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  • Why Promoting Your Business Online is Now More Important Than Ever

    Why Promoting Your Business Online is Now More Important Than Ever

    With the advancement of modern technology, businesses are changing the way they promote their products and services. Nowadays, more and more businesses are investing in digital marketing strategies to increase their online presence and remain competitive in a dynamic and competitive marketplace. In this digital age, your potential customers, as well as your direct and indirect competitors, are all online. If your business is not properly promoted online, now is the time to start investing in a well-planned digital marketing strategy. 

    Almost every business, whether big or small, can reap numerous benefits from promoting their businesses online. There are countless ways that online marketing can benefit businesses, and this article will focus on some of those benefits, to provide you with greater insights. 

    Here is why promoting your business online is now more important than ever.

    Reach More Key Customers

    Regardless of the location of your business, you can use different online platforms to reach potential customers around the world. Bringing marketing team experts on-board is really important in getting the help you need even when your business is an addiction center, as they would make it easier, less time-consuming, and more cost-effective to reach customers. As the Internet has become readily available to more people, the way customers shop or search for help has changed drastically. Customers are now browsing online for products and services that they need. If you are not promoting your business online, you will miss out on this enormous audience of over 4.2 billion internet users.

    Save Resources on Traditional Marketing 

    One of the many reasons why businesses are increasingly using online marketing activities is that online marketing is very affordable. It is not only small and medium-sized businesses that need to be mindful of their marketing budgets but large corporations too. Traditional marketing methods are very expensive compared to the cost of online marketing activities. For instance, email marketing, social media marketing, and content marketing are far less costly than placing advertisements on television or distributing large billboards or print marketing materials. Additionally, as online marketing content can be updated more frequently and with better targeting, it can result in better return-on-investment (ROI) as well. Therefore, by strategically implementing a comprehensive online marketing plan, your business can save resources to allocate more funds into different marketing mixes that include both traditional and digital marketing activities. 

    Increase Your Business’s Profile and Visibility

    Nowadays, customers are more likely to research their options and investigate businesses before contacting or visiting any product or service provider. Therefore, if you gain better visibility online, you will have a better chance of customers considering you. For instance, if a customer performs an internet search for a service or product that you offer, proper online marketing activities will ensure that customers can see your business on the result pages. However, better visibility means more than just appearing on result pages. Your business should also implement different marketing activities on social media.

    Target Customers More Effectively

    With better targeting, you can focus your marketing efforts to customers that have the most potential. Personalized marketing content and targeted marketing efforts can foster more engagements from people, and thus increase sales. With online marketing tactics, you can create multiple personalized messages for different target groups rather than a general marketing message for everyone. Remember, customers tend to respond better to personalized messages with meaningful contact and positive experience. Therefore, online marketing efforts matter when it comes to turning leads into sales for any business. 

    Stay Competitive

    The reality is that the majority of your competitors will be promoting their businesses online, so to retain your competitive edge in this digital era, you must do the same. It is helpful to keep an eye on how your competitors are marketing themselves online and on the growing trends in the marketplace. For instance, consider what type of platforms your competitors are using, what type of content is popular, and how businesses in your industry normally engage online with customers and potential leads.  

    Participate in the Online Conversation

    As people are relying more and more on search engines, forums, and social media sites, it is clear that what they find online will ultimately influence their purchasing decisions. According to a study by Ironpaper, approximately 93 percent of people’s buying decisions are highly influenced by social media sites. Customers are now prone to look at reviews on Facebook and consider opinions on forums such as Yelp and TripAdvisor. Without online promotion on these platforms, your business will struggle to stay relevant.  

    Promoting your business online is not difficult, but it can yield countless benefits. It is important to implement online marketing into your long-term marketing plan to ensure that your business remains competitive, sustainable, and fully accessible to customers.

  • How Has the Internet Changed in the Last 20 Years?

    How Has the Internet Changed in the Last 20 Years?

    The internet has revolutionized the way we operate businesses, how we consume information and music, and how we communicate. However, this was not the case two decades ago. The internet was created in 1989, and ever since, it has gone through a period of transition. 

    This article will continue to explain in detail how the internet has changed in the last two decades to understand how everything came to be as it is now.

    Social Network in the early 2000s

    By 2001, Wikipedia was already emerging as a top online hub for information. It grew even more once Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911 came to the public domain.

    However, one of the most notable improvements was experienced when Apple was able to lay a foundation for its steady growth, as we see today. iTunes came in to allow subscribers to download their favorite commercial jams legally and make 250,000 sales in just a day. This brought to a halt the reign of the Walkman and the disc. People were now able to download infinite songs, and they did not face the risk of scratching disks and skipping tracks anymore.

