D4 Advanced Media | Reno Web Design

Our passion is creating industry-leading design that builds brand awareness, increases product visibility, and sets you apart from competitors. We formulate affordable design solutions, tailored and budgeted to each of our clients needs. http://www.d4webdesign.com/

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Duplicate Content Issues and How to Solve Them http://bit.ly/2QL5eQb

[one_full autop=0] Let’s talk about the issue of Duplicate Content. It’s estimated that duplicate content makes up about 29% of the web, according to a study by Raven. You may be thinking “Well, I know plagiarism is wrong and I don’t copy someone else’s content.” However, duplicate content is unintentionally created in most cases. The most common scenario is when a topic is written about more than once by the same company or organization. Another instance when duplicate content occurs is when one webpage can be accessed by multiple URLs. Highly similar content is viewed as duplicate content by Google and greatly affects SEO ranking. Content that has duplicates is unlikely to ever rank as the top search result even when searched for with relevant keywords.[/one_full][one_full][one_half]

Why is Duplicate Content Bad?

While having similar versions of a post may not seem overly offensive to a human, we have to remember that it’s not only humans that visit our site. Humans and search engine bots view and treat content in different ways. As we’ve discussed in our other articles on SEO, how well our content ranks depends on how we cater to both types of visitors. When our bot visitors come across duplicate content, it tries to identify which is the “master copy” among the duplicates. When it becomes confused, it may choose the wrong post (not the one you wanted to rank) because your similar posts are competing with each other.[/one_half] [one_half_last]     [/one_half_last]  

What constitutes duplicate content to humans and bots?

Take the scenario where there are multiple blog posts on the same topic for example. A human reading two highly similar posts may see that there are similarities and differences in each post. However, to a bot, two highly similar posts are equivalent to two of the same post. In the other scenario where a website has different variations on the URL, bots count each variation as a separate entity. Take a look at this example given by Moz in the article Canonicalization: http://www.marketing.com https://www.marketing.com http://marketing.com http://marketing.com/index.php http://marketing.com/index.php?r… In this example, the URLs above would take us to the same location and as a human, we would likely consider this as one destination, one page. However, a search engine bot would consider this as five individual pages of duplicate content. Another problematic situation arises with product pages for e-commerce websites, where each variation of a product appears to be duplicate content. When all of this “duplicate” content compete against each other for search engine ranking, this becomes a serious problem.  

How Do Duplicate Content Issues Affect SEO?

Search engine bots become confused when there is too much content that appears the same. In the article Canonical Tags, Moz states some of the ways that duplicate content affects SEO: [/one_full][one_full][one_third]

Dilution of Ranking Ability:

Our visibility and ability to rank could become dispersed throughout the multiple page versions instead of being focused on the original page [/one_third][one_third]

Reduced Visibility of Unique Content:

If there is too much information for bots to crawl, some of our unique content may get passed over. [/one_third][one_third]

Displaying The Wrong URL:

Search engine bots may choose the wrong URL to display on searches when we don't specify what to do with duplicate content. [/one_third][/one_full][one_full]

How Do I Fix Duplicate Content Issues?

One of the ways that some have attempted to fix the duplicate content problem is by giving bots instructions in the robots.txt file not to crawl a page. Although it might sound reasonable, this is not an effective solution.

Canonicalization is the Key to Managing Duplicate Content Issues

What is canonicalization? “Fixing duplicate content issues all comes down to the same central idea: specifying which of the duplicates is the "correct" one.” - Duplicate Content by Moz Identifying the canonical version is equivalent to telling search engine bots that a specific page or URL is the one that should be indexed and ranked. There are different approaches to canonicalizing duplicate content. The two methods we are going to cover is the 301 Redirect and the Rel Canonical Tag. Each method has different uses and benefits. [/one_full][one_full]

Two Ways to Canonicalize:

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Canonicalize by Redirecting Humans and Bots: The 301 Redirect

