on computers.

The report in GSC lists the pages where there is a problem with poor LCP results. In a situation where the tool has identified the same problem on many subpages – the table contains one address and an annotation about the number of pages on which the error repeats. The exact addresses are available in the extended view, available after clicking on the record.

Poor LCP Score – Effective Ways to Improve

The key to a good LCP score is the optimization of points that slow down the performance of the website. Slow server, the need to execute JS and CSS code, which blocks further rendering of the site and client-side rendering – these are the most common causes of poor results. Let’s take a look at a remedy for the most common problems:
– slow response from the server – the key value here will be TTFB – Time To First Byte (time from sending the query to receiving the first byte of the response). Slow response is reported e.g. in PageSpeed Insights, it can also be checked with other website speed analysis tools.

The primary way to improve the TTFB score is to optimize the server and eliminate processes that degrade its performance. For this purpose, it is worth looking at the advice of your hosting provider or using the help of a specialist.

– JavaScript and CSS rendering blocking – here are the tricks that are recommended for every website speed optimization – CSS minification, removing unused fragments and considering asynchronous loading of style files. In terms of JavaSript, the optimization will be similar – minification of JS files and removal of unused fragments.

Optimization of other elements, e.g. graphics compression, use of CDN and prioritization of loading certain resources, may also affect the improvement of the LCP score.

FID – First Input Delay – Delay on first input

FID refers to the interactivity of the website – it defines the time between the first action performed by the user and the moment when the browser starts handling this action. Clicks (in the case of mobile – taps) and button presses are taken into account. The FID score focuses on the analysis of response time, but does not examine the processing time of a user-initiated event.

The lag on the first action will not always be measured – some users choose not to interact with the page while it is loading. Interestingly, in the case of this indicator, the analysis takes place only during the actual use of the website – similar studies are not carried out during the simulation performed by Lighthouse.

Every Internet user has certainly encountered a situation in which he immediately wanted to move to another place after entering the website. However, clicking on the link or expanding the rest of the text was not possible immediately – the site’s reaction to our traffic was significantly delayed. Why is this happening? While the site is rendering, the browser is busy handling the files that make up the page. Only after completing this process is it able to respond to user behavior. The waiting time for the interactivity of the page translates directly into the subjective assessment by the user and determining it as “slow” or “fast”.

When describing the LCP, I mentioned that HTML is loaded line by line – so why is it not possible for the loaded fragments to be active earlier? Some tags, such as <input>, <a>, or <select>, require rendering of the main thread to be closed. As for the other obstacles – the <head> section of the .html file usually contains links to CSS and JS resources that the browser must parse before continuing to render the page. Hence the previous suggestions to minify these files (i.e. remove whitespace) and move to the rest of the code fragments unnecessary for rendering the first view. In the case of events that are registered by “event listeners” placed in JS, their operation is possible only after all the code has been executed.

Delay on first action – result

A satisfactory result is in the range of 0-100ms. Above this time it is worth introducing corrections, and above 300 ms – you have to.

The information from PageSpeed Insight is based on user input – in this case 82% of the cases are satisfactory.

More detailed data, along with data on specific addresses that need improvement, are included in the “Basic Internet Indicators” tab in Google Search Console.

Poor FID score – effective ways to improve

Ideally, the tools would report 95-99% of “green responses”. If our current results are not that high yet, making changes to the site will certainly do them good.

As in the case of LCP, first of all, it is recommended to optimize the code necessary to load the key elements of the website and move fragments with a lower priority to the rest of the file. It is also worth removing unused fragments and minifying.

The main reason for low FID results is usually the JS code. Optimizing files and breaking individual fragments into smaller, asynchronously executed batches should significantly speed up the rendering process and reduce resource locking.

Code coming from outside the website will also affect the browser response speed – limiting it will reduce the number of processes performed by the browser.

CLS – Cumulative Layout Shift

The CLS score is the sum of the changes due to an unexpected page layout shift. The change counts when the element changes its position at the time of rendering. CLS does not count as new elements appearing on the page or resizing existing ones, as long as they do not cause other page components to move. Contrary to the indicators listed above, CLS collects data during the entire visit to the page, not in the first moments of its rendering.

Jumps in the page layout are created, among others by asynchronously loading resources or by dynamically adding additional elements to the DOM structure. Such situations are noticeable, for example, when using pages on which graphics are loaded without the declared size – matching the appropriate size to the screen size may cause a sudden change in the appearance of the page, which causes the user to be moved to another part of it.

