Positioning the website

Our client’s company has been operating for over twenty years, providing high-quality furniture throughout Europe. Nevertheless, when we started SEO in December 2020, its online visibility was very low. The website did not appear on any phrase, neither in TOP3 nor in TOP10 of search results, i.e. it was never visible on the first page in Google for phrases related to the industry. What’s more – it appeared only for one phrase in the TOP50, which almost completely limited the organic traffic on the site.

Top phrases in December 2020
Therefore, it was necessary to take both on-site activities, i.e. within the website itself, and off-site activities – consisting in acquiring high-quality external links. We started out by optimizing the site technically to improve loading times and usability for the user. We also focused on adding meta elements, important for the website evaluation by search engine robots. However, these changes were only the beginning. Together with the client, we also decided to implement a blog with tips on the website, and saturate each entry with key phrases best suited to the store’s offer. In addition, we strengthened the website by acquiring links on external websites leading to the client’s website.

Thanks to these actions, after six months we can see a significant improvement in the visibility of the website – we currently have 5 phrases in TOP3 of search results and 25 phrases in TOP10, i.e. on the first page. Naturally, the TOP50 saw the greatest progress – here we have already introduced over 500 phrases and we are constantly fighting for their even better positions.

Top phrases in June 2021
It is worth remembering that indexing pages by search engine algorithms is a time-consuming process, and it is sometimes even a dozen or so months for Google robots to be “recognized”. So this is just the beginning of the SEO road, and even better results can be expected in the coming months.

In a short time, however, you can achieve a significant increase in traffic and conversion thanks to Google Ads. Let us compare the results of our client’s campaign from 3 months ago with those achieved now.

In the period from February 16 to March 16, the ads generated over 21,700 clicks. In the period May 16 – June 14, this number dropped by approximately 1,500 clicks. However, does this mean a decrease in the effectiveness of the campaign? On the contrary. Clicks themselves do not bring the customer tangible profits – they only mean that the user has entered his website. In the process of optimizing ads, we try to limit accidental, empty clicks from recipients who are not really interested in the offer and do not plan to make a purchase. Choosing the right target group may therefore slightly reduce the number of clicks, but this does not translate into a reduction in profits.

The number and cost of the conversion

During the three months of campaigning, the number of conversions doubled – there were 319 of them at the turn of February and March, and now their number is 663 per month. At the same time, however, the cost of acquiring one conversion decreased by over 50%, which means that at the price you had to pay three months ago to acquire one customer, you can now acquire two.

How it’s possible? The answer is simple. The longer the campaign runs and the more data our specialists and bid optimization systems have to analyze, the more effective your ads can be. We constantly monitor when there is the greatest chance of conversion, what devices are used by users who most often show interest in the offer, where are the people who convert and many other factors. On this basis, we can predict which actions will bring the best effect and optimize the rates per click to achieve the campaign’s goal at the lowest possible cost.

What profits did the campaign bring?

Together with the client, we agreed that we would stick to the chosen budget for the campaign – for 3 months it increased by only 2.6%. With almost the same budget, revenues increased by more than 56%, i.e. about 88,500.

So how has the return on investment changed? At the turn of February and March, each euro spent on campaigns brought the client about EUR 14.50 in revenue, which is a very good result anyway. Now, however, EUR 22 in costs corresponds to EUR 22 in revenue, an increase of 50%.

Channel bonding = more profits

By combining a Google Ads advertising campaign with positioning, you can significantly increase not only brand visibility and recognition, but also real profits in a relatively short time – this applies to both online stores and service industries. Can we promise that the profits for each company will be on a similar level? Of course not. Marketing campaigns on the Internet are governed by too many variables to take anything for granted, and we focus on honesty and transparency in contact with the client. Instead of empty promises, however, we offer experience, knowledge and commitment, and this in many cases, with good cooperation with the client, brings even higher profits than expected.

WooCommerce and positioning – is this platform conducive to SEO activities?

First, a brief explanation of what WooCommerce is all about. It is a WordPress plugin that allows you to run an online store based on this technology. It is worth knowing that stores prepared on the basis of WooCommerce offer a much greater possibility of adapting to the specificity of the selected sales model. This is because they are not subject to the limitations of SaaS platforms that offer standardized solutions.

That is why stores based on WooCommerce are eagerly chosen by entrepreneurs who:
– they run e-commerce activities on a larger scale – they offer a large number of different products,
– want to gain more independence when designing the functionality of the store,
– they expect to own an open store – in the case of stores on SaaS platforms, it is different, because if you stop paying the monthly subscription for website maintenance, you actually lose all of its data.

And what does the matter of matching WooCommerce for positioning look like? You could say that this e-commerce plugin gives you good opportunities for effective SEO activities, provided you use its full potential. What does this mean in practice?

Is it worth positioning your store in WooCommerce by using additional plugins?

The big advantage of WooCommerce is the “openness” of the system, which allows you to enrich the technical facilities of the e-store with various additional functionalities. This is done with the help of dedicated WooCommerce plugins. Of course, there are also those that support the positioning of WooCommerce stores. Yoast SEO or All In One SEO Pack are most often mentioned in this context.

Indeed, these WooCommerce extensions can assist you in positioning your WooCommerce store, but… the scope of their capabilities is limited and they act as recommendations. The aforementioned plugins and the like allow primarily:
– initial and automatic optimization of e-shop meta tags,
– better control over building the so-called breadcrumbs,
– easier tracking and elimination of duplicate content,
– creating better optimized content for SEO,
– creating friendly URLs.

However, in order for them to work properly and bring the intended results, they must be properly configured – at least in terms of the selection of keywords for which the WooCommerce store will be positioned.

It should also be remembered that meta tags and friendly URLs, while extremely important, do not exhaust the tasks that must be performed to position an e-store using WooCommerce. You should also take care of a number of other issues, and above all, coordinate all SEO activities within one coherent strategy. There is no room for mistakes here. They will result in “burning of the budget” for positioning and a waste of time.

Therefore, it can be said that using SEO plugins for WooCommerce is a good option, as long as it is part of a broader, secure SEO strategy.

WooCommerce – how to position? Alone or with the help of experts?

In theory, activities related to the positioning of the store on WooCommerce can be carried out independently – especially those related to the preparation of the already mentioned meta tags or the preparation of content for individual subpages. However, the question is whether this is really a good course of action. Acting on your own, you may have a problem, among others with choosing the right keywords or their proper placement. It can also be a challenge to write good texts – that is, texts that will meet SEO requirements and at the same time will be attractive to the visitor. It all takes time, and poorly planned (or unplanned) activities may end up wasting positioning potential.

What does the positioning of WooCommerce stores look like with professionals?
– It is preceded by an in-depth SEO audit – as part of it, experts look at, inter alia, actions of your store’s direct competitors, the specifics of your business, and assess what changes need to be made in the store on WooCommerce in order to position itself well.
– A work plan and schedule is developed – positioning of WooCommerce stores is a rather tedious and time-consuming process that takes place in many stages. Therefore, you have to wait for the effects of the actions taken and higher results in SERPs.
– Appropriate keywords are selected – i.e. those that are related to the industry of your business, but can also be effectively positioned. Remember that the greater your competition on the market, the more difficult it is to quickly gain a high position for the most popular phrases. This process takes time and requires a lot of money.
– Activities are constantly monitored – experts keep their finger on the pulse and make sure that the positioning of the WooCommerce store brings the intended results.

It is worth knowing that specialists also use a very wide range of advanced SEO tools. At least that’s how we operate at Paraphrase-Online.com. This allows us to take very precisely targeted actions, thanks to which you reach customers with the offer of your store who may be really interested in using it. As a result, the cost of acquiring one customer in relation to the expenditure on positioning and advertising the store on WooCommerce drops by as much as several dozen percent. That is why more and more e-commerce business owners are choosing professional positioning.

How to position stores on WooCommerce?

Effective store positioning on WooCommerce is a component of many factors, both on the technical and substantive side. Only when all these elements “play” can you perceive the desired positioning results. What actions do you need to take to be successful?