With the 301 Redirect, we are identifying the “master copy” by redirecting both humans and bots from a duplicate page to the “master copy”- the canonical page. This method is best used in a situation where it is not necessary for duplicates to be accessible, such as when multiple URLs lead to the same destination. The duplicates become buried and can no longer be viewed by human and bot visitors. Moz states in the article Redirects that 90-99% of the rank power is transferred from the duplicate to the redirected page when using 301 redirect. For more information on how to set up a 301 redirect, check out this article from Google: Change page URLs with 301 redirects [/one_half][one_half_last][/one_half_last] [one_half][/one_half]   [one_half_last]

Canonicalize By Telling Bots What to Do: The Canonical Tag aka Rel Canonical

As we mentioned above, others have tried unsuccessfully to deal with the duplicate content issue by telling bots not to crawl duplicates in a robots.txt file. However, there is a correct way to give instructions to our bot visitors concerning duplicate content. This method utilizes the canonical tag, or rel canonical. The canonical tag is an html element that we use within the duplicate (and master copy) page to designate the canonical- the one we want to index and rank.[/one_half_last]   When to Use Rel Canonical The Rel Canonical Tag is especially useful in the situation we listed previously where you have multiple blog posts on the same topic. Since you still want the duplicate blog posts to be accessible to visitors, you would use the Rel Canonical tag on each duplicate to direct rank power and indexing to the page you designate as the canonical. Rel Canonical can even be used across different domains. For example, if you own two websites and have a similar blog post on each site, you can canonicalize the blog post from one website to the other. Additionally, Hubspot lists in the article Canonicalization 101 some other common situations to use Rel Canonical:

Product Variation Pages

Mobile Specific URLs & Subdomain

Region/Country Specific URLs (if page content is in same language)

  How to Use Rel Canonical

Identify which of the duplicate pages is the canonical

On the duplicate pages, the canonical tag should point to the URL of the canonical page

On the master copy, the canonical tag should be self-referential- pointing back to itself with its own URL as the canonical.

The tag should look like this, with the absolute URL** of the canonical page replacing where it says http://www.example.com:

  <link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.example.com” />   **Absolute URL: an absolute URL is when the full path is specified, whereas a relative URL is only partially specified. The absolute and relative URL of the page SEO within the folder News might look like this: Absolute: “http://www.example.com/news/seo” Relative: “/news/seo” The canonical tag should be used in the <head> section within the html of the page. Correct placement of any html element including the canonical tag is important for a website to function properly. Improper placement of an html tag can cause serious problems. If you don’t have the html knowledge to manually input the canonical tag, Yoast explains how to set the canonical URL by using the Yoast SEO plugin in the article rel=canonical: the ultimate guide.   Additional Tips to Canonicalize Duplicate Content:

Canonicalize Exact and Very-Near Duplicates: Remember, bots see very near duplicates as exact duplicates

Aggregate Unique Content: Consolidate rank power of two similar posts by moving unique content from the duplicate to the canonical post and using the canonical tag accordingly.

Don’t Be Confusing and Give Clear Directions

Specify no more than one rel=canonical for a page. When more than one is specified, all rel=canonicals will be ignored.

Don’t use the canonical tag in conjunction with 301 redirect in the same set of duplicate content. For example don’t use the canonical tag on post 1 to canonicalize post 2, then use 301 redirect on post 2 to redirect back to post 1. (Very confusing.)

Make Sure Your Target Page Exists and Is Not:

A 404 Error (Page Not Found)

Blocked by robots.txt

Set to “noindex” (blocked from search results)

Check Auto-Populated Tags: Some CMS, SEO Plugins and E-commerce systems will auto-populate canonical tags. Be sure to check that these tags point to where you actually want them to.

  There are a variety of methods to manage duplicate content and we’ve covered the two main ones in this post. The best method that D4 uses to combat duplicate content from multiple posts on the same topic is simply to not create multiple posts. In creating a single post with unique content that exhaustively covers a single topic, the rank power is already consolidated in that one post. When there is new information available on a topic that has already been covered, it can be more advantageous to update the existing post rather than create a new post that may compete for rank power. Duplicate content is a complicated issue that can have significant impact on SEO. D4 can help with managing duplicate content issues and improving SEO for your website. If you need help creating and managing engaging content, call us at 775-636-9986! [/one_full]

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via D4 Advanced Media

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Blog Format Best Practices http://bit.ly/2VFQAPc

Writing a blog post can be daunting, and regularly maintaining a whole blog can be even more so. Here at D4 Advanced Media, we maintain a successful blog for our own site as well as blogs for many of our clients. In this article, we discuss blog format best practices including readability considerations, sentence and paragraph lengths, headings and subheads, keyword research and effective calls to action.

