Importance of PPC campaigns in Digital Marketing or SEO

As with anything in life, it pays to have a mix of things in order to ensure balance. The same is true of marketing, and including PPC (Pay per Click), as part of a balanced plan of digital marketing can add to the overall efficacy of your promotional strategy.

Research has shown that companies from start-ups through to multi-national global enterprises invest a considerable proportion of their online marketing budgets in PPC. So what’s all the fuss about?

What is PPC?

PPC is a way in which advertisers pay to bring their products to the attention of people who may be interested in them. Choosing keywords that are relevant to the product, marketers develop adverts specifically tailored to the individuals searching for that keyword that will hopefully find their way to the eyes of people who are interested in the product. Get the clicks and convert them to sales

There are two ways in which advertisers can pay for the clicks their adverts receive. Most content websites – that is, websites such as blogs or magazines – have a flat fee for advertising space on their sites when visitors click through to the product. Search engines on the other hand often invite bids for particular keywords in their searches and advertising space is offered to the highest bidding advertisers for those keywords.

Why PPC?

As mentioned above, PPC can form an important element of a marketer’s overall digital marketing strategy to drive traffic to a website for a product or service. As part of an overall online marketing plan, PPC can add the benefit of bringing the right eyes to the product. Carefully selected relevant keywords mean that the people most likely to want to view or purchase the product on sale will find the advertising that meets their requirements.

The main benefit of PPC for marketers is payment for results. Rather than taking out a print advert, where returns on investment are difficult to measure, PPC allows advertisers to pay only for the clicks they receive. This makes investment spent in this way both valuable and highly effective.

Features of great PPC

In order to have the kind of impact marketers want – a click-through and ultimately a purchase – it’s important to focus on the design of PPC advertising. People who regularly browse the web have become somewhat immune to advertising on websites and tend to tune them out when viewing websites. In order to capture a potential buyer’s attention, PPC adverts must be eye-catching and grab the attention of the visitor to the site. Getting all-important eyes on your product

Once the marketer has the potential buyer’s attention, that attention needs to be converted into a click on the advert in order to make it worthwhile. Adverts need to have some kind of call to action – either a tease that promises more information or an offer the viewer can’t refuse – so they can’t resist clicking on the ad. It is also vitally important that the website at the other end of the advert is up to standard. If the promise of the ad isn’t fulfilled when the customer clicks through to the website, they’ll very quickly bounce off the site and return to what they were doing before they clicked. This is catastrophic for marketers as they have paid for the click only for it to lead nowhere.

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Various Ways of Digital Marketing

Online retail is one precious asset; it significantly contributes to the overall business strategy of a company. Working in online marketing for The Genuine Gemstone Company I know a little about being established on TV, our brands GemsTV and Rocks TV are strong in the UK and USA respectively.  Our current fan base, the shopping savvy, fashion conscious society seek online retail as well as TV.

"The company’s No.1 appearance in the Fast Track 100, is testimony to their skill and determination to succeed" – says Sir Richard Branson in The Sunday Times.

Without being connected to our audience through brand websites, social media, emails and other forms of online marketing, we wouldn’t have achieved our sales growth of 245.36% per annum. Being a Sunday Times Fast Track 100 winner is proof that there is success in online retail. Determination and proven ability to deliver sales and grow as a company only underlines expertise in creating a solid and sustainable business model.

Here are some tips in working in online marketing.

Organic SEO

Paying attention to the mark-up information within the development aspect of a digital retail platform enables users to create search engine friendly websites. SEO is going to enable all of the below.

• Enable websites to be crawled and rated as healthy
• Position for credible Author Rank to emerge with the provision of consistent blogging
• Your products to be featured in the Google products shop window
• Google map to be permitted and vindicated, Google real estate like this is an asset
• Permit all white hat organic SEO organic keywords to improve your overall rankings
• Hire a team of in-house specialists or digital marketing agency to build rankings

PPC SEO

PPC is advertising like you never seen it before. Knowing your return of investment or ROI via a Google profile enables quick access to all you need. The definitive are a higher spike of onsite visits. You do not even need a very prolific organic campaign.

