Firefox Ditches Yahoo for Google as Default Search Provider

Google is once again the default search provider in Mozilla’s Firefox web browser, marking the end of a three-year partnership with Yahoo.

Mozilla released Firefox Quantum this week, which is being touted as the company’s fastest browser yet.

Perhaps Google’s speed, couple with the prevalence of accelerated mobile pages within the search engine, is what swayed Mozilla to switch back to Google.

From a branding and user experience perspective, if speed is the browser’s main selling point then it makes sense to have Google as the default search provider. Google had always been Firefox’s default search engine before Mozilla’s brief partnership with Yahoo.

Mozilla says this move is part of the company’s long-term plans for search:

”This is part of our ongoing search strategy, announced in 2014 to evaluate and select the best search experience in each region as opposed to having a single global default.”

Firefox users can still manually change their default search engine back to Yahoo if they wish, or any of the browser’s 60 built-in search engines for that matter. Firefox offers the largest selection of built-in search engines compared to any other browser.

Certain regions will feature a different default search engine, such as Yandex in Russia, Turkey, Belarus and Kazakhstan; and Baidu in China. The rest of the world will have Google as the default search engine in Firefox.

Firefox Quantum is available now for desktop operating systems.

The Importance of Updating Your Website Regularly

A company’s website is one of the most important ways to find, research and learn about them.  The website’s content can tell a consumer a lot about the business. It is important to keep websites up to date with a fresh look and current information.

Search engines know when a website was updated 

Search engines will recognize how often a website it updated.  When a website is up to date the search engines like it and improve the ratings.  Search engines will consider the website to be a consistent source with new information.  When a website is updated it can also create new backlinks.  If another website or blogger likes the content and creates a link they are helping with the traffic and SEO to your website.

Gives customers a reason to come back 

When a website is consistently updated customers will return to the website to see the new content. Blogging, posting, and sharing content will help customers see that the business is thriving, working and growing. The updates do not need to be elaborate or even big news.  A simple announcement, special offer or additional information will help keep it up to date.  If a competitor is updating their website more frequently the customers will most likely go to them first. The more content, key words and sharing that is being done with a website creates more opportunities for new customers to find your website and loyal customers coming back.

A website is a business’s first impression 

Even when a business is closed for the night a website is always open.  When someone searches for your business you want them to be impressed.  A website can tell a consumer if that company is organized, fresh and thriving.  An updated website should give the customer the information they need to know about your business and places to look to find more information (blog, social media, etc.).  Updating a business website is not hard, it is something most consumers will expect when looking at a website.  When these simple updates are done it will show dedication to your company.

Visit NFINITY Web to find out how to have a fresh new affordable website with SEO, PPC and website hosting.

Make Your Website Clean as a Whistle

As part of its regular maintenance, every website needs to be updated and cleaned up to ensure that everything working properly, looking good and meeting the goals you need it to. Let’s take some time to go over a few tips to clean up your website and make sure everything is in good working order.

Look at the Exterior – First impressions are very important to engage your website’s visitors. Take a look at the appearance of your website and consider sprucing it up by bringing in new images, tweaking the colors, try out new fonts, updating the layout or adding videos or animations to it. It’s not always necessary to do a complete overhaul, but these are some ideas to give your pages a good boost.

Perform a Content Audit – Outdated content on your website can be hurting your SEO. Audit your site for any content that should be changed. Clear out any old promotions, outdated events, or irrelevant content that no longer applies to your company. Highlight the new and current things that visitors will find relevant. You can also spend time updating contact information, your “About” page, calls to action and bios.

Check for Broken Links – Broken links will frustrate your visitors, repel customers and hurt your SEO rankings. Are there links embedded in your website that point to expired content or pages that no longer exist? Perform a link audit, repair or remove broken links and look for new internal linking opportunities.

Test Your Website on All Browsers and Devices – Everyone has different preferences when it comes to browsing devices and internet browsers, like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Safar. Download the latest versions of each browser and test your website in each.  You also need to test the appearance and functionality of your website on mobile devices.

Don’t let your website fall behind as you are working on new and exciting projects in other aspects of your business. Perform regular maintenance to see what needs to be cleaned up. Following these steps on a regular basis will ensure that your website looks fresh and is inviting visitors.

Design and website building is not a skill that every person possesses. Contact NFinity Web Solutions today to get help designing and creating a new website or updating and providing ongoing maintenance and support on your current website. Call today at 801-803-6488.