The resources downloaded from external sources, built on the basis of values other than the target page, and personalized content, generated without proper formatting, may also be problematic here. Unexpected offset can also be caused by extended font rendering.

Not every shift is bad, depending on the page design, some user actions will cause changes from the original layout of the elements. It is important that this type of shift is directly related to the action performed.

CLS is based on data collected from users and allows you to determine the actual experience on the site, which is not always available under the conditions in which the website developer works.

Cumulative Layout Offset Result

A good CLS score is in the range of 0-0.1. A score above 0.25 means that you need to make changes and improve the experience of its users. It is assumed that the website is stable when at least 75% of users receive a score below 0.1.

Data on the shift can be found in PageSpeed Insights. The percentage score is based on an analysis of user data – in this case, 90% get a good score. The PSI also provides information collected under laboratory conditions. Detailed information on more subpages can be obtained from Google Search Console.

Poor CLS Score – Effective Ways to Improve

A better CLS score can be achieved by adhering to general website building standards. The precise description of graphics and videos plays a significant role here – adding to them attributes related to the size of the element (width, height and the aspect ratio associated with them) makes it easier for the browser to correctly arrange the elements during rendering, without the need to change while loading subsequent pieces of content. In the case of dynamic added graphics, it is recommended to use placeholders that reserve space for the element added later.

For some time now, PageSpeed Insights has recommended the use of a css font-display, which is responsible for keeping the font on the page. Another possibility is to load the font in advance using the preload attribute placed in the <link> element. Preload causes the selected resources to be downloaded before rendering the page. Thanks to this, the problem of downtime and waiting for all files from the first part of the queue to be loaded is eliminated later in the page display.

Basic Internet Indicators – UX Matters!

If you look at the solutions that will have a positive impact on the score of individual indicators, it is easy to see that they are not new. Many of them were already recommended by Google during the first versions of PageSpeed Insights. However, indicators and their entry into the search engine algorithm are a good reason to take a closer look at your websites and actually make changes that will make it easier to use the websites.

What is User Generated Content?

This is content created voluntarily by users, not by brands. They can take various forms: from various types of texts, through photos, to video materials. According to the definition, they must be at least partially creative. And… that’s about it when it comes to the concept of User Generated Content (UGC). So as you can see, it’s a very broad definition.

What forms can the UGC take?

User-generated content can take many forms. The most typical ones include:
– posts in social media – e.g. comments under brand entries on their fan pages, reviews or creative responses to marketing communication,
– entries on internet forums,
– reviews on review websites,
– vlogs,
– blog entries on topics related to a given brand.

Thus, they can be all kinds of forms of Internet users’ expression, which are somehow related to brand communication.

Why is User Generated Content profitable?

Take a moment to think: how do you make purchasing decisions? What works more for you: an ad that promises you that product X is the best in the world? Or maybe a user’s comment on the brand’s fanpage or on the portal with opinions, reliably indicating the advantages and disadvantages of a given solution? What is more reliable for you? What content are you looking for? This is why UGC is so important. Below we present the most important advantages of this type of content.

Credibility
As research shows, 92% of people are inclined to believe the opinion they hear from a person they know, and as many as 70% consider the opinions on the Internet to be credible. What does it mean? A genuine message from a “normal user”, not a marketer, is much more credible than an advertisement.

Naturalness
Who else believes that the ads present a true picture of reality? The traditional ones are widely recognized as sweet and exaggerating the benefits of the products. No wonder – it is part of their “poetics”. But how with authenticity? This one is much bigger in reviews and other product content that users create. Hence the popularity of photo sets in the style of “expectations vs. reality”, where the photographs from promotional materials are compared with those made after the purchase of the product (e.g. a hamburger in a chain store or online clothes). Hence, more and more ranges are building blogs with reviews and channels of this type on YouTube.

Huge influence on customer purchasing decisions
User-generated content can be the proverbial last straw – the element that will push the customer towards the checkout process. This is highly likely, especially if it belongs to the target of the brand and is initially interested in a given product. This is also confirmed by research – as many as 80% of respondents agree that the UGC has a significant influence on decisions regarding the purchase of specific products.

