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Now Plan Your Enterprise Solutions as per the Trending Technology

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New trends in technology are part and parcel of every year’s growth. There are enough and more latest trends in technology that you have to be part of if you want to keep up with the business needs and grow your business with new age customers. Here are top 10…

New trends in technology are part and parcel of every year’s growth. There are enough and more latest trends in technology that you have to be part of if you want to keep up with the business needs and grow your business with new age customers. Here are top 10 new trends in technology that will help your businesses and help you keep up with trending technology 2020.

#1. AI and Machine learning

Artificial Intelligence or AI and Machine learning include technologies like deep learning, neural networks, and natural-language processing. It helps systems predict behavior, learn from it and change future behavior. It is an advanced system that can teach systems to adapt future behavior based on learning from previous behavior. AI and Machine learning can be suited to your organization need to better understand your customers and help target specific business values to increase sales and visibility. A lot of technological giants are investing greatly in this technology, and it is yet unclear who will win in this case.

#2. Intelligent Apps

Virtual Personal Assistants or VPA is an example of intelligent apps that you are already exposed to Intelligent apps can help prioritize emails, highlight specific content and more. Intelligent Apps will also have AI in them making it more effective for adaptation to customer needs. As a business, it will be important to adapt to Intelligent apps if you want to be ahead of the curb and understand your customer and their needs better.

#3. Virtual & Augmented Reality

It is time to change how people interact with each other; Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are doing just that as a trending technology in 2017. Pokemon Go, the game that used AR, was just the start of something that will change the world as we know it. If you need to train people for specific scenarios, you wouldn’t need to recreate anything, just use Virtual Reality. You want to blend reality with fiction; AR is your best option. The future of this trending technology is looking promising and will penetrate our lives more and more.

#4. Blockchain

Blockchain, used by technologies like Bitcoin, is certainly going to be the trending technology 2017. The blockchain is a mathematical logic that ensures the validity of transactions. It is one of the latest trends in technology that is increasingly becoming a go-to place for secure transactions. The technology helps to prevent tampering of data and makes transactions online both trustable and efficient.

#5. Cloud Migration

Storage in the Cloud has been gaining more and more importance over the years. Cloud has become an integral part of all businesses. More and more business are adapting to the cloud technology for space and efficiency they offer in terms of storage. Investing in Cloud technologies will provide many benefits to businesses including reducing equipment costs, reducing hosting cost, increased capacity, streamlining operations, increased productivity, and so on.

#6. Cyber Security

Security is becoming an increasingly contentious topic in today’s world. As more people are going online, making transactions online and basically using online resources, the security of the data available there is becoming a bigger risk. To adapt to the latest technology of trends, developers and businesses alike must aim at keeping the security on top of their list of priorities. Latest technology trends will ensure that there is multi-layered security for the internet of things (IoT) to prevent cybercrime and secure user data.

#7. Digital Technology Platforms

There is hardly any substitute for going digital in today’s day and age. Therefore Digital technology platforms are some of the front running trending technologies. There are many new trends in technology including services for the internet of things, AI, and conversational systems. As a business, you can identify what kind of technology works for you. You can then evolve from there on and create the right solution for you and grow your business using digital technology. What’s more, you can also tweak the solution to meet your specific need, making the digital technology platform compatible with you.

#8. Humanized Data

Data is king these days. All kinds of data are collected, stored and analyzed. Important business decisions are made based on data. The buzz word in the new trends in technology is humanized data. Humanized data ensures that researchers go be just the numbers and focus on the people behind the data; going away from quantitative data, towards qualitative data. This is one of the latest technology trends that focus on not just how many people said a certain thing, but what kind of people said it. This will help you as a business focus more on the messaging rather than look at the data and assume if a product works or not.

#9. Cloud-to-Cloud Storage Backup

Cloud is fairly new, and often businesses have trouble adapting to new technology. However, given that Cloud is the technology of the future, it will be unavoidable for businesses to make it their own. Now that information about your business is already a part of the cloud, creating a cloud to cloud storage backup will certainly be a trending technology unavoidable to be part of.

#10. IoT, Smart homes, and offices

As far as new trends in technology go, the most astonishing of them is that we are not as connected as we should be given that there are so many solutions. However, it may be safe to say that the reason we are not as connected as we should be is because there are too many options and not enough collaboration. The trending technology of 2020 will hopefully bring everything together and make the universe as connected as it ought to be. Big companies like Google, Amazon, and Apple are working towards creating a uniform work experience that will hopefully ensure smart homes and smarter offices. The last thing you want to do is get left behind as a business. These are only some of the technologies that are getting face-time in 2017. Watch out for others and make them count for your business.

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    BlogSearch Engine Optimization (SEO)

    Local SEO Checklist 2021 to Boost Business Performance

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    After figuring out SEO, now it’s time to delve deeper into Local SEO. And to do that well, we need to have a Local SEO checklist. What exactly do these words Local SEO mean – Local SEO is the practice of increasing the visibility and ranking of a local business…

    After figuring out SEO, now it’s time to delve deeper into Local SEO. And to do that well, we need to have a Local SEO checklist. What exactly do these words Local SEO mean – Local SEO is the practice of increasing the visibility and ranking of a local business that services a specific geographic area in organic search results. Local SEO focuses on methods that are exclusively applicable to local firms. Why is it important - Local SEO helps you increase the visibility of your business in search results, allowing you to reach out to potential clients who are looking for exactly what you have to offer. So when the customers who are interested in your products or services are situated in your geographical area, a Local SEO strategy is what is required. And if you’re not showing up in local search, you’re surely missing out. Taking the efforts that lead to a successful Local SEO campaign will allow your business to appear on page one of Google’s search engine results pages. So what steps do you need to take, and what all do you need to add to your Local SEO checklist to improve your visibility in local search results? A proper local SEO will also add to your conversions really well.

    Some top tips for a local SEO checklist to get your business going:

    Local SEO

    #1. Local Keywords

    One simple step to take is to ensure that your website and other brand material contain keywords/phrases that are relevant to what local searchers are looking for. When someone searches for "near me," for example, Google looks at your area to see if your objects or services are in close proximity. If you have many locations, make sure to create About Us pages or even separate websites targeted for each area to catch local visitors.

    #2. Avoid Over Optimization

    Don’t overdo anything. The usage of keywords everywhere in your sentences or blog posts is just going to put the reader off. When you set out to optimise, make sure that the use of keywords is in a few strategic places, that there is a natural flow and that the readers will like what they are going through.

    #3. Interesting Content

    Search engines will always prefer content that is fresh and unique. You need to gauge what your customers want to know and what exactly are they asking. And then make sure that your content has answers to those queries. There are solutions such as hiring SEO writers in case you are facing a block with writing content. The writers need to churn out SEO optimised content consistently for blog posts, web pages, etc.

