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  • Amazing SEO and Social Media Techniques That You Need To Know About

    Social Media Marketing is one of the most widely used marketing strategies that offer a guaranteed output. The internet is flooded with thousands of social media sites with a new one coming up each day. Very few of these succeed in attracting a good number of visitors. However, the ones that do, have succeeded in setting up a strong foundation. So, how do they do this? Simply, by utilizing some of the most effective SEO and social media marketing techniques. Here are a few of them that can change the way you have been doing your business.

    Register the brand name on various social networking sites

    If you have a Facebook page or a Twitter account, you are good to go. Having your brand presence on these sites is one of the best ways to improve your search engine rankings. However, do not just stick to Facebook and Twitter, but also claim your brand on sites like YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+, as these sites presently hold a great share of importance in audience reach as well as search engine algorithms.

    Publish quality content on your blog

    More the amount of content your website holds, more are its chances of being returned as a search result. No doubt, this is true but only to some extent. Search engines now are easily able to distinguish between poor and high quality content. Therefore, if you are just trying to stuff your website with loads of new content each day, think once again. The quality of the content is also equally important.

    Let the visitors share your content

    With every post, make sure to include social sharing buttons which allow visitors to share your content with others. Also, include a small message requesting the visitors to share the content if they like it. As a result, you witness a considerable increase in the number of visitors within just a short span.

    SEO link-building campaign can help

    Once you are done posting a good amount of quality content on your blog, it is now time to work on something known as a SEO link-building campaign. The search engine ranking of a web page greatly depends on the the quality and number of inbound links directing to it.

    Build up an email list

    Why not build up an email list of your website visitors? You can do this by using a free email management utility. Staying in touch with the visitors through email campaigns can offer you guaranteed returns. Although these returns may not be instant, they can still make a huge difference. For most of the present-day organizations, email marketing happens to be a sole valuable asset.

    Setting up an effective online marketing campaign is definitely not a cakewalk. Therefore, many organizations rather than hiring online marketing experts prefer dealing with the task themselves. While some find it feasible to stay away from such campaigns, as they are tight on their budget and also at the same time lack the expertise to get started. If you find yourself in one of these situations, the above mentioned techniques are sure to offer you what you are exactly looking for.

    Previous Post: Keyword-Rich Domain Names show Resilience Post-Penguin

  • Keyword-Rich Domain Names show Resilience Post-Penguin

    Keyword-Rich Domain Names show Resilience Post-Penguin

    Keyword-Rich Domain Names

    It’s been some time now that the algorithm update ‘Penguin’ devalued the rankings of thousands of websites giving sleepless nights to many a businesses. SEO masters are coming to terms with the working of the updated algorithm, albeit slowly. It has been realised by many that not all keyword-rich websites became victims of this onslaught. And, logically enough, keyword-rich domain names have withstood this onslaught much better than the websites stuffed with keywords elsewhere.

    What’s it with keyword-rich domain names that’s made them resilient to such updates? What’s it with them that makes Google to consider them as websites built with white-hat SEO techniques rather than those with black-hat SEO tactics? An in-depth analysis of this case will open the floodgates of knowledge on how the algorithm, especially the updated algorithm returns the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). For e.g. Let us consider the search phrase, “SEO Services India”. Let’s say there are two organizations with the same first name, ‘XYZ’, offering SEO services in India: XYZ SEO Services and XYZ Softech, owning domain names www.xyzseoservices.com and www.xyzsoftech.com  respectively. Naturally, among the two, the search engine will assign a higher rank to the one with a domain name containing the search phrase. Moreover, it’s not just about ranking! As the search phrase in domain names are presented in bolder fonts (i.e., www.xyzseoservices.com) on SERPs, the probability of getting a higher Click Through Rate (CTR) increases as well. This is something akin to hitting two targets with one shot! And also, suppose a website is ranked seventh on a SERP and has a CTR higher than the previous six sites, Google will assign a higher ranking to that website automatically, ensuring higher traffic. This is one SEO technique that’ll never be relegated to oblivion that businesses and webmasters can bet on. It’s completely white-hat!!

