Category Archives: SEO

2Cubed offers high-quality Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) services in order to help your company increase its rankings on Google and other search engines.

What is Structured Data?

June 20, 2019
As structured data becomes more important, you are likely to see the term more and more. So what exactly does it mean? And what does it mean for your website? We’ll explain in more detail below. Google and other search engines are always working hard to understand the content on your website. By implementing structured data, you can ensure you give the search engines clear and explicit information, allowing more accurate and descriptive search results for the end user. By doing this, your website visitors may see more rich and interactive results on the search page.   You can see more descriptions of these search results by clicking here – https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/search-gallery Most of the major search engines combined to create a special project Schema.org. The Schema.org website gives more info on how this data is populated and show examples of these ‘schemas’ and how they should be used.

Why does this matter?

Structured Data is an important element of SEO nowadays. Any information you provide to Google in a clear and easy manner, means they gain a better understanding of who you are what your website is about and can only help to increase rankings. At 2Cubed Web Design & Development, we can assist you with any of the needs above, allowing you to take advantage of structured data best practices. We offer a number of services to help you grow your online presence. Check out our list of services – https://2cubed.ie/services/ Contact us today for more information on the services we provide – Contact Us Please feel free to follow and interact with us on the following profiles. facebook icon twitter icon linkedin icon Instagram icon Google+ icon

Google’s Mobile Search Update

You may have noticed a new layout while searching Google recently on your mobile device. Around the end of May, Google released an updated visual layout for the mobile search results page. This refresh was released to introduce a more modern and user friendly layout. Google say “we’re unveiling a visual refresh of the mobile search results page to better guide you through the information available on the web.” This was referenced on the Google blog here. The familiar green font on the ads has now been changed to a black label with a simple ‘Ad’ reference. See below for reference: As you’ll see from the above image, what Google have implemented is an opportunity for companies online to introduce their branding to users on the web before even landing on your site. This is done by using the favicon image which is uploaded on most websites. You’ll generally see this small icon on your browser tab while searching from a desktop or laptop. What does this mean for me? In order to take advantage of this update, you’ll need to make sure your website has an active favicon set and specified. There are some rules behind this:
  • Your website and the favicon need to be crawlable to Google (meaning you need to ensure your site is fully accessible to Google’s Spider). This can be a complicated issue, but we can help you with this if required – Contact Us
  • The favicon should be similar to your overall branding on your website. This will allow users to identify and recognise your brand online with ease.
  • Google will resize your favicon to 16px x 16px. They recommend uploading your file in multiples of 48px square to ensure clarity. For example, 48×48 or 96×96 etc.
  • Any favicon that Google see to be inappropriate will be removed and replaced with a default icon image.
At 2Cubed Web Design & Development, we can assist you with any of the needs above, allowing you to take advantage of this latest Google update. We offer a number of services to help you grow your online presence. Check out our list of services – https://2cubed.ie/services/ Contact us today for more information on the services we provide – Contact Us Please feel free to follow and interact with us on the following profiles. facebook icon twitter icon linkedin icon Instagram icon Google+ icon

5 Great Content Marketing Tips

5 Great Content Marketing Tips
June 5, 2019
As traditional marketing has become less effective in this modern digital age more and more have turned their focus towards content marketing for their marketing needs. Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing content that can not only attract your target audience but actively retain them which will mean the chances of customers turning into conversions on your website will greatly increase. Content marketing allows you to actively develop a relationship with both new and existing clients. Here are 5 great content marketing tips to ensure that your content is the best it can be: Create Great Content Just simply creating lots of fresh content isn’t enough, you need to ensure it’s good relevant content. When it comes to content the approach of “Quality over Quantity” should always be taken. By having great content users will be happy which will create a positive user experience. Understand your Target Audience Before you start to write your content you should always first be clear in your mind of whom this content will be targeted at. By knowing the target demographic you are creating content for you will be able to tweak and tailor your content to best meet the needs of this market of readers which will ensure that they will find the content relevant and useful. Social Sharing When you have published some great content to your blog don’t sit back and relax! Now you need to ensure that your content gets maximum exposure. A great way of doing this is sharing your blog post on your social media channels such as facebook, twitter, Linkedin etc… It is also a smart move to enable social media sharing on your blog posts which will encourage readers to share your content. The more your post is then shared the more exposure and web traffic you will get. Simple Language Keep your content simple and easy to read! Don’t make your content too intelectual with big words that are going to be a chore to read and understand. Keep it simple, straightforward and to the point, that what users want and that’s the kind of content that they will appreciate. Calls to Action All great content should contain effective calls to action. Such as click here to read more, click here to share our post etc… By having these call to actions you will promote readers to further engage with and share your content which can lead to it being exposed to others who would not have seen it otherwise maximising your content exposure and website traction. If you can incorporate these 5 content marketing tips into the future creation of your content then you should see an increase in your website’s level of success as a direct result. To inquire about content marketing with 2Cubed please get in touch today! Please feel free to follow and interact with us on the following profiles. facebook icon twitter icon linkedin icon Instagram icon  

