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January 14, 2014January 11, 2014

How Your Web Host Affects Search Engine Optimization

You’ve poured over all of the latest search engine optimization methods, you’ve put tons of work into your content, quality links, building authority within your niche and everything else that you’re supposed to do to make your way to the top of the rankings. For some reason, though, you aren’t getting the results that you expected. When you’re doing everything else right, chances are you’re getting held back by the web host of your site.

Site Speed Matters

Google and other search engine ranking algorithms put a heavy emphasis on how fast your site loads, according to WBS online. If you have a web host that simply doesn’t have the bandwidth to deliver sites to visitors as quickly as possible, you get a penalty in the search rankings. In addition, the bounce rate of your visitors increases, since many visitors are not going to wait long for your website to load when they have the entire Internet to explore. When you select your web host, look at their site uptime guarantees, as extended downtime does your search engine ranking no favors.

Your server location plays another factor in search engine optimization, primarily if you’re targeting your site at a completely different country than your server is located in, said blogger and entrepreneur John Chow. While putting your website on an overseas server may be appealing for legality reasons, it may cost you in search engine rankings if you’re trying to target customers in your domestic market. Look into the physical locations of any data center before you make a hosting decision.

A related problem with site uptime comes from how loaded down your server is. Virtual server hosting is an excellent optimal choice for many businesses, especially those starting out with smaller sites. But, if you load down your website with every script that looks interesting you’re going to take a performance hit. This may not make your site completely inaccessible, but it may stop key elements of your site from loading correctly.

Connecting via Content Delivery Networks

If you have an issue with large media files loading quickly, consider a content delivery network. A CDN is a system of distributed network servers that deliver webpages and content to a user. This is based on the geographical location of the user, the webpage’s origin and what the content delivery server is. Content delivery network providers focus on hosting large images, videos and other media that may overload a typical web hosting package. Instead of hoping that your web server has the bandwidth to handle your massive video trailers, use a content delivery network service to reduce your load times and increase the speed and delivery of your content.

The Value of Website Redirects

When you change a server script or otherwise alter the flow of your website, you may have URLs that no longer work within your linking structure. If these are older pages, it’s possible that they have good page rank and you don’t want to get rid of them completely. You want to use a 301 redirect to properly inform Google that the content has moved and the address that it has moved to.

Backup Everything

Once you have all of these effects in place, do not forget to back up all your hard work. A personal cloud storage base can keep your information secure. Online backup services like Sugarsync or JustCloud.com can sync all of your files and create automatic backups. According to a Sugarsync review, it’s compatible with PC, Mac, Linux and has mobile access. Assess your needs before choosing a cloud storage system. Reading reviews of different cloud providers can give you a better idea of what you might need.

About the author:

Richard Johnson is a veteran with over 8 years of service and multiple combat tours. He has multiple degrees in business and marketing from Arizona State University. Currently he is taking some time away from work to raise his kids and enjoy the outdoors.

January 11, 2014March 24, 2014

Do You Panic When Facebook Goes Down?

If you’re a basic Facebook user and find that dreaded “Maintenance” or “Page cannot be displayed” message when logging onto the site, you might get a bit frustrated after multiple attempts to refresh. However, you’ll ultimately just go over to YouTube or Twitter to bide your time. Though what if you’re a marketer using Facebook? When you hear those two dreaded words, Facebook down, how do you handle it?

Many marketers begin to panic, and maybe for good reason. There’s a lot of time and money tied up in the site, and you can never be sure if it’s just down for a few minutes or if it will be down for days or weeks. However, there’s a lesson to be learned from the basic user out there. Don’t fly into a panic. Just bide your time and do other things. Here are a few things you can try if you find a Facebook crash in the future.

How to Handle Business When Facebook is Down

1: Vent Via Social Media

Take your frustrations to social media and use the downtime to your advantage. For instance, if you have a Twitter following, the odds are great that many of them also use Facebook and are also frustrated that it’s down. You don’t have to bash or curse the site, but you can float some tweets out there gauging the atmosphere and voicing your personal dislike of the situation. “What do you guys think about the Facebook crash?” There will probably be trending hashtags you can use, if you’re not creating them yourself, like, for example, “#FacebooksDead” or “#ConstantCrash.”

2: Track Your Data

Instead of twiddling your thumbs as if your collective hopes and dreams are tied up in one social media site, take this opportunity to perform some analytics checks and see if you need to tweak anything when the site comes back online. Take a loot at how your campaign is going, how your ads have been performing, and other key aspects of your campaign. You have a chance here to come back stronger.

