By now in 2016 we are all familiar with hashtags, but do you know how to effectively use hashtags properly? Once the hashtags (# sign used to group content on social media) are used correctly, finding relevant content becomes much simpler. They can increase your social shares as well as helping your message get more visibility. If you use them the wrong way they can adversely influence your reputation on social media and as a result have a negative impact on your social media engagement.

Hashtags are very popular on Twitter but beyond this social network, they become more complicated.

We’ll now take a look at some of the confusion surrounding hashtags.

● The do’s and don’ts of hashtags.

● The best ways to get your message out using hashtags.

● What works best on each social platform.

What Are Hashtags?

Since hashtags first appeared on Twitter in 2007, media experts and marketers have been baffled by them.

Hashtags are actually used to lump social media content into various categories that make the content easy to navigate. When you tweet #[CONTENT KEYWORD], it appears in other content that has similar hashtags.

Exploring Social Media Content Using Hashtags

Finding existing hashtags are the best way to set up new hashtags.But for that to work, you will have to pinpoint the existing hashtags. The good news is that you can take advantage of current tools to do this job.

Here are some tools you can use starting today:

Use Twitter Research Trends For Hashtags

Want to find out which hashtags have been trending for the past 30 days? Use What The Trend. This is an excellent way to attract new viewers by locating relevant, targeted hashtags that are trending.

Use Twitonomy To Locate Twitter Hashtags

Twitonomy will allow you to uncover unique hashtags that are related to the subject matter you publish on your Twitter accounts. You can also uncover the major influencers using a specific hashtag, and who’s interacting with the content the most.

You will have to pay to access the premium features, which are affordable.

RiteTag Uncovers Hashtags For Facebook And Twitter

In addition, RiteTag provides real-time usage data to demonstrate the way hashtags are operating. You get more functionality with the premium options, but there are still great features with the free plan.

Think of RiteTag as a highly effective and useful tool when it comes to tracking and researching.

Hashtagify.me Is A Great Way To Find Twitter Hashtags

Hashtagify.me is yet another very useful tool for uncovering hashtags that are trending on Twitter. You can also choose to have updates emailed to you on hashtags that are trending. They provide a wide range of accounts from personal to enterprise and the plans range from free to premium.

Discovering Hashtags Directly On The Various Networks

Discovering Hashtags On Twitter

On your Twitter news feed on the left side, you will find what is currently trending and links to relevant tweets.

In the Twitter search bar, you can use known hashtags to find relevant tweets. That way you can find targeted relevant content that you can easily share.

Uncovering Hashtags On Instagram:

Once you have the Instagram app opened, locate the magnifying glass image on the home page:

Once there you will be able to search the hashtags that are trending:

Locating Hashtags On Facebook:

You are able to use the Facebook search bar to find hashtags:

Trending topics are not the same as trending hashtags and this is confusing sometimes.

Although trending topics might be useful as it appears on your Newsfeed’s right side, keep in mind they are NOT based on hashtags.

Finding Hashtags On Google+:

Once you insert a hashtag into your Google+ content, you will get a list of hashtags that are relevant to your content. This is a great way of locating related hashtags for your post.

How To Find Hashtags On Pinterest:

You are able to use Pinterest search to find hashtags that can be used for tagging and discovery.

Once a hashtag is searched, other pins that have keywords or descriptions that are similar will be displayed in the search results (which also include pins with similar terms within the URL, image name, or product page related to the Pin).

Using Hashtags On YouTube:

Hashtags are usually in the comment areas on YouTube. You can do a hashtag search for trending or popular video topics.

Previously when you clicked on a hashtag in YouTube you were taken to related posts in Google+, but now you are taken to a page on YouTube:

Using Hashtags On The Various Social Networks

The Best Way To Utilize Hashtags On Facebook

Do you actually need to use hashtags on Facebook?

Research has shown that hashtags on Facebook do not improve engagement. In other words, it might actually be better not to include hashtags at all. A recent study showed that posts which included hashtags only got .80% viral reach. On the other hand, posts that didn’t include hashtags received a viral reach of 1.30%.

Furthermore, hashtags are not recognized in the Facebook search bar. You can only find hashtags by clicking on the hashtag in the content of the post.

Using Hashtags On Twitter

Go with a maximum of 2 hashtags per post as user engagement has been shown to grow by 21%, but that drops to 17% if you use 3 or more hashtags in a single post.

The same is true for your Twitter bio, don't overuse hashtags. Never fill your bio with only hashtags.

Using Hashtags On Instagram

Images with over 11 hashtags often get the most user engagement, but if you overdo it, it can come across as spammy.

Using Hashtags On Pinterest

On Pinterest, results will show for keywords within your hashtags. For instance, a Pin description with a hashtag will lead followers to posts closely related to those keywords and not to just for that particular hashtag.Pinterest does not necessarily index the hashtags you selected to use.

Fewer hashtags on Pinterest seem to perform better. Research has shown that Pinterest will reduce your Pins’ value if it has an excessive number of hashtags. Additionally, customized hashtags seem to the best way to utilize hashtags on Pinterest. This approach directs visitors to your own personal Pins as opposed to directing them to a wider topic related to your hashtag.

Using Hashtags On YouTube

As stated on SproutSocial, the comments areas are the most popular place to use hashtags on YouTube. Hashtags can be used to group your content by topic, which uses keywords as the basis for your hashtags.

Boost the popularity of your videos on YouTube by posting related hashtags in the comment area of your videos. When a viewer clicks on the hashtags in the comments, they will be taken to a page with that hashtag in their title.

The Best Ways To Make Your Own Hashtag

At some point, there could be a need for you to make your own hashtag. There might be an event you want to compliment and that way your followers can track your later social posts. Perhaps you have a marketing campaign you want to make unique with its own hashtag.

Whatever the case might be, we suggest the following:

Great hashtags are:

● Unforgettable.

● Original.

● Related to the information you’re sharing.

Be balanced:

● It should be original but easy to remember.

● Keep your hashtag specific so they are easy to track.

Best Practices For Hashtags

1. Be aware of Correct Hashtag Etiquette On The Various Social Networks

Hashtags on Instagram tend to be more focused on related topics or descriptions. But, hashtags on Twitter are more geared towards a theme or discussion. Familiarize yourself with the way your unique target market makes use of hashtags on their social networks. Once you have done that, engage in the discussion appropriately.

2. Apply Hashtags That Are In Line With Your Brand

You might want to use the latest trending hashtags, but you are better off using your own hashtags that are in line with your brand. Really think about the hashtags that apply to your brand's message, content, image and target audience. Let's say your target audience is over 40 years old, hashtags that use youth slang will not work well for your brand.

3. Make Hashtags For Marketing & Advertising

Running a marketing and advertising campaign? Hashtags are a great way to get the word out.

