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Hiring an SEO company or marketer can be a big step for your business. All you have to do is pay a bit of money, and then you can rake in the benefits of increased business, right? The too long, didn’t read is that it’s not that simple. Any SEO company’s job is incredibly complex, and though we understand the complexities of things like search engines, algorithms, and more so you don’t have to, there are a few things you should know before hiring an SEO company.

hasOptimization is proud to announce the launch of a new site for Connecticut-based hand-engraver Rusalka Engravery. This small business owner is stepping out into the world on their own with their very first eCommerce website.

One helpful marketing tool we constantly try to get our clients to leverage is building marketing mailing lists. Building an email marketing list is a great way to get in direct contact with your customers — and potential customers — and can help you when you’re suffering from poor reach on social media platforms. It’s also a better way to make big announcements that go directly to people’s email. I’m sure you know the benefits of an email marketing list, but building one can be a challenge. Typically, clients import their current customers and stop there. There’s a big opportunity for clients to continue building their email marketing lists with lots of potential customers; adding a signup form to the end of a blog post is one way, assuming you are publishing posts people may want to see more of.

hasOptimization is proud to announce the launch of two new sites for Washington DC based law firm Ermer & Suter, PLLC. This law firm focuses on federal employment and benefit matters, and needed two very similar websites to suit. Additionally, the group was going through a rebrand when taking on an additional partner, so some logo refreshes were in order!

At hasOptimization, we’ve been working more towards practicing what we preach. While we believe in things like LGBTQ+ rights, are avid animal advocates, amongst other things, we believe that the web should be as accessible as possible to people of all walks of life. That’s why we’re constantly blogging about how to make your website more accessible, or your social media account. While we can give out tips for best practices, nothing is better than having a real world user work hand-in-hand with our developer to ensure things are functioning properly, as expected, and as best as they can. Only four months ago we took on an assistant, and now we’re taking on an accessibility specialist to help us rigorously test websites to make sure they are functionally usable to those with screen readers. Please join us in welcoming Lindsay Yazzolino as our accessibility specialist! Lindsay Yazzolino is a lifelong assistive technology expert will will be conducting screen reader web accessibility evaluations for hasOptimization. Lindsay comes with a BA in cognitive science from Brown University. Lindsay is also a tactile technology specialist who collaborates with clients such as museums, artists, and scientists to create multisensory hands-on exhibits and other irresistibly “hand-catching” experiences. When not conducting accessibility tests, Lindsay likes to engage in activities like seeking out bats by their echolocation calls (she spent last summer walking around a cemetery doing just that), and assisting with tactile exhibits for museums such as the Smithsonian. Lindsay also loves airline turbulence, once memorized…

2020 is here, and while we predict that 2020 will show increased interest in web accessibility, we also are keeping our eyes on what seems to be trending recently for web design. While you don’t have to latch onto every trend you read, some trends are worth keeping, and others you can probably do without. Let’s take a look at trending web design for 2020.

You may have heard of this phenomenon. It can happen anywhere, to anyone at all with a reviewable presence, whether it’s on Facebook, Yelp, Google, Bing, Steam, Amazon, or even somewhere else. A review bomb, or review bombing, is when the internet turns against you.

At hasOptimization, one of our primary services is search engine optimization. It’s a service that many of our clients come to us in need of help with. The thing about search engine optimization, otherwise known as SEO, is that there’s a lot of minute things you have to consider when it comes to “ranking”. Search terms, trends, search location, Google’s algorithm, page responsiveness, mobile first indexing, are just a few things to consider when working on SEO.

We love our clients, and we think you should too! This week we’re highlighting long-time client Morr Interiors, an interior design firm in Portsmouth, NH that focuses on contemporary style interior design, staging, and more.

One very interesting thing about SEO is the science that happens behind it. Whether it’s psychologically crafting content in a way that makes people click (i.e. clickbait), or it’s understanding how people navigate a page, understanding usability and the flow of any web page is important to crafting your perfect optimization approach. We were excited to read about this study by Nielsen Norman Group which tracked user eye movement on the search engine results page (SERP). A few years back, it was common to have ten blue-link results in a list. That required customers to read and examine what they were clicking. Now, especially on Google, the SERP can have all kinds of more visually appealing bits of information, such as business listings to the right, rich snippets highlighted at the top — sometimes even with pictures, or even accordion answers to questions. How can we know where a user’s eye travels, and what listing is most important to optimize for? The Pinball Pattern NNG compares the way they found a user’s eye to move about the SERP to be similar to a pinball inside of a pinball machine. That means that they found users aren’t consuming information on the SERP in a linear fashion — instead the eye can be moving left, to right, to left again, causing a “pinball pattern” effect. What’s it look like? Let’s get into the nitty gritty about what a typical SERP looks like and what the pinball pattern suggests. You will see in…