Julian Di Benedetto or the ascent of a digital marketing influencer? Instant messengers are the latest communication trend. There are 1.5 billion people globally using WhatsApp on a monthly basis, followed by Facebook Messenger and WeChat. If you want to be where your audience is, enter instant messaging marketing. Most popular global messenger apps, based on the number of monthly users. Source: Statista. This type of digital marketing exploded over the last couple of years. People are much more likely to trust the information sent via a messenger (as if it comes from a good friend) than email or SMS that are vulnerable to spam. An example of messages from a marketing consultant Matthew Barby, sent via a Facebook bot. There are different ways how you can proceed with instant messaging marketing, from using them for customer support to updating your users about new posts on your blog. But just like with any other digital marketing type, before diving right in, I’d recommend that you develop a strategy first.

Make sure on social media that your business is as engaging as possible. Provide feedback to customers asking questions. Pose open-ended questions that encourage discussion. Have all the relevant links available for people to click through so that they have easy access to the main website. It’s certainly impressive to see a growing list of supporters on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and more, but it’s the engagement with your website links that will begin to move the needle in search results.

Julian Di Benedetto web design advice for today : HTTPS makes the pages on your site more secure by encrypting information sent between the visitor and server. It’s been a Google ranking factor since 2014. You can tell if your site is already using HTTPS by checking the loading bar in your browser. If there’s a lock icon before the URL, then you’re good. If not, you need to install an SSL certificate. Lots of web hosts offer these in their packages. If yours doesn’t, you can pick one up for free from LetsEncrypt. The good news is that switching to HTTPS is a one-time job. Once installed, every page on your site should be secure—including those you publish in the future.

What about local SEO ? Julian Di Benedetto : NAP Citations: As you can see from the above image, citation signals account for 13% of the ranking factors. For anyone unfamiliar with citations, they are online references of your business in relevant directories around the web. And NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone Number. The more consistent NAP citations you have for your business, the more are the local SEO benefits. But, keep in mind that inaccurate or inconsistent citations are likely to negatively affect your local SEO. If you have done citations in the past that may seem to be inconsistent, get a citation audit done through a professional to fix the NAP variations.

Julian Di Benedetto and the best website design picks: It’s not the visual design of a Web site that determines its success or its failure. Rather, it’s the usability. Remember, you’re not the person who’s clicking the mouse. It’s the visitor on your page. So if they can’t find something on your website and might as well not even exist. So when you’re designing a website, a really helpful tip is to ask friends and family members to test your site’s navigation so that they can give you feedback on usability. This will help you ensure that the user experience is as seamless as possible. There’s a three-click rule that should apply to all websites, and that is the user should be able to find what they’re looking for within three clicks. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s absolutely true. Don’t make navigating a web site hard work for your audience. Otherwise, they’re not sticking around.