Good hosting
When you decide to create a store based on WooCommerce, you need to put it on a properly selected server. What does it matter for the positioning of WooCommerce stores? Very big! A good server means a stable connection to the network, which translates into faster website response to the browser query. Put simply: stores that open quickly, without unnecessary delays, are better rated by Google’s algorithms. That is why it is worth investing in hosting with a proven service provider and choosing the server parameters so that it can “bear” the traffic in the store. Remember: good positioning of WooCommerce stores can lead to a significant increase in visits to it. Your server must be fully ready for this!

Store code optimization
The speed and reliability of the e-shop operation depends not only on the quality and bandwidth of the server. The website code itself is equally important. If it is buggy and full of unnecessary loops and bugs, you may have difficulty opening individual tabs correctly. Such a barrier makes the rating of the WooCommerce store drop, and getting a good position is simply difficult.

Similar problems may be caused by various “barriers” to accessibility to the website, which make it difficult for users to use the e-shop. These can be, for example, aggressive pop-ups that appear right after opening the page. Such elements should be abandoned – both for the sake of Google’s robots and for the customers themselves. Their pop-ups and similar unnecessary extras can also discourage you from staying on the site.

Adequate amount of content in the WooCommerce store
Positioning WooCommerce stores makes sense when they are filled with the right amount of valuable content. They cannot remain empty and operate only on slogans and photos, because … then there is not enough space for the use of previously selected key phrases. So how much content is appropriate? It cannot be defined unambiguously and in a standardized way – it is possible thanks to an in-depth SEO audit. During it, the most important keywords are identified, the way they are distributed throughout the website, and ultimately the level of text saturation.

It is worth remembering that the content for positioning the store on WooCommerce should appear not only on the home page and subpages with the main product categories. Over time, it is worth supplementing them with deeper nested subpages, as well as considering preparing a blog that will provide the possibility of long-tail positioning.

The quality of texts in the e-shop
The quantity is the quantity, but the quality of the content is even more important. Why? First of all, because the texts are not written strictly for the positioning of the WooCommerce store, but with the customers in mind. It is worth remembering that a person who clicks a link to your store may need specific and substantive information. If in return he receives, colloquially speaking, “gibberish”, he will quickly close the page and go to the next one.

But that’s not all. Also, Google’s algorithms promote reliable content on the topic. Those that are not excessively and unnaturally saturated with keywords, but discuss the issue to which the tab is dedicated.

In order to prepare the content for the positioning of the e-store on WooCommerce, it is also worth remembering about the key SEO rules. Good texts for an online store should:
– contain appropriately selected key phrases in reasonable saturation,
– have headers that organize the content – both at the H2 and H3 levels,
– have a high substantive value,
– use bullets and different ways to highlight the content.

If you want to ensure their high quality, entrust the preparation of texts to a professional – preferably a copywriter cooperating with an SEO agency. The agreement of specialists in these two areas will result in the preparation of content that will engage the recipient, and at the same time will be well received by algorithms. And that’s the most valuable combination.

Meta tags – the basis of effective WooCommerce positioning
Texts alone are not enough. Meta tags are also needed. What are they? In a nutshell, this is content that is not displayed directly on the website in a very visible form, but is carriers of important information for Google. The most important are the basic tags of the page, i.e. meta title and meta description. Title is displayed, among others in the tab bar, and both of this brief information is presented in Google search results. So they also play a marketing role.

When positioning stores on WooCommerce, ALT tags assigned to images are also important, as well as those regarding the precise description of products.

Optimizing Your Images
When you sell a product online, you obviously need to show it to your customer. Therefore, you need attractive images that will help you visualize the message. However, you have to be careful. A very large number of photos, which will have a “heavy” format, will make the page open slowly and start to jam. And that’s the nail in the coffin of any SEO efforts. That is why, if the audit shows that the photos load too slowly, it is worth to “slim down” them by switching to another format, even at the cost of a slight loss of quality.

Friendly urls
In other words, URLs are the addresses of individual product pages. What do these look like in your WooCommerce store? Positioning requires that they contain legible information about the content of the tabs. Therefore, they should not present a sequence of random numbers or letters, but take the form of a verbal message with an appropriate structure. Friendly URLs make it easier for Google to index the page, and thus increase the chances of their optimal positioning.

Regular positioning of the WooCommerce store

It is true that at the very beginning of the e-store positioning process on the WooCommerce platform there is the most work. Most often, you have to reorganize the entire store, saturate it with valuable content adapted to SEO requirements, optimize its code, metadata, redirects and other elements. However, completing this stage should not end activities related to the positioning of the WooCommerce store. In the following months, it is necessary, among others:
– to add new content – e.g. to subsequent product subcategories or product descriptions themselves,
– monitoring and updating of existing texts – e.g. when it is necessary to change keywords,
– monitoring the situation related to positioning and implementing changes that will allow you to maintain the already achieved results and get even better results in SERPs,
– linking!

That is why cooperation with digital agencies does not end with a one-time preparation of the WooComerce store for SEO and is of a long-term nature.

How long do you have to wait for the SEO effects of WooCommerce stores?

It is quite difficult to answer the above question, because a lot depends, among other things, on from the industry of activity, the prevailing competition in it or the initial state of the e-store that professionals face, and ultimately the budget. However, basically you should expect that the first results in the form of increased traffic on the website will appear after about 3 months. Over time, with the skilful use of the positioning potential, they will start to turn into a greater number of orders, an expanding customer portfolio and greater profits for the company.

Do you need WooCommerce store positioning?

As you can see, the correct positioning of a store using WooCommerce (as well as many other solutions) is a serious task that requires many activities. That is why it is worth getting full support in this regard – so that the budget invested in SEO is not wasted, but on the contrary – it gives the desired results.

You need help? Contact our experts. We will not only take care of effective positioning, but also plan and implement other activities advertising the store on WooCommerce – e.g. paid promotion in social media or Google Ads. Thanks to this, you will increase your chances of increasing interest in the stores’ offer and you will start to observe an increased number of inquiries, and then – orders placed.

Idea for an online store

At the beginning, an important note: the e-commerce market is very large, so it is worth finding a business niche in which you feel a specialist or… in which you want to delve into. Getting to know the products you will be trading well is absolutely essential. However, you may be wondering what to choose.

Basically, apart from being an expert in what field you are, you can choose between two paths:

A. choose a niche that is not very popular, but has development potential for the coming years
It is a solution that can bring you success in the long term. However, you need to be aware that at the beginning you have to expect small reach and a small number of customers. However, with a properly conducted marketing strategy, you can expect a gradual increase in interest.

If the niche you choose is not popular at the moment, there is a chance that you will be one of the pioneers and that your store will become one of the most important in the industry in the future. However, you must be mindful of the risks – the market is not predictable and trends can suddenly reverse (as shown well by the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020). Therefore, you need to be prepared for this and have a “plan B”.

B. choose a popular e-commerce branch
So, start selling products that are willingly bought on the Internet. The idea for an online store does not have to be fancy. On the contrary – most often it is worth doing what … others do. In this case, with effective advertising, you can start earning good income faster. However, with high competition, it will be more difficult for you to break out – so at the very beginning you may have to invest more in promotion. You will also need to find elements that will make your offer competitive. Something that will make you stand out from dozens or hundreds of stores offering similar products.

What could it be? E.g:
– more competitive prices,
– offering goods of brands so far unknown on the market,
– unusual branding,
– additional services, such as product personalization.

Of course, everything depends on the specific specialization of the e-shop. One thing is certain: going this way, you have to find something that will make your brand stand out and make it more attractive in the eyes of the customer.

What is best selling on the internet?

What products are the most popular on the Internet? What do people buy online? The answer to this question is provided by research, e.g. the E-commerce report prepared by the Paraphrase-Online.com Team. It shows that the most popular product categories that were bought online are:

– clothing, accessories and accessories – the fashion industry is popular with over 2/3 buyers,
– footwear – they are bought by about 60% of people who make purchases over the Internet,
– books, films and CDs,
– cosmetics and perfumes,
– RTV and household appliances,
– cinema / theater tickets,
– Sportswear,
– pharmaceutical products, including dietary supplements,
– GSM mobile devices and accessories,
– children’s goods and toys,
– travel services.

