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3 Crucial Ways Your Social Media Impacts Your SEO

Posted on | by moocow

At Moocow, we’re constantly striving to make sure we’re ahead of the game when it comes to having the most up to date knowledge on the latest tech trends and SEO advice. When it comes to SEO, businesses and marketers alike can benefit from knowing the relationship between SEO and social media. Increased web traffic from social sites such as Twitter and Facebook can all have an influence on how well your site appears in search engines. It can also impact how social media profiles stand out in Google. Take a look at our tips to help enhance your social media to help boost your SEO.

Your followers
It’s no secret that the more of a following you have, the larger an audience you can reach, however if you’re starting off small you shouldn’t let it panic you. Building up a genuine following comes with patience, but it always pays off. Organic followers are far better than paying for fake ones. Make sure your thread is packed full of content that’s informative, run and relatable and feel free to throw in a few discounts and offers here and there. This will help to grow your following naturally, and the more info you post leading back to your website, the more of an increase in traffic you’ll find. If you’re willing to fork out, use promotions like Facebook Targeting or Twitter Ads instead of outsider brands claiming they’ll get you 5,000 followers for a fiver (they won’t)

Your content
Make sure you are posting things relevant to your brand and just any old thing that’s trending on Twitter. Your followers follow you for one reason only – they’re interested in your brand. If you start posting off topic, you may find yourself losing out on followers. Keep it topical, you can still use themes that are trending but make sure you relate it back to your brand. Videos, GIFs and memes are all great visual ways to get your audience interested, and they don’t need to be tacky just because it’s a GIF, you can get making your own easily online. Remember not to overdo it with the sales talk too, obviously you want to make sales, but you don’t want to bombard your audience with nothing but ads.

Your link building
Social media is a great way to stay connected with others, you can link others to
your sites, get your content shared, and help boost each others posts. Guest blogs or social media takeovers are a great way to boost your brand to a larger following. You can also join in with group Twitter chats by adding a particular group hashtag to get your posts re-tweeted and talked about. When posting blogs, adverts or any other form of media, always remember to include a link to your site, products or another related external source. Branching out to profiles with a nationwide following can be great, but don’t forget to go local too, supporting and sharing with local companies can attract both attention and new clients if you’re working together within a local area.

 

GDPR and The Launch of WordPress 4.9.6

Posted on | by moocow

At Moocow we’re all about knowing what’s best for your business, whether it’s trending tech news, the latest updates, design tips or marketing tactics. And when it comes to getting you your perfect website, we pride ourselves on making sites that are both manageable and secure.

Following the launch of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation laws (GDPR) which began May 25, WordPress have made some important updates to privacy and maintenance options for site users. GDPR requires businesses or web page owners to be clear and upfront about how they’re using, collecting or sharing your personal data. It also means users have more choice and control over how their data is stored and shared.

Due to this, WordPress have decided to release WordPress 4.9.6 – the Privacy and Maintenance release. Features that can be found within the update include automatic changes to the comments section where users will be given options to whether their details will be saved on the browser. You can now also create a privacy policy page using a new default menu feature on the WordPress dashboard.

Although allowing for a speedier process, WordPress still recommends to add the privacy policy manually to the footer on each page of your website also. Webpage owners can also export or erase a clients data and send automatic requests asking for permission via email. WordPress have also created a handbook that guides you through privacy policies when using plug-ins which you can learn more about here.

95 other updates and modifications have been included in WordPress 4.9.6. including:

  • “Mine” included as a filter in the media library.

  • When displayed in admin, plugin-ins will now show the minimal PHP version required.

  • New PHP polyfills for forwards-compatibility and proper variable validation have been added.

  • TinyMCE updated to newest version (4.7.11).

Take a look at the WordPress site here to read up on the more in depth details on all the updates included.

 

Get the Party Started and Celebrate the WordPress 15th Anniversary on May 27th

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At Moocow, we love all things WordPress. It’s free, open source, available in 69+ languages with over 50,000 plugins. I mean, what’s not to love? Over the years the popularity of WordPress has grown immensely. W3Techs reports that WordPress now powers over 30% of sites on the web. And it’s no wonder when they have such great extras on offer.

On May 27th, WordPress with be celebrating its 15th anniversary of WP’s original release, and they’re holding a worldwide party, which you’re all invited to. To get involved, check out the WordPress 15th Anniversary website and find out whether there’s a party you and your mates can tag along to nearby, and RSVP to the event.