3: Try Your Facebook Material on an Alternative Outlet

The reason some marketers get very angry and end up in a panic is that they had plans to use Facebook that instant but can’t now because it’s down. For instance, they may have created a new detailed post that they were sure would draw engagement. If this is a situation you find yourself in, you can wait for Facebook to come back, or you could try your luck with an alternate outlet. You might be able to draw more buzz and engagement by releasing the material elsewhere. At least think about releasing it in another location first.

4: Plan Your Reentry

When Facebook is down, you also have a good opportunity to take your time to plan your reentry. Using the tip above and assuming you had a great post ready to be launched, rethink your approach. You could create a lot of buzz by being the first page your fans see with an entertaining post about Facebook’s crash. For instance, creating a poll about how aggravated people are or something along those lines can really draw a big crowd ready to engage.

5: Speak to Your Fans Personally

If you have the contact information of some of your fans, like their email addresses or mobile information, you could send out a quick message to them and use Facebook’s status as a great talking point to start an ongoing dialogue. It also endears you more to your fans by showing a real side and a real interest in social media interactions. Facebook being down doesn’t have to be a waste in any fashion.

Facebook has great up time, solid servers, and they’re usually able to handle even the biggest updates while the site is still functioning. However, every site experiences crashes and downtime, and Facebook will be no exception in the future. So if you ever manage to encounter a crash, just remember not to panic. Use the time to engage with fans in a different way.

About the author:

Simon Campbell, a writer from a Facebook ad campaign tool – Qwaya. He loves to write different topics about social media and participates in some communities and forums. You can connect with Simon on Twitter.

December 31, 2013March 24, 2014

5 Things you must know About Blogging

Photo Credits: webseoanalytics

Blogging is the latest tool these days that has added certain benefits to the business and brand promotions when it comes to make large audience and promote a brand, blogging is used in different styles and forms. Professional business blogs to small micro blogs are used to attract users to a business. If you have started a business and created a company, then you must start with your own blog. Either you can start blogging yourself or you can hire a professional. In both cases a blogger should know few things before he starts. Check below these core aspects of blogging that can boost your business.

Things to remember for a successful blog:

When you plan to start a blog, focus on these points for making a large user engaging audience and make your internet presence possible.

The first thing is to focus on your audience. Keeping in mind the right audience, is very important for bloggers. You can’t write a post for all the internet users. You have to focus on your niche. For example if you own a company of Automotives, then you should focus on the audience that has an interest in buying these Automotives and they like to listen news and offers from your company. Keep you content enriched with the latest updates about your company offers in your blogs.

Photo Credits : davidhallsocailmedia

The second core factor of blogging is to write meaningful content with a high quality. No need to write long articles that are of no use. Only write user engaging content for a targeted audience. Content is the key to success in every internet marketing strategy and blogging is a good strategy that can lead your business successful.
A third factor is to eliminate all types of jargon from the blogs. Experts follow the same rule to promote their business. The CEO of Albanese company “Leonard Albanese” followed the same rule when he started blogging. He focused on audience and wrote useful content, free from jargon and users started following their updates and become their loyal customers.
Keep your mind active and charged while writing content for blogging. If is not good to write in a bad mood or a down situation that will leave a bad impact on the audience. Do not write blogs when you are in hard mind state. Relax first and then start your writing.

Photo Credits: thesparksleagency

Updating a blog regularly is a key for blogging success and those blogs that are not updated, do not make a large interactive audience. You can only attract people when you post regular updates on your blogs and it is also suggested by the experts that 2 to 3 times blogging in a week is good, otherwise you will overcrowd your blogs with too many posts.

These are simple facts that every blogger should know. Apart from this, there are tips and strategies that are written for the specific blogs. You can follow these tips for your particular blog style.

About the author:

Adam Prattler is a consultant for search engine optimization ny and has been working since the last 6 years. With a degree in engineering and a graduation in design, he believes he has the ability to look at from every aspect, be it technology, content or design. You can connect with Adam on LinkedIn, Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter.

December 24, 2013November 29, 2019

The Rise Of B2B Inbound Marketing

The social media and other network are all agog with the discussion centered on B2B inbound marketing. Is B2B inbound marketing all that attractive? Is the hype about the lower cost leading to high quality sales justified? How do inbound and outbound marketing differ from each other when they are compared with each other?

Decline of outbound Marketing

With exploration of the market by electronic media growing by leaps and bounds, the traditional outbound marketing is only to be expected to see a decline. Consumers are not all that naive any more. The tendency these days is to get onto the internet to diligently pick up relevant information about anything they want to buy. They are more or less not impressed by the outbound marketing techniques even if they are genuinely innovative. In short, consumers are wiser than the marketers.

