What should be the Post-Penguin 2.0 Digital Marketing Practices?

Many of the most popular SEO practices a few years ago are now cursed and considered foolish because they will either get you penalized or the costs far outweigh the benefits. While the Penguin update has certainly changed many things about online marketing, you can still gain exposure by abiding by Google’s rules.

Not Just Content

First of all, content isn’t the only thing that you need to worry about. All of the major search engines are checking your website's loading speed. A website that loads very slowly takes away from the user experience. Many studies show that if your website just takes a tenth of a second longer to load than similar websites, then your sales will drop by one percent.

Not only that, but the search engines penalize slow websites because people don’t like them. If you want to do some serious marketing, then ensure that you choose a fast Web host.

Organic Linkbait

Before Penguin, many marketers would use automated programs to build hundreds of links. These automated solutions are practically banned from Google and they will ensure that you get penalized. At the same time, you can use linkbait content to organically build hundreds of links.

You need to create content that is commonly shared. This includes infographics, funny or interesting videos, images, case studies and free guides. These content types will help you quickly build many links without having to use blackhat techniques.

Use Social Media

For the longest time, marketers said that social media was good for bringing in traffic, but that it didn’t help SEO. The post-Penguin consensus is quite the opposite because Google has said that social signals do matter. You can improve your ranking and get indexed faster just by updating and using your social media accounts.

The best way to do this is to share and create unique content on your Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages. This will have a direct impact on your SEO and you can also gain extra traffic from your direct social media followers.

Useful Content

You need to post useful content that Google will love. Google is obsessed with the user experience and they will increase your website’s ranking if your content is useful. The problem with this is that Google is an automated system that really can’t tell useful content from garbage.

At the same time, the search engine spiders are looking for the common signs of useful and meaty content. First of all, try to make your posts much longer. Many marketers say that a 500-word article is good enough, but others are saying that 1,000-word articles are much better. You should also include a list and at least a few resources.

Blatant Optimization

You can’t be blatant about your optimization. Penguin demands subtlety if you want the best growth. Instead of using your keyword as much as possible, it’s a much better idea to use it about four to six times. You still need to optimize your content, but the optimization should be subtle so that you aren’t penalized.

Conclusion

Penguin didn’t really make marketing harder. It just changed around the focus of marketing. Instead of building your own links and writing short articles, you need meaty and useful content and linkbait to build organic links. Just follow Google’s rules and you’ll have no problems improving your traffic. 

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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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Video Marketing - The New Opportunities For Your Business

Video marketing is very hard to do, but it can be worth the time, effort and money if you do it right. Video marketing is another medium that you can use to get your marketing message across. It has been used for many years to great success on the TV, and now that Internet connections and bandwidths are good, you are able to host videos on your website with great success. There are even video channels such as YouTube that you can use to disseminate your videos.

Video marketing is very hard to do

This comment should be clarified, as anyone can point a camera at something. It is hard to do if you want any form of success. You need to have very good production values, audio, visuals, acting and scripts in order to create a successful marketing video. Anything less than fantastic will destroy any credibility you may have wished to gain (or sustain).

There are so many marketing videos online that are simply not good enough that people have started to ignore them and avoid them like plague. You should also be aware that your video needs to be very, very engaging, as most marketing videos are never watched through to the end. Your marketing massage needs to be short, concise, to the point and very, very engaging.

Demonstrations of your products

You can create videos that show demonstrations of your products. As you are probably already aware, images are not very good at showing how great your product is. They only show how the product appears to look, and even any action shots look lack luster on images. With a video you can show people exactly what your product does in a way that no other medium will allow you to. People are able to be impressed by what your product does, as oppose to simply how it looks.

Evidence of your marketing claims

Your marketing campaign may claim that your products are the most waterproof, the strongest or the most durable. But, those are just claims unless you can show people that what you are saying is true. You can prove that your product is waterproof with a video of it being dropped into a swimming pool and being used under water. You can show how strong your product is by tying it between two cars and having them pull. You can even show how durable your product is by putting it in a tumble dryer and then showing it working when it comes out.