• Select keywords to target and bid on the best viable assets
• Investments in singular popular words lead to wins but stakes are high
• Long tail keywords yield less visits but create a list of them

Email Marketing

Capture your customers email and construct a directory. It is that simple, quick to program and if you haven’t already done it, get started and right away!  Easy, and simple, email marketing improves clicks, visits and a structured presence in the customers mind. It puts you into the control of your guests, pointing them into and through the sales funnel every time you email.

• Email seasonal, weekly and for national events to put a spin on your marketing projects
• Create new promotions every week, promote, sell, convert
• Use email software such as Mail Chimp, connected to analytics for all reporting on email
• Develop an email strategy, then refine it week by week, use your results data to good use 

Social Media

Interactions through social media are more effective then you may think.  Creating a fan base on Facebook, Twitter etc. assists in building SEO, whilst the marketing ability is limitless. Used correctly and a full time task for your company, this is a very effective tool for marketing, sales, technical support and customer support.

• Ensure you use a logo as your profile picture, and create a header banner
• Use your brand name as your Facebook username and handle if you are on Twitter
• Use your brand name in your Twitter bio, and add a link to a white paper in your bio
• Create competitions and get fans to post pictures of pets, cars, products etc. for prizes
• Get fans to like your social media profile to improve Google authority
• Promote events, shows, launches for new products and other press releases
• Add your website's URL to your profile
• Use your brand name as your hashtag and include it in all Tweets
• Encourage cross promotion across similar brands from social partnerships

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How SEO Can Help Your Business Website

In 2013, your company most definitely utilizes the internet to gain exposure and imprint your brand on the public. Most of this visibility starts and finishes with powerhouse search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing. When someone wants a product or needs information, they usually fire up the internet and simply go to one of these search engines. Due to the seeming monopolization of the web by these search engines, business leaders try and mold their online strategy around the algorithms that these engines use to prioritize search results.

Modern business leaders usually understand that search engine optimization (SEO) benefits them, but don’t know specifics. This article is meant to explain the basics of why a business benefits from SEO, and why it matters.

1.   Direct access to consumer.

When someone sits down at their computer and types in a certain search query, their goal is to find a specific piece of information or product. SEO helps the search engines understand what you have to offer so that they can pair what you have with the user’s search. This is a huge reason to make sure your website is advanced SEO-wise. Just as businesses want to lure potential clients and partners to their store front or conference room, you want people to visit your website. SEO helps keep the door wide open so that you have direct access to the consumer.

Basic: You want to welcome the customer that wants to find you. SEO helps clear the water in between you and interested people across the web.

2.   Usability.

Quality SEO makes your website more user-friendly. The design of your website should cater to the search engines while simultaneously providing a unique experience to the end user. When the metadata of your site provides an accurate representation of your surface content, everyone has a better experience. Search engines do not consider images or other graphics when helping decipher a page, and it’s important that your site makes sense on all levels. What you want to rank for needs to be included in your metadata, along with your visible content and links.

If your metadata is all about basketball but you have images and articles about soccer, the process is being compromised and your web presence will be diminished. Quality SEO includes making your website user friendly for both the search engines and the end user on the internet. In the end, these major search engines have the goal of making the internet more user friendly. Your part in the system is making your page an accurate representation of what you offer.

Basic: Your website needs to be user-friendly from both a search engine and user perspective. You want all parties to find your site for the right reasons. That’s the point of SEO. Having content that matches your keywords is a good place to start.

3.   Keyword visibility.

SEO can help your page show up for the search queries you want it to show up for. If you want to have a web presence that helps your business, you need to know exactly what keywords you want to rank for. For instance, a cruise ship company out of Florida might want to rank for “Caribbean cruise” or “cheap Caribbean cruise”. If you were running this website, you would want to have these keywords within your content and also as the anchor text of any backlinks involving your company on the web.

 It’s very difficult to rank high for keywords and it’s nearly impossible to rank for a popular one like “Caribbean cruise” without an understanding of exactly what you want to rank for. Take a look at your product or service, and focus your attention on what you would search for if you were trying to find your own site. Build your SEO strategy around those keywords and you should be rewarded with traffic and business.

Basic: Keywords are directly related to the traffic that visits your website. When people search for terms in your niche, you want to rank for the particular words they type in. Having people search for your targeted keywords, and also ranking for them, can spark a huge flow of traffic to your website and push your business over the edge.

