Where do you host your content?

If your answer is; I don’t know, facebook, instagram, weebly, squarespace or any other platform where you do not have the means to back-up or migrate your data. Its time to re-think about where you are storing and hosting your content.

 

Ask your-self this, if your website were to disappear as you are reading this post, do you have a re-course? If your Instagram or Facebook page were permanently deleted, do you still have a means for reaching your audience?

 

The answer is simple. Make sure you have an open-source website that you can easily back-up or migrate, while also ensuring you are keeping your website updated with the same, engaging content you are posting to social media. Your website should always be at the center of your business internet activity.

Does My Website Need A Website?

 

Quick recap on the importance of having a website for your business, however most importantly, setting objectives to ensure your website is a success.
 

💡 Having trouble figuring out how much you should pay for your next website?

Before shelling out thousands of dollars on your website or simply handing the project off to a family member or friend. Here are some important points that will help you make a better decision on who should handle your next website and how much you should pay.

 

1.) Although it is true that anyone can build a website using free software (like wix, weebly..ect). Its important to note that even building the most basic website (the right way), meaning the website is specifically tailored around your content and brand. Can easily take between 20-40 hours to complete.

 

To put this in perspective, think of website development as a combination of writing a paper (several in this case), putting together a power point presentation and then coming up with a plan for how to present it to hundreds and thousands of people.

 

With this in mind, when you get a quote on a website (if the number seems high) consider whether or not the time put into your website by your potential developer is going to bring any significant value to your business. If the number seems low, question whether or not enough time is going to be spent on your project to deliver the desired results. Either way, the definitive factor is always going to be time spent on your project and how much that time is worth to your business.

 

2.) Just because someone is charging a lot of money to build your website, doesn’t mean they should.

 

This is where it gets a little more difficult to separate those who are simply calling themselves “experts” from those who will truly bring value to your business. How can you separate the two? Simple, ask questions and follow your intuition. Here are a few key questions you should ask anyone who is planning to build your next website:

 

– How do you plan to build my website?
– What type of support will I get once my website is built and how much are you going to charge me for that support?
– Once my website is built, do I own my website 100%?
– How can we market my website once it is complete?
– How much will my project cost and what is specifically included?
– What is your experience with building and marketing websites?

 

Based on the above responses (assuming you have shopped around and asked these questions to at least a few agencies and freelancers), you should be able to quickly come up with a short list of who might be suitable to build your website. In shorts, treat the hiring of your developer like an interview process.

 

3.) Avoid taking up the friend or family member who is offering to build your website for “Free”. Although it is true that everyone has to start somewhere. In most cases, if your website is going to be a key part of your business, you will want to stay away from “Free”. Reason being, anyone who is offering to build your website for free (unless there is some form of barter or sponsorship involved) is not going to take your project serious. Which also means, the end result is likely going to be sub-par, costing your business time and money.

 

If you absolutely have no choice and have to depend on someone to build your website for free. Sure, go ahead, however if you have a proper budget, do your due diligence and make the proper investment in getting your website built the right way from the start.

 

Questions about website development? We are always happy to assist,contact us here: https://forwardweb.net/contact-forward-web/

Website Page Speed 101: Facts You Should Know

 

Have you ever experienced slow page speed while on a website? Whether it is your own website or someone else’s, this can be a frustrating experience. Most people believe their internet service provider is the culprit, never really considering their page speed as an internal issue and although download speed and your internet package certainly plays a part in how quickly your website loads, there are also many other factors that determine the speed in which content appears in the browser. Forward Web has put together this list of facts as a guide to help you understand what you should know about page speed, consider this page speed 101!

 

Speed is such an important part of a person’s website experience that Google decided to include this aspect in their ranking process. This process greatly affects how your website appears in the search engine results page. At least half of all internet consumers expect a webpage to load in 2 seconds or less but, the Google experts expect an optimized website that is worthy of their top rankings to load in under half a second. The fact of the matter is that the internet world is a very competitive market and page speed can lead to serious losses in transactions solely due to the extra time in which people become frustrated and quickly move on to the next option.

 

With all this in mind, let’s explore what factors determine page speed:

 

Code

Coding is the true back-end of each website and if your CSS or HTML is too heavy, it will overpower your page speed.