If there isn’t, then why not get cracking at setting one up yourself? Brighton has a huge creative network when it comes to design, and whether you’re a developer, copywriter or graphic designer, we all have one thing in common – we’d all rather swap a day at the office for an afternoon spent in one of Brighton’s many beer gardens. So why not get involved and get posting about your very own WordPress Birthday Party.

You can even get yourself some special 15th anniversary WordPress swag. In tribute to the anniversary, WordPress have added a money off code CELEBRATEWP15 to get 15% off all accessories till the end of 2018. So whether you end up hosting your own WordPress party, bake a WordPress cake or even just get your hands on lots of cool new merch, make sure you get posting using the #WP15 hashtag online to help celebrate WordPress worldwide.

 

Take a Closer Look at Your SEO and Avoid These Optimisation Misconceptions

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At Moocow, we pride ourselves on having the most up to date knowledge on the latest web news, tips and trends. With technology and techniques developing daily, Moocow are continuously working hard to help find new ways to develop your business.

Myths in SEO are often formed when people are not up to date with their SEO knowledge, or when businesses create SEO ‘tips’ that are a con to get you to pay out big money for techniques that don’t really matter all that much.

Since the turn of 2018, we have seen rapid changes to the way SEO works across many web design platforms. Below we’ve cleared up a few fibs you might have been told previously in regards to your website’s SEO.

 

Keywords do not matter as much as they used to – TRUE

There is a great deal of focus put on keywords, however they may not be as important as many think. They are useful too have but do not necessarily need to be your primary focus. It’s a case of still having them but not making them the full focus. It’s still important to use keywords in meta descriptions tag lines and titles on your web pages, however there are a ton of other important ways that can get you discovered quicker.

 

You can reach the number one spot for a certain keyword – FALSE, you can’t anymore

It is no longer possible to reach the number one spot for a certain keyword due to the way Google has recently changed the way their rankings work. Unless you’re a big corporation like Apple or Coca-Cola where your search results would automatically lead you to a top spot, you can no longer predict what will be at number one for a particular keyword search. You could type in ‘mobile’ into Google search one day and it come up with a bunch of info on mobile first, but the next day it could just as likely come up with a page on baby toys.

 

Link building is dead – FALSE, it’s more alive than ever

It’s a common misconception that link building is “dead” however this just isn’t so, and has been largely discussed by companies such as Moz and Forbes. If anything, it’s link farms that are dead. According to Moz, using anchor text and links to “topic-specific”sites will still help to attract traffic to your site. The more attention your site receives, the easier it will be for Google to rank it higher in search engine results. Working alongside other companies through social sharing can benefit your company awareness greatly also.

 

SEO companies can guarantee to get you #1 ranking – FALSE, no one can

Despite what many companies would like to brag, no one can guarantee this. And this is the sort of con to watch out for when looking for a company to help with your SEO. A reliable SEO company will be able to work with you to make your site consistently popular on Google and improve its rankings. This will not necessarily mean being able to achieve that number one spot. When it comes to getting help with your SEO, look for honesty over false prophecies. You don’t want to be left out of pocket and without the results you wanted to achieve in the first place.

 

Different pages should have different keywords – FALSE

This really isn’t necessary, as although the importance of keywords are still relevant, it’s still only a minor part of what helps rank your website. It makes sense to have your primary keyword featured across your whole site, as that’s what Google picks up and makes searches relevant to your business. You don’t need to bother creating a ton of background pages each with different keywords, as it’s likely to make your rankings more confusing.

 

 

Fancy Being a Dog For a Day? Google Japan Will Show You How

Posted on | by moocow

At Moocow we make sure we’re always ahead of the game when it comes to the latest tech and web design trends. And this week we just loved finding out about Google Japan’s cute new edition to Google Street View.

Launching just over a decade ago, Google’s Street View has become a well known feature of both Google Maps and Google Earth. After its arrival in the USA in 2007, it soon spread worldwide, presenting panoramic views of streets, cities and rural landscapes from countries worldwide.

We’ve all become engrossed in the world of Google Earth at one point or another, whether it’s getting a glimpse of what it’s like to roam the paths of countries we’re yet to visit, or even just seeing what other homes and towns are like in nearby areas when planning to move (you can now even tour Disneyland from the comfort of your sofa) So it’s fair to say a reasonable amount of fun can be had with the feature.

