How to Balance Website User Experience and SEO

How to Balance Website User Experience and SEO

You’ve probably heard it time and time again: don’t build your website for search engines. Instead, we’re told to build websites with the user experience in mind.

But what’s really the difference between the two? Can a positive user experience and effective search engine optimization (SEO) go hand-in-hand?
The answer is most certainly yes—with some balance. Your website should be easy for users to navigate and visitors should be able to quickly find what they’re looking for. And, perhaps most importantly, you want them to keep coming back for more.

The good news is that Google wants this too, so you don’t have to choose between making your website highly searchable or highly user friendly. After all, the goal of Google’s search algorithm is to help users find the best answers to their questions—both in information and in experience. Because of this, there are several different aspects of user experience that Google rewards in search rankings.

So, how can you appease Google and other search engines while creating a website that is built with web users in mind? It’s just a matter of striking the right balance.

5 Ways to Balance User Experience and SEO

1. Consider your website’s look and feel
When your website is visually appealing, easy to navigate, and informative, visitors are more likely to stick around longer. Once visitors know they can get a good user experience from your site, they’ll keep coming back to it as a future resource. This gives you multiple opportunities to interact with these individuals. With each touch point, visitors should build an understanding of your firm’s expertise, services, and capabilities.

Since Google takes the overall usability of a website into account, this can positively affect your site’s search visibility.


2. Avoid keyword stuffing
Yes, using keywords in your content is important to increase your website’s visibility within search engine results. But be cautious. Google’s search algorithm is sophisticated enough to know if you’re “stuffing” keywords into content and pages where the terms aren’t relevant or natural to the page.
In fact, their algorithm will actually penalize your website for using irrelevant keywords. Instead, use your title tags, headers, image alt tags and URLs to target specific keywords, then reuse the keyword a few times in the text where it makes sense.

As a good rule of thumb, remember this: keywords should just be a natural and seamless addition to the content topics you’re already writing about.


3. Update your website often
Doing a complete overhaul of your website regularly isn’t always feasible. But you should be regularly publishing new content and updating existing content, so that your web site remains relevant.

Remember that your audiences are likely changing and evolving. They may be facing different challenges and needs than just a few years ago. Conducting regular research on your prospects and clients is essential to inform how your firm and website needs to adapt to keep up.

Your website copy and content should speak to what buyers are looking for today. Add and update regularly so your website remains relevant and continues to appeal to your audience.

Most importantly, remember that you’re writing first for those prospects and for search engines secondarily.


4. Keep navigation simple
Users have a seemingly infinite amount of information at their disposal these days. Navigating a website should be a clear and intuitive process. Visitors that aren’t able to quickly find what they’re looking for will become frustrated and leave your firm’s website.

Have a thorough understanding of what your audiences are likely to look for and use that information to inform how you lay out your website’s navigation. Remain consistent with the location of your navigation, minimize the number of sections in your navigation, and keep the titles of each pathway clear so users know exactly what they’ll find when they click through.
And don’t forget to submit an XML sitemap to search engines. This will allow them to understand the structure of your website and quickly and easily index your pages, helping your website traffic and SEO.


5. Embrace responsive design
We live in a mobile world. And accordingly, Google now uses a website’s mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal in mobile search results.
So, your website’s mobile experience is no longer just important for reducing user frustration. Mobile optimization is now directly related to your search visibility. Between desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones with varying screen sizes, responsive design is an optimal solution for most professional services firms.

Responsive design allows your website to be automatically resized and reformatted based on the device that visitors are using. If you haven’t made the switch yet, it’s time.

Remember that in many cases, making website choices grounded in improving user experience can actually end up strengthening your SEO in the long run. At the end of the day, making sure that your website visitors have a positive experience once they’re there helps you get more quality traffic—which is something Google will definitely notice.
Source : business2community

Is It Better To Optimize An E-commerce Product Page Or An Amazon Listing?

As an online merchant, you have a lot of options. While many businesses try to organically build their own, independent e-commerce platforms, others simply turn to existing platforms, such as Amazon, eBay, and Etsy to manage all their transactions for them. I’ve seen many businesses become successful based purely on their presence in Amazon, but I’ve also seen new e-commerce platforms defy expectations.

There are clear advantages and disadvantages to each approach. E-commerce sites generally require much more time and money to start up, but offer more control and long-term growth potential. On the other hand, they also require more regular management and are more subject to bugs and security breaches. Amazon is simpler to set up and manage, and allows you to leverage the power and trust of its brand, but it also reduces your profitability because it takes a percentage of each sale.

Rather than diving deep into issues of ongoing management or startup costs, I’m going to take a close look at the mechanism behind long-term growth in both scenarios; the capacity to optimize for greater traffic. While search engine optimization (SEO) is typically used in reference to optimizing independent websites for Google searches, it’s also possible to optimize an Amazon listing (or an Amazon store, for that matter). In my analysis, I’ll compare the ease, cost, and effectiveness of optimization for each of these applications.

How to Optimize an Amazon Listing

Process
While Google always wants users to get the most relevant results for their searches, Amazon cares more about the satisfaction a user gets when he/she buys a product. As a result, Amazon pays greater attention to factors such as customer reviews, pricing, and customer behavior upon examining the product. For example, if your product generates more sales than similar products, Amazon has a vested interest in ranking your product higher.
Before I dive into how you can accomplish this, I want to mention a similarity Amazon optimization has with Google optimization: meta data. Google relies on structured meta data in the backend code of your site to learn about your products and services, but Amazon offers these fields to you directly. When you list a product, you’ll have the opportunity to describe your product in great detail across a variety of descriptive and categorical fields. Be sure to fill these out as completely and as accurately as possible to maximize your chances of getting found (and include images while you’re at it).