What Should Blogging Do?

A blog should deliver entertaining, information-rich content. It should teach but still be enjoyable to read.

Blogs should also conform to SEO best practices. Valuable, informative blog posts that conform to SEO best practices increase your visibility in search engines. Increased visibility in search engines leads to more people visiting your site. More visitors to your site increases your opportunities for sales and conversions.

Blog writing can be challenging since a successful blog post needs to balance providing informative, enjoyable content while ensuring that your content is optimized for search engines.

How Do I Write Good Blogs?

While it’s great to show your audience that you are an expert in your field, it’s not good to make assumptions that could confuse the reader. Using too much industry jargon or writing in an overly academic fashion can alienate your readers. Two common tests are available to rate how easy it is to understand what you’ve written. The Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease Test checks for average sentence length and average number of syllables per word. The test ranks content on a scale of 0-100, where high scores indicate easy reading and low scores indicate complicated reading that is difficult to understand quickly.

According to WebFX, "... if your website receives a low Flesch-Kincaid reading ease score, you will likely need to simplify your text.

For most business writing, a score of 65 is a good target, and scores between 60 and 80 should generally be understood by 12 to 15 year olds."

The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Test rates what U.S. school grade level should be able to understand your content.

WebFX went on, "As a measure, most of your writing should be able to be understood by students in seventh grade.

For example, The Huffington Post’s website has an average grade level of about 7, meaning that it should be easily understood by 12 to 13 year olds ...

Both Flesch-Kincaid reading ease and grade level use the same core metrics: word length and sentence length. But they correlate inversely. If you receive a high score on the reading ease test, you should receive a lower grade level score."

According to Microsoft, If you’re using Word 2010 or newer, these readability tests are built into the software and can be activated with these instructions: Test Your Document’s Readability. Note that you must manually turn on the readability function and you must also correct or ignore all spelling errors in a MS Word document in order to engage the readability statistics.

When you look at a big block of words, does it make you want to read it? It’s easy to ignore large chunks of text and not think much about it. Turn viewers into readers by organizing your content into paragraphs, utilizing headings, subheadings and lists. Paragraphs should be digestible chunks, just a few sentences long. Article length is a little more complex. A blog post should be at least 300 words to rank well on search engines. According to Yoast, longer posts with 1000+ words rank even better. In a study done by Backlinko, they found that the word count for results that rank in the first page of Google results has an average of 1,890 words.

Quality content often necessitates a greater word count, but don't prioritize the quantity of your words over your quality of words. Use as many words as you need to exhaustively cover the topic in question.

Read on to learn about how to keep readers interested.

Headings not only keep your readers engaged, but they provide important information for search engines. Dividing your content into smaller sections with headings and subheadings brings structure to a lengthy blog post. For readers, headings written in a problem/solution style can help them understand why your content is relevant to their needs.

For Search Engines, the level of a heading identifies how important it is. Headings range in size from H1 (biggest) to H6 (smallest). Google prioritizes the information written with H1 and H2 headings as it tries to determine what a piece of content is about. Write your most important information first and nest secondary and tertiary pieces of information using the following hierarchy.

A common mistake is to choose a heading based on the way it looks. ThemeIsle explains that "Heading tags tell a search engine how the various text blocks are connected and their interrelation.” In other words, don't use headings for emphasis; use headings to structure your content from most important to least important.

When blogging, use keywords that are directly related to your business. A little research goes a long way when it comes to deciding which keywords to target in your blog.

How Do I Do Keyword Research?

When you have selected a topic to write about, you’ll want to find a focus keyword for your blog post.

You’ll need to use a keyword research tool to run a search for keywords. Hubspot identifies the nine best keyword tools including Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends and Keyword Tool.io to name a few.

Your focus keyword should strike a balance between a high search volume and a low cost per click (CPC). Once the focus keyword is selected, additional LSI keywords should be included in your post to give search engines more context about your post.