SEO benefits your business by making your webpage more accurate. Search engine rankings are meant to make web navigation more straight forward and simple. SEO is meant to help you, the webmaster, express your products or services more accurately for the benefit of those who are interested.

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Enhancing the B2B and Social Media Relationship

The business-to-business (B2B) community and social media have a love/hate relationship. Successful businesses love social media, while struggling businesses hate social media. Why is there a disconnect in 2013? The reasons are clear. Businesses that aren’t benefitting from social media lack the time, expertise and money to invest in a solid social media marketing plan. There are challenges to creating one, but an effective plan benefits your business.

Solving business challenges and opportunities

There are several challenges associated with improving the relationship between social media and B2B. Generating awareness surrounding your campaign and driving traffic back to your business is the first step to improving a lasting relationship. Prior to lead generation, you must attract potential customers/clients. Attracting additional customers/clients at a higher rate involves finding out which social media channels you should focus your attention on. Social media marketing is more than just Facebook and Twitter.

A secondary challenge lies in how your business utilizes social media to target customers. Social media isn't the new kid on the block anymore. Social media is a staple of business. The solution to the challenge falls in the hands of how a company manages lead generation. Recognize the industry influences  follow up with potential leads and channel energy toward your target audience.

Reaching your Target Audience

A target audience is your core customer and potential customer base. Reaching your target audience involves creating a transparent message. A business should discuss the intentions of the company while remaining true to company beliefs. Do not pretend to be something you are not, the social media world will know.

Commitment to social media

Social media relates to keeping the customer engaged while keeping conversations active. The industry is ever evolving, so remain relevant with the times. Commit to social media for the success of your business, not because the reset of the industry partakes in social media. Remaining abreast of the challenges and changes in the industry requires having the right team promote your position in the marketplace.

Experts on Your Side

The DIY philosophy of social media is outdated. Businesses succeed and fail based upon whom they have on their team. There are varying levels of expertise in the industry, including SEO professionals, online marketers and social media experts. You may find that you need one company for all of them, or different companies for each.

Creating an effective social media campaign requires a working knowledge of the landscape, task management and the ability to analyze the competition. A social media expert keeps your business abreast of the daily changes and challenges facing your business as well as the industry.

Getting a Head Start

Getting a head start in the social media games takes planning before jumping head first into a campaign. You need to read industry blogs and follow advice from industry experts. Engage and keep the conversation going on corporate and industry-related blogs. Afterward, focus your attention on your own social media space. 

Social media means more than just posts and tweets. Engaging in social media requires experts with the forethought to transform your strategy into a successful strategy. Convey your message with authority and above all else, capture your audience.

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How to Get Better Exposure at LinkedIn

LinkedIn is becoming on the most important social media tools out there if you want to stay connected to potential employers. More employers are reviewing LinkedIn profiles for all job applicants. In addition, if job seekers can use LinkedIn to find potential employment. But, if you are wondering why more potential employers are not clicking on your LinkedIn profile, you may need to employ certain strategies to increase your exposure. 

The first strategy you should do is to update your LinkedIn profile consistently. Updating your profile does one of two things: it strengthens your resume by highlighting more skills and it makes your profile appear in searches. The more you update your LinkedIn profile, the more your profile is not only seen as active, but also updates make your profile appear in recent searches. Say you add SEO as a skill. When employer searches for workers who are experienced in SEO, your profile will appear near the top because of this update. Try to update consistently until you reach the max amount of updates per section. 

The second strategy you could employ is to carefully select your skills. Having unique keywords in skills or expertise narrows how people will search for you. For example, if you live in Illinois and are an accountant, you could have a skill keyword like “Illinois accountancy”. Not many people will have “Illinois accountancy”, making you one of few people in a pool of workers an employer could be looking for. This also follows with the job titles you have in your work experience. Obviously, you cannot lie, but instead of saying “accountant at company X”, you could say “Illinois accountant at company x”.

A third strategy that can connect you more people and potential employers is to get endorsements. Former employers, co-workers, and friends can endorse skills you listed on LinkedIn. When a person endorses a skill you hold, this adds to your exposure. For example, other LinkedIn users who are connected to your former employers, co-workers, or friends will see they endorsed you on a skill. This can make these viewers click on your profile to find out more about you. 