    Having a keyword-rich domain name has lots of plusses, alright; but it’s not without its own set of minuses! The paragraph above has focussed on the positive side of having keyword-rich domain names. Given below are some negatives that are to be avoided, to the extent possible, while considering Search Engine Optimisation options.

    Keyword-rich domain names may have a negative bearing on the brand value of products and services being offered by an organization, as the domain name may not give any hint whatsoever about the brand that the organization is trying to promote. In that way, the organization will be losing out on an important marketing tool for its brand by opting for a keyword-rich domain name rather than a domain name that highlights the brand. This negative can be overcome by having the brand name and description mentioned effectively in the title tag and Meta description sections of the webpage. Another important thing that has to be kept in mind while opting to go in for keyword-rich domain names is that such websites need not be stuffed with the same keyword ‘n’ number of times elsewhere on the webpage. One has to note that it’s such websites that have taken a very bad beating, post-penguin.

    Previous Post: Challenges in SEO and PPC management

  • Challenges in SEO and PPC management

    There are basically two different approaches to online marketing. First one is the ‘organic route’, i.e. efforts are made to enhance the ranking of a website in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). The rankings of the site are highly important for the site to be visible for the visitors arriving at the site are directly proportional to the rank it enjoys. This in turn, enhances opportunities for business. Enhancing the ranking of a website is done using various methods and this approach to online marketing is called as Search Engine Optimisation or SEO approach. The second approach is something similar to conventional advertising except for the fact that these advertisements are displayed on SERPs. And, every time a user clicks on these ads, the sponsoring companies pay the advertiser. This approach is called as Pay Per Click or PPC advertising. There are a few more approaches to online marketing other than these two; for e.g. providing links to the website through other resources like directories, forums and websites of other companies etc.

    There are businesses that have relied more on PPC advertising than on specific SEO approaches.  This has been particularly true with small businesses. But now, with bigger players entering the arena, it’s gradually becoming unviable for small businesses to carry on with their PPC campaigns, as margins are getting sleeker by the day. PPC management hence becomes a serious issue. PPC is basically keyword-based advertising; but it’s not as simple as preparing the content and posting it just once. Strategies are to be drawn and executed on a continuous basis, keeping lots of factors in mind, to make the campaign successful. But, as far as small businesses are concerned, PPC ads are losing steam and a switch-over to SEO approach seems imminent, unless PPC management is done excellently.

    SEO has its own set of challenges, though. Search engines assign rankings to websites based on the algorithms used in them. And, they don’t let out those algorithms into the public domain, as they’ve to maintain secrecy of trade. So, webmasters/SEO Masters have to rely only on their experience (and patience of course, to study through trial and error basis) to incorporate SEO techniques in any given website. They are required to follow a set of guidelines issued by search engine operators all the time. But, the pressures of trade force them to deviate from those guidelines and there comes a point when search engine operators have to crack down on websites, which haven’t adhered to those guidelines. They do it by updating their algorithm. Google undertook its crackdown campaign using Penguin Update in its algorithm recently (April 2012).  Scores of websites have witnessed shocking drops in rankings after this change. And, it’s neither the first time nor the last time that such things are encountered.

    Businesses have to constantly keep reinventing their online marketing strategies, to remain afloat. There seems to be no respite from challenges, no matter whether they’re carrying out their marketing campaigns ethically or unethically.

    Previous Post: Link development strategies for websites

  • Link development strategies for websites

    Consider a company, manufacturing a range of top-quality products and offering them to consumer at highly competitive prices. Let’s assume that the company has an excellent website, designed to market its products as well. Even after ensuring that these two critical steps are done to perfection, one cannot rest assured that it’ll bring enough traffic onto the website and translate that into actual business. The website of the company may be excellent; but a factor that makes more and more people connect to that website is the ranking of the website on various search engines. The higher the rank, the better the chances of attracting traffic onto the website. Manufacturers can think of outsourcing this job to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) companies, which have the required expertise to undertake such jobs.  Another strategy available to manufacturers is to provide links to the website from various other quarters of the internet. This is again a job, which can be outsourced to a SEO Company.

    There are various link development strategies that can be adopted by manufacturers. Some such strategies are described below.

