Monthly Archives :

January 2018

Cracking the Google Code
Cracking the Google Code 1024 536 Asith Hettiarachchi

Googling something is one of the most frequent tasks we do on a day-to-day basis from finding a home remedy for common cold to purchasing a car.

Though there are many search engines out there, Google still leads the search engine industry, since 1998. Their ability in delivering the best search experience and a better business exposure are the two main reasons that helped Google secure the spot as the best.

Yes, Google gives great exposure for businesses than other search engines do and now you know why being on top of Google search results is the dream of any website owner.

If you are a website owner and looking for ways to rank higher on Google in order to get more organic traffic to your website, this article is for you. We dedicate this post to explain our audience how Google works and what it takes to rank higher on it.

So, let’s start with…

How does Google search engine works?

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Imagine a librarian in a library that has all the books, magazines, and other materials that exist in the world. Google is similar to such a librarian. The only difference is that Google only has content that exists on the world wide web.

Just like a librarian, google searches, sorts and delivers the best materials to fit your needs upon your search request.

For this, Google uses two main processes.

  • Google index, the process of adding web pages to Google search
  • Crawling, the process of discovering new and updated pages to be added to the Google index by Googlebot.

Though we think that we search the whole web when we search Google, what really happens is Google go through its search index to find the matching results for your search query.

Google bot is the software developed by Google to help them with the scanning, finding, adding and indexing new web pages. It’s the search engine spider for Google.

Now you have a better idea of how Google works, let’s have a look at how to rank on Google.

How to impress Google?

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Ranking on Google depends on many factors. Yet above them all lies content as the prominent key to Google ranking success. It may be web content, blog posts, press release, social media content or videos, creating relevant and quality content can majorly impact on ranking higher on Google search.

But just creating quality and relevant content alone can’t get the job done for you. This is why you need to pay attention to using the right keywords that you want your web pages to rank for and right metadata, the data that you sent to Google search engine that is not visible to readers.

The Long Game

Appearing on the first page of Google search results doesn’t happen overnight. It requires a long-term Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plan. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the practice that can be used to improve the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.

There are two types of SEO techniques people use for ranking higher in Google search. They are,

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Black Hat SEO

Optimizing the web pages to rank higher on search results, breaking search engine rules focusing on only search engines.

  • Duplicate Content
  • Invisible text
  • Stuffed Keywords
  • Cloaking or Redirecting user to another website or page
  • Links from websites with non-relevant content

White Hat SEO

Optimizing the search experience for humans who search, not for the searching bots.

  • Relevant Content
  • Well labeled images
  • Relevant Links and references
  • Complete sentences with good spelling and grammar
  • Standards compliant HTML
  • Unique and relevant page titles

Although black hat SEO techniques can give you fast results, such practices may result in your site being banned from Google for using unethical techniques. Which is why leaning more towards white hat SEO practices is important. This can be a long-term investment in terms of SEO.

Just creating a website is not enough to get more business in the digital world. So make sure to pay more attention to optimize your website for search engines.

If you are interested in attracting more organic traffic to your website, give us a call and book a free consultation session with one of our SEO experts.

Watch Out For These 7 Social Media Trends in 2018
Watch Out For These 7 Social Media Trends in 2018 1024 536 Asith Hettiarachchi

From all of us at Jigsaw to all of you… Happy New Year! It’s already 2018 and the season of holidays are over. It’s time for you to switch from holiday mode to work mode and up your game for 2018… For all the brands and marketers out there, here are the latest social media trends we expect to see more of in 2018 based on what we’ve seen in 2017.

1. Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality


At first, social media was just text, then came photographs, videos, GIFs and memes. The next big thing is AR and VR which will take off in 2018 as big companies like Facebook, Google and Apple keep introducing new tools and services incorporating these technologies.

2. Live streaming


Live streaming dominated the whole year of 2017 and will get even bigger in 2018 as now many audiences and brands are more comfortable with the content format and experience on live streaming in 2017.

3. Focus on Generation Z


Time has come for your brand to switch your focus from millennials to generation Z. Born between mid-1990s to mid-2000s, Gen Zers is the first generation who grows up 100% online and is slowly entering into the labour force. Thus, marketers have to adjust their social media marketing strategies to stay ahead of the game.

4. Online Hangouts


The rapid growth of apps where you can live chat with multiple people at the same time, made a splash last year, grabbing the attention of major social media platforms’ like Facebook and it’s a trend that goes hand in hand with live streaming and Z generation.

5. Privacy and open source


2018 will be a year, more people lean towards platforms and social apps that maintain user privacy as their top priority or offer open source APIs, so the users are sure their information won’t be sold to advertisers.

6. Gamification will extend to social media apps.


Gamification, applications of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts, will make a significant impact on this year. We expect to see a rise in social media and gaming hybrid apps in 2018.

7. Ad growth


With the decline of organic reach on social media platforms, we’ll see a bigger shift in ad growth in 2018. Though we are not sure yet that paid advertising is not the only way to get seen or not, brands will definitely have to increase their budget in social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to get sufficient results.

Social Media Marketing Challenges in 2018

1. Less Organic Reach

Organic reach keeps declining on many social media platforms year by year. Therefore, brands have to have better strategies for consumer engagement and outreach formats to build a very specific and highly engaging community than just trying to please everyone.

2. Social Media Video Peaking

Video shined on social media advertising last year more than ever and will continue to peak in this year as brands reaped amazing results with video advertising. As different social media platforms offer different video capabilities, brands will find it challenging to build a strategy that balances their business goals and the video offering of each social media platform.

3. Tool Fatigue for Brands

With new social media tools popping up everyday, brands and marketers will face tool fatigue trying to tap all the new audiences that come along with the new tools. And this creates it more challenging it for marketers and brands to find them and focus on the right tools that bring them the most ROI.
So, there you have the top social media trends we think will explode in 2018. If you need any help or insight in planning your social media strategy for 2018, of course, you can get in touch with us.

For now though, here’s to a year of online marketing success!