The most perfect example to this, which clearly defines that the concept has seeped into every age group would be of my friend’s grandfather. The family was planning on buying an LED TV. The grandfather was the first to go through the various options within their budget while scrolling through various blogs on his tablet. After spending an hour on analysis he came up with a very strong surety of buying Panasonic tx-l60dt65b LED TV . To be honest, I could not have expected this off a 70 year old man and definitely cements the importance of strategy for every age group as well.

If you thought that they stop at reading about the product in the manufacturer’s website and do not do anything more before buying, you could not be more wrong. They read reviews, even write them, and ask the peers on and offline before making the purchase.

The overkill of email marketing and telemarketing that inundated the cyberspace has produced an averse to things that are being marketed by these methods. Advertising, whether in electronic or print media, are looked at cynically. Is it any wonder that B2B outbound marketing is seeing a slide down?

Enter Inbound Marketing

If outbound marketing had lost its sheen, it could not be that it would not be replaced by an alternative method of marketing. Inbound marketing had taken its place. Increasingly, outbound marketing does not even get a mention in discussions on marketing. The points that are taken up for consideration talk only of pull marketing and its effectiveness. The ways to deliver the various elements is the next agenda in talks. Is it any wonder then that hype is perceived here?

The Independence of Buyers

Inbound marketing puts to use the delivery of useful, engaging and valuable information to the target audience. It lets the recipient of the information decide for himself of what to purchase. The trick works best when the prospect does not feel that he had been deliberately driven to read the ad. A strategically placed ad subtly makes its point to find a favor from the reader. Sales pitch is rather absent and in its place information that looks and feels helpful is put out.

Keeping Privacy Intact

Inbound marketing is utilized to inform as well as build credibility which shall come into the mind of the consumer when he is about to make a purchase. The element of invasion that marks the outbound marketing is not discernible in inbound marketing. The reader immediately feels a relief that his privacy is not being invaded.

Inbound marketing may at times call for a training schedule for the staff that are to be taught the new marketing techniques in place of outbound marketing they were employing till then.

November 21, 2013

Primary Research: An Effective Content Strategy for Building Brand Authority

Content marketing professionals are continually trying to find the most effective strategies for reaching their target audiences, building brand authority and establishing a strong presence on the Web.

Many digital marketers rely on tactics like search engine optimization (SEO), traditional blog posts, articles, case-studies, videos and Podcasts to disseminate their messaging and earn the attention of their potential customers. The purpose of these tactics is to provide your audience with useful information that they could not find elsewhere.

However, with so many organizations turning to content marketing, it has been increasingly difficult to stay ahead of the curve and keep the attention of your target audiences.

One creative way to avoid this growing problem is to conduct your own high-quality primary research. This strategy takes effort and time, but it could be the determining factor that raises your brand’s authority over that of your competitor. By conducting original market research, you have a way to provide unique information that is relevant to your customers and is not available elsewhere. This primary research not only has the potential to earn social shares and links, it also holds the promise of building your brand’s credibility and trustworthiness within your market.

Janna Finch, Managing Editor at Software Advice, a company that researches marketing software applications and trends, recently published an article that provides four quality examples of companies who have successfully implemented this strategy. Here is a short summary of Finch’s report:

“2013 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study”

Silverpop is one of the premier marketing automation platforms on the market. It helps marketers personalize their mobile, email and social interactions with their customers. Silverpop is already considered one of the most authoritative and trustworthy brands in its market, but its “2013 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study” helped solidify its leadership. This report analyzed all the email correspondence sent by 2,787 brands in 40 countries. The report looks at important email marketing metrics like click-through rates, open rates, message sizes and list churn metrics.

Silverpop not only calculated the averages, their team also included mean, median and quartile states by industry and region. This breakdown of their data made it easy for marketers to benchmark their own performance. By publishing an in-depth study on key marketing metrics, Silverpop is providing a clear signal to their customers that its brand is an authority in the market, and that it can be trusted. The company’s report also earned a great detail of social and Web exposure. The report was linked to 206 times on 48 different domains.

“2013 Search Engine Ranking Factors Survey”

For over a decade, Moz.com has been an authority on all things SEO. Their customers have come to expect high-quality research and content on a regular basis. Moz recently undertook a primary research project to help maintain its reputation and leadership in the SEO community. The team at Moz surveyed more than 120 search marketers and collected their responses on more than 80 search engine ranking factors. This survey helped build a comprehensive picture of what characteristics were most likely (or not likely) to affect the ranking of a URL on a search engine results page.