Support for image-building activities
UGC can fulfill all functions related to building a brand image – it informs about its existence, arouses interest in products, creates positive associations and builds a strong bond between the consumer and the company. These relationships are not purely “business” – especially since a lot of user-generated content is generated by emotions (both positive and negative!). So they build long-term commitment.

The foundation of inbound marketing
… and therefore “inbound marketing” – a model in which customers come to the company themselves and create hype around it. It is a much more effective form of acquiring a permanent group of recipients – those who are faithful and come back again and again, attracting new customers.

Relatively low cost
In the case of UCG, it is difficult to clearly estimate the expenses that must be incurred to generate interest in the products and the willingness to share related content. Other expenses were incurred by, for example, Coca-Cola, creating beverage packages with personalized labels that very quickly became online and offline stars, and another company that created a simple Instagram contest. One thing is certain: skillfully (and honestly!), A casted rod will produce a response and will bring profits in the short or long term.

Strengthening SEO activities
In the world of positioning “content is the king”. However, not the first better content, but one that has real value for users. Google’s algorithms no longer focus solely on the number of repeating keywords in the content. Yes, it is still important, but not the most important. Currently, naturalness, user-friendliness and usefulness of the content count. Therefore, if, for example, users post links to a brand’s products on their profiles in social media or blogs, the chances of a higher position on the ranking list increase significantly.

A great source of feedback
The goal of each company is to create products that will be willingly bought by customers from a specific segment. And it’s not you, but your recipients know what they expect. Yes, you can try to create their needs and point to available solutions. But you also need to listen to the feedback received, and not only to your praise, but most of all to your criticism. The UGC is a good source of such information. Often, it is in the comments and reviews that you can find valuable suggestions that allow you to change your operating strategy for a better one for customers and for the company.

This shortened list of benefits that can be drawn from User Generated Content shows that it is worth taking care of its creation.

How to build User Generated Content?

At first glance, this question – in the context of the definition of UGC – may seem bizarre to you. After all, it’s about content that is created by the users themselves, isn’t it? Yes, but… not really. You need to create an atmosphere that will be an impulse to share impressions / experiences and thoughts.

Think for a moment: what products would you be willing to tell your friends about? What do you recommend them? In what situations do you want to take the time to prepare a review of the hotel where you happened to be? There must be specific emotions associated with these experiences.

Also remember that people who will be willing to create a UGC are a very diverse group. It will include both those who will share only negative feelings – in order to complain, and those who want to present their assessment to the “whole world”. There will also be those who will simply offer advice, e.g. in a Facebook group or on a thematic forum. Some of them can be encouraged to create a UGC, some will motivate themselves.

But how can you influence the frequency of UGC generation?

Contests in social media
It’s a simple way to add hype to your brand. Prepare a competition for users in which you will offer them valuable prizes, e.g. for preparing a short post related to your products. You can also reward them for writing the most interesting review, creating a photo related to the imposed topic, short story, poem … The more creativity you unleash, the better the entertainment. Sometimes the opportunity to read and see the products of others becomes a greater reward than the material ones!

Encourage to leave a review
Until some time ago, it was mainly a solution recommended for online stores – here customer opinions have long been more important than the lowest prices. Today, however, e.g. due to the way the opinion system on Google works, Internet users are looking for reviews of almost everything. Starting from restaurants and bars, through entertainment points, offices, shops, to tourist places. That is why it is worth encouraging your customers to leave a review. How? You can simply ask them for it – for example, by handing out a leaflet encouraging them to rate them or by sending an email with a suggestion. You can also offer an additional incentive, for example in the form of a discount on subsequent purchases.

Warning! Don’t just reward those who leave the maximum rating and delighted reviews! Let us say it again: honesty and authenticity are the secret of the power of User Generated Content.

An offensive post on social media
If you have a large enough social media followers base, asking an interesting, offensive question will be a straightforward way to get a huge amount of user-generated content.

Sometimes a simple question about how their day is going is enough. In other situations – a serious question for an opinion on a matter related to the brand’s activity. But be careful! Such discussions can get hot! Therefore, moderation is needed. Don’t forget: “moderation” does not mean deleting unfavorable comments, but e.g. reacting to hate messages and answering questions that will be asked of you!

Interacting on social media channels
On your social media profiles, comments may appear regarding the experience of working with the brand or a specific situation that caused emotions in the user. You cannot leave them unanswered – just like those relating directly to the post.