Tutorials on how to use your products

These are quite popular because they offer the user something, instead of just advertising to them. It is quite common for people to log onto YouTube so that they can find out how a product or service works. People may wish to use your products for a certain task, and you can show them how to do it correctly. Whilst you are doing this, you are also subtly advertising your goods at the same time. You can even start and end the tutorial with a screen showing your current website or business location.

Examples of how your service works

If your website or business sells a service, then you can show that service in action. You can show people how your service works, or you can show people the results of your service. You can show people exactly what your service does so that they know what to expect when they buy from you. If you show people how you do your service and what the service entails, it will help them trust you enough to make the sale.

Show people that you are not a faceless corporation

Many people only ever see your brand or maybe someone in a suit on your website. But, everybody knows that the images they see online are not of real people within the company. With a video, you can show people around your office and introduce them to your staff and what they do. You can show that your company is staffed by real people who are not robotically churning out PR friendly banter. You can show people that any mistakes you make are not because there is a cog loose in your corporate machine, just that your company is run by humans who make mistakes.

It also allows people to see that when your company says that it cares, it is not just some bland corporate slogan. You can show the people behind the slogan and you can show people what your staffs do in order to care for their customers. You can even give subtle hints as to how successful your business is by showing how busy you are, and how your stock levels keep running low faster than you expect. You can even show people in your delivery department working quickly and efficiently in order to cope with the many, many orders that your company is receiving.

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Businesses should consider responsive web design for better digital marketing

We have become switching consumers and I'm not talking here about our switching behaviour for best deals and costs but about our internet browsing behaviour. Think about your average day and how many times you may switch between the devises you use to browse the net.  In the morning waiting for the train you may browse on your mobile, at work you use a desktop, you get home and you may turn to a tablet. We are constantly switching between the devises we use and it is now more important than ever that websites work seamlessly across all these mediums for optimal user experience.

Mobile sales have already overtaken desktop sales and by 2014 it is predicted that mobile internet usage will quickly overtake desktop internet usage. If your website doesn't look or operate well on a mobile it really is time to review it. If you invest in Digital Marking such as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and PPC, mobile friendly website is essential.

Whether you choose to create individual websites for each devise or to opt for a responsive website has caused considerable industry debate. We are increasingly asked by our customers for advice about their new or existing websites. Should they re-develop the site to be responsive?  Should they keep their existing desktop version and create a new version specifically for mobile?

Making a website work effectively for mobile devises, whilst it might look like a simple job of shrinking everything down to make it smaller is actually not that easy and not quite as straightforward. For a site to be responsive it is about creating a site architecture that delivers a customised user experience across those devises. It involves flexible layouts with elements that adapt to differing sizes and features to fit screens, devises and browsers. For example on a desktop a website may display a large graphic element featuring a companies services, but on a mobile devise this simply would not work so those services may have to be presented differently or utilising a different scroll function.

Last year Google ran a study on smartphone users and the results showed just how important it is to ensure your website is responsive. 

75% of people questioned said they prefer a mobile friendly website 61% said that if they were unable to find what they were looking for would turn to an alternate website and 67% said that they are more likely to buy from a website that works well on a mobile devise.

Delivering a quality and seamless user experience across multiple devises should now be a key consideration for businesses and if just starting to develop a new website of your own this is one of the things that absolutely should be thought about. It's no good just looking at the website on your computer screen using your preferred browser, cross check how the site looks and performs on all devises, screen sizes and browsers. What may work well on a desktop in FireFox may not work on a tablet using Chrome.

There are various advantages for having a responsive website over multiple versions of your site for improved digital marketing results. For SEO one dynamic site is preferred by search engines and is now seen as best practice. Any back links generated to your site will lead to a single recognisable source enhancing your one sites authority, user experience and recognition. Responsive websites mean that navigations, scrolls and flow all work seamlessly whatever devise your customers are using to view your site.  Maintaining one site also eliminates the need to update graphics and content across multiple websites. For example when special offers go live, graphics and prices can be updated once rather than three for four times.