4. Use Short & Original Hashtags

You only get 140 characters on Twitter, therefore your hashtags need to be short otherwise people will not use them as it will reduce the amount of content and links they can post. Too much or overly long hashtags will not get you more attention, it will have the opposite effect.

This pretty much goes for the other social networks too. Even on networks where the hashtag length isn't important, you should still keep it short and unique. Shorter and snappier is always better.

5. Capitalize The First Letter Of Every Word

In a long hashtag like this #whenyouputmanywordstogether, it becomes jumbled up and is hard to read.

However, if you capitalize the first letter of every word like this #ButIfYouCapitalize , reading it is much easier and you can recognize each word in just a glance. There is no case sensitivity for hashtags, therefore capitalizing the first letter of every word makes the hashtag more readable.

6. Make Use Of Hashtags In Twitter Chats

Twitter chats are web based events focusing a full discussion around a hashtag. They’re a powerful way to develop meaningful connections with your target market and promote engagement with a brand related hashtag.

Common Mistakes To Avoid When Using Hashtags

These tips are simple and some of them might be new to you. However, if you fall into the trap of these mistakes, your social engagement will suffer and your message won't get across.

1. Never Use Spaces Or Odd Punctuation

Always go with #SuperBowl instead of #super bowl. Social networks will only pick up the first word. Punctuation marks should never be used. Numbers can be used if there is some text such as #sdmg16.

2. The @ Symbol Is NOT Allowed In Hashtags

The purpose of your hashtags isn't to tag the users of your network. Therefore if you combine the @ symbol with your hashtag, you will only tag that specific user and your hashtag won't be delivered at all.

3. Too Many Hashtags Is Not Good

#It #Would #Be #Very #Annoying #To #Have #To #Scan #Over #Thirty #Hashtags #To #Find #Out #What #They #Mean.

4. Never Spam

Some people, brands, and websites applied popular hashtags on their social post without those hashtags being relevant to their content, just to boost their posts.

This approach worked initially for a short time, but Instagram caught on and cleaned up spammy accounts and some people lost a huge following overnight. Needless to say, this approach does NOT work anymore.

5. Do Your Hashtags Have The Meaning You Want?

Be careful as hashtags usually, refer to cultural trends or events in the news. It is always a good idea to do a bit of research before using a hashtag to make sure you are not associating with unrelated content.

6. Be Sure Your Hashtags Actually Work

Your hashtag will not work if it has punctuation or a symbol in or after the hashtag. For instance, if your intention was to post #I’mback, the networks will only read #I. When the blue text turns black you will know you have a broken hashtag and you will need to edit it before sending it out.

Numbers or Letters right before the hashtag will make it unusable. For example, 123#abc will not link to abc and won't work at all.

Hashtags of only numbers will not work either, but if you toss in a letter or two it will link properly. Therefore #12345 will not work however, #123abc will.

If You Want To Increase Brand Awareness Make Use Of The Above Tips

Your social media engagement and message can be adversely affected if you use hashtags incorrectly.

Knowing when, where and how to make use of them is critical. With the above tips, you now have a solid foundation on which to build!

Do you have any great ideas on how to effectively use hashtags,please share in the comments below.

Have you ever wondered what makes a business transaction an absolute success? Is it what happens at the beginning and the end of that transaction that determines success? A buyer sees the success of a transaction as not what only happens at the beginning and end but what goes on during it. And, what the buyer sees going in the middle of the transaction ends up laying out two things for a company:

· Brand longevity

· Content market strategy success

Here’s the issue though: content marketers tend not to put much stock or investment into the middle process – dismissing its value to the entire transaction. That’s a huge mistake!

For there to be a success, you must realize that the entire transaction process matters – not just the beginning, end, and middle, but as a whole… it matters.

A majority of content marketers have an understanding of what makes an impact on their industry, meaning they know that:

· Inbound marketing method can lead to 54 percent more sales than the traditional marketing method

· 78 percent of CMOs view custom content as marketing’s future.

· About one-fourth of all businesses will focus more of their budget on content.

The Content Marketing Institute conducted and wrote a B2B content marketing report. It showed that even though there can be a success, it can have only six percent of B2B marketers said that they’ve had any real success with their content marketing plan.

This means that even though the leads were high within successful top-funnel campaigns, the investment return isn’t projecting this success.

Mid-Funnel Content: How To Bring Together The Top and Bottom Funnels To Ensure Success

Between the top funnel (initial interest) and the bottom funnel (final sale) is the mid-funnel content. Think of this part as the meat, cheese and condiments of a sandwich, holding together the two pieces of bread.

For B2B companies, the most important part is the mid-funnel content. This is due in part to the complicated nature of B2B sales cycles and the time that needs to be spent in developing and cultivating relationships with prospects. Compared to the mid-funnel content of B2C companies, the focus is more on customer-relationship management.

How can you know if you’ve developed the right mid-funnel content? The first thing to consider is where these mid-funnel prospects will originate from and what happens to them when they arrive.

Where do mid-funnel people come from? They’re leads that have seeped down from the successful top-funnel content or stay in the system as possible repeat buyers. The premise behind this mid-funnel content is to help prospects throughout the buyer’s journey, giving them material that makes them understand your brand and becomes “attached” to it.

It’s imperative that a deep connection is made at the top of the funnel; to ensure that content is geared toward the various aspects of your target audience. All content approaches are going to differ based on where they fall on the spectrum, but even though that’s the case, the principle stays the same.

There are three things mid-funnel content needs to have:

· Leads that been nurtured, and will lead to sales

· Educate your current and target audience on the various factors that make your brand different

· Always strive to make an emotional connection with your target audience to ensure brand loyalty and advocates

The content within the mid-level range tends to be informative, influential and targeted. It tends to be geared toward the folks in your CRM system already. And, thanks to marketing automation technology, your mid-level content ensures your target audience gets your content at the precise time it’s needed.

Top-level content tends to be broader, helping you to extend your reach to the target audience. The mid-level content, on the other hand, needs to be intentionally constructed in a way that people who want your product will be encouraged to purchase it.

And, segmentation is the surefire way to build your mid-funnel email strategy. Gender, age, and location are important aspects, but it’s the behavior-driven groups that ensure a valuable connection is made with individual users.

When it comes to paths and your mid-level content, it’s important to remember that your newsletter subscribers have a path that differs from your YouTube campaign. In turn, this means they’ll expect different content material. And, long-form readers and podcast subscribers also have their own ways in which they react to your service and product.

What are the effects of the original segmentation patterns?

· Figure out who your target audience is

· Where your target audience is coming from

· What your target audience is looking for

· Delivering targeted material to your audience at the right time to ensure engagement

6 Types Of Forms Your Mid-Level Content Can Take

There are several forms that your mid-level content can take:

Targeted Newsletters

This type of mid-funnel design generally takes an action-oriented, emotional slant. For example, CoSchedule is a WordPress editorial calendar plug-in, which keeps an eye on its audience’s behavior and divides people based on their engagement in emails and on-site.