    #4. Title Tags

    They are called titles for a reason! One of the most important elements, the Title tags need to be taken care of. Being the main text that the users see on the browser tab, the titles also tell Google what the page is all about.
    • You could make your title tags engaging and catchy if you note the following:
    • Make sure that there are 55 or fewer characters
    • Try to include the brand name wherever possible

    #5. Meta Descriptions

    This lets the user and search engines know your page in précis form. Stimulating and explanatory Meta descriptions could lead to a higher frequency of clicks on your page. The description should be 156 characters or less in length, so your words don’t put off the users.

    #6. Alt-Text

    This is the text you see when an image fails to load. But care should be taken to include the keyword and describe the image.

    #7. Anchor Text Optimization

    This is that part that is clickable in a hyperlink. Google uses the anchor text of a link to understand what the page wants to talk about.

    #8. Image Optimization

    Search engines look at images from a different viewpoint. To make things easier for them and help them comprehend the images better, we need to give them additional information to describe the image. This lends itself to improved rankings for you too.

    #9. Business Location Pages

    Your business locations need to be created separately. All the addresses/locations cannot appear on a single page. This also means that you need to cater to the Geo-targeted location title tags, descriptions, and content.

    #10. Listings of local businesses

    It makes a lot of sense to complete your commercial enterprise profiles on several websites, such as Google My Business, Yelp, Bing Local, or other nearby commercial enterprise listings, as part of your Local search engine optimisation Checklist. Google My Business (GMB) is the mainstream that keeps your target audience's search engine results coming. It's increased much more when you're a small firm trying to reach out to local clients. Google My Business is also deeply integrated across a number of apps and functions that many consumers use on their mobile devices or in their online browsers.

    #11. NAP

    NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number. If you want to be seen and make an impact in local search, NAP is what comes to your rescue. It helps Google know where your business is located. The search engines also care about the consistency and quantity of NAP mentioned as a ranking factor for local search.

    #12. Build a Bank of positive Reviews

    Who doesn’t crave some good reviews? Customer reviews are one of the best ways to grow and enhance local business. There would have been innumerable times when you looked up a review and were even influenced by it. The same force works for you too. Focus on reviews on Google My Business or Facebook and increase good reviews by linking to your review profile. Make sure reviews are an inherent part of your Local SEO Checklist come what may. While Google forbids businesses from asking for reviews, you can encourage customers to do so by highlighting reviews on your website and so forth. You have the chance to convert an angry client into a repeat customer, or at the very least, to demonstrate to other current and future consumers that you value customer feedback and are prepared to include it when appropriate.

    #13. Schema

    The Schema is a framework, or language, that allows you to provide information about your site to search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and Yandex. It allows them to comprehend your content and provide users with relevant results. You may also use Schema to tell search engines that you want to provide extra information like pricing, hours, and star ratings. Geographic markup, or bits of code that describe your location, can also be used.

    #13. Citations and Social Profiles

    A citation is where you get the honour of getting an online mention of your business. This could be with all or some of your NAP information. A social profile is one step ahead – it is when you get upgraded from a citation. Examples of social profiles are Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

    #14. Mobile Search

    When the whole world is on the go, is your website mobile-friendly? This is an important aspect that needs to be taken care of. If users are unhappy with your website because of a poor mobile experience, then you should consider updating it to a mobile-friendly website. Google is going to start ranking websites via Mobile first. They have already begun testing on a small scale.

    #15. Social Media

    You need to have a presence on social media. Not just that, the profiles need to be optimised for local SEO too. For furthering your business, you could consider Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Instagram, and Pinterest. For blogs, there are various sites such as Reddit, Bebo, StumbleUpon, Wikipedia, or Slide Share.

    #16. Videos

    Many users or potential customers prefer moving images or videos. To grab their eyeballs, you could add videos on your website pages, local business listings, and the various social media platforms you’re present on. This will also engage your visitors.

    #17. Voice Search Audience

    Google Voice Search is growing, and how so get set to join the ride, and you could rank higher with local optimisation tactics. We’ve armed you with enough pointers with the Local SEO Checklist. So wait no more, up the ante with the checklist, and improve your local SEO strategy. At #ARM Worldwide, we provide quality SEO services to drive your business growth exponentially. Hire our professional SEO experts today! Learn more about the Top 6 SEO Trends that will Dominate.

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      BlogTechnology

      Top 15 Best Plugins for Your New WordPress Website

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      Whether you are looking to create a WordPress website or managing the entire WordPress platform for your organization, there are some plugins that you could use to make your life easier through the process. Here is a list 15 best WordPress plugins that you could use to better both yours…

      Whether you are looking to create a WordPress website or managing the entire WordPress platform for your organization, there are some plugins that you could use to make your life easier through the process. Here is a list 15 best WordPress plugins that you could use to better both yours and your user’s experience in WordPress. #1. WordPress SEO by Yoast SEO is the most important aspect of the web these days. If your website does not show up in the first 10 search results, then automatically the eyeballs on your website diminishes. Yoast as a plugin provides you with creative ways to better the SEO of your website. It focuses on creating user-friendly content and then further optimizes it for the web. #2. Backupbuddy Backupbuddy does what its name suggests. It backs up all the information that you have and keeps it safe. As a business owner, the data that you have is the most precious information you will have and Backupbuddy ensures that that information is kept safe from crashes and hacker interventions. Additionally, it is one of the best plugins that help you seamlessly backup the information from your WordPress platform. #3. Jetpack Jetpack is packed with powerful features for your WordPress website. It increases your site performance, provides content tools, offers visitor engagement features and much more. It also offers responsive mobile theme options to enhance your WordPress website design. Additionally, it also has an analytical tool that is visible right from your WordPress dashboard. #4. OptinMonster If you want optimization software for your WordPress website, then OptinMonster is a must have. Grow your email list, because OptinMonster has the ability to convert visitors into email subscribers. There have been case studies of companies that have actually benefited from this plugin on the WordPress platform. It is packed with features like page-level targeting, exit-intent technology, analytics and more. #5. Google XML Sitemaps One cannot undermine the importance of a sitemap because that is what optimizes your website. Google XML Sitemaps provides it to your WordPress platform with ease. Once this plugin is installed, it helps search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo etc. to enhance the indexing of your website with a special XML sitemap. #6. Wordfence Security Hackers are out there trying to get all the information on you that they can use against you, and a username and password may not always be an effective way to protect you. Wordfence provides security measures that protect your WordPress website while providing you information on how vulnerable you are. #7. Akismet An anti-spam plugin that checks comments and filters all the spam out. It also provides a status history for the comments to help you understand which comments were found to be spam as far as the plugin backend is concerned. #8. WooCommerce If you are looking for ecommerce solutions for your Wordpress platform, WooCommerce is possibly one of the best solutions that you can find. Though it may take some getting used to, the plugin is immensely useful and comes with a host of compatibility and support from other plugins and companies. #9. WP Super Cache This plugin for the WordPress website caches information. It generates HTML files. Additionally, it is easy to install. It makes the process easier by being served directly by Apache. #10. Business Profile If you run a business, you know that apart from having a website, you also need to let people around your location know that you are available. The business profile does a great job with solving that problem for you. It helps with Local SEO. Using this plugin you can add a contact card where you can enter information about your business name, address, phone number, contact page link or email address, link to Google Map with directions to your establishment and more. #11. WP-Optimize You want a smooth running blog, then WP-Optimize is a must install the plugin. Whether its database table management, management of old posts or cleaning of unapproved comments, WP Optimize does everything to make your WordPress blog faster and more efficient. This free Optimize Database plugin goes through your database and deletes all the extra table data that you don’t need; This includes orphan post meta items and expired transients. Additionally, it provides you the flexibility to delete exactly what you want and keep the information that you feel you require. #12. WP Content Scheduler With Range Schedule your posts and pages and when they show up with a range of dates, using this plugin. It also helps you manage the content and remove it when the content exceeds the expiry date. This makes managing your content easy and is compatible with Compatible and WooCommerce. #13. Contact form 7 If you want to collect user information using forms, this is one of the best options. Using this plugin you can create and manage multiple contact forms and customize them using settings. The form also supports Akismet spam filtering making it an efficient plugin along with Akismet. #14. Ultimate Social Media Icons Social media is now the in-thing. This plugin lets you add social media icons to your website. These icons include relevant social media portals such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube, ‘Share’ and more. Additionally, you can give these icons multiple actions and animation if you want. #15. Google Analytics Google Analytics is both powerful and easy. It helps you keep track of how well your website is doing in the real world. Get information on how many people visited your website, how many of them revisited it, what they looked at and a whole bunch of other information. The plugin focuses on the statistics that matters. Remember that at the end of the all of these plugins are aids to help you through the process of managing your WordPress website or WordPress platform. However, at the end of the day, the content you use to entice your users is what matters. So, continue to update your WordPress website and make the content as dynamic and new as possible

