• the best online marketing professionals and experts - WHO WE ARE

Allaine Layns

Allaine Layns has a heart for her profession. Her curiosity and passion for marketing has led her to study Information Technology. Her dedication to her craft as an SEO specialist and social media team leader has made her an online marketing expert. Allaine is a team leader who delivers high-quality results that help diverse businesses achieve their marketing goals. In her free time, Allaine enjoys watching true crime documentaries and exploring new adventures to add to her next bucket list.

Why User-First Approach Matters to SEO

When it comes to search engine optimization, many focus on Google algorithms, sitemaps, and backlinks and tend to forget their primary goal: providing users with helpful information. 

Years before, cramming keywords into your page and slapping on several meta tags can make your web page appear on the first top 10 search engine results pages (SERPs). However, Google recognized that these methods do not provide users with top-quality answers to search queries. As a result, it began to adapt its algorithms to improve the user experience. You can find the evidence in updates like Panda (February 2011), Core Web Vitals, and other regular core algorithm updates. 

You do not necessarily need to abandon keywords and the traditional SEO aspects completely. Google still takes the fundamental attributes of SEO into account. However, implementing a user-first approach plays a significant factor in organic search. 

Follow these 5 essential steps to make a user-friendly website and increase your ranking on the SERPs.

  • Learn Design Fundamentals

Having a clear understanding of the design fundamentals helps you improve user experience and make your website run smoothly and naturally. Be sure to work with a professional who understands the principles of design fundamentals and explains the psychology behind them. Knowing the reasons why can help you make better decisions that will have a desirable impact on your users. 

  • Addressing User Pain Points

Statistics is essential when working with an established website and dealing with various user problems. Google Analytics can help determine pain points that trigger users to leave your website. Setting up heat mapping and logging can also help address user pain points. Heat-mapping tools allow you to monitor how visitors interact with your website. 

Some solutions enable screen recording to keep track of how visitors navigate through web pages and identify the factors that prevent conversion. Obtaining this information can help you make better choices on how you can improve your pages and ensure a desirable user experience. Additionally, it allows you to see and re-evaluate the specific benefits that your visitors are looking for from your website.

  • Test Everything

After acquiring data, do not start making adjustments and improvements to your website. While the information you have gathered does not necessarily provide solutions, it can help identify potential pain points. 

If you detect a problem or need to perform a significant change in your page’s layout, put up an A/B test to ensure that the revision is beneficial to the users. A/B testing involves the distribution of traffic between 2 versions of a similar page. Check which page version performed better. It should help you enhance your objectives during a specific time and with a certain number of conversions. 

The data you acquired from your A/B testing efforts can help address and confirm or refute your theory about the pain points. This helps determine if you are on the right path toward a solution and make sure that the adjustments are helpful and do not injure your users.

  • Give the Users What They Desire

Balance is everything in SEO. If your goal is to only please the search engines, you will likely fail to connect with your target audience. If you focus all your efforts on designing your website from the user’s point of view, you can potentially overlook other valuable search engine elements. To hit the sweet spot, make sure to focus on both users and search engines. 

  • Continue to Learn

To be an expert in digital marketing, you should be ready to expand your knowledge and explore more about SEO. As Google continues to modify its search algorithm, you should continue to look for new strategies to attract more website visitors and boost your search engine rankings.

7 Essential Elements of an Exceptional Blog Post

As a business owner, one of your main marketing goals is to create engaging and valuable content that will want your target audience coming back to your website for more. Blogging is among the important tool for every small business. Your blog should be eye-catching and provide all the key information your target audience is looking for. To be effective, you will need to know all the key elements of writing an exceptional blog post.

Catchy Topic

Your topic creates an impression and compels your target audience to click on your post. Be sure to carefully choose topics that will spark interest in your readers. Luckily, there are many tools available on the Internet, such as Google Trends, HubSpot Blog Topic Generator, and Buzz Sumo, that can help you generate unique blog topics that are relevant to your niche. Another way to create catchy and compelling topics is by taking feedback from your audience and gathering enough relevant information.

Powerful Headline

Writing a meaningful headline can catch the attention of your target audience to your blog. A blog post with a boring headline can easily get lost in the vast ocean of competitors online. 

Interesting Introduction

While writing a powerful headline can compel people to click on your website, having an interesting induction is key to converting site visitors into readers. Your blog introduction should give your readers an idea of what to expect from your content. You do not have to provide them with that whole picture of your topic, but just enough information to arouse inquisitiveness and curiosity.

Compelling Sub-Heading

In addition to headings, subheadings can effectively emphasize the main elements of the topic, guiding readers and making your blog post easier to read. Your subheading should contain relevant keywords to enable search engines to identify the content of your post and quickly convey key points to your readers. However, avoid inserting the keyword forcibly into the subheading. Make sure that the keywords sound natural in subheadings. 