What are the answers that generate the UGC? They contain open-ended questions – ask and encourage recipients to “open up”. It is also worth choosing a looser style of communication – especially in response to negative comments. If you approach them with a grain of salt – your answers will become the subject of discussion by themselves. And that’s the point!

What to avoid when creating a UGC?

There are many ways you can inspire your audience to create content related to your brand. Remember! You have to do it in a thoughtful way. Avoid:
– over-encouraging commenting and sharing – if it appears too often and too intrusively, it will discourage more than encourage creativity and interaction,
– artificial “crowd-making” – yes, you can think about subtle moderation of the discussion, but it is not worth doing it incognito. It is definitely better to communicate openly and honestly on behalf of the brand (or through its ambassadors) than to pretend to be ordinary users. False notes will be quickly detected, and the action will lead to defeat, not victory,
– publishing UGC without the consent of the creator – for example, if you receive an e-mail with a positive opinion about the company, before making it public, ask if you can do it. The same applies to creative works sent to competitions and other corporate events. Ask for permission to publish, preferably in writing, and only then brag about what you got,
– creating campaigns aimed at building User Generated Content among people outside your target group and in a style that does not match your brand – after all, the ultimate goal of such communication is to build a specific image among specific recipients.

Creating a website can, however, be a heavy burden on the budget of young companies. The basic cost of the site consists primarily of the price of the domain and hosting as well as the work of the graphic designer and developer. Another cost is the time that you need to spend to find the right technologies and even prepare content, graphics and photos. The choice of solutions that do not require the involvement of external specialists is associated with the need to increase the time required to prepare the site. However, website creators have limitations that can prevent them from gaining customers effectively. Let’s take a closer look at popular solutions and consider when building a page with the help of a creator will pay off, and when we should, however, choose other solutions.

Website Builder – what is it and how does it work?

Website creators are a kind of computer program that allows you to create a website without knowledge of HTML and CSS, not to mention other languages. Creating a page from scratch, we choose the background color and add further details by selecting a specific element from the available collection. The graphic design we created and the background content added in it are rewritten into the language understood by web browsers. Boom – the website is ready.

The main principle of website creators has not changed substantially since the appearance of the first program of this type. Modern versions, however, have much greater capabilities and faithfully stick to the principles of creating pages and Google guidelines. Modern solutions allow in some cases to run seo processes and effective positioning of websites created with the help of one of the currently popular creators – Wix, Squarespace or wordpress Elementor.

Website creators from 10 or more years ago offered very limited customization options, and no one thought about adaptation to mobile devices or positioning.

Website creators – where did their popularity come from?

Website creators allow you to quickly create a functional website. Depending on the advancement of the creator, they allow you to modify ready templates, add colors, icons, and format text. Thanks to these solutions, creating a website does not always have to be associated with high costs. Most creators provide some functionality for free or in the form of a subscription – and the price of such is much lower than the fees associated with the work of a graphic designer and programmer.

An additional advantage of creators is their friendliness to non-technical users. Services like WIX present the functionality of their program in an accessible way and help you build your dream website step by step. The tutorial and the ability to prepare the site according to your own vision (limited only to the choice provided by the platform) allow you to start the promotion even on a very limited budget and … do not require the involvement of developers.

The number of platform users that have enabled the creation of their own website in recent years has begun to grow – in proportion to marketing efforts undertaken, among others by Wix, Weebly or Squarespace, which sponsors a whole range of Youtubers. Wix deserves special attention here – the advertisements of the website could be seen during the last few Super Bowl games, and they took part in, among others Karlie Kloss, Jason Statham and Gal Gadot.

Pros and cons of website builders

It can not be hidden that the independent creation of websites is quite popular. Is it, however, a universal solution? Let’s look at the pros and cons of such programs:

Pros:
– costs, a definite plus of creators is the ability to build a site after the so-called “Costs”, which I mentioned earlier. Part of the functionality is available for free, some for a fee or as part of a subscription, which can be terminated at any time or with a monthly notice period;
– intuitive navigation, adapted to the skills of non-coding people – pagebuilders do not require their users to know about coding pages, language skills and rules for creating websites. Website creation is done by means of graphical navigation – drag & drop or selection of subsequent options from the drop-down list of available elements;
– security – one of the biggest problems associated with having a website is to provide yourself and your guests with an adequate level of protection for their data. When using the creator, the responsibility for the tightness of the solutions used remains with the creator of the service;
– time – if you believe the ads, taking a page will take about the same as a break from work. In fact, choosing the right options and template and making the final decision about the appearance will take a few hours. Still, it’s a lot less than creating a page from scratch;
– all-in-one – modern creators are solutions that allow you to create a page from scratch and in one place. This includes not only the site design itself, but also domain and hosting issues;
– help – the platform user (depending on the subscription paid) can benefit from extensive support – guides, tutorials and consultants. Thanks to this, building your own website becomes quite a pleasant experience.