A fourth strategy is to increase your potential connections, thereby exposing yourself to more people. You could import all your professional contacts into your LinkedIn profile, allowing many people you worked with the chance to connect with you. Join professional groups on LinkedIn and interact on the groups. This allows you to meet, interact, and connect with new people. 

Another useful strategy is to edit the URL for your LinkedIn profile. This is a helpful technique if you are a professional expert in a field. Your URL could have your name, but it can also have “licensed Illinois accountant”. This allows search engines to pick up your LinkedIn profile if an employer wants to find a licensed accountant in Illinois. 

Once you feel your LinkedIn profile is crafted correctly, you still need to network it properly for better exposure. One strategy is to badge your LinkedIn profile with other accounts you have. If you have a personal blog or other social accounts, like Facebook, you should add your LinkedIn link to those accounts so visitors of your blog, personal website, or social media accounts can connect to your LinkedIn profile.

Finally, if you want to utilize all the resources LinkedIn has to offer, you can consider paying for a full account. A full LinkedIn account allows you to contact recruiters or executives of companies who might not have contact information available if you have the free LinkedIn account. The full service LinkedIn account does cost money per month, but it could be one the best ways to connect yourself to other people and increase your exposure.

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How To Get Better CTR From Your Search Rankings

It is a tough world for webmasters. First, you must rank on the first page of search engine results. Next, you have to climb as far up as possible on the page. And even then you are not assured of the traffic you are looking for! This happens because people may decide not to click on your link. Fortunately, the behavior is explainable, and correctable. Read on to find out how to get better CTR from your search rankings.

Meta Descriptions

Two major factors come to mind that can get your link clicked: an exact query match, and an interesting description. A combination of the two is, of course, always a winner.

Think of meta descriptions as article headlines or teasers. If someone is searching for 'seven day course to lose weight', and if you have targeted the exact same keyphrase, you are likely to draw attention if you have secured a leading place in the SERP. However, others may have done it too, and the meta descriptions now make or break your CTR. 

Consider the following: 'Lose no less than 7 pounds of fat in 7 days by eating these three common foods found in every kitchen. Plus a bonus secret food that turns your breakfast into the ultimate fat melting event of your day, every day!' This is not a lie, and adding yogurt to your breakfast can actually speed up fat burning. However, even though 'We will tell you how to eat properly and what foods will help you get rid of fat. You will also find out about a specific food that can make your breakfast healthier', says much the same thing, it sounds insipid and somewhat preachy. Agreed, these are not the best or worst meta descriptions in the world, but you probably get the idea.

Use rel="author" and Schema Markups for Rich Snippets

If you are not using the rel="author" tag to put your portrait on SERP, you are losing out big time. Not just your face, you could use any image that can promote your brand. In addition, it is possible to add laser focused terminology to the description that is shown below your site title, and display any ratings you may have received in the form of stars. 

To understand how to use rel="author", read all about it on Google, or, if you are running a Wordpress blog, use the free Yoast plug in by Joost de Valk. Visit Schema.org to find out about the markups that should have revolutionized the way search listings appear if only more people were paying attention. And since they are not, you can seize the opportunity to stand out. The markups will decipher your content to the search engines who see no practically no difference between a phone number and the figures that describe your annual turnover. With the markups in place, you can target the exact keyphrases and have them appear on your site description. 

Aim for Sitelinks

Sitelinks are the 'sub-links' that appear below your main site listing. Each has its own description, and certainly, a result with Sitelinks stands out. Getting Sitelinks is easier said than done because Google (secretly) decides who gets the privilege. However, we can make intelligent guesses about how to maximize our chances.

Perform a complete site audit and do the needful with relation to submission of your website to Google. Follow the best practices especially regarding site structure as dictated by Google Webmaster Tools guidelines. Update your site map as and when you update your site. Make certain that all information your site contains is categorized scrupulously to ensure maximum ease of navigation. Make sure also that categories do not overlap unnecessarily, but do create deep links.

If you look at the typical Sitelinks, you will find that for the company Red Box, the sub-links will show things like 'small red box', 'big red box' 'rectangular red box', 'circular red box', red boxes for children' and so on. Clearly, the more organized you are with your information and page titles, the better chance you have at getting Sitelinks. 

All of the three steps above show you how to get better CTR from your search rankings. You may be tempted to dismiss the last measure since it appears to be too much of a long shot, but hardly anything impressive was ever built in a day. If you persist, and remain attentive to the analytics that Google provides for free, you should soon notice a significant improvement in CTR. The best news is that you only have to do the hard work once, and then perform minor tweaks later as and when required.