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        BlogSearch Engine Optimization (SEO)

        16 White Hat SEO Techniques for Link Building

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        Keywords, and then some more! To be discovered on search engines, it’s easy to stuff keywords everywhere. Being the moot point of any SEO strategy, it’s imperative to know how to use keywords the right way, and that way is “White hat SEO,” as compared to “black hat SEO.” It…

        Keywords, and then some more! To be discovered on search engines, it’s easy to stuff keywords everywhere. Being the moot point of any SEO strategy, it’s imperative to know how to use keywords the right way, and that way is “White hat SEO,” as compared to “black hat SEO.” It essentially means incorporating keywords wherever possible or even not possible in some cases.

        What is White Hat SEO

        White Hat SEO tips are all about selecting the right keywords so that it becomes easier for search engines to find you. These keywords enhance your site presence and visibility, and also help in making it more reader-friendly. Therefore, instead of packing and cracking keywords into your content as much as you can, White Hat SEO tips will help you with keyword usage in such a way that the content becomes more relevant, engaging, and interactive. This ensures that your customers and visitors stay hooked and interested.

        White Hat Strategies

        People often ask - ‘How to do White Hat SEO?’ - employing White Hat strategies means that you are in the good books of Google and other prominent search engines, and this further implies that you will not lose traffic because of any kind of penalty. It will serve one well to remember that building great inbound links using White Hat link building is a valuable white hat SEO tactic. It makes your website a more reliable source by leading traffic to it from various other sources. Another point that can be talked about is that White Hat strategies focus on adding true value to your industry, and your customers’ experience. If you are looking at a long-term relationship with your customers who not only buy from you but will be more than happy to recommend you to friends (the power of word-of-mouth), you need to focus on tactics that give your customers a great user experience. Providing them with genuine and useful content is one way to do this. It is only common sense that great content is something that keeps people interested and strikes the right chord with them. As a result, they share it with their kith and kin and also share the website reference as well if their user experience has had a positive impact. White hat link building will lead to traffic being driven back to your website, and that would obviously result in a higher volume of leads.

        Why is link building so important?

        It is that part of SEO strategy that cannot be undermined at all. Search engines are now all about quality over quantity. Managing to acquire links from genuine and relevant websites is a statement of trust for your own creation, and this leads to Google rewarding your website with a better ranking. With the presence of an improved algorithm, it is now undoubtedly vital to use white hat SEO techniques for effective Link building. Search Engine Ranking Factor For improved rankings and better visibility, you could go for some of the following White Hat strategies for link building: #1. Engage with sites and people who interact with you and your website. Promote your website to relevant people in a sincere manner by writing meaningful and customised messages. #2. With a steady blog, aim to create shareable content that is exceptionally unique, and fresh. This will ensure the generation of inbound links. #3. Try referencing other blogs because when you link other blogs, you can at least hope that they will do the same for you. It is a good way of networking as well. #4. When you decide to attempt guest blogging, always remember it’s a wonderful way to organically create inbound links. #5. With case studies, you could talk about your clients and their success stories. We are sure that they would return the favour by referencing your site in one way or another because there are mutual benefits to be gained here. #6. You could act as a current affairs news provider and your readers will be more than happy to share your content through their social media or blogs. #7. Freebies can get you everywhere. Free eBooks, whitepapers, etc., and the likes are very helpful resources. Rest assured, your visitors will definitely pass them on to help many more who are interested in the same. #8. With directory submissions, you could aim at creating backlinks, but do ensure that the directory is indexed as it makes it easier for the search engines to read through. #9. A business listing could get you more visibility for your business/site as well as the much-needed backlinks. Google also provides business listings for free. #10. Visual content like graphics, videos, cartoons, etc., can grab eyeballs like no other. Therefore, you can plan and incorporate some interesting illustrations to show off your creativity. You could even go for meme marketing, give your customers a good laugh, and get more traffic! #11. An interview for another blog or website could be a god-sent opportunity as it is a great way to generate more inbound links. #12. Writing testimonials is a win-win situation for both you and the business you’re writing for. You could garner some appreciation as well as some links for your business on the way. #13. Find some good social bookmarking sites and submit your website for bookmarking as such practices help in increasing backlinks for your site. #14. For instant shareability, add a “tweet this” button, where a reader can click and share the content on their personal account. This increases reach by a significant margin. #15. Creating resourceful lists could act as link baits as other bloggers will link to it rather than take the trouble to write the whole list themselves. #16. Get .edu backlinks from resource pages because .edu domains carry more value than the usual .com links. Furthermore, Google’s trust in them is much higher too. White Hat SEO is more frequently used by those who intend to make long-term investments in their website using the right methods and tactics. No wonder it is also known as ethical SEO now. The proven techniques mentioned above can help you efficiently practice white hat SEO services and improve the overall SEO ranking of your site on various search engines. These will help you stay in the good books of prominent search engines as well, and prevent you from utilising any negative SEO strategies that might get you blacklisted.

