Call to Action Button Designs That Convert Website Visitors to Buyers

Within this article, you will find good advice revolving around your “Call to action” button. Some of the advice is a basic for the sake of people new to web design and “Calls to action,” and to remind experts that the basics matter. Some of the advice is a little more advanced but is written in a vernacular that even laypersons may understand.

How does the size affect its page prominence and impact?

The size of your “Call to action” button needs to match your website design. If the content of your website is thin then a larger “Call to action” button may be acceptable. If you have a lot of content on your page then a smaller “Call to action” button is going to be buried in the content. But a larger “Call to action” button on that page would look out of place. That is why it may be a good idea to put more than one “Call to action” button on a content heavy page. Try to put them at the end of wherever the eye is lead.

Make it too big and it will look like an image

If a “Call to action” button is too big then a user will automatically assume it is a link to another website or an image. You are allowed to create bigger calls to action if they explicitly say that they are call-to-action links. If they do not, for example if they say, “Buy now” or something similar then people will assume that they are just images. People expect their “Call to action” buttons or links to be of a reasonably small size.

Is the color appealing, boring or threatening?

The color of your “Call to action” button is going to have some sort of emotional response attached to it. A blood red call to action that is shadowed with black or darker red is going to come across as threatening. A “Call to action” button that is caterpillar green is going to come across as dull. A dark blue may come across as authoritative or trustworthy, depending upon your user’s cultural upbringing (for example, the Chinese see red as lucky not threatening).

Is the color passive or does it demand attention?

This is a difficult question to answer because many things determine if the button is passive or attention grabbing, such as the shape, background, size, text, font, etc. As a rule, try to keep the “Call to action” button similar to your brand colors, but a stark contrast to your background color (however, the opposite technique can work).

PayPal made the brave move of making their calls-to-action dark yellow. It is dark enough to stand out against their white background, but is in-fact a stark contrast color to their dark blue brand colors. As a result, their 

Does it stand out from the background?

Obviously, making your “Call to action” button stand out in a flashy and offensive way is a mistake made by amateur designers, but being too conservative is a mistake too. You need to find a happy medium between being sexy and flashy like Las Vegas and being cultured and refined like San Francisco.

Does the shape fit into the page design?

This question may seem nit-picky, but you would be surprised how many people put a star shaped “Call to action” button on a modular and boxy web page. You would be surprised how many square “Call to action” buttons exist on websites that are built on circular designs.

Do not go out of your way to match web page shapes with your “Call to action” button, but make sure that the two are not at odds. For example, a web page that is boxy and modular will often look good with a rectangular “Call to action” button that has round edges (like a pill). A distended oval shaped “Call to action” button often looks good on websites with a circular design so long as the text does not look out of place on it.

Does the shape look like a “Call to action” button or an image?

For example, a box shaped “Call to action” button is often mistaken for an image because people are used to seeing images in boxes. Round “Stop” and “Go” buttons are also often mistaken for links or images, instead of being recognized as “Call to action” buttons.

Where it is placed on your page?

The “Call to action” button’s prominence on the page is one thing, as is its contrast from surrounding content. It needs to stand out enough so that a user does not have to search for it, but cannot be so imposing that it puts a person off. Some marketing agents would say that a call-to-action should scream at a user, but this is an old technique that has its day. A good and salable web page should be so convincing that the user starts looking for a “Call to action” button.

Is the language used on the “Call to action” button correct?

If you are selling something then does its text fall in line with your adverts sentiment. Are you selling high quality goods and following your advert with a “Call to action” button that says, “Cheap prices only a click away”.

Does the “Call to action” button look like a malware download?

People are used to seeing download adverts that cover for malware downloads. It is up to you to know what they look like and to avoid their design at all costs. You cannot afford to have your “Call to action” button look dubious in any way.

Can you make the “Call to action” button look more familiar?

People like what they already know, so if you can create a “Call to action” button that looks like the button of another “Call to action” button, then you present the users with something they feel safer clicking. This safety around familiarity is the same reason why the shopping cart symbols of so many websites are eerily similar.