In-Depth E-Books

A way to produce top-funnel leads is to generate e-books. These books help to strengthen the relationship between your company and audience by offering a plethora of information on a certain topic. One such expert at this is HubSpot, with persuasive, information-laden e-books that can be embedded in both blog posts and the newsletter.

When used as a mid-funnel tool, the emphasis isn’t about getting leads but helping the buyer through the evaluation process.

Case Studies

One of the easiest way to show your prospects what you do; extremely useful for content marketers so that the information can be reformatted into social media material, blog posts, etc.

Fact Sheets

A more precise way – no beating around the bush method – to let your prospects know what it is you want to tell them is to use a fact sheet. How can you explain to your buyer why it’s best for you to solve their problem?

White Papers

This is a long-form fact sheet or e-book that provides important information and how-tos for its entrepreneurial audience.

Integrated Email Campaigns

IEC (integrated email campaigns) must be more strategic than the usual weekly newsletter blast. The premise behind the IEC is to offer another source of information that boosts the connection between your brand and your target audience.

Return On Investment Calculator

ROI calculators permit prospects to type in the company and website information to find out what the necessary investment needs to be to attain goals. Bear in mind that the above list isn’t the end all be all. How your content comes across is dependent upon how each aspect works into your company’s sales goals.

It’s also important to remember that there’s no one size fits all content template for mid-funnel content creation. There are three things that determine the success of your mid-funnel strategy:

· Case-specific information

• · Creativity

• · Specificity

Automation: How You Can Organize and Financially Benefit From Your Mid-Funnel Content Strategy

One of the biggest mistakes marketers make after their attain leads and spiral them to the top-funnel content is provide them with final-sell content – things these leads wouldn’t find useful and leads to a communication and relationship breakdown.

Here’s an example of how a mid-funnel conversation could go:

Brand: You know you have to have this”.

Receiver: You don’t know what I need. Good-bye”.

It’s important to remember that your mid-funnel prospects are people, and they want some form of familiarity before a relationship is initiated. And, this means you must engage with them in a thought-provoking way… geared to just them!

Enter automation…

Professional marketers will change their mid-funnel approach to ensure they have dependable, reliable content geared toward certain individuals and groups. Automation, especially email, will streamline the process, personalizing the data during this ever-important time of relationship establishment.

Behind the segmentation patterns is the ability to understand better the motivation and behaviors your customers – what drives these behaviors and motivations. You need to determine why they act/behave the way they do so that you can tailor your content so that they’ll want to purchase your products and become a brand loyalist.

What do you think of when you hear the word “automation”? Most people, perhaps yourself included, think something robotic and unfriendly. However, automation is actually the exact opposite.

With the help of Pardot tags, lists, rules and more, and Marketo’s snippets and smart lists, you can set up your audience in an organized fashion that will keep them engage.

With the Act-On program, marketers can do sorting based on company attribute – location, department, title, timeframe and behavior.

Important information will support the role the automation function has in boost your mid-funnel content strategy. Don’t think so? Think of this: automated emails are opened 119 percent more times than broadcast email. This means nurtured leads tend to make 47 percent larger purchases. And, companies are sitting up and taking notice, with 84 percent of well-known organizations saying they will or are going to use marketing automation by year’s end.

How should your automation mid-funnel content strategy work? Well, look at your email inbox to get a better understanding of this strategy. It won’t be difficult to determine what companies have you automated into their system and which companies just blast you with content.

How Does Lead Scoring Work To Determine Campaign Success

Remember, mid-funnel content is the bridge between intrigue and sale, so how can a measurement of its success be attained?

Your goals will outline the metrics to be used for mid-funnel measurement. For instance, if your mid-funnel campaign goal is to provide certification or an upgraded service, the newsletter subscriber that never clicks on links will have a different value from the newsletter subscriber who reads the article on your blog and downloaded an e-book about the topic that correlates with the improved service.

These leads may have come from the same location, but the values assigned to them are different because of the end action.

Act-On, Marketo, Oracle, and Salesforce use their own CRM mechanisms to assist them in assigning a value to prospects, using segmented engagement. The lead-scoring process is set up as a numerical system, which allows you to assign points to your targeted audience based on different variables:

• · Age

• · Behavior

• · Gender

• · Location

This will lead to an evolving number for each person.

This leads to a double effect:

• · You’ll learn how close someone is to making a final decision

• · It lets you keep track of touch points

With this information, you learn what the return on investment is for certain content pieces.

The idea is to give you a better understanding of three things:

• · Segmented lists

• · Groups’ behaviors

• · Personalized emails

From them, you can know what the important metrics are and figure out the attribution.

Recap: 3 Important Things To Remember For Successful Mid-Funnel Marketing

Mid-funnel marketing has no hard and fast rules to it. Yet, there are some important things to remember when developing your content marketing campaign. You can use the information as a guide, printing it out if necessary.

Make sure your mid-funnel goals are aligned with your overall sales targets. You want your sales and marketing always to be in sync. Marketing leads to leads then to sales while sales offer you a plethora of insight.

Use automation tools and email campaigns, making sure not to forget how power personalization, segmentation, and behavior-driven lists can have an impact on your mid-funnel strategy. You want a well-thought out segmentation so that you’ll be exposed to a plethora of valuable leads.

Keep tabs on those mid-funnel folks who actively engage with you, keeping touch with them in real-time. Yes, you’ll be using marketing and sales collaboration to make this happen. Be sure the metrics you use correlate with your goals. You want to make sure that your audience knows what makes your brand different and what leads your audience to become a customer. Never, ever undervalue the content engagement metrics.

In order to make a real impact, consider tying your mid-funnel content strategy in with your social strategy. This will help increase brand recognition and trustworthiness as well as brand authority.

Do you have questions or comments about B2B mid-funnel content strategy? Consider leaving them down below.

When traffic comes to your website, your desire is that they’ll become a regular visitor. How can you do this? Well, a way for visitors to become regulars is to get them to take some type of action – join your mailing list, purchase a product, etc.

The problem with turning traffic into regular visitors is the engagement. Without it, it doesn’t happen. How can you engage with them to entice and stimulate their thought process to carry out the action you want them to do?

This is when you need a call-to-action on your website!

Call-To-Action: What’s It Set Up To Do?

The premise behind a call-to-action is to entice customers to do what you want them to do. With an effective call-to-action, website visitors can become customers. There are three elements to an effective call-to-action:

• Thought-provoking, actionable words

• Proper call-to-action design

• Actions people take when visiting website

An effective call-to-action produces the feeling of urgency within the customer, telling them what they should be doing and what actions they need to take. In fact, adding colors to a design is less effective than a thought-provoking call-to-action.

