A sitemap is as it sounds: a map of your website. It both helps with the general navigation and appearance of your website, but also with your SEO rankings. While you do not technically need to have a sitemap for a website, they certainly make your site more user-friendly and easier for search engine bots to find and index. Here’s what you need to know about the functionality of sitemaps for the user experience and for SEO.

In Regards To The User Experience

Sitemaps help with the theme, navigation, and organization of your website. This instantly makes your site look more put together and easily understandable and accessible than a site without a sitemap would be.

Navigation.

Since sitemaps are literally a map of your site, they have links to everything on it, which makes navigation easier. People do not have the patience to figure out a site that is not clear and well-organized. Utilizing a sitemap will help users both instantly understand what your site is about and how to navigate it.

Organization.

They also help with organization, by having everything on your site neatly filed away. This both assists with the theme and navigation of your site as mentioned above and with whenever you need to add or rearrange your site. It’s easier to add sections or content to a site where you can already see what is on it and how it is laid out.

If you want a user-friendly site, you’ll want to utilize a sitemap. You don’t want all of the hard work put into making a website to go unnoticed through having a site people won’t stay on. Having a clear, easily navigated, organized website will encourage people to stay on it and click around, making sure all the work and information put into it will be seen.

In Regards To SEO

A sitemap lists every page on your site so that search engine bots can find all the information you have available on your website and learn how they relate, so they can make better sense of your content for search engine optimization. This is to say that these search engine bots are figuring out the relevancy of your site to the searches people make, and whether you are on the first page of results or further back. Ergo, this affects your visibility.

Finding And Indexing.

Search engine bots will still find and index your site without a sitemap, but that doesn’t mean they will see everything you want them to. This means that they may not recognize all the content you have to offer, and your search engine ranking can call. A sitemap will help with this.

Sitemaps have a list of all pages on your site so search engine bots will be able to find and index all of them. They also include metadata, which is context about every page, which tells the search engine bots how the pages on your website are organized, how they relate to each other, their update history, and more.

This is why they’re so important to ensure that search engine bots can recognize all the content you have, rather than potentially missing something, and so that they can mark how they relate.

SEO is about more than just keywords. The optimization of a site is in every part of it, from the way it is designed to the content on it to your potential sitemap. Having a sitemap for your site helps with SEO because it tells search engine bots everything they need to know about your site, which is what helps them figure out where your site falls in search results. Thus, having a sitemap boosts the visibility of your website by raising its rank in search results.

Can You Get Away Without Using A Sitemap?

If you have a small website that is comprehensively linked without much in the way of media, you could get away without using a sitemap. But you probably still should, for the sake of the user experience and to help your SEO rankings.

If you have a large or new website, you’ll most certainly need a sitemap. This is because with large websites, it’s much easier for search engine bots to miss information than in smaller ones. It’s also harder to navigate a large site without one, leading to frustrated users. If you have a new site, it probably won’t be linked to on other sites, which will make it harder for search engine bots to find. Uploading a sitemap will make it more visible and easier to index.

Need Help Staying On Top Of Sitemaps?

With Google coming out with a fifth version of their XML sitemaps soon, it’s important to be educated on the values of sitemaps and how they can help your business. Here at Performance Driven Marketing, we know the importance of a good user experience and SEO for increasing your visibility. If you would like to learn more about how our experts can help you, please contact us at Performance Driven Marketing today!

While Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and web design are often pitted against each other, the truth is that in order to have a successful website, that requires them working in harmony. While in the past, people thought there was a tradeoff between an optimized website and a good-looking one, that’s not the case anymore. Now, the user experience is the future of SEO. And the user experience requires SEO and web design to work in tandem.

Optimization Vs Design: Impacts

A site that is heavy on SEO without a mind to design is ugly and can be confusing. Generally, a website that is focused entirely on SEO uses heavy amounts of text with lots of keywords and lots of ads. They also may not be organized well, making navigation more difficult. People won’t stay on a site like that; they want something streamlined and easy to use.