 

Your Web Host

Where you host your site pays massive dividends when it comes to customer experience.

 

Your Theme

The theme you choose may have complex coding which adds to your load times.

 

External Media

YouTube videos and other content is a great idea, however, make sure it is only as large as you need it to appear (in terms of frame size).

 

Widgets

Widgets are another thing that can be coded densely and requires serious processing power.

 

Large Images

There is a significant difference between the necessary resolution for screen based imagery and print. Keep in mind that larger file sizes can be compressed to strip unnecessary data.

 

Too Many Ads

Too many ads can make your speed drag therefore, only use them if they are worth the extra processing.

 

Un-Optimization For Certain Browsers and Devices

With so many device and browser options available nowadays, your website will respond differently on each of them. This isn’t a huge issue most of the time but, for example, if your website is working great on Google but isn’t formatting correctly on Firefox then your ranking will be penalized.

 

It is typically impossible for the average website owner to know what is preventing their pages from loading efficiently, however, each of the facts above can contribute to overall speed. If you have already considered the above facts and are still experiencing slow page speed, fortunately, there are several accredited web tools that can assist you in determining if your website is loading slowly and where the weak points in your website are occurring (making it much easier to adjust or make the necessary corrections). We recommend Google’s PageSpeed Insights since the purpose of page optimization is to rank well with Google and knowing what they recommend for better page ranking is essential. Forward Web is always happy to answer any questions or provide you with further assistance when it comes to your page speed, so don’t hesitate to contact us.

 

 

 

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How To Build a Website Yourself

 

Are you considering building a website yourself? The process can seem overwhelming, especially when you are in the beginning stages. Many people choose to hire a professional web designer to take on this task instead but unfortunately, not everyone has the budget to hire out from the very beginning. However, there are a lot of tools, information and tutorials available which allow anyone to build a quality website within a reasonable amount of time and Forward Web provides some helpful tips in this article to build your very own website yourself:

 

The first thing you will need to do is set up your hosting and domain name. Of course there are many sources online where you can do this but with Forward Web, this step is fast, easy and simple! You can purchase your domain name (or transfer an existing one) and set up your hosting within minutes and if you need assistance, just let us know and we are happy to help. Once you have obtained your website and hosting, you now have the basic framework set up and you can begin building your new website.

 

Next, install a CMS (Content Management System). Forward Web recommends WordPress because it is an open source project that gives people the opportunity to build and manage their own website without having to learn code. However, if you want to learn code, WordPress still allows for you to work with the code for your website (as WordPress is Open Source), so it offers the best of both worlds.

 

In addition, building your website with WordPress means you are you able to host your website with any web hosting company that supports PHP/MySQL (which includes most web host’s). Being able to move your website to the web host of your choice is a great advantage over other site builders. Once your website is launched, you will want to have the freedom/option to change web hosts (if needed) vs being stuck with the same web hosting company you are building your website with.

 

WordPress has over 2,000 free and attractive themes (templates) for you to start building your website with. However, if you do not find any themes that you would like to use, you can go into the open market and purchase a WordPress theme of your liking (usually for around $30-$80.00). Either way, you have plenty of options in regards to the design of your website. Feel free to browse the latest free themes by WordPress here. 

 

Creating a website from scratch takes patience and a lot of experimentation and trial and error. At the same time, it can be a truly worthwhile process if you are up to the challenge/learning experience. Luckily, there are a lot of tools and information available (such as this article). If you are just starting your business and you have a very limited budget, learning to develop the website yourself might be the best solution. However, if you do have the budget (or want to save time), you might want to consider leaving the development of your website to the professionals (Forward Web). Another factor to consider is the complexity of your website. Are you planning to sell any items via your website? If so, we highly recommend contacting Forward Web first, so you can explore both options before committing to your approach.

 

 

 

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5 Steps for Avoiding Newsletter Related Abuse Complaints

 

As a small business owner, it is important to stay on top of new marketing strategies and by now, you’ve probably realized that online marketing is one of your best marketing tools available. If you have been doing your research about online marketing then you know that creating an email newsletter list is a fantastic marketing strategy. Although this is a very effective tool, there might be some challenges that arise from time to time and in this article, Forward Web provides us with this helpful guide of 5 steps for avoiding newsletter related abuse complaints.