If your digital marketing also focuses on social media develop a responsive website improves your customer engagement and means they are more likely to share your content, improving your social media interactions. When sharing your website link on their various social networks, their own followers can go directly to your website regardless of the device that they are using. This is very important, especially since social networks are often accessed on mobile devices.

For any customers currently in the process of starting a business or about to embark on a website project thinking cross devise and browser efficiency should defiantly be part of your design brief.  Consider carefully where your customers will access your products and services and make sure your site creates a good user experience however they may be viewing.

This article was written by Sarah Stott. Sarah has worked within the domain name and registration industry for the last 5 years and currently works at Siteopia.com.

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Five Effective Strategies to Attract More Site Visitors

We put up a website because we want to draw people’s attention to what we have to show the world. Either we want to market and promote a product or a service, or we simply want to raise awareness for a certain cause. Whatever it is, we all desire to have a lot more people visiting our site, being inactive and patiently wait for them to visit our site will not work. We need to have to be active and impose techniques that will drive people to our sites. Here are some effective and ethical strategies you may want to try.

1. Social Media Sharing. This is actually pretty common and self-explanatory. But aside from sharing your own website content to your social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and many similar others, it is also wise to install a social media sharing button on your web pages. This way, all your site visitors who likes your content can easily share it to their friends and connections, thus, resulting to more visits from other people. The more social media sharing buttons you install to your website’s content pages, the ways there are to share your content, and the more people will get to see your content.
2. Increased Number of Pillar Contents. Pillar contents are “in-depth, well-written content that will always be of interest to readers.” With these contents, you can rest assured that your site will go viral toward the targeted readers via person-to-person sharing. Coupled with social media sharing, this will surely direct a large number of traffic to your site.
3. Noteworthy Press Releases Distribution. Submitting a press release for a noteworthy accomplishment or event is another good way to direct people to your website since your contact information (which includes your website) is given at the end of the press release. However, remember that you should not abuse this service, otherwise your distributed press releases will turn out to be nothing more than a spam content.
4. Interactive Social Networking. This simply means that give helpful answers to questions you see on online forums or threads. You can visit a lot of site and pages that host these features. After giving your answer, give a link (preferably a shortened one) to the person who asked. The link should either be of your website or any content from your website that gives further explanation to the issue. Doing this will not only give your site good traffic but also credibility and reference to your site and your expertise.
5. Content Sharing. Sharing informative contents about your field and industry or anything related to sites like Scribd and Slideshare will also direct people to your website to check what else you have to offer. This method not only gives you followers, but also increased brand awareness and credibility.

You can never discount the power of your website. So make the most of it! Our tips here have been tested and proven effective not only in spreading your website’s popularity, but also in establishing your business’ online presence and in maximizing your chances of boosting your sales and profit margin.

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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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SEO Tips for Your Site and What You Can Do about It

A Short Overview on SEO

Search Engine Optimization or SEO as it is widely known is a way to increase the number of visitors to a website by making its rank higher in search results and employing the right keywords on the sites content.

In a general and basic sense, SEO involves:

• Bringing in prospects towards your site

• Leading clients/customers to a detailed or step by step process of completing a transaction i.e. site navigation tools

• Designing websites properly and attractively to entice customers/clients

• Addressing some concerns that could be a contributing factor in customer satisfaction level

Search engine optimization strategies are substantial for websites that target good ranking. Online advertising agencies should have know-how on this to attain efficiency. By having a top ranking site, a company may benefit from the elevated traffic making their sites the top click of customers or clients searching for a service or information.

These are the things you should be asking yourself to guide you in your SEO quest:

• Do you plan on doing your product or service’s advertising/marketing by yourself?

• Do you plan to do it in a conventional or traditional manner? Online/offline? How?

When you have decided to do it online, then:

• Plan. Think about the product/service you want to sell.

• Figure out who needs the product/service

• See what the search engines can recommend you when you search for them

• Make a website. Get a domain and host.

• Don’t forget to build links.

• Consider marketing with banners and ads.

• Make press releases for strategic and authoritative marketing.

• Employ associations and backlinks.