Moz presented its findings in easy-to-read graphs with filtering features that help digital marketers easily digest their research, and share their findings. They also provided easy-to-understand written summaries to further make the survey easily accessible. Moz’s report was well-executed and provides digital marketers with content they could not easily find on their own. This made it an extremely popular report that was shared extensively over the Web and social media. The Moz report earned 693 links from 199 different root domains, and more than 3,000 social shares. This level of coverage helped reinforce Moz’s authority with search marketers, and helped keep the brand at the top of its market.

“2013 Digital Marketing Optimization Survey Results”

Adobe helps digital marketers measure and optimize their content at every step of the process. It is essential that its brand distinguish itself as a leader in the marketing industry. Adobe’s report “2013 Digital Marketing Optimization Survey Results” is a great example of how their team used primary research to build their brand’s authority.

The report analyzed the responses from over 1,858 digital markets from North America, Asia and Europe. Their report highlights what digital markets think are essential to achieving success in their field. Adobe’s findings were consolidated into easy-to-read graphs and narrative summaries.

This survey was spread extensively on the Web and social media, which helped promote the brand’s authority and trustworthiness. According to a LinkedIn case study, Adobe’s report had a profound impact on its reputation with marketers. The case study found that after reviewing the report, marketing professionals were “50 percent more likely to agree that Adobe is shaping the future of digital marketing.” This case study provides great evidence that primary research can be an effective branding tool, and can help raise your company’s market leadership above the competition.

These three examples help showcase how primary research is an effective content marketing and branding tool at the disposal of marketing professionals. Undertaking a high-quality primary research project is not an easy task, but it could be what separates your brand from the rest of the pack.

Have you ever used primary research to build your brand’s authority and trustworthiness? Please leave a comment below and share your experience with us.

October 29, 2013March 24, 2014

The Best SEO Tools For Keyword Research

One of the most important factors, determining the success of your website, is the so-called SEO (or Search Engine Optimization). When developing your business website, one of the first things that you need to consider is its SEO. In the field of Internet marketing, SEO is what gives you the opportunity to spread your business. It allows you to target your customers and concentrate all of your marketing strategy on the right group of visitors. This is extremely important, since you will be able to understand all their needs. You will know what their interests are; what they want to read more or less about and how to satisfy their needs.

When it comes to SEO, there are several things that need to be said. If you want to achieve some positive results, you will have to give your visitors unique content. Useful information, that will make them visit your website over and over again.
In this article we will provide for you some further information about another very important step in the process of SEO optimization – Keyword research.
When searching for a certain service, product or information on the Internet, people tend to write the shortest description of this particular product. Usually this description is limited in one or two key words or some key phrase. In order to get in the first pages of Google, you will have to be familiar with these words. Here are some of the best Keyword Research Tools:

Keyword Discovery

This is the first tool in our list. Keyword Discovery allows you to pull data from the most popular search engines and discover the best keywords. You can see the historical trends of these words and find out how effective they were. It is among the most useful tools for keyword research.

Google AdWords Tool

Here is another very useful tool. This fantastic Keyword Research Tool gives you the great opportunity to discover the most effective and currently popular keywords. You can write a certain keyword into the search bar and see a list of other popular keywords that are related to yours. This can be very useful if you want to brodaen your keyword research.

WordStream’s Keyword Tool

This great tool is suitable not only for making your SEO keyword research, but also for your PPC research. With WordStream’s Tool you can easily write some certain groups of keywords and it will immediately give you some useful suggestions. And the best part is that it is completely free!

YouTube Keyword Research Tool

Here is our last suggestion. Did you know that after Google, YouTube is the second biggest search engine? Millions of people all over the world use YouTube to watch, upload, comment and share videos. If you are a really good marketer, then you definitely know that YouTube can become a really big part of your marketing strategy. YouTube Keyword Tool is similar to the previous ones. It can give you plenty of useful information about the best keywords. It can give some really creative and functional ideas on how for your video marketing.

Author Bio: Rose Finchley is freelance blogger and writer. Her current interests include finance.

You can connect with Rose on LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+

October 4, 2013March 24, 2014

Create Effective Action Button Following These Guidelines

When it comes to WordPress optimization, people often tend to neglect the benefits of the so called ‘call to cation buttons’. These are buttons, that solicit actions from your website visitors. Usually they either lead to another page of the same website, or link to a signup, sale or download.

If you have decided to create such buttons for your website, there are a few simple steps that you will need to follow. Steps, which will make these buttons much more attractive and efficient. In this article we will provide you a short guide containing a few easy steps for creating action buttons. But first – What are the main types of ‘call to action’ buttons?