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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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What Is Author Rank And Why Does It Matter?

If you have been using Google+ and always updating and interacting through it, you probably have heard something about Author Rank. Considering that Google is in a constant motion to deal a deathly blow to spammy content, Author Rank is expected to be the next big thing in terms of ranking. 

Background on Author Rank

As early as 2005, a patent was filed by Google on what was called Agent Rank. In the patent, Google described how a number of parameters were to be used in ascertaining the position of an agent in a specific niche. They included the popularity of an agent and his authority on a specific subject. Until recently, search results and popularity has been determined by algorithm, which considers different factors including links to other high quality web pages. Obviously, Google has been on a constant search for high quality web pages that meets the needs of searchers. 

Google did not have substantial qualitative data that justified social interactions as a factor in direct ranking. However, in 2011, a solution presented itself after Google plus was launched. They now had a platform that could be used to activate Agent Rank, which is today known as Author Rank. 

Metrics impacting Author Rank 

The simple fact about Author Rank is identifying individuals, the knowledge they have about certain subjects and how others react to the content they have published. Since Google has access to a lot of data, there are a number of metrics Google has deemed to impact Author Rank. These include engagements on Google plus, connections with other authors, comments, number of Google plus circles, authority on various social platforms, external engagement, shares and plus-likes. Others include various authority signals such as mentions through news resources, citations and articles among others, inbound links and the page rank of specific articles. 

While these metrics are not anything most have not heard about, the huge difference is the tying of all these metrics of Author Rank to a specific author providing the content, not just the website hosting the content. 

When Author Rank will officially roll out is not actually known but when it does, for many it will be too late. Obviously, it is not going to affect site traffic in the manner that Panda did but the impact will be definitely big. The rollout will certainly not be a penalty by Google's algorithm but websites preparing for it and building this rank for their website contributors will benefit a lot. The rollout will be a penalty in a way for brands and sites that are not preparing for it. The truth is it will take some time before Google is convinced Author Rank can be relied on. It could take years or a few days but since no one really knows, the idea is to begin working on Author Rank with immediate effect. 

How to start building Author Rank

You should begin by setting up Google Authorship apart from having a rich snippet for search results. Once this has been set up, Google will know exactly how to calculate or assign you the first ever Author Rank by tying the online identity you have and content you have created. 

Do not forget after setting up Google Authorship to track all the killer/quality content you have created across the web and make sure the rich-snippet markup has been corrected. There are tools that test rich snippets that can help in this. Otherwise, you will risk your killer content not being factored in your assigned Author Rank. 

Start or continue writing great content 

For those working on building a formidable Author Rank, it is not something hard. Any career SEO has a vested interest in having killer content out there, or they desire to do so. This can be done by creating content that shows your expertise, improves your reputation while demonstrating value on a specific field. Do not forget to help others in search engine optimizing by sharing knowledge. Always remember to create the kind of content compelling others to share it; the content audience want to know about and resources important to them. 

Focus on a particular topic 

With Author Rank, it will be possible to earn more than one rank in different topics as compared to Page Rank. Simply determine what you are passionate about, write all the content you can within that specific area. You might want to write on different topics but the Author Rank will definitely not be strong if you write on many topics as compared to just one. 

Constant use of Google+

Those who do not like Google plus will definitely have a big problem; Google is bound to make the most of your circles to come up with an Author Rank. Make sure people are compelled to begin following you. You can make the most of Google plus by updating it a couple of times a day by checking on +1, global and personal feed to find stories that interest you. 

Do not forget to befriend or follow as many great authors as much as possible on the Author Rank order and have them encircling you. Apart from following them, put as much content as possible that you have written before them.

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Google Browser Size Helps Increase Engagement

Browser Size from Google Labs is quite an eye-opening tool. It tells you quite visually what percentage of your traffic is seeing a chopped-off version of your web page.

The first impression your website makes is how much of it can be seen in the visible area of a browser. Before the user decides to click, or even scroll anything, he will be looking at your website through a narrow lens. It’s in your best interest to optimize your content to look fantastic even when the window is small. Often overlooked, the way your webpage fits into your visitors’ viewport needs to be optimized to showcase all your best content.