    • TURNING INTO A CONTENT PROVIDER: Commonly, various blog posts, newsletters and other such contents on the web provide links to various websites. Manufacturers can think of publishing such content on a regular basis on their websites and provide links to their home pages through that content. This is also known as natural link building.
    • DIRECTORIES: Enlisting the website in various local and industry-specific directories could be another strategy which may work wonders in attracting traffic to the website
    • PPC ADVERTISING: ‘Pay Per Click’ advertising is another strategy that can be used to provide links to the website concerned. PPC is keyword-based advertising. The following example explains how it helps in linking a user to the website of the manufacturer. Suppose the user is searching for a keyword, “SEO Company India”. The search engine will display a list of websites containing that particular keyword. Along with this list, search engines also provide a list of sponsored links containing that keyword. And that link connects the user to the website of the manufacturer.
    • SOCIAL NETWORKING: Creating accounts in a couple of social networking websites could be an easy and effective strategy that manufacturers can think of. Getting associated with users, both existing and prospective, in such a fashion takes the relationship between the manufacturer and the consumer to an all new level.
    • LINKING THROUGH NEW-GEN MEDIA: Manufacturers can think of utilizing the new generation media like YouTube / Flickr to their advantage. They can upload their Product profiles or demonstration videos on such media and can provide valuable links to their websites through those pages.
    • RECIPROCAL LINKING: This is basically a link exchange program. Manufacturers can have an agreement with the owners of a few other websites and can plan to place links to their websites on those websites and vice versa. For e.g. a publishing company can plan to place a link to its website on the website of a book-dealer and vice versa. The most important factor that has to be considered here is the relevance of that link to the user a particular website.

    Previous Post: Infusing intelligence into its search engine: Knowledge Graph by Google

  • Infusing intelligence into its search engine: Knowledge Graph by Google

    Google has taken a big leap forward with its unveiling of Knowledge Graph, a gen-next kind of search engine, which is bound to expand its market share further. With this, Google has moved beyond keyword-based search, opening new frontiers for the company as well as the users.

    Knowledge Graph is embedded in Google’s search engine and is designed such that it understands real-world entities and their relationship to one another; not just strings of alphabets/words (Keywords). So, along with the conventional list of websites generated by the search engine for a particular keyword, Knowledge Graph displays a categorised list on the right-side of the conventional list, giving valuable data and hints to the user regarding the keyword he/she is seeking. The following example will make the point clear regarding the concept. Suppose the user has typed in the keyword ‘Bose’. Conventional Google search yields a list of websites containing the keyword. This list contains a mix of websites containing the keyword, immaterial of whether it’s the website  of state-of-the-art Bose sound systems or websites containing information about Satyendranath ‘Bose’ / Jagadish Chandra ‘Bose’ / Subhash Chandra ‘Bose’.  But, the new interface with Knowledge Graph embedded in it will yield two sets of lists:

    • Left-side of the screen containing the conventional list
    • Right-side of the screen, inviting users to select one of the options out of
      • Bose Sound System or
      • Satyendranath Bose or
      • Jagadish Chandra Bose or
      • Subhash Chandra Bose

    Suppose the user selects ‘Bose Sound System’, the left-side list is filtered to yield results specifically for ‘Bose Sound System’ and on the right side, Google will push lots of ready-to-use information about the same and some valuable hints as well.

    Important point to note here is that the information compered by Knowledge Graph isn’t sourced from just a handful of websites like Wikipedia, CIA World Fact Book and Freebase; but a huge collection of websites, making the information highly comprehensive. Right now, Knowledge Graph contains over 500 million objects and over 3.5 billion facts about these objects and the relationship between them.

    Knowledge Graph is available for US-based English language users right now and will be gradually extended to other regions. The feature is also available on tablets and smart phones. The redesigned search engine interface will prove to be of immense help in academics as well as for social media marketing company who wants to maximise on this added feature. Further, Knowledge Graph is one great way of retaining users in Google environment for long periods, which will enhance value for Google’s advertisers. This in turn, will increase the revenues of Google by leaps and bounds. Again, this is expected to bring in lots of changes in online marketing techniques.

    Knowledge Graph helps users to heavily cut down on their search-time so that they can effectively spend more time going through the information they’re looking for.