In addition to these keywords and descriptions, Amazon ranks you based on four primary “quality” factors:

• Price. This is pretty straightforward; list your product at a price comparable to yet competitive with similar products listed by your competitors.
• Conversion Rate. The more products you sell, the more money Amazon makes. The higher your conversion rate is, the higher Amazon is going to rank you.
• Customer Reviews. Unhappy customers are bad for Amazon. Work to earn as many good reviews as possible—this can be difficult and unpredictable, but it’s vitally important.
• Seller Performance. How well your products perform across the board is also factored into how your individual products rank.

Also keep in mind that building links and mentioning your product on social media will not have a direct impact on your Amazon search listings—this is only a Google-based optimization technique.

Impact
When it comes to actual product searches, Amazon has almost three times more searches than Google. If you’re only considering the portion of your target audience who will be looking for your product directly, Amazon is the clear winner in terms of total potential traffic. However, it’s important to keep in mind that your e-commerce platform will be able to attract more total traffic from peripheral, industry, or vaguely related terms, and that most products on Amazon are already saturated with competition.

How to Optimize a Product Page
Process
The process here is traditional SEO, which is somewhat complicated, but I’ll break it down into key factors. I’ve included links to pages where you can find more information for each element:

• On-site optimization, including the titles and descriptions you list on your individual pages.
• Website structure and user experience; the lower your bounce rate and the deeper your users go, the better.
• On-site content; sites with an ongoing content strategy that features unique, helpful, well-written material always do better.
• External links and brand mentions; the more authoritative sites point to yours, the higher your own authority will increase.
• Social media presence and shares—the more, the better.

Optimizing a site takes a lot of work and a lot of time, but optimizing any new product page on that site is a relatively simple process. Filling out the structured data on the backend is all you need to do to ensure your product page can be found with relevant query searches—your domain authority should take care of the rest.

Impact
Obviously, Google offers a lot of potential. Because the optimization process here is for your branded online presence, and not just a single Amazon listing, your efforts have a greater and longer-lasting impact. E-commerce optimization gives you a better chance at winning over more long-term traffic and brand loyalists, and each transaction will net you a larger profit.

Conclusion
As you might have expected, each option has advantages and disadvantages. Amazon has a faster, more straightforward process, and a huge brand that will help get your products the visibility they need, but it’s less predictable, less likely to earn you new brand followers, and takes a cut of every sale. E-commerce optimization is more technical, more difficult, and more time consuming, but it’s arguably more valuable over the long-term. If you’re just starting out and you need to generate some immediate revenue, Amazon is the better choice, but if you’d rather invest in a long-term strategy, e-commerce is the way to go. And remember—there’s no harm in pursuing both if you have the resources!
Source : forbes

How Important is Local SEO to Your Business?

The importance of local Search Engine Optimization cannot be overemphasized, as many businesses and marketers are already taking advantage of its benefits.
As the clock ticks, local SEO will continue to be relevant for enterprise companies for the following reasons:

Local Scale Exposure

The main reason for using local SEO is that it will target the people in the area where your business is established. This makes SEO a powerful tool for the small business owners who have recently started their enterprises.
Leverage local online resources like Craigslist, Angie’s List, and Yelp. Advertise in local classifieds.
Make sure to upload high-quality images and videos and other items relevant to your business on sites like these.

Link Building and Social Sharing

Another important part of using local SEO is the creation of potential partnerships between two business firms. It creates a link between them and also helps in social sharing purposes.
In this process, it helps marketers to meet potential clients who can help you grow your business in the future. Meetings with other website owners and local bloggers can change your approach toward business in a positive way. You can initiate an event or a new business idea together for future profit-making strategies as well.
Marketers can build and share their link with local search engines like Google Places, Bing Places, Yahoo Local, Yelp, Foursquare and YP.

Growth of Mobile and Wearable Devices

In 10 countries, including the U.S. and Japan, more Google searches take place on a mobile device than a PC. And with the popularity of wearable devices, like smartwatches, more and more searches will happen on the go. As a result of this, local and proximity-based searches will become more frequent.
According to Adam Farra, CEO of HostGator, “Society today is already transitioning from PCs to mobile Internet usage, so local SEO will be a necessity, not a ‘nice to have’ in the very near future.”

Business Extension

Your website is considered to be a second location of your business. With the help of local SEO, you are actually making it easier for the users to interact with your business. This makes it easier to locate and study your business’s webpage and also update it with informative and engaging content which is relevant for the growth of business in the future.
It is very important to consider all these for optimizing your website with regard to the use of local SEO.
Constant revision of content to your website will keep it updated and also your clients will have a better idea about your services, products and promotions.
TouchBistro, an iPad Point-of-Sale (POS) app for restaurants, used its site to advertise partnering with Uber to provide a $20 promotional credit to those who dined at TouchBistro-affiliated restaurants in Toronto. Participating restaurants were given promotional cards with codes to give to customers, who could then download the Uber app to access their $20 credit.
TouchBistro and Uber plan on partnering in other cities, too.

Profit Maker

If the steps and processes are followed correctly, local SEO will help businesses make more profit along with the much needed online exposure.
Traffic for your website can increase exponentially and immediately if your site is listed in the top spot of search engine results. If your business has a physical location, just how important is local SEO to your bottom line?
According to a recent study, 78 percent of local mobile searches and 61 percent of local laptop searches resulted in purchases offline. In the U.S. alone, there are 7 billion unique local searches monthly. As far as conversion rates go, it could be much worse.
Prompt visibility for your business is due in large proportion to local SEO. Just make sure you’re providing the right content to the right people, driving their online searches to your business.
Source : smallbiztrends

Small Business Marketing: SEO or SEM

Small Business Marketing:

SEO or SEM What Works Best...?

4 Questions to a SMB should ask themselves before starting a SEO or SEM campaign.

Any digital marketers get this familiar question from business owners: “SEO or SEM?” There are nearly indefinite amount of variables that can determine the best solution. In this article, I will point out some considerable factors that might help a business owner make a decision on either of these two common digital marketing strategies.