When you develop a marketing campaign, you need to look at your call-to-action. If you’re not clear in what action your visitors need to take, your marketing campaign, even if it’s the best, won’t work like you want it to. With an effective call-to-action, you can ensure your visitors come back to what you’re offering them.

7 Key Ways To Ensure Your Call-To-Action Is Effective

Get To The Point and Appeal To Your Visitors’ Senses

In order to ensure your website is working to create a business, you must be sure that your call-to-action gets to the point of what you want and appeals to your visitors’ senses. You need to want to come across as someone they can benefit from. The last thing you need to do is play guessing games with visitors. Do that, and they’ll leave and never come back.

Be Precise

When coming up with your call-to-action, don’t use long, windy sentences and words. This only confuses your visitors. Instead, be precise and to the point. Use action words to show the urgency of your message. Short phrases and sentences quickly capture their attention, which makes them take action sooner… rather than later.

Pay Attention To Dimensions

Yes, even the dimensions of your call-to-action can make or break your marketing campaign. Therefore, use round-edged buttons instead of sharp edges. Ensure the action buttons are large enough to be easily seen on a smartphone, tablet or another device so visitors can click on it then and there. Your visitors may not remember to follow through on the action later on. An effective call-to-action is set apart from the website design and page. You want it to stand out – in a positive way – so that your visitors can easily see it.

Avoid Complex Tasks

If you want visitors to take action, you must ensure the task isn’t complicated for them. The more complex a task is, the higher the chance for them to leave. Give them everything they need to know to carry out the task you want them to.

Show Off Your Call-To-Action

In order to receive additional clicks, you want to ensure your call-to-action can be clearly seen. You don’t want it buried deep within the page’s content where it may be “accidentally” overlooked. Make sure it’s noticeable for your visitors to see.

pop up call to action

Have Multiple Places The Offer Can Be Seen

When it comes to the number of times to show your call-to-action message, you need to find the line between too little and too much. You don’t want it just once on a page – you can include in the toolbar for easy access or throughout the website. If you’ve created content about a product, include the call-to-action at the top and bottom of the page. Your first button will engage the customer and the second one ensures they take action.

Test and Re-Test

In order to be successful, you must learn from what works and what doesn’t work. You’ll need to test an array of combinations to ensure your call-to-action button is working like you want it to. And remember, even if it is working, you’ll need to continually test it to ensure it stays that way!

In order to have a highly-effective call-to-action, you must spend a considerate amount of time and money on it. You want to make sure that your message is coming across to visitors clearly – you don’t want them to have to read between the lines. Clearly describe what you want them to do, and constantly test your call-to-action campaign to ensure it’s working like you want it.

Your business’ success is dependent upon the effectiveness of your call-to-action. Don’t leave it to chance!

If you want to design beautiful call-to-actions for your website then check out this software.

Do you have an idea of the number of blog posts that are published each day?

Well, the answer will blow your mind.

Over 2 million!

This means that by the time you are through with reading the sentences above, about 46 people would have made an attempt to publish. Now, without a doubt, this number is enormous and it becomes difficult to be unique from the rest of the pile. But then, you have to, particularly if you want your blog to be a successful one.

While it is possible to spend 2-3 hours on writing those blog posts, the more important period is the few minutes which could be between 10 & 15 minutes used in optimizing each of those posts.

Now you can see why millions of people Google the term “SEO” each month.

In a digital world where over 90% of online experiences begin with a search, being found on the front page of Google can be the deciding factor between a business that’s growing and one that's at a standstill or probably bankrupt.

Yes, SEO is not a new term but what exactly does it mean?

I mean sure, almost everyone knows that it stands for search engine optimization, but what exactly gets optimized ? What exactly is at the center of optimization?

Is it the design, the writing or the links maybe?

Well, yes to all that but it's so much more than just that. So why don't we start from the scratch?

1.Definition

Let's go by Wikipedia definition, SEO is “the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s unpaid results”

Okay, now in a language that we can all understand. Here’s my personal interpretation of it:

SEO is the process by which your online content is optimized such that it gets shown as a top result for searches of a certain keyword on a search engine.

Let me break that down even further:

There’s you, doing the SEO, the search engine, and the searcher. Let's say you have an article about how to bake sponge cake, and you want the search engine (which, in most cases, is Google), to show it as a top result to anyone who searches for the phrase “sponge cake”, then SEO is the best way to get that done. It's what will make Google very likely to include your article as one of the top results whenever someone searches for that keyword. Simply put, SEO is the magic needed for that to be pulled off successfully.

2.Overview

The next question you might ask is, what exactly does that magic look like, and why is it even important?

For starters, about 93% of online experiences start with a search engine, 68% of which rely on Google for that experience.

Now in addition to that, the first 5 results in Google get 67% of all clicks, so I hope that you get an idea of why SEO is so important.

There’s a joke going around the web that emphasizes why it is necessary to hit the front page of Google:

If your blog post, article or product appears on any other page of the Google search results apart from the first page, then it's similar to not being ranked at all.

However, to understand how to be a regular on the first page of the results of relevant searches, you first need to know how search even works.

Now that you have a basic idea of SEO, let's examine some of its components in detail.

Now, what search engines do is that they try to provide the most pertinent results to the inquiries made by a searcher which could range from a simple question like “which country is Elton John from?” (The answer of which Google will likely provide without you having to leave the SERP) to more complicated queries such as “what is the best Chinese restaurant nearest to me?”

How search engines provide these results is due to their own internal algorithms, which we’ll probably never really know, but there are factors that we know for certain tend to influence these results and it's all about the level of relevance… For instance: a searcher’s location, their search history, time of day/year, etc.

3.The quality of your content

Do you happen to publish helpful, useful articles, videos or other types of media from time to time that is popular and well-produced? Do you make your writing real by targeting actual human beings rather than the search engine itself? Well, tell you what, you should.

This is because latest research from Searchmetrics on ranking factors shows that Google is tending more towards longer-form content that centers on and understands a visitor’s intention as a whole, rather than just using keywords based on popular search inquiries to create content.

So invariably, with SEO you need to make providing the best user experience your concern and be less focused on keywords.

4. User experience

This is quite important as you need a site that can be navigated and searched easily with relevant internal linking and related content. Just make sure your site is filled with all the stuff that will keep visitors on your web page with the urge to even explore further.

5. Site speed

The speed at which various sites load is constantly turning out to be a marker for search engines. Google may soon start labeling results that are hosted on Accelerated Mobile Page (AMP) so this might be a sign that the ‘mobilegeddon’ of 2016 is already taking place.

6.Cross-device compatibility

How well optimized are your website and its content? Will they fit in on any device irrespective of the screen size? Bear in mind that Google has stated that responsive design is its preferred method of mobile optimization. So the above points should be considered in order to get this done.