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          What are the E-Commerce Tech Trends in This Year

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          E-Commerce business had a ton of momentum in 2016 and it’s expected to evolve this year too. With major development seen in the eCommerce tech trends, it is clear that there will be astonishing growth in future for this sector in coming years. Having said that, e-Commerce field is dominated…

          E-Commerce business had a ton of momentum in 2016 and it’s expected to evolve this year too. With major development seen in the eCommerce tech trends, it is clear that there will be astonishing growth in future for this sector in coming years. Having said that, e-Commerce field is dominated by those who plan to embrace, anticipate changes, and notch the trend before the competitors do. Because the competition in this industry is growing at a rapid phase and customers are left with abundance options to choose from. E-marketers will have to improve not only on their product quality but also will have to work on user experience to retain the customer. According to eMarketer’s study, eCommerce represented 8.6% ($1.915 trillion) of overall retail spending last year and is expected to reach 18.7% ($4.058 trillion) by 2020. So, it makes sense to note down some latest trends in e-Commerce for 2018 and prepare for them. You might not use all of them for your online business, but you should be aware of their existence and the speed at which these trends are taking over traditional methods.

          Top 5 E-Commerce Tech Trends in This Year

          #1. Shoppable Videos

          By now we already know videos are the future of content marketing and can do a lot to attract visitors. In past decade we have seen images and content been used for doing eCommerce business. Now the future years will have Shoppable Videos for customers, which will make them shop for products/services directly from the video. Marks and Spencers even tried their hands on Shoppable video by selling their new denim collection, wherein customer could pause and purchase the denim at any time throughout the video. A shoppable video will tremendously reduce the catalog browsing time for users, amid giving them the best visual experience for shopping. This year we get to see a massive movement in how e-Commerce businesses sell via videos.

          #2. Chatbots

          Chatbots Plenty of retailers will invest in chatbots to help shoppers with required information and completing a transaction. Chatbots otherwise known as messenger bots is a piece of software that can be used by the retailer to chat with customers via text or voice. Well-designed chatbots can offer personalized assistances, enhance the user experience, process orders, track shipments, provide product suggestion, automates processes, and lot more. Currently, chatbots are emerging eCommerce trends for a business that can provide smooth and ravishing experience to online shoppers.

          #3. Mobile Commerce

          Mobile Commerce User experience is a critical component of any digital business strategy in today’s technologically advanced world. And the user is moving from desktop to mobile counting 55% of the online traffic is generated from mobile devices last year. Mobile marketing is an important eCommerce trend for 2017, which cannot be ignored. Moreover, the search engine giant Google is pushing online stores to go mobile responsive to be able to achieve higher ranks in search engine results. No doubts, business owners will work hard to integrate their website with mobile wallets also to process effortless checkouts.

          #4. Biometrics

          Biometrics E-commerce is a rapidly growing industry where the main concern for every retailer is to offer maximum comfort and security to the buyer. Serious security issues such as hacking, spamming, online fraud and theft of confidential data are still holding back many online users from purchasing products online. Biometric verification is a recent and solid eCommerce technology trends that measure the physical characteristics of users such as fingerprints, palm, face, or voice to solve security issues. There will be no more stolen or forgotten password problem, also this enhanced security measures will make forging difficult for intruders.

          #5. Cross-channel integration

          Cross-channel integration Cross-channel integration is not anything new, yet growing swiftly in the eCommerce industry. Cross-channel simply means that you can seamlessly and interchangeably use various channels to promote, sell and interact with customers. Cross-channel integration has the power of remarketing the product with ads even after a customer has abandoned the purchase or website. In coming years, retailers will continuously integrate their eCommerce into cross-channels as it means tremendous growth opportunity. More interesting eCommerce trends would include cloud hosting, drones, one-click checkouts, digital wallets, social selling, apps payments etc. So, to drive growth in the eCommerce industry, businesses must adopt and embrace these eCommerce tech trends in 2018. However, amid the glamor of technology don’t forget the core principle of any business – customer first!

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            BlogDigital Marketing / Inbound Marketing

            Best 3 Digital Marketing Trends to Watch for in This Year

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            The digital marketing industry is intricate and capricious, still exciting for people that stay up-to-day with every emerging trend. When it comes to digital marketing business the only thing constant is change, right from technological trends, shifts in business models to evolution in customer behavior – there is lots understand…

            The digital marketing industry is intricate and capricious, still exciting for people that stay up-to-day with every emerging trend. When it comes to digital marketing business the only thing constant is change, right from technological trends, shifts in business models to evolution in customer behavior – there is lots understand what’s vital about what’s next in store. In past years we saw some key developments such as an increase in mobile internet users, the age of video marketing, big data, updates in SEO algorithms, need for responsive websites design, mobile eCommerce and more that have laid the foundations stone to look for what’s ahead. However, keeping up an ever-changing pattern of digital marketing trends might be a daunting task to align with. But that’s what this industry is all about, the most successful digital marketers understand the importance of agility when speaking about engaging today’s always-alert consumers. Companies/individual who adopts these tends earlier will become industry leaders, while those delaying will struggle to achieve results. Strategies such as search engine marketing, fake reviews, big banner ads and pop-up ads are a thing of past. To give a clear frame of mind to marketers in terms of what’s important now, here are top 3 digital marketing trends one should pay attention to in 2017.

            #1. Marketing Automation

            Marketing automation is relatively not a new trend for 2017, yet it has the potential for improvement. This industry is already $5.5 billion huge and more companies are likely to invest in marketing automation software/tools this year. What is Marketing Automation? Marketing automation system allows organizations to create strategies that are ongoing that can be scheduled to be triggered at particular times, for certain kind of audiences. It helps create marketing campaigns that nurture leads and help in establishing long-term relationships with customers. Marketing automation tools and software allows business to streamline their promotional campaigns in order to become more efficient – meaning no investment on talent hiring and new projects. There are many tools such as Zapier, AWeber, and HootSuite to help you establish this with ease in today’s market. However, before you select the tool that is appropriate, you must first identify your organization’s specific needs. When you identify those needs as an organization, it will be easier to make your decision in a better-informed manner. For example in healthcare industry, a drip campaigns based on age can help send reminders on health check-ups, nurture campaigns can help existing patients get tips on how to take care of them based on their demography, social awareness campaigns and free health care campaigns information can give patients a feeling that the healthcare provider actually cares. Also, a varied number of channels can be used for this purpose including emails, SMSs, social media, mobiles and so on. These different channels helps to engage audience based on their preference and usage patterns. Interesting Facts of Marketing Automation:
            • According to Marketo & Ascend2 - 91% of the most successful users agree that marketing automation is “very important” to the overall success of their marketing across channels.
            • According to Adestra, 74% of marketers believe the biggest benefit automation offered them is time-saving. It augmented customer engagement by 68%, communication by 58% and increased up-selling opportunity by 58%.
            • A study by VB Insight found that 80% of businesses using automation have also enjoyed increased leads.
            • A research from VentureBeat Insight said 75% or more companies are likely to buy marketing automation software over the next year.
            • According to Nucleus Research’s study that companies that were using automation software had improved sales productivity by 14.5%.
            These facts only depict that marketing automation is growing at an astonishing rate and cannot be ignored by any digital marketer. Further, one of the biggest enhancements for marketing automation will be the addition of Artificial Intelligence functionality to improve capabilities and functions.

