Unleash the Power of Search Engine Optimization

Solutions by Design

In today's digital landscape, having a strong online presence is crucial for the success of any business. With millions of websites vying for attention, search engine optimization (SEO) has emerged as a pivotal tool to enhance visibility and increase organic traffic. By implementing effective SEO strategies, businesses can rise above the noise and establish a competitive edge.

One of the primary goals of SEO is to improve your website's visibility on search engine result pages, like Google. When users search for keywords or phrases related to your business, you want your website to appear prominently. By optimizing your website's content, structure, and technical elements, you increase its chances of ranking higher in search engine results.

Higher rankings mean more visibility, and more visibility leads to increased organic traffic. Organic traffic refers to the visitors who land on your website through unpaid, natural search results. These users are actively searching for products, services, or information relevant to your business, making them highly valuable prospects. By leveraging Solutions by Design’s SEO techniques, you can attract a steady stream of targeted organic traffic, effectively reaching your desired audience and increasing the likelihood of converting them into customers.

When your website appears at the top of search engine results, it instills a sense of authority and trustworthiness in the eyes of users. Most people perceive top-ranking websites as reliable and reputable sources of information or solutions to their needs. By optimizing your website's content with high-quality and relevant information, search engines recognize your website as an authoritative source within your industry. Additionally, by implementing user-friendly navigation, mobile responsiveness, and fast page load times, you enhance the overall user experience, further reinforcing your credibility and trustworthiness.

A seamless and positive user experience is paramount for any business website. Our SEO techniques help optimize various elements that contribute to a great user experience, including website speed, mobile responsiveness, and easy navigation. These factors not only enhance user satisfaction but also reduce bounce rates and improve dwell time, leading to improved search rankings.

Additionally, SEO by Solutions by Design ensures that your website is structured in a way that search engines can easily crawl and understand its content. By organizing your website's pages, meta tags, headings, and URLs effectively, our team provides search engines with the necessary signals to index and rank your website accurately.

Implementing a robust SEO strategy gives you a significant advantage over your competitors. By optimizing your website and staying up to date with the latest SEO trends, Solutions by Design can help your website outperform your competition.

Furthermore, by conducting thorough keyword research and monitoring industry trends, we can help you identify new opportunities and target niche markets that your competitors might have overlooked. By consistently adapting and refining our SEO approach, we stay ahead of the curve to ensure your business remains visible and relevant.

Search engine optimization is a necessity for any business seeking online success. Contact Solutions by Design today to learn more about the SEO Packages we have to offer. And remember… Everything we do at Solutions by Design is custom designed and developed with your company in mind. Search Engine Optimization is not a “What works for one, works for all” sort of thing and we pride ourselves on No Canned Content…ever.

Google is Killing Off Instant Search

Introduced in 2010, Google’s “Instant Search” feature was touted as “the future of search”, allowing users to save precious seconds by loading results dynamically as they typed. It also became a source of amusement as Google struggled to eliminate results from “search spammers” who used bots to force humorous results that people saw when they typed. Google was able to overcome that and other issues, and Instant Search became a hit with users.

Google has recently announced that it is getting rid of Instant Search. The reason? It’s because most of us now use mobile devices to search, and since Instant Search was never introduced on mobile, Google wants to keep a unified search experience across all platforms. With mobile voice assistants becoming more popular, Google just doesn’t see the need to keep maintaining its Instant Search feature.

No longer will you be able to go to Google on your desktop PC and type in something like this and get instant results:

Some users may miss this feature because it does save time and eliminates spelling errors, but the future is mobile. At Solutions By Design, we can help you help you reach your goals and increase your search engine optimization. Visit our website or give us a call for more information. 800-888-4084.

Myths & Facts About SEO

Every day businesses across the country are flooded with telemarketing calls from various website and SEO companies. You’ve probably received a few of these calls in the recent past. Almost all of them claim to have discovered “serious issues” with your website that “affects SEO and rankings.” Of course, they will be happy to email over their report and if you sign up with them they will “fix” these "serious" issues.

