Google Working to put Mobile First with New Index

Within the next couple of months, Google is planning to create a new mobile index that will become the primary index for responding to queries. While Google will maintain a separate index it will not be as up-to-date as this new mobile index.

This bit of news was released on October 13th during a Pubcon keynote address given by the Google webmaster trends analyst, Gary Illyes. Illyes did not release a timeline for the creation and release of this new index during his keynote speech; however, in a follow-up that he did with Search Engine Land, he did state that this would happen within the next few months. He did not clarify if it would occur before the end of 2016.

This is not the first that the public has heard of Google releasing a mobile index. In 2015, Google announced that it was putting time and energy into the concept of a mobile index during SMX East. Since that announcement, Google has clearly made the decision that such an index makes sense and has made movement forward in the creation of this product.

Throughout 2015/2016, Google has been prioritizing and streamlining their mobile abilities. In 2015, they tweaked their algorithm so that websites that have been optimized for mobile were receiving a higher priority. This year, they added Accelerated Mobile Pages to their search results so that users were able to select websites that have a quicker loading capacity while they were on their phones.

This new search index should enhance mobile user’s experiences with the Internet, but we aren’t sure how it will affect those who are still doing most of their work on their desktops. While desktop searches have become sparser as more of the population goes mobile, there are still many users who primarily access the Internet this way. We haven’t yet received more information regarding how this mobile index will work for the public, which has left us with plenty of questions.

For instance, seeing as the mobile index will take over as the primary search index for Google, will the public still be able to use it for any desktop queries that they may have? If so, will the mobile index only contain information that has mobile friendly context and will that information be out of date? Additionally, how out of date will the desktop search engine be once this new index is released and how will that affect desktop users?

The largest chance will most likely be that by creating a mobile index Google can begin to change the way that its algorithm is run. Currently, data is extracted from desktop content to help Google determine how pages should be ranked for mobile users. That means that the signals that mobile users are currently seeing, such as links and page speed, are being generated from a desktop algorithm. In short, you may not actually see these items on a smartphone when they are generated from a desktop algorithm.

Victor GonzalezGoogle Working to put Mobile First with New Index
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Four Ways to Make Your Website More Emotionally Engaging

These days, getting a website up and running isn’t rocket science. Virtually every small business on the planet has a website. However, there is one thing most websites lack. It’s user engagement. In particular, emotional user engagement is especially lacking. If you’re not able to make that kind of connection with visitors, you can forget about converting them into paying customers. With that in mind, below are a few different ways you can make your website more emotionally engaging.

Speak Directly to the User

One way to spark meaningful emotional engagement with a customer is to make them feel like they are being directly spoken to. One way to do this is with website content that is fine tuned directly to the needs and preferences of a target audience. However, the content should not come off as a sales pitch. Instead, the content should cover things that research has shown the target demo cares about in ways that are engaging but not pushy. For example, a Miami online marketing agency can produce news articles relevant to the Miami area that tie in with the products being marketed. This will hook in users and helpfully produce conversions.

Another strategy is to take speaking directly to the user more literally. One excellent way to sell products through a website is to have actual human beings on hand that can chat with visitors in real time through an instant messaging application that is launched through the site. Lawyers, for example, commonly use this method to obtain new clients. It, however, can be applied to nearly any industry.

Offer Exclusive Content

If there’s one thing that’s true about the human psyche, it’s that everyone needs to receive individual attention to feel good. You can address this emotional need through the content provided on your website. Most websites have things that can be found nearly anywhere online. Few, however, offer exclusive content that can be found nowhere else. If you want customers to visit your website and keep coming back, offer them something they won’t find somewhere else.

For many companies, this may come in the way of offers exclusive to the website. For other sites, they may offer exclusive downloads, videos and images. One good choice is offering computer games that must be loaded exclusively through the website. These games can tie in with your products or services and act as a powerful marketing opportunity. Overall, visitors must feel like they actually receive value from your site.

An Inviting Website Design Philosophy

In the past, the trends for web design all revolved around creating sleek looking aerodynamic designs. While these websites may have been impressive on a purely aesthetic level, this kind of web design tends to create a muted emotional response at best. Similarly, while many subway stations have sound architectural designs, they tend to leave people feeling cold or uneasy.