7.Internal linking

Yes, clearly, your site should be easy to use and navigate but on top of that, you need to carry out internal linking as this will help to drive traffic to the site and also increase your trust signal with Google.

Internal linking has many advantages:

• It expands the reading options of your audience. This will be possible as long as the content is relevant and you make use of clear anchor text (the clickable highlighted words in any given link). Furthermore, this will bring about a reduction in your bounce rates.

• It helps with an improvement in your ranking for certain keywords. If you are interested in making an article to rank for the term ’SEO basics’ then you just have to start linking to it from other posts using variations of similar anchor text. This then informs Google that this post is relevant to people searching for ‘SEO basics’. However, it is recommended by experts that you vary your anchor text pointing to the same page or else Google may term multiple identical uses as ‘suspicious’.

• It helps Google crawl and index your site. Those little Google bots that are sent out to fetch new information on your site will have a better idea of how useful and trustworthy your content is, the more they crawl your internal links.

8.Authority

An authority website is one that has gained the trust of its users, the industry it operates in, other websites and search engines. Normally, a link from an authority website is of immense value because it’s viewed as a vote of confidence. So once you have more of these, combined with a higher quality of content that you produce, the chances of your own site becoming an authority is significantly increased.

However as the aforementioned Searchmetrics research suggests, year-on-year correlations between backlinks and rankings are decreasing, so perhaps with time ‘links’ may not be as important to SEO as we once thought.

9.Meta descriptions and title tags

Having a Meta description isn’t a guarantee for better ranking on the SERP, but it is something you should definitely consider making use of before you publish an article as it can help to increase your chances of a searcher clicking on your result.

The Meta description is the short paragraph of text that is seen under your the URL of your page in the search results, it’s also a feature that should be in your complete control.

You need to make sure it is precise (under 156 characters is good), clear and highly relevant to your headline and the content of the article itself.

Title tags inform search engines and visitors what your site is about in the most concise and accurate way possible. This is made possible because the keywords in your title tag are highlighted in search engine results (if the query uses those keywords), as well as in your browser tab and when sharing your site externally.

You can write your own title tag inside the <head> area of your site’s HTML:

<Head>
<title>Example Title</title>
</head>

You should make use of just a few accurate keywords to describe the page as well as your own brand name. However, ensure that only relevant keywords are used and don't forget to keep your writing focused on people even though you are trying to keep it in line for search engines so that you don't end up losing your audience.

10.Schema markup

This helps to make your search results look more appealing and all you need to do is add this feature to the HTML of your pages. Consequently, your search results can be turned into a rich media playground, adding star-ratings, customer ratings, images, and various other bits of helpful info.

Schema is also the preferred method of markup by most search engines including Google, and it’s no doubt due to its ease of use.

If you don't know how to create Schema markup language there is an easy WordPress plugin available that does the coding for you.

11.Properly tagged images

Many people tend to forget to integrate the alt attribute when they upload images to their content, but this is something that you cannot afford to overlook because Google cannot ‘see’ your images, but can ‘read’ the alt text.

So providing an accurate description of your image in the alt text will increase the chances of your images appearing in Google Image search.

Furthermore, it will also improve the accessibility of your site for people making use of ‘screen reader’ software.

12.Evergreen content

Rather than splatter the Internet with a host of ‘quick win’ news stories with little knowledge, you can simply go for more evergreen content that will get people talking.

You need to understand that more thoughtful and helpful articles filled with practical information that people can make use of will lead to the generation of that constant buzz you wish for in the long-term wins as well as an increase in the traffic to your site. It will also allow your site to occupy highly visible positions in the SERPs.

13.Domain names

You should use sub-directory root domains (searchenginewatch.com/category/seo) rather than sub-domains (searchenginewatch.category.seo.com) as this is better for your overall site outlook and structure.

You should also eliminate hyphens (search-engine-watch.com) as well as alternative Top-level domain names (.biz .name .info) as these are considered spammy.

Having a ‘keyword rich’ domain name may bring about closer scrutiny from Google. According to Moz, Google has “de-prioritized sites with keyword-rich domains that are lacking in quality. While it is undeniable that having a keyword in your domain can be beneficial, however, it can also bring about closer scrutiny and a possible negative ranking effect from search engines—so be careful here.

Also, ensure that if you operate a site without the www. prefix, anyone who types in www.example.com will still be redirected to your site. If not, Google may assume these are two different sites and your level of visibility could be compromised.

14.Headlines and permalinks

When it comes to the headlines for your articles, preferably, keep it under 55 characters to ensure they are completely visible in SERPs. Make sure they’re brief, catchy and descriptive as much as possible (though this might be impossible a lot of times). Basically, just avoid click-bait headlines, and do not promise something that is not contained found in the content.

The permalink (or URL), which can normally be changed in your CMS even after it’s been set automatically, is not a must to match the headline exactly. Google has given you the room to use three to four keywords and all you need to do is put the most important keywords first.

15.Comments

Do not turn off your comments system because it allows people to talk about your content either positively or negatively. But at least, you get to know that people are reading it and you observe as they discuss your content. This means you're generating a buzz and you will be able to know what to improve upon and what to otherwise maintain.

Just be sure to remember to filter out spam comments, or if any slips through, ensure it is removed immediately. Furthermore, ensure that you add the no-follow value to your comments section so Google ignores any erroneous links that may appear.

The best way to filter out spam in your comments is with this WordPress plugin called Akismet.

16.Local SEO

It looks like Google is providing users with search results based on their location. This is a big bonus for businesses especially those that need to grab a searcher’s attention just at the right moment, i.e. while walking down the street, on their mobile or looking for somewhere to eat.

You should register with Google My Business and then make sure that all of your information is accurate and regularly updated such as opening times, contact information, customer reviews and also that you’re in the right category.

17.Social

Social media marketing is one way to raise your site's visibility without the technicality of SEO.

This means being present on all relevant social channels (wherever your audience may be), and rather than broadcast your content in a faceless manner, use it as a means to truly interact with people in a friendly manner while also being helpful and entertaining.

The actual relationship between social signals and search rankings is debatable but here’s a good overview of the subject.

What are search engines NOT looking for?

There are many ‘black hat’ practices that can bring the full consequence of a Google penalty down on your site, so the best thing is to avoid doing the following as much as possible even if it looks like a brilliant easy win at the time.

18. Keyword stuffing

This involves making use of keywords excessively on your pages, especially when it is clear that they interfere with the readability of your site. Though it’s still under debate as to whether keywords are still used by Google as a ranking factor anymore.

19.Link buying or excessive link exchanging

Are you trying to get links externally in the hope of boosting your site's visibility? Well, squash the thoughts right now because it's not worth it. The most valuable links to your site are the ones that come from authority sites found within your own niche.

20.Annoying ads

These are stuff that looks overly intrusive and ends up interfering with the pleasure of reading your content while at the same time slowing down the speed of your site.