Cons:
– lack of full freedom in creating the page – the number of templates and solutions to use the site – depending on the plan – is limited. Additional restrictions are also technical issues of the platform. Moving subsequent elements can be partially blocked, and adjusting their size very time-consuming;
– slow, heavy site – if in recent years page builders have made a great step towards optimization for speed, some of the solutions still leave much to be desired. Another problem is the limited or complete inability to modify the page code. This creates unnecessary lines of code, e.g. by creating unneeded nests and enlarging the DOM, which Google Page Speed ​​Insights points out as one of the reasons why websites slow down. Too many unnecessary elements that could be described in a more optimal way are the risk of more rejections for mobile device users with a worse internet connection;
– Restrictions resulting from the plan or application – e.g. the ability to create up to 10 subpages, the ability to use only a few additional applications, restrictions on adding links on the site, etc.
– Lack of possibility to fully optimize the page – the lack of access to the code prevents full optimization under search engine guidelines, and thus – restrictions related to ranking, among others on Google. More about positioning on creators in a moment.

There are more pros than cons? However, this is not a confirmation of the universality of the solution which is page builders. It all boils down to the purpose for which we create a given website and what we want to include thanks to it.

Positioning and website creators – a bumpy relationship

Website positioning created on Wix or Squarespace platforms is one of the most controversial topics in the SEO world. Most specialists still remember the times when the creator in principle prevented any optimization of the website. The problem was, among others, the inability to set a unique <title> for the subpage, creating friendly addresses, or even adding the Google Search Console code to the <head> section. Modern platforms are more seo friendly, but they still do not enjoy much sympathy among positioners. Why?

Inability to fully optimize – Optimization under seo guidelines is content and code activities. While adding content and saturating them with keywords should not be a problem, technical optimization is the way it is. The appearance of the given elements on the page is important for the user, however, wishing to conquer SERPs you should also pay attention to how the site is seen by network robots.

During positioning, it is necessary to change the content, among others titles, descriptions, headers. Creators of the type Wix or Squarespace allow you to add your own elements from this range – all changes are made via the panel. Interestingly, Wix still promotes adding the meta keywords tag and filling it with about 10 keywords, which in the positioning environment is considered unnecessary archaism. The meta keywords tag has no longer fulfilled its original role for years and is de facto redundant on the site.

Adding more advanced elements, e.g. schema tags, goes beyond standard services.

In the case of Squarespace, adding schema tags requires modification of the page’s <head> – pasting the generated code in the right place. Here, basic basic knowledge of html structure will be useful.

In this situation, Elementor seems to be the best solution – it works with popular wordpress plugins intended for SEO, e.g. Yoast SEO. However, there is still the problem of too large DOM – excessive number of nested elements that delay rendering of the page.

Unsociable seo technologies – One of the problems Wix had to deal with for some time was generating the page “on the fly” – with the help of JavaScript. As a result, the site content was virtually invisible to robots. Currently, the situation has changed – both Google has made a big step in “dealing” with JavaScript, and Wix has put greater friendliness in the solutions recommended by Google.

Unsatisfactory speed test results – In recent years, Google has significantly increased the focus on adapting websites for mobile devices and for fast rendering also for slower connections. If you look at the results of speed tests of pages made using the selected creator, it is easy to say that speed demons are unfortunately not.

The biggest problems include unused code fragments and too large DOM. These elements can be modified, provided that we have access to the code.

Here you should do justice to the creators indicated above – most of the solutions actually try to keep up with trends and implement on their platforms photo optimization and formats preferred by Google, code minification and prioritizing loading of the most important elements of the page.

The problems we encounter when trying to position websites on Squarespace, Wix or built using Elementor, however, do not completely eliminate the chances of building visibility in Google search engine. There are other factors at stake – first and foremost the purpose of creating the page and the niche that the site is about.