 

One thing you should be aware of is the potential for getting email newsletters complaints (such as reports of spam and email abuse). If not handled properly, this could lead to some serious repercussions such a negative reputation for your business or even legal trouble for you and your business (in the worst of situations). However, there are steps that you can take to help avoid these types of situations and in turn, run a more effective and reputable newsletter. Take a look at the following 5 steps:

 

 

Step #1: Identify Yourself Clearly

To make sure your readers know exactly where their emails are coming from, use your company or website name ans the “sent from” name. Not only will this encourage the reader to open the email but it will eliminate any confusion. For example, some email newsletters add their first and last names or some other name in the “sent from” field, but this can oftentimes look and feel like spam mail to your readers (even if they recognize your website or company name but might not recognize your first and last name at all).

 

 

Step #2: Allow for Easy Unsubscribing

Even though this might seem counter-productive, it is important to give your subscribers the option to unsubscribe if they desire to do so. This is mainly to establish good rapport between your leads/clients and your company. From your subscriber’s perspective, it can be very frustrating to try to unsubscribe from a newsletter only to continue to receive these emails regularly therefore, avoid putting your subscribers through this by adding a simple “unsubscribe” link on the bottom of each email. If your subscribers have any difficulties with this process and they contact you because they are frustrated or upset, make sure to assist them. It is certainly better to help them unsubscribe and keep them happy than to deal with complaints about your newsletter or company later.

 

 

Step #3: Require a Double Opt-In Process

What is a double opt-in? This is the process where after the subscriber signs up through your website, they then receive an email confirming that subscription. Once the subscriber opens that email and goes to the link within, then the subscription is confirmed (otherwise, the person will not be added to the email list). This process gives the subscriber another opportunity to make sure they want to be a part of the list and also helps ensure that people do not enter other peoples’ email addresses in the field to sign them up.

 

 

Step #4: Send Quality Emails

I’m sure we have all signed up for some sort of email newsletter at some point and once we did regretted it because we thought they would be better than they actually turned out to be. That is a very negative experience. One which you don’t want your subscribers to experience. You don’t want them to be disappointed by your emails or even change their mind and assume that your company newsletters are spam. Putting effort in creating quality newsletters is therefore very important. Create a newsletter that is useful, helpful and interesting and avoid any overbearing sales verbiage. Your goal should be for your newsletter to be just that, a newsletter; one which readers can enjoy. Doing so will help ensure that your emails are well received and effective (and will prevent any issues for “spam” emails).

 

 

Step #5: Do NOT Spam Your Subscribers

People do not like spam. I don’t like it, I’m sure you don’t like it and frankly, I can’t think of a single person who does. With this in mind, let’s discuss frequency; the frequency with which you should send out your newsletters varies on a lot of factors but ultimately you shouldn’t be sending out newsletters more than once a day. In fact, many companies have found that once a week is more than enough. A great option is to allow your subscribers to choose the frequency of their newsletters. Allowing them to customize their subscription (whether they prefer to receive newsletters daily, weekly or monthly) is a good way to ensure they are satisfied.

 

 

Avoiding newsletter related abuse complaints is pretty simple if you follow these steps. Not only will you have less complaints to worry about but your newsletters will be much more effective and even enjoyed by your subscribers! At the end of the day, you want happy and satisfied subscribers. For more information and tips on creating effective newsletters or if you have any questions regarding any of our services, please feel free to contact Forward Web.

 

 

 

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Why Having a Website is Important to Your Business

 

Surprisingly, it is not uncommon for many small business owners to think that their business cannot benefit from having a website or that a website is not within their budget. Some even still believe that just because they are not computer savvy, neither are their potential customers. These are incredible misconceptions and in this article, Forward Web discusses why having a website is indeed important to your business.

Let’s explore the following points:

 

  • A Website Saves You Time 

Without a doubt, we all know that time is money and whether it’s face-to-face, emails, brochures, flyers or on the phone, providing information to your customers is invaluable but takes time. However, with your website up and running, you can incorporate the use of an online catalog and provide your clients and potential clients a ton of information about your products and services (which is available indefinitely).