5 Ways to Make Your Business Website More User-Friendly

There’s nothing more frustrating than visiting a website and not being able to find the information you want or finding that it is difficult to navigate. Don’t let this be your business website. There is so much competition with businesses online, if users don’t like your website they will find another one. In addition to having all the relevant information available to your website’s visitors, it needs to look attractive, have fast loading speeds, be easy to navigate and work well on all online devices.

Take some time to go over these five steps to instantly make your website more user-friendly and boost the number of visitors to your page.

1. Simple Design – People are attracted to websites with streamlined design that include simple imagery and little text. It is also common to keep all information on just one webpage. Whatever design you choose, you want the information to be easily skimmed. Visitors rarely take the time to read anything word for word and need to be able to find relevant information quickly and easily.
2. Functional and Logical Navigation – A few quick tips to make your website easy to navigate include keeping your logo at the top left as an easy link back to the homepage, make your navigation menu easy to locate and logical to follow, add a search functionality and include contact information that is easy to find.
3. Fast Loading Time – Visitors are impatient and will not wait for a slow webpage to load. There are several ways to speed up your website. Some of these include compression of the HTML, CSS and JavaScript files and use small images. Another way is to get a good web host with a lot of bandwidth that can provide that capability.
4. Tell the User What You Want Them to Do – A clear call to action, even a call to action button, will boost your user experience and help convert a prospective customer to a sale. Users shouldn’t have to scroll or search to complete an inquiry, you should be direct and tell them exactly what you want them to do. This will make users happy and you will see an increase in conversions and sales.
5. Make it Mobile Optimized – With more than half of online searches coming from a variety of mobile devices, for your site to be user-friendly, it must be mobile-friendly. A responsive website gives users a flawless online experience no matter where they are viewing it from.

It isn’t difficult to make your website user-friendly. All you need is a little knowledge of what your visitors want from your site, and then give them what they want. By following these tips, you will be able to make your website a hit with its visitors.

NFinity Web Solutions is highly experienced in website design. We know what works and we can efficiently develop a website that is perfect for your business as well as friendly for its users. Get an affordable, user-friendly website when you work with our web design experts. Call today at 801-803-6488.

How Your Small Business Can Gain Customers from SEO

Often it is hard for a small business to get their name out to local consumers or online.  SEO or search engine optimization, helps to improve the ranking of a website in the numerous search engines.  Search engines will usually show the top 10 links when a keyword is matched in the search box.  These first few websites are the ones with the most traffic.  Using SEO as a small business will help increase the ranking of the website, moving it higher in the search engine results page and in turn the business will gain more customers.  SEO also helps to market the website to a variety of people by putting the information out on the web.  SEO is a very effective way to gain new customers but it takes time, patience and great SEO expertise.

A good SEO campaign is not easy to create and will usually require hiring an expert. But with the proper care in creating your SEO campaign you will see an increase in traffic to the small business company’s website. A thorough SEO campaign utilizes many different online strategies including social media, blogs, mobile searches, and more.

Social media is one of the best ways to get higher search engine rankings and get a small business name out on the web. On social media, good news travels fast and can help market a business. The information place on a social media link needs to contain current information about the products and/or services.  The information also needs to include information about the company and location.

Using SEO will help customers find the small business website by using the keywords that are put into the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing and others.  These keywords help to target the traffic to the website and result in greater exposure.

SEO that is done right will always improve the traffic to the website and increase revenue.  This will also help your website to be ranked above your competitors.  The expert team at NFinity Web Solutions is your number one stop for a successful and affordable SEO campaign that is built for your company’s needs. Visit them online or call today at 801-803-6488.

The Importance of Product Descriptions to Enhance SEO

One of the least talked about and most underestimated areas of internet marketing is the importance of product description. Product descriptions are very important when generating a presence for brands and businesses online.

At NFinity Web Solutions, one of Utah’s leading SEO companies, we have seen drawbacks due to lack of high-quality product descriptions. To make sure that you are placing priority on your brand’s product descriptions, here are a few of the relevant points to focus on.

Importance of Product Descriptions

Product descriptions are important for enticing customers and selling the product, boosting your SEO, showing professionalism, and enhancing the customer’s browsing experience. A well-written product description will eradicate any buyer’s guilt and leave your customer feeling confident about the quality of the product.

To give your site a boost in SEO, you will need to write unique descriptions for every product, allowing keywords to show up naturally in several variations. Do NOT use duplicate copies of descriptions from the manufacturer’s website. Google doesn’t like duplicate content and this will do your SEO efforts a disservice.

A professional website is complete, including nicely formulated and unique product descriptions. An interesting catalog attracts more viewers and potential buyers. Unique product descriptions, high-quality images and a smooth user interface work together to drive online sales.

