How To Create A Great Website That Is Valuable To Your Audience?: February 2015

How Snapchat Can Be Used To Grow Your Audience?

Snapchat is an exciting new social media platform through which people can send photos and short videos to each other. We recently talked about some of the ways you can market your brand on Snapchat. One problem for brands was, reaching out to their potential customers. Pulling contact numbers out of your marketing list was less than desirable. With a new update though, Snapchat has added the Discover feature for users to discover new content.

A potential growth opportunity for brands!

What is Discover?

The new discover feature gives users a new way to discover and explore content and stories from different editorial teams. This new tool was the result of collaboration between various media leaders to help build a story. Snapchat says the tool is unique...;

"...because it has been built for creatives. All too often, artists are forced to accommodate new technologies in order to distribute their work. This time we built the technology to serve the art: each edition includes full screen photos and videos, awesome long form layouts, and gorgeous advertising."

The discover tool can be found by clicking the bottom right corner of your open screen that leads to contacts and then clicking the purple circle located in the top right corner of your contacts page.

Personalized Ghost/QR Code

Snapchat has also released a new way to find followers. Every person on Snapchat now has his or her very own ghost. The ghost sits in the middle of a yellow box, which has several black dots. The dots are individual QR codes.

This means, that user can now take screenshots of their ghost, post it on social media and ask people to follow them. It also means that users can easily find brands on Snapchat and add them from anywhere their ghost is posted.

How does this work? A user simply points the camera at another person’s ghost and clicks on the white ghost in the middle of the screen. This will automatically add the user to their contact list.

Snapcash

Snapchat also partnered with Square, a payment processing app, to create Snapcash. Snapcash is integrated into the Square Cash Platform and allows users to connect their debit cards and send cash to other users. Once the debit information is connected to a Snapchat ID, users can send cash to other users by using their Snapchat ID. The user that was sent the money will receive an alert to their profile. If the user wants to accept the money, the user has to add their debit information to their Snapchat profile.

Business opportunities

Considering that most of Snapchat’s users never log out of the system and it is now the fastest growing social media app, it could hold many opportunities for new ways of crowdfunding from a highly engaged and committed audience.

We haven’t seen Snapcash live up to its full potential yet, because when Snapcash initially launched brands had no real way of redirecting the user from the message to the Snapcash function. Now that Snapchat has launched Discover and QR codes to each user, a brand can easily redirect people from one platform to Snapchat and then to Snapcash.

This new chapter is a refreshing one for Snapchat. It has made more room for advertisers to reach new audiences and to bring crowdfunding to an entirely new level. They have successfully created a platform that can be monetized without making users feel like they are being advertised to.

Do you think Snapchat has the potential to make it big? Let us know in the comments section below!

Now Choose Who Manages Your Facebook Profile After You Die

Have you ever put some thought into what will happen to your online accounts once you're dead? Death is inevitable, and a lot of people tend to not think about it too much. But have you ever wondered what will become of your accounts then? Will they stay locked forever, because no one knows the passwords you took into the grave? Facebook has the answer - now you can decide who will manage your Facebook account once you're gone!

If you come to think about it, the whole idea is pretty comical. While I am sure there are many geeks out there who write down their passwords in encrypted files, the keys to which are contained within their wills (guilty as charged!), a large number of people don't give it much thought, and hence their accounts get locked forever.

With the new Legacy Contact feature, Facebook now wants you to think about who you'd trust enough to have access to your account once you're gone. And with Valentine's day right around the corner, I can take a wild guess as to the topic of conversation between many couples tonight - just saying (:

Facebook Legacy Contact

You can select a trusted contact - a friend or family member - to be your Legacy Contact. Once Facebook is notified that someone has died, it will memorialize their account, and the word 'Remembering' will appear behind their profile names. The Legacy Contact (if chosen) will then be able to access the deceased's account.

The legacy contact will be able to;

Make a post on the memorialized account's behalf (for example to make an announcement)
Respond to new friend requests from family members and friends who were not yet connected
Update the profile picture and cover photo
The legacy contact will NOT have access to;
Account login information
Account settings
Personal messages (inbox) of the deceased person
You can view or add a legacy by going to account Settings >> Security >> Legacy Contact. From here, you can choose whether you want that contact to be able to download and archive of your profile pictures, photos, posts etc.

(If you don't yet see this option, don't worry. The feature has been introduced in the US, and is being rolled out slowly to other users around the world)

Alternatively, you can choose to have your account permanently deleted upon your death.