    Skype was also invented as a way through which users could call each other for free on the network. However, there were more developments at hand, and soon, the platform was developed for messaging and videoconferencing. Beyond videoconferencing, this technology found use in the medical industry, allowing physicians to treat their patients from afar.

    By 2003, Linkedin and MySpace were launched, giving rise to social media sites as we know them today. Later in 2004, one of the most revolutionary social media sites, Facebook was invented by Mark Zuckerberg. Today, Facebook owns WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger, making it a social media giant.

    The Smartphone Revolution in the Mid-2000s

    Before, internet users could access the internet through dial-up connections. However, this was a slow and excruciating process. For instance, a 6 MB picture could take up to 15 minutes to download. Today, it takes approximately 2 seconds. The smartphone revolution began with the development of YouTube and, subsequently, the blogging culture.

    YouTube was developed in 2005 as a video-sharing website, thanks to the growing popularity of audio-sharing that provided a foundation. Google later purchased YouTube for an astounding $1.65 billion.

    Twitter began as a microblogging site and allowed for an instant wider reach to an audience. As Facebook opened its doors to the public domain, the first iPhone was released, revolutionizing the internet as now, people could access it on the go.

    People no longer had to be on the desktop to access the internet, and apple tapped into its growing market by launching an App Store that contained up to 500 applications.

    Android was founded in 2003 and later bought by Google. Android soon had an app store after the launching of the iPhone, too, allowing users to download applications and perform different tasks.

    Social Causes 

    The internet has also been used for social good, especially in the 2010s. After the discovery of social media, it has been used as a tool for encouraging social change. From as early as 2011, there have been online protests organized through social media, including the Egyptian uprising and protests that helped oust Hosni Mubarak, the dictator president of Egypt. In the same light, online hashtags were used to highlight the plight of Nigerian girls kidnapped by the Boko Haram so that they could return home.

    It is also in the 2010s that there has been a rise in the vlogging/video blogging culture during this time, and these kinds of bloggers cover content from all niches, including cooking, fashion, beauty, travel, and much more. The result is a multi-billion dollar industry that is quickly changing how advertising works.

    The Internet and Business

    Businesses have recently embraced the power of the internet into their operations. Two essential functions that are now carried out over the internet include cloud storage and online marketing. Consumers tend to look for brands online and do not necessarily have to walk into a brick-and-mortar store to get what they need. Brand messages are delivered through mobile phones and browsers anytime and anywhere. Businesses have learned to exploit these platforms and are now sending commercial messages to get noticed. It is now common to see an advertisement just before reading a news story. The print industry as a medium for publication and dissemination of information has declined because of the presence of information online.

    Businesses have also changed the way they collect and store information. Instead of stocking piles of paper in a warehouse, data is processed differently. Email marketing, social media, and cookies help businesses collect data that helps companies understand their customers. Data protection laws have come up, as a result, to help protect consumers and activities as well. Business processes such as data storage are now done on the cloud, which has helped businesses to operate more efficiently. 

    There are companies out there that focus their attention on offering managed IT services customized to a business’s needs. You can click here to have a detailed understanding of how companies can benefit from these services. Some of the services beneficial to companies resulting from the internet business revolution include enhanced cybersecurity, maintenance of IT systems, electronic recycling, and cloud services. These solutions ensure that a business can be operated from anywhere, and the data will be safe. This improved efficiency and convenience make companies more likely to buy these products.

    There have been more tremendous changes in the last two decades. One of the notable advancements in the wake of the 21st century was the development of social media platforms. Today, the social media movement has become a force that cannot be stopped. Smartphones also came in and revolutionized how we accessed the internet, and now, people can connect only with the touch of a button. The internet has been a driver of social change and has impacted how businesses are conducted, and data is extracted and stored. Further changes of the world we know today are yet to come.

  • AhrefsBot: What is AhrefsBot And How To Block AhrefsBot?

    AhrefsBot: What is AhrefsBot And How To Block AhrefsBot?

    AhrefsBot is a web crawler that powers a link database for Ahrefs online marketing toolset. The bot constantly crawls the web to fill their database with new links and to check the statuses of the previously found ones. In other words, AhrefsBot is a bot that is primarily used as a backlink checker.

    It is common to see AhrefsBot in your Google Analytics data especially when your site is generating a good amount of traffic and your competitors are planning your traffic/doing keyword research on your site.

    In the next few monutes, you will learn everything about Ahrefs bot and how to easily block AhrefsBot.

    Introduction to AhrefBot

    What Is Ahrefsbot

    What Is Ahrefsbot

    According to ahrefs.com, every 24 hours the bot crawls over 6 billion web pages and updates Ahrefs’ index every 15 – 30 minutes.

    Link data collected by Ahrefs is used for a variety of purposes and for digital marketers to plan, execute, and monitor online marketing campaigns.