However, in recent news, Google Japan have managed to trump all of its attributes to date – by adding a version from the viewpoint of a dog. That’s right – an adorable trio of Akita pups named Asuko, Ako and Pu. Now traditionally, Google’s Street View has been filmed using specialist cameras designed in house with images captured by car, however now it’s time for our favourite four-legged friends to take the lead.

Google’s tech team have developed a device suitable for the pups whilst out exploring, a small camera that comes attached to a soft harness the dogs can wear. A video released earlier on Google Japan’s YouTube Channel shows a guided tour led by the dogs themselves starting off in Odate City, the place of origin for the Akita dog breed.

Mapping out the city with a few of the dog’s favourite hotspots, the video takes you on a first hand doggy guide to Odate, including a stop off point to the Akita dog museum and a view of the city’s famous statue of Hachiko. You can take a look at the footage from Google Japan here!

 

7 Reasons Why You Should Choose WordPress to Host Your Website

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At Moocow, we pride ourselves on having the most up to date knowledge on the latest web developments and web design trends. Our job is to seek out the best in high quality web hosting, security and SEO awareness. When it comes to choosing a platform for your hosting, WordPress ranks higher than any other hosting service. Below are our 7 reasons why WordPress is top of the leaderboard.

Deciding on a platform to host your website is one of the first points to consider when getting started in creating a new or updated site. The platform we think ranks above all the rest is WordPress. This open-source CMS works as an ideal model for creating a wide variety of sites for both small and large businesses, ranging from e-commerce to blog based designs. Still not convinced? Well here’s our reasons why…

It’s popular

WordPress sites account for over 25% of sites on the web, with 1.1 million new domains being created every 6 months. The incredibly popular platform is even available in 62 different languages, making it accessible to businesses worldwide.

It’s beginner friendly

WordPress is easy to use, even if you haven’t had much experience. It allows you to add pages, blog posts, text and widgets at the click of a button. Even if your site is being professionally designed, it will be easy for you to make additional changes or touch ups yourself.

You’ve got access to tons of Themes and Plug-ins

WordPress guarantees access to a huge variety of themes and plug-ins compared to other sites. No matter what your business or blog, they have themes to suit all. From Jetpack, Yoast, Revslider to Woocommerce and Mailchimp, there are so many options to help improve your site.

It’s highly secure

WordPress core software is highly protected and comes with access to great plug-ins such as Wordfence to give you extra defences alongside firewall and malware scans. WordPress also offer plenty of guides and tips to keep you secure savvy.

It will improves your rankings

WordPress genuinely has the ability to help you rank higher in search engines. “WordPress” is searched 2,740,000 times every month, making it one of the highest searched keywords on Google. And WordPress has plenty of great SEO plug-ins and built-in features to optimize each page on your website.

It’s known for its great support

Need help? WordPress has a great technical support team on hand to help with any customer queries you may have. Their engineers offer first rate customer support and quick fixes to any technical issues, and you can access their support services easily online.

No.1 for media

If you’re wanting a website that can handle a multitude of different media content, WordPress handles images, audio, video and plenty more with ease, making it simple to upload and insert content when writing a post or a page.

SEO Tips and Trends for 2018

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At Moocow, we pride ourselves on having the most up to date knowledge on the hottest tech trends and web design news. With 2017 over, it’s time to take stock on what we’ve learnt over the past year and get ready for what the new year has in store for the world of SEO. Take a look at our advice below and get ahead of the game with essential SEO tips and trends for 2018.

Voice Search

Voice search is becoming increasingly popular with a surge in voice search and smart speaker sales. Both Amazon Echo and Google Home have become household favourites. Marketers feel voice search has a higher ability to analyse what shoppers are looking for specifically when compared with traditional search options.

Keyword Planning

When it comes to keyword planning it can be hard to get accurate advice without paying for help such as through Google Analytics Keyword Planner. Up your game when choosing good keywords by using free tools such as Moz’s Keyword Explorer tool. This can help you to get accurate information that can rank the best keywords to target relevant to your business.

Optimising Titles and Meta Descriptions

You can optimise Titles and Meta Descriptions on your web pages by ensuring things such as correct word length, correct keyword usage and making sure your keywords are featured in your tags and URL. This way they are more likely to rank higher in search engine results.