Let the eventuality sink in for a while! Have a long, happy and blessed life, y'all! Good luck (:

How To Get Extra 2GB Of Free Google Drive Storage?

Google Drive is one of the most popular cloud services today, used by millions around the world. Every Google account holder has his own free cloud space, which integrates so well with other Google products. From simple file sharing to hosting a website, there's a lot you can do with Google Drive. Google is now giving away an extra 2GB of free space, which I am sure many of you will find welcome.

Remember: This is a limited time offer. You can retain the extra 2GB forever, but only if you claim it before 17th February!

Google decided to celebrate Safer Internet Day in style by giving everyone a free upgrade on their Google Drive storage. There's a small price to pay - a couple minutes of your time to review your account settings.

How to get the free storage?

In order to get the free storage, you need to complete a quick security check on your account (link is given below).

Earn free storage by completing this security checkup

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After login, you will be prompted to start the security checkup.

Next, you will be taken through your recent account activity. This includes login events for your Google account, device accesses, apps authorized to use your Google Account credentials, and so on. Once all is said and done, you will see a confirmation screen.

Google says the checkup will take around 2 minutes, but it took me less than 30 seconds. It’s a 3-step process that asks you to verify your password recovery information, as well as review your recent login activity and app permissions.

Once you see the three check marks, you can close the window or continue to your account settings. you're essentially done and are eligible for a free 2GB worth of space.

You’ll have until February 17th to complete the security checkup. The additional gigabytes will be added to your account around the end of the month.

If you want to keep on top of your account security you can revisit the security checkup again at any point to ensure there has been no suspicious activity.

Enjoy your free, extra space (:

How To Get Great Content Ideas For Your Blog?

Brainstorming for content ideas can be tough. You easily get distracted and everything seems to have already been written! To make matters worse, requirements to content concepts and titles have become much more complicated. With the growing importance of referral traffic, we now have to rethink title strategies and how they appear on social sites. If you're feeling strapped for content ideas, here are a few that can help.

Check your Comments Section

When you let people share and comment on your site, you could end up with some great blog post ideas. Your readers might ask for more information about a specific item you didn’t cover clearly in your first post, or they might share their own opinions about the topic, which could make your fingers itch to write. Reading those bits carefully could make your blogging much easier.

Check out the Competition

According to 2014 stats, more than half of all small businesses don’t have a website. As a result, your top competitor may not have a blog that you can follow. But that same competitor might be active on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. The posts you find there could give you great ideas about topics you should cover.

If you grab an idea from someone else, be sure to tweak it or amend it or somehow make it your own. Stealing outright could get you in hot water, both with your competitors and with Google. But borrowing a good idea could help you to come up with the story idea that’s been eluding you.

Yelp Pages

People with reputation management problems are likely accustomed to the idea of using Yelp as an early warning system. When they see a poor review pop up, they know they must get to work generating content that either refutes or explains the complaint. But Yelp can also help you write blog posts about issues people either like or have questions about.

Read through your reviews and look for items that get a lot of mentions. Not all Yelp comments will contain blog gems, of course. Some might just contain complaints or random bits of praise you can’t build on. But, watching the comments closely could give you some great ideas for writing that will really resonate.

Targeted Keyword Research

And ofcourse, nothing beats good ol' fashioned keyword research. This is a fundamental part of the writing process, as it helps you find the right terms which will perform better on SERPs. But more than SEO, your searches can also help you to find out what people are looking for, and that could give you some excellent blog post ideas.

With Google AdWords‘ Keyword Planner, you can run a simple search on a topic you’re planning to cover. Your results page will give you keywords that are similar to the topic you’ve hit, but they come with just a few changes.

We'll soon publish an entire section dedicated to keyword research in the SEO process, so stay tuned!

Coming up with new content ideas is not easy. But if poke around and are receptive enough, with enough luck you will soon find great content ideas to go on your blog! Good luck :)

How To Implement Google's Sitelinks Search Box On Your Website?

Sitelinks are Google's way of letting users know what links could possibly be most relevant to them. They help users find content more quickly. Google implemented search sitelinks to facilitate users and make it easier for them to search for and reach the desired content on your site directly from SERPs. A lot of webmasters miss out on this opportunity though. Compared to other types of markup, implementing search sitelinks is easy. Today, we'll show you how to easily set up yours.

Does your site qualify?