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Dos and Don’ts for Brands on Social Media

The unparalleled growth in popularity and interest in social sites like Facebook and Twitter saw an initial clamour from organisations of all sizes to adopt social media marketing. A consequence of this was a series of out of touch corporate organisations attempting to force their brand messages on to consumers in an environment they were wholly inexperienced and unprepared for. Learning from those mistakes the majority of brands are now highly social media savvy and able to interact smoothly with consumers.

Being a casual consumer led environment, users are often wary of corporate brands intent on mere self-promotion rather than adhering to the values of the site itself.

It is a fine line for corporations to balance the need to advertise with the need to interact and getting the balance wrong will seriously damage their consumer PR efforts.

Take a look at the following guide to dos and don’ts on social media and you will make sure your brand doesn’t run the risk of losing followers or fans online.

Do Ensure Every Post is Meaningful

The quickest way to lose followers or “likes” is posting bland and meaningless updates. Why should anyone follow or read about an organisation that offers nothing of value? Give customers a reason to engage and interact with you by offering them something worth interacting with. This is part of the reason behind the explosion in popularity of infographics. Share something valuable (or link to someone else’s)  and avoid at all costs mundane and generic posts asking people how their weekend went, their thoughts on last night’s Eastenders or complaints about Monday mornings.

Don’t Spam Newsfeeds with Constant Updates

This is a well-known problem and one which infuriates users. It’s great if you are producing worthwhile content and engaging with customers regularly. Just make sure it is not too regularly. Twitter and Facebook vary in regards to what constitutes spamming but be aware that relentless posting will not boost engagement and most likely turn people off from your brand. There is no need to update your Facebook page more than once a day – you will still be able to pick up fans and followers readily.

Do Write Your Own Content

Consumers will follow or like your company because they are interested in what news you have to say or what thoughts you have to share. If all you do is share other people’s content than you are offering little of value in and of yourself. Consumers will simply follow your links or get the same information directly from the source, negating the need to visit or engage with your site. Write your own content, seeing it as an opportunity to showcase your own skills and expertise to a wider audience.

Don’t Just Advertise

If there is one thing consumers dislike most about brands and social media it is shameless advertising. By all means share achievements and success with your audience. Outline why you are the leaders in your industry and what you do better than anyone else. But you must substantiate this with genuine information and data lest it be pegged as meaningless corporate advertising.

Do Be a Human

One advantage social media gives corporations is the opportunity to humanise their organisation. A major gripe with consumers is trying to interact with a faceless corporation out of touch with the common man. Social media is a way of reaching out to the public and showcasing the human side of the company on a personal level. Engage directly with consumers on a person to person basis, having your staff answer consumer queries personally.

Don’t Use Automated Programs

As a consequence of your attempts to appear real and genuine, avoid the use of automated response programs. These tools automatically send a generic message to any new followers thanking them and often attempting to proposition them a client. This does nothing but antagonise new visitors and will damage your attempt to gain new leads. 

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Importance of Keyword Research in Search Engine Optimization

You type few words on the search box; that’s where everything begins! In Search Marketing, keyword research plays a very vital role. Correct ranking of the right keyword can make our website. If not, it will break your website. Learning SEO tricks will not work for you if you do not understand your customer. Because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how many visitors visited your site, the right visitor is all your website needs. With the help of keyword research, you get a better understanding of the shift of demand. Based on this, you can respond to the changing market and produce your product or service accordingly.

Judging the Value of Keywords

How worthy is a keyword to your website? Suppose you own an online apparel store. Now, you need to generalize whether you make more sales when visitors search for “red dress” or “black dress”. Keywords that visitor types on the search bar are available to webmaster. Keyword research tools allow you to find details about these keywords. Though these tools do not give straightaway synopsis of how valuable a particular keyword is, but helps you to understand keywords better. You can conduct tests to understand the value of a particular keyword on your website.