    Some people claim that Ahrefs’ web crawler is a bad bot that does not respect the robots.txt file and bypasses disallow and allow rules. However, Ahrefs disputes this claim by saying “We absolutely strictly respect robots.txt: both disallow and allow rules. Please see https://ahrefs.com/robot for full transparency on our crawler.”

    The bot can also use up your website’s bandwidth and make your website slower. Another concern with the bot is that it is used by spammers that participate in referrer spam indexing in order to spam your website with unwanted referral traffic.

    Other people have reported that the company behind the bot is known to be dishonest and provide misleading support to those who have questions about the bot but we cannot validate these claims.

    How to block AhrefsBot quickly?

    There are two ways you can block AhrefsBot. First, robots.txt and the second is .htaccess files. It is important to note that by blocking AhrefsBot, it will not negatively affect your ranking (if done right). However, it might lead to a reduced opportunity to be able to score some paid sponsored post opportunities.

    More importantly, you want to block AhrefsBot because you want to avoid your competitors from doing research on your site.

    Method #1: Update robots.txt file to block AhrefsBot

    By default, the robots.txt file is a permission file that allow or disallow cralwers to crawl a website. By adding simple code to the file can stop bots such as AhrefsBot from crawling your site.

    Here’s how it is done:

    You are required to add this code to the robots.txt file. The robots.txt can be found in your website’s root folder. If you have problem searching for this, I recommend you to speak to your web hosting for some support.User-agent: AhrefsBot Disallow:/

    Method #2: Block AhrefsBot using the .htaccess file

    This method is a powerful and effective method to block other bots from crawling your website. Using .htaccess file, you can easily determine which bot to filter out from accessing your site. For this method to work, we will be blocking the IP ranges that AhrefsBot uses.

    Add these details below to your .htaccess file. You can find your .htaccess file at the root of the files of your site.

    deny from 173.199.64.0 – 173.199.127.255

    Apart from that, here are other IP ranges that are often used by Ahrefs (and something you might consider):

    54.36.148.0/2454.36.149.0/2454.36.150.0/24195.154.122.0/24195.154.123.0/24195.154.126.0/24195.154.127.0/24

    It is important to understand that Ahrefs may change the IP’s from time to time. If that happens, simply add the same code to your .htaccess file with the updated IP addresses but keep this range in there.

    Bonus: Blocking Ahrefs Bot

    Here’s another nifty trick to block Ahrefsbot from scouting your site.

    RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/robots.txt$ RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*AhrefsBot.*$ [NC,OR] RewriteRule ^.*.*

    Summary:

    I hope you find this tutorial on how to block AhrefsBot easy to follow and effective. If you need any help, feel free to reach out to me using the comment form below!

  • Who Viewed My TikTok Profile And Videos?

    Who Viewed My TikTok Profile And Videos?

  • 3 Tips for Enhancing Your Professional Luck

    3 Tips for Enhancing Your Professional Luck

    When it comes to being successful, professionally speaking, there are certain things that everyone knows are essential.

    Hard work, diligence, and attention to detail fall into this camp. If you are significantly lazier than the competition, less mindful than the competition, or more distracted than the competition, things probably won’t fare very well for you.

    But aside from these “obvious” factors, there’s always the wildcard of “luck.”

    To some extent, “luck” is obviously an unpredictable and seemingly random force. But in some ways, you can significantly enhance your professional “luck” through proper preparation, and the right approaches.

    Here are some tips for enhancing your professional luck.

    Always be on the lookout for good opportunities, and seize them as soon as you can

    There are all sorts of opportunities out there that can have the potential to transform your professional life, as long as you notice them and seize upon them at the right moment.

    The phrase, “the right place and the right time,” is basically a comment on finding and seizing upon opportunities that have a major positive effect.

    Of course, you can’t necessarily reliably predict where opportunities will be found, or when they might arise, but you can certainly take steps to acquire the habit of always looking out for good opportunities, and spotting them as soon as possible.

    Simply subscribing to a good service for discovering business tenders, for example, might work wonders in this regard.

    Be as disciplined and organised as possible, so that you’re ready to receive and capitalise on the opportunities that come your way

    In addition to spotting opportunities early and seizing them, you also need to actually be ready to receive and capitalise on those opportunities in the most effective possible ways.

    To a large degree, this comes down to being as disciplined and organised as possible, so that you are properly on top of your tasks and projects, have a good comprehensive overview of your professional appointments and obligations, maintain a stable and efficient workflow, and can easily and quickly act to incorporate new elements.

    Begin by tidying up and organising your workspace if it isn’t already, utilising a powerful task and project management system, and becoming diligent about your scheduling and time management.

    Know what you want, and simplify your professional life in line with your goals

    If you don’t know where you want to get to, no map will help you to get there, and no street signs will mean very much to you one way or the other.