On the other hand, a website that is gorgeous but doesn’t utilize SEO won’t be seen, because it isn’t optimized to show up in search results. Sites focused on design tend to be quite low on text and engaging. However, without SEO, they might be pretty, but they won’t get traffic. People won’t see a site that hasn’t been optimized.

How Can They Work Together?

So you see, in order to have a successful site, you need to utilize both SEO and web design. They are both important, they both affect each other, and together, they create a beautiful, functional site. Here’s how they can do that.

Careful Implementation Of Keywords

Keywords are an essential part of SEO. They’re what help a site pop up in search engines when people enter them in to look for something. Web design and SEO have to make a compromise here. Keywords are important, yes, but there can’t be an overwhelming density of them. That isn’t attractive and can annoy users.

Optimized Content

One way to speckle keywords throughout the site is through optimizing the content on it and how designers can spread them over the site. This means that keywords can be used in the alt text and titles of images on a site, the alt tags, and the page names. This helps keep the content engaging while also reaching the necessary amount of keywords.

Mobile Optimization

Nowadays, most people use their phones to search for things. As such, sites that aren’t mobile friendly get penalized by search engines. Plus, a site that isn’t optimized for mobile loses users, because it’s not as easy to read and navigate on a mobile device. An easy to read, optimized site generates more mobile traffic.

Site Speed

People don’t have the patience to wait for a site to load, and the speed at which a page loads affects its SEO ranking. Designers can help this through implementing “lazy loading”, which is when the site loads as you scroll, rather than all at once. They can also avoid large images, as these also slow down loading times, and ensure they are compressed.

Engaging And Unique Content

A site with unique, optimized content will generate more traffic than one that just repeats what other sites are already saying. It will keep people’s attention more to see something more original, and help SEO rankings, as search engines punish copied content.

Cohesive SEO And Web Design = Perfect

In order to have a site that is both attractive and performs well, you must consider both what people want to see and what they need to see in order for your site to rank well. An easy-to-read, optimized website generates more traffic than either a heavily optimized, ugly site or a beautiful, not optimized site. Web pages names, content layout, link structure, every bit of a website affects both its look and its visibility. It’s all about finding that perfect balance.

It used to be that if you wanted both an attractive website and one that was optimized for search engines, you had to find different places to do those services for you. This isn’t the case anymore. Here at Performance Driven Marketing, we offer both web design and SEO services. We keep both the look of your website and the optimization of it in mind for every aspect of it, from the design process itself to creating content. If you need SEO and web design services, we can help! Contact us at Performance Driven Marketing today to learn more.

Content is an extremely important addition to your website. Having compelling and consistent content will cause your website traffic to skyrocket with users coming back to your website more often and for longer periods of time. There are many different types of content including blogs, videos, and photos.

You may ask yourself: “Blogs? I thought those were those write-ups where people complained about their neighbors online?” Yes, there are still blogs where people journal their personal experiences, but these days blogs are used for much more. In fact, according to HubSpot, 60% of people read a blog once a week. This is because blogs have many functions including providing information to readers.

Now to answer the overarching question; is blogging dead in 2021? The simple answer is no. You’re reading this blog right? However, the purpose of blogs and the way they are written is constantly changing. Blogs have many purposes and are useful tools for content creators and businesses.

Blogs Create Connections

Blogs are a great way to make closer connections with your customer base. This is because you are speaking directly to the customer and they can respond with their own thoughts and opinions. With that said, it is important to be careful with your comment settings and be aware that if you allow for comments, the opinions that some users may post on your page may not be to your liking. But if you are creating content that your target market wants to know, you will attract and keep users who are likely to become customers. Blogs are also a great way to create content for your social media platforms to connect to and vice versa.

Blogs Answer User’s Questions

Is Blogging Dead in 2021?

One of the big reasons that blogs are an important part of the content you put on your website is because they are an easy way to share your expertise and increase your credibility. You can answer user’s questions in a professional format or discuss your knowledge of your industry in an article targeted towards a new customer base.

Blogs are where Google and other search engines collect information about obscure or popular topics and are often where people can find information tailored to their specific needs. When you answer your customer base’s questions, you establish a reputation and authority in your industry.