Understand Long Tail of Keyword Demand

It’s great to deal with keywords that has over 5,000 searches in a day, or may be 1,000 or 500. But in reality, if you combine these popular searches, it forms up to 30% (approx) of the searches performed online. Rest 70% depends on long tail of search. Long tail consists of the millions of unique searches conducted few times in a day. When you combine it, it forms the majority of demand for information in the world, through search engines. These long tail keywords convert better. A person looking for red dress might be only interested in browsing, but not buying. However, someone searching for Calvin Klein Red Wool Pleated Trench Coat size 10 will probably be interested to buy it.

Keyword Research

There are several research sources, which you can use to gain knowledge about keyword referrals and keyword demands. Some of these research resources are:

• Ø Google Adword’s Keyword Tool
• Ø Google Trends Keyword Demand Prediction
• Ø Google Insight for Search
• Ø Wordtracker’s Free Basic Keyword Demand
• Ø Microsoft Advertising Intelligence

These tools are used to estimate search volume, take keyword suggestions and predict cost of paid campaign that are currently running for keywords. In order to understand, which keywords you should target, it is essential to understand the demand of a particular keyword and to work accordingly to achieve that ranking.

SEO is a complicated undertaking and a lot of other things are considered in full optimization, but the basic keyword-related tasks are the main focus of Search Engine Optimization.

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Why Quality Content Is Vital Post Penguin and Panda Updates

Are you a part of the Search Engine Optimization industry? If so, it is important for you to remain updated and change your methods based on algorithm updates. You must have heard about Google's Panda and Penguin updates. In fact Matt Cutts announced in the last few days that there will be a Panda update this weekend and you can also expect a Penguin update in the near future. Google regularly makes variations in their algorithms to identify spammers and penalise several websites who do not follow their process.

Google always aims to deliver authentic information to its people by showing complete details of the searched object. Apart from that, the search engine giant also tries to ensure that users do not come across pages or sites filled with spammy content. However, if your site ranking is affected by the updates you have a lot of time to improve things. Your site can be surely recovered, the only thing is that you must understand the variations brought about by the search engine in its regular panda and penguin updates. A couple of points are very obvious such as you should never choose inorganic techniques like spamming, over optimization, excessive stuffing of keywords etc.

Everyone knows that Google focuses on their particular algorithms and lots of people try to cheat the formula in order to ensure high rankings rapidly. However, such techniques will no longer work because Google is continually updating its formula and coming up with newer updates. After these updates, it has become really difficult to cheat SEO rankings. It has now become necessary to follow organic ways of optimizing websites which will help in enhancing your rankings. Below are a few beneficial points associated with the panda update which will help you adopt some ethical organic techniques.

Top Quality Content

Gone are the days when individuals used to publish poor and spammy articles. Search engines now flag such websites as spam and therefore, it has become essential to write excellent and unique content. Keep in mind that poor and duplicate content is disliked by every person!

Pure Circulation of Keywords

Too much use and abnormal distribution of key phrases in articles is also regarded as spam now. Search engines only consider content that is high quality and unique.

Helpful Links Merely

Does your website boast of advertisements on its left, right, top and bottom? Then probably, it will receive a penalization from the Panda update. You may show a relevant website link on your site if you feel it is really helpful for the readers. In lieu of its most recent updates, Google can easily locate websites with excessive affiliates. Excessive use of advertisements on a site is regarded as poor from Google's point of view.

Influential websites

Search engines favour those websites that have a fantastic market. It is necessary for you to look for a topic and keep following it. This will assist visitors in finding something they are searching for. You can select a topic depending on your knowledge and develop a relevant site.

Fair optimization

We refer to 'fair' as natural optimization. Website owners used to apply poor and unethical Search Engine Optimization techniques to try to fool the search engines. However, it is no longer feasible now. Google keeps a watch on spammers and punishes over-optimized websites. Therefore, it is now essential to follow only organic techniques in order to carry out SEO.

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Best Practices: Digital Marketing on Social Media

Marketing practices and techniques have come a long way since the advent of social media and is growing by leaps and bounds ever since.  Digital marketing is the sign of the times and marketing through electronic devices include advertisement and marketing techniques offered over the internet through devices such as desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, digital billboard advertising, etc.  Internet marketing is a major factor where digital marketing is concerned and this has resulted in increased investment in the recent past.

Marketing companies are well aware of these newly evolved techniques of advertising and selling their products. As digital marketing has taken on an enhanced prominence, there are certain factors to consider, that marketers will do well to follow. Appealing to a young and energetic class of buyers and social media users is ideally done through digital marketing for which the following points should be kept in mind.

