Mount McKinley Becomes Mt. Denali On Google Maps; Bing Stays With Old Name

Restored to its native name by US President Barack Obama, the transformation has yet to fully complete on the major search engines. The post Mount McKinley Becomes Mt. Denali On Google Maps; Bing Stays With Old Name appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Translating User Generated Content

Online recommendations and reviews are a big marketing asset, so having the right translation tools in place ensures your brand's UGC reaches all customers.

Are You Overlooking This Important SEO Factor?

No matter how brilliant an SEO you are, trying to SEO a poorly built website after the fact is a challenge. Wouldn’t it make more sense to make sure the web developer you use understands SEO? The most important SEO factor is to design a site correctly in the first place.

The advent of mobile has made it obvious that many sites are badly designed. Many site owners will have to have their sites redesigned to make them mobile friendly. When choosing a web developer, find one that knows both mobile and SEO.

Strong Demand for SEO Savvy Web Developers

According to this new Freelance Guide, web developers are among the best paid of all freelancers. That is not surprising given Google’s push to rank only mobile friendly sites. Anyone interested in freelancing or hiring a freelancer should check out that guide because it contains thorough advice.

Web developers who understand SEO, responsive design, and are wise enough not to want to custom code everything are worth their weight in gold and all too rare.

Developers who think of themselves as coders often build really awful blogs. Instead of using a quality, professional theme and plugins that already exist, they insist on their own coding – even when they have no eye for design. Avoid these developers or risk truly bad results.

Most ecommerce sites and almost all blogs are best built on existing platforms. Professional themes handle more than just appearance. They are built by teams who know SEO and handle the internal linking and navigation far better than a custom coded site (unless the coder is truly brilliant).

How to Evaluate Web Developers

Professional web designers should have an online portfolio of sites they have built. For example, look at the portfolio page for this major Sydney responsive web design company.

Click through to any of the sites they’ve built and view them on your portable devices. Or use a mobile test site to see how they appear on various size monitors.

Be sure to check multiple sites. Examine the navigation and the design. Do searches in Google and see if the site comes up for the company name and tagline.

Look at the descriptions. View source on the main pages of the site and look at the meta tags. Copy and paste the pages into an html validation service to check for errors.

If the sites in a company’s portfolio are not mobile response or SEO friendly, look for another company.

Web Developers Are Not Necessarily Web Designers

Many business owners do not realize the difference between a web designer and a web developer. A developer installs the framework and plugins. Developers may edit CSS and html. They set up email addresses, security, and how to backup the database.

Developers create excellent sites based on existing themes. Some of them can choose color schemes. They should all be able to adjust the width of the columns and the overall site. They know how to use WordPress and configure it properly.

Blog developers are not necessarily experienced at building ecommerce sites. Some are; some are not. Make sure you hire a developer with experience creating the type of site you want.

Most web developers are not web designers. A designer can create custom imagery. They are graphic artists. If you see a site with rounded corners or a unique header, those are created by web designers. Go to TeamThesis.com to see an example.

How to Find an SEO Savvy Web Developer

The preferred method of finding talent of any kind is to ask people you know if they can recommend anyone. Request an email or Skype introduction and ask for examples of their work and any contracts they use.

If you don’t find anyone directly, do some searches and look at sites. Find some you like that are ranking for keywords in their industry. Look in the footer for their developer’s name or the name of any theme they are using. (Not all sites provide either one.)

View source and search for the word WordPress. If it is an ecommerce site, look for an indication of what ecommerce platform is being used. Call the business and ask them directly. Most won’t mind telling you who built their site.

Remember that the developer may have only SEOed the main pages. If blog posts or product pages do not have SEO information on them, blame the site manager – not the developer. If the main pages are not SEOed, look for a different developer. The most important SEO factor is to design a site correctly in the first place.

The post Are You Overlooking This Important SEO Factor? appeared first on SEO Chat.

Saying Goodbye to Click-Based Measurement

Using proxies such as clicks is no longer valid in this multi-device world. Facebook's Nadia Tan explains why it's time to say goodbye to click-based measurements.

SearchCap: Google News Editors Pick App, Google Home Service Ads & Mobile App UI

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. The post SearchCap: Google News Editors Pick App, Google Home Service Ads & Mobile App UI appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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CMOs to Invest More in Brand Experience with Content Marketing

New research from The CMO Club and IBM shows that 57 percent of CMOs expect their marketing budgets to increase over the next two to three years, and content generation will be their biggest expenditure.

Tweets of the Week: McDonald's Says No; Everyone Else Says Woof

Brands typically steer clear of the hard news trending on Twitter, preferring to use the platform to celebrate things like National Dog Day... or snarkily shut down peace offerings from competitors.