Wix, Squarespace, Elementor … solutions for special tasks

Website creators make it easier to appear in the virtual world, but they do not quite prove themselves as professional websites for larger companies targeting competitive industries. We can talk about increasing the visibility and positioning of pages on Wix, Squarespace or other creators in the case of small, local businesses. The condition here is the use of more extensive subscriptions that allow access to advanced site modification options.

The solutions proposed by popular page builders will work to build a page from an amateur photographer’s portfolio or a page that will contain basic information about a service closely related to the local operation, e.g. a community day-care center for children. Positioning a site built on the Squarespace or Wix creator, whose ambition is to search for keywords like “New York dentist” may not be effective. In this case, making a lighter page – e.g. on WordPress, with the option of connecting an external system for booking visits, will pay off. Full access to the website’s code will facilitate optimization under current Google guidelines, and the possibility of facilitating registration of patients from the website level will significantly improve the calendar of visits.

Finding the perfect solution that will allow you to mark your position in the search engine and compete with larger players requires appropriate research and time expenditure. In this case, saving on technologies and choosing a “cheaper” solution may block the possibility of further development.

You cannot deny the universality of solutions such as page builders, but you can not put an equal sign between them and success in search engines. Seo adaptation promoted by Wix and Squarespace is primarily the ability to preserve the basics of seo activities, i.e. care for content delivery, the ability to set titles and descriptions, and the ability to connect your own domain and codes to GSC. However, positioning activities are much more than that – technical optimization requires changes that are simply not possible with subscriptions to page building platforms.

So who should you recommend such solutions to? First of all, businesses that do not have the ambition to compete in the race for the highest positions in SERPs. The website on the platform is a solution for those who target inbound traffic from social media and based on searches with the brand name or paid advertising. A website based on WIX or Squarespace will be perfect as a portfolio for young photographers, models and companies that base their content on photos and gain most contacts through activities, e.g. on Instagram.

Popular website creators

Wix – allows you to create pages using a graphical creator based on drag & drop activities. We create a page based on templates that we can use to use the editor to suit our needs. The creator allows you to create a page for free, but editing the page is limited, and our site will display ads. The extension of functionality is possible in one of several subscription plans.

Positioning your site on Wix – the creator allows you to add individual titles and descriptions for each page. Extended optimization is available thanks to the Wix SEO Wiz application, which guides you step by step through the basic activities related to online visibility – including adding Google Search Console code.

Squarespace – just like WIX, allows you to build a site based on a template related to the theme of the page. Here, however, we create and modify elements without dragging them on the side. There are 4 subscription plans available, and the larger the amount, the more possibilities of creating a page.

Positioning on Squarespace – all basic optimization elements are available – you can set titles, descriptions, URLs and even redirects. However, users complain that the positioning modification options are scattered across the platform and finding them is not always easy.

Weebly – as in the case of other popular options, also here the site is built using drag & drop. The creator, however, does not allow full freedom in arranging elements – it imposes the size and arrangement of elements, according to the selected template.

Positioning on Weebly – as with other programs, Weebly allows you to enter seo-essentials – titles, descriptions, and even altos. There are also no problems with adding codes necessary to control the page. The program also automatically generates the sitemap.xml file.

Elementor – WordPress plugin allows you to build a page in the drag & drop system, with the help of which you can create the entire layout of the site. Its definite advantage is the multitude of options that allow you to create an unconventional page. The feature-rich free version allows you to create a fully functional website .. The PRO version allows you to better adapt the design to your needs and work with other WP plugins, e.g. WooCommerce, i.e. tools for online stores.

Positioning on Elementor – creating a page with the help of a creator increases its volume. Elementor, however, prides itself on the speed of his solutions. With the help of other wordpress plugins (Yoast SEO, All-in-One SEO) you can perform quite satisfactory optimization.

When should you position the page yourself?

Website positioning is not an easy task. It requires constant monitoring and analysis of conducted activities, as well as adaptation to changing Google algorithms. The difficulty of this task means that many companies (even those micro) decide to cooperate with SEO agencies. However, there are also some daredevils who want to position their website on their own. This can be tempted when:

– you have a lot of free time – positioning requires not only knowledge but also large resources of free time; this is often a full-time job, so if you want to combine it with acquiring and servicing clients, marketing and accounting, then you have to focus on failure;
– you have a limited SEO budget – the salary of a good SEO specialist may be too high for many companies (especially those entering the market); so if you don’t have the right budget, you can implement the first SEO activities yourself; this will reduce the cost of doing business while not losing visibility in the search engine;
– you are passionate about SEO and want to develop your knowledge and test in practice; in this situation, working on SEO of your own site is a great idea;
– you can afford to use the trial and error method – without extensive knowledge of SEO, and yet wanting to position the site yourself, you need to prepare for mishaps (including financial); often part of the budget is lost on independent positioning; errors can also lead to a decrease in the position of the page in the search engine, a decrease in website traffic, and thus a decrease in sales.