Blogs Help Customers Learn About Your Products

Blogs in 2021 are often run by companies and businesses in hopes that people will click on their website to learn about a topic and then buy a product or service. This is a wonderful system because users are already searching for information about something that you are an expert on and will be more likely to buy from you when they decide to make a purchase in that area. Having a blog also allows you to speak to certain products or services that you have that are unique to your company that your target customer base may not be aware of.

Blogs Help You Rank Better on Search Engines

If a business has a website, it is important to rank on search engines. A ranking on a search engine is your spot on the list of websites that show up when a user enters in a search query. Website specialists use search engine optimization to increase a website’s ranking. It is important to use SEO because search engine optimization brings more users to your website which often leads to more conversions. One of the most important components to optimizing your website is to have great content that is relevant to user’s questions.

Contact Us For Help With Your Blog

Here at Performance Driven Marketing, we write articles and blogs for your website that are crafted specifically to be optimized for Google and other search engines. We also have many other services and resources available to you to help you build your ideal website. Contact us for more information about blogs, SEO, web design and much more!

SEO small business As a small business owner your goal is to reach a larger audience and expand and grow your business. In today’s marketplace gaining exposure has never been as diverse. With so many online options including websites, social media, and search engine marketability you can reach a vast audience in a variety of different ways in as little time as mere moments. One of the great advantages for small businesses today is the services of SEO or search engine optimization. Performance Driven Marketing can show you how SEO can help your advertise and grow your small business. Here are some of the advantages SEO can provide for your small business:

Better access to your company website. By increasing your rankings in various search engine result fields more and more online traffic will be directed to your company website. This can lead to increased sales opportunities as online visitors come to your website looking for specific products and services. More traffic also allows you to increase your visibility not only on the web but also in real time by attracting attention and driving customers to your location.
Successful SEO opportunities will help you to not only gain focus in your current market they can also help to expand to new and larger worldwide markets. The combination of successful SEO strategies and social media marketing can help you reach new customers around the globe and in markets you never dreamed possible.
You can continue to build and increase brand awareness through SEO opportunities. What once may have only been seen when visiting your store can now be seen in a variety of different ways in many areas of the internet including your website, your social media pages, and throughout various other online outlets.
When you drive traffic to your website through SEO results you are allowing customers to reach you at all hours of the day and night. Offering a store or shopping cart experience on your website means that your business is now open for customers on their timetable and they can find and purchase the items they are in need of when they are searching whether your business is currently opened or not.
Looking at other SEO opportunities such as online business partners, blog postings, advertisements, social media, and even online directories will also help you to maximize the benefits of keyword and related searches. It is important to understand how far reaching an impact the right SEO opportunities can provide for your business.

Today’s small business through SEO has the opportunity to reach customers around the world. Any time day or night you can use the right keywords to help direct internet traffic to your website where customers can find not only the parts or services they are looking for but learn more about your business. The options of using SEO for increasing your business are limitless. Contact the SEO experts at Performance Driven Marketing today to find out how we can help your small business grow a stronger online presence, and attract new customers for your business.

Performance Driven Marketing is a marketing agency with over 10 years of experience. Located in Ogden, Utah, we offer marketing, website services, and graphic design to companies of every size. Our team is full of writers, developers, and designers who are focused on increasing your profits and visibility. As the online marketing field is constantly changing, we work hard to stay up to date with its newest developments. This allows us to keep your company at the top of results. Because we deliver on this promise, Clutch ranks us as one of the top SEO firms in Salt Lake City.

Clutch is a B2B ratings and reviews website based in Washington, D.C. Their team of analysts conducts interviews with previous clients over the phone or with an extensive online questionnaire about past projects.