‘Add to cart’ buttons – These buttons are very commonly used in e-commerce websites. Very typical for this type of buttons is the use of simple wordings such as ‘Add to cart’ and ‘Buy Now’ as well as the use of icons (in most cases a cart or a bag);
‘Download’ buttons – It is pretty clear what these buttons are all about;
‘Learn More’ buttons – Such buttons are usually linked to another page of the same website, tempting visitors to look for some further information on the topic they are interested in;
‘Signup’ buttons – Once again, the title explains their main functions.

Of course, there are plenty of other types of ‘call to action’ buttons, but these four are considered as the most common ones. So, if you want to optimize your website by adding such buttons to its overall layout, the first thing that you will have to do is consider the best type for you. Are you trying to sell your products? Do you offer some other type of web services, that require a website registration? All this matters when it comes to creating ‘call to action’ buttons.

Tips on how to create effective ‘call to action’ buttons!

1. Make it big!

The size of your call to action button has to be considered very carefully. It has to be notable and big (in fact, the biggest on the webpage). However, be careful not to overcrowd the page. Otherwise you will achieve just the opposite effect.

Make it colourful

The colour of the button is another very important thing. It has to stand by so perhaps the best solution is to choose some contrasting colour to the background. Of course, you will have to consider it according to the overall colour scheme of the page. Otherwise it can spoil its good look.

Keep it clear and simple

Once you have chosen the basic colour and size characteristics of your ‘call to action’ button, you will have to consider the word (or phrase) that you will place inside of them. Remember – simplicity is the key to success. Try to choose something, which will be both attractive to your visitors and will give them enough information.

Whitespace

This is our last tip. Whitespace is an essential element when comes to making your button notable. Especially if it is small or pale coloured. It works as a frame for the eyes, separating the button from the main colour of the background.

Author Bio: Rose Finchley is passionate freelance blogger keen on topics about technologies, Internet and blogging. She currently maintains the site of Sparklingcarpets and she loves her love.

You can connect with Rose on LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+

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August 26, 2013March 24, 2014

Internet Advertising – a New Dimension of Business Promotion

Internet advertising has come a long way since its first steps, made by using some ad banners at the end of 1994. The Internet was almost unknown over a decade and a half, and now it is an integral part of our lives.

On one hand, advertising is any paid form of promotion of an organization, product, service or idea of a particular sponsor or advertiser. At first, advertising was mainly established in the print media, such as newspapers and magazines and then on the television and radio media. However, in the last few years, the advertising has been pretty much focused on the Internet, which on the other hand was turned in an entirely different environment used by advertisers when looking for new potential customers.

These changes occurred as a result of technology development, which led to a dramatic increase in the use of the Internet for the purposes of advertising. Internet advertising is rapidly evolving in the last few years. Some recent research have shown that in the next few years online advertising will develop three times faster than traditional media advertising.

We must confess that the Internet provides almost inexhaustible resources of opportunities when used as an advertising environment. This means that you can use different approach in order to send a specific message to your target groups. That is the reason why more and more companies have been recently transferring a great part of their budget to online advertising and marketing.

What are the advantages of Internet advertising?

Internet advertising combines different aspects that make it so popular and successful:

it is easily handled;
it gives you the opportunity to determine exactly which target groups you are going to attack;
you can send more concrete messages to your potential and current customers;
it gives you more rapidly growing audience;
you can be more accurate when measuring the results;
it usually gives great results.

Internet advertising also combines the advantages of the TV and print ads and even gives you the opportunity to have an extremely high-quality graphic image. Unlike TV, radio and print ads, online ads provide users with great variety of ways to learn more about the certain product or service you offer. In addition, online advertising is more informative also for the advertisers because they know exactly where they money go.

What are the main types of Internet advertisements?

Web banners

Web banners are the oldest type of Internet advertisements. The very first banner ads were released on the Internet at the end of 1994. Web banners are most commonly promotional images in GIF, JPEG or PNG format that are usually placed on a certain website. When a user clicks on some of these banners, they are transferred to the advertiser’s website, where there is more detailed information about the product or the service that are being advertised. Web banners may be either static or animated.

Text links

Text links are usually a slogan or a name of a certain organization that contains a hyperlink to the advertiser’s website. This is actually one of the cheapest forms of online advertising, which is also extremely efficient. However, when you are planning to use this type of Internet advertising you need to carefully select the websites where you are going to put some advertising text links of your company.

E-mail footers

These are advertising messages that are added in the bottom of every e-mail you send.

Paid articles or publications

These articles and publications can be a description or your company or an interview with its manager or one of the specialists working for you. The publications can also be a news or interesting information that will be useful to your current and potential customers.

Google AdWords

Google is undoubtedly one of the most efficient and popular search engines on the Internet. This is actually the type of advertisement that currently brings bigger profits to advertisers who have tried it. The advertisements on Google are called Google AdWords and give great variety of opportunities.