What Is Latent Semantic Indexing and What Are LSI Keywords?

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) helps search engines give users results that are relevant to what they are searching for.

Let's say you want to write a blog about apples (the fruit). When users want to learn about apples, you want your blog to pop up first when the user searches Google for information about apples.

Let's say the curious user types apple into the Google search bar, and below her query she see keywords and search phrases that Google thinks might be relevant to what she first typed - apple.

Google auto-populates popular searches for things it thinks are related to what the curious user is looking for.

But wait, the user wants to learn about fruit, not technology.

When the user sees that her initial search is insufficient to pull relevant information, she naturally adds LSI keywords to her search. LSI keywords are keywords related to the focus keyword that help identify the context of a search.

Look at what happens when the curious user modifies her search with an LSI keyword.

The blogging technique of using LSI keywords requires the writer to research which keywords users will associate with their focus keyword in order to get the very most relevant content. Google uses the same principle to contextualize queries.

If apple is your focus keyword and you're writing a blog about the fruit, you'll want to include LSI keywords that help Google identify that your blog is about fruit and not technology. Some such keywords would include: fruit, fruit type and even other fruits such as banana and strawberry.

Using additional keywords that are directly related to your content gives search engines more context on what your blog post is about. You can use this method of running a search on Google to find related keywords. Another free tool that Rob Powell suggests is LSI Keyword Generator.

You Have Your Focus Keyword and LSI Keywords. Now What?

In the article What Are LSI Keywords, Rob Powell discusses how to use them in your blog post. You’ll want to use them in a natural context throughout your content, but especially in the following areas.

Page title

H1 and H2 tags

URL address

META tags

Images alt text

First paragraph of text

Links anchor texts

Last paragraph of text

Incorrect Use of Keywords

Using keywords is important, but when used incorrectly, Google will penalize your content by reducing its rank. One example of incorrect keyword usage is Keyword Stuffing.

What is Keyword Stuffing?

Keyword Stuffing occurs when the blog writer "stuffs" keywords into the blog at an unnatural frequency. Including the same keyword many times throughout a blog used to be an effective way to increase a post's rank. When Google realized that bloggers were attempting to game the system without delivering value to users, it began penalizing keyword stuffing.

Readers and search engines are looking for quality content and quality content doesn't repeat the same word hundreds of times. That said, if your blog necessitates the use of your focus keyword more than once, so be it. Google has become sophisticated enough to identify natural and unnatural keyword density.

Now that you’ve invested time in good blog writing and formatting, don’t forget to motivate your readers to take action! You’ve shown that you’re an expert in your field and ready to help them with what they need. Whether it’s buying your product or signing up for your newsletter, remind your readers why they should choose you. Do so by using words and phrases that stimulate your audience to act instead of further deliberate. Avoid using the passive voice in your call to action.

Passive Voice: Your business can be helped with effective blogging.

Active Voice: We at D4 Advanced Media write blogs that drive traffic and grow your sales.

Cue the Call to Action

We’ve shown you what makes a successful blog post and what elements a good blog possesses.

Blogging and content writing are difficult. It's even more difficult to get your blogs to rank well on Google and draw traffic to your site. That's why we at D4 Advanced Media employ writers trained in blog format best practices and search engine optimization.

Regardless of your industry, we create relevant, information-rich content that drives traffic and sales for your business.

If you need your blog to start pulling its weight, call us at 775-636-9986!

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via D4 Advanced Media | Blog Format Best Practices

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Does Your Site Have Too Many WP Plugins? http://bit.ly/2VlIRSV Forward-thinking businessowners carefully decide which plugins to include on their website, and when they don’t know, they hire D4 Advanced Media. Plugins are pieces of software that enhance or bring new functionality to a website. The “plug-in” aspect denotes that the user is augmenting the base code of the site instead of rewriting it. In […]

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When It Gets Difficult to Spot Digital Threats, It’s Time to Upgrade Website Security http://bit.ly/2UEvCPY Anyone else catch John Oliver’s recent special on Robocalls? In the special Oliver details the ease at which bad actors can leverage technology to manipulate businesses and members of the public.  The broadcast cited one interview in which the guest was able to disguise his phone number as the phone number of the interviewer. The guest […]