• Stand out in the crowd - Online marketing is augmented using social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.  It makes the marketer stand out in the crowd of competitors which is the one aim of any marketing professional digital or otherwise.  Digital marketing, through social media needs proper branding, so that this particular business is ahead of competition and is at the top of the charts.  Consistency and top end show on social media, is the key to success.

• Reliability and honest service - The second most important aspect of digital marketing is reliability.  Online customers are a wary lot and will tend to back off at the slightest hint of distrust.  Marketers resorting to this sort of digital marketing should study their customers, give them what they want and ensure delivery of products and services in the most efficient and trustworthy manner.

• Entice and add suspense – Digital marketing works on the principal of attracting the customer right at the outset.  This is done with a wonderful array of products, attractive schemes and discounts and a certain element of suspense which will make the customer delve further to find out more and more.  Moreover, the focus should be on clarity, minimum confusion and getting straight to the point. Curiosity in products marketed through digital media will mean customers and prospective buyers will click through for added information.  Marketers resorting to this form of advertising will do well to ensure that this information is available easily at the click of a mouse so as to hold the buyer’s interest.

• Integrate marketing with interaction – Marketing strategies through digital media works best when feedback, conversation and answers to questions are resorted to. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn all enable interaction with customers, encouraging their feedback and permitting them to ask questions with regard to the product.  These forms of feedback may be positive or negative and both work to the marketers advantage to enable better improvement of services rendered.

Digital marketing on social media means minimum cost involved in set up.  Marketing through social media is relatively cheaper than most other forms of marketing and advertising.  Cost effectiveness works to an advantage, leaving the marketer with added time and funds to concentrate of products and services, introduction of new and innovative schemes and extending discounts to customers.  All this will go a long way in steering traffic towards your business, making the business more credible and ensuring better branding of the business in the eyes of Facebook fans and Twitter followers.  Digital marketing on LinkedIn has its advantages as it permits association with like minded people, who share your same view, visions and aspirations for the future. 

Social media marketing is growing in importance with every passing day. Businesses will do well to implement this form of digital marketing with traditional marketing techniques so as to ensure optimum growth of the business.

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Marketing your Brand on Instagram

With Instagram, it’s the visual web that's now leading the trend since two years. Instagram, with more than 100 million users, is the most popular photo-sharing app that has effectively turned every user into an amateur photographer. But within the thousands of silhouettes and hundreds of painted nails snapshots, lies a powerful marketing tool that most of the brands often ignore. Yes, Instagram is the best marketing tool for your brand, if you wish to showcase the visual side of your company. Just one shot of your product can lead to greater brand awareness scoring tons of likes and followers.

Instagram users generate content that pave way for brands and businesses to bind the ultimate power of sharing photos, by increasing the customer relations for enhanced feedback loops. Here’s how you can market your brand on Instagram:

Calendar:

Images are the ideal way to communicate with your customers and clients. This makes Instagram the best distribution channel for visually alluring content. When you are launching a new product or hosting an important event, a photograph of the particular product or the event preparation can let out more information than your press releases. To make your photos more successful, create a calendar and post a minimum of 2-3 photos every week. When you post a photo, you need to describe the type of content you are creating. Before you start posting, you can select a specific theme and create your content accordingly. I have listed a few ideas for you to get started:

• ·         Photos of your products
• ·         A sneak peek of your upcoming products
• ·         Some good behind the scenes shots
• ·         Creative photos of various uses of your current products
• ·         Snapshots from your future marketing ads

Focus on Hashtags:

Hashtags are a great way to sort your photos on Instagram and are essential when it comes to promoting images. With this, people can easily find the brands and businesses related to their interests. All you need to do is choose popular hashtags that can make your photos rank among the best. While choosing, check out for a few specific hashtags and try sticking to them, rather than having 50 hashtags in your comment area. You can have your brand name or the name of your best-selling products as hashtags. Creating various hashtags that can build your business or brand network can be good practice.

Be Interactive:

Whether you are active on Instagram or not, your clients and customers are already talking about your business and your products. So there's no other better place to start a conversation. Interact with your customers and comment on your customers' photos or posts about your business. Instagram is also an opportunity for you to engage with your customers. Try to show some interest in your customers’ photos by liking it or commenting on it and this can help in increasing your popularity. In simple words, the more social you are the more people will love your brand.