There is a simple truth, which is that advertisers must go where their potential customers are in order to have success. More and more people go online and have accounts on some social networks. The Internet is the new environment that helps business develop and improve, which gives advertisers the opportunity to make their companies more popular and also show some innovative, original and useful products to a larger auditorium.

Author Bio: Rose Finchley is passionate writer and blogger. She works a part time job at company which offers quality end oftenancy cleaning. In her spare time she loves to read and write articles for different blogs.

You can connect with Rose on LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+

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August 14, 2013March 24, 2014

3 Most Common Mistakes People Make When Optimizing Their Sites

In the online world search engines are gods and we merely follow the rules they set for us, mortal beings. No matter how visited your site is, if it were to suddenly disappear from all search engines, that would strike a mortal wound in the heart of your success and your online prosperity will become a thing of the past.

The same is true for the other way around – if your site appears on the first page of a search engine, then you will definitely start getting more visitors and consequently your chance of improving your financial state will grow exponentially.

That’s why many people try to optimize their sites according the requirements of search engines. This process is known as SEO (search engine optimization) and is becoming significantly more complex as search algorithms develop and become more complicated. However, performing SEO means walking on a thin ice.

Search engines want to display only relevant and organic content and they hate it when people try to deceive them. You can easily bury your site if you get too many black points. There are three popular mistakes people tend to make when looking for a shortcut to the first page and we will explore them below.

#3. Spinning Articles

Article spinning is the process of writing the same article over and over again, but using different words. It’s an SEO technique that used to be more successful in the past but with the last few updates, search engines have started catching up to the deception. Realistically speaking, spinning articles means you are betting on quantity instead of quality. None of the articles are truly unique and original.

The problem is that search engines want to present new and fresh content and they abhor the use recycled texts. Of course, you can still hope to run a popular website and bet on quantity instead of quality but you can be sure that your hopes will never become reality.

What you need to do is use truly unique and original content. The more diverse it is, the better. After all, how much time readers spend on your site matters as well, and you can be sure that nobody would spend more than a few minutes on a site that has 500 almost identical articles.

#2. Keyword Bloating

The only thing worse than a poorly written, spun article, is a poorly written, spun article bloated with keywords. You can’t use the same word over and over again in the hopes that your site will rank better, because it won’t. If your content is bad, no matter how much you try to artificially inflate it won’t be beneficial. You’re hurting your site more than you are helping it rank. Keywords need to be used organically, naturally.

#1. Irrelevant Anchor Texts

It’s honestly surprising to me how people can get this one wrong but it happens more often than not. Using a good anchor text is crucial for your links. Anchor text is the name you give the clickable hyperlink text on your website. I’m sure you’ve read different texts on a variety of topics and you’ve seen “click here” on numerous occasions. “Click here” is your anchor text in this case and it’s a terrible one.

If you want to make people browse your site some more, you always need to create smart, original and engaging anchor texts. You want people to stay on your site as much as possible, not bore them to death and make them leave. Even if they like the content they’ve just read “click here for more” is hardly attractive, so the person is very likely to leave.

Those are the three most common ways in which people unintentionally deviate from the established rules. If you manage to avoid those mistakes, then you will be well on your way to the first page of search engines. Keep in mind that SEO is dynamic field what is true today might not be accurate tomorrow so don’t forget to keep an eye on changes and new updates.

Author Bio: Rose Finchley is keen on business, marketing and technology.

You can connect with Rose on LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+

August 1, 2013March 24, 2014

Is Content Marketing the New Home for PR Professionals?

The rapid growth of content marketing is increasing demand for PR professionals. As a result, many are asking what skills they need to capitalize on this industry trend.

For those of you that are unfamiliar, content marketing is the process of generating high-quality online content with the goal of building trust and community among your brand’s target audience, and to establish your brand as an industry thought leader.

A content marketer combines the investigative and content production skills traditionally held by journalists with the outreach skills and promotion skills of PR professionals. This is what Holly Regan of Software Advice recently referred to as the convergence of PR and journalism. This convergence is forcing PR specialists to expand their skill sets and implement new tactics.

In years past, PR professionals relied heavily on producing a press release, developing a pitch, and reaching out to big media outlets. However, the growth of digital content and content marketing has revolutionized how a PR professional can promote a product or brand. Nowadays, shares, tweets, “likes,” links and blog posts can actually be more effective than pitching a big media reporter. Using these digital media strategies allows PR professionals and content marketers directly reach their target audience.

Matt Braun, Director of Public Relations at Hanson Dodge Creative, says: “Organizations now use Twitter to break news versus a press release…and it’s forced people like me to use tools like Facebook, Twitter and blogs as vehicles by which we can get others to publicize products and clients.”