For the sake of this article, I’ll refer to SEO or Search Engine Optimization as organic search on Google. Similarly, for SEM or Search Engine Marketing, I’ll refer to as paid search ads on Google. (Also known as PPC using Google Adwords).   Further, to add a little substance to this blogpost, I included a “Winner” or recommendations to variety of different circumstances. This is just a general outlook for what I consider most businesses to fall under. The true outcome depends on a variety of factors that I may or may not have included for each example. If you don’t fall under what I consider “most businesses”, than there might be a different solution than what I recommended. If this is the case for you, I apologize in advance.

SEO or SEM??? It is almost impossible to answer this without at least following up with other questions. Below are four basic but important questions that can help with providing a SMB an answer:

1)  Goal?:

What is the goal of your digital marketing efforts?
This should not only be a business owner’s first question, but also the most important one that they should ask themselves before contemplating a digital marketing strategy. The more specific an answer you can come up with, the better chance on having a successful marketing campaign. However, if you do create a specific goal, remember that you can’t always get your cake and eat it too. Example: If your goal is to get leads or even more specific, phone calls. Then you should never be focused on other things like web traffic or ranking on the 1^st page of google. Instead, your strategy should be increasing the amount of phone calls by X%, then stick with the strategy.  Below are typical goals for either a SEO or SEM campaign:

• Leads. Makes sense right? You spend “X” amount of dollars on SEO or SEM, you want to see a return. If you’re purely focused on Leads especially short term, then SEM is most likely your best solution. SEM can provide very accurate conversion/phone tracking solutions. Keep in mind, conversions or lead generation are typically your most expensive SEM campaigns. If you are in a competitive vertical, then the price per lead can be very high. There is a place for SEO as it can work for leads, especially local SEO. However, this more of long term strategy and the lead tracking is not nearly as accurate or convenient to get as SEM.

• WINNER=SEM. Examples of SEO or SEM Leads:
• Phone calls. Mostly SEM.
• Emails.  SEO or SEM.
• Contact Forms. SEO or SEM.
• Walk-ins. Local SEO or SEM.
• Website Traffic. If you want traffic right away, then use SEM. However, if you want an increase of ongoing traffic (long term), SEO is your optimal solution. An onsite SEO strategy increases the content and size of your website. This will have a positive increase in organic traffic. Offsite SEO will increase your link structure, which have a positive influence in your organic traffic and will provide referral traffic from other links. WINNER=SEO. Example of SEO and SEM Website Traffic:
  
  • Organic Traffic. SEO
  • Referral Traffic. SEO
  • Paid Traffic. SEM

• 1^st Page on Google. If this is your number one goal, then I recommend that you sit back and wonder who else has this goal? If your answer is EVERYBODY, then you’re not too far off. If you have the budget, then you can be on the 1^st Page on Google today. However, your return on investment might not be optimal. Depending on the vertical, it can take a very long time and an enormous amount of work to win a first page ranking on Google through SEO. If this must be your goal, then I would focus on less competitive keywords. (Easier wins for SEO, cheaper CPC for SEM). WINNER=Nobody. Might consider finding a different goal. Example of less competitive keywords:
  • Services. Do you offer services that are less competitive search terms?
  • Products.  Do you offer products that are less competitive search terms?
  • Your Brand. Name of business.
  • Smaller cities. Less competition.
• Targeting.  For location targeting like cities, Local SEO can work very well. Yet, this can be quite competitive and there can be many restrictions. With SEM, there area limited amount restrictions. You can target multiple locations and be as specific like zip codes. Other targeting possibilities with SEM include: mobile devices, browsers, and networks. Further, you have time, day, and many other options. In fact, targeting is a reason why many SMB’s choose SEM. WINNER=SEM.
• Branding.  This is not a very common strategy for your typical brick and mortar business. However, if you have a brand new or unique product, then your focus might be to just get as many eyeballs or impressions of your business as possible. For SEM, you can easily go after an abundance amount of keywords. Google Adwords makes this very easy because they will give you recommended keywords that will trigger search results. SEO is also important, with creating as much content as possible, you can have a larger chance of organic search results. WINNER=Tie. SEM and SEO branding practices.
  • Keyword Matching. This is a service from Google Adwords.
  • Keyword Volume. SEM & SEO.
  • Content & Blogging.  SEO
    

2)  Budget?

What is your marketing budget?
Once you determine your goal, the total budget should be your next question. Obviously, your goal can greatly determine what you can and can’t do for your SEM and/or SEO budget. The cool thing about SEO is that it doesn’t require a dollar amount if you’re doing it yourself. However, the time and commitment can be enormous. On the other hand, if the adspend is right then SEM can deliver instant results.

• High Budget. Always Do SEM. Do SEO. (Consider outsourcing SEO.)
• Medium Budget. Do SEM. Do SEO. (Maybe outsource SEO or do internally.)
• Low Budget. Don’t Do or Do Limited SEM. Do SEO. (Do SEO internally)

 3)  Time Frame?

What is the time frame of your goal?

My favorite quote for SEO vs SEM is: “SEO is a marathon. SEM is a sprint.”

What I mean here is that SEO is a long term investment. There is a lot of work involved with SEO and requires ongoing knowledge, specific strategies, and time. There are many variables that determine a successful SEO campaign, one crucial variable that can’t be accurately estimated is the amount of time you receive results. Therefore, if you choose SEO, be prepared for a long haul. Also, the success for SEO can last for a long duration of time, especially if you continue the progress. For SEM, you’re literally buying your placement. Therefore, your results can be nearly instant. Remember, your results stop when your budget runs out.

• Long term. SEO.
• Short term. SEM

4)  Industry/Location/Competition?

What industry is your business is in?
Where are you located?
  Is your industry and location competitive?
These are the last three questions I typically ask all clients. The answers for these questions all similarly impact a SEO or SEM campaign. A competitive market in a metro area most likely means that SEO will be difficult and will take a while and SEM will be expensive. SEO and SEM isn’t a new thing, so it’s logical to assume that your competition is doing one or both of these strategies.