21.Mobile app interstitials

If mobile visitors to your site are met with a full-screen advert to download your app, then you will no longer be considered mobile-friendly by Google.

22.Duplicated content

If Google finds two similar pieces of content, be it on your own site or on another that you’re not even aware of, it will only index one of those pages. So that means you should be conscious of scraper sites that might steal your content automatically and republish it as your own.

23.Hidden text and links

There are ways by which you can manipulate rankings that may not be visible to a user but you can be sure Google will probably find and punish you for.

Stay away from using white text on a white background, positioning text off-screen, setting the font size to zero or hiding a link in a single character like a comma or a full-stop.

Monitoring Your Results

Last, but not least, you will want to follow-up your SEO progress by monitoring your results. There are two very important tools that you can utilize to monitor these results and they are:

· SEO Powersuite – Create a free account or paid account. This tool can be used to track keyword rankings for your website so you can see if they are moving up in search results.

· Google Analytics – Use Google Analytics to learn more about the visitors to your website. In particular, this tool allows you to track your organic search traffic sources to see the keywords people are using to find your website in search results.

This way, you can see the keywords that lead to visits which motivate visitors to do what you want them to do on your website such as signing up for a mailing list or purchasing a product. This will help you learn what keywords you should be targeting with your SEO campaign.

This is not to say that there are no other valuable SEO tools out there, but these are the best ones to start with to help you understand more about your SEO efforts and determine whether they are effective or not.

Clearly this isn’t everything that you can do to help your initial SEO efforts, but it’s a good start.

So, if you have any comments, kindly leave them below.

Now, when it comes to choosing a web host provider, you need to choose wisely so that the purpose of having the website in the first place is not defeated. Now this article will be discussing some important factors to consider before making your decision on a good Web host provider. So let's get started.

1. Reliability and speed of access

A good Web host should be working at optimum speed and must be reliable but apart from that, the uptime (the time when it is functional) should be guaranteed. So in order to do this, you should be on the lookout for a web host with at least an uptime of 99% and even at that it's low.

Preferably look for something like 99.5%or even higher and there should also be the provision for a refund of some sort (e.g. prorated refund or discount) if it happens to drop below that figure.

However, let me point out here that you as the recipient of the services of the Web host, you cannot enforce this guarantee particularly if the provider fails to admit the presence of any downtime.

Be that as it may, the lack of guarantee will mean that you will not get optimum performance from making use of the web host because the provider will not be motivated to keep the servers running at all times. So as much as you can, try and get that guarantee.

2. Data Transfer (Traffic/Bandwidth)

Data transfer (commonly called "traffic" or "bandwidth") refers to the amount of bytes that get transferred from your site to visitors whenever they browse your site.

There are some commercials with the advertisement of "unlimited bandwidth". Well, please don't fall into the trap of believing that because usually the host has to pay for the bandwidth, and if you consume too much, trust me when I tell you that they will not sit back and just pay for it. Nope, you will bear the cost and it might leave you red-faced when you see the amount you’re about to pay for too much bandwidth consumption.

So don't be fooled, unlimited bandwidth doesn't exactly exist which means you have to monitor the amount of bandwidth that you are using.

So in choosing that web host, ensure that you check the details on the amount of traffic the package can take. Apart from that, do not get sucked into promises of incredibly huge amounts of bandwidth because most likely, your website will never be able to consume that much because it will hit other limits, and a good example of such is resource limits.

Let me give you an estimate of the usual traffic requirements of a website; now, most new sites that don't provide video or music on their site use less than 3 GB of bandwidth per month. However, as your site grows in popularity, so will your traffic requirements (guess there's a price for everything) which means you will need to check the policy of your bandwidth provider when you exceed your data transfer limit.

You can do that by asking questions like: is there a published charge per GB over the allowed bandwidth? Is the charge made according to actual usage or are you expected to pre-pay for a potential overage? Once these questions are answered correctly, then you can keep growing your website.

3. Disk space

A lot of new sites especially the ones that do not host videos or music require less than 20 MB of web space, so even if you were to come across a host that makes you an offer of 100 GB (or "unlimited space"), be careful because the probability of you utilizing that much space is low, so don't let that offer be a criteria for choosing a web host when comparing the choices you have.

4. Technical support

This is another important aspect to consider. You need to know if the technical support is always available all year round including weekends because I am sure you will like your website to be functioning without any glitch and should one occur, then it should be fixed immediately.

So any Web host whose technical support cannot function 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (often abbreviated 24/7), and all year around should definitely not be considered.

5. FTP, PHP, Perl, SSI, .htaccess, SSH, MySQL, Cron

Ensure that all the things listed above are present before you pay for a web hosting account.

Note that there are some commercial hosts that will bar you from installing PHP or Perl scripts without their approval and it is preferable to not go for such because it means they will have to give their approval before you can implement a feature on your site which is not too good for you. The freedom to create or make adjustments to .htaccess files is needed if you want to be able to customize your error pages (404 pages) or protect your site in various ways (such as prevention of bandwidth theft and hotlinking, password-protect a directory (folder), etc).

SSH access is useful for test-running certain scripts (programs), maintaining databases, etc. MySQL is needed if you intend to run a blog or a content management system. Cron is a type of program scheduler that lets you run programs at certain times of the day (e.g., once a day). So you need to check and know if these facilities are provided.

6. SSL (secure server)

This is important if you are interested in the sales of goods and services via your website, then it's better to check and see if the web host will allow you to set up SSL (a secure server). You may have observed this on other websites in which their web address begins with an "https://" rather than "http://".

Though it should be worthy of note that making use of this might bring additional charges or even a higher priced package. So the best thing to do is to check out the availability of this feature before committing to the host. SSL is required if you intend to collect credit card payments yourself and also for SEO because SSL is now being used as a ranking factor by Google.

7. Email, Autoresponders, POP3, Mail Forwarding

If you are interested in having your own site, it's better to have email addresses on your own domain, like [email protected] or something like that. You need to have the following questions answered before making a choice of web host:

Are you allowed to set up any email addresses you want on your domain, such that mail can be forwarded to your current email address, or placed into a mailbox on your web hosting account itself?

Is there a chance to set an email address that will automatically respond to mail sent to your inbox with a preset message known as an autoresponder?

Then lastly, can you use your email software to retrieve your mail?

8. Control Panel

This is referred to in various ways by different hosts, but most importantly, they allow you to adequately manage the different aspects of your web account yourself. At the very least, you should be able to carry out simple things like add, delete, and manage your email addresses, and also change passwords for your account. I mean it is not going to be convenient to start going through the technical support of a web host anytime I want to change a password or add/delete an email account.

Such tasks are simple maintenance chores that every webmaster carries out regularly and having to wait for the technical support to make such changes for you is simply unacceptable. So don't go for such.