5 Great Reasons Why You Should Develop Your Website on WordPress

Wordpress Website Development WordPress is a content management system (CMS), which means it’s designed to help you organize and display the content on your website. The most popular CMS chosen by people to develop their website on is WordPress. Here’s 5 great reasons why WordPress is the CMS platform of choice for many: Free to use WordPress is a free to use platform which means it’s perfect for those on a small budget especially for start up businesses. If you want to buy a specific theme to give your website a unique design there can be a small cost but to use and download the WordPress tool is absolutely free. Easy to use interface WordPress are renowned for their easy to use interface. It’s actually a very simple and fast process to get a WordPress website created and up running. While doing the more complex customisations may require some research beforehand most people will be able to get their website from beginning to live in a matter of minutes.   Secure and Safe WordPress is a cms that is very secure and safe. This is because WordPress makes it very simple to update your software and ensure it is all up to date. Ensuring your software is up to date will help to keep hackers away from your website. Updating your software couldn’t be easier as all you have to do to update plugins and themes is to click the checkboxes next to them and click the update button. There is also an option to enable auto updates so you won’t have to remember to manually check. SEO Friendly WordPress websites rank higher than other types of websites in search engines. Google and other search engines love WordPress and treat it favourably because as WordPress is very SEO friendly. WordPress also allows you the ability to use SEO plugins to further optimise and enhance your website’s SEO. Easy to Customise WordPress makes the process of customising your website easy regardless of whether you are tech savvy or not. To effectively use WordPress it is not a requirement to have prior knowledge of designing websites. WordPress offers users the choice of thousands of free templates and themes from which to choose from. WordPress themes are easy to customise and allow you to manually add custom functionality to your website through the use of plugins. This customisation allows you to put your own unique spin on your website. WordPress is without a doubt the best CMS system to use. To inquire about using the WordPress CMS for your website get in touch with 2Cubed today. For advice and information on having a successful website contact 2Cubed today! Please feel free to follow and interact with us on the following profiles. facebook icon twitter icon linkedin icon Instagram icon

3 Common Google Ads Mistakes to Avoid Making

Google Ads Recently we discussed how to evaluate whether your PPC campaign is worth it? In this post we will discuss 3 common Google Ads mistakes that people make all too often in their PPC Campaigns. Not enough ads per group Less is certainly not more when it comes to ads in your ad group. Google recommends that it is best practice to have at least three ads per ad group. If you only have one ad then you aren’t giving Google’s machine learning technology the proper chance to analyze and prioritize the ads that are expected to perform better. Bad Landing Page While getting a lot of traffic from Google Ads is a good thing, if you aren’t getting conversions out of these hits then it’s simply a waste of money. One big reason why you may be failing to get conversions is if your landing page is poor, if your landing page is poor people will land on your page, be unimpressed and leave without you converting them which means they cost you money and you got nothing in return. To ensure that your landing page is good you should ensure the following:
  • It loads fast
  • It has a clear Call to Action
  • It’s easy to read and navigate
  • It speaks to the audience who your ad is targeted at
Not taking advantage of Location Settings To ensure that the right people, your target market see your ad you need to configure the location settings. If you only wish for your ad to be seen in a specific county, province or country you can do so through here. For instance, if your ad is aimed at businesses in Wexford then it shouldn’t be appearing in Dublin, Cork etc.. By taking advantage of location settings you can ensure that your budget will be spent on the right places. By ensuring that you avoid these 3 common Google Ads mistakes you will minimise the risk of wasting your ads budget and greatly increase your chances of getting your target market to see and click on your ads and most importantly get conversions to your website from your successful PPC campaign. For advice and information on having a successful website contact 2Cubed today! Please feel free to follow and interact with us on the following profiles. facebook icon twitter icon linkedin icon Instagram icon

Importance of Google Reviews for SEO

Importance of Google Reviews for SEO Whether it’s from word of mouth or testimonials reviews have always been an integral part of a business’s success. The positive impact of great reviews for a business cannot be underestimated nor can the negative impact of bad reviews. Reviews help potential new customers to decide whether they should choose your business over another, having positive reviews from past clients will instill confidence in them that they will experience the same satisfaction as those before them who left the positive reviews. If your website for instance had no reviews then a customer may feel unsure whether they will receive a good service as they have no past precedent or frame of reference to base their decision off. Having reviews can provide this much needed clarity. While getting reviews from customers has always been an exercise that is beneficial to businesses, the importance of Google Reviews for SEO has never been greater. By having Google reviews you can actively improve the visibility of your business on Google so this means that Google reviews are good for your SEO. The reason Google reviews have become so important for SEO is that when people use the Google search engine Google will aim to generate the most relevant and beneficial results for local web searches as the quality and quantity of reviews on Google is one of the most important ranking factors for local SEO. Google looks to see how many reviews your business has and what your current average rating is and from here they will determine where exactly in the listings of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) you should appear. Google themselves have even stated in the past that the “highest-rated” businesses near you will be returned when you search with local intent. By having your listing appear high with a great rating and a lot of reviews potential customers will be a lot more likely to click on to your website over your competitors and you will be a lot more likely to get conversions from these people. A great part of any SEO strategy is to ensure that you can regularly get customers to give your business a review. The best way to encourage people to give your business a review is to ensure the following:
  • Great Customer Service
By offering all customers a great customer service they will be happy and happy customers are a lot more susceptible to give you a positive review and share their good experience.
  • Simple Review Process
As well as ensuring that the customer service you offer is great, the second thing you should do to encourage reviews is to make the actual process of leaving you a review simple, straightforward and easy. The easier the process is the more likely people will be to take a second and give you a review. Don’t make the customer work for it! 2Cubed provide award-winning web design and mobile app development services. If you would like to give 2Cubed Web Design a review please click the link below: CLICK HERE TO GIVE REVIEW For advice and information on having a successful website contact 2Cubed today! Please feel free to follow and interact with us on the following profiles. facebook icon twitter icon linkedin icon Instagram icon