Note that viewport size isn’t simply just a function of mobile vs. web. People have different screen sizes for their computers, from 11 inch or smaller laptops to 32 inch or more monitors. Also, many many users do not keep their browsers maximized; they resize the browser into all different shapes and sizes. Yet, for all of these different types of visitors, we want to make a great impression by keeping our most compelling content “above the fold.”

This snapshot illustrates how Browser Size can help a website:

I typed in a URL at the top (from my site), realtweeter.com/tweeters , and it loaded my page against a colorful graph-looking overlay. The numbers at the top edge and left edge represent pixel rulers, so you can judge different browser viewport sizes. The lines and percentages are Google’s reporting of what percentage of web traffic have a viewport at least as large as the line denotes. So for example, Bruno Mars can be seen by 99% of all visitors, because 99% of all visitors are using a browser viewport at least that size.

The tool has done its job, now it’s up to our own judgment as to what to make of the results. I’ve adopted 80% as my minimum critera. That is, if 80% of traffic can see what I want them to see, then the page is acceptable. This is not the case with this page. I do want users to see the page number links (prev, next, 1, 2, 3, etc.) to show that I provide thousands of tweeters, not just twelve. This navigation bar is below the 80% viewport range, so I have some work to do. Also, Browser Size is telling me that I should relocate my left sidebar to the right side of the page. It is pushing content on the right had side off of the viewport needlessly. Only 90% of people can see Kim Kardashian’s face; I would like even more visitors to be able to see my best content.

You can access Browser Size from your Google Analytics account. Under My Stuff, open Content and select In-Page Analytics. A button on the right hand side (labeled Browser Size) will bring up an integrated interface to the Browser Size functionality. It is also available simply at browsersize.googlelabs.com as of this writing, but Google warns it will be sunsetted in the future in deference to the version integrated into Google Anayltics.

Considering how your site looks through a variety of viewport sizes can be illuminating. You may be trying to raise user engagement, CTRs and the like through more straightforward methods. Considering viewport size lets you tap into the less unquantifiable aspects of UX to improve your site.

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How to check for Google seo updates and confirm them

If you have a site, you are always keen to know how it is faring in the search engine rankings. Everybody wants their site to be in the top one or two pages of Google or any of the other search engines and are doing everything they can to improve the SEO of their site.

While there are many ways to find out the performance of your site and how many hits it is receiving, webmasters find it a problem when there is a search update from Google.

This is how people identify the changes in the traffic.

Now tools like Google Analytics do help you check out your site stats quite accurately as long as things are constant and there is no great change in the manner search engines evaluate or rank sites.

But with Google SEO Updates becoming so common and dynamic, webmasters are unable to comprehend the net impact of these updates on the ranking of their sites.

They are also puzzled with the ever changing position of their sites on the search engines and are unsure about what is causing it – is their site getting lesser traffic organically or is it due to the impact of one of the latest Google update like Google Panda or Penguin?

Conversely, if there is no major change in site stats, webmasters cannot afford to be complacent and think that there have been no changes in the manner Google or other search engines now rank sites.

So what is the solution?

Mozcast.com is one solution that can really help webmasters tackle this problem. This site has been conceived and developed to help webmasters know about the various Google search updates and how it impacts the SERPS.

This site has been the brainchild of top SEO experts who are fully aware of the working of Google and therefore know the issues faced by webmasters. They have put in their expertise and years of experience in coming out with this site and are confident it would provide the required information to webmasters on a timely basis.

Essentially, they have relied on randomized collection of data as factors to determine the impact of Google SEO updates.

The collection of this data revolves around taking random keywords, local searches for those keywords, regional searches and hits at other data servers for those keywords to identify any possible impact on that site over time.

Taking the top 10 results of the keywords from the data collected, they have attempted to give the data a particular identity and have represented it like the temperature degree in terms of intensity and impact. A fixed multiplier factor of -28 has been used to compute and represent the final figure.