9. Multiple Domain Hosting and Subdomains

For those who might be looking to sell web space or have multiple domains or probably host subdomains in your account, then you need to check if the web host you want to choose provides this. Also, you should check the amount that they charge for it and also know whether it is a one-time payment or monthly charge.

10. Web Server and Operating System

Is the type of operating system and server important? You bet it is.

In general, a lot of people will want to sign up for a web host offering a Unix-based system (like Linux, FreeBSD or OpenBSD) and also running the Apache web server. Most web-based software assumes your website is running on such a system, and most likely, fewer compatibility issues will arise from it.

11. Price

While it is undeniable that price is always a factor as would be expected, most times what you get is in proportion to the money paid though that doesn't necessarily mean that the most expensive hosts will give you the best services.

12. Monthly/Quarterly/Annual Payment Plans

Most web hosts allow you to select an annual payment plan that gives you a cheaper rate than if you were to pay monthly. So in making a decision, ensure that they have at least a 90-day money back guarantee so that if you happen not to be satisfied, you can transfer to another host.

13. International

If you don't stay in the USA, you can host your site with some local provider. This makes it easy to deal with them since they will be accessible easily. And if your target audience is local, then hosting your Web locally is probably the best.

On the other hand, hosting it in the USA provides you with faster access to what is probably the largest number of your overseas visitors (especially if you have an English-speaking audience). Also, there is quite a number hosting companies that you can choose from, which means cheaper prices as well.

14. Others' Reviews

You should take your time to check out what other people have to say about the web host. You will find them around so do your best to check them out and let that guide your decision.

The Myth of the Perfect Commercial Host

Generally, the possibility of a "perfect" web hosting company existing is imaginative at best. Look even paying a huge amount of money for your hosting is not a guarantee for excellent service. This is an interesting industry where a high price does not necessarily mean quality hosting and support.

One thing is probably sure, though, you will not get quality support or service by paying a meager sum of money. I mean you think about it; if a company should charge extremely low prices, how you think such company will be able to afford the help needed to take good care of its users or clients.

In the end, you'll probably end up settling for a trade-off between price, reliability and features that you're willing to live with.

If you have any comments please leave them below. Bizwebjournal is hosted with Inmotionhosting so feel free to check them out before you decide on which web hosting to use.

Ever since the arrival of the initial ‘Mobilegeddon’ update on 21^st April 2015, mobile-friendliness has been an important factor when it comes to Google search results. In its blog post two months earlier that seemed to herald changes in the algorithm , Google pointed out that it wanted to provide better user experience by ensuring that users “find it easier to get relevant, high-quality search results that are optimized for their [mobile] devices”.

In the past couple of years, Google has reiterated and emphasized its commitment to mobile-friendliness by providing a label that is ‘mobile friendly’ which will be unique to the mobile-friendly websites such that they can be easily differentiated.

Also, changes were made to the mobile search results page which consists of user-friendly URLs and expanded site links, while also launching Accelerated Mobile Pages to provide an ultra-fast mobile experience.

Now, through this latest update, Google has increased and improved on its mobile-friendly ranking signal even further, thus making it a priority for owners of a website to ensure that the standards of Google are met in this regard.

Bearing that in mind, the question of 'how does my site meet the required standard?' becomes inevitable and has to be answered. Well, not to worry, we have come up with a simple list that can help you achieve that.

Don’t use Flash

Most mobile browsers are unable to provide Flash content, so obviously, an undeniable and important rule when creating a mobile-friendly site is: don’t use Flash. The mobile usability report from Google stylishly gives a warning that you should make use of “modern web technologies” to display your page content, animations and navigation instead. Ouch!

Make sure your viewport is set properly

A viewport is a form of Meta tag that provides instructions as to how various page dimensions and scaling can be adjusted such that they can fit in with the width of different mobile devices. This normally appears at the top of your Webpage.

Without a viewport tag, mobile browsers will automatically revert to displaying the page at the width of a desktop screen which is not what you want if you are interested in making your site mobile-friendly. Google has a tutorial on how you can set the viewport for your page and thereby ensure that it’s accessible.

What not to do: set your viewport to a pre-defined width. Trust me; you don't want to do that. While there are some that will set the viewport to a fixed pixel width that will only be suitable for common mobile screen sizes, but not every kind of device, such are not considered by Google to be mobile-friendly.

So watch out and not do a rush job or you might end up paying for it in a way you are not prepared for.

There are instructions in Google’s tutorial which when followed while also making use of the viewport value width=device-width, will guarantee that your page matches the width of whatever device your visitors are using.

Furthermore, making use of the attribute initial-scale=1 will also allow your page to fill the screen irrespective of whether the device is portrait or landscape, thus allowing you to take advantage of the full width of the screen.

Finally, make sure that your content is properly sized to the viewport. If you happen to set absolute CSS widths for page elements like images and videos, this can bring about a problem for devices that are narrower or smaller than the already-specified width. However, you can maneuver this by making use of relative width values, such as width: 100%, in your CSS.

Use large font

If your viewport has been well configured, then font sizes will be scaled according to the user’s device, but some additional recommendations for font have been made by Google.

It recommends using a base font size of 16 pixels, with any other font sizes (such as small and large) specified in relation to that baseline. Also, the vertical space between lines should be set at 1.2em.

Furthermore, as much as possible, avoid using too many different fonts and font sizes, as these cause you to have messy and complicated page layouts.

Space out links and buttons

Links and buttons, also known as “tap targets” by Google, are harder to press on a mobile device compared to a desktop browser, due to the fact that fingers are wider and of course lack the accuracy or precision of a mouse cursor.

There are penalties in place by Google for pages with extremely small tap targets such that they are too close together to press accurately.

The average adult finger pad is about 10mm wide, so a minimum tap target size of about 7mm, or 48 pixels wide is what Google recommends and accept– at least for the most important tap targets; like frequently used buttons, navigational links, search bars and form fields.

Less frequently used targets can be smaller, but there should still be enough space between them so that the user will not make a mistake trying to press a different one. It is recommended that the space around smaller tap targets is at least 5mm.

Don’t use full-screen pop-ups

Large or full-screen pop-ups and overlays commonly referred to as “interstitials”, such as a mailing list sign-up form or app promotion, can turn out to be extra disruptive on a mobile device.

While a big, attention-grabbing pop-up might seem like a good idea from a business’ point of view, they have been deemed fit by Google that they interfere with the experience of mobile browsing and any site that uses such will be penalized.

Instead of a full-screen pop-up, it is recommended that you use a banner, or implement app indexing, which will allow content from within your app to appear in search results, making it quite an efficient method of promotion.

Run a check with Google’s tools

The easiest way to double-check whether your site is hitting all of the right targets for mobile-friendliness is to use the tools Google has provided to run a check.