This way, they can be sure that they get an unbiased account of what it is like to work with a company. Clutch then gives each vendor an Ability to Deliver and a Focus score so they can rank them according to industry and location. While the Focus score rates a company’s specialization in a given service, the Ability to Deliver is determined by their verified reviews, work experience, market presence, and awards. Check out what one of our clients said in their 5-star review about our effective efforts to help them rebrand and build a new website:

“We used to have zero reviews on Google, and they took us to 97 reviews in one year. We were not found in Google search before, but now 90% of the calls we get come from our website.” – Owner, HVAC Utah

Clutch has included us on its sister sites, called The Manifest and Visual Objects, due to our great work.
The Manifest helps companies become more successful by posting business news, expert insights, and industry best practices. It has also included us on its list of the best web developers in Salt Lake City.
Visual Objects lets vendors post portfolio items so that potential clients can see our visual style and determine if it will be a good fit.

We look forward to growing our presence on Clutch and using their platform to connect with new clients!

If you own a small business, and you currently have a website, you may be thinking you are set. At Performance Driven Marketing, we see a number of small business owners forget about their website and assume they don’t need to do much for it to bring in leads. The truth is, the Internet is a vastly different world today than it was 10 years ago, in fact, lets take a look at what Amazon looked like in 2008 versus today:

We can see quite a few differences in the home page of Amazon. From the user-friendly design of 2017 vs. multiple menus and scrolling bars in 2008. Websites often fall by the wayside and they aren’t given a fresh look, which makes a website look dated and quite simply, not relevant. While your business might be booming, you may not realize that may of your customers are currently frustrated with the structure of your website. On average a website visitor will stay on a home page for less than 15 seconds. What this means is you have a limited amount of time to capture their attention and become the “solution” to the problem or specific need they have.

Don’t Ignore Your Website

Ignoring your website can have devastating consequences. Google continues to release updates to their search engine algorithm, which could take a website from page 1 to page 3 in a day. You need to make sure your website makes a solid first impression as it is often the first experience most people will have with your business.

What to Consider for a Website Re-do

As you start scouring other websites for ideas on what you’d like to incorporate into your website redesign, we recommend understanding the importance of color, layout, functionality, and user experience. While a great looking site might impress you, it is important to consider the back-end of your website and the work that must be done to help Google and other search engines actually FIND your website and start ranking it. At Performance Driven Marketing, we provide local search engine optimization services for customers all over Utah, Idaho, California, and surrounding areas. Our team will help you bring your vision of a new website to life, or we can create a vision for you. Here are some of the important elements that must go into refreshing your website:

Website Design

The overall design of the website is vital as it needs to have a design that reflects your company image. To be noticed online, the design needs to be relevant and useful while also being unique. To help your website stand out, we use the following techniques:

Implementing geometric shapes and lines
Creative styling and fonts
Multi-tone gradient imagery
Mobile responsiveness
Custom logo creation and home page design

User Experience

While the look and feel of the website needs to be impressive, the overall user experience is vital to keeping a person from clicking off your website. The viewer needs to be able to find their way around your site effectively for them to find what they are looking for. Web users do not have patience and they will jump off a site quickly if they cannot find the information they need right away.

We find that web users like to be told what to do. Well structured menus and organized information helps them to properly navigate the website, making it easier on the user to find what they want. We recommend a clear call to action on a page, and always have your contact information visible for customers that choose to call or email you.
Avoid extra buttons and unnecessary information that can overwhelm your potential customers. Keep a single call to action on a page and stick with a prominent search bar function at the top of each webpage and a link to the sitemap at the bottom. Clean, easy, simple websites are those that often gain the most visitors.

Content

Content is essential for your website to rank properly. Google has been working hard to remove spam websites from the search engine. Websites that clearly copy content from another site risks being banned from the search engines entirely. Content needs to be clear and immediately available for the potential customers to understand answers to their questions. With the right information at their fingertips, customers will start turning to your company as the authority figure and the source of information in the industry. Engaging, useful, and professional content is the best way to accomplish this goal.

How do you create quality content?

You need to start by defining your audience and asking common questions that pertain to them. Fill out each question with an insightful answer, similar to a face-to-face conversation. As you answer these questions, focus on your ability to solve your client’s problems. Quality content will be able to build trust with your industry and can help to spread your brand’s name across the Internet.