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D4AM Upgraded Its Server Infrastructure! http://bit.ly/2Kf7502 Post Body: We’re proud to report that we upgraded our D4 Advanced Media server infrastructure by using superior hardware. In this article we discuss what server infrastructure is and how we’re using our upgrades to do better work for our clients. What Is Server Infrastructure?  It’s the glue that holds every digital presence together. It […]

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Results-Driven Marketing Strategy for Access Event Solutions http://bit.ly/2UBfoao Access Event Solutions reached out to D4 Advanced Media to help them expand their online presence through internet marketing including a detailed marketing strategy. As their business grew, they sought opportunities to better their competitive advantages and value communication to prospective clients. Who Is Access Event Solutions? Access Event Solutions (AES) is a graphic design company […]

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D4AM Delivers Next-Level Web Design to Four Peaks http://bit.ly/2Kf6WK2 D4 built a new website for Four Peaks Performance that highlights their elegant, yet simple brand messaging: to drive positive change for companies.  Who Is Four Peaks Performance? Four Peaks Performance are forward-thinking project managers. They help companies change through teaching, leading and doing. They employ the classic, time-proven coaching model (Explain, Demonstrate, Observe, Improve) coupled […]

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When It Gets Difficult to Spot Digital Threats, It’s Time to Upgrade Website Security https://ift.tt/2uAjf93

Anyone else catch John Oliver's recent special on Robocalls? In the special Oliver details the ease at which bad actors can leverage technology to manipulate businesses and members of the public. 

The broadcast cited one interview in which the guest was able to disguise his phone number as the phone number of the interviewer. The guest then called the interviewer's mother. The mother's caller ID registered the call as coming from her son, but it was not. The guest then quickly persuaded the mother that he was was her son, and he needed her social security number. The ploy was a success in less than two minutes.

The same broadcast predicted that in 2019 nearly half of all mobile calls will be scams.

As we at D4 work on web design, digital marketing, website redesigns, SEO, website maintenance and website security, we see more and more businesses fall victim to exploitation through technology.

We recently covered phishing scams and scams directed at seniors. The takeaway is that bad actors, hackers and the like are getting increasingly skilled at attacking and deceiving innocent people.

How Are Savvy Business Owners Protecting Their Digital Assets?

Two words: website maintenance.

It's no biggy when you don't install WordPress updates, right?

It can actually cost you a lot of time, major headaches and a pretty penny when you don't invest in website maintenance and security. Speedy updates to WordPress is just one of the many things we do for our website maintenance clients.

Our website maintenance retainers will help you avoid getting your site hacked and the corresponding outrageous, damage-mitigation costs.

Our maintenance packages include:

Vulnerability scanning

Installation of updates upon release

Malware scanning

Form-submission testing

Hacking restoration

Functionality updates

Cross-Browser compatibility testing

Mobile compatibility testing

Design updates

Website training

Minor site edits and changes

Also know that we design websites of all types for businesses in a myriad of industries.

If you have a preexisting website that seems to always be acting up, we can help there, too, with optimization, troubleshooting, update installation and more.

If your preexisting website seems a little dated and you'd like to meet with design experts to modernize the look and functionality of your site, we would be honored to quote your project.

Give us a call at 775-636-9986, and tell us what you need. We've got you covered. Contact D4 Advanced Media

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D4AM Upgraded Its Server Infrastructure! https://ift.tt/2I4E7NT

We're proud to report that we upgraded our D4 Advanced Media server infrastructure by using superior hardware. In this article we discuss what server infrastructure is and how we’re using our upgrades to do better work for our clients.

What Is Server Infrastructure? 

It's the glue that holds every digital presence together. It includes physical and virtual resources such as hardware, software, network resources and the corresponding services. These pieces work together to provide information storage, processing, flow and analysis.

Servers are either centralized within a data center or decentralized among multiple data centers. Some organizations control their own infrastructure and others use cloud-based providers.

How Did We Upgrade Our Gear and How Do Our Clients Benefit?

Our upgrades include a switch from traditional hard drives (data reading and writing via rotating magnetic disks) to SSD's (solid-state drive; non-moving flash memory). SSD's are markedly faster than traditional hard drives.

