What are Meta Keywords?

What are Meta Keywords?

by | Sep 1, 2022 | Keywords

Meta KeywordsImproving search engine optimization (SEO) is about as important as it gets for inbound marketing. Any website or blog would try everything possible to get high ranks on the search engine result pages (SERPs). You can find all sorts of information online to help you improve your SEO strategy — including things you should do and things you should avoid doing. Meta keywords are one of those debatable topics.

Though many SEO experts believe meta keywords are a relic of the past, many still use them. In this blog, we will explore why meta keywords are a subject of debate among SEO experts today.

Related read: Common Misconceptions about SEO

Definition of meta keywords

You may think of meta keywords as a subset of metadata tags that reflect what your content is about. Tags are something that most people are already familiar with — thanks to social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Because they provide information on the data on your website, these tags have been given the name “metadata.”

Meta keywords are not included in the content of a web page in the same way that primary keywords are. They are only readable by search engine bots (and not humans), so they are only visible in a web page’s code (HTML). The meta keywords you use provide the search engine with instructions on how to rank your website depending on the keywords you have used.  

You can get this information by right-clicking anywhere on any webpage and selecting the “view source code” option.

To summarize, meta keywords are a list of keywords that you enter into the code of your webpage to inform the search engine about the subject matter covered on the page.

What was the problem?

Meta keywords were valuable for better SEO results back in the day when web searching was still a relatively young industry. However, those days did not last for very long.

You know how some people believe that everyone is born innocent and simple, but as they get older, they become more convoluted and disingenuous? That is — to a great extent — how things turned out with web searching. 

So do Meta Keywords still matter?

Using meta keywords allowed website owners to “directly command” a search engine to rank their content depending on the meta keywords they used. 

You probably already have an idea of what happened next.

Website owners started to manipulate the tool as the search industry became increasingly popular and, as a result, more commercial. They started to include keywords that had nothing to do with the page’s content simply because the keywords in question were trending at the time and promised to attract a large number of users. In the world of digital marketing, these practices are called “black hat SEO” or “SEO spam.”

What happened next?

Google announced in 2009 that it would no longer use meta keywords to determine search engine rankings. Even though Google is notoriously tight-lipped when it comes to discussing the inner workings of its algorithm, this is one of the rare instances where the company has not been very discreet.

The decision to devalue this tool was made by Google (and other search engines) to ensure that the quality of search results is protected. They gave up on this ranking feature because websites were abusing it, which meant they could no longer guarantee that users would get relevant results for their search queries.

So should you stop using meta keywords?

This certainly is a controversial subject. There are a lot of SEO experts that believe that you should not use them at all. Nevertheless, 19% of websites still make use of meta keywords. When you consider that they do not factor into the ranking, the question of why they are still being used arises naturally.

Say there is a 0.001% possibility that search engines will look at those tags. Users will not want to miss out on the chance. As was mentioned before, the algorithms used by search engines are always kept a well-guarded secret so that the results cannot be manipulated in any manner.

Therefore, to err on the side of caution, some websites continue to use meta keywords — after all, who really knows how those algorithms work? On the other hand, there are still 81% of those who do not believe this hypothesis.

What if you want to use meta keywords?

It is important to exercise caution when using meta keywords in your code if you want to avoid being blacklisted by search engines.

Perhaps the most important condition is that you stay away from high-volume keywords that have nothing to do with your content. Not only will this get you nowhere, but it is also considered spam. 

Second, it is advised that you use no more than ten keywords — you should avoid “stuffing” your page with extra keywords in the hopes of attracting more readers.

Lastly, when it comes to selecting keywords, the most useful piece of advice is to include long-tail keywords as well as common typos (misspellings) of your primary topic in your list. Because nobody wants to see typos in the content, a good place to include them is in the meta keywords. 

Conclusion

Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo no longer rank meta keywords on their results pages. Therefore, they are virtually obsolete in today’s world. Yoast even went so far as to remove the meta keywords toggle from their updated plug-in in favor of the other SEO strategies.  