As more companies develop content marketing strategies, they will also need PR professionals who can do more than plan an event and pitch a reporter. These companies will need people who can effectively use search engine optimization (SEO) strategies, social media networks, Google Analytics, and email outreach to reach their target audiences.

Is the Growth in Content Marketing Driving Demand for PR Specialists?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of PR specialist and manager jobs rose by nearly 63 percent between 2000 and 2010, and is expected to rise another 21 percent between 2010 and 2020.

However, we wanted to find out how the growth in PR jobs compared to the rising trend of content marketing. To develop a more accurate picture we decided to search through New York City’s Craiglist page and look for the most common job titles in PR and content marketing. Here’s what we found:

Clearly demand for content marketers is growing. The question you should be asking yourself is how can a PR professional capitalize on this growing trend?

Five Tips for PR Specialists in the Age of Content Marketing

Here are five tips for PR specialists who are looking to capitalize on the growth of content marketing:

Reach your audience directly. The days of rocking out a press release, pitching a bid media report, and calling it a job well done are over. PR specialists must now learn how to directly speak to their target audience from digital platforms like blogs and social media networks.
Develop new skills. Nowadays, PR professionals need to know more than how plan an event and send out a press release. It is imperative that you diversify your arsenal by developing skills in disciplines like: SEO, graphic design and digital marketing.
Sing your own song. PR professionals are usually good storytellers. It is time for you to start using your expertise and skills to develop your own content strategies, such as social profiles and blogs.
Be ready for anything and everything. Real-time digital platforms like Twitter and Facebook, have forced PR professionals to be ready for anything at all times. That means you should have “post ready” materials ready to go before you reach out.
Think beyond the press release. In the past, many PR professionals relied on sending out a press release and pitching a big media reporter to generate high-quality coverage. With the rise of digital marketing, you now need to figure out new ways to engage your audience like, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, or blog.

PR professionals, if you plan to ride this wave of content marketing opportunity, make sure you skills and tactics are up-to-date.

About the author:

Ashley Verrill is a Market Analyst for research firm Software Advice. Her professional experience spans journalism, sales, advertising and SEO marketing. She’s a seasoned writer having produced copy for business journals, a sports magazine, daily deals advertising and industry blogs. She can be contacted at ashleyverrill[@]softwareadvice.com, or by calling 512-582-2314512-582-2314. LinkedIn – Twitter – Google +

inbound marketing assessment us Expert Video: How to Create Your Future Customer Engagement Strategy

May 8, 2013May 8, 2013

42 Profitable Reasons to Consider Inbound Marketing Strategy for Business

The proven and successful inbound marketing strategy is a great way to generate high quality leads.

Therefore inbound marketing is known as the “riskless” marketing strategy because of the activities done which are long lasting and bring an increasing stream of future customers to your offers.

Why is this inbound marketing such a great way to generate leads?

Inbound marketing offers you a strategic and smart approach to be and to stay several steps ahead of your competition.

Inbound marketing is the marketing strategy that focuses on getting found by customers when they research online for products and services your business also has to offer.

With inbound marketing businesses “earn” their way to the customer and his loyalty, by publishing helpful information on a blog, in social media and forums.

Inbound marketing includes: Content creation like blogging, video, photo, whitepapers, eBooks, podcasts, press releases, comments in social media and other blogs and forums, Social media two way communication, lead generation, lead conversion, lead nurturing and closed-loop analysis.

How can Inbound Marketing help you?

A. It saves you up to 62% of your marketing budget
B. Makes you stand out of your competition
C. Helps to generate a massive amount of leads
D. Gets you up to 55% higher lead conversion rates
E. Increases your customers and sales

Infographic: Inbound Marketing Rising

TOP 42 Reasons to Jumstart your Inbound Marketing NOW!

1. 60% of companies will execute an inbound marketing strategy in 2013.

2. Marketers dedicate 34% of their department budgets to inbound tactics, but only 11% to outbound.

3. 48% of marketers will increase spend on inbound marketing in 2013.

4. 34% of all leads generated in 2013 come from inbound marketing sources.

5. Inbound practices produce 54% more leads than traditional outbound leads.

6. 17% of marketers say traditional advertising and direct mail are less important than they were 6 months ago.

7. Traditional advertising and PPC deliver the least leads of any form of marketing.

8. Only 6% of marketing leads originate from advertising or PPC campaigns.

9. 34% of businesses cannot or don’t calculate overall inbound ROI in 2013.