Conclusion:

When answering the question “SEO or SEM?” we should already know the answers to at least the four questions above. Nearly everything boils down to what your goal is. This is by far the most important factor for any SEO or SEM campaign. If you don’t answer this first, then you are bound to waste time and money with whichever marketing campaign you choose to do. Once you establish a goal, the next three questions will help you identify a digital direction for your marketing campaign and you’ll have a better idea of using either: SEO, SEM, or both.

Bonus:

How is your Website?: If your website is old and outdated, then updating this should be your first priority before considering SEO or SEM campaign.

Hire a Professional: If you have the budget, why not hire a professional? You should strongly consider investing in this especially, if you are in a competitive vertical.

Research Up Front: SEO takes too long and SEM costs money to “figure things out” on the go.   Read blogposts like this one, ask others, learn SEO and SEM, and know your competition before starting a digital marketing strategy.

Digital Marketing doesn’t end with SEO or SEM: Don’t get trapped in doing what everyone else is doing. Look for opportunities! Email Marketing, Social Media, Display, Chat, Video, there are numerous opportunities in the digital marketing space.
Source : smartreachdigital

Link Building Tactics for Search Engine Optimization

Best Link Building Tactics

for

Search Engine Optimization

Every time you want to look for some information on the internet, you will go to a search engine such as Bing, Google or Ask, enter the search item and the search engine will provide the relevant websites to what you are looking for. So many different websites offer the same services but search engines choose to pick some websites over others. This is because of search engine optimization.

Search engine optimization is a collection of various techniques used by websites to obtain high rankings in search engines and this increases the number of visitors to the page. Most people will often click on the first five options given by the search engine and this is the aim of most websites. In order to run successful website online, you need as many people as possible in your target niche accessing your website and this is mostly the people searching for that specific search term or rather keyword.

There are various types of search engine optimization strategies

Black hat SEO
Black hat SEO has been often used in the past to raise the rankings of websites in search engines in a matter of hours. However, just as the name suggests, black hat SEO techniques are in conflict with search engine guidelines. They simply exploit weaknesses in the algorithms and get rankings for websites. Most search engines today are keen at sniffing out these black hat techniques. If the website is detected, it could be banned from the search engine.

White hat SEO
Although white hat SEO may take longer in getting top search engine rankings, websites that use white hat SEO maintain a great position in search engine rankings for much longer. White hat SEO is the recommended way of optimizing your website using the search engine guidelines. Search engines such as Google love white hat SEO websites. There are various white hat SEO techniques such as links, social media posting, Meta tags, inner pages and so on.

Link building
Link building is one of the most important search engine optimization techniques. Link building is a challenging SEO skill, in the past people have opted for quick and easy black hat SEO techniques by creating many spam links. Today however, search engine algorithms have improved to valuing quality rather than quantity. Therefore, it is essential to build quality links from relevant and authoritative sites in order to get high ranks. Link building involves a combination of skills such as:

• Content creation
• Sales and marketing
• Psychology
• Programming

The following are some Link Building tactics that you can use for your site

Research your competitors
Your competitors can be a good source of where to find the best links that are relevant to your website. You can ride the success of your competitors with obtainable links such as high quality niche directories. You can even get links from indirect competitors that sell products similar to yours. A for instance if you sell make up, you can find great links from other businesses that sell make up application services.

Use profile links
Some websites will allow you to create a link when you open a profile. You can use social media profiles to link or open profiles in niche-related websites where you can get direct or indirect links.

Link out
If you are not in a very competitive industry, you can link out and enjoy the returned favor from the competitor that you link out to. You can use linking out to gain favor with other businesses.

Get quality content
Social media, brand awareness and content marketing are very crucial to link building. You need to find the right people to write content that will attract people to your brand. You should consider segmenting your content in order to increase its readability. You should also avoid using content that has a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes. Make sure that your content is timeless so you content can be rediscovered and linked again in future. If you can offer content in more than one language for the non-English speaking readers, you can also get more traction.

Create a blog
Posting content consistently builds internal links as well as attracting links naturally to your content. You can even use the blog for linking out to other competitors.

Webinars
You can also attract links naturally by conducting a webinar at least once every month. Create a page on your site that is dedicated to webinars and you can enjoy attracting links on a long-term basis.

Create free online tools
Most people like using and sharing free things online. You can create simple online tools such as calendars and calculators in order to attract links. Many people will use these tools and share them with friends online.

Quizzes and tests
You have probably received countless requests to participate in quizzes and tests on your social media pages or through your emails. These tests attract quite a lot of links. People like to test their knowledge and see how well they perform in comparison to their friends or family. Quizzes and tests are a huge hit for building links.

Creating micro sites
Fun micro sites can be a great way to attract links back to your main site. Micro sites do not have to be very fancy therefore do not be worried about making too big of an investment. Simple interfaces that are easy to navigate with at least a link back to your site will do.

Update old content
There may be some information that still gets traffic especially if you used a highly searched keyword. However, this content may not be able to link back if it is outdates and useless to the reader. Updating this information can help you take advantage of the high traffic that this old content still attracts.

Conclusion
There are so many ways through which you can use links to optimize your website for search engines. The key to great link building is being proactive. An active website with great content that is regularly updated and has useful tools to internet users can attract many valuable links and eventually gain top rankings on search engines. Source : promotionworld

Is SEO Taking a Backseat to Social Media?

Is SEO Taking a Backseat to Social Media?

It seems like such a short time ago, that changes in the Google algorithms could send a company that relies on search engine optimization (SEO) to help market its products into a frenzy. Having the right keywords, placed carefully in web pages, was the key and aim of everyone looking to get on the first page of a Google keyword search. This effort even helped to create a new business niche, where firms were created for the sole purpose of optimizing websites for clients to get them a higher Google ranking.

But my, how fast things have changed in just the past few years. Social media has become just as, if not more important to businesses than SEO, and it can have a positive, or a negative effect on how a web page is ranked on Google. Here are some things you need to know to better balance marketing between these two key factors.