            #2. Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality

            2016 was an infiltrate year for Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). Augmented Reality began to boom with the release of Pokemon Go and thanks to the headsets coming from HTC, Oculus, and Playstation that people were transported to a different place virtually to experience something in real-time. What is Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality? Augmented Reality is the latest technology that overlay images of the real world on users to offer a composite view. While Virtual reality means simulating our imaginary worlds using a high-performance computer and sensory tools such as VR Headsets to sense objects as spatial presence. AR/VR digital marketing trends of 2017 can encourage marketers to deliver an immersive, impactful, and most powerful memorable experience to engage customers. Also, this concept allows users virtually feel the product, campaign or a place without having any direct physical effects. These two concepts have enhanced digital marketing as a whole. We will see most brands will be using AR/VR technology to market their products, services, concepts and ideas to audiences. Best Examples of Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality –
            • Coca Cola’s Santa’s VR Sleigh Ride – Last year during Christmas, the giant company Coca-Cola designed a virtual reality sleigh ride using Oculus Rift to offer the experience of being a Santa Clause for a day. It was a roller coaster ride for the audience as Santa Clause flew over the country and into different villages.
            • Samsung Gear VR #BeFearless of Heights – Samsung had a #BeFearless project last year for helping people overcome their fear of heights gradually. 27 people participated from different countries who were scared of heights. Wearing Samsung Gear VR, participants had to go through 3 different scenarios at different levels of difficulty. The anxiety level of participants was reduced by 23.6% due to the campaign.
            • Topshop Kinect AR Dressing Rooms – TopShop partnered with Kinect to create an Augmented Reality dressing room for shoppers that are in hurry. This allowed shoppers to try out their purchases virtually and quickly.
            There are hosts of possibility with this latest digital marketing trend such as shopping, wireless devices, and connected apps.

            #3. Content Marketing through Employee Advocates

            With native advertising falling short and digital landscape expanding, the power to influences gets shifted to individuals. And marketers this year will rely more on individual employees for advocating their brand’s content. Content marketing through employee advocacy will help businesses generate brand awareness, increase social engagement and profits, all at low or no cost. What is Employee advocacy? When promotion of a brand is done by its staff members we call it employee advocacy. An employee can generate positive exposure plus raise create awareness for a brand through social media and offline sources. With 90% of customers trusting the only recommendation from people they know, content marketing through employee advocacy will surely to evolve in coming years! These are most important digital marketing trends we believe will take center spot in 2017. Let us know your thought on latest digital marketing trends! Conclusion With industries ramping up their efforts to get recognized online, it doesn't take a genius to figure out why digital marketing has evolved into one of the most important avenues that a business needs to work on extensively to make sure that they can be discovered by prospective leads and potential customers online. These latest digital marketing trends will become the norm over time, and it's highly recommended that a business starts incorporating these innovative methods in their digital marketing strategies to quickly avail these benefits.

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              BlogTechnology

              Why WordPress Platform Is Essential For Online Business?

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              Most of the world is moving online and there is no doubt that all businesses require an online presence. Especially if as an organization you are mostly online or would like to branch out into online spaces, you will certainly need blogs and websites to help you reach your customers.…

              Most of the world is moving online and there is no doubt that all businesses require an online presence. Especially if as an organization you are mostly online or would like to branch out into online spaces, you will certainly need blogs and websites to help you reach your customers. However, today we are spoilt for choices in terms of the options from blogging and website creation that one has. Nevertheless, there is one blogging platform that has stood the test of time and has continued to innovate to meet its customer’s needs – WordPress Platform. WordPress is one of the leading blog platforms available today. It is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) available. Here is a list of reasons WordPress is almost irreplaceable for online businesses.

              #1. It’s free

              No matter, whether you are using the WordPress platform to blog or building your own WordPress Website on it, it can be accessed for free. WordPress has no hidden charges despite how popular your website becomes. Additionally, there is a host of plugins and themes that can also be used for free.

              #2. Customizable

              WordPress has multiple customizable options. You can use the WordPress design to make your website look fresh and keep updating it as new themes and designs are introduced. You do not need to hire a technician to help you adapt your website to the latest WordPress design. WordPress plugins also adds a host of functionality to the website. The WordPress platform is both flexible and versatile enough to accommodate almost all the needs of you as a user. #3. Search Engine Friendly Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a primary requirement for anyone that is running businesses today. Therefore, when you create that website or blog one of the biggest investments you will have to make towards it is to ensure that it is being seen amongst all the clutter that is the web today. This happens only with SEO, and WordPress platform helps by already being search engine friendly. Most popular search engines prefer trusted sites and when a site is powered by the WordPress platform it is automatically preferred. #4. Easy to Manage If you are looking for a solution that is easy to setup, manage, and update your website and blog, then having WordPress website is the ideal solution. The minimum requirement to get your own website is a web browser and an internet connection to create your own website. The website is user-friendly, intuitive, and easy to learn. The existing WordPress design and thousands of themes help you set the websites within minutes. Additionally, all updates to the WordPress platform are installed with a click of a button making it a seamless process to stay up to date. #5. Community and Support With millions of users having blogs and websites on the WordPress platform, it has extensive support. Apart from providing instruction guides that provide all the required information to create and run a website; the platform has a loyal community that provides solutions to almost any question or issue that you might encounter. Moreover, integrating your WordPress website with social media is really simple only adding to the whole community fee. Finally, WordPress is over a decade old and therefore tested and improved over the years making it more reliable than recent platforms. #6. E-Commerce Solutions One of the biggest achievements of this content management system is its ability to function with e-commerce solutions. You can use different plugins and themes available within the WordPress website to make it functional as an e-commerce website. What’s more, these plugins are easy to install and use making the process fairly seamless. There is a host of plugins that are better for different purposes like selling online digital goods vs. selling physical stuff. WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, iThemes Exchange, Shop and so on are just some of the examples of interesting e-commerce plugins that you can use on your WordPress website with the appropriate theme to make your site compatible to trade. #7. Multi-user Options Privacy is a very important part of any business online. WordPress ensures that that aspect is taken care of from within the system. There is a host of roles that you can assign to different people that manage your website. Just some of the roles include Super Admin that accesses the entire site network, Administrator that controls the features of the website, to Editors, to Contributors and so on down to the subscriber that can only view content and manage their own profile. #8. Multimedia accessibility Apart from being great with text, the WordPress platform also is all kinds of media friendly. It can host images, videos, or audio files seamlessly. You can easily insert multimedia files into a page or a post making it accessible for all kind of users in addition to all kinds of media. Additionally, you can also edit some of the media within WordPress with the right kind of plugins. #9. Mobile Friendly Right now, it is even more important to be mobile-friendly than ever, and Wordpress complies. WordPress websites are mobile friendly and are built to give users the best possible experience on websites and mobiles alike. Many WordPress design themes are designed to be mobile responsive; meaning compatible to different screen sizes. #10. Innovation Innovation is part of the WordPress journey for over a decade. It has the most powerful tool to integrate with other applications to provide the best website for you. Integrating with payment gateways, sending emails, scheduling posts and so on are all doable with the WordPress website. With its popularity, its innovative solution to business needs has also increased. Additionally, the flexibility it offers also has increased and will continue to increase as the popularity increases in the public view. At the end of the day, the blogging platform you choose will determine how comfortable you are with your website. Just a word of caution, the transition from one platform to another is tricky and often painful. So, choose wisely and choose carefully.