This question isn't easy to answer. Not every site qualifies for the sitelinks search box, and Google isn't overly transparent about the requirements. However, if you can answer "yes" to any of these questions below, it's quite possible your site qualifies.

Google often sends notifications to verified, eligible sites through Webmaster Tools. Did you ever get one?

Navigational or branded search traffic - Keyword phrases such as 'mbt' and 'mybloggertricks' send this website thousands of visits. The more the volume of branded search traffic, the likelier the sitelinks search box is to appear.

Try searching for your site using the most common branded and navigational search queries that your visitors might use. If the sitelinks search box already appears, then you most likely qualify to take advantage of adding the SearchAction Schema on your site and directing visitors to your own search results page.

Making use of your internal search engine

Most internal search engines work perfectly fine, including the default WordPress search function. If your website doesn't have internal search, it's easy to get started with a free Google Custom Search engine.

For websites that use Google's default Custom Search engine, Google also has the chance to make money on ad clicks, because the free version of the Customer Search engine includes Google ads. Google offers a paid version known as Site Search that allows an ad-free experience.

Adding the schema

The next step if your site qualifies is to add SearchAction schema markup on your site. Add the following code to your homepage.

Make sure to edit the "URL" and "target" fields to match your own website information.

If you implement the markup on your site, users will have the ability to jump directly from the sitelinks search box to your site’s search results page. If Google doesn't find any markup, it'll show them a Google search results page for the corresponding site: query, as it has already done until now.

If you have any questions, you can create a new thread over at our new forum. Good luck :)

How To Send Money With SnapChat ?

Just when we thought messaging apps couldn't get any more unconventional, along comes Snapchat with a whole new trick up its sleeve. The popular photo messaging application that recently came to fame has announced a new feature "Snapcash" today through a deal with Square Cash, whereby users can send money to their friends as simply as sending a text message. The feature has been rolled out on Android, with the iOS version coming soon.

This isn't the first time a social networking application has delved into peer-to-peer payments. Just last month, Twitter announced a feature where users in France could send money by simply making a tweet. This latest Snapcash feature isn't very different in essence.

How does it work?

To send money, you simply have to add a payment method - such a debit card to your Snapchat account. Type a dollar amount into the text-chat feature, and just hit the green pay button to instantly send money to a friend!

Here is a video explaining how Snapcash works!

Users in the US who are 18+ can sign up by adding a Visa or MasterCard debit card. All their account details are held by Square Cash, you don’t have to worry as much about trusting Snapchat, which has had privacy and security problems in past.

While in Snapchat text-chat, you type in “$” then the dollar amount you want to send. Snapchat recognizes you’re trying to pay, changes the send button to a green Snapcash button, and tapping it deposits money into a friend’s account. That cash will be waiting for them when they sign up if they haven’t already. If the friend doesn’t sign-up to accept the payment within 24 hours, the cash will be refunded so you don’t have to worry about money…disappearing.

Beyond peer-to-peer payments, the trademarks could prime Snapchat for eCommerce and payments to merchants as well. By wedging itself into p2p payments through a consumer app that tens of millions of people already regularly use with their close friends, Snapcash could really inject itself into the lives of people who never considered downloading a finance app.

Go Snapchat!

How To Change Your YouTube Account URL?

Are you stuck with your YouTube account URL you picked long ago that doesn't quite capture the essence of what you do anymore? Despair not, for YouTube is giving you a way out. You can now get a new custom URL that's more befitting of your brand. This is definitely better than opening up a brand new channel, and losing all of your previous subscribers. The option will be made available over the next week.

Starting this week, YouTube will be sending out emails and notifications to qualifying users that will give them the opportunity to claim a new URL.

YouTube will suggest some potential URLs for you to choose from based on your channel’s description, Google identify, and websites associated with your YouTube account. One you pick your new URL, your subscribers will be automatically redirected if they try to get to your account via the old URL.

Be careful, because once you change your URL once you won’t be able to change it again, so make sure it’s one you’re fully satisfied with.

How does it work?

First, you have to meet YouTube’s eligibility requirements, which are as follows:

500 or more subscribers

Channels is at least 30 days old

Channel has uploaded a photo for the channel icon

Channel has uploaded channel art

You may also be able to qualify for a custom URL after linking and verifying your website with your YouTube channel.

You’ll know if you qualify for a new custom URL because YouTube will notify you via email. From there you can take the following steps:

Changing the Account URL

Sign in to YouTube and navigate to the Creator Studio.