Statistics That Will Surprise You

According to a study done by Experian, over 26% of the internet time used in America today is used in surfing social media sites such as Twitter, and Facebook. The study also revealed the surprising fact that social media produces almost twice the marketing leads that trade shows, direct mail, email campaigns, and telemarketing do combined. It is also very useful to note that up to 45% of online shoppers make use of social media when making that all-important purchase decision on goods and services.

This by no means implies that use of SEO is dead in the water. Google still makes use of SEO in their search engine algorithms, and that is very unlikely to change anytime soon. What it does mean for the forward-looking business man or woman, is that in order to get more traffic to your website, the importance of social media is not to be overlooked.

In the quest to drive more traffic to a company website, using only SEO is not going to get the job done the right way. In order to compete in a successful manner, in a global and growing marketplace, a strategy that is well thought out and comprehensive in nature is needed. A strong social media presence is needed, along with a modern website optimized for SEO is what is required to compete.

It should also be noted that any business that has a product or service that appeals to young people, a social media presence is imperative. The social media site should have links back to the company website, and that will help to drive more traffic, and more buyers straight to you.

Be aware of the role social media plays in the lives of many of your customers, and take full advantage of this knowledge. With the power of social media, and the help of a well-written, SEO website, you stand the best chance of competing in today’s fierce, global marketplace that is the internet.
source : business2community

What causes Skin Tags

What causes Skin Tags

 

What is a Skin Tag?

Skin tags are small benign growths of the skin attached to the surface of the skin by a thin stalk tissue. Also called a acrochordon, skin papilla, or skin tags, which typically occur in areas where friction clothes or skin to skin causing some irritation. This can happen in the armpits, neck, groin, eyelids, and upper chest and their frequency may increase with age because of the sensitivity of the skin. There may be a genetic predisposition, causing them to run in families and usually occur in about 25% of adults.

What causes skin tags?
Much research has been done on the skin tags to determine their exact cause, though not much came of them. Skin tags are composed of nerve cells, fat cells, ducts and fibers, and the skin. They are generally as non-cancerous tumors on the skin. Risk factors of skin tags.


There are a number of risk factors for the development of skin tag. These factors include:

Friction against the skin. Friction constant and repetitive skin contact may cause skin tags. This can happen, from clothes, but it is more oftencaused friction skin to skin. Obese people are more likely to have skin tags, because the folds of the skin are constantly rubbing, causing chafing and skin thickening. This is also the reason why skin tags develop in areas such as the armpit and groin. Hormone imbalance. Skin tags are common in pregnant women because of the imbalance of hormones. Skin tags are also seen in women with polytheistic ovary syndrome, which is a hormonal disorder. Skin tags are also common in people with other hormonal disorders as gigantically is caused by higher levels of growth hormone. HPV infection. Through research of the causes of skin tags, the scientists found the DNA of two types of human papilla virus in about half of the skin tags studied. So the HPV virus, of which there are about a hundred types, can cause skin changes in some people. Diabetes and metabolism. Skin tags were commonly observed in people with type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, which is a group of disorders that include high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, high cholesterol, and insulin resistance. Steroid abuse. Illegal steroids can cause changes in the skin, causing collagen fibers in the skin to bond with each other, forming small growths. This is the result of steroids interfere with the functioning of the natural body and muscles. Family history. Genetics may play a role in the development of skin tags. If you have relatives with skin tags, it is likely that they will develop at some point in your life.

Where Do skin tags grow?
As mentioned above, skin tags are meant to grow in areas of the body where there is a lot of rubbing and friction. These areas include:

• Under the breast
• Armpits
• Groin
• Eyelids
• Neck
• Upper chest

How Do I Get Rid Of Skin Tags?
There are a number of treatments for skin tags if discomfort or are in an area that makes them discomfort. Home remedies work quite well. If you want to get rid of tags for aesthetic reasons or because they are in an area subject to friction and irritation, you can consult your doctor about medical attention.
1. Home Remedies To Remove Skin Tags

Try clear nail polish. It is believed that the application of clear nail polish to the skin tag causes dry out and eventually fall. To do this, apply a thin layer of polish to the tag and allow to dry. Repeat this process two or three times a day until the skin tag falls. You can move the skin tag to accelerate the process. Apply lemon juice. The acid in the lemon juice can dry out the skin, drying, thereby changing the skin and helping it to fall. You can rub a slice of lemon on the right on the skin, or soak a cotton ball in lemon juice and apply it to the tag. Apply daily until the skin tag falls. Apply tea tree oil. Tea tree oil is known for its treatment of a variety of skin diseases, such as acne, and also can eliminate skin tags. Dip a cotton ball in water to dilute the oil and then add a few drops of tea tree oil for cotton. Dab on changing the skin once or twice a day until the tag falls. Use ligation. Binding is a painless and bloodless procedure which involves the use of string or floss to tie the skin tag, cutting its nutrition. Tie the string around the skin tag and tighten so that the blood supply is cut off. Leave it for a few days, if needed tightening and the tag will dry up and fall. The skin below will have already healed.
2. medical treatments for skin tags

If home remedies fail to do the trick, or if the changes of the skin become an issue, stand always turn to medical treatment to have them removed.
Remove with surgery. The removal of a skin tag by the doctor is quick and easy, and is done right in the doctor . The size of the tag will determine if it is necessary the use of an anesthetic cream, and the removal takes place either with a scalpel or surgical scissors. There may be some bleeding, but the area will heal within a day or two. Cauterize skin tags. The doctor may use cauterize to remove the skin tags easily. An electric current is used to kill the tissue, causing it to fall. The procedure is painless and there is virtually no bleeding. You may have to pay for the procedure themselves, as most insurance companies consider cosmetic. Freeze and off skin tags. The doctor may perform psychotherapy which freezes skin tags with liquid nitrogen, causing them to die and fall. It is a painless procedure that is done right in the doctor’s. Chemotherapy can cause some temporary discoloration of the skin, which will fade over time.