Keep Up To Date

Be sure to keep social media channels up to date and produce and publish new content weekly. Make sure content is of your best quality, is descriptive but gets the point across easily, and is enjoyable for your audience to read. Be sure to use relevant keywords and use both external and internal links to relevant content.

Link Building

Link building, when used correctly and adheres to a specific budget, can be extremely beneficial to SEO. Networking with other companies can be extremely beneficial to landing you “guest spots” or social media takeovers on as many public and published sites as possible.

Web Design Trends for 2018

Posted on | by moocow

At Moocow, we pride ourselves on having the most up to date knowledge on the hottest tech trends and web design news. With 2017 over, it’s time to take stock on what we’ve learnt over the past year and get ready for what the new year has in store for the world of web design. Take a look at our advice below and get ahead of the game with essential design tips and trends for 2018.

 

Mobile First

Over the last year we’ve focused a lot on the importance of making sure your website is mobile first. And with m-commerce transforming and developing daily, making sure your site is mobile first is vital for the successful functioning of your business and web page. Mobile transactions are set to rocket in 2018, with a vast majority of orders already being made from mobile devices accessing your website. So if you’re still yet to update your site to mobile first, make this your new year’s resolution. Making sure your mobile site is responsive and easy to use is a top priority, otherwise you risk putting off customers from purchasing online.

 

Bold Colour Palettes

Each new year companies will always find a way to market a product as bigger, better and brighter – and it’s no different for web design. When it comes to planning your website, dare to be different, aim to create a site that’s vibrant, bold and colourful. Be creative but clever, customers don’t want to be left with a headache when shopping from your site. Make it fun and quirky, carefully selecting a colour palette that works with your business and brand. Less is more when it comes to sleek and sophisticated, so stand-out with large typography, geometric fonts and minimalist layouts.

 

Motion Animation & Video Marketing

Video marketing is booming, and incorporating animation or video into your web site design is becoming increasingly popular. People want to look at things they find visually exciting or pleasing and using imagery makes it easier to access information about your company. Whether it’s short video clips, gifs or cinemagraphs, adding animation to your site will no doubt create a surge in audience interaction. Many best-selling websites are adding videos or slideshows to their homepage, a more and more favoured tactic for creating customer interest. Text based gifs make written information more eye catching, promoting brand awareness whilst showing you have a fun side.

 

Voice Search

The concept of voice search is a simple one. It allows users to talk straight to their desktop or mobile device and command search options, the same as typing a request into a search engine, except it’s powered by speech. Voice search is starting to compete with traditional search engines. ‘Virtual assistants’ like Cortana, Siri, and Amazon’s Alexa all use direct speech to access search information.. Although met with mixed responses by some, the popularity of using voice searches is rapidly growing, so it would be foolish to not take certain steps and considerations into whether this could be a beneficial change to the way your website is run. It’s still worth a read up even if it’s perhaps a bit too futuristic for your liking.

 

Personalised Content

Make sure your content represents the mission of your company and targets your audience, not your personal preferences. Write content that your audience can relate to and feels comfortable with and is easy to understand. Reviews and testimonials from clients are a great thing to feature on your website, and is becoming increasingly popular. This helps new customers see that you are a service that is trusted and relied upon. If you’re using images or videos on your site, it can be a good idea to create your own – whether that’s product shots, background images or a look into how your business is run. Not everyone has the skills of a professional photographer and hiring one can be pricey so it’s not the end of the world if you can’t. But try not to make your images too generic and stock like if you want your website to stand out.

Web Trends: Using Photographic Special Effects

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At MooCow, we pride ourselves on having the most up to date knowledge on the hottest web trends. With technology and techniques developing daily, take a look at what 2018 has in store for the world of web design.

GIFS – annoying or great fun? Most of us are divided on this opinion. However, when used correctly GIFS and other animated photographic techniques can be the perfect way to give your website that wow factor. Cinemagraphs work by combining Hi-Res images with a video that loops a selected part of the image, making it animated. This makes an already eye-popping image even more magical, allowing viewers to see photographs come to life before their very eyes. These short snippets of animation are becoming increasingly popular, with many social media sites adding tools to create your own online, an example being Instagram’s Boomerang which allows you to upload and create a short repeated video clip. Marketing trends for 2018 are set to become more and more visual, with businesses wanting to create backdrops to their sites that entice and excite their audiences. Working hand in hand with the use of parallaxes and animated backgrounds, using cinemagraphs with your website could be just the thing to get your new website of the ground.

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