• Participate in forums or blogging.

• Email productions. (No spam as much as possible. So be careful!)

• Test your methods and assess your progress.

• Innovate when possible.

Take note though that good online search engine ranking is not the only objective you should have, increasing traffic and conversions should not be forgotten because they bring in the bread and butter of an online business.

Avoid search engine penalties. Online entrepreneurs realize the significance of getting top internet search engine ratings and thus they usually perform many SEO activities on their own sites. Improper implementation of SEO could possibly get your website penalized by search engines like Google.

To prevent a site from being punished, avoid having hidden texts or hidden links on your webpages, do not use excessive automated queries to search engines, and avoid keyword stuffing.

Use appropriate keywords. Having the correct keywords will permit you to drive specific site visitors to your website. Therefore, this task determines whether your SEO effort can improve your business results or not.

Conclusion:

SEO tactics are ideal in promoting and making your site “popular” in the eyes of search engines and in the eyes of people searching for a particular keyword.

SEO is vital for online marketing and advertising. If the processes are being done correctly, it can help attract many visitors to your site, it can enhance the ranking and furthermore, it can prove to be successful for your business.

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Focus SEO on Conversions Not Keywords or Traffic

It should go without saying that web traffic is good and ranking highly for a coveted keyword is good. That’s like saying it’s smart to use a VPN service when traveling and using public Wi-Fi.

Still, there are other things to keep in mind when performing search engine optimization. For e-commerce sites, it’s good to remember that while traffic is great, conversions are king. Traffic is potential money, while conversions are actual money.

Consider Search Intent

When deciding what keywords to target in your SEO project, it is important to keep in mind the intent of people searching a particular keyword. For example “running shoes,” is a term that could be used by anyone looking up anything about running shoes. However, “buy running shoes,” or “good deals on running shoes,” are likely to be used by people who are ready to make a purchase.

Thus, those keywords should convert into sales at a higher rate. This should be the ultimate goal, and it needs to be discussed before any SEO project begins so that everyone is on the same page.

Far too often, the focus is solely on ranking on the first page or achieving the top ranking spot on Google. When business owners go into projects with these sorts of expectations they are not only hard to live up to for the SEO specialist but also detrimental to the bottom line of the business.

Of course, once the optimal keywords are being targeted, then the goal should be to achieve the highest ranking. However, ranking fifth on a keyword that converts at a higher rate than another keyword a site is in the top slot for could prove more profitable.

Monitor the Results

In order to find out what will be best for the bottom line, results have to be monitored and tracked by keyword. This should enable the SEO team to figure out what keywords are converting, what rate they are converting at and how much a conversion is worth. From here, some simple math will tell everyone which keywords are most profitable.

Overview

One final thought is to remember that SEO is an ongoing process. The conversion rates or value of keywords can change over time, as can the amount of competition. As such, it is important to always keep an eye on these factors and be prepared to make changes in strategy when necessary.

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Social Media VS Link Building. What Is Better?

Social media has the power of offering better SERP without spending money while doing this. However, link building still works and there are many search engine optimization specialists that do all that they can in order to get great links. What should you choose between the two? Is social media better than link building? Let us take a look at both of these in order to understand exactly what works best in your case.

How Does Link Building Work?

Link Building can be defined as building links on the internet and spreading them with the purpose of increasing search engine positioning rankings. Many strategies exist and can help you to succeed. The most used one is to take advantage of sites that are already reputable so that they endorse links and works there. There are some sites that will ask for a payment in order to allow you to host a link but there are also others that will just want the same favor from you in return.

Social Media SEO Role

We can easily notice the fact that social media is personal. It became really powerful with the advancements made in technology and you can use this to your advantage. All that you have to do is use the most popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Post your messages and they can spread really fast, reaching thousands of potential customers in just minutes.

The interactivity of social media is the main reason why so many are using it at the moment. Search engines understood that social activity is a good indicator of what people want to find on the internet and are now using shares, likes and even tweets in order to offer better ranking.