The reports they send to you often appear troubling. “Issues” are dramatically described and highlighted, leading you to believe that your current SEO efforts, if you have any, are not working properly or inefficient. If you have an SEO company on retainer, you will begin to question their methods and expertise; and your doubts are what these companies are counting on.

If you look closely at these reports, many of them contain “issues” that are simply SEO myths that have persisted for a long time. Many of the “issues” have absolutely NO EFFECT on rankings, or at one time used to be factors but are no longer regarded as important. We will explain a few of these myths below in order to educate you on the tactics employed by less-than-reputable companies.

Myth: Your site must be submitted to hundreds of search engines and directory listings to get noticed.
Fact: Search engines will always find your website if at least one other website links to it. Submitting your website to “hundreds” of online directories and search engines is a waste of time, and in some cases, may hurt your rankings if your site is linked from questionable sources.

Myth: Having META tags will help your rankings.
Fact: The vast majority of search engines ignore META keyword, description, author, and robots tags, for obvious reasons. These tags have been abused in the past by webmasters looking to “game the system.” Search engines have ignored them for years.

Myth: You must have hundreds of “inbound links” to rank high.
Fact: Search engines place more importance on the quality of the inbound links rather than the quantity. Having a few inbound links from highly recognized and respected sources are much better than having numerous links from low-quality sources.

Myth: Your site must have a high "PageRank" in order to rank higher in the search results.
Fact: PageRank is just one factor Google uses in figuring out how to rank pages. A site with a low PageRank will show up higher in the search results if Google thinks it's more relevant.

Myth: Proper SEO will give your site permanent top rankings.
Fact: There is no such thing as permanent rankings. Search engine algorithms change all the time and rankings fluctuate as a result. New websites are constantly appearing, challenging the existing websites for rankings. Even the smallest tweak to the contents of your website may have a dramatic effect on rankings. As we’ve seen all too clearly here at Solutions by Design, customer reviews have a serious impact on local rankings.

Myth: You must have your targeted keywords in the IMG ALT tag and a link’s Title tag.
Fact: Like the META tags, these have been greatly abused in the past and search engines largely ignore them. It’s best just to place an exact description of the image or link into these tags to help the search engines identify them.

Myth: It’s important for your rankings to update your home page frequently.
Fact: Unless your home page is a blog with daily posts, static content containing your targeted keywords is just fine. There are plenty of “stale” sites with top rankings.

Myth: H1 tags are a crucial part of SEO and rankings.
Fact: There is little correlation between H1 tags and rankings. H1 tags play an important role and should be used primarily for accessibility and usability, but they have little effect on rankings.

Myth: Your site must have a specific “keyword density” in order to rank high.
Fact: As long as your site contains your targeted keywords in an easy-to-read and engaging format, search engines will be able to identify and index it. Trying to achieve an arbitrary keyword density percentage is both a waste of time and a pain for your customers to read.

There are many more myths that SEO companies still try to peddle in order to get your business, and it’s important for you to do your research and consult with people you trust before signing on with them. If they try to make the case for one of these SEO myths then they are not the company for you. If you have any questions or concerns about a company that is contacting you about these myths, feel free to give Solutions by Design a call and ask for our SEO department. Call 800-888-4084.

More On Montage

What is Montage Pro?

Solutions by Design has created a powerful interactive digital bulletin board that is flexible for any business. We’ve taken the sleek look of modern technology and paired it with our specialization in software and programming to create the ultimate digital communications solution. Equipped with a touch screen, custom widgets, photo booth, whiteboard, and more, our Montage board delivers relevant information and technology to your internal audience at your location.

What are widgets?

Our Montage software interface is comprised of Widgets; an application that enables a user to perform a function, similar to an app on a smartphone. Each widget is designed by Solutions by Design for specific vertical markets, our most popular being orthodontics, veterinary, and home building markets. Though we specialize in these fields, we do have several other business markets we work with and can customize widgets for any area of business. 

Take a look at some of the widgets available to our Montage users by visiting the Montage page of our website. Click here to view that page now.

The Future Is Voice Search

A Burger King commercial caused a bit of controversy recently, not for anything racy or disturbing, but for being too invasive. The 15-second ad starts with a Burger King employee holding up the sandwich saying, “You’re watching a 15-second Burger King ad, which is unfortunately not enough time to explain all the fresh ingredients in the Whopper sandwich. But I’ve got an idea. OK, Google, what is the Whopper burger?”