It is therefore worth navigating in these areas of the e-commerce world if you want to find your place in the internet reality. But be careful! To break through in them, you have to look at them from a different, fresh perspective. Otherwise, you may have a problem “carving out a piece of cake” for yourself.

So how can you narrow down the scope of goods in the context of the above categories? There are many possibilities. For example, you can offer:

– plus size clothes of well-known European brands – there are more and more customers who are interested in larger sizes, and at the same time there are no stores that would offer a wide selection,
– cosmetics of producers not available in stationary sales – e.g. from the Far East (however, take into account the fact that there are quite a lot of stores offering recently very fashionable Korean products!
– ecological children’s toys – although this niche is already quite full, the “eco” trend seems to be becoming wider and wider, so there are quite a lot of people who would like to buy this type of products,
– a specific category of electronic devices – e.g. fashionable drones, electric scooters or VR equipment.

As you can see, specialization can be the real key to success. It is enough to search for an unusual area in a popular niche and offer your audience something completely new!

Is the best selling always the best choice?

What is the most popular is – as you already know – both an opportunity and a threat in the world of e-commerce. The most important thing is to find, on the one hand, an area where you can offer customers something new, and on the other – something that will respond to their needs. Remember: at the beginning you don’t have to aim very high, with huge ranges and large sales volume. You can also achieve good income by operating on a smaller scale. So your business may revolve around less popular goods, but those that have a specific audience. What could be a good idea?

Online handicraft store
Do you have a hobby in the field of handicrafts? Maybe you, for example, crochet or are passionate about decoupage or creating DIY decorations? What if you start selling them online in your store. Setting up a small e-shop, e.g. on a SaaS platform, does not require many formalities or high costs. If you also invest in advertising on social networks and prepare properly optimized content, you have a chance to stand out!

Online store with articles for disinfection
… as well as other products that are useful in the context of the current coronavirus pandemic. Although this is a topic that is popular periodically, it still seems like a good time to offer something new to customers. We are still eager to buy designer masks (which have become part of styling), as well as disinfectants that do not irritate the hands.

Online store with pet food
It is a market niche that is currently developing very dynamically, mainly due to the growing interest in a healthy diet of animals. Dog owners are looking for ecological, well-balanced meals for dogs and cats, made of the highest quality ingredients. If you have access to such products, you have a chance to attract a large group of customers.

Store with ecological accessories
Living in harmony with nature and making ecological choices is a trend that is currently rising. It can be expected to “float” for the next few, if not more years. Therefore, it is worth considering setting up a store that will offer accessories that leave a small carbon footprint. Example? Metal or paper straws, disposable plates and cutlery made of biodegradable materials, linen shopping bags, reusable nets for fruit and vegetables … you can multiply this way indefinitely. You can easily attract a large group of customers for this type of accessories.

Barber shop
The fashion for well-groomed male stubble and visits to barbers began a few years ago. Today, more and more men are looking for professional beard care products, so … it’s worth offering them. A store that specializes in the distribution of pomades and beard oils, as well as classic razors and other vintage shaving accessories, may attract the attention of the market!

Educational toy store
Science in a modern version? It is the one carried out by play that arouses curiosity about the world. Do you subscribe to this statement? It is like many parents! They are looking for interesting and inspiring toys that will allow their children to broaden their horizons. Do you want to help them with this? If so, think about looking for interesting educational toys and selling them. Such a store can have great potential!

Seasonal products – a good idea for an online store?

Some of the goods that are offered in online stores are willingly bought only at certain times of the year. Good example? Oh, even air conditioners and fans. The demand for them begins just before the hot summer comes and ends with the first cool evenings. So is it profitable to create an e-shop that would sell only such devices? Not completely. However, you can supplement the basic assortment of the store with such seasonal products and carry out positioning on related phrases. You can also choose several groups of seasonal products, popular in different months of the year, and change the main sales profile depending on the demand for individual goods. In such a business model, however, you need to use your own warehouse and, most often, be ready that some of the goods will remain there until the next high season.

Are you missing an idea of what to sell? Check out dropshipping!

If you are still not sure which direction your e-commerce business should take, look for inspiration … in wholesalers that specialize in dropshipping. It is a ready-made solution for those who are looking for quick solutions.

How exactly does dropshipping work? In this business model, your store acts a bit like a “sales representative” of a wholesaler. More precisely, your task is to sell products that are in the assortment of the selected contractor and then transfer the order for execution. Therefore, you only deal with the e-shop promotion process, customer acquisition and customer service. However, all logistics issues rest with your business partner. It is he who takes care of the continuous supply of goods to the warehouse, as well as its shipment to the end customer.

The dropshipping model is becoming more and more popular because those running this type of e-shops:
– operate under their own brand, which means that the wholesaler sends products to the end customer, stating the company that took the order as the sender,
– can be opened with great ease – you can even find ready-made packages that you just need to configure and start working,
– they give great freedom of action and investment without having to deal with all logistic challenges.

This, of course, does not mean that the income from such a business is effortless.

Regardless of the model in which you run your online store and with what assortment, the key to success is ensuring its high visibility and good reputation. Proposal? A good idea of what to sell online is only one side of the coin. The second is how you will run and promote your business. In this regard, it is worth using the help of experts. They will take care of about:

– SEO optimization of your e-store,
– planning a coherent and well-thought-out promotional campaign in appropriately selected channels (e.g. remarketing, advertising in social media, e-mail marketing, etc.),
– building a positive image of the website.

So if you already have an idea of what niche to operate in, it’s time to implement it, and then … promote and patiently wait for the results.

Website security – hacking, hacking uneven

Can my website be hacked? Is my website worth a hack? The truth is, there’s no place on the web that isn’t worth breaking into. Each domain and each page is a place that can be used – put links to various types of potency specifics, redirect to your – sham – domain or silently use our server for mailing and serve innocent internet users content intended definitely for adult recipients. The number of ways to use a hijacked website is limited only by the hackers’ creativity.

Taking over the website has various consequences, including problems with the proper functioning of the website and falling out of the Google index as a result of removing optimization. Hacking also increases the risk of your site being cut from the SERPs as a result of penalties for illegal content attacking. In addition, with each subsequent hack, the website loses its credibility in the eyes of the recipients, and they are more cautious about using the products and services offered. Lack of trust stems primarily from fear of your own data – it is user information that attracts hackers. In some cases, the acquisition of the site is also associated with considerable costs, which include, for example, income that could be achieved at the time when the site was closed. The costs of server cleanup and site restoration can also significantly affect your company’s budget. There are also legal consequences.

Who is most at risk?

Every website and every person using the Internet may fall victim to one of the many types of cyber attacks. Break-ins happen to large and well-secured companies:
– Adobe lost data in 2013 – username and password, full names, credit and debit card details – from 153 million accounts,
– LinkedIn lost email addresses and passwords of users in 2012 and 2016,
– Garmin lost access to a large part of its systems in 2020 and was forced to disable access to all services. In order to gain access to the data decryption key, the company decided to pay a ransom.

The scale of these break-ins is much greater than what the owners of small websites usually experience. However, this does not mean that you should ignore safety issues and not take appropriate steps in the name of the principle “prevention is better than cure”.

Among the systems that are exposed to hacking attacks, the popular CMSs are usually mentioned – WordPress and Joomla. The frequency of burglaries is influenced, among others, by the universality of installation of these solutions and … quite a frivolous approach to software updates and notifications related to security. In the case of WordPress, the source of attacks are also plugins that allow you to add new functionalities to your website. Some of the plugins are manufactured by third parties. Joomla’s vulnerability manifests itself during system configuration, which tends to generate errors when installing external extensions.

How to ensure the security of the website?

Below are 6 basic elements that allow you to increase the security of the website and reduce light-hearted behavior that may cause risk.

