ReleaseWire Connect

Two years ago Google announced that HTTPS was to become a major ranking signal and recently Moz revealed a study showing exactly what has happened since the announcement took place. When the announcement was first made, some companies were quick to transition to HTTPS however, many held back believing that the effort would not be rewarded.

A study conducted by Local SEO Guide has recently been released, highlighting the top local SEO ranking factors for 2016. For all looking for their websites to rank, the study urges people to consider these four points:

Currently previewing new tools and profiles for businesses, Instagram are now making a conscious effort to ensure that businesses are able to make the most out of their services. The update which will first be available to people and businesses in the U.S, Australia and New Zealand will include the addition of a prominent "contact" button, thorough analytic tools and access to promotion tools will be made simpler so that it is easier to transform posts into adverts.

Google have introduced an innovative tool which allows anyone to test their websites page speed and mobile-friendliness easily, making it possible for small business owners to see how good their sites are and where there's room for improvements to be made.

Time Warner Cable Business Class has recently conducted an online survey involving 800+ consumers from February 2016.

Over the past year Snapchat has added several new features and undertaken many updates whist steadily climbing the ranks of social media platforms. In fact, according to a new study Snapchat is now even more popular than Twitter, Facebook and even Instagram among teens.

Because SEO is constantly evolving it is important to react to the latest alternations if you're looking for your website to be and stay current. A new post from Forbes highlights the importance of going 'mobile friendly' this year (amongst other things) and discusses the many benefits of doing so.

According to a recent blog post published on Mashable, it appears that Google's now testing 'search trending topics' on mobile. This is similar to the trending topic sections that you can already see on social network platforms Twitter and Facebook.

Achieving the best web design is an increasingly competitive field where being innovative is crucial for businesses to stand out, especially in terms of having an effective mobile presence. This has been further highlighted by a recent development from Google – a new Resizer tool which provides web designers with the capacity to test any URL and see if a site is suitably mobile-responsive. This emphasizes that much industry focus is in terms of whether websites are mobile-suitable; and forward-facing businesses are therefore utilising these latest techniques to have websites accessible by both mobile and desktop.

Recent reports have drawn attention to the news that Google, the prominent search engine, annually changes its search algorithm at least 600 times. These often take the form minor modifications, but sometimes they take the form of major updates, often named – such as the recent 'Hummingbird' – which affects search results and rankings in a number of ways. This means that businesses wanting to perform well and rank highly in the search engines need to have an online optimisation in place capable of evolving just as the search engine does. Fortunately, a number of digital marketing companies are responding to help other businesses here through the form of up-to-date Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques; with Ranking Solutions being a prominent example.