Scientists develop blood test that can identify which breast cancer patients will likely relapse after surgery

Scientists have developed a blood test that can identify which breast cancer patients are likely to suffer a relapse after surgery – a breakthrough which has the potential to spare thousands of women from undergoing unnecessary chemotherapy and other treatments.

The blood test has only been tested in 55 women, but showed highly promising results and has been hailed as a potential “game-changer” by experts.

It works by uncovering small numbers of residual cancer cells that may have resisted therapy, by detecting cancer DNA in the bloodstream.

In early trials, women who tested positive for tumour DNA in the bloodstream were 12 times more likely to suffer a relapse, and the return of their cancer was detected on average eight months before any visible signs emerged.
The research, carried out by the Institute for Cancer Research (ICR) and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, is now set for clinical trials next year. It could be several years before the test is available in hospitals, but if its effectiveness is confirmed, it could benefit thousands of women.

There are around 50,000 new cases of breast cancer in the UK every year.
Currently, the vast majority of women who have undergone surgery for breast cancer have to undergo further treatment, often with gruelling side effects, to lower their risk of a relapse. A test that can reveal, far in advance, whether women are at high risk of a relapse or not, could mean further treatment would be necessary for a much smaller number of women.

Professor Mitch Dowsett, head of the academic department of biochemistry, at the ICR and Royal Marsden, a senior author of the study, said that the test could change breast cancer patient’s treatment dramatically.

“A patient would come in, they would have their surgery, we would take their blood sample, and [if it was negative] we could say the DNA is undetectable in your blood, it would appear you have no minimal residual disease, we don’t think it’s worthwhile giving you any medical treatment at this time,” he said.
“We’ve been looking for this kind of thing for so long. If this continues to show the promise it currently is, then it’s got the chance of being a game-changer.”

In the study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers said the test also enabled better understanding of how cancers evolve over time, tracking the mutations that lead to a relapse.

This information could prove invaluable to doctors in choosing the best possible treatments for an individual patient, they said.

Professor Paul Workman, chief executive of the ICR, said: “We are moving into an era of personalised medicine for cancer patients. This test could help us stay a step ahead of cancer by monitoring the way it is changing and picking treatments that exploit the weakness of the particular tumour. It is really fantastic that we can get such a comprehensive insight about what is going on in the cancer all over the body, without the need for invasive biopsies.”
Katherine Woods, senior research communications manager at the charity Breast Cancer Now, said: “When breast cancer spreads to other parts of the body it becomes incurable, so we desperately need better ways to predict which cancers will spread and, in the future, stop this from happening altogether.

“This research not only has the potential to improve on current methods used to assess a patient’s prognosis soon after diagnosis, but it could also help to tailor the way women with early breast cancer are treated, presenting a new way to stay one step ahead of – and ultimately outsmart – the disease from the outset.”

Senior cancer patients may undermine treatment with alternative medicines

Supplements and alternative medicines commonly used by senior cancer patients can interact with other medications and affect their treatments. Photo by surajet.l/Shutterstock

 More than a quarter of senior cancer patients use complementary or alternative medicines, or CAMs, which researchers said could interact poorly with other medications they take.

Most CAMs are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration because they are considered health supplements. Researchers said that without standard measures or research on dose and potency variances between substances and patients unexpected effects an occur when they are used.

Enough research has been done to know that some CAMs affect medical treatments. St. Johns Wort is known to make cancer treatments less effective, and others interfere with anesthetics used during surgery.
"Currently, few oncologists are aware of the alternative medicines their patients take," said Dr. Ginah Nightingale, an assistant professor in the Jefferson College of Pharmacy at Thomas Jefferson University, in a press release. "Patients often fail to disclose the CAMs they take because they think they are safe, natural, nontoxic and not relevant to their cancer care, because they think their doctor will disapprove, or because the doctor doesn't specifically ask."

Researchers surveyed 248 patients at the Senior Adult Oncology Multi-Disciplinary clinic at Jefferson University. The mean age of participants was 79.9 and 64 percent of them were women. The participants were seen by 5 specialists in areas important for seniors being treated for cancer: a medical oncologist, a geriatrician, a clinical pharmacist, a social worker and a dietician.

In addition to interviews and examinations, the participants were asked to bring in the contents of their medicine cabinets. The medications they said were actively using were reviewed by researchers and included with participant data.

The researchers found that 26.5 percent of the participants were actively taking some type of CAM while being treated for cancer. The survey results of those using them found complications, including polypharmacy -- either interaction between drugs or misuse of other prescriptions -- vision impairment, and urologic comorbidities.

Researchers recommended including a pharmacist on medical teams caring for seniors in order to monitor and advise them on using CAMs when being treated for cancer, or other conditions.

"It is very important to do a comprehensive screen of all of the medications that older cancer patients take, including CAMs," Nightingale said. "Clear and transparent documentation of CAM use should be recorded in the patient's medical record. This documentation should indicate that patient-specific communication and/or education was provided so that shared and informed decisions by the patient can be made regarding the continued use of these medications."

The study is published in the Journal of Geriatric Oncology.

Anti-Aging Serums : ANTI AGE WRINKLE CREAM

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Link found between throat microbes and schizophrenia

 A link between the tiny organisms found in the throat and schizophrenia could lead to ways of identifying the causes and potential treatments of the neuropsychiatric disorder, according to new research.

The researchers looked for differences in the levels of bacteria, fungi and virus microbes in the oropharynx region of the throat.

The peer-reviewed study was conducted by researchers at the George Washington University in Washington, DC, and is published in the journal PeerJ. 

Lead author Eduardo Castro-Nallar states that an area of the throat called the oropharynx appears to contain different levels of oral bacteria in people with schizophrenia compared with people who do not have the disorder.
"Specifically, our analyses revealed an association between microbes such as lactic acid bacteria and schizophrenics," he says. 

