Seven Website Usability Mistakes Businesses Need to Avoid

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All too often, a business sets up a website and then wonders why it isn’t doing well. The usual culprit? Poor website usability.

Website usability refers to the ease with which a visitor can use a website. If a business website isn’t providing the visitor with the information they require or expect, they’re likely to look elsewhere.

There a several common mistakes businesses make when it comes to website usability. Here, we list seven of the biggest blunders:

1. Unclear Homepage

A business’s homepage is the first thing a user will see, and they will want it to answer any major questions they have. The name and nature of the business should be clear, and the purpose of the site obvious.

Furthermore, it should be obvious where to go next from the homepage. Usually, users will expect a navigation bar that contains clear links to key pages, including an ‘About Us’ page and a ‘Contact Us’ page.

When a homepage doesn’t provide these things, visitors are apt to click away without staying to look around – and the business is likely to lose customers and clients as a result.

13 On-Page Tips for SEO Success

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How do you build a perfectly optimised page? In the ever-changing world of digital marketing, the very notion of what’s ‘optimal’ is often up for debate. However, there’s some tried and tested advice that’s essential for SEO success in 2016.

To give you a helping hand, here are 13 quick tips that every business should be able to implement.

1. URLs should be short, descriptive and easy-to-read 

Search engines prefer static, keyword-rich URLs, such as www.example.com/topic-name, as opposed to dynamic URLs, such as www.example.com/?p=578544. Essentially, a visitor should be able to identify what a page is about, based on the URL alone. The page content should also be unique to the URL.

2. Get redirects and referrals right 

If a page on your site is temporarily down, you should use a status code 503, which means that the page is currently unavailable, rather than a 404, which means that the page is not found. If you’re redirecting the page, you should use 301s, which are a permanent redirect.

3. Place primary keywords at the start of the title tag 

Your title tag should be a concise, accurate description of the page’s content and less than 55 characters long, so that it’s not cut off in the search results. The closer a keyword is to the start of the tag, the bigger its impact on rankings.

Six Small Business SEO Tips to Boost Your Traffic

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In today’s online world, Google is king. And with ecommerce the fastest growing retail market in Europe, a search engine friendly site is essential for small businesses.

To achieve this, you need to carry out search engine optimisation (SEO), which can feel daunting. However, there is a lot you can do without any expert knowledge and, in many cases, it’s these changes that can make the biggest difference.

Here are six SEO tips that will help boost traffic to your site.