Analyzing the data of a site over a period of 30 days or even a week would throw up that figure. If it is 70, then the interpretation is that there has been no update, whereas if that figure is on the lower or higher side, then it means there has been an impact due to some Google search update.

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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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Guide to: Optimize Your Website for Mobile Search

Almost everyone has a smartphone or a windows phone these days. Many people are now using their phones to access the web daily. In order to keep up with the times, it would be good to take steps to optimize your website for mobile search. By doing this, you will be tapping into a growing segment of a new market out there. It will only help to promote your business even more if you make your website more mobile friendly.

So how do you go about optimizing your website for mobile search? Don’t be daunted by the fact that you will have to make changes. Simply keep the tips given below in mind and you will soon make your website easily accessible on a mobile.

• Preview your site on mobile devices: This is the most important thing you should do and definitely the first! You must check to see how your website looks on a mobile device. It may not be possible to check your website on every mobile device that is out there but do try to check it on a couple at least. You can then see what changes need to be made.

• Support several (or as many) mobile devices as possible: It is also essential that your website can be viewed on various different types of mobile devices. Cross device compatibility is important. There is no point in having a high ranking in mobile search if your website cannot be accessed easily across various devices. A user who finds this problem with your site will simply go to another one. It will also make you appear less professional and this is not good at all.

• Use shorter keyword and key phrases: Mobile searchers are usually brief in their queries/searches. This is because they find typing on QWERTY keyboards on their phones tiresome and problematic. Most times, they only put in keywords. Users may also limit their searches to 1 or 2 keywords only. Therefore ensure that you stick to short keywords and keywords phrases.

• Use current data:  Keep in mind that current data is what is looked for in mobile search. So you will need to make sure that your site covers the latest news in sports, the weather, market information, financial information and so on. If your site caters to any one of these niches, keep it updated regularly. You really need to optimize it for mobile search because you will be losing visitors if you do not do so.

• Keep pages short:  Mobile searchers hate scrolling through long pages. Further, mobile screens are usually small and reading long pages of text can be off-putting or almost next to impossible. It is important that you keep your pages short. Ensure that mobile users do not need to scroll down more than 5- 10 times, max. Try and put the main keywords on the first page itself.

• Avoid animation and heavy graphics: Remember that the pages of your website must load fast. Using too many graphics and animation will slow down the amount of time your page takes to load. Try and use lean graphics and cut down on the animation on your site.

• Promote your site in mobile searches: Promote your site to directories, mobile search engines, and mobile portals. List your sites with various portals. Very often mobile users go to portals. If your website is listed with that particular portal, the user will come to you. Many mobile users now use portals instead of search engines.

• Target your website locally: Very often, mobile users look for local information. Try to target your website locally, if possible. This works great if you have your own restaurant or shop.

Follow the above steps and then sit back and enjoy the results! Good luck!

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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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How to Calculate the ROI of Your Social Media Marketing Campaign

Running a social media campaign is often a very expensive affair. That is, if you take social media seriously. Specialized marketing companies around the world are finding ways and means to convince big businesses to get into social media campaign lest they feel left out. When competitors do it, you will have to do it, and do it on a large scale if you have to retain your lead. But the catch is managements will demand to know what the benefits will be like.

Is it really Possible to Calculate the Worth of Social Media?

Social media brings in benefits that cannot be measured like revenues from physical sales. It is like calculating the worth of kinship, your relationship with your wife, the cost of having a friend, and price for happiness. But, there is a way out sill and smart marketing companies are discovering it to convince their managements in this regards. And one of the ways to do it is present them with mathematical figures.

Why is it Tedious to Calculate the Worth of Social Media?

The problem with calculating the worth of a campaign is to measure revenue against the expenditure. If social media campaigns bring in direct sales, then the sale can be directly attributed to it. But, that seldom happens. When customers sign up for your company’s products or services they will not tell you the reasons for doing that. At best campaigns can bring only incremental gains, and that you can attribute to social media campaign. But again, what happens to the non-social media efforts which progresses simultaneously?