Given that using meta keywords appears to do nothing but waste your time, why would you want to continue doing so? 

Contact Print And Web Designer (PWD) today!

Do you want to uplift your SEO game? We can help. At Print And Web Designer, we offer a full suite of website and print design marketing services for businesses in North Carolina, including content marketing brand design, brochure design, magazine design, and web design. Call us at (336) 684-6505 or fill out this online form to speak with us today. 

What is Website Maintenance?

What is Website Maintenance?

by | Jul 27, 2022 | Services, Website Security

What is Website Maintenance

Website maintenance can be defined as the process of ensuring that your website stays clean, secure, and working properly at all times. A website maintenance plan ensures that your site will not break down and that you always have support when you need it — without any hassle or added costs of long-term contracts or upgrades that may not benefit your needs right now.

Why is a website maintenance plan important?

  • Your website shapes visitors’ first impressions: As businesses continue to use their website as an essential marketing tool, it is crucial to have a clear plan for maintenance and upgrades. When changes or improvements are made, website visitors may encounter disruptions in service. While these issues can be unavoidable from time to time, having a dedicated website maintenance plan will reduce downtime and improve your users’ first impressions of your brand. A well-maintained and modern site conveys a commitment to users that demonstrates that you are serious about your business. 

  • Your website ramps up your sales: Your website is an integral part of your business; it allows you to connect with existing and future customers, share information about your company, and, most importantly, help you make sales. 85% of customers perform online research before making an online purchase. So, without a website, you are losing out on potential clients who may be searching for a product or service like yours. Maintaining your website is the best way to keep all of these connections alive and growing. When done correctly, maintenance can add many new potential sales leads every month — which is why it is an indispensable part of your online presence.

  • Site visitors value user experience: How often do you visit a website, only to have it take forever to load? Site visitors value user experience so much that some will simply leave your site if they feel like it takes too long to load. This can happen even if they are interested in your services or products. It is a shame to think about how many potential sales were lost because of a slow-loading site! Invest in ongoing maintenance for your site to ensure that does not happen. This way, you know everything will run smoothly, and customers will not lose patience while waiting for pages to load.

  • A website maintenance plan improves security: A website maintenance plan enhances security by allowing you to identify potential security issues quickly. The earlier you know about a potential threat, the faster you can address it and keep hackers out of your site. Moreover, keeping up with patches lets your users trust that their information is secure when using your service or buying products from your store.

  • Website maintenance supports your SEO strategy: Having a website maintenance plan in place helps ensure search engines have fresh, relevant content to index, and your site will not become stale if you cannot maintain it yourself. It also supports your overall SEO strategy because many businesses that do not invest in maintenance lose rankings and traffic over time. (Related Blog: SEO Benefits of Blogging)

What does a website maintenance plan include?

  • Reviewing key metrics: Many website owners think that because they do not have a ton of traffic, they do not need to pay attention to their website metrics. This could not be further from the truth. Paying attention to these metrics and reviewing them weekly is critical for small business websites. For example, if you start seeing an increase in bounce rate, it might mean there are changes you can make to your pages that will improve it — and ultimately help your business grow.  

  • Software updates: A vital step to keeping your website safe and secure is ensuring that all of your software (including web applications, server software, and operating systems) has been updated with any security/performance fixes that may have come out since you first installed it.  

  • Site backups: At its core, maintenance simply means keeping things working. To properly maintain your website, you will want to back up all of your files regularly. Backing up your site does not have to be complicated. While more comprehensive solutions are available, basic backups involve using file-syncing services like Dropbox or OneDrive and updating these synced folders each time you make changes on your website. Ideally, you should perform basic backups each time you publish new content or update your existing content.

  • Testing your forms and checkout process quarterly: Doing so will ensure your website is running smoothly and give you confidence that your e-commerce site will not go down when it is time to close a sale. Making sure your site can handle traffic spikes at peak shopping times will also ensure you have a smooth run during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and other busy shopping periods.

  • Browser compatibility testing: Just because your site works on one browser does not mean it will work on others. Specifically, making sure your site works on older browsers that support outdated features can be challenging.  