A. Password123, guess you!
Professional tools and the most complex security programs can fail with a lack of common sense and a lack of awareness of threats. I do not wish to imply that modern solutions should not be used – quite the contrary! My only suggestion is that we take a moment to reflect on our slogans. They are the ones that most often fall prey to internet thieves and cause havoc on our virtual estates. The most popular sins related to slogans include:

– their simplicity – i.e. qwerty, 12345, abc123 or passwords associated with the name of the website where we have an account This type of security breaks quickly – once they are quite intuitive, and two – they are one of those most often found on lists of data stolen from various websites,
– their universality – one password for everything? Simple solutions of this type work well … for a short while. Data leakage from one site may result in the loss of accounts also in other spaces.

This infamous group also includes the ugly habit of saving all passwords in one place – be it in a notebook or in an ordinary text file located in one of the folders on the disk. While the traditional notebook can be an attractive prey for a less IT-agile thief, the file can be of interest to anyone who knows how to use the trust of public network users (e.g. wifi in a restaurant) – hence the path to taking over all our Internet incarnations is short.

So how do you keep your passwords secure? One of the solutions that work both in private and in enterprises are applications that allow you to store passwords in a safe way, eg LastPass, 1Password, or their free equivalents – KeePass and BitWarden. These types of solutions work similarly to the above-criticized book – they allow you to store passwords in one place, but they are much more secure. These programs allow you to generate extremely complex passwords, which are then encrypted in various ways and stored in this form. The user only needs one password that allows him to access the application. Programs of this type run not only on computers but also on mobile devices.

An effective way to limit the possibility of account takeover is also multi-stage verification. The introduction of this solution requires verification of logging in in several ways, e.g. using the application installed on the phone. The need to confirm the willingness to access the account allows for additional control and catching unauthorized login attempts.

Passwords should also be changed from time to time, especially in the case of rotation among company employees. After changing the people responsible for various areas of the Internet activity, it is good to refresh the accesses and ensure that only designated employees have access to the password-protected places.

B. Updates
Updating systems is another element of the set of basic activities that allow you to reduce the risk associated with unwanted activity on the website. This applies to all elements related to it – CMS, software on the server, as well as plugins and extensions. The task of the update – apart from developing the application and adding its new functionalities – is also to eliminate bugs and potential threats existing in the earlier code. The lack of updates to programs running within the site makes it much easier to take over from external users.

You can find out how often security patches are implemented by analyzing the information provided with subsequent software updates. Most updates go hand in hand with a blog post or note detailing each subsequent patch.

Additionally, information about the need to update your CMS usually appears on the main page of the administration panel. Note – updating older CMS versions (e.g. those that have not been updated for several months) may result in problems with the basic functionalities of the website. Before starting the update, it is worth taking care of backing up your website files. Archaic versions of CMS are good to update with the help of specialists – e.g. a software house which was responsible for the original appearance of the website. You should remember about the necessity to update the system on which the website is located when designing the website and include help with updating in the contract.

C. Plugins and Extensions
When discussing updates of popular CMSs, it is also worth paying attention to the elements that allow you to extend the capabilities of these programs, i.e. plug-ins, extensions and add-ons. Each of these programs offers a new function for our CMS, unfortunately – not always only the ones we care about. So how do you recognize plugins that will be safe? What to look for?

Before installing an add-on to our CMS, it is worth taking a look at its popularity and opinions, check the credibility of the company that issued it and make sure how often they are and what the updates are about.

It is a mistake to leave plugins without updating – it is thanks to them that bugs and security holes are removed that can be used to take over your Internet ownership.

D. SSL
The implementation of SSL is not only the whim of your SEO positioner or your ad specialist, but one of the ways to improve the security of data flowing through your website. SSL, or in fact TSL, guarantees the confidentiality of data transmission and server authentication. It is based on asymmetric encryption with a public key, the knowledge of which cannot decrypt the data. For this purpose, it is necessary to have a private key that is not shared externally. The length of the keys in the current versions of TSL is at least 128 bits.

E. Take care of a backup
Caution may result in another item on the list of monthly website maintenance costs, but in times of crisis it becomes priceless. Website security is not an area where you should save in the first place. In this case, forethought manifests itself by taking care of the backup. Backups stored in a safe place reduce the risk of data loss. Securing databases and placing them in a different space than the original files will enable business continuity, even in the event of a failure or losses caused by a break-in.

The backups will also be stored by the hosting on which the website is located, which is very useful in the event of technical problems with the website – restoring the state from two or three days ago is usually a matter of one phone. Unfortunately, leaving the security of your websites in the hands of third parties does not always work, as customers of one of the world’s hosting companies could already see in 2016.

F. Educate yourself and your colleagues
The security of a website depends on many factors. The impact of some of them can be reduced by educating everyone who works within them. Sometimes it is enough to refresh the basics related to online security – the rules of creating passwords, the need to use secure internet connections and log out after work is done, or suspicion of unusual-looking emails. A website is a sensitive place, the most sensitive of which is our ignorance. Caring for the security of the website and all resources necessary for our company does not require specialist knowledge or technical skills – in many cases it is enough to implement good practices.

Hosting is a service that is responsible for the round-the-clock maintenance of websites on the web. Such a service is possible thanks to servers that are constantly working, and thus are constantly available in the network. Of course, there is no problem to set up a website on your own computer, but there are many barriers to it. Therefore, it is a rather temporary solution, good for local project work. Servers must meet stringent requirements related to round-the-clock work. There are many types of hosting on the market, or rather ways to keep your websites online. The hosting includes:

A. Shared hosting – usually the cheapest type of hosting. We only get a certain pool (usually not too large) of physical resources of the server. In most cases, there is no advanced server configuration option. The website will have so-called neighbors, i.e. websites of other people who have also purchased shared hosting from the same provider. Unfortunately, often due to the large number of pages on one server, the performance is sometimes poor. Services of this type are good for private clients or small and medium-sized companies that do not have a lot of traffic and thus do not need large server resources. This solution is good for people who are not familiar with the technical configuration of the server.

B. VPS server (Virtual Private Server) – as the name suggests, it is a virtual server, and in fact a separate part of the server on which a virtual machine is running. In the case of this type of service, we have full access to a separate part of the machine. The virtual machine guarantees us the purchased server resources such as: disk, memory, processor cores. Which will be associated with greater page efficiency. Of course, as it’s a virtual machine, we still share server resources with other people, but it’s safer. To operate a VPS server, technical knowledge is required to properly configure and monitor the service. The cost of such a service is usually greater than that of shared hosting, of course, it all depends on the resources of the server you buy. The service is good for larger projects, i.e. rather for medium and larger companies.

C. Dedicated server – in this case, by purchasing the service, we get the entire server. The entire physical machine located in the server room will be at our disposal. Thanks to the full possibility of any configuration, this type of service offers the greatest possibilities. Of course, as in the case of a VPS server, everything depends on the purchased resources. If we are looking for high performance, this type of service needs attention. Technical knowledge is required for the correct configuration of a dedicated server. This type of service is aimed at demanding users who are able to pay much larger amounts for both the service and administration. A dedicated server is dedicated to large projects with high traffic.

D. Cloud server – is a kind of alternative to dedicated servers. Thanks to the advanced capabilities of the cloud, it is possible to scale the resources that are needed to service the website. It is a kind of a network of dedicated servers (cluster) based on the infrastructure of a selected company. Due to the complexity of the service, good knowledge is required. The price varies greatly, it all depends on the resources currently used. In most cases, it is more expensive than shared hosting or a VPS server. Destiny is usually very popular and demanding projects.

What are the SEO characteristics of good hosting?