Format the subheading using the title tag hierarchy. This means that you have to increasingly use a smaller heading format. While most blog posts use H2, you can isolate H2 if it has lengthy content and uses H3 instead. Be sure to use header tags properly.

Interesting Supporting Points

The body is the “meat” of your content that backs up your main topic. When writing a blog, make sure that your story or idea has interesting supporting points that will give your readers something they can sink their teeth into. Carefully lay out your ideas and how you will support them. Make a list of bullet points to organize your ideas. You can start writing the body using these as your main sections. 

Photo by ANTONI SHKRABA

Appealing Visuals

Humans are visual creatures who tend to react and process images much better than reading text. The human brain has a unique way to process complex information, making visualization extremely crucial. Using charts and graphs to explain complex information is much easier than explaining it through words. Do not forget to optimize your images for search and engage your target audience by making them more appealing. 

Compelling Call-to-Action

Once you have captured the attention of your audience with a compelling title, engaged them with an interesting introduction, and led them through the content body with interesting points, then it is time to wrap it up with an engaging call-to-action. 

Call-to-actions should be clear and actionable, giving your audience something to reflect on or respond to. Your call-to-action should effectively entice and encourage your audience to leave a review or comment, answer your question, or share your post on their social media profiles.

How Physiotherapists Should Respond to COVID-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (CoViD-19) has become a pandemic, threatening the health of millions of people across the world. As frontline practitioners, physiotherapists are at risk of coming in direct contact with COVID-19 patients. It is important for physiotherapists to understand their role in identifying, containing, mitigating, and treating the symptoms associated with the virus.

Here are some of the key points to help you understand the role of physiotherapists in managing COVID-19-related issues:

  • Recognizing the symptoms of infectious disease
  • Educating and providing patients with appropriate support and timely treatment decisions
  • Advising and treating patients experiencing adverse outcomes, both in the acute phase and in longer-term recovery
  • Treating respiratory health issues caused by the COVID-19 infection and maintaining essential functions, strength, mobility, and flexibility while relieving secondary complications from isolation conditions, including blood clots, muscle wasting, weakness caused by de-conditioning, and other effects on psychological well-being.
  • Providing intervention for mobilization, exercise, and rehabilitation for patients who are at risk of ICU-acquired weakness or with comorbidities causing a significant decline in function.
  • Identify more physical resourcing requiring physiotherapy intervention and reduce the risk of cross-infections. For example, respiratory equipment, mobilization, exercise, and rehabilitation tools and equipment, and storage for equipment.
  • Providing intervention only when there are clinical indicators to reduce exposure of staff to COVID-19 patients. An unnecessary review of isolated COVID-19 patients will have a negative impact on the supply of PPEs.
  • Meet with senior medical staff regularly to identify clinical indications for physiotherapy review in confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients and conduct proper screening according to the standard guidelines.
  • Respiratory physiotherapy intervention in hospital wards or ICUs may be recommended for confirmed or confirmed COVID-19 patients, who developed exudative consolidation mucous hypersecretion and/or difficulty clearing secretions.

Physiotherapy Management Principles

Respiratory Care

  • Airway clearance techniques (active breathing cycle, positioning, manual and/or ventilator hyperinflation, positive expiratory pressure (PEP) therapy, mechanical insufflation-exsufflation (MI-E)
  • Non-invasive ventilation application (part of airway clearance strategies or in respiratory failure management) and inspiratory positive pressure breathing (IPPB) for patients with fractured ribs
  • Techniques that help facilitate clearance for mucous secretion, including assisted or stimulated cough manoeuvres or airway suctioning.
  • Exercise prescription and mobilization

Mobilization, Exercise, and Rehabilitation

Another important responsibility of physiotherapists is the provision of musculoskeletal/neurological/cardiopulmonary rehabilitation tasks, such as:

  • Active, passive, active-assisted, or resisted joint range of motion exercise that helps boost and/or maintain the integrity of the joint, as well as mobility and muscle strength.
  • Mobilization and rehabilitation, such as bed mobility, sitting balance, sit to stand, upper or lower limb ergometry, exercise programs.

The Canadian Physiotherapy Association (CPA) continues to work hard on building resources and support tools to protect physiotherapists who are potentially exposed to the increasing outbreak of COVID-19. CPA is working around the clock to ensure that physiotherapists receive the necessary resources and support systems, especially those working on the front lines and those whose livelihoods are in jeopardy as patients are cancelling their appointments and forced closure of clinics.

What The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Means For SEO

Over the first quarter of 2020, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has disrupted almost every area of our lives. It has created a “new normal”, making people reorder their priorities and make changes to their daily lives. The pandemic has also caused a blow to many businesses that have to roll with the punches thrown by declining economic activities as people change their habits.

SEO plays a key role in helping businesses stay relevant in the time of coronavirus. To further protect their businesses from the effects of the ongoing pandemic, it’s best for business owners and marketers to review their current SEO strategies for the year.