3 Ways Your Web Design May Be Damaging your SEO

Three Ways Your Web Design May Be Damaging your SEO
April 25, 2019
As we have touched on before having a great Web Design employed throughout your website is very important to ensure that your website delivers a great user experience. We all know that a great user experience is great for SEO however if not properly done correctly web design can inadvertently end up actually damaging your SEO. Three Ways Your Web Design May Be Damaging your SEO that you need to look for are: Bad or no optimisation of Header Tags Header tags (H1, H2, H3 etc..) are important for SEO as they help Google to determine what the content on your page is actually about. H1 should always be your page title and H2 tags need to accurately clarify what the page is about and what it contains. The other tags can be used when you go more in-depth. Image Optimisation A major factor in any web design is that it needs to visually be beautiful and pleasing to the eye of any user. To ensure that your images are successfully optimised you need to ensure the following three things have been done:
      • Ensure that relevant alt text has been applied to all your images.
      • Ensure that your image is compressed
      • Ensure that you have the correct image format
Non Mobile-Friendly Design Since Google introduced Mobile-First Indexing the question of whether your website and web design is mobile friendly or not has become an extremely important one. Mobile-First Indexing means that Google will look at how your website performs on mobile first rather than on Desktop and from this judgement they will determine where your website will rank. Therefore if your web design for mobile is poor your SEO will be severely damaged. If you can ensure that these three things are done then you will greatly reduce the chances of your web design damaging your SEO.

The Importance of Text & Heading Structure of Website Content for Optimal SEO Performance

Website SEO Performance
October 18, 2018
Strong website content is the cornerstone of having a successful website. By writing unique rich content that gives value to the user your website content will be strong, couple this strong content with great marketing/SEO and your site should soar up the rankings of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Most people are familiar with the most common form of SEO for content which is optimising each key page with a unique Meta Title and Description. However there is further SEO that can and should be done to ensure your content ranks highly that many people aren’t aware of such as the importance of text structure and the importance of the successful implementation of a heading structure (H1, H2, H3 Etc..) on your page of content. Text Structure is important as the structure of the texts on your site is very important for SEO. If your content is clearly structured, your chance to rank well in Google will be much higher. Before people choose to read content they do what is called a quick scan of the content. This is where they will run their eyes quickly over to content to get a quick feel for it before they commit to starting to properly read it. You need to hook the user from this scan to convince them to read it otherwise you have lost them. This is where text structure becomes ever so important as the main parts that tend to catch people’s eyes when they scan over content is the beginning of sentences as people read left to right and secondly and probably most importantly what catches people’s eyes are headings and subheadings. Headings and subheadings will usually be in bold and also be centered so they really stand out easily, the headings and subheadings should be an accurate description of the content that lays beneath it. If these headings and subheadings are intriguing enough to convince the user to read the article after scanning then they have done their job! Now that the importance of text structure has been explained, how directly linked the importance of heading structure to compliment it will also become quite apparent. As explained above headings and subheadings should be attractive and should clearly state the content of the paragraph beneath it. Best practice is to put a header above every long paragraph or above a group of paragraphs which are talking about a similar theme or topic.   Header tags (H1, H2, H3 Etc..) are important for SEO because they communicate to search engines like google what your website and what that specific page is about.Search engines recognize the copy in your header tags as more important than the rest so it understands from this what your page is about. H1 is seen by google as the most important then H2, H3 etc.. It’s important to utilize your header tags however and not just throw them in anywhere and everywhere. To utilize header tags effectively for SEO they should contain your keywords which you hope to rank for. This is so effective as part of an SEO strategy because when search engines routinely crawl the website they will pick up on the header tags and will recognize the keywords you are using are important and are directly linked to what your website is about. To find out more about the best way to employ effective content writing and other strategies to improve your website Contact 2Cubed today! You can also contact us on 01 905 8114 or 051-440425, email hello@2cubed.ie Please feel free to follow and interact with us on the following profiles. facebook icon twitter icon linkedin icon Instagram icon Google+ icon