Look for your “Get a new custom URL” notification and click in the included link

You’ll be redirected to claim a custom URL.

You’ll see the custom URL(s) you’ve been approved for. These cannot be changed. You may also need to add a few letters or numbers to make the URL unique to you.

Click the box next to “I agree to the Terms of Service” then click Change URL in the bottom left corner.

This URL will be linked to both your YouTube channel and your Google+ identity. Once your URL has been approved, you cannot request to change it. When you’re certain, click Confirm choice.

After that you should be all set to reap the benefits of your new URL.

Find Bugs In Oculus Rift And Earn Money From Facebook

The concept of bug bounty is nothing new. You play around with an online service, discover security vulnerabilities and get paid for identifying them for the company instead of exploiting them. Facebook has a bug bounty program as well, and that includes some select acquisitions as well such as Instagram, Onavo, Moves and Parse. Facebook recently announced that it will now extend this program to its latest acquisition, Oculus Rift - a virtual reality product from Oculus VR.

Do these bounty programs really work?

Bug bounties are awarded at the discretion of Facebook's bug bounty team. You have a good chance of winning cash if your bug qualifies. Facebook handed out more $1.5 Million in the last year as bug bounty for thousands of testers who helped secure the site, and various other apps under its umbrella such as Instagram, Moves etc.

Facebook purchased Oculus in March this year for $2 Billion, and now wants you, developers, to test out the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset - Facebook's first hardware product.

How much can you earn?

Under the program, individual security researchers who report bugs to Facebook may be financially rewarded. The minimum reward is $500, but there is no maximum limit - you could end up earning thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of $$$ if the security flaw you find is sufficiently big.

Where to find bugs?

You can hunt for flaws in the code for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, the SDK (Software Development Kit) and the website.

Even though this is Facebook's first hardware device, according to a Facebook security engineer Neal Poole, the majority of bugs related to Oculus Rift are in the message system for Oculus developers and parts of the website. As a result, the bugs are similar to the ones found in the social network.

"A lot of the issues that come up with Oculus are not necessarily in the hardware yet," Poole says. "Potentially in the future, if people were to go explore and find issues in the SDK or the hardware, that is definitely of interest to us."

However, since Oculus is the company's first hardware product, Facebook's security team may start getting a new species of bug. If you're a security researcher and own the device, you must try your hands at exposing vulnerabilities and earning some quick bucks!

Good luck :)

How To Add Enhanced Sitelinks To Bing Ads?

Bing Ads is the Bing equivalent of Google AdWords, where marketers and advertisers aim to capture the attention of potential customers searching for products or services online. We reported that Bing has just rolled out enhanced sitelinks worldwide for Bing Ads users. These enhanced sitelinks let advertisers add specialized links to their website within the ads, thereby creating a bigger and bolder advertisement to capture more user attention.

Today, we'll talk about how you can add enhanced sitelinks for your site to appear in ads.
What are Enhanced sitelinks?

Enhanced Sitelinks is a new format of Sitelink Extensions that allows you to add up to two lines of customizable, descriptive text to your Sitelink Extension. The result is a larger, more relevant and descriptive ad, and a more captivating ad format by which to attract your target audience.

Here's an example;

Bing claims that after the introduction of this feature, advertisers in the U.S. have seen an average rise in click-through rate by 27%, going as high as 68% for some. This is a phenomenal statistic, and gives advertisers all the more reason to add enhanced sitelinks.
How to add Enhanced Sitelinks?

From your Bing Ads dashboard, go to the Ad Extensions tab and choose Sitelink Extensions

Select the sitelink extension you want to add Enhanced Sitelinks to by checking the box on the left-hand side of your screen
Click on Edit an extension from the Edit drop-down menu
Click on the sitelink(s) you want to add a description to, and then write in your description(s)

You can also choose the Device preference by checking the Mobile box. Bing Ads will give preference to those Sitelinks in mobile devices. Note that Enhanced Sitelinks is currently not supported in mobile devices. You can select the Mobile preference without entering Sitelink descriptions

Click Save and repeat for other Sitelinks

Only high-quality ads serving in the top position in the ad block above the algo results will trigger Enhanced Sitelinks. Therefore, make sure you focus your efforts on high performing campaigns such as your brand term campaigns first.

If you have problems or questions regarding the addition of enhanced sitelinks in your ads, shoot us a question in the comments section below!