    Previous Post: Guidelines for choosing the right PPC Company

  • Guidelines for choosing the right PPC Company

    Choosing the right ‘Pay Per Click’ company (PPC Company) to promote your business interests could well be a challenging task. As SEO, SMO and PPC companies are mushrooming across the globe, the choice that one has, with respect to online advertisers is steadily expanding. But, figuring out the one that suits your needs is one major task that you have to undertake, before you outsource your online marketing / advertising jobs. Given below are some useful points that are to be considered before you hire a PPC Company:

    • PPC campaigns are meant to supplement SEO campaigns of businesses. While SEO services help your website to enhance its ranking on specific search engines (thereby increasing traffic on your website), PPC services help you to generate business by means of online advertisements. This is the basic difference in strategy between two of the most popular tools of online advertising
    • Cost wise, PPC campaigns are far more expensive than SEO campaigns. Hence, PPC campaigns require a lot more meticulous planning than SEO Campaigns. It may not be a wise idea to run PPC campaigns 24X7, round the year. There may be days in a week / month, when running a PPC campaign may prove to be extremely costly or utterly useless. So, it makes sense to choose a PPC service provider, who’s accommodative and sensitizes you to the above issues.
    • Your PPC service provider should be competent enough to design a landing page, which will generate business, for sure. For this to happen, the PPC Company should have years of experience behind it and the support of expert staff / PPC consultants. A point to note here is that the service charges levied by service providers may vary widely. Striking a balance between the cost that you incur and the business that these campaigns generate is a task that can’t be overlooked.
    • Services provided by PPC operators are thoroughly analysed and ranked by third parties on a continuous basis. Internet has a wealth of resources, which let users know about PPC service providers thoroughly. It is always better to go through such resources to arm yourself with knowledge, which will help you to zero in on the right PPC Company to partner with your business.
    • PPC advertisements are keyword based advertisements. Success of any PPC campaign depends solely on choosing the right keywords (low/medium/ high traffic keywords). And, more importantly, the job doesn’t end with it! You have to constantly experiment with various keywords and relate them to the business generated. This will help you to manage your advertising budgets more effectively, as different keywords have different costs of acquiring them.

    Previous Post: SEO services – Abridging the Information process

  • SEO services – Abridging the Information process

    Marketing is an indispensible part of any business and with the epidemic outbreak of the online marketing, competition is inevitable. In the face of this cut-throat competition it is the need of staying in the game that is driving websites to improve their content and be SEO friendly. Search Engine Optimization aka SEO is often comprehended as a science of augmenting the visibility and ranking of a website in a search results page. It is also an art of using Meta tags in an efficient manner, analysing the density of keywords and placing them essentially in the text with the help of software tools and techniques. This unique amalgamation of science and art is what drives the sales or signups or any other action that a website or business targets.

    With the advent of powerful search engines like Google and Bing, people turn to these engines in search of answers to their every question and the search engines also oblige by offering plethora of SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) to the user. The search engine does this by running complex algorithms and returning web pages that the algorithms think are most relevant to the search being performed. This link between the user and the website that bears the required information is established by the SEO services. The earlier a website appears in the search engine results pages better are the chances of generating all click-through traffic. The first page of a result generates 90% of the click through traffic, second page – 4.37%, third page 2.42%, fourth – 1.07% and rest of the pages generate less than 1% traffic. These figures suggest that it is absolutely vital for company’s or business’s website to appear on the first page to enhance the chances of being noticed as users hardly turn to second page in search of results to their query.

    The SEO services have emerged as the most potent strategy that brings business and consumers close by placing the website or the webpage at a top level in the SERPs returned by a search engines. The SEO techniques involve keyword research, on-page and off-page optimization; out of which the keyword research is the most crucial. The keywords referred here could be a single word, a phrase or collection of words that can be best associated with a website. These days, companies are hiring SEO specialists that can determine the potency of relevant keywords and can use them strategically in the content of their website so that they can be picked quickly whenever a relevant search is performed. More clicks on a web-link ensure better business since in maximum number of cases visitor turn into potential clients or customers.