I will also try to refer to all of these features in the context related to SEO. Virtually every feature in some way affects or may affect the evaluation of the page by the Google robot or other search engine. The features that are worth including are:

– High availability time (Uptime) – we care about the highest possible reliability of services. Uptime shows the availability of services as a percentage, ideally it should be 100%. We want the website to run continuously. External service monitoring tools are used to check the server uptime.
SEO Context: Robots check the availability of the page. When a page is unavailable, it may be temporarily hidden or even removed from the index.
– Infrastructure – we are talking about both the connection speed and the specification of the device itself, which will affect the speed of the hosted service. The selection, of course, depends on the requirements of the project and the traffic that the service will have to handle.
SEO Context: Regardless of the volume of traffic and the complexity of the project, everything has to be fast. This affects the positive feeling of using the website and promoting it in free search results.
– Fast disks – nowadays it is worth investing in the fastest SSD disks. It is very important to have quick access to files that are placed on the website. SSDs do not have heads that have to search for the correct sector on the disk, as is the case with HDD disk drives.
SEO Context: It is important that the visitor to the website does not have to wait for the resource to load. This affects the so-called Page Experience, which is an important ranking element in Google.
– The latest and configurable versions of the software – it is worth being able to change the software version or configure it. This includes selecting the PHP version and any add-ons that the project may require.
SEO context: The speed and security of the website are closely related to the approach that Google forces on webmasters. The website must be reliable and secure.
– SSL certificate – we are talking about both the configuration of such a certificate and the possibility of obtaining it for free. In the case of small websites or those that do not process a lot of user data, free LetsEncrypt or CAcert certificates are quite sufficient. The data between the server and the visiting user’s computer will be encrypted.
SEO Context: Having an SSL certificate is one of the ranking factors. It is mainly related to the safety of users using the website.
– Access to logs – this is a completely basic thing related to checking how users (including robots) use our website. Based on the error logs, we can fix the page. However, access logs can be used to create statistics that will be used to analyze the website.
SEO Context: Constant verification and analysis of traffic flow helps in fixing bugs and improving the design. It is related to both speed, readability and security, which is pointed out by Google.
– Spam and anti-virus filters – as in the case of computers, servers should also be protected. Of course, a lot of security comes from the application code itself. The danger may also come from a poorly secured server.
SEO Context: Search engines value user safety extremely. Bad security measures can lead to the substitution of the content of the page, which can ultimately result in a complete blockade of the page in search engines.
– Fast and 24/7 support – in case of any problems or breakdowns it is extremely important to act quickly.
SEO Context: If you want to avoid penalties or large position fluctuations, it is extremely important to act quickly in case of problems.
– Backup copies – in the event of a breakdown or hack, it is extremely important that the website is returned as soon as possible. With frequent backups, this is possible.
SEO Context: In addition to the server-side availability of the website, it is also important that everything works properly from the website functionality side to avoid penalties from Google.
– Trial period – thanks to the possibility of testing the services, we are able to check whether the service is sufficient for us. It is worth testing both the speed and possibilities of services, as well as their personalization. It is also important to check the support in order to act as quickly as possible at critical moments. In fact, it is worth testing all the above-mentioned issues.
SEO Context: All the above-mentioned features will provide a good Page Experience, which Google pays for, among others.

I tried to write the above-mentioned features in a rather general way. It all depends on the technologies used and the project requirements. Each project should be approached separately to know the exact requirements.

Does Web Hosting Affect Core Web Vitals?

Basic Internet Ratings are closely related to the user experience of a website that Google believes is very important. Core Web Vitals consists of three main pillars:

– Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – this is the loading time focused mainly on the largest element that is immediately in view after the user enters the site. Google is committed to ensuring that every page is loaded as quickly as possible. The LCP should not exceed 2.5 seconds.
The impact of hosting: Fast page loading is closely related to the server hosting the page.
– First Input Delay (FID) – this is the time after entering the page, after which the page loading process begins. The FID should not be greater than 100 milliseconds.
The impact of hosting: Page response time is related to the infrastructure that supports the website and its load. Choosing the right service for your project requirements is important here.
– Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – while loading the page, there should be no element shifts that could mislead the user (e.g. by clicking on an invalid link). This ratio should not be greater than 0.1.
The impact of hosting: This metric is largely influenced by the coding of the page. Hosting can only be affected when a loaded item is not able to load quickly enough for some reason. In these cases, there should be a (code-side) placeholder to prevent unwanted shifts.

Ensuring the quality of all the above pillars will result in a higher website quality in the eyes of the Google search algorithm.

Does the choice of hosting affect website optimization?

Choosing the right services has a great impact on website optimization. Of course, ultimately everything will depend on the person implementing the optimization. In some cases this can be made easier by the use of technology on the server that will facilitate the optimal optimization of the website. In the case of the popular CMS system – WordPress – it can be support for special plugins optimizing the website. It is important to be able to run the cache on the side of both the website visitor and the server itself. This will significantly speed up page loading and command execution. Another issue is the ability to scale resources when the traffic on the site will be much higher.

What is SEO hosting used for?

When looking for good hosting, you may come across so-called SEO Hosting. This service is aimed mainly at clients dealing with positioning of websites. The main difference between regular hosting is the availability of additional IP addresses. Placing pages on different IP addresses will help to create a larger database of pages (back-end) on one service, which will be somewhat in a different location due to a different server address.

Will an investment in good hosting affect SEO?

Good hosting is certainly one of the factors that will positively affect the position of a website in organic search results. This is just one of many components that should be taken care of before Off-site activities. The service should be properly selected for the project being implemented. In the event of a rapid increase in traffic, you need to react quickly to maintain the upward trend.

What’s what in this puzzle

DOMAIN – a series of characters that allows you to define the scope of the website within the DNS (Domain Name System). The domain consists of two parts – the main name and the ending, most often specifying the language and country associated with the website.

SUBDOMAIN – an address created within the existing main domain. The address that starts with www is also a subdomain.

CATALOG – folder within the main domain.

The basic component of an online store

The first half of 2020 will forever be a period of many changes. Along with the slowdown in the economy and the closure of stationary outlets, part of the business moved to the Internet. A lot of online stores have been created, and are still being built, that support the activities of entrepreneurs so far, and probably many of them will decide to continue online sales also in the coming months and years – not only due to the pandemic.

The main task of the store is sales – it is no different in the case of its virtual version. Like the stationary, the Internet version requires appropriate preparation, which will enable existing customers to conveniently shop. With the creation of an online store, the possibility of reaching new recipients also opens up.

When taking a step towards the sales website, it is worth getting acquainted with the rules that will allow us to quickly start in the search engine. They include, among others the need to act in accordance with the recommendations for optimization for search engines, especially Google.

Subdomain or catalog – where to put the store?

One of the first problems that business may encounter when moving to the Internet is the need to make a decision related to the location of the store. If the current website of the company was informative – and we want to maintain it – the online store may appear next to the current page – in a subdomain or catalog.

The decision regarding the location of the store is crucial due to the visibility of the domain in the search engine. Older domains that have an established position in Google and lead customers to a brick-and-mortar store should not be abruptly modified and, for example, completely rebuilt into an online store. Changing the URL structure, changing the content and layout of the website may result in the loss of existing positions and de facto mean the need to position the store’s website from the beginning.

On the other hand, the main goal of some websites is to deliver content, and the associated store – despite the thematic consistency – is to be a separate entity, serving, for example, to sell 2-3 own products. Goods from this type of online stall will be sold mainly through blog entries and posts in social media, and its visibility in SERPs will be much less important.

So … shop in the catalog or in the subdomain? Or maybe a new domain? Let’s check the pros and cons of these solutions and how Google looks at them!

Positioning the store in the catalog

Developing an existing website by adding a store to it will keep the existing structure and position of the website in the search engine. It is possible that the enlargement associated with the addition of new categories and product pages will have a very positive effect on existing items. And vice versa – higher deposits of old subpages and traffic on them will allow for a better start with new ones.

The appearance of additional pages on the website gives new opportunities for internal linking. Thanks to this, both the older part of the website and the newer one will work for each other by supporting user navigation on the website and accelerating indexing of new content and products.