A growing number of studies have demonstrated that the viruses, bacteria and fungi found living on and within the human body - known as the microbiome - can influence brain development, behavior and cognition. 

Previously, Medical News Today have reported on studies revealing that changes to the gut microbiome can reduce cognitive functioning, improve body fat distribution and lead to anxiety and depression. 

Schizophrenia is a complex mental disorder characterized by deficits in cognitive functioning, perceptions and emotional response. Research also suggests that as well as having connections with mental health, the microbiome may affect the immune system in ways that are associated with schizophrenia. 

For the study, the researchers focused on the microbiome of the oropharynx, the region of the throat located at the back of the mouth, including the back third of the tongue, soft palate, tonsils and side and back walls of the throat.
Earlier research from the team identified differences in one aspect of throat bacteria between people with schizophrenia and people without the disorder. In the new study, the researchers examined the complete microbiome, looking at the viruses, bacteria and fungi present in 16 individuals with schizophrenia and 16 control participants.

Results 'require replication and expansion' for further validation

The researchers report significant differences between the microbiomes of schizophrenia patients and those of the control participants. The control participants were richer in microbe species but less even in their distribution than the participants with schizophrenia.

Fast facts about schizophrenia

• Schizophrenia occurs in 10% of people with a first-degree relative with the disorder
• Symptoms of the disorder typically start between the ages 16-30
• People with schizophrenia are not usually violent.

In particular, lactic acid bacteria were relatively more common in people with schizophrenia. These included species of Lactobacilli and Bifidobacterium that have previously been linked to the modulation of inflammation and anxiety in the case of the former. 

The fungal species Candida dubliniensis was also found to be more abundant in participants with schizophrenia. The researchers suggest that this fungus may be associated with either altered immune responses or changes in the local environment.

"Our results suggesting a link between microbiome diversity and schizophrenia require replication and expansion to a broader number of individuals for further validation," reports Keith Crandall, director of the Computational Biology Institute at George Washington University. 

"But the results are quite intriguing and suggest potential applications of biomarkers for diagnosis of schizophrenia and important metabolic pathways associated with the disease." 

A potential confounding factor is that while 10 of the 16 participants with schizophrenia smoked, none of the control participants did, as some studies have indicated that the microbiomes of smokers and nonsmokers can differ. 

The researchers conclude that if they can confirm their findings in larger and more diverse samples, such as in the gut microbiome, they will be able to shed more light on the potential links between schizophrenia and these microbes.
Source : medicalnewstoday

There Is No Reason to Deny Trans People Necessary Medical Care

It comes as no surprise to us when we hear that many trans people suffer from depression even after full medical transition. But for some cisgender people, such as Richard A. Friedman writing for the New York Times, this fact can only be resolved by calling into question our very right to self-determine our genders. (Shutterstock)

This has been a blood-red letter year for trans women. It’s been one of growing visibility blended, with terrifying seamlessness, into a rash of murders—18 in the United States, as of this writing—mostly targeting trans women of color and sex workers. Another case in the Philippines, meanwhile, saw American soldier Joseph Scott Pemberton murder a local sex worker, Jennifer Laude, claiming she had “defrauded” him and that he was defending his “honor.” 

The terror created by these cases and others like them is real and should not be underestimated. Such heinous crimes are the tip of the abuse and discrimination that keep us balanced on the knife’s edge of liveability. It comes, therefore, as no surprise to us when we hear that many trans people suffer from depression or commit suicide even after full medical transition, up to and including reassignment surgery. But for some cisgender people, including those given national publishing platforms, this fact is a riddle that can only be resolved by calling into question our very right to self-determine our genders.

The New York Times published an editorial this week by Richard A. Friedman, professor of clinical psychology at Weill Cornell Medical College, who argued in part that the “best available scientific evidence” suggests we should not be believed when we talk about what we need or the truth of our genders—particularly, that there is no good evidence that medical interventions like sexual reassignment surgery actually improve our quality of life.
“Until we have better data, what’s wrong with a little skepticism?” he writes, leaving unspoken the fact that this means skepticism of trans people and what we assert about our own beings.

One of his key arguments relies on his use of a Swedish long-term study that can be misrepresented to argue that sexual reassignment surgery fails to ameliorate rates of suicide in transgender people, and that this further suggests that we are suffering from some deeper malady that cannot be cured merely by giving into our “cherished beliefs.” 

“When the researchers controlled for baseline rates of depression and suicide, which are known to be higher in transsexuals, they still found elevated rates of depression and suicide after sex reassignment,” Friedman writes.
The problems with reading the study this way are myriad. Its control group was comprised of cisgender people, rather than, say, trans people who had not undergone reassignment surgery—a fact that even Friedman acknowledges. What this means, in effect, is that two vastly disparate groups of people with different social forces and external variables acting upon them, behave differently; hardly shocking. The lack of a proper control to minimize the possibility of unknown variables influencing the results renders the study’s scientific value somewhat dubious, at least if you’re trying to make an argument like Dr. Friedman’s.

Yet he still goes on to say, “On a broader level, the outcome studies suggest that gender reassignment doesn’t necessarily give everyone what they really want or make them happier.”

Further, the study itself contains the following caveat: “No inferences can be drawn as to the effectiveness of sex reassignment as a treatment for transsexualism.” The researchers freely admit that the condition of the trans subjects in their study might well have been worse without surgical intervention.

This issue is further compounded by the fact that other studies come to rather different conclusions. For instance, Murrad, et. al.’s exhaustive review of existing research—which Friedman mentions obliquely—argues that “sex reassignment that includes hormonal interventions in individuals with [gender identity disorder] likely improves gender dysphoria, psychological functioning and comorbidities, sexual function and overall quality of life.” But they also point out that many of these studies lack controls and call the evidence “low quality.” 

Other studies have more conclusively demonstrated that the oft-criticised hormone treatments given to minors who experience gender dysphoria are not harmful and are easily reversible, and still another very recent study has done exactly what Friedman suggested and given us medical proof of the safety of trans hormone replacement therapy.