  • Annual testing: Some people think that site maintenance should be something that is done only once and forgotten about — that is not true at all. Instead, you should check your website regularly to ensure everything works properly, making any needed adjustments as soon as possible. By testing your whole website annually, you can fix potential problems before they grow into bigger issues that cost even more money to address.

To Wrap Things Up

Just like a doctor’s appointment, website maintenance requires planning and scheduling. Just because you do not see something wrong with your site now does not mean nothing needs to be fixed! To help avoid hiccups with your site, you should schedule routine maintenance on your calendar.

Contact Print And Web Designer (PWD) today!

Print and Web Designer provides businesses in North Carolina with a comprehensive array of website/print design and marketing services, including content marketing, brand design, brochure design, magazine design, and web design. Contact us today at (336) 684-6505 or by filling out this online form.

SEO Benefits of Blogging

SEO Benefits of Blogging

by | Jun 23, 2022 | Search Engine Optimization

Backlinks - SEO benefits of bloggingThere are a number of compelling arguments in favor of incorporating a blog into your company website. For example, it allows you to share company updates and special offers, earn trust among your target customers and build your reputation as an industry expert. However, another reason to blog is that it helps improve your search engine optimization (SEO) rankings. 

Simply blogging or posting blog posts for the sake of it will not produce miraculous results since the top five organic results get 67.60% of all the clicks, and 70% to 80% of users ignore paid ads in favor of organic results. Blogging is both an art and a science, and you need to have a solid understanding of the fundamental components to be successful at it.

The following are some of the ways that blogging can benefit (and level up!) your SEO game:

Fresh, original content.

Besides your readers, guess who enjoys fresh, original content? Search engines like Google! Search engines aim to give their users the most relevant and updated information — as a result, sites that are regularly updated signal that they are most likely to provide the most time-relevant content.

In addition, publishing new content on a regular basis provides search engine algorithms with more opportunities to crawl your website and continues to keep it on their radar. This means that blogging is the easiest, fastest, and most cost-effective way of posting new content on your website.  

On the other hand, 30% of consumers rate quality content as the most important factor that adds to the credibility of a blog. It is far more likely that your readers will stay on the page for a long time if you share high-quality content, which will work wonders for your search rankings. It also increases the ‘authority’ of your website for the primary keywords used in your industry, which makes it more likely that Google and other search engines would recommend your page to users looking for expert information on related topics.

Backlinks

Backlinking can be good for businesses since each link that points back to your content tells Google that your blog has quality and credible content. If your page receives more backlinks, then there is a greater chance that its content will rank higher on the results pages. According to an Ahrefs study that analyzed more than one billion web pages, 90.63% of those received no organic search traffic from Google. 66.31% of the pages indexed did not have any backlinks.

In other words, the 2500-word research article you worked so hard on could be losing out on views due to a lack of links. However, it is also essential to focus on building high-quality links since lower-quality links may not be as helpful in improving your ranks — and can even undermine them. 

Here are some of the qualities of a high-quality link: 

It comes from a website that has never before linked to your page. 

  • It comes from a reliable and trustworthy online resource.
  • It incorporates your target keywords into the link’s anchor text. 
  • The site linking to you aligns with the topics and themes on your website. 
  • The link is marked with the “Dofollow” tag.

Keywords

Keywords are essential for bringing your products and services to the attention of your target demographic. However, while using relevant keywords may seem pretty straightforward, the competition for the top-ranking spots is fierce. So, if you are not already the most well-known brand in your industry, you should focus on improving your rankings for long-tail keywords instead.

Targeting long-tail keywords is made easy with blogging. Long-tail keywords tend to be more specific — and as a result, they are also less competitive. This means that your content can reach more qualified leads since the leads are already in the process of searching for a particular answer or query.

Of course, if you want to use keywords effectively, you should refrain from stuffing your content with too many of those. Throw in your long-tail keyword when it makes the most sense and flows naturally.