Where to start positioning the page?

Positioning is a complex process. That is why you should do an SEO audit of your site before you join it. Its task is to check which activities are carried out correctly and which ones should be improved or implemented additionally. The SEO audit is also intended to show whether the technical background allows smooth implementation of optimization changes.

It is worth remembering that when auditing the page, pay attention not only to technical issues, but also to the functionality of the site, visual attractiveness and other factors that can reduce the conversion rate. What should definitely be checked during the audit is:

– Website indexing – positioning cannot be discussed if the website will not be displayed in the search engine; the first step is to verify your site’s indexing; this can be done by typing in the search engine: site: domain name.com – all subpages and pages indexed in Google will appear in the results; if your site is not appearing, please send a request to have it crawled by Google Search Console; it is worth returning the indexing request if something has changed on the page;
– Metadata on the page – they determine the content of a given subpage; they are important to both Google robots and users; metadata should be on every page of the site; you should ensure that they are prepared in accordance with the guidelines, i.e. have the appropriate length and content of keywords.
– Headlines in published content – they are of key importance in positioning; headlines H1 and H2 have the greatest weight, but it is recommended to use these H3-H6.
– Page loading speed – this parameter affects not only SEO, but also the convenience of using the website; a page that is loading too long will cause the Internet user to leave it before it opens; the loading speed of the website can be checked using the free Page Speed ​​Insights tool provided by Google; if the loading speed is not satisfactory, then corrective actions, e.g. image compression, will be necessary.
– Adaptation to mobile devices – website responsiveness is one of the basic factors affecting SEO; whether the website is responsive can be checked by performing mobile optimization tests;
– Optimized URL – links to individual subpages should be friendly to Google’s algorithm and users; it must be unique, legible and provide information about what is actually on the site.
– Website structure – it is important that it is legible and intuitive; it should have a simple navigation system; this will help in positioning and avoid high bounce rate.
– SSL certificate – it ensures that all data sent by the website is protected; lack of encryption protocol will mean low security, worse conversions, as well as poor website credibility; certificate ownership can be checked using SSL verification tools.
– Inbound links – high quality inbound links currently count in SEO; they should not be placed on suspicious sites that may be negatively evaluated by Google’s algorithms; the quality of incoming links can be checked through free tools available on the Internet.

What after the audit?

The next step after the audit is to prepare an SEO strategy. It is extremely important when positioning yourself. It will allow you to implement subsequent optimization changes in turn. The SEO strategy should cover the most important issues such as: keyword list, website content, link building. It’s a good idea to check how competitors that find high positions in the search engine, present their content, products, services, competition.

5 tasks that you need to do when positioning on-site

Independent positioning of the site, it is worth starting with the activities carried out on the site, i.e. on-site. Internal positioning is based on several important issues.

Keywords in positioning

The first is keywords. A lot depends on their proper selection. When choosing them, check among others do they really match the website theme, are they useful, what is their competitiveness. The selected keywords should be grouped so that they coincide with subsequent stages of the sales funnel. Thanks to this it will be possible to reach customers at every stage of purchase.

Many people positioning the site independently, choose keywords based on experience in the industry. This is a good solution if you want to create a wide list of phrases. Searching for keywords is good if you pay attention to long-tail phrases, those related to keywords (creating the so-called thematic contexts), informational key phrases (answering the users question), commercial key phrases (containing the brand name).

Content in positioning

The content posted on the site is very important. When preparing those to help in SEO, you should pay attention to both their attractiveness, as well as editing and appearance. The texts published on the website must be interesting, practical, written in a simple and friendly language, and above all unique – Google does not like duplication of content. The whole should be divided into logical paragraphs separated by headings H1-H6 and also have at least 3000 characters including spaces. A good recommendation is also putting on content in the material, without ornaments, not saturated with adjectives and keywords.