    From the business point of view another area that SEO services strike is the cost, these services are pretty cost-effective in comparison to other media like print, television or radio. The investment in SEO services is similar to the investment done while setting up the business and one can anticipate incessant proceeds on the investment. SEO can be considered as branding and marketing strategy that is oriented at boosting business by gaining an edge over other rivals on account of better and tactful keyword placement in the content. SEO services India has come forth as a promising sector that guarantees better business at affordable prices.

    Previous Post: Time to shed apprehensions regarding social media marketing

  • Time to shed apprehensions regarding social media marketing

    Social media have come of age; they’re not in their infancy anymore! Almost a decade-long existence has seasoned them well, to help them play a larger role in the lives of communities hooked to them. Clearly, the time has arrived, for marketing companies to shed their apprehensions regarding promoting their products and services through social media.

    Once “social media marketing” occupies centre stage in the marketing strategies of a company, there’s bound to be an ocean of opportunities opening up for SEO Companies (Search Engine Optimization) and companies involved in allied activities like SMO (Social Media Optimization) and SMM (Social Media Marketing). SEO Companies have to gear themselves up for this transition as it propels them into the ‘Big League’, comprising of conventional advertising companies.

    Community of social media users is expanding rapidly. This increase is in line with the rapid growth of internet users. People have started relying more and more on the content present on the net, before making their purchases. Right from product profile, everything that a user wants to know, before he/she decides to buy a product, is available on the net. Internet has made the comparison of features and prices of products so easy that it outscores conventional advertising by huge margins. And now, with e-commerce companies mushrooming across the globe, internet has taken the next big leap forward. It’s just the right time for SEO companies to capitalise on these issues to establish themselves firmly in the advertising arena.

    Social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are finding takers all across the globe. Just Facebook has an active user base of over 800 million! A fact, which is more than enough to estimate the scale of business it could generate; an indicator of the role, social media could assume in very near future. There are opportunities galore, for promoting brands through social media and this, with many advantages that conventional advertising doesn’t afford them! When a user connects with a brand on the social media, it’s at an emotional level. Liking a brand, suggesting a brand, promoting a brand and remaining loyal to a brand are all done at an emotional level. And, nobody gets attached to a brand overnight. Impressing new users on social media is a tough task. And this increases the responsibility of an SEO Company to a very large extent.

    Once a business establishment engages the services of an SEO Company, the business can expect to get a larger audience to its business promotion efforts on the net. SEO Companies work towards maximising traffic on the website of the business, which in turn, steps up the actual business an establishment does. SEO Companies also undertake jobs related to Social media optimization and restructuring of the website in question, to garner more traffic on the website.

    Certainly, social media content of brands/companies make or mar their business. This presents great opportunities for providers as well as marketers of content on social media. ‘Social media content marketing’ has stamped it presence, no doubt; but is still evolving. Leveraging the advantages of this medium to gain ground in terms of business is a challenge, which undoubtedly needs a professional handling.

    Previous Post : Brands need to strategize Social Media plans and adapt to Facebook Timeline Feature quickly

  • Brands need to strategize Social Media plans and adapt to Facebook Timeline Feature quickly

    At a recently held Facebook Marketing Conference, New York, Facebook announced that brands will also have Timeline pages which are similar to personal pages. This change will be done by default. This proves to be yet another valuable initiative by Facebook in order to provide enhanced marketing opportunities for brands to promote and boost their sales.

    Through Timeline, the look of the Facebook pages of a brand will undergo a total revamp. Beginning with the brand’s landing page will be replaced by its Timeline Cover photo. In all, there will be four logos which could be synonymous with their application and tabs. At the same time, brands will be able to highlight their favorite posts on the top, if they wish to.

    With this initiative, social media agencies will have to revaluate their services and offer something related to the Timeline application which is equally engaging and user friendly.  Taking things forward from here, brands will have more space and opportunity to promote themselves by providing company information, trivia, images and even a whole lot of apps and other pointers.  Since it is a “Timeline” feature, it can indeed incorporate the past, present and the future in a creative and engaging manner using images, quizzes and host of other interactive applications.

    As suggesting earlier, Facebook’s Timeline is more likely to reach the viewers at an emotional level rather than merely marketing or promoting a product or service. For most viewers who are die hard loyalists of particular brand, they should be provided with the right channel and engaging moves which allow them to connect with the brand in a more meaningful engaging manner.  This is despite the fact, that viewers are known to like a product or service more in order to enjoy sales promotions and offers. At this point hosting small quizzes, regular posting of images, trivia and even brief announcements of upcoming changes in the brand pumps in more life into the brand’s Timeline page.