Google To Show Tweets In Search Results Pages

Twitter has just confirmed today that it has signed a Firehose deal with Google, which will bring Twitter news to non-Twitter/logged out users. For the benefit of both the companies, this deal will make Twitter's feeds directly accessible to Google, meaning that Google can now display tweets in its Search Results pages in real-time.

Google had a pretty similar deal with Twitter years ago, but that was dropped in 2011. Google previously had to crawl Twitter for new information - pretty much like it crawls every other website.

However, the new deal once again gives Google immediate access to Twitter's live data stream, which means that the slow crawling process can be done away with, and tweets can be made visible in SERPs in real-time.

The changes will incrementally start taking place within the next few months.

Back in 2009, Google was able to index tweets automatically. But that deal sort of fell away as the then CEO wanted to have control over the network's content. Now though, things have changed. Twitter is very focused now on bringing more traffic to its content and possibly monetizing that to greater effect. So this new Google deal will give Twitter just what it needs - more eyeballs for its content. According to CEO Dick Costolo;
“We've got the opportunity now to drive and aggregate eyeballs to logged-out experiences that we plan to deliver on the front page of Twitter,” he continued, “and that’s why it makes a lot more sense now.”
This can also be seen as an expansion strategy. Twitter is obviously set on targeting logged-out or non-Twitter users with this update. This would serve to bring new users over to the network, and is exactly the type of attitude the company needs right now as it’s growth in terms of both daily active users and stock price has fallen flat as of late.

So what does Google stand to gain in all this?

This deal is being described as a win-win for both companies. In addition to potentially accelerating Twitter’s growth, it’s also good for Google because the ability to index real-time tweets is valuable for searchers.

Of course, this deal also stands to greatly benefit businesses and publishers as well, as their search engine visibility and social media audience will be amplified. Hence, a new arena for Bloggers and content markets to explore (:

How Can Websites Rank Well Without Backlinks?

A large proportion of people out there seem to believe that backlinks form the backbone of a website's SEO strategy. Having high-quality and relevant backlinks has its advantages, but are they a necessity? We have talked aboutthis topic many times in the past. Today, I'd like to share highlights from Googler John Mueller's recent hangout where he proved that backlinks, while important, are not a must for ranking well in Google!

John Mueller is the Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google. He shared an instance of a website ranking well without backlinks during his hangout at the GooglePlex with two of his colleagues. Here's the video of the hangout, with adjusted starting position.

Someone asked at the 26 minutes and 3 seconds mark, why does Google use links for ranking at the level they do. He said, Google should use other means to rank sites. Of course, he knows they do use other factors but his point was why do they place so much weight on links.

John Mueller answered that saying they do have tons of other factors outside of just links.
John then said he has a friend of his who is “back home” in Zurich, his friend just put up a new web site for the local neighborhood. The new site does not have any links at all and over 300 pages are indexed and pages are ranking and they are getting a lot of traffic from search.

No one ever linked to the site ever, he said, but they did submit sitemaps to Google and they have an RSS feed.

The web site does fairly well without any links at all, John said. So it is not the case you absolutely need links to rank, he added. John did say that links are "obviously" it is part of Google’s ranking factors, but it isn’t something Google only relies on.

We know a year ago, Matt Cutts said Google did try turning off links in their ranking algorithm and the results were horrible. We also know that Yandex, the huge Russian search engine, did remove links from a niche segment in their ranking algorithm when that segment was spammed to death.

With that being said, let's not forget the importance of backlinks. But the point here is, there are many other factors you need to be focusing on as well.

Create A Great Website That Is Valuable To Your Audience

Are you an entrepreneur looking to set up a new blog or website? The Google Webmaster Academy can help! Ever since its launch in 2012, it has helped hundreds and thousands of webmasters take their websites from mere startups to large money-making ventures. However, going over each resource from the academy can be time-consuming. Here's our version on how to build a website from scratch to greatness.

This is the first post in the series.

Part 1: How To Create A Great Website That Is Valuable To Your Audience?

Part 2: Coming Soon

Part 3: Coming Soon

Step 1: Setting up a new website

Setting up a website is the easiest part. But you have to get out of the comfort of a sub-domain, and spend a few bucks on buying a custom domain name and hosting (unless you're Blogger, in which case you just need to buy a domain).

But before that, you need to decide whether you want a blog, or a website.

Read: 5 Major Differences Between a Website and a Blog

If you decide that you want to get a blog, you have the choice between two of the most popular platforms, Blogger and WordPress.

Again, Read: Blogger or WordPress?