Behind the success of such a solution, however, is the earlier correct construction and optimization of the website. Further optimization work should take into account the entire page, i.e. modifications for keywords should be broken down into the entire domain, and not only within the newly added directory. Among other potential problems, it is also worth mentioning the payback in terms of website construction and the risks associated with changing its performance. The launch of the store requires technical modifications, the end result of which may be a slowdown of the website.

Before starting the store, it is worth making sure that our server will withstand additional traffic, and the technical solutions used will allow for trouble-free use of the entire website. You will also need to make sure that the domain is properly secured, i.e. it is covered by an SSL certificate. In the absence of a certificate, after implementing it, redirect the domain to a new address, starting with https: //, which may confuse the positions also for the old part of the website.

If the current website was based on one of the most popular CMSs, adding a store to it will be relatively easy. In the case of WordPress, a new store can be set up using the WooCommerce plugin. The VirtueMart component works well for Joomla.

Positioning the store on a subdomain

The decision to create a store on a subdomain means that you have to build your website from scratch. A subdomain – even though it is linked with the main domain – functions as a separate entity on the Internet. This is also considered by Google. It is true that the representatives of the search engine claim that robots combine subdomains and domains, but one does not affect the visibility of the other.

Putting the store on a subdomain, however, can be a good solution for those companies that want to separate their current activity from the store and limit possible changes in the amount of traffic on an existing website. This type of solution works well for bloggers – the store is built on a subdomain, thanks to which it does not disturb the normal work of the blog, while allowing the purchase of products.

A subdomain can also be a good solution for those who wish to sell their products in another country. According to the art of positioning, it is recommended to buy a separate domain for each country, with the extension appropriate for the language of the country to which it is to be addressed, but it is not always available. In this case – taking into account the potential difficulties in ranking – you can decide to create a store in the subdomain. This trick will work especially if our domain ending is .com.

Putting your store in a subdomain is not much different than building it on a separate domain – it is necessary to create the entire website infrastructure from scratch. However, this has its advantages – other technical solutions can be used on the website, without the risk of damaging the existing architecture, and thus – also the results of an already functioning domain. In addition, a fresh store may be in the testing phase for some time and undergo further modifications aimed at finding ideal solutions – the lack of a direct link to the main domain will not have a negative impact on its position.

Subdomain or directory? Alternative solutions for the store

The motivation to transfer sales activities to the network for each entrepreneur may be different, hence the multitude of solutions facilitating this jump. For those smaller, who plan to support their current activity through an online store, there is one more solution – a platform that provides ready-made stores. Pros? The prices of the smallest subscriptions are a few dollars per month, and all maintenance and security issues are on the side of the software supplier. The downside of this solution is the lack of your own domain – the store is created on a subdomain within an external website, which prevents its effective promotion in the search engine. The use of SaaS programs, however, allows you to quickly start sales and it will certainly work for bloggers who have one or two of their own electronic products, e.g. e-books.

Subdomain or catalog? Yes, Google says …

As I mentioned above, Google points out that web robots associate subdomains with main domains, also from the search engine perspective, the choice of one or the other solution should not be of great importance.

The subdomain is treated as a separate page, therefore it must be authenticated in Google Search Console – regardless of whether the home page is already connected to the console.

In practice, most positioners will suggest choosing a catalog. In our opinion, the history of the domain, links referring to it and the current visibility is an excellent basis for building a larger website. Expanding the existing content – especially under the supervision of a specialist – will allow for a faster start of a new part and may have a positive impact on subpages that have previously worked for high positions.

A similar debate – subdomain or catalog – may also apply to the location of the blog. Just like in the store, the blog should be associated with the main domain and left within it.

The e-commerce industry is developing dynamically, and the number of people who decide to buy online is growing every year, and the pandemic has only accelerated this process. Clothing and accessories are among the goods that we buy most often on the Web. This is good news for you, but you also need to remember that along with the demand to buy outfits online, so does the supply. That is why it is so important – apart from an interesting, unique offer, good prices or well-thought-out brand building – an effective advertisement for an online store with clothes.

Advertising of an online clothes store – what does it consist of?

The world of on-line advertising is extremely vast. That is why there is a lot of tools waiting for you with which you can promote yourself. What can you choose from? The key solutions are:

… And therefore advertising conducted mainly in the Internet search engine. If you are not on Google, you do not exist. If you want to increase your reach quickly, you can invest in advertising on this site. Its key aspect is the so-called sponsored links, i.e. those displayed to recipients above the organic search results, at the very top of the page.

But that’s not all. The Google advertising platform also gives you the possibility of conducting campaigns on external portals – a link to your website will appear there in the form of a clickable banner.
A hellishly effective form of advertising clothes is also Google Shopping – a tool that gives you the opportunity to run product campaigns directly on the search engine page. When the customer enters the name of the product you have in your assortment, your store’s offer – with a photo of the product – will be displayed directly to him, along with the price. It therefore increases the likelihood of conversion.

Advertising of the online store with clothes in social media

Fashion is a topic that arouses wide interest among Internet users. That is why it is worth reaching them, for example, through promotion on Facebook or Instagram. First of all, use the basic and free promotion tools – run your store profiles in key social media and present interesting styles there. You can also actively contribute to groups related to fashion topics. This way, you will increase your organic ranges step by step.

Paid advertising tools offer equally many interesting options – in social media, just like in Google, you can precisely define the target audience and the purpose of advertising. Regardless of whether you want to increase the visibility and awareness of your brand, or support a specific promotional campaign and increase conversion – you can choose the form of communication that will bring the best results – e.g. remarketing.

Content marketing

Content marketing will work especially in the context of image advertising and website positioning, but also as a supplement to other promotional channels. For example, by running a blog on your e-shop’s website, you can present your own valuable content on social media profiles, and at the same time support long-tail positioning. But that’s not all. It is also worth remembering about sponsored articles – posted on fashion portals will allow you not only to build valuable links with references to your e-store, but also increase the visibility of your offer.

SEO

Activities related to increasing “organic” visibility in search engines are a complement to classic advertising campaigns and one of the key elements of effective e-store promotion on the Web. In this context, it is worth taking care of the optimization of the online store for search engines – i.e. supplement it with valuable descriptions of categories, subcategories and, if possible, the products themselves, or build a strong link profile and optimize images.

Effective advertising of an online clothes store, i.e. what?

Just learning about the tools with which you can promote yourself on the Web is only the first step towards making your online clothing store advertising a real success. It is important both where and how you run the campaign.

It is worth remembering that:

Clearly define the target group to which the advertising message will be directed. It will depend on what clothes you offer – e.g. women’s or men’s, youth-style or rather business-style. It is worth outlining specific customer personas so as to personalize the messages prepared for them.

Clearly define the purpose of the conducted advertising campaign – the ultimate one is, of course, the improvement of sales results, but … the marketing funnel is much longer. Therefore, image-building campaigns that build brand awareness or aimed at acquiring leads also work well – e.g. in order to be able to run a mailing campaign later.

Configure ads correctly – although advertising panels on Google or Facebook seem quite easy to use, in fact an inexperienced user may set the campaign parameters incorrectly, and as a result – waste the communication potential. The subsequent optimization of the campaign is extremely important in order to invest money as effectively as possible.

Observe the results of ongoing promotional activities on an ongoing basis – monitoring with the use of analytical tools will allow for possible corrections or drawing conclusions for the next campaign.

This article, of course, only generally answers your question about the preferred forms of advertising for an online clothes store. However, take a look around our blog – you will find here a lot of inspiration and knowledge on various areas of marketing that will allow you to make an informed decision.

Two ways to show your products or services in Google search results

– Google Ads – immediate and clearly visible effect, but displayed only during the promotional campaign,
– SEO – an effect that you have to wait for, but the obtained results are longer than the duration of a standard Google Ads promotional campaign. In the long run, it is the cheapest method of acquiring customers from the search engine.

How long does SEO take – can I check the waiting time?

Yes and no. Paraphrase-Online.com, a group of SEO experts providing data from the Google world, analyzed search engine traffic on the basis of 23 most important industries and over 250,000 key phrases. The results of the analysis are presented in a simple table. However, although the report deals with specific numbers, it all depends on individual calculations and many variables.