 

  • A Website Saves You Money

In addition to saving time, a website allows you to save money as well! It is unbelievable how many times we hear business owners express that they cannot afford a professional website, when in fact the reality is that as a business owner, you can’t afford NOT to. Of course the cost of designing a website varies (make sure to find about the great offers Forward Web has available), but it is a valuable investment. Consider the potential market you can reach with a website, compared to the cost of a newspaper ad, it is a very cost effective way to promote your business!

 

  • Your Business Will Gain Credibility

Nowadays, it is very common for customers to use the internet to search for the products or services they need and with that in mind, it is a fact that your business will immediately gain credibility by having a professional website. We are living in a time with a very competitive market and without a website, potential customers will go to your competitors that do. If you currently have a website but it is outdated or perhaps home-made, having it professionally re-designed will provide your business with a professional look which will inspire even greater confidence. This is especially beneficial if you have a home-based business which doesn’t have a store front to promote your products or services.

 

  • A Website Provides A Medium on Which to Showcase Your Work

This brings us to our next point; regardless of what type of business you have, a website is a great way to showcase your work. You can demonstrate what makes your business unique by incorporating an image gallery, a portfolio and testimonials/reviews about your work on your website. This goes a long way!

 

  • A Website Improves Customer Service

A website allows you to provide your customers with a plethora of information and depending on your business’s industry, that may include tips, advice or detailed information about a specific topic directly related to your business. By including blogs, uploading newsletters, adding articles (such as this one) or even including a FAQ page to answer all your customers’ questions, you can keep them up-to-date. Sharing information on your website that suits your customers’ needs is the best way to provide them with value added service and what better way to do so than with an effective website!

 

  • A Website Enables You to Keep Your Customers Informed

A website is one of the most invaluable tools to provide information and we simply cannot emphasize enough how imperative that is to the success of your business. Consider your website as an online brochure or catalog; it is much easier and effective to update information about your products and services, let customers know about new products, upcoming events, special promotions or new services you offer on a website versus printed material.

 

  • A Website Makes it Possible to Target a Wider Market

Everything sells online! From cars and houses to services and a variety of products. The internet is a an amazing tool that can be used to your advantage. For example, as a retailer, an eCommerce website is a great place to sell your products to a wider market. But regardless of whether you provide products or services, a website will provide an alternative location to sell them (even services can be made available worldwide!).

 

  • A Website is Always Accessible

With today’s busy lifestyles, we all seek convenience and there is nothing more convenient than to have access to a website 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Having your website available to both your customers and potential customers is a great selling point when making a purchasing decision because it allows them to review your products and services when your store or office is closed, facilitating their decision process.

 

It is very clear that having a professional and effective website provides many benefits and is of the utmost importance to your business. If you are having a difficult time setting up your website, do not have the time or you would like help improving the website you or someone else developed contact us. Forward Web wants to improve your website and are always available to discuss any questions and/or thoughts you might have about the development of your website.

 

 

 

 

 

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The 3 Services You Need to Start a Website

So you want to start a website. Now what? What do you need? Where do you even begin? Forward Web would like to guide you through this process by providing you with information about the 3 basic services you need to start a website!

 

The three parts that make a website are: A domain name, web-hosting servers and site files. What on earth does that mean? Well, if you are a beginner and new to the world of web development that might sound a little intimidating but we will try our best to help you understand.

 

When someone visits your website they use your domain name to view your website. A domain name is unique name that identifies a website and there is a process that occurs from the time the site visitor types in your domain and presses enter; When a visitor enters your domain name into the browser, your domain is then translated into your server IP address and then the server send the user your site files (which their browser represents to them as a regular web page).

 

Basically, having a website is not possible unless you have each of these three basic elements. Let’s explore each of these areas for further clarification:

 

Domain Names:

Did you know that computers have their own language? That’s right, computers communicate by using numbers (called IP addresses) to contact each other, much the same way we use phone numbers to dial a specific person’s phone. Just like a phone book has entries and tells people looking for a business what the entries are, the internet has domain names which tells people (via their computers) that a domain is hosted on a server.

Not having a domain can actually hurt your business because you would have to explain to your clients that your site is located in a temporary url, which can make your website appear unprofessional and useless.