Virality

You might get lucky, and your blog post might go viral — perhaps even overnight. However, even if you publish interesting and relevant content, it does not guarantee virality.

Although you can not exactly aim for virality, publishing evergreen, relevant blog posts and mastering the use of keywords are the best ways to get your content in front of more readers. Figure out what your audience is most interested in, and then give it to them.

Due to the topics being outdated or unfamiliar to most audiences, even pages that received a large number of backlinks received no traffic from Google. Therefore, your content must always fulfill its core objective: to engage and benefit the audience you are trying to reach.  

Social media sharing

Increased traffic and recurring visits to a site signal search engines that the page can be trusted, which in turn improves the website’s authority. You need to take social media into account to use the best SEO practices. When you publish high-quality content, readers are more likely to share it with their friends and even come back to your website to join your email newsletter.

You can make it easier for users to share your blog post with others by adding social media buttons. Your SEO ranking will rise proportionately to how people will share your content. In addition, if your business already has a presence on social media, you should think about introducing new strategies to promote your content on various social media platforms.

You will be able to increase the traffic to your website, and you will also be able to interact with your target customers and build a relationship with them. This can have a significant impact on your business goals. 

In conclusion

When it all started, most bloggers stepped into the ring without any knowledge about search engine optimization or without really being aware that blogging can affect both search visibility and rankings. However, modern-day blogging —as a part of inbound marketing — is one of the most effective ways to optimize your site for search and build your business organically.

Related blog: 5 Tips for Successful Content Marketing

Contact Print And Web Designer (PWD) today!

Do you want to uplift your blogging game to boost your SEO efforts? We can help. At Print And Web Designer, we offer a full suite of website and print design marketing services for businesses in North Carolina, including content marketing, brand design, brochure design, magazine design, and web design. Call us at (336) 684-6505 or fill out this online form to speak with us today.  

Graphic Design Trends in 2022

Graphic Design Trends in 2022

by | May 25, 2022 | Web Design

Graphic Design Trends 2022

Trends might start small, as a single clever concept, before captivating people’s imaginations and snowballing into a global phenomenon. Trends are notoriously challenging to predict due to their organic nature. However, with enough data and an eye on the trailblazers in an industry, we can have a good idea of what will become hot and what will fade away. 

In this blog, we look at some of the hottest graphic design trends for 2022 based on what trendsetters are doing, what experts are saying, and key global events that influence people’s views.

Related Blog: 5 Graphic Design Trends for 2021

 

Experimental typefaces

Because the objective of a text is to be read, readability tends to be a top consideration when designing typefaces. However, readable text can be uninspiring (especially for headlines that make up a big part of a design). Therefore, some designers are making more experimental typefaces, tinkering with shapes, textures, and colors to create something distinctive and eye-catching. We expect typography that pushes the envelope of easy readability in 2022, resulting in forms that are expressive in and of themselves.

Visual escapism

Visual escapism is an art series created by Minjin Kang and Mijoo Kim of Mue Studio in New York. They aimed to create surreal, dreamlike environments that blur the line between reality and fantasy. Soft gradients and colors, natural sunlight, large bodies of water, stunning minimalism, and a sense of calm are the essences of this visual style.

3D design

3D effects (including 3D typography) have been a staple in graphic design for decades, but they have only recently become more accessible to designers. The increased computing power paired with 3D modeling tools such as SelfCAD, Maya, and Modo have made 3D designs easier to create — and we expect this trend to continue in 2022. 

Despite being well into the 21st century, 3D design has a futuristic air associated with modern technology, cutting-edge services, and innovative concepts. When it comes to the style’s aesthetic features, you can expect smart lighting effects, strong textures (e.g., glossy), and objects that float above their canvas.

Simplified logos

When you look at the history of graphic design, you will find a shift toward minimalism. 

The earlier designs were often busy and ornate (with more gradients, more colors, and curved/jagged shapes). However, the most recent contemporary styles are considerably crisper and cleaner (with sleeker fonts, fewer colors, and a cohesive design language). 