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                How to Select the Right CMS Platform for Your Business?

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                Content management systems or CMS is becoming a vital aspect for all businesses. They not just help you design and manage your websites but can also help in making it more engaging. With the world moving online, how you manage your content can potentially determine how engaged you can make…

                Content management systems or CMS is becoming a vital aspect for all businesses. They not just help you design and manage your websites but can also help in making it more engaging. With the world moving online, how you manage your content can potentially determine how engaged you can make your customers feel. However, selecting the best CMS platform can be a complex task. Here is a list of some points that you need to keep in mind while deciding which content management system to go with.

                #1. Business needs

                Before you start analyzing different CMS platforms that are best suited for your business, first, identify your business needs. There are a whole bunch of CMS platforms out there that do different things but without deciding what features you can’t do or do without, making a decision on which is the best CMS platform for you is pointless. Identify if your website will be simple brochure site, multiple, or inter-connected sites if you require third-party software integration, and so on. For instance, if ‘easy to use’ is your priority, WordPress may be a good option for you; if you are looking to manage multiple internet properties then Joomla or Drupal might be the best content management system for you. List all your priorities beforehand to help make the decision on the best CMS platform.

                #2. Core functionality

                Identify what the core functionality of the CMS platform is. CMS platforms are typically multi-functionality, but each one of them has a set of core functionalities that they do better than anyone else. WordPress, for example, is known to be one of the best CMS platforms for blogging, while Magneto is probably one of your best choices if you wanted to have e-commerce on your website; Joomla, on the other hand, can do a bit of both.

                #3. Scalability

                You will need to keep adding new content to your website to retain the eyeballs on your page. Therefore, scalability is an important requirement. If scalability is something that is required for your business, then the best CMS platforms would be platforms like Magento, Sitecore or Drupal.

                #4. Security

                Malicious attacks and fear from hackers is not a rare phenomenon anymore. It is, therefore, imperative that the security of your CMS platform is protected. With every update of the CMS platform versions, developers strive to increase the security cover for CMS. It can be said that Magento probably is one of the best CMS platforms as far as security goes.

                #5. Mobile Responsive

                Everything is on mobile today. With the increased sale and use of smartphones, tablets, and iPads your business could lose out big-time if your website is not responsive. This means the same websites are accessible across all the different devices. While most CSM platforms provide you the features to build responsive devices, WordPress is probably the best content management system that supports mobile responsive website. Despite whether you choose the free version or the premium one, WordPress provides a host of responsive themes.

                #6. Budget

                This is the most obvious reason to choose one CMS platform over the other is how much you are willing to spend on it. For instance, apart from what you actually require, if a CMS is cheaper you will probably pick the cheaper one. If you are a new business, chances are that you would want to spend more money on driving traffic to your website rather than spend money on hosting it. That said if the CMS platform is the backbone of your business, then you might want to spend more on finding the best CMS platform for your needs. Though there are multiple free options in the market, Kentico is an example of a not so expensive option to choose with a host of features associated with it.

                #7. User interaction

                It is very important to identify how many people access the website and what kind of purposes they access it for. These days users are very particular about how accessible the websites are and what features are available for them to access. It is important to therefore, keep the users in mind while selecting the best CMS platform for your business. Additionally, ensure that the CMS platform also supports plugins like chat tools, social media and so on, to make your site more interactive.

                #8. Customizability

                Web development is becoming dynamic in terms of content and changes to the website to keep users engaged. This means that there must be constant changes to the content and design alike on the websites to keep the users engaged. Given that, doing these changes should also be easy and manageable since keeping a full-time person dedicated to only CMS updates might not always be feasible. Additionally, usability and accessibility are also important aspects when businesses want the turnover time for changes to be quick. Therefore, platforms that have extensions are more useful in these situations.

                #9. Type of CMS platform

                Type of CMS platform There are many types of CMS platforms. You can choose to go with the open source model that have the ability to be easily modified and customized based on your requirement based on the options provided by developers working on the platform. Alternately, you can choose to use proprietary CMS platforms where a company owns the platform and can customize it to your needs and charge a licensing fee for using their product.

                #10. Support

                The CMS platform has been adopted, but what happens if you encounter a problem with it? The support system for the CMS platform becomes of utmost importance. When it comes to open source CMS platforms the amount of community interaction they have becomes a vital thing to analyze. The wider the community and more interactive and engaged they are the more support you will receive from them. On the other hand, if it is a SaaS platform such as Squarespace or Wix then they provide their own support. Finally, it comes down to what is the most effective platform for you. Take the time to research and identify the one that suits you best. Remember, selecting the right content management system is the first step to creating a presence on the internet; so, choose wisely.

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                  BlogDigital Marketing / Inbound Marketing

                  Digital Marketing Made Simple: The Ultimate Guide

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                  Digital marketing. What does these couple of words mean? Are they just some new fancy buzzwords or do they really mean something that’s important? Digital marketing made simple – this is a term that can be used for any form of marketing products or services that make use of electronic…

                  Digital marketing. What does these couple of words mean? Are they just some new fancy buzzwords or do they really mean something that’s important? Digital marketing made simple – this is a term that can be used for any form of marketing products or services that make use of electronic devices. And it’s been around for a lot of years (because electronics have been around too for as many decades). So to talk straight, digital marketing is anything you do online to get people’s attention. A decent digital marketing strategy will also aid in driving people to your website and maybe even convince some of them to join your email list and try your products and services. In the current scenario, lots of businesses opt for digital channels such as Google search, social media, email, online advertising and their websites to connect with their current and prospective customers. A lot of organizations have started focusing on online or digital channels over offline marketing campaigns because this is one way they can reach their ideal target audience where they're already present or aim to spend most of their waking hours: online. And unlike conventional usage of TV, radio, print ads for traditional marketing, digital marketing can be measured. This obviously lets you gauge what’s working and what’s not. So you could concentrate your efforts on what actually works for you and stop focusing on stuff that doesn’t. Also digital marketing is way more inexpensive when compared to the rest of the means and methods and easy to test and pivot. Let’s look at the ultimate guide and strategies that work for digital marketing:
                  • SEO Marketing
                  • SEM Marketing
                  • Email Marketing
                  • Content Marketing
                  • Social Media
                  • Pay Per Click Advertising
                  • Relationship Marketing
                  You’ll have to look at tackling different things at various stages of your business. Obviously a beginner level will be different from a more evolved stage of your business. But it’s all about taking one step at a time. Because as we all know and agree, Rome was not built in a day! This guide is here to help you take those baby steps. A digital marketing strategy with a focus on things that matter like drawing up a plan, email marketing and amazingly fresh and unique content along with social media is what will take you ahead of your competition.