Our new server infrastructure also features upgraded CPU's.

Our new system provides exceptional processing power for our clients. The result is lightning-fast page loading. Page loading speed is a major factor in SEO rank.

We're also excited to announce that we are offering Bare Metal Container-based Hosting which provides unparalleled security and speed. 

If you're interested in turbo-charging your website, reach out to our system administrator for more details.

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Results-Driven Marketing Strategy for Access Event Solutions https://ift.tt/2uAj8dD

Access Event Solutions reached out to D4 Advanced Media to help them expand their online presence through internet marketing including a detailed marketing strategy. As their business grew, they sought opportunities to better their competitive advantages and value communication to prospective clients.

Who Is Access Event Solutions?

Access Event Solutions (AES) is a graphic design company specializing in custom-made passes for events. The beautiful backstage passes to your favorite band might have been created by AES. 

D4AM Helps AES Reach Their Internet Marketing Goals

We analyzed their digital competitors and their current internet marketing efforts. We then provided them with a detailed marketing strategy that identifies opportunities for growth.

AES found our strategy highly compelling, and that's why they hired D4 on retainer to assist them with updating their quoting system.

Once complete, the revised system will increase the conversion of their leads to sales.

Give us a call at 775-636-9986 or use our contact form to set up your first meeting.

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via D4 Advanced Media | When It Gets Difficult to Spot Digital Threats, It's Time to Upgrade Website Security

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via D4 Advanced Media | When It Gets Difficult to Spot Digital Threats, It's Time to Upgrade Website Security

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via D4 Advanced Media | When It Gets Difficult to Spot Digital Threats, It's Time to Upgrade Website Security

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D4AM Delivers Next-Level Web Design to Four Peaks https://ift.tt/2UoppHM

D4 built a new website for Four Peaks Performance that highlights their elegant, yet simple brand messaging: to drive positive change for companies. 

Who Is Four Peaks Performance?

Four Peaks Performance are forward-thinking project managers. They help companies change through teaching, leading and doing. They employ the classic, time-proven coaching model (Explain, Demonstrate, Observe, Improve) coupled with clever use of technology to speed deployment and improve sustainment. 

From on-site, classical training to the use of on-line resources, Four Peaks Performance uses a variety of approaches to help people, teams, and organizations learn new, innovative ways to work together.

D4AM Translated Company Branding into Outstanding Website Design

We created a website design aesthetic that would inspire businesses to seek assistance from Four Peaks Performance.

By using complimentary color combinations of blues and greys as well as negative space, we were able to achieve web design that met this goal.

Give us a call at 775-636-9986 or use our contact form to set up your first meeting.

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Wilderness Forestry Benefits from Local SEO and Web Design https://ift.tt/2JM0olJ

Wilderness Forestry reached out to us at D4 Advanced Media at the end of 2018 to create a unique website design that features their services and promotes the substantial work they do for Nevadans and Californians. They also hired us to write SEO-driven copy for the website.

Who Is Wilderness Forestry?

Wes Hansen founded Wilderness Forestry as a response to the 2018 Cal Fires. After seeing entire communities being devastated by catastrophic wildfires, Wes and his family decided it was time to get out there and help.

As soon as they were able, they headed out to California to participate in fire suppression and fire clean-up efforts. They've been protecting their own family and land through the creation of defensible space for more than a decade.

They wanted to share their knowledge about defensible space and how to create it with as many Californians and Nevadans as possible. Their commitment to safer forests is only eclipsed by their commitment to their customers.

D4AM Provided Unique Web Design and the Best Local SEO

During the design process, we focused on creating a minimalist theme that is enhanced by subtly textured backgrounds and beautiful imagery. We also optimized the design for mobile use. The design also included a "fade-in" effect.

We performed keyword research and competitor analysis to cultivate effective, traffic-driving messaging throughout the site. Because defensive space and the methods used to create it are not widely known, we worked on creating pages that clearly defined the service offerings. It was also important to showcase the client's competitive advantages. We worked with Wes to write copy that plainly described his services, equipment, FAQ and About pages. 

Give us a call at 775-636-9986 or use our contact form to set up your first meeting.