The Need for Experts and Tools

In the wake of enormous uncertainties, the best you can do to calculate Rate of Return (ROI) is to leave it experts if you can afford the cost, or better you use some specialized tools for making the calculation. These tools take several factors into consideration, like calculating the incremental rise in visitors to your website, the time they spent on your website, and finally enquires they made. Collectively all these information play a major role in calculating the ROI.

Free Vs Paid Tools Vs Google Analytics

There are numerous ROI calculation tools in the internet. They are often presented as apps. Some are free to use, while other collect a monthly fee. There still others that you can install at your webpage hosting servers. The free ones generally don’t live up to users’ expectations. The reason being they lack extensive documentation. The next you can consider is the monthly fee based services. These service providers are a little better, but you cannot always feel comfortable with the numbers they churn out.

In these circumstances it will be best to use Google Analytics. The biggest advantage is it is free to use. There is also a paid version to Google Analytics which will cost you substantially. Unless you are professional company doing research for other, the annual fee will simply not match your budget, especially for small businesses.

Google Analytics for Small Business

Google Analytics is increasingly being used by small businesses owning websites. If you are not calculating your ROI by the minute, it will generally satisfy most businesses’ requirements. The most important thing however is they will not cost you anything. All that you need to do is open an account and start using it. If you already have a Google mail account, you can use it for getting ROI information, though you shouldn't expect them to come by the minute.

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Evaluating the Capabilities of WordPress 3.5

WordPress the most preferred software by bloggers worldwide is of the open source category and is available free of charges. This efficient content management system tool is based on hypertext preprocessor or PHP helping in web development and creation of web pages that are dynamic in nature.  Among the several features WordPress boasts of, the template system and plug-in architecture are the most sought after by bloggers and web developers.

With the release of the latest version 3.5, the blogging community can now upgrade to this version as there are many new useful functions that are included in this version. The all-new sensitive theme called 20/12 (twenty twelve) is responsive and a new feature from WordPress. In order to achieve a concept that is rich typographically, your best bet is the latest twenty twelve concept from WordPress 3.5. There is no questioning the fact that WordPress has come a long way since inception and as far as media posting is concerned, the latest 3.5 version offers many ways to add pictures and create a collection of images.

With the all-new feature that lets you drag the picture wherever you want and drop it at the very exact place you wanted it in,  plus the re-ordering and caption editing In range allow users to experiment and make best use of these features while developing their blog or websites. Especially for people who own the latest version of the iPad that has Retina Display, the 3.5 version should prove to be a boon as the WordPress dashboard goes well with the device that sports Retina Display, offering superior clarity for the WordPress dashboard panel.

Apart from these new functions that make WordPress 3.5 a sought after bit of bloggers software tool,  users will notice that the Link Manager has been done away with, and when you check the configurations for privacy that used to feature under Settings followed by Privacy has now been changed to Settings followed by Reading. You can now set up the WordPress plug-ins right from your favorites itself. This helps save precious time and keeps you less harried.

However, before you hasten to upgrade your website, preferably on your own live hosting server, you need to thoroughly examine the theme capabilities of the plug-in and the website. In case you are stuck with a plug-in that you have been using for too long, it could need a bit of modification. Hence, you would need to validate it before going in for an upgrade to the newest version of WordPress. You no longer need to hire programmers who will not bat an eyelid when they charge you exorbitant rates for coding the functionality on their own websites. However, today with WordPress 3.5 at your command, you have access to thousands of plug-ins, what’s more, when almost all of them are available free of charge. It pays to read in detail the description of the plug-in, it should be easy with language options available that let you choose the language you prefer. Check to see if the plug-in is compatible with the latest version of WordPress before deciding to use it.

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The SEO Benefits of Guest Posting

Guest posting is a robust facet of content marketing strategies which has lately enjoyed publicity and prominence due to its contributory role in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaigns. Guest posting happens either by invitation from another blogger of by your own request to post on another persons blog. The overall effect is that as a guest poster, you stand a chance to reap a myriad of benefits both in the short and long-run.