Here are some SEO considerations you need to look at and how you can incorporate them into your marketing strategy in response to the impact of COVID-19.

Changing search behaviours

Consumer behaviour and search trends will largely vary at this time, both for essential and non-essential businesses. Pharmacies and grocery stores are more likely to see a surge of search queries on the products and services they offer. Oppositely, a decrease in search interests on brands, products, and services considered non-essential may be observed this time as consumers prioritize their most basic needs. 

Brands should consistently track and analyze data like organic search sessions and conversion rates, making sure to update forecasting and historical reporting to assess the impact of COVID-19 on consumer behaviour. Google Search Console, Google Trends, and your keyword tools will be your best friends during this time. Use them proactively to understand changes in search behaviour and interests based on relevant keywords and topics related to your company and industry.

Below are the important data and analytics to note:

  • Sessions and impressions may decline. But if rankings remain as is, the decrease can be a result of COVID-19’s effect on search interest.
  • Sessions and impressions may remain as is. However, a low conversion may mean that users are still interested in your products or services but are not ready to purchase yet.

Limited bandwidth and availability resources

During this pandemic, businesses may have limited development resources. Rather than implementing new features in your website, it may be best to prioritize fixing bugs that are directly affecting your site’s performance. Check to see if search engines are indexing, crawling, rendering, and ranking your website to prevent potential issues in the future.

Beefed up content strategies

It’s important for businesses to acknowledge the specific effects of COVID-19 to their industry. This way, you can create clear messaging around the disease. If your business is deemed essential or directly affected by COVID-19, you might want to make a dedicated page to capture traffic related to coronavirus and then add links to your website’s key pages.

You can also try producing a series of video content. As people become more active online, they will have plenty of time to watch videos. Consider creating relevant content to capture their attention. Study your SEO insights to gather possible topics for your video content. 

Most importantly, when developing your messaging, keep in mind the importance of social distancing. Consider making content on creating DIY projects around your product/service from which users can derive value while on home quarantine. Avoid using language that runs counter to COVID-19 safety guidelines.

Main Image Credit: Engin Akyurt | Unsplash

How COVID-19 Affect Dental Practices

How COVID-19 Affect Dental Practices

Aside from the serious implications of COVID-19 on human health, the coronavirus also caused a significant impact on almost all business industries in Canada, including dental practices. It has brought uncertainty to dental health professionals. The Public Health Agency in Canada, as well as the provincial and municipal government, recommends temporary closure of dental clinics concerning social distancing protocols rolled out across the nation. The dental industry supports the recommendations made by the Public Health authorities to ensure social distancing. Dentists and other dental health providers understand the importance of taking exceptional measures to minimize the transmission of the virus. That is why dental professionals only offer their services to those with emergency needs.

Why Dentistry Is a High-Risk Branch

Why-Dentistry-Is-a-High-Risk-Branch1

The COVID-19 pandemic has gravely affected thousands of Canadian dentists and their patients. Studies reported that the presence of the virus in the saliva of COVID-19 patients, which can be pivotal in human-to-human transmission. Dentists and other dental health providers do not want to become a hotspot for the transmission of the virus, as they may unknowingly provide aerosol-generating dental procedures to infected but not yet diagnosed COVID-19 patients. Inhaling these airborne particles and aerosols during the dental procedure on COVID-19 infected patients puts dentists into direct exposure of the virus. 

Should You Pause or Cancel Your SEO Campaign

Should-You-Pause-or-Cancel-Your-SEO-Campaign

With the Public Health Agency in Canada recommending temporary shutdown of dental clinics or revamping dental processes and focus on emergency ones, it may sound sensible to pause your organic dental SEO or digital marketing campaign. 

However, the pandemic is temporary; dropping your SEO campaign would mean missing out on organic searches and falling behind your competitors. Acquiring patients would become more difficult when the industry comes roaring back. Continuing your marketing effort amidst the coronavirus pandemic provides you with a huge advantage over those who do not. 

Connecting with Your Patients

Despite the temporary closure of your dental office, there are still various ways you can make an impact by making some extra efforts to your existing and potential patients the high-quality services and value you provide during the COVID-19 crisis. 

  • Maintain Your Online Presence – Having a live, active website helps maintain a strong online presence. Find out the potential dental concerns your patients may experience during the COVID-19 lockdown and provide solutions to the problems. Make sure to provide updated contact information and guidance on how you handle patients requiring emergency dental care.
  • Be Active on Social Media – With many of your prospective clients that are active on different social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, now is the perfect time to build or maintain your social media presence. Make sure to post relevant content at least once or twice a week to appear in the newsfeeds of your patients. Adding an image or informative video in your content helps boost engagement.
  • Start TeleDentistry – Did you know that you can provide virtual consultation to your patients? There are various apps designed to provide teledentistry services, an effective way to keep in contact with your patients when you are unable to provide personal treatment at your dental clinic. It does not only provide patients with peace of mind but also reduces the risk of going out for a simple prescription.