 

Web Hosting Servers:

The web hosting server is simply a space. Without the hosting service, you will not have a place for your files to reside therefore your domain would then become like a disconnected phone number in the phone directory, and your website files would have nowhere to stay. Think of the web hosting server as the space you would rent out to have your business in. A rental space does not come included with furnishings (such as shelves to display your products) and similarly, a web hosting account does not include a site for you to sell your products.

However, unlike a rental space for your business, in the web hosting world it is very easy to furnish the space provided by your host. This is possible through the installation of numerous framework applications which are available through the “QuickInstall” icon within your cPanel.

 

Site Files:

The site files are what your website visitors and potential customers actually see when going to your website (such as your products and services).

Website files are the same as any other file you normally use (like a .jpg is a photograph file and a .mp3 is a music file). Website files are .php files or .html files, which are PHP scripts or html pages just and the web hosting server knows how to read these files. They explain how the webpage looks or instructs the server to do a series of computations. Examples of these computations include determining what forum post it is supposed to send back or figuring out what blog article it is supposed to send back to the viewer.

 

Are you ready to start building your website? If you still have questions, are having a difficult time setting up your website, do not have the time or you would like help improving the website you or someone else developed, contact Forward Web and they will contact you to discuss your project!

 

 

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Tips For Improving Your Websites Performance

 

 

The internet world has changed over the years. There was a time when your website’s performance was affected by the simple use of a dial-up connection making it impossible for a user to download large sites and heavy images. At that time the average page weighed no more than 100 kb!

The internet and the world of technology has evolved tremendously since then but with some unnoticed consequences; the internet has let itself go and websites are getting heavier and heavier. And not just that, faster connections made available to us today has made us lazy! Nowadays it is not uncommon to see websites that have pages weighs over 10 MB or even 20 MB, which is insane!

There is a huge misconception that bandwidth is unlimited and free, which it certainly isn’t unlimited and in most cases (mostly mobile and international) bandwidth is far from being free. Even when bandwidth is “free and unlimited” it doesn’t always mean that it’s fast. Your website’s performance is significant, in fact, Google consider’s your page speed so important that they even wrote a patent for it and will reward you for it. Forward Web would like to give you some tips for improving your websites performance:

 

Check Your Speed

One of the first things you could do to properly assess your website is to check your speed. This will help you determine the size of your page and potential areas that might be causing a lag with your website. You can check your speed with the use of a speed test which we recommend the following: http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/

 

Caching and Compression

Enabling caching and compression is helpful because one of the largest issues we see on websites is the lack of proper caching and compression. To dramatically reduce your page load you can add GZIP and even set your cache dates to a more distant point in the future (especially on the second visit).

 

Check Your Hosting

Another factor is your server and hosting service. Oftentimes when a site has issues delivering content quickly it is because of overloaded servers that share a lot of sites, are operating in poor environments or aren’t up to speed.

Check your servers with your hosting provider to find out how fast it can retrieve the DNS and what your Time to First Byte. Your Time To First Byte is your first pixel downloaded which need to be under .80 ms. Becoming familiar with these metrics will help you discover unknown server issues you may be experiencing.

Forward Web offers one of the best hosting services in the world and are always happy to assist you with your hosting needs.

 

Remove Excess Ads

Over abundance of ads on a page is one of the biggest issues that sites encounter today. A page weight can go up by more than 100 percent when a site is overloaded with ads because they come with scripting, pixels and third-party calls. And let’s face it, not only do they cause unnecessary issues for the websites but we all simply hate those excessive ads!

Ads are not always a bad thing though, when done properly. A good ad campaign consists of relevant, friction-less and a seamless page experience where users will feel invited to click on your ad rather than being turned off not only from the ad itself but worse, your website. Removing excessive advertising is key, oftentimes reducing your bounce rates with Google ad improving your position. Even though it may seem like you could be losing out on money, it is a wise move in the long run.

 

Image Optimization

Knowing how to properly create, compress and save images is essential because image re-sizing will not suffice as this only changes the physical size, it does not compress the image. Most people are not aware that this is probably the biggest of all offenders!

Here are the steps to properly create, compress and save an image:

Re-size: The image must be physically re-sized to the correct (largest) size.

Format: The image must be saved in the proper format (i.e. line art is saved as PNG’s and photos are saved as JPG’s).

Compression: Images need to be compressed on save. For example, if the image is a JPG, then 60 percent is a good compression rate.