Increases Online Visibility

Guest posting increases visibility of your corporate brand on the online platform. This is achieved through the new audience that you reach out to via your posts. Websites are very instrumental but do not give visitors the opportunity to interact with your brand as opposed to blogging. For guest blogging to be effective, you have to ensure that the information posted is SEO friendly. This means that the posts should be unique, quality and contain the right combination of keyword density.

Link Building

Guest posting is a very instrumental tool in growing your own blog readership. The fundamental format of a guest post allows the author to include a few links within the article body and a bio at the end. Make sure you maximize this opportunity to get more links as well as gain new connections and followership. It is of paramount importance to use different keywords in different blogs so that your link building can appear natural to the search engines. This is inline with the Google panda update.

Establish Relationship with Other Bloggers

Guest posting helps you to establish cordial working relationship with other bloggers in your industry. This is very critical because it enhances industry wide cooperation and can be a platform for the launching of shared services. Among the many benefits that can accrue from such relationships is the fact that other bloggers may decide to links your site and depending on how prominent their blog is, this can improve the page ranking of your blog too.

Generates More Traffic to Your Site

Guest posting has the unique advantage of portraying the author as an authority within the field in which he is writing. This means that avid readers of his posts will tend to be interested in knowing more about the author. Through the bio at the end of guest posts the links embedded at strategic points within the article body, interested and curious readers who may turn out to be potential customers are redirected to the bloggers site. This increases the traffic to the guest blogger’s site.

Powering of content oriented social media marketing drive

Quality and unique content occupies the centre stage in social media marketing campaigns. Most readers are not pleased with content that pushes them into action but rather content that they can interact and reason with. The more a post is shared, the more the search engines see it as being valuable thereby improving its page ranking. This ripple effects in enhancing visibility, brand equity and doubling of marketing efforts.

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The Benefits of Guest Blogging

Guest blogging serves as a very powerful tactic in the internet marketing world.  As content marketing continues to rise, guest blogging on high-quality blog sites is becoming more and more common. No matter the industry or business, guest blogging can help you grow in more ways than one. With a few tips and suggestions on how to guest blog, you can increase your brand presence on the web and help build strong relationships with those in and those interested in your industry.

Let’s outline some of the ways guest blogging can be beneficial to you and your business.

You Can Build Relationships:

Guest blogging is the perfect opportunity to develop new business opportunities and connections with others in a similar industry. Keep in mind that building relationships takes time. Submitting just one guest post and walking away won’t be enough. Because your guest post will be featured on another site, make sure you continue to interact and follow up with the audience and publisher. Publishers are likely to turn on a comment feature just so users can interact. People are likely to comment and ask questions about the topic you posted, and if you are there to interact with them, you are building more and more relationships while establishing yourself as an industry leader. This brings us to the next advantage of guest blogging…

You Can Establish Yourself as an Industry Leader:

Guest blogging allows you to expand your reach and provide information to a larger audience in your industry. Guest blogging also provides the perfect opportunity for you to establish yourself as an expert in your industry, as well. When you guest blog, make sure your articles are well researched. The more useful and helpful information you provide to readers, the more likely they are to trust what you say, making you an authority and an expert in your particular field. This also makes users want to check out your website, to see what else you have to offer.

You Can Acquire a High-Quality Link:

Of course one of the best parts of guest blogging is the link you will get back to your site from writing the post. Keep in mind that the best links back to your site come from posting the best content on the best possible blogs in your industry. The link you get from your guest blog can even help drive quality traffic straight to your site. While the link back to your site is beneficial for both readers of the site and for link building, remember that you aren’t just writing for the purpose of the link.

To truly see value in guest blogging, you must go about it the right way and do it for the right reasons. This is the perfect opportunity to provide information to a wider audience about what it is you are so passionate about.  When you are guest blogging to those interested in what it is you do, remember that you are talking to potential clients and customers. Be creative and remember that you aren’t just creating content for the sake of SEO, you are creating content to build relationships with those in your particular industry.

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