                  #1. SEO Marketing

                  An inherent part of any digital marketing strategy, Search Engine Optimization, or SEO is a focused element that helps in motivating customers to visit your business site via online platforms. It’s all about marketing the modern way! From knowing who your target market is to realizing truths that drive home this point, SEO today aims at attracting potential customers who are interested in what you have to offer. You also need to consider important factors such as mobile markets and optimize accordingly. If potential customers are not looking at desktops but mobile devices, then you need to ensure that you provide a quality user experience. Think about your keywords well. Move away from just one keyword and stop using just that to try to go up the ranks. Keywords are now much more about knowing and fathoming what your target audience is actually keying into the search engine. Use content that has quality. Apart from not stuffing in keywords endlessly, keep the content natural and focused.

                  #2. SEM

                  Search engine marketing’s provides advertisers or businesses the opportunity to place their ads right before customers who are motivated to buy their products then and there. No other medium has the ability to achieve this. Any wonder then search engine marketing is so effective and such an amazingly powerful way to grow your business. With SEM expertise, you can efficiently connect your brands with customers and prospects. It enhances visibility among current customers & qualified leads, and relentlessly measures performance.

                  #3. Email marketing

                  Email_marketing

                  “You’ve got mail.” Once upon a time this is what you got to hear. Times have changed but that hasn’t lessened the importance or the addiction to emails. Looked at from another perspective, our inbox is still the place that grants us solitude amongst all the chaos that is communication on the web.

                  So building an email marketing campaign that’s successful and engaging is of utmost importance in today’s day and age. Get started with a sizable email list – use anything from offering freebies to a simple newsletter or a product update. But also remember that it needs to have a strong call to action and copy worth dying for. Also try not to forget that a follow-up is very vital and that you need to be consistent with it. So if someone wants a daily update and you forget to deliver, maybe you need to up the game. You also need to look at the value you’re providing. And you could do it with an offer or consider doing it with a newsletter or in linking to blog posts or other forms of media content.

                  #4. Content marketing

                  This is a strategic marketing approach that lays emphasis on creating valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. So instead of talking just about what you sell or want to sell, you are doling out appropriate and useful content to your prospects and customers that could actually help them in the long run to address certain issues. From large organizations like P&G, Microsoft, Cisco Systems, and innumerable more, to small and medium businesses, content marketing is used by one and all. And they all do it all because you guessed it right, IT WORKS. Content marketing helps with:
                  • More sales
                  • Cost savings
                  • Better customer loyalty

                  #5. Social media marketing

                  Using the immense power of content along with social media marketing can help you take your customer base to an all-new high. Once you know what your target audience wants, you could go for social media optimization (SMO) that acts like a strategy to pull new visitors to a website. For this you need to add social media links to content, such as RSS feeds and share buttons or promote various activities through social media by updating statuses or tweets, or blog posts. Also keep in mind that a highly-focused social media and content marketing strategy high in quality has a better chance for success than an all encompassing strategy that wants to be all things to all people. Publish unique and exceptional quality content and you will see your followers share it with their own audiences on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, their own blogs and more.

                  #.6 Pay Per Click Advertising

                  One of the quickest ways to get more visitors as well as potential customers to your website is pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. With tools such as Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and others, business owners can display ads in the sponsored results section of search results pages. They are required to pay a fee each time someone clicks through from the ad to their site. But PPC needs to be executed correctly if you’re gunning for a large number of customers.

                  #7. Relationship marketing

                  This is an important factor of effective customer relationship management (CRM), which aims at fostering long-term customer engagement. Businesses encourage customer loyalty instead of plain customer procurement. This strategy also effectively builds a foundation of reciprocal trust so customers can feel a personal connection to the company brand. Unlike perishable media like print, radio and TV, relationship marketing has the ability to live on in the lives of consumers for decades. Moving on from the basics of digital marketing. let’s look at the main advantages of adopting digital marketing:
                  • Cost-effective: It’s easy on the pocket. And much more cost-effective than traditional marketing approaches, such as print or TV ads. A large percentage of small business owners have admitted to saving money with digital marketing, compared to traditional marketing. If undertaken well and executed with honesty, digital marketing can improve ROI by a whopping percentage and can even amplify revenue growth as well.
                  • Buyer-centric: This one’s aimed at particular audiences. Not broadly defined people like traditional marketing approaches work. with a targeted approach, digital marketing enables experiences that customers want to remember.
                  Before jumping with joy looking at the benefits digital marketing metes out, it’s really vital to know the common mistakes people make with digital marketing. As we all know by now, digital marketing is all about traffic. And when it comes to driving traffic to your website, there are two common mistakes: #1. We don’t try any traffic strategies: Imagine a world where materials sold themselves. But don’t we all know that such a world does not exist. We would love it if all our ideas and their implemented materials could sell by themselves. Alas, such is not the case. We expect our posts to go viral, also expect that they are inspiring enough that our audiences won’t think twice before sharing it. But we need to set our expectations right. Because the world does not work that way. We need to be active about promoting our material by getting it in front of our ideal audience. And for that, we need a sound strategy that drives traffic to your site. #2. We try every traffic strategy: It’s amazingly easy to believe every online guru and get pulled into the digital marketing whirlpool — SEO, PPC, Twitter, Snapchat, Affiliates — you think about it and you’ll be told that this is the only way to make money. The fear of missing out, results in us spending all our time randomly chasing the “next big thing” in digital marketing. Think before you take the leap. Take small steps and build on that big idea well. If you're a green horn and totally unaware of what constitutes of digital marketing, start with just one campaign and spend only a small portion of your overall marketing budget on digital first. It does take a while but when your team becomes familiar with digital marketing and results start to show, you can increase the proportion. That’s more or less the be all and end all on digital marketing. As is known universally, the Internet is, by far, not the only place for marketers to gather success, but it is still the one place where success can be measured and bettered. There is no chance marketers could afford to miss out on the opportunities of the web. And sooner than later, every businessman will have to master online marketing. And we are quite sure of the fact the digital marketing does matter. Digital marketing (especially during a slump) earns greater returns in a world where traditional advertising is not what it used to be. With multi-channel digital marketing increasing by leaps and bounds, we think it’s time marketers jumped on to the digital marketing bandwagon and give their business the boost it so deserves.

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                    BlogSearch Engine Optimization (SEO)

                    What You Need to Know About HTTP vs HTTPS for SEO

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                    Let’s talk about the announcement Google made in August last year. It said that making a switch to HTTPS will give you a tad bit of advantage in the rankings. Most companies took this up as a simple step to move forward, but it’s still extremely important to know what…

                    Let’s talk about the announcement Google made in August last year. It said that making a switch to HTTPS will give you a tad bit of advantage in the rankings. Most companies took this up as a simple step to move forward, but it’s still extremely important to know what the difference is between HTTP and HTTPS for SEO, how easy or difficult it is to make the switch, and if at all making the switch is right for your company in the first place. Now there are two types of SEOs: Those who start drooling when they hear or see technical stuff and the other part – those who simply abhor them. If you belong to the first category, you probably already know HTTPS. Though there are some parts of HTTPS that are a bit complex, most of them are simple. Really. And to make things even better, you don’t even need to understand the exact behind-the-scenes in order to implement HTTPS on a website.