Bridging the Gap with SEO

The term SEO tends to cause skepticism to some people as they assume you don’t need to do much for a website once it’s live. However, without the right optimization of the website, your online presence can struggle to be seen. We want your website to meet its true online potential without costing you an arm and a leg. Modern SEO goes much further than adding keywords, ALT tags, and mobile-friendliness. Let Performance Driven Marketing help your website thrive with our proven techniques.

In the digital era of fast-paced Internet and impatient web user, you cannot afford to have an outdated, slow, poorly designed website. If you are planning a website redesign, or you want to see what you can do to improve your website’s visibility, call our Ogden SEO Company today.

Connect Utah Presentation by Victor Hubbard
Internet Marketing – 101

The term “SEO” has become critical for anyone who works in marketing, owns a business, or manages their own website. And, because internet marketing is growing tremendously in popularity, everyone should really at least know the basics of the SEO acronym. After all, SEO affects the why that we search for everything online.
To give you a straightforward answer of what the SEO acronym means, here’s what it stands for: search engine optimization. But, for someone who isn’t well-versed in marketing, those terms are probably just as foreign as the acronym. Here’s a more in-depth look at what SEO is and what it does.

Getting Further into the SEO Acronym

Search engine optimization is optimizing content on the web so it is found by search engines more readily. The ideal goal for someone practicing an SEO strategy is to get a webpage, blog, article, or related media to come up very first on a Google search result, or at least on the first page. When searching for a service they need, people rarely go to the next page of search results.
The concept of search engine optimization isn’t as simple as it sounds, however. There is plenty of behind-the-scenes work that goes on in completely optimizing web content.

How is SEO Done for Websites?

As if search engine optimization wasn’t difficult enough, Google and other search engines are constantly changing the rules. Playing with SEO is a complex system of appeasing search engines and writing excellent web content. If one or the other is not accomplished, your web content won’t succeed in its SEO goals.
At Performance Driven Marketing, we are constantly watching forums to ensure that we are on top of Google’s newest trends. If you want your website to use SEO, call the SEO experts of Utah today at (801)-326-0582!

Officially, as of September 26^th, Google Hummingbird changed the landscape of the SEO realm. Since its unofficial release about a month previous to Google’s 15^th anniversary, it has affected more than 90 percent of internet searches. And, while Google Panda and Penguin were minor changes to Google’s algorithm, Google Hummingbird is a complete overhaul of the algorithm, replaced with something altogether new.

Google Past and Present

Before Google Hummingbird, the search algorithms mainly relied on key terms to give the searchers what they were looking for. However, with the new and improved algorithm, Google is focusing less on the actual words being used in the search phrase and more on what they mean. In this way, Google has moved from a focus on individual keywords to semantics.
These changes became necessary when voice searches on mobile devices started to become popular. People are now using longer, more conversational search phrases to find new restaurants in their area, for instance. Google is accommodating for that with an algorithm that identifies the core meaning of the search phrase and pulls up relevant information accordingly.

What Do These Changes Mean for SEO?

Naturally, the next step is to see how these changes force internet marketing companies to adapt their strategies. Here are some basic tips that should help you survive in the world of Google Hummingbird:

Focus on words and the synonyms of those words that are relevant to your customers
Make your content match questions that customers frequently ask
Allow your writing to include conversational search phrases
Add relevant combinations of items in your content that are often searched together
Remember that high-quality, relevant content is what Google is ultimately looking for

Now, more than ever, content is king. Fire up those thinking caps and make sure that your website has beautifully relevant and well-written content that will appeal both to Google and to Google users. Having a mobile website will also facilitate an easier move from Google’s graveyard to Google Hummingbird.
Whether you’re interested in having content written, having your website optimized for search engine optimization, or getting a mobile website, Performance Driven Marketing has the experts to help you! Call us today at (801)-698-4129!

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In Regards To The User Experience

Navigation.

Organization.

In Regards To SEO

Finding And Indexing.

Can You Get Away Without Using A Sitemap?

Need Help Staying On Top Of Sitemaps?

Optimization Vs Design: Impacts