This progression is not set in stone, so we could see a return to the wild Art Nouveau-like designs — but for modern brands looking to project a certain image to their consumers, minimalism appears to be better.

Organic shapes

We tend to associate straight lines and sharp angles with artificial and man-made elements. Nature is packed with waves and spirals of limitless variation, immortalized in the spider’s web or the shrinking rings of a snail’s shell. When designers use these flowing shapes in their work, they instill a sense of the organic — of the great outdoors and all the amazing things that can be seen there. 

Nature calms us. It can help us feel more relaxed, happy, and creative, even improving our focus. So, by incorporating organic shapes into a design, a graphic designer may elicit tiny samples of these emotions in their audiences, resulting in compelling website designs, inbound marketing, and other vital marketing materials. 

Organic shapes can also work for a brand that wants to highlight its commitment to combating climate change and preserving our beautiful planet. The use of color can communicate a company’s mission, vision, and values.

Doodles

Doodles are fun, joyful, and a touch silly. They remove the seriousness from a brand’s website, packaging, and advertising, returning you to the school table where you wiggled your way through daydreams instead of listening to your teacher.

Designers can add more wonderful small doodles into their work, even generating full-blown doodle styles, as illustration tools become more commonly accessible and easier to use. They can draw inspiration from famous doodlers such as Alexander Pushkin, Samuel Beckett, and John Keats to create their own distinct doodling style in 2022.

Dark aesthetic

Dark designs are cool (and have always been), but they never made it to the trending page because designers favored the more legible mix of a white backdrop and black text. This has recently changed with the development and subsequent adoption of the ‘dark mode’ for smartphones, which minimizes blue light exposure in the evening and promotes sleep.

Dark designs are making a solid comeback. You may have already noticed that darker designs have recently become more prevalent in mobile apps, as app designers ride the wave and design slick software for their users. Because smartphones are so ubiquitous, you can expect this trend to spill over into other areas of graphic design this year.

Bright colors

Bright and loud colors, like experimental typography, can easily snare your attention and compel you to look at them, which is one reason we believe they will grow more popular this year. They can also be surprisingly stunning in a chaotic, unnatural sense.

The colors employed in this design style are evocative of psychedelic design, where vibrant colors overlap and weave into each other to create unreal visual effects. It is an eye-catching and bold impression that can work incredibly well for brands not scared to try new things.

Candy colors

As the world rebounds from COVID-19, moods are starting to improve, which might impact the colors used by graphic designers. Rather than somber grays or dismal blues, they could reach for a sticky-sweet assortment of neon greens, brilliant pinks, dazzling yellows, and other candy colors that inspire memories of spontaneous play.

Candy colors are undeniably cheerful, and they could be a response to the virus’s shackles. They are an excellent way for a brand to make a big statement about their mood going forward — we are fun and here to have a good time, so join us.

Contact Print And Web Designer (PWD) today!

Do you wish to bring your graphic designs up to date? We can help. At Print And Web Designer, we offer a full suite of brand design and print design services for businesses in North Carolina, including brochure design, magazine design, and Triangle web design. Call us at (336) 684-6505 or fill out this online form to speak with us today. 

Reasons Why Typography Is Important

Reasons Why Typography Is Important

by | Apr 28, 2022 | Print Design, Services, Web Design

Style is the answer to everything - TypographyThe use of typographic elements is ubiquitous today — especially in text-based designs. For brand designers in NC, typefaces are critical in delivering a message to a business’s target demographic. If a brand design is not well-equipped with typography, it is ineffective. This blog will discuss what typography is and why your business needs to leverage it.

Brands must carve out their unique identities in today’s competitive marketplace. They must capture the attention of their target customers to communicate a brand message effectively. To do this, brand designers often use typography to transform words into arresting visuals.

Typography is ubiquitous. When you see billboards, flyers, logos, sites, or anything else that has text, it involves typography to varying degrees. The creative use of typography gives the text in the design unique shapes and places the letters so they become memorable for viewers. Therefore, we can infer that strategic use of typography is critical for a Raleigh business — particularly an ambitious startup — to stand out in its niche market. This design element adds individuality to logos, websites, and other marketing tools.  