By now, you should have figured out ~~what you want to do in life~~ whether to set up a website or a blog (and which one). The next step is to select a domain name. The following post will tell you (almost) all you need to know about choosing domain name

10 Tips To Buy Useful Domain Names

Now, it's time to look into a domain name registrar and web hosting provider. We would recommend going either with GoDaddy (for registering domain name) and HostGator (for web hosting), since we have experience with these companies and they have never let us down. But of course, you can pick another company of your choosing, as long as it is either HostGator or GoDaddy :) (just kidding).

Step 2: Identifying a target audience

Before you create content, you should identify your site's audience. These are the people you want to visit your site. For example, the audience for brandonsbaseballcards.com include people who are interested in baseball cards. Once you identify your audience, you can create content that is useful and relevant to them.

Understand your audience

You can use a powerful tool called Google Trends to explore trends and related keywords your audience might be searching. A search for "baseball" shows variations and related terms that people have searched in addition to "baseball". You can see when and where these searches come from, along with search volume for different terms. It also shows interesting trends over time associated with search terms. Understanding related terms to your site’s content helps you to create more relevant content for your audience, leading to more people finding your site.

Gather a test audience

Once you have plans for your website written down, show your friends and family to gather feedback. Ask them what they think of your site as a potential visitor. You can also conduct surveys or usability tests. Ask insightful questions: What would they expect to find on your site? Is there missing information that they would find useful? Hearing what others have to say about your site can help you relate to your audience better.

Now that you've identified your audience, you can begin creating content with them in mind.

Step 3: Creating high quality content

The key to creating a great website is to create the best possible experience for your audience with original and high quality content. If people find your site useful and unique, they may come back again or link to your content on their own websites. This can help attract more people to your site over time.

As you begin creating content, make sure your website is:

Useful and informative: If you’re launching a site for a restaurant, you can include the location, hours of operation, contact information, menu, and a blog to share upcoming events.
More valuable and useful than other sites: If you write about how to train a dog, make sure your article provides more value or a different perspective than the numerous articles on the web on dog training.
A recognized authority on a subject: Think about how your users might identify authority by using original research, citations, links, or references. Things like a short author biography can help boost your articles’ trustworthiness and reputation.
High quality: Your site’s content should be unique, specific, and high quality. It should not be mass-produced or outsourced on a large number of other sites. Keep in mind that your content should be created primarily to give visitors a good user experience, not to rank well in search engines.
Engaging: Bring color and life to your site by adding images of your products, your team, or yourself. Make sure visitors are not distracted by spelling, stylistic, and factual errors. An excessive amount of ads can also be distracting for visitors. Engage visitors by interacting with them through regular updates, comment boxes, or social media widgets.
Protected from user-generated spam: If your site contains user generated content such as comments and forums, read the User-generated spam article and watch this video to learn how to create a spam policy in place to protect your site from malicious users.

Google Webmaster Guidelines

It's important to familiarize yourself with our Webmaster Guidelines. Our guidelines outline practices that could negatively impact your site’s performance in Google Search. If content on your site violates any guidelines, we'll inform you through Webmaster Tools. We’ll focus on Webmaster Guidelines and Webmaster Tools in Module 2.3.

Step 4: Site Structure

As a webmaster, you want your users to quickly and easily navigate your site to find the content they are looking for. You also want search engines to easily crawl your site and understand the content that you consider important.
site structure

Create a clear and logical structure for your website

All sites have a home or "root" page. It’s usually the most visited page on a site and the starting place of navigation for visitors. Unless your site has only a handful of pages, you should think about how visitors will go from your home or root page to a page containing more specific content.
Showcase a navigation bar

Help users navigate within your site with a useful navigation bar. A navigation bar allows you to call out important sections of your website. Create intuitive and organized categories such as ‘Home’ and 'News' and don’t overwhelm your visitors with too many choices. You can place the navigation bar on the top or side of each page for easy access.

Use informative URLs

When users search for a term or phrase in a search engine, the URL can help them determine if there is relevant content on that particular page. For example, example.com/article123.htm isn't as descriptive as example.com/latest-soccer-news.htm.

5: Mobile Optimization

With increasing smartphone usage, mobile is now just as important as desktop. As a webmaster, it's important to prepare a mobile version of your website. Learn best practices for setting up mobile-optimized websites to provide the best user experience and to avoid configuration mistakes. The following posts will help.

Got questions? Ask away! And stay tuned for more posts in the series. Cheers :)