Elements to Include in a Quality Product Description

There are several characteristics of good product descriptions.

• Sell the product: Let the customer know that it’s an exclusive offer and that it’s an absolute bargain. Make it sound as though the product is useful and that it will save them money.
• Keep it short and sharp: When writing product descriptions, less is more. Don’t use 15 words for something you can explain in 10. Trying using bullet points rather than long paragraphs. Make every word meaningful.
• Proof-read: Spelling or grammar errors will negatively affect your website’s impression and professionalism. Keep it error-free.
• Demographics: It is crucial to tailor your product to your specific audience. The tone of your descriptions should fit those whom your brand and your product appeals.
• Unique titles: Just as you do not want to duplicate product descriptions, you do not want to have duplicated title tags. Individualize and highlight each product.

Good product descriptions hold a great deal of importance for building your brand’s presence online, generating sales and for search engine optimization. It is vital for SEO purposes, that you include (and avoid stuffing) keywords into your product descriptions. Keywords are just as beneficial in images and product titles as well.

Writing an attractive product description and improving it for SEO is not an easy task. For the most professional results for your product descriptions and SEO contact NFinity Web Solutions.

Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses

Social media marketing, or SMM, is a form of internet marketing that implements various social media networks to achieve marketing communication and branding goals. SMM covers activities involving social sharing of content, videos and images for marketing purposes, as well as paid social media advertising.

Why Social Media for Small Businesses?

As a startup or small business owner, you know there’s a lot to accomplish with limited resources. Traditional marketing can be a drain on your funds but social media marketing is low-cost and gives you a direct line to current and prospective customers. It is a trade-off though. What you save in dollars you will invest in time for your SMM campaign.

Decide Which Social Networks to Engage On

Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest and the list goes on. You may have a social network that you prefer over other, but it doesn’t mean that all your followers feel that way. Some will tell you that it is best to market on all the networks and others will advise you to not stretch yourself too thin.

Get started, but start small. Begin by doing a little homework and see where your audience is engaging. Pay attention to keywords and search results and how people interact with popular topics so that you will have a good starting place.

Identify Your Goals and Audience

People will form a perception about your business when they interact with you online. How do you want your business to be perceived? What are you trying to promote? Who are your target customers? These things need to be carefully assessed so that you have a streamlined purpose for your social media marketing campaign.

Create a Plan and Be Consistent

When it comes to your posts, your message and how frequently you use social media, keep it consistent! It is truly the key to success with any social media campaign. Plan for what you’re going to post, how often you are going to post and stick with it. This should be anywhere from a few times a day to several times a week depending on your goals. If you expect to have an engaged following you can’t go from posting once a month to five times a day.

Social Listening

Social listening is an excellent tactic to monitor what people are saying about you, your competitors and what type of content is working better than others. Social media conversations are happening all the time. Respond to comments, mentions and feedback even if they are negative.

Conclusion

Although social media is free, it does take time, effort, research and lots of planning to build a presence for your business. Once you get started you will notice a lot of immediate feedback and your following will grow and your business will reap the rewards!

NFinity Web Solutions

As one of Utah’s best SEO experts, NFinity Web Solutions keeps up with the constantly changing trends so that you don’t have to. Consider choosing an online marketing and social media expert to help you navigate the complex world of internet socialization and call today at 801-803-6488.

How Can NFinity Web Solutions Help Your Local Business Thrive?

Millions of small businesses are operating in different locations around the world. A large percentage of them know about digital marketing but most aren’t fully capable of using it properly. Search engine optimization (SEO), for example, is an effective tool that will help companies increase their web presence, but most businesses need help with their SEO campaigns.

SEO is one of the best marketing tools that a small business can use. It is so powerful it can take your website rankings from the bottom to the first page of Google search results. This is no easy task. To reach the top spot and stay there, you must use ethical SEO strategies and stay updated with the latest industry practices.

This is where the experts at NFinity Web Solutions come in. The world of online marketing is changing rapidly, and so is SEO. Google is constantly updating its algorithms, making it difficult to keep your marketing strategies current and efficient. The team at NFinity Web Solutions is constantly adapting to keep up with the changes. If you have a local business that you want to promote in your service area, then you must start integrating Local SEO into your content marketing strategy.

Google prioritizes local results and puts these on top of the results page and if your website is optimized for local search, then it has a better chance of showing up on the first page. By incorporating Local SEO practices, you will be able to improve the visibility of your business on the web and your business will thrive!

Some of the most important benefits of Local SEO include higher rankings, improved online presence, increased traffic and conversion and increased ROI.