    At the same time, social media agencies managing brand’s Facebook pages will have to revamp the total look and feel of the brand page and promote the products and services in a more relevant manner. This could mean discarding unwanted and non relevant matter and adding photos and videos which relate to the brand in a better way.  Since Timeline incorporates a map feature, providing accurate location details of the brand become even more essential for they lead the way to the brand in a better way.  Once again, it is time to review the performance of the brand’s Facebook page and making sure it is truly engaging and even better than before.

    Along with this, Facebook has announced the introduction of the Reach Generator through which brands will be able to create and manage sponsored stories. With ads being included in the newsfeed, once again brands will find it equally engaging to promote themselves in a subtle way rather than a blatant or outright fashion which could turn away prospective customers.

    It is time for Social media marketing company to spring into action once again by showing their dynamism as they plan, strategize and implement social media marketing plans. Social media and Timeline have to be integrated in a seamless manner so as to maximize on the online social reputation of the brand while simultaneously moving towards its marketing challenges.

    Previous Post: Key Nuances of PPC Advertising and PPC Management

  • Key Nuances of PPC Advertising and PPC Management

    PPC Advertising rapidly gaining preference for those businesses who wish to expand their market across the online horizons.  Performance of PPC advertisements can be monitored in greater detail on a frequent basis enabling them to be modified in a manner as desired by the client and the PPC company monitoring the entire campaign.  At the same time, there are some key factors which need to be remembered for a slight flaw in the campaign could bring in disastrous results.

    Key Nuances of PPC Campaign which should be always borne for ensuring its success include –

    Relevant Targeting – It makes sense to target areas relevant to the scope and size of the business.  Most local businesses are likely to enjoy better ROI if they target areas which they can conveniently reach and serve out to say within 20 – 50 miles of their radius. On the other hand, large businesses can expand their range as per their products and services, capacity, goals and budgets if they have the budget and manpower to do so

    Relevance of Match Types – In depth knowledge of Match Types is essential for getting better returns. As you all know PPC Ads are made of words entirely which are displayed as the search engine queries. You can place your ads as per these categories which include Exact Match, Phrase Match, Broad Match and even Negative Keywords.  The PPC Company and its experts will be able to monitor the entire campaign for attaining the desired results.

    The Concept of Negative Keywords – Negative keywords are used to filter out the modifiers which at times are accompanied by broad and match phrases which could drain out your ad budget without actual results. Hence, use of negative keywords is an absolute must which you can easily implement through the search engine’s PPC campaign.

    Campaign Spread – Despite Google Adwords being synonymous with online marketing, you can also check out other marketing networks which include Bing, MSN and so on which are equally user friendly and cost effective.

    Keyword Selection – Keywords should be so selected that they are quite specific and relevant. At the same time, in depth attention should be paid to the popularity of the keyword, its costs and the ROI factor. It does make sense to narrow down the selection of the keyword and enhance the prospects of your ROI.

    User Landing – For any marketing campaign to be successful, it is necessary to study, research and testing are extremely crucial.  For being accurate, you need to offer users with just what they wish to view on their computer screens along right quality of ads. This implies your ads have to be attractive enough to be clicked and when clicked the user should land on the relevant page which displays the ad related information which could be context, images, text and call to actions etc.

    Testing of Ads– In order to get a fair estimate of the performance of the campaign, it is essential to test the ads at regular intervals. At the same time, in event of new offers, freebies and discount deals, it does make sense to check out their performance on basis of clicks and conversions. For this, one has to be really thorough in rules and performance pattern of the PPC campaigns.

    Conversion Tracking – It is through conversion that returns on investment and performance of ads can be monitored in greater depths. It does make sense to modify campaigns as per the results derived from the tracking and take the campaign to the next level of success.

    Selecting the right PPC Company becomes extremely essential for successful online marketing campaign and ensures that the brand image of the company is also maintained in the desired manner.

     

    Previous Post : Keyword Research and Trends – Crucial for Online Marketing Campaigns