Here are eight reasons why typography is critical for a brand design:

1. Attract the audience’s attention

People’s attention span is rapidly dwindling — and it is now only eight seconds! Raleigh businesses must seize their target customers’ attention during this period of temporal friction. Brand designers can leverage the power of typography to grab the audience’s eye quickly. 

Because typefaces come in a wide array of shapes, sizes, and styles, these characteristics become critical when creating distinctive designs. Today’s designers even employ kinetic typography (or “moving text”) to direct viewers’ attention to specific elements.

2. Make text more readable

A well-designed typeface ensures that visitors can easily understand the content on a web page. On the other hand, poor choice of typefaces will complicate the presentation for the viewers. For example, narrow, cramped typefaces can cause eye strain.

The readability of the text is also highly dependent on the way a web design expert aligns and arranges the text. Traditionally, designers aligned the typeface in four ways: right, left, centered, and justified. However, they can now align text in any direction they like, thanks to the magic of Cascading Style Sheets (better known as “CSS”) and Photoshop. The text alignment also serves another purpose — it directs the reader’s attention to essential information.

3. Create a hierarchy

A skilled and experienced Raleigh brand designer effectively uses varying font sizes and font types to direct the viewer’s attention to the most critical information first. The viewer can quickly find information with a quick glance. The designer does this by using a range of font sizes for the heading, subheadings, and text body.

4. Improves brand recognition

Brand recognition is critical for any Raleigh business to thrive in the market. Typefaces are the visuals that target customers tend to retain for a long time. These visuals help a business build awareness with its target customers — no wonder many modern logos are based on typography. 

It is worth mentioning that you must use typography with consideration to get the intended effect on the audience and how they should view your brand. 

5. Add value and tone to your brand

You can also use typography to establish your brand’s values and tone. Each typeface possesses the ability to represent businesses in unique ways, depending on what they do and for what they stand. This is precisely why there are so many different types of typefaces — they are each used to convey different emotions and effects through design. 

The audience understands a design by understanding its message. So designers use typefaces that establish the tone for presenting and communicating a certain message. Consider sans-serif fonts. These are often chosen to give a design or web page a clean, intuitive, and easy-to-read aesthetic. Therefore, these are contemporary typefaces. On the other hand, Serifs are often considered traditional or old-fashioned. However, because these are more readable, brand designers favor them for longer-form material like books and blogs.

6. Establish harmony

Brand designers also use typography to ensure the coherence of a Cary web design. The designers use the same typeface for similar content to ensure that it is instantly recognizable. This also contributes to the design’s continuity. A harmonious design has a visual impact on viewers.  

7. Give a design some personality

Among the features of typographic design is that it imbues a design with individuality. You can employ certain typefaces to express the unique characteristics of your Raleigh brand. Because of the smart use of typefaces, your web design can look pleasant, playful, or professional. 

Different typefaces and fonts have different personalities and meanings — and a designer uses this to endow a design with flair. So while choosing the right typefaces with the right personality balance is challenging, it is critical for creating distinctive designs.

 

8. Make a visual statement

Typography is equally critical in establishing an impression with site visitors. Its most obvious example is that designers increasingly use larger typefaces to create a dramatic visual impact. They communicate to viewers the content’s purpose.  

Today’s brand designers seem to adhere to a new idea of conveying a message using bold typography. As a result, websites feature larger headers like the cover of a book.

Related Blog: Magazine Layout Design

Final thoughts

These benefits of typography should convince you to reconsider your brand’s visual identity. Now, if you believe you should redo your website, brochure, business card, logo, and a whole gamut of marketing materials using the power of typography, then delegate the task to an expert Raleigh brand designer.

Contact Print And Web Designer (PWD) today!

Do you want to uplift your brand design and give it a personality? We can help. At Print And Web Designer, we offer a full suite of brand design and print design services for businesses in North Carolina, including brochure design, magazine design, and web design. Call us at (336) 684-6505 or fill out this online form to speak with us today.