                    HTTP vs HTTPS: Understanding the fundamentals

                    If you’re on this site or that – meaning if you’re the user of a website or are developing your own site—you’ll mostly be involving a trusted third party and good encryption. To grasp how to accomplish this and better understand why Google favors these website elements, it’s essential to first know the difference between HTTP and HTTPS.

                    HTTP: HyperText Transfer Protocol

                    Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a system for transmitting and receiving information across the Internet. HTTP is an application layer protocol, which essentially means that it lays emphasis on how information is showcased to the user. But on the other hand, this option doesn’t really care how data gets from Point A to Point B. It does not bother to remember anything about the earlier web session. The advantage to being stateless is that there is fewer data to send, and that means increased speed.

                    HTTPS: Secure HyperText Transfer Protocol

                    The Internet is intrinsically open to the point that anyone can read what data you send to and from any server. You’re searching for “How to save money” on Google and anyone can read this: the government, your neighbor, and even your spouse. HTTPS solves that problem by encrypting the communication end-to-end: Only your computer and the webserver can see what data gets transmitted. HTTPS, or “secure http”, came into existence to allow authorisation and secured transactions. The exchange of confidential information needs to be secured in order to prevent unauthorised access, and https helps make this possible. In more ways than one, https is identical to http because it follows the same basic protocols. The http or https client, such as a Web browser, establishes a connection to a server on a standard port. However, https offers an extra layer of security because it uses SSL to move data. So all in all, HTTPS is almost the same as HTTP – it’s just the secure version. HTTPS works in combination with a partner – another protocol called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), to transport data safely (which is actually the vital difference that Google is bothered with). To detail it out some more, data sent using HTTPS is secured via Transport Layer Security protocol (TLS), which provides three layers of protection:
                    • Encryption. Encrypting the exchanged data to keep it secure.
                    • Data Integrity. Data cannot be modified or corrupted during transfer without being detected.
                    • Authentication. This proves that your users communicate with the intended website.
                    Google claims that websites who use HTTPS will have a small ranking benefit because of these security aspects. These are the reasons why HTTPS really offers the best of both worlds: It really cares about what the user sees visually, and also provides an extra layer of security when moving data from point A to point B. HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure provides standard rules for web browsers and servers to communicate. It is a highly advanced and secure HTTP version. However, there are significant distinctions between the two protocols: http is a hypertext transfer protocol, whereas HTTPS is a secure hypertext transfer protocol. The data can be susceptible to hackers; hence security with HTTP is less secure. The default port for HTTP is 80, while the default port for HTTPS is 443. The data to be transmitted is not scrambled when HTTP is scrambled. As a result, there's a higher possibility that hackers will gain access to sent data, whereas HTTPS scrambles the data before transmission. It decodes the data at the receiving end to restore the original data. Hence, the sent data is safe and cannot be hacked. HTTP websites do not require SSL for domain name validation, unlike HTTPS websites. HTTP websites' data encryption is not encrypted, whereas HTTPS websites' data encryption is encrypted. The HTTP search rating does not increase search rankings, but the HTTPS search ranking does. The HTTP protocol is faster than HTTPS. Vulnerability is vulnerable to HTTP hackers, but not to HTTPS hackers. Because the data is encrypted before being sent across a network, it is extremely safe. But as of now, you really shouldn’t be worried about switching from HTTP to HTTPS where SEO is concerned. Google has been letting webmasters know it is safe to do so for years. However, you do need to go through the motions to ensure your traffic doesn’t suffer. Make sure to let Google know that you moved your site from HTTP to HTTPS. Google has specified the following tips for best practices when switching to HTTPS:
                    • Decide the kind of certificate you need: single, multi-domain, or wildcard certificate
                    • Use 2048-bit key certificates
                    • Use relative URLs for resources that reside on the same secure domain
                    • Use protocol relative URLs for all other domains
                    • Check out our site move article for more guidelines on how to change your website’s address
                    • Don’t block your HTTPS site from crawling using robots.txt
                    • Allow indexing of your pages by search engines where possible. Avoid the no index robots Meta tag.
                    • Google has also updated Google Webmaster Tools to better handle HTTPS sites and the reporting on them.
                    • Track your HTTP to HTTPS migration carefully in your analytics software and within Google Webmaster Tools.
                    In addition to the Google Support resources, it would be highly recommended to read a condensed introduction to HTTP/HTTPS and some tips on changing over to SSL/HTTPS here before getting started.

                    SEO advantages of switching to HTTPS

                    Apart from the aspect of security, there are also some additional SEO benefits that you can consider.

                    #1. Increased rankings.

                    Isn’t this a no-brainer? As mentioned earlier, Google has confirmed the slight ranking boost of HTTPS sites. But like most ranking indicators, it is not a very easy task to isolate on its own. Nevertheless, it is still something to keep in mind. On the plus side, the value of switching to HTTPS is very likely to increase over time.

                    #2. Referrer Data.

                    When traffic goes through or passes to an HTTPS site, the secure referral information is preserved. This is not what happens when traffic passes through an HTTP site, and it is stripped away and looks as though it is direct.

                    #3. Security and privacy.

                    HTTPS adds security for your SEO goals and website in several ways:
                    • It verifies that the website is the one the server is supposed to be talking to.
                    • It prevents tampering by third parties.
                    • It makes your site more secure for visitors.
                    • It encrypts all communication, including URLs, which protects things like browsing history and credit card numbers.
                    Apart from the SEO benefit HTTPS will become more significant for a lot of different reasons too: Google’s Chrome browser will put forth a lock overlaid with a red X in the address bar for all pages that do not have a correct HTTP setup in the near future. Your website will not look appealing and appear broken in the eyes of your visitors. Mozilla will likely adopt a similar policy in Firefox.

                    So what exactly is the takeaway?

                    So we can safely say that the clear inference here is that switching to HTTPS will help you stay in the good books with Google, or should we say good rankings. HTTPS is a very secure system for your website to operate. Security for your site and your users is the most important aspect of making the switch from HTTP to HTTPS. Not just security, HTTPS is also valuable for referrer data and other SEO strategies. When looking at the issue holistically and considering the future of what Google is likely to do with HTTPS, we would certainly advise switching over to HTTPS, to keep up with Google. So if Google is encouraging “all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web,” then you better listen. And for those who follow, why wouldn’t Google want to reward them? HTTPS may be a lightweight signal for now, but if website owners and the Search Engine believe it’s needed to enrich the user’s experience, then you can certainly expect HTTPS to eventually play a bigger role in the search ranking algorithm. Going back to the most asked query – Should I switch from HTTP to HTTPS for just SEO reasons? There hasn’t been much data that suggests that it helps so far. This doesn’t mean that it won’t happen in the coming months or years. At #ARM Worldwide, we provide quality SEO services to drive your business growth exponentially. Hire our professional SEO experts today!

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