SVG: SVG stands for scalable vector graphics and we recommend using SVG whenever possible because these are code-based images which are lightweight and download quickly. On the other hand, make sure you are not replacing a small image with SVG because this could be more resource intensive.

 

Increase Your Scripting Speed

Another major issue we encounter often is websites that are overloaded with scripting (scripting for this, scripting for that, it’s a scripting epidemic!). This becomes a problem because the more you add, the slower the page becomes because it is using up precious resource calls and therefore creates more obstacles for fast page loading. When adding scripts to your pages, perhaps you could consider the following: Are you using only the libraries you need? Do you need this script? Can the script be combined?

These questions seem basic enough but they play a significant role when it comes to adding just a cool feature v.s. functionality. Before adding a bunch of scripts, ask yourself if it will make the user’s experience better and if so, does it add to the experience without slowing it down?

By combining your scripts into one file, you can load them at one time and minimize resource calls and this should always be the goal. The use of libraries are great because they are used by scripts to make the programming process easier but keep in mind that they also load on a lot of unnecessary code. Again, only load what you actually need.

 

There are many things to take into account when it comes to your websites performance but careful consideration of these suggestions is worth the effort. Forward Web is a leader in the web development and web hosting industry, backed by 15 years of experience. They are always available to answer any questions you may have regarding your website or web hosting needs, contact Forward Web today!

 

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Five Ways to Help Increase Your Website’s Search Rank

 

Do you have a current website but are not sure how to improve your search engine rankings? This article provides you with five ways to help you increase your website search rank. Now, you may ask yourself, what’s the big deal about about website search ranks? Well, there are many reasons to consider but one thing is certain; how your website ranks in the online world can be the difference between your business being a success or a failure.

ForwardWeb.net believes that your website’s search rank can raise your website’s profile, delivering more traffic and more customers which means larger revenues.

 

Watch your website rise the ranks to the top of search-engine results with these five basic fundamentals:

 

 

  • Have a link-worthy site:

Direct your attention on creating relevant links within the text rather than having “click here” links which have no search engine value beyond the attached URL. Instead, try writing out the name of the destination (such as Forward Web Development) because complete and significant keywords will improve your search engine rankings as well as the ranking of the page you are linking to.

 

 

  • Publish relevant content:

There is no substitute for great content therefore quality content is the single most important driver of your search engine rankings. Your site’s authority and relevance improves when quality content is created specifically for your intended user and it also increases site traffic. Identifying a keyword phrase for each page and then repeat that phrase several times throughout the page is also very effective (for instance once or twice in the opening and closing paragraphs and two to four more times throughout the rest of the content).  Remember to use heading tags, bold, italics and other emphasis tags to highlight keyword phrases.

 

 

  • Update Your Content Regularly:

It is imperative to keep your content recent because updated content is viewed as one of the best indicators of a site’s relevancy.

 

 

  • Alt Tags:

Alt tags allow search engines to locate your page, which is essential (especially for text-only browsers) and for that reason you want to make sure to always describe your video and visual media using alt tags or different text descriptions.

 

 

  • Metadata:

Metadata is a set of data that describes and gives information about other data. During the creation of your website, each page is designed to contain a space between the <head> tags to insert metadata (or information about the contents of your page). Metadata breaks down to the following sections: Title Metadata, Description Metadata, and Keyword Metadata.

Title Metadata is the most significant metadata on your page because it is responsible for the page titles displayed at the top of the browser window.

Description Metadata consists of the textual description that a browser will use in you page search return. This is a description of what is contained within (that is appealing, short and to the point) with the intention of encouraging people to enter.

Keyword Metadata is substantial because this is the search phrase that people type when they want to find your page. Ideally, you want to incorporate various phrases and keep them at about six to eight phrases with each phrase consisting of one to four words (you don’t want to exceed this limit because if your list becomes redundant, it’s possible that the browser may completely ignore the data).

 

 

Keep in mind that these are not the only ways to increase your website’s search rank, but they are definitely a solid foundation. By following these five steps, you will without a doubt not only increase your website’s search rank but also your chances for success. If you have any questions regarding the information discussed in this article, don’t hesitate to contact Forward Web, they are willing to assist any time!

 

 

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