What are the general conclusions of the Paraphrase-Online.com report?

No surprises, the main principle of SEO, mentioned above, has been confirmed: you have to wait for traffic from the search engine! In order for the product to be visible, it must be worked on.

Fun fact: The main problem of SEO agencies is explaining to customers who expect organic results that SEO is a process, not an immediate action.

How long does SEO take?

Various analyzes can be found on the web, depending on the industry, website, selected keywords, competition, etc. And why is this happening? Imagine you are offering a “Miami Car Service” service. What if you still offer the same service in New York. Will the customer entering the phrase “car service + given town” see your website in the same position in the search engine? No.

On the basis of numerous campaigns carried out by Paraphrase-Online.com, we join the claim that in order to position the keyword we need a minimum of:
2-3 months for less popular phrases,
4-8 months for moderately popular phrases,
over 9 months for very popular phrases.

How is the positioning process shaped depending on the industry?

The shortest time for the effects, i.e. entering the TOP10, is in the Business and Law and Politics categories – just over 2 months, and the longest in the Style & Fashion category – it takes over 5 months for the result to appear in the top 10. The average for all categories is 105 days.

It is also worth paying attention to the Career or Hobby category. Both, despite the fact that you had to wait over 4 months for the effects, the positions obtained remain in the TOP10 for about 2.5 years!

Important: Our results show us arithmetic means for given categories, which were calculated on the basis of several thousand keywords. If we look at the deviation column, we will see that in all categories, positioned sites wait much longer or much shorter for effects than the third column shows.

Let’s also look at the Sports category. The average transition from TOP50 to TOP10 of search results takes a minimum time of about 3 months, however, the high value of the standard deviation – 566 days indicates that these differences between individual phrases may differ radically from each other.

What affects standard deviations?

The waiting time for the effects of positioning may be shortened or extended by several factors which, depending on the category of the website being positioned, are more or less important. How long seo lasts consists of, among others:

– the number and position of competition,
– industry in which the company operates,
– modernity of the website – in terms of technical and content optimization,
– having good-quality content,
– changes in the Google algorithm,
– knowledge and experience of SEO specialists,
– budget,
– speed of introducing optimization changes.

How can we accelerate the appearance of positioning results?

The basic activity that must be performed before positioning an existing website is an SEO audit. On its basis, detected errors can be eliminated and the indicated shortcomings can be filled.

What is important for a properly conducted phrase positioning process:

– qualified and experienced positioners, constantly improving their qualifications and being up to date with introduced changes in algorithms,
– technical optimization of the website,
– the quality of the content and its uniqueness,
– elimination of indexing errors,
– adapting the website code to the requirements of search engines,
– internal linking,
– proper selection of keywords,
– valuable links coming from external websites,
– getting to know the target market and direct competition,
– an appropriate budget for the implementation of SEO activities,
– patience.

What is a 301 redirect?

A 301 redirect (Moved permanently) is a mechanism that indicates that a given page has been moved to another address. It works automatically – that is, it does not display information about the “move”, but immediately directs to the correct page under the new URL path. Thanks to this, e.g. search engine robots and Internet users do not have to wander in search of specific content.

There are several types of redirects, but 301 is the most popular of them. It means a permanent move, i.e. a permanent change of the website address. This solution is very convenient from the user’s point of view, and at the same time extremely important for SEO. Thanks to the redirection, the website does not lose its position or power and can continue to work on it.

When is a 301 redirect used? The most popular types

A 301 redirect might be necessary for a variety of reasons. It is (usually) done in a .htacces file – just use the appropriate code. There are several most popular types of such an activity. Examples and the codes needed to make them can be found below.

301 redirects from the address from “www” to “without www”
Page addresses can be with or without “www” at the beginning. If this issue is not sorted out, it can create chaos and the traffic will be broken down into two separate addresses, which is extremely bad for SEO.

Therefore, in such cases, the 301 redirect is most often used, which allows you to choose the preferred form of saving the website address. This makes the user go to the target page, regardless of whether he types in the browser bar, for example, “www.yoursite.com” or “yoursite.com”. This solution has a positive effect on optimization and determines the user’s comfort.

Sample code:
RewriteCond% {HTTP_HOST} ^ www.yoursite.com $
RewriteRule (. *) $ Http://yoursite.com/$1 [R = 301, L]

Domain change
Changing the domain name is a relatively common procedure. In this case, you should take care of redirection so that users can easily find the new address, and Google robots do not consider the transferred content duplicate content, which is highly inadvisable in terms of SEO.

It is extremely important to ensure that the 301 redirect concerns not only the home page, but also other tabs. The best solution is to use them to set direct paths to new addresses for each subpage. It is worth trying, for example, so as not to discourage users by meeting the wall, i.e. entering a website that no longer exists. It is also the only way to move your site without losing traffic.

It’s best to implement a 301 redirect before migrating data to a new address. This allows crawlers to correctly read your actions: as moving your site rather than creating a completely new one with duplicate content.

Sample code:
RewriteCond% {HTTP_HOST} ^ yoursite.com $
RewriteRule (. *) $ Http://yoursite.com/$1 [R = 301, L]

Change from HTTP to HTTPS
Using the SSL protocol involves changing the address from HTTP to HTTPS. Then you should also redirect.

Sample code:
RewriteCond% {HTTPS}! = On
RewriteRule (. *) Https: //% {HTTP_HOST} / $ 1 [R = 301, L]

A slash (“/”) at the end of the address
The same address that differs only by the slash at the end (for example, “www.yoursite.com” and “www.yoursite.com/”) are two separate pages for Google. Failure to redirect in this respect is a very common mistake, which causes the algorithm to read your content as duplicate content, and thus getting a high position in the search results is basically impossible.

Sample code:
RewriteCond% {REQUEST_FILENAME}! -D
RewriteRule ^ (. *) / $ / $ 1 [L, R = 301]

Wildcard redirection
The wildcard feature helps you easily create new subdomains. However, in practice it also means that entering any string of characters before the address of your website will display its content, creating a copy of it. Sometimes Google robots index such pages, creating incredible chaos. Then, the search results may show several (or even several dozen!) Versions of the same address, e.g. for example www.yoursite.com also www.tyoursite.com, ww.yoursite.com or e.g. yoursite.yoursite.com . It is very dangerous and may result in penalties from Google. Solution? A 301 redirect that will take users and Google bots from each subdomain to the home page.

RewriteCond% {HTTP_HOST} ^ (. +). Yoursite.com $
RewriteRule (. *) $ Http://tyoursite.com/$1 [R = 301, L]

Other types of redirects

Let us remind you that the 301 redirect is used only in the case of a permanent change of the website address. However, there are also many other possibilities of transferring Internet users to another address and sending an appropriate message to the search engine robots. Other types of redirects available are:

– 302 (Found) – temporary, allowing the content to be moved to another address and then returned to the original source;
– 303 (See Other) – used with forms sending data using the HTTP POST method, enabling redirection to a specific address in response to this form;
– 304 (Not Modified) – informs the browser that the data in its memory is up-to-date, has not changed, so it does not have to be downloaded from the source;
– 305 (Use Proxy) – allows you to use a given resource only when using a specific Proxy server, displays a message with the server address;
– 307 (Temporary Redirect) – temporary redirection, does not allow to change the request method from POST to GET.

What to remember when using 301 and other redirects?

It is worth remembering that redirects are not only beneficial for users, but also facilitate the work of Google robots and help ensure proper indexing of the page. So they have a positive effect on both UX and SEO. Using them skillfully, you can “painlessly” move pages to new addresses, and also allows you to carry out many other activities without compromising the position of the site.

However, be careful when using redirects of different types. Using too many commands may result in the formation of a loop, and the resulting error 310 – Too many redirects, which prevents you from hitting a specific page.

Unlike analogue directories, Internet search engines have the ability to catalog information in more detail. With the help of web robots – programs that absorb information about websites – they are able to collect data on the structure of the site and its content. Thanks to the knowledge accumulated by the bot, the search engine is able to choose the answers to the queries of its users. The library equivalent of a search engine would be its employee, manually (thanks to knowledge and experience) searching for books for the reader.