Link Building VS Social Media? Tips On Using Them

1. It Is Better To Use Both!

This is the one thing that few people even consider. No matter what you might be tempted to believe, it is always a good thing to use both link building and social media. Link building strategies are pretty much straightforward but when you also take advantage of the power of social media, it is a guarantee that you will get better results. When posting links without taking into account engagement, time is lost and the poor execution consequences are immediately felt.

2. Social Media Gets You In Touch With Customers

Because of the fact that the popularity of social networks is huge, it is easier to reach your customers and use the sites as a door for marketing and SEO ploys. It is completely true that traditional link building works but it is imperative that you also attract a social circle. Think about quality at all times and never just place links!

3. Link Baiting And Influential Social Media

You should research opportunities and always be aware of what is trending. All that is trending can be incorporated in your social media campaigns through videos and photos while informative texts create value and attraction.

Try to create viral content. From that content you can plug in links. It is a guarantee that this will get you far when referring to SERP. Your main goal is to leave an impression. People should see you as important and it is vital that you are remembered. Those that reach maximum exposure end up with links without doing anything by simply using social media properly.

We can easily compare social media with word of mouth marketing since there are so many similarities between the two. People do want to pass on information and will recommend resources to others on social networks. Post quality stands out as the main key to your success. At the same time it is important to avoid negative reputation effects and the link building activities are made a lot easier when just combining both social media and link building.

The bottom line is that you need to think about the people. The major search engines do all that they can so that the results shown are relevant and social media is taken into account. Although you might hear differently, link building and social media basically work hand in hand. The best search engine optimization experts out there include them both in their work done to rank high.

Kate Funk is an expert in online tutoring services. She coaches individuals in SEO and business networking skills.

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Digital Marketing Budgets Up, Understanding Down

It’s no secret that digital marketing is a confusing topic. Companies know social media and mobile marketing are increasingly important, and invest heavily in both fields. At the same time, however, if a recent report is any indication, understanding of digital marketing ROI is dwindling.

The report, Marketing Budgets 2013, is a joint effort by industry analysts Econsultancy and Responsys. The annual report surveyed over 800 marketers. The results were a strange mixture of understanding and mystification.

Spending Up….

Digital marketing budgets are on the rise, with 75 percent of respondents planning to increase spending in 2013. In an encouraging move, 56 percent reported plans to increase budgets by over 20 percent. This is great news if you’re in the business of providing content marketing or SEO. Baltimore MD, Los Angeles, CA, New York, NY – wherever you’re located, you should see increased spending on digital marketing.

Content marketing’s growing importance was obvious, with 70 percent of respondents planning to increase spending on content, while 65 percent indicated they’ll increase their natural SEO result budgets. Email marketing spending came in third at 65 percent, with social media and mobile marketing coming in at 62 and 61 percent, respectively.

While in the top five, mobile marketing spending seems low, considering the field’s rapid rise in importance. Actually, it’s possible that the very speed with which mobile marketing is developing explains relatively low budgetary commitments; spending has yet to catch up with marketing potential.

…. Understanding Down

Despite ever-increasing spending on digital marketing, only 50 percent of survey respondents claimed a “good” or “very good” understanding of digital marketing ROI, while 18 percent reported “poor” or “very poor” understanding.

These numbers reflect a continuing decline in understanding over the last three years. The 2010 survey reported 67 percent of marketers had a firm understanding of digital marketing ROI, with only 10 percent claiming a poor grasp of the issue.

The industry, it seems, is at odds with itself. Almost everyone’s willing to accept the importance of digital marketing, but an increasing percentage of marketers lack the knowledge or skills to accurately measure social media’s value. Half the survey respondents are throwing large budgets at digital marketing and essentially trusting the return on investment will be positive.

That’s a dangerous game, because like any form of advertising, digital marketing comes with no guarantees.

Part of the problem may stem from the ever-growing, ever more complex nature of digital marketing venues. Not so long ago, mobile marketing was unheard of, and social media continues to defy traditional ROI measurement tools. Even so, any marketer reporting less than a good understanding of digital media strategies should be worried.