    In order to actually recognise professional “luck” for what it is, never mind to actually seize upon opportunities effectively, you have to have a clear idea of what you want, and you need to be able to simplify your professional life in line with your goals in order to reduce distraction.

    Many entrepreneurs fail to notice compelling opportunities, because they are so distracted by all the other elements of their businesses they are trying to juggle.

    Narrow your focus. Aim to do less, but to do it better. Have a specific goal you’re aiming for, and then keep an eye out for opportunities that are in line with it.

  • Why Your Website’s Rank is Crucial in Digital Marketing?

    Why Your Website’s Rank is Crucial in Digital Marketing?

    The booming technological advancements made a lot of changes in society. A lot of things are available online, making everything one click away through mobile phones, laptops, iPads, and other forms of gadgets. Availing home loans, paying bills, gambling for relaxation and many types of necessities are available online.

    Shopping and buying things online has also become a common practice. That is why many businesses are making use of technology. Moreover, they build their websites to promote, sell, and reach their consumers. It then makes digital marketing a competition that requires a lot of skills and knowledge. 

    Digital marketing is the use of any platform on the internet to promote your business, such as SEO or Search Engine Optimization which provides a local search engine optimization service. It keeps the rank of your website on top of others in the search engine like google. Also, it leads to probable consumers into your website. That is why the rank of your website is crucial. 

    When building your website, you should know the different factors to make it successful. The following are the reasons why your website’s rank is crucial in digital marketing.

    Individuals Prefer Websites with a High Rank

    When researching on the internet, the first website that an individual opens is the one with a high ranking. If your website has a high ranking, there is a higher chance of having a lot of consumers click on the link of your website. Through the help of SEO, user experiences also become better. It enables them to locate what they are looking for in a short period. It enables the user to save more effort in looking for an answer.

    When they like what they saw on your website it can also serve as a platform for advertising your business. Consumers can share your website in their social media account like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, enabling more consumers to visit your website. Social media accounts are also effective in advertisements. Therefore, many businesses also use these to advertise their business. 

    Your Website Rank Makes You One Step Ahead of Your Competitors

    As a business owner, you need to look for ways to be on top of your competitors because you won’t be able to avoid having other websites that offer the same products as you. Through the use of a local search engine optimization service, you can become one step ahead of them. SEO enables your website to appear on the research panel first which makes consumers visit yours first.

    However, the use of SEO is not the only factor in digital marketing. The website design of your website is also important. Ensuring a professional, eye-catching, and consumer-friendly website design for small business is a factor that you should inculcate in mind. It is their first step in making their website known, and their business bigger.

    The website design includes many factors like SEO, security, layout, and more. Through website design, promoting your website will become easier since it makes you in control. 

    A Website’s Rank Makes Them Trustworthy

    When looking for services or products online, most consumers research it on sites like google. It is the first thing that comes into their mind and the first link that they see has a high rank is what they open first. They believe that those links are trustworthy and provide excellent services compared to the others.

    When your website does not appear on the search panel during their first attempt, it is more likely for consumers to question your website, leading to lower credibility. Therefore, it only proves that SEOs are very important. When doing digital marketing, you need to find ways to target your consumers. Through SEO, it helps websites connect and build their relationship with their consumers or clients. Furthermore, it also guarantees that your website is credible.

    Given this, there is a higher chance for consumers to visit your website, again. Most importantly, when they had an excellent experience with your services. They can become your loyal consumers. Therefore, when you are building your business, keep in mind that your consumers will always be an essential factor in your success. They are the ones who will make your business known in society. They can also be the downfall of your business. Therefore, it is important to build a trustworthy relationship with them.

    Your Brand Will Be Known

    In digital marketing, many websites use this to advertise or introduce their product. Through having a high rank, it can come into reality. Many known online businesses succeed in building their brand by keeping a high rank. Their rank enables them to invite more consumers into their websites.

    This makes SEO very essential in the success of digital marketing. Without SEO in your digital marketing, your strategies may go into waste. The efforts of doing everything to make your brand known can become useless. Therefore, to build up your brand, look into the importance of SEO in your marketing. However, knowing what SEO does is not enough.

    You should also know how it works and how you should use it. There are many ways of how SEO can help you make your brand famous. It teaches you how to make your content for it to become appealing and attractive.

    The following implies that the rank of a website is crucial. It is where the visibility and success of the website lays. Through the high rank of a website, products, services, or anything that you are offering, can be visited and availed.

    Therefore, it is important to make use of the services of website design providers. Even start-up businesses can avail of this because website designs are now cheaper. You do not need to worry about the expenses you might make because they can provide a website design with complete factors such as SEO for your website at an affordable and worthy price.

    Also, the following shows the importance of having and understanding the reason for having a website with a high rank. It makes one realize that it is an ingredient in making your business bigger.