Google’s Search Console, formerly known as Webmaster Tools, has a ‘mobile usability’ section that will determine any lingering issues with your site, usually one of the errors listed above.

You can also check the mobile health of individual WebPages by simply pasting the URL into Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. And Google Developers has a section listing common mistakes made when designing for mobile, which has some additional detail on things like unplayable content, faulty redirects and 404s and how such can be fixed.

The need for speed

In its recommendations for working with a developer to build a mobile-friendly site (if you aren’t able to make the necessary changes to their website yourself), Google puts in a suggestion to ask your developer to “make a commitment to speed”.

Google doesn’t include a slow loading speed in particular as one of its ‘must correct’ mobile friendliness issues, but it's common knowledge that speed is a ranking factor, and statistics show that a site with a slow loading speed will regularly experience abandonment by users.

So if you want to provide the best user experience and also give your mobile-friendly site the best chance of a higher ranking, consider speeding it up as much as possible.

Google’s PageSpeed Insights has a ‘mobile’ tab which will give your page a mobile speed rating out of 100, coupled with advice on how the elements that might be slowing it down can be appropriately taken care of.

It will also give your mobile page a user experience ranking out of 100, and flag up any mobile-friendliness issues in the same way as Google’s other tools.

There’s also Accelerated Mobile Pages, Google’s ultra-fast mobile web pages which run on an updated version of HTML. Building an AMP version of your site for mobile is another way to be sure it’s fast and mobile-friendly, though many SEOs are still holding back on implementing AMP for a number of reasons. It’s an option, but not a compulsory in order to have a fast and Google-friendly mobile site.

When you do decide on creating AMP pages and your website runs on the WordPress platform there is a very useful plugin available that will make it easy for anyone to create AMP pages .

Now, if you have any ideas on optimizing your website for mobile please kindly drop your comments below.

Posting an article on your blog with only text looks boring and it doesn't help in grabbing the attention from your readers. That's why I have put together a list of image resources and tools so you can turn your articles into attention grabbing content that will keep your readers on your website.

Remember that Google since recently increased the importance of a low bounce rate as a ranking indicator. The longer visitors stay on your website, the lower your bounce rate will be so this will improve your organic ranking as such.

You know what they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. I often get asked the question, where can I find good royalty free images? Which tools can I use to make my images unique?

If you don't have the time or the interest to search and design your own images you can always use a great design service like 99design but that's entirely up to you of course.

In this article I want to share my top sources to find royalty free images for your WordPress blog posts and the tools I use, so you can make your content stand out.

I know there are many more image resources out there besides the ones in my list but I want to share what I have experienced as being the most useful and free which I use on a daily basis.

We all know it's easy to build a list of at least 100 or more image tools and image resources but for me personally I don't see the need .

Let's start with the image resources

1.Pixabay

They offer copyright-free, cost-free images with no attribution required. You can copy, modify, distribute and use their images, even for commercial purposes. The images are sorted into categories and tags and they have an advanced search function available. No registration is required.

2.Stocksnap

Another well-known destination with lots of great images available on this website which are also free under the Creative Common license. Sign up is available but not necessary.

3.Pexels

One of the best image resources I think, Pexels adds 20 new pictures each day all free to use on your website. You can even bookmark images for later on if you want to.

4.Freedigitalphotos

Like the name says, free images available in 16 different categories. They have a very good advanced search function . Freedigitalphotos has a free and paid option, with the free download you have to give attribution in your article.

5.Freeimages

They have free and premium images available. I don't use Freeimages much but once in a while, you find something useful for free in their database. Unfortunately, most images are premium on this website.

6.Freerangestock

What I like about Freerangestock besides the fact that they have great images available is that they have 30 different categories. So if you need something out of the ordinary here is the place to look.

7.Publicdomainpictures

This is a repository for a wide variety of free public domain images uploaded by amateur photographers. A brief signup is required. (Premium download is an option if you need larger images.)

8.Picjumbo

This one offers a variety of free photos for any kind of use—free of charge with no registration required. Picjumbo has no search function but categories will help you find your way around.

9.Creative Commons Search

This is kind of a photo search engine clearinghouse that offers access to search services provided by other organizations like Flickr and Google.

For example, searching for “ SEO” on Creative Commons Search and selecting Google Images brings me here. Note that the search has been set up with special parameters.

10.Google Advanced Image Search

If you want to search directly in Google for free images you will have to use an advanced search so you don't end up using copyright protected images which will get you in trouble. A detailed guide on how to do an advanced search can be found here.

Tools to create unique images

Now that we have found our images we should make them unique so they will stand out.For this, I use a few different tools. Let me tell you how I do this on Bizwebjournal in this order.

1.Canva

This one is my favorite tool to make my graphic designs unique.It's very simple to learn which I consider it to be very important and it's also free. It doesn't take long to design something and they have a lot of tools available such as icons or graphs.

2.Pablo

This is a free tool from Buffer which I also use once in a while if I want to do something very fast. It's also very easy if you want to share your image immediately on Twitter or Facebook.If you want to do a quote tweet, for instance, I recommend you always put the text on an image.

As we all know you get far better results when using images in your Tweets. With this tool from Buffer, it will only take you like 2 minutes to create something nice and catchy.

3.Screenshots

I like to use a lot of screenshots to explain something in my articles, we all know that an image says more than a 1000 words. I prefer to use 2 tools called Jing and Nimbus. Jing is faster if you only need a screenshot and sits on top of your desktop screen, Nimbus is a chrome extension and a great tool if you want to add arrows and text to your screenshots

4.Thinglink

If you want to create interactive images for your website this is definitely the right tool.You can make your images come alive with video,text,music and more if you want. This way you can pack a lot of content in a small space.

5.Picresize

When my image is ready I always use this tool to resize my image. For instance, I use 800 by 340 for my featured images and 600 x 300 for my other images I place in my articles. You can use it with JPEG or PNG format images, whichever you prefer and you can also set what the result should be, upload a JPEG and download a PNG is possible with this tool or the other way around.

6.Image Compression

It's very important these days that you have a very fast loading speed for your website. As this is considered as one of the most important ranking factors by Google. Keep your website loading time under 4 seconds at all times or your bounce rate is going to go thru the roof. Visitors have become very impatient, I know.

I also have a WordPress plugin installed called WPsmush so very image I upload is compressed but even then I always compress my images before upload so the image size is as small as possible without losing image quality of course.

For image compression I always use TinyPNG, just drop in your PNG or JPEG file and in a few seconds you get a compressed image 60 to 70% smaller than the original image ,that's a lot of kilobytes in the long run. With 3 to 4 images on each post we are talking about 1 MB easily per article.

That's it, you are all set to go and create stunning images for your website. Do you know of any resources I should add? Please let me know in the comments below and I will be happy to add them to the post. Feel free to bookmark this page for later reference.