On the plus side, attitudes in the industry are changing. Marketers increasingly devote budget funds to training and education, so hopefully the disconnect between spending and ROI understanding will come to an end. At least, until the Next Big Thing takes the industry by surprise.

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10 Iphone Seo Apps That Can Help Seo Professionals

Today, everyone is on the go - business on the go, socializing on the go, it's a fast pace world. One of the leading devices that support our busy life is the Smartphone, and the iPhone is among the leading in this class. These Smartphones are far more sophisticated and more useful than their predecessors. Because of their usefulness and practicality to the modern world, the iPhone is now a helpful tool for web developers seeking to do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on the go. More and more SEO professionals seek mobile apps that can assist them on the go. 

Here are 10 iPhone SEO Apps that can help SEO Professionals

1. SEO Stats

This is a very simple app and is an excellent application that is completely free. It is great for persons with all levels of SEO experience. This software keeps you informed about your stance on various social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Digg. You can check your page ranks and backlinks on the go. SEO Stats can even check your Wikipedia backlinks and lots more. Overall, a great app to view your trending and ranks in SEO terms.

2. Analytic Agent Pro

This app is one that is sure to save you a great deal of time. It has three major features that are sure to excite any SEO professional. With this app, you can check your Google Adsense, AdWords and Analytics accounts. Check all your incoming organic traffic daily with this application, and see your important statistics like page views, visits, Adsense income, bounce rates and more. Co-relate and compare statistics with earnings with Analytic Agent. The app comes in two forms; lite version and pro version which is the better option and costs only $2.99.

3. SEO Search Ranking

This application is for the sole purpose of SEO. The app costs $1.99 and may be very well worth your time and money. The app allows you to keep a check on the positions of the keywords you specifically want to rank for on multiple sites. It tells you your precise rank position for each website you register. Unfortunately, there is a downside to this app. While it may suit most SEO professionals, it might not suit you if your current Google search engine ranking is less than the top 64.

4. ISEO

This is a great tool for competitive analysis. With this application, you can analyze a website for guest posting prospects or check out your competition rankings. The results are usually extremely accurate, useful and very easy to understand. You can even email your results to yourself or your associates. ISEO can be purchased at the Apple app store for $1.99.

5. Raven Tools

This is a favorite free application for SEO interests. Although this is a free app, you have to sign up for a paid account with Raven in order to use it. Raven tools are very useful otherwise, allowing you to track your website statistics and social media links and trends.It collects analytic data for ROI measurements as well. This is a very advanced app with a lot of great features and functions; a must have for any SEO professional.

6. LinkJuice

LinkJuice is one of the most informative SEO applications you will find on the Apple market. This is a good product for expert SEO professionals, otherwise it may seem complicated with all the analysis you receive. Enter your domain URL or webpage link in the app form and you will receive information about your backlinks, anchor text, domain authority and so on. If you are serious about SEO, then this is a good app for you. LinkJuice costs $1.99 at the Apple app store.

7. SEO keyword Checker

This is a free application. It is quite useful and packed with information that can be easily viewed while on the go. The app carries a simple interface and is easy to use. It analyzes web pages and gives you valuable information about keyword usage and density.

8. Ego

This has long been a favorite app for SEO developers. It offers a collection of website data all on one screen. This is handy for SEO professionals who want quick information on the go. It is ideal for commercial websites to blogs and can track an array of major services with everything summarized on one screen. This app has unfortunately been withdrawn by its developers, but hopefully it will return with even better features. This was truly one of the most useful SEO App ever developed.

9. SEO Automatic

As the name suggests, SEO Automatic gathers information about your website and make helpful SEO recommendations. It thoroughly analyzes your webpage to give you the most optimizing ideas. This is a great app for SEO novices.

10. SECockpit

One of the most important aspect of SEO development is keyword research. This is the exact purpose of this app. Just like Google Search Tools, you enter your keyword or phrase and the app will bring up results of search volume and competition. Great for keyword research on the go.

In this technology driven era, applications are developed as fast as there are demands for them. Apple developers have certainly come a long way to develop these highly efficient 10 iPhone SEO Apps that can help SEO professionals.

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