What is website positioning in search engines?

Search engine positioning aims to show robots that it is our site that best answers the question, and at the same time is convenient for the user. The SEO process is primarily about adapting the website to the rules set by search engines – an algorithm that determines the order of results in SERPs.

What affects position? Initially, the keywords and the number of links to the page were relevant. With the growing page base and changing user expectations, the number of factors affecting positioning has begun to increase. In the case of Google, it is estimated that as of today, robots analyze about 200 different signals on the basis of which they determine the site’s ranking position. To limit the possibility of manipulation of results, some of the factors are kept secret and Google employees provide rather evasive answers on this topic. Information on what helps websites climb search results is obtained not only from official search engine guides, but also from external tools and tests, the results of which are positioned by positioners in industry media and forums. The experience of a specialist also plays an important role here, as he has survived more than once!

Positioning is primarily talked about in the context of Google. It is this search engine that is the most frequently chosen way to search for information. However, this type of services is provided by:

Yandex – a Russian search engine of great importance in Russia and its neighbors. Yandex holds a 50% market share in this region. It works on a similar principle as Google – page indexing can be controlled through the equivalent of Google Search Console, here called Yandex.Webmaster. The search engine also has its own set of rules according to which pages should be created. The income comes primarily from advertising.

Baidu – a browser created for the needs of the Chinese user.

Bing – a search engine created by Microsoft. It is much more popular in the US than in other countries. Its market share in the US is around 30%.

Yahoo – another search engine whose importance is noticeable primarily in the US. It owns 10% of the market, which places it in the 3rd place in the poll of the most popular search engines in the United States.

In addition, there are also Ask, DuckDuckGo and AOL on the market, but the number of searches through these services is a small percentage of the total.

Search engines and the state of your business

Statistics say that the average person performs about 3-4 searches per day and, according to another source, about 93% of internet experience begins in the search engine. Both information is valuable from a business point of view and can only lead to one conclusion – a search engine is a place where customers need to be found.

Business in 2020 without the Internet and Google does not exist. The search engine is the basic source of knowledge of the average internet user – most of us are looking for information for private use, some – also for the needs of our work and company. Wishing to open up to new customers and increase your income, it is worth playing with Google and try to adapt to the rules imposed by the search engine.

The skilful use of the search engine allows you to expand the advertising space in which your business may appear. A properly prepared and positioned website can not only inform about the services offered by the company, but also support the process of building the position of an expert in a given industry and increase brand awareness. Website positioning is compatible with other marketing activities and brings results not only directly during the campaign, but also when a potential customer needs it.

First steps in the Google world

It is not difficult to appear in the search engine, and Google willingly shares knowledge about taking the first steps in its environment. Guidelines and tips can be found not only on the support pages, but also in the courses. In the materials prepared by Google and partner companies, basic knowledge of Internet marketing – SEM, SEO and an introduction to tools provided by a search engine, e.g. Analytics, is provided in an accessible way.

General knowledge about the search engine environment helps to understand how search works, why you should set up a map and how the prices of ads in search results are shaped. Understanding the terms used in the Google context and the capabilities of the search engine help in setting marketing goals. Even basic knowledge of the search engine also facilitates cooperation with a positioner or an Ads specialist.

Where to start? First of all, putting up a modern, secure and fast website. The size of the website and the technologies used on it should be chosen according to the industry and the goals to be met by the website. And then…

A. Invite robots – sharing a page with web robots is tantamount to agreeing to appear in the search engine. The crawl program analyzes the structure, content and links coming to your site, allowing it to appear in search results.

B. Find out how they see you – the data collected by web robots can be controlled on a search engine – in Google, this is Google Search Console. This is where statistics about site indexing, search, and alerts about errors or problems detected by other tools. Controlling the status of the page in the Google index allows you to quickly respond to problems in the event of a breach of data security on the page and when the movement within the domain ceases.

C. Take care of the content and convenience of using the site – only and up to. The content of the page is important not only from the point of view of gaining high positions in search results, but also because of the end user – potential customer. It was he who asked the search engine the question that she is looking for the best answer. Preparation of content that will introduce him to the world of services offered and explain all the complexities of the industry in an accessible way, usually meet with a very positive response from customers and robots. They also help in building the right image of the company and increasing brand awareness.

Positioning on steroids

Positioning is a process that requires time, knowledge and experience. While in the case of small, local and sole proprietorships, activities on their own can be effective, the increase in coverage and more effective activities would require the extension of the day by another “day”. Do you prefer to reserve some time to rest? Take advantage of the professional help of a Paraphrase-Online.com specialist who will properly choose the methods and actions to increase the visibility of the site, and thus – traffic and sales!

Knowledge of Google search meanders saves a lot of time and money – the experience accumulated for years allows you to arrange a strategy tailored to the type of business and use methods that are effective in the fight for better places in search results.

The positioning of a website or online store in virtually every search engine begins with choosing the right set of keywords – passwords after which the user goes to the appropriate page of the site. Key phrases can be divided into so-called:

– short tail – phrases consisting of one or two words. They are characterized by a large number of searches and high competitiveness;
– long tail – phrases consisting of more keywords, with fewer searches and less competitiveness.

The words from the “short tail” look attractive at first glance – after all, any shoe store would like to be in the first position as a response to the query “shoes” … These types of slogans are usually occupied by large websites with adequate financial resources, allowing extensive actions for the highest positions. Interestingly, the phrases like “shoes” are not as effective as the slogans from the “long tail”, which more often lead to the purchase of the right model. Why is this happening? A specific question means a desire to know answers with similar characteristics, such as “pink children’s sports shoes”. Search results direct users to subpages containing the products they are looking for. The customer saves time and if he finds a matching shoe model – he will probably make a purchase.

When choosing keywords, you should consider words from both groups. It is also worth remembering that during the positioning process, the website casually begins to rank in search engines for other phrases. A whole set of activities is responsible for this, the main purpose of which is to improve the condition of the entire site. The positioning of websites in search engines resonates much more widely than you can imagine basically.

On Page – site from Google metro

On Page activities are the abovementioned “adapting to Google game rules”. Website optimization has a technical dimension, which includes:

– improved page rendering speed,
– Website display and indexing control on all devices,
– choosing appropriate titles and descriptions for subpages,
– adapting headlines to the requirements of Google’s art and guidelines,
– adjusting friendly links,
– selection and implementation of structural data.

The strategy and set of optimization actions are selected individually, according to what works a given page requires.

On Page activities also include work related to content creation and optimization. During the process, the positioner indicates places that should be supplemented with additional content or saturated with keywords.

Off Page – all roads lead to your site!

Off Page activities are everything that aims to get links directing to your domain. Sounds easy? In the olden days – yes! Today, however, links, link is not equal. Here you also need a strategy that allows you to collect links of different types and from different sources.

Off Page activities include, for example, creating sponsored entries, exchanging links with contractors, adding services and companies to catalogs, and obtaining reviews and opinions. Off Page activities are also indirectly linked to social media activity – a well-run Facebook profile is a great support for SEO and another source of traffic.

Website positioning – be the first in search engines!

In the first paragraph we mentioned what connects the library with the search engine, now let us pay attention to the differences between them. Suffice it to say one word – “change”. The order of library drawers is not subject to constant changes and modifications, the Google index and its equivalents in other search engines, yes.

The search engine algorithm is constantly being improved, and Google is changing its approach and putting more emphasis on other factors. A few years ago, there was talk primarily about “mobilegeddon” and “Mobile First Indexing”, and today UX issues are very important. Added to this are various smaller and larger changes, monitored on an ongoing basis.

Due to these changes, trends in user behavior and other factors, positioning websites in search engines should be treated as a process. Once done, the optimization will not last the test of time – especially during “hot” periods. To gain high positions and increase traffic it is necessary to keep the “mouse on the pulse”, monitor the results and, if necessary, modify the strategy.