As a leading online marketing and SEO company in Utah, NFinity Web Solutions helps businesses, small and large, in their respective locations by handling all their Local SEO campaigns. If you are running a business, whether you have a physical store or you are targeting online customers in a specific location, let the experts at NFinity Web show you that SEO and internet marketing truly work!

How Do Online Reviews Affect Your Business?

No matter the type of business you are running, be it local based or internet based, consumer reviews are going to play an important role in your business and customer decisions. Now more than ever consumer reviews are changing the buying habits of customers and more people are researching products and services online before buying.

Positive Reviews

Positive Reviews are great for your business and highlighting them on both the reviews page and on your web site can go a long way. Using a quote that was left in a review may also be inserted on your home page to draw attention.

Try to promote positive reviews on as many sources as you can such as Google, Yelp and social media profiles. Having several reviews is good for your business and will help build credibility for your company to consumers.

Negative Reviews

Hopefully your business has more positive reviews than negative ones to help overshadow the negative comments. Negative reviews should not be ignored or left unsettled. These can be viewed as a sales opportunity and hopefully reassure both the unhappy client and the readers that your product or service is better than the reviewer implied.

Statistics

Just in case you weren’t quite convinced of the impact that online reviews have on your business, let’s look at a few statistics.

• 40 percent of online consumers now form their opinion based on reading just one to three reviews. This is up from 29 percent just two years ago.
• Just 12 percent of consumers are willing to read more than 10 reviews, meaning your top results are of paramount importance.
• 26 percent of customers say it’s important for a business to respond to its reviews.
• Just 14 percent of consumers would consider using a business with only a one- or two-star rating.
• By comparison, 94 percent of consumers would use a business with a four-star rating.
• 88 percent trust reviews just as much as a personal recommendation.
• Reviews influence up to 10 percent of local search rankings.
• Reviews produce an average of an 18 percent increase in sales.

At NFinity Web Solutions we have seen it all and our team is experienced to make your business’s online presence one that will draw in customers and leave a positive impression. Visit us online for an overview of our services and rates and contact a member of our team today.

 

Knowing Your Target Audience: The Foundation of a Successful Marketing Strategy

There is a great diversity of marketing styles and strategies available for businesses. Marketing requires creativity and new ideas and is driven by analytical feedback. In order to develop a successful marketing strategy, you must identify your target audience. Knowing exactly who your audience is – the type of people that buy your products or services –  is the secret to successful marketing.

Here are a few winning tips that will increase effectiveness of your website marketing and focus the content for your web page and social media accounts.

Do Some Research

You need to know as much about your audience as you can and knowing it sooner, is better. Don’t just look at one demographic, branch out and explore other areas and gauge interest in your product or service from a different angle.

Look at Your Competitors

Your competitors may have already done some market research and put it into action. You may learn something about your target audience by observing the way that they advertise to their potential customers. Evaluate the techniques they are using, the specific phrasing that is working for them and other types of strategies they are using that are effective.

Create a Customer Persona

This is a tried-and-true tactic that is used by businesses everywhere to better understand their audience demographics. To do this, you will create a fictional character who exhibits all the traits that an average member of your target audience is expected to have. Be sure to include as many details about this character as possible including age, sex, education level and income. Perhaps you want to give this persona a name and personality such as temperament, sensitivity or curiosity.

Conduct Surveys

Both large-scale quantitative surveys and small-scale qualitative surveys will be helpful to better understand your audience and how to connect with them. Even after researching about your target audience, there are still many assumptions that need to be backed up by asking your customers. Find out what they like or don’t like about your product or service, ask them about their biggest concerns, test the effectiveness of your advertisements and find out what they know and don’t know so you can relate your content to them in a way that they understand.

Social Listening

By paying attention to what people are saying on social media, you can learn a lot about the audience you are trying to reach. You can learn from both comments and engagements with your business social media accounts and from their external social habits. Pay attention to how many people are responding to your work, how they are responding and how often. Note a sales opportunity when you find a negative comment about a competitor and find excuses to connect when people are talking about your brand.

Get to Know Your Clients Personally

When working with your clients, take the time to get to know them on a personal level. As you get to know your clients individually your will better understand any concerns that they have, why they like your company, any suggestions for improvement they might have or some of their interests. This will also build a relationship that will keep existing customers coming back, recommending your company and a trusting partnership.

All of these strategies will better help you to understand your target demographics and improve your relationship with your audience, your online marketing strategies and your social content. Talk to the experts at NFinity Web Solutions who have great tools to help analyze your audience and create content for your web page that is inviting and engaging.