Post Engaging Content:

Do remember the fact; around 250 million photos are uploaded every day on Instagram. So it's important that your photos are original as well as visually stunning. Furthermore, your costumers love to look at different photos related to their interests. So ensure you post relevant and engaging photos that can spread your business and build your Instagram network. At the same time, you should maintain a frequency in posting, as if your customers are following many people, then your posts can easily get lost in the stream of pictures being posted every minute. So it’s better to plan and work out accordingly.

Set Up Events:

It's more like taking advantage of the appropriate moment. Whenever, you have any new activities or events coming up, you can create different hashtags to increase anticipation among people and ultimately boost the number of people attending your event. And during the event, you can upload photos and post content related to it regularly to let your customers know about the event.

It’s not just these, there are a lot more things you can try while marketing your brand on Instagram. In short, Instagram is indeed a great way to increase your brand awareness, customer engagement and drive more traffic to your website. So, it’s time you get started now!

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12 Seo Checklist For Ecommerce Site

While it is true that there are many SEO business companies out there, most of them are ignoring the changes that are happening on the internet recently, placing most of their focus on basic tactics that are just not as rewarding as they were years ago. Even though search engine optimization doesn't really differ from site to site, the way you approach it will be determined by the type of business you own; do you have a franchise? A B2B or B2C company? A Blog perhaps? An Ecommerce website? If you are running an Ecommerce site, it is important to understand how to go about search engine optimization in your case, and a good way of doing that is to create an SEO checklist that has the following twelve items.

The SEO Checklist - 12 Factors to Remember

1. Make the Site Mobile

There are more and more smartphone users who prefer to browse the internet in the palm of their hand rather than sitting at a computer, and you need to accommodate for that by installing an application that creates a mobile version of your website, formatting it specifically for cell phone users.

2. Reduce Loading Times

There are few things out there more annoying than long loading times, especially in this day and age where we are used to having everything done fast. To reduce loading times, make sure to remove superfluous lines of code and any plugins that you don't actually need, use external CSS files and decrease the amount of HTTP requests that you process.

3. Keep Social Media in the Picture

Considering the recent algorithm updates made by Google, it is important that you invest yourself in social networks, building up your presence on them. Stick to big networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+. Also, don't forget about Pinterest, a great website to actually show off your products.

4. Make your Good Content Shine

Your home page is the place where everyone ends up when they visit your website, and so it would only make sense to put your best articles and most successful products on it. In addition, your homepage is the most important one when it comes to the analysis performed by search engines, and populating it properly will give you some bonus points when it comes to search engine rankings.

5. Make Sure there are a Lot of Reviews

Whenever a customer decides whether or not to purchase something, he or she will most likely look towards customer reviews. Make sure that it is easy to leave reviews on your website, and if possible, quote reviews people have given in on other websites regards to the product you are selling.

6. Optimize your Tags

Many people forget about the Meta and Description tags, but simply inserting your main keyword once in them will provide you with a nice boost to your search engine ranking as well as your website's index.

7. Blogging and Guest Posting

More and more people are using blogs and guest posts as methods of advertising, and you can easily do the same by hiring a writer to provide you with niche-specific content, which is all you need to open your blog and guest post on others.

8. Allow your Products to be Compared

You can use this for any kind of website, but it works especially well for one with multiple products. As you can guess, giving your users the ability to easily compare the different products you sell will make them more likely to buy, and it will also help you generate internal links and increase your search engine rankings.

9. Implementing CMS Usage

Using a content management system will make it much easier for you to update your products and your content, as well as managing your entire business in general. As of now, Magento is the most popular content management system.

10. Using Rich Snippets

What are rich snippets? They are little pieces of text, images or videos that pop up on the search engine results page, differentiating you from the other results and giving a nice preview of what your site is all about.

11. HTML and XML Sitemaps

Having both HTML and XML sitemaps is important to make your website friendly to the search engine bots and spiders. In other words, having these sitemaps will allow search engines to index any updates you make faster than usual.

12. Optimize your Images

Finally, don't forget to put Alt tags in your images in order to allow the search engine bots to know what they are about. It won't take you long, and it will demonstrate to the search engines that every bit of your website is important and that the image is not just some filler content.

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