You probably see the letters HTTPS hundreds of times a day as you scroll through your favorite websites, check your email, and interact with people on social media. You may not know their meaning; however, this letter combination holds a lot of power over the websites you visit and how they rank in Google search results. 

HTTP vs. HTTPS

HTTP is an acronym for HyperText Transfer Protocol, which enables communication between different computer systems on the internet. This protocol allows data to be transferred from a web server to a browser, allowing you to view the hundreds of sites you look at each day. 

If you have noticed the rankings of various websites in search results have changed, it is likely due to the fact that Google has confirmed a “broad core algorithm” update that occurred at the end of February. 

Those who follow Google on Twitter may have seen their post explaining that they do these types of updates “several times per year”. Google said that “Some sites may note drops or gains.” This could very well be because Google has made changes to their ranking models. These changes are said to benefit “pages that were previously under-rewarded.” 

If you’re looking for Google’s full statement on Twitter regarding these changes, you can find it below:

In the modern digital world, people are constantly bombarded with information. We see advertisements everywhere we go, from billboards and TV commercials to the pop-ups that display on the websites we visit on our computers or smartphones. It can be difficult to sort out relevant information from noise, which is why people turn to Google and other search engines to find what they are looking for. 

The widespread use of Google search makes search engine optimization (SEO) more important than ever, and companies will need to do everything they can to stand out in search results. Google has worked to make it easy for companies to provide relevant information to their customers through Google My Business, and one new feature, known as Google Posts, gives companies a great way to add visibility to search results.

What Are Google Posts?

Google Posts became available to all Google My Business users in June of 2017, and this feature allows a company to add a short message to their profile that will be displayed in Google search results and on Google Maps. These messages can be used to spotlight sales and special offers, publicize events, highlight products, or share pictures.

It’s no secret. Backlinks are one of the top factors for building a website’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search engines like Google view a link to a website as a vote of confidence for that site. If your website is being linked to by authoritative sites, then search engines will perceive your site to be trustworthy, which increases your chance of being ranked high on a search engine results page (SERP). But how do you get these much coveted backlinks for your site? Find out by following these tips:

1. Seek backlinks from authority sites. Search engines place value on sites that are linked to by authority sites. Authority sites are sites that have a high domain authority and provide valuable, accurate content. They are trustworthy. You can gauge whether a site is authoritative by looking at a number of factors, including the domain authority and keyword rankings.

You can also measure a social site's authority by looking at the number of followers on the site and the number of comments posted under the site's content. In addition, examine the website’s social media presence. Are the site's managers posting consistently, and is the content they are posting valuable? 

It’s no secret. People use Google and other search engines to find information, and the websites that are optimized to rank high in searches are the ones that are the most successful. However, developing a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy is no easy feat. Read below to learn how you can create an effective SEO strategy and develop content that is SEO-friendly:  

1. Plan your content around relevant keywords. Users look for content using keywords (the search terms they type into search engines), so the content you create should be determined by keyword research. Keywords should not be an afterthought. They should be used as a source to organize your content and inspire ideas. 
2. Research the best keywords using Google. Make a list of keywords by using Google’s search engine results and Google’s Keyword Planner. Search for different terms on Google and track the number of times the keywords showed up on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). Scroll toward the end of the SERP to view the list of “search related” terms for an idea of the kinds of keywords you can use. You can use Google’s Keyword Planner to measure the number of times a keyword or phrase is searched for and how competitive a keyword phrase is. Pro tip: Don’t use a keyword that is too high or low in competition. Aim for keywords that have medium competition and a healthy search volume.
3. Focus specific pages toward certain keywords. Stuffing as many keywords as possible into a single content page is ineffective, and it will result in low-quality content that does not rank well in SERPs. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for a page to rank high for several key terms. Opt for a website that has a high volume of content pages and target certain keywords on each page. The total number of pages you will need depends on the subject of your content and what key terms you want to target.
4. Link internally. Linking the pages within your website together is one of most effective ways of building a SEO-friendly site. Internal links within your content establish your website’s architecture, which will allow a search engine to “crawl” your site looking for information to organize its search index. Internal links also help your users to find relevant or related information more easily on your website. Users spending more time on your site contributes to your website’s rankability on search engines.
5. Monitor your SEO performance. There are numerous tracking tools to measure the success of your SEO strategy. Be consistent with measuring your site’s search ranking and implement changes that may need to be made if your site is not doing well on SERPs.

Developing content that ranks high on search engine results pages can be difficult and time-consuming. The online marketing professionals at OVC Lawyer Marketing, Inc. can help you build an effective SEO strategy, which will bring more traffic to your website as your rankings on search engine results pages improve. Call our team at 630-635-8000 or contact us online.

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