If you want emotional engagement, this is not what you should be aiming for. Instead, you should aim for something that puts users at ease. A website can indeed have a warm and cozy feel to it. You can accomplish this by using a warmer color palette and avoiding the more muted grays, whites and blacks many websites are known for. Design the interface in a way that is inviting and intuitive as opposed to intimidating. Overall, the website should invoke a sense of cheerfulness, positivity, warmth or nostalgia. It shouldn’t invoke the aesthetic of soulless streamlined technology.

Use Humor

While the trend has been towards websites that are rather humorless and completely business like in approach, this doesn’t really invoke an emotional response. While business like aesthetics produce a generic sense of professionalism, this is not the same as having an emotional connection. With that in mind, adding some humor and whimsy to your website can go a long way to humanizing your brand and company. The ability to laugh together is always one way to break the ice in a relationship. This indeed extends all the way to a website and its user base.

However, implementing humor on a website tactfully is a balancing act. If you go overboard, it can seem unprofessional. If your sense of humor is too on the nose, it can be cringe inducing. In some cases, you may offend some of your audience. So try to keep it simple. Use jokes that will likely go over well with your intended audience. Also design some whimsy into your website’s design elements. One example is using your corporate mascot in amusing ways throughout your website’s content.

Victor GonzalezFour Ways to Make Your Website More Emotionally Engaging
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Top 3 Principles of a High Converting Website

Conversion is what turns your website into a business. When a viewer converts, you get them to do something you want; subscribe to an email list, click a link, buy a product. All of this seems easy enough to do, but it isn’t as simple as just having a nice looking site and frequent posts. Without the right conversion strategy, your great website and quality content can go unnoticed, leaving you wondering what you’ve done wrong. The following are three of many principles of high-converting websites, intended to steer you in the right direction, along with a how-to that you can begin implementing into your current website today.

SEO Content

The content on your site is what makes it rank in search engines and helps people find you in the first place. If you want to generate traffic that has a higher conversion potential, then you need to optimize your site’s content with SEO. This can be done in blogs, about pages, titles, meta and alt tags and of course, product descriptions. You may think you don’t need to optimize your content because you already have a lot of traffic, but if you calculate your conversion rate and discover that the majority of your viewers aren’t following through, then it’s likely that they are misclicking or your site is not designed in a way that makes it easy to find what they’re looking for.

SEO helps attract viewers who are already looking for what you have, as opposed to you trying to sell directly to random parties.

How You Can Start Today: Read up on SEO basics. This guide by Moz is a great way to familiarize yourself with how search engines work and learn how you to use keywords to maximize your site.

Conversion-minded Layout

The design of your website is everything when it comes to conversion. You need a layout that isn’t just aesthetically appealing and represents your brand’s energy, but also helps guide viwers through a conversion funnel – from homepage to checkout. The most common feature that many sites leave out is the search bar, which is vital because it allows visitors to begin engaging with your site immediately. Instead of having to click through menus, they can type in a keyword and find exactly what they’re looking for. Make sure your search bar is centered or large enough to be immediately noticed instead of wedged into one of your site’s upper corners.

Other design principles to consider are high conversion colors, calls to action and button design.

How You Can Start Today: Go to your site and take note of its design. Is the search bar easy to find? Do you have autocomplete suggestions and filters for your content to facilitate user experience? Is the content optimized for both search engines and viwers? Organize tests where unbiased parties are given an item and follow up by asking how easy it was to find that item, whether or not they’d be interested in buying the item based off the site and what factors played a role in that decision.

Psychology

Digital marketing is comprised of strategies, tips, tricks and theories, but at the end of the day, it all boils down to one thing: people. People are what make or break your business. Although your site views may be just a figure, each one of those numbers represents an actual human being. The best way to get them to convert is to provide authentic, stimulating content that appeals to their senses. Understanding various areas of psychology, such as marketing, color and even pain and pleasure is one way to imrpove your site’s overall design and increase your conversion rate

How You Can Start Today: Begin looking into the psychology behind marketing, as well as the role of color in advertising and design. Use your own mind as a case study and visit the sites of businesses you endorse; what about their pages make you want to shop there or use their services? Is it the images? The text? What emotions do they appeal to?

Conclusion

You can acquire a high converting website in a matter of weeks and start seeing results as early as a few days with the right tweaks. Your content has to be genuine and SEO-optimized and presented on a site that is both clean and easy to navigate. Behind that great design should be plenty of calls to action, buttons and imagery that appeals to the minds of your viewers on both a visual and subconscious level. This can be done by studying basic marketing and color psychology. With some research and patience, you can grow your business and boost your credibility in no time.

Victor GonzalezTop 3 Principles of a High Converting Website
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