This is, of course, all rather preliminary; the surface has only just been scratched here. We have only recently begun to study transgender people properly, after all.

But Friedman’s analysis waves away anything that contradicts his argument and seems to pretend there is a nonexistent consensus in the limited scientific literature on us—even as he seems to claim more research is needed, he suggests we ignore that the vast majority of trans people, whatever our social problems, would never de-transition and instead argues we should be “skeptical” of trans people, particularly youths, who claim to need affirming health care. His is an argument for deadly inertia while he and his colleagues sort matters out.

Beyond the mishandling of this particular scientific analysis, Friedman’s piece reflects a wider obsession of cisgender people with this non-paradox of suicide and medical treatment.

It’s seen as a “gotcha” of sorts to act as an argument against granting us access to care we need. In general, cis people fixate on surgeries (witness how Friedman’s article opened with a lurid description of Caitlyn Jenner’s supposed reconstructive surgeries) and then seem to react with insatiable demands for explanation: Why would you do that to yourselves if it doesn’t stop you from committing suicide? From trans exclusionary radical feminists, to men’s rights activists, to evangelical conservatives, these arguments remain popular.

In short, Friedman and those who make similar arguments confound two separate maladies: the experience of bodily gender dysphoria and the morbidity caused by living as a second-class citizen. He announces, as if it were any great surprise, that addressing the former problem does not ameliorate the symptoms of the latter.

For instance, Friedman writes: “Given the absence of good treatment-outcome data, how can anyone—whether transgender activist, parent or clinician—be sure of the best course of action?” As I argued earlier, there is indeed a dearth of medical and psychiatric literature on trans people that addresses treatment. This is something we have protested for years, as it happens, because we do need that data. In a development that should surprise no one, we want to live happy and healthy lives, and prefer safe and effective medical treatments. That Friedman suggests the nebulous, nefarious trans community from which he fears “reprisal” wishes it to be otherwise is bizarre to say the least.

But we make the decisions we do to pursue health care because life is genuinely unlivable otherwise. My worst dysphoric years were characterised by crushing depression, suicidal ideation, failing and dropping out of college, lethargy, sleeping for 18 hours a night, and other abysses that I shudder to recall. Within a year of transition I was a straight-A student, rocketing back onto the Dean’s List, winning merit scholarships and appointments; now I’m a sociologist and write for a living as I work on my Ph.D. The usual sunny story, yes? 

Sort of.
There are times when I still have thoughts of suicide, where depression, insecurity, and dysphoria all wrap around me again like a familiar old blanket. But it never occurs to me that my medical transition was the wrong course to take; I know the sources of my problems, and not all lie in gender dysphoria. Sometimes my bodily dysphoria has more in common with the insecurities foisted onto all women than anything specific to trans female experience, and my depression finds its roots in a thousand old furroughs, some of which include fear that I will not be accepted in society, or that my trans status will be used against me, or that I might be hurt for it. I’ve had a few close calls since I transitioned, after all. 

But what is this if not a human life? Why do Friedman and so many other cisgender people assume that if trans-affirming healthcare does not solve all our outstanding problems, that it must be deficient and unneeded? As if we hold all treatment to that standard. And it is certainly bizarre to expect a psychological and biomedical treatment to fix a sociological problem—that is, the fear and anxiety created by being a member of a class subject to discrimination. Medical transition helped me take ownership of my body. Activism and political change is required to ameliorate the rest.

This is to say nothing of the fact that not all trans people want or need reassignment surgery—it is no longer as definitional of transsexual existence as it once was, and new generations of trans people are finding countless new and interesting ways of having a trans body. It’s a flowering deftly ignored by articles like Friedman’s, except inasmuch as he briefly uses the existence of such people to suggest that perhaps those of us who need surgery don’t. To truly respect trans existence would mean not trying to use our diversity to pit us against one another.

What afflicts us is not surgery but a world under the oceanic pressure of norms and prejudices.

Even leaving aside the more dramatic cases of trans women being murdered, we live in a world where we are seen as strange at best: something to stare at, something to passively exclude, some thing, rather than an equal person. Our bodies seem to exist as amusement parks for the fantastic curiosities of others. We are the conversation piece in cisgender society’s living room.
Ask yourself how that would make you feel, regardless of what medications you took or what surgeries you had.

Gender dysphoria as a whole—bodily and mental—is something imposed on us from without as much as something that manifests from within; it certainly finds its origins in deeply felt, physical sensations of wrongness, but it is also wildly exacerbated by the way trans people’s bodies are talked about, publicly possessed, and seen as inherently violable. In its subtle way, the Times editorial feeds that sense of objectifying entitlement.

This wider issue forms the foundations of all violence against us.
Men can often get away with doing absolutely anything to trans women in particular, especially if we do sex work: that double stigma is a brand that says “no one will miss you” in invisible ink all over our bodies. Even as men lust after us, they want to destroy us as an extraverted act of revenge against all womankind. Because they can.

They say we’re not “real women” and yet do to us the things they wish they could do to other women: their wives, their mothers, female politicians, the ball-busting boss, the ice queen who won’t date them. We are, in fact, the canvas of so many cisgender men’s own deeply unresolved psychological crises, which themselves never make it to the front page of the Times’ Sunday Review in the form of handwringing editorial piety.

You live with that knowledge and you learn to make peace with it, uneasy as it may be, and hope for the best.

Time and again, well-meaning cisgender people tell me and my sisters, brothers, and siblings, that we are so very “strong” and “courageous,” as if they intuitively sense how poisonous our world’s atmosphere is for us.
For my own part, I’m simply trying to fashion a liveable life, partially through these words, partially through the perambulations of my career, and in every case I find that the freshest air I breathe in this world is the result of work done, past and present, to help cisgender people see my existence as a way of being human.
But I needed medical transition in order to breathe in the first place.
Source : rhrealitycheck