10. Adopting a marketing/sales agreement saves companies with more than 200 employees $195.84 per new customer.

11. Only 24% of companies have a formal process for marketing/sales handoffs.

12. Companies who test are 75% more likely to show ROI for inbound marketing.

13. Inbound marketers double the average site conversion rate, from 6% to 12% total.

14. The average website conversion rate is 10%.

15. 81% of companies integrate inbound marketing with larger marketing goals.

16. Marketers spend 55% more of their time than their money on blogging.

17. 82% of marketers who blog on a daily basis have acquired a customer through blog content.

18. 57% of marketers who only blog once a month have acquired a customer through blogging.

19. Inbound marketers plan to hire an average of 9.3 people this year.

20. Only 18% of marketers are purely focused on developing quality content in 2013.

21. 25% of marketers cite reaching the right audience as their top priority for 2013.

22. Only 5% of marketers have no integration between inbound marketing and overall marketing goals.

23. 50% of marketers consider their companies primarily customer-focused.

24. 17% of sales teams and 11% of executives fully support inbound marketing efforts.

25. 73% of marketing agencies are implementing inbound strategies.

26. Only 41% of nonprofits report adopting inbound tactics for 2013.

27. Just 21% of enterprises assimilate inbound marketing with their overall marketing strategy.

28. 47% of CEOs and CMOs ignore formal marketing/sales agreement development.

29. Marketing is 125% more likely than sales to provide inbound resources.

30. Increasing total lead volume is the top priority for 21% of marketers.

31. Customers average a total of 9,100 leads after 1.5 years of inbound marketing.

32. 67% of marketers produced a blog last year.

33. Only 20% of marketers without a blog reported a positive ROI for 2012.

34. 27% of marketers report that both social media and email marketing produce the lowest total average lead costs.

35. 15% of marketers say SEO leads have the highest sales conversions.

36. Social media delivers 14% of all leads and 13% of all customers.

37. 52% of all marketers have found a customer via Facebook.

38. 43% of marketers have found a customer on LinkedIn.

39. 36% of marketers have found a customer on Twitter.

40. 41% of marketers have adjusted their budget due to the success of inbound marketing.

41. 41% of CEOs report inbound delivered measurable ROI.

42. Marketers with more than 15 blog posts per month average 1,200 leads per month.

Source: HubSpot 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Annual Report. FREE Executive Report on Inbound Tactics and Strategy – Insight from 3,339 Marketers

April 25, 2013March 24, 2014

5 Tips for Content that Crosses Cultural and Linguistic Borders

When creating content, it pays to think big. Publishing online gives us access to a readership that’s almost too large to imagine. Do it right and your words could be read by people in places you might never even have heard of.

While a global readership might seem like something most of us dream of, with a little know-how it’s something that you too can achieve.

Decide Who You Are Talking To

When you write for the web, you aren’t just pushing out content at random. You are engaging with others, convincing them to buy into your idea or product. With this in mind, it helps to know who you are trying to reach and which parts of the world you want to expand to.

For example, your ideal reader could be a female entrepreneur, or you might want to address a young music lover. Going global makes your pool of readers much larger, so your female entrepreneurs might include women in Brazil, and your music loving youth could be reading in East Asia.

Keeping a tight focus on your target demographic as you go global will let you reach more of the kind of people that interest you. It also helps your budget go further. Are you looking to connect with female entrepreneurs in South America but less so with similar women in China? Then make your content culturally and linguistically suited to the South American readers, instead of spending time and money trying to reach everyone.

Embrace the Multilingual Web

Forget the idea that everyone online speaks English. Although English is often used in the corporate world as a linguistic go-between, internet users are a far more diverse crowd. The web is also more informal and driven by social connections.

Even people in countries who have strong English skills as a second language will prefer to engage with others in their native tongue. In fact, a 2011 survey by the European Commission found that although 48% of non-English speaking Europeans occasionally read English-language content, 9 out of 10 users preferred to visit sites in their own language.

This makes translation of your content a priority. Make good use of your budget by first figuring out which languages need to be top of your list. In our South American example, Spanish and Portuguese would be essential for getting your message across. If Europe is your key market, you’re likely to find German or French better languages to start with.

Take Languages Seriously

If you don’t get serious about translation, your foreign-language readers won’t get serious about your content. They will be too busy laughing at your language slips, if they stick around at all.

We all know of corporate giants who managed to offend or became a laughing stock thanks to poorly-translated slogans. The rest of us needn’t think we will do any better. Unless you are genuinely bilingual and up to date with current usage, you will miss hidden meanings. It’s also easy to opt for what seems the right word choice, when in fact it means something entirely different (for example, in German the word Gift means poison).

Native speaker knowledge will make sure you don’t sound out of touch