Graphics in positioning

The properly used multimedia will also help in positioning the website. Graphics or video are a natural complement to the texts. They visualize the described issue, they can present a product or service. However, for photos / videos to improve SEO, they need to be properly optimized. Most important is the alt attribute read by Google.

Internal linking – a must have for every website

When running a small website with services, internal linking must be carried out. To this end, while building a blog, we construct content to include keywords for which particular services are positioned. Under these keywords on the blog we put internal (intertext) links that direct to services. As a result, Google “raises” internally linked landing page positions.

Readability and intuitiveness of website in positioning

The readability and intuitiveness of the site is UX – user experience. This concept conceals the impressions and feelings of users who reach the site. The more friendly the navigation and layout are, the higher the conversions. If you want to take care of UX, positioning the page yourself, you should take care of: the structure of the website, usability, adaptation to mobile devices, valuable content, voice search. Friendly UX, however, consists of many more factors: appearance, feelings, usability, website goals, content transparency, language used, color used.

2 tasks that you need to perform when off-site positioning

When positioning the website yourself, you cannot neglect external activities. They mainly focus on obtaining links from valuable websites and eliminating those on low-rank websites. Link building, however, is not the only task in off-side positioning.

Link Building in positioning

Link Building is one of the most important positioning pillars. The lack of incoming links is the main reason for the lack of high position in Google. Link Building in positioning is a very broad topic. The most important thing in independent positioning, however, is to place links to valuable websites. These are primarily considered to be those related to some degree to a positioned website, as well as those of high authority. It is also desirable to get dofollow links.

Linking is also important for SEO. There are several possibilities here. A link to positioning the page can be placed by linking the key phrase (exact mach) or its altered version, or a semantic keyword (partial mach). Often, zero macht linking is used, i.e. the key phrase is linked, but the word here is. You can also link the company name or paste the exact URL into the text.

Google My Business

This is a business card that largely translates into improved SEO. You have to create your business card yourself. The entire process of establishing it is 5 steps and includes providing the most important information about the company. The business card is created after data verification by Google. It is worth focusing to provide accurate data on working hours, address, products, type of business, website address. It is also advisable to place photos and opinions, i.e. social evidence.

Summary

Independent positioning of the website is a time-consuming process, difficult for many people, but possible. Using the check list above, you will perform the most important actions that will allow your website or online store to achieve a high position in Google. It is worth remembering, however, to look at each of these steps thoroughly and deepen knowledge in the field of individual elements affecting positioning. It should be realized that there is no universal recipe for website positioning. Different activities work in every situation. This is why, in many cases, achieving high positions in search engines is the result of a combination of creative approach, knowledge of the industry and experience in SEO.

Why does Google support small and medium enterprises?

According to data from the World Bank, companies from the SME sector constitute as much as 90% of all companies. The same applies to the majority of advertisers, i.e. Google customers, who are currently facing the loss of customers and employees. That’s why Google has decided to help those whose business may suffer the most during an epidemic, as well as those who play such an important role in the market and whose survival is so important.

How does Google support the SME sector?

As part of support for companies in the SME sector, Google provides additional funds for advertising campaigns run in Google Ads (including search, advertising and YouTube, as well as in all types of campaigns). Advertisers who have been running their campaigns on Google in the last 10 months of 12 in 2019 are eligible for the program. Paraphrase-Online.com specialists reports that also newer advertising accounts or campaigns that were conducted in a shorter time and whose expenses oscillated at a higher level can also count on an additional advertising budget.

How to apply for an additional amount of advertising from Google?

You do not need to apply for funds. Google itself qualifies our company and transfers the appropriate amount to our advertising account. Importantly, the amounts received for advertising cannot be transferred to another account, divided or refunded. So, if our company operates in the SME sector, it probably has already received support. We will also receive an email when the funds are credited to your account.

How much advertising money can you get under the program?

The additional amount for the ad is expected to reach all advertisers by July 1. According to Google information, it depends on past Google Ads spending, the country of billing address, and the currency in which the campaign is being run on the Google Ads account. The earned amounts for advertising can fluctuate significantly, but the maximum amount paid will not exceed $ 1,000. Currently, at Paraphrase-Online.com, we monitor the inflows to our clients’ accounts and inform those whose accounts have already appeared. According to our observations, they currently range from around $ 40 to $ 250.

Advertisers can use amounts sent by Google until the end of 2020. Importantly, the unused sum will automatically disappear from the advertising account after December 31 and cannot be restored.