If a viewer has the Google Home assistant or an Android phone with voice search enabled within listening range of the TV, that last phrase - “Hello Google, what is the Whopper burger?” - is intended to trigger the device to search for Whopper on Google and read out the finding from Wikipedia. Admittedly, it’s a clever marketing campaign and the first one to make use of what’s fast becoming a standard in many homes - the personal voice assistant.

Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Home assistants sold at a rapid pace last year, and this year the sales are expected to grow even more. With both assistants able to do everything from record notes to control lights and appliances by simply speaking to them, people are discovering the value in owning these assistants. And one of the biggest uses of these devices is the ability to search for information or businesses simply by speaking.

Moms can look up recipes and have the assistant read them back as she’s making dinner. Dads can ask the assistant for the nearest automotive store. The kids can ask about upcoming concerts or video game releases. The possibilities are endless - and convenient. All you do is simply speak.

And it’s not just these assistants that are becoming the go-to devices for voice search. Smartphones are now a big part of the voice search landscape. Voice search can be enabled on both Android and Apple smartphones, and Samsung is releasing their Bixby voice assistant with the new Galaxy S8 this month. Even Microsoft is entering the game with their Cortana voice assistant which can be enabled on computers and tablets.

What does this mean for your business? First of all, it’s important to have a solid SEO strategy in place that can capitalize on this emerging search arena. When people type a search phrase into their browsers, most of the time they use simple truncated phrases to save on typing. For example, if someone is searching for an orthodontist in Dallas they may simply enter, “orthodontists Dallas.” This is especially true on a mobile device where typing can be tedious.

But a voice search uses more natural language, and most people aren’t concerned about truncation. The same person searching for an orthodontist may say, “What is the closest orthodontist to Jefferson Elementary?”, or “What are the top five orthodontists nearest to my home?” Natural language searches like these open up new challenges for SEO.

Here at Solutions by Design, we are fully aware of this new future in search, and are positioning our SEO efforts to meet this new challenge. Part of our SEO strategy will be to make use of this new “natural language” search in our optimization efforts and guide our clients in understanding the implications and benefits. It’s an exciting transition in the world of search and we want our clients to be prepared.

Proximity Is Now A Top Ranking Factor In Local Search

Many of our SEO clients have heard us tell them that when it comes to local searches it’s all about location and relevance. This subject usually arises when a client calls or emails because their business isn’t showing up in the “local pack” search results. (The “local pack” is the portion near the top of the search results that shows a map with up to three local businesses). They often wonder why a new business with no reviews is showing up on the map and listings and they aren’t.

The local pack has generated a lot of discussion recently as SEO experts try to figure out how Google arrives at their results. It doesn’t appear to be based on reviews since some of the listings won’t show any. It also doesn’t appear to be the age of the business. After careful analysis, it now appears that proximity is the top factor in this determination. Since more people now search on their mobile phones than on computers, Google places more importance on providing them with relevant, location-based results.

Let’s say that you’re out shopping and it’s getting close to noon. You’re hungry and in the mood for Mexican food, so you do a quick search on your phone for “Mexican restaurants”. The results you get will show the local pack with a map and up to three listings. You’ll notice that they are the closest Mexican restaurants based on your current location. In the meantime, your spouse is on the other side of town and uses their phone to search for Mexican restaurants. Their local pack results will show the restaurants closest to them.

What does this mean for your business? It can be a bit frustrating to know that someone across town is searching for a business and your competitors are showing up instead of you. Your business may be listed on the first page, below the local pack, but many people will naturally gravitate towards the local pack before scanning the page for more results. No amount of SEO work will force your business to show up in the local pack regardless of where the searcher is located.

Although Google includes a link in the local pack for “more results”, that’s little consolation to a business that’s hoping their SEO efforts are paying off. They may be at the very top of the organic listings, right below the local pack, but they want to get noticed right away. Unfortunately, in a mobile-centric environment, it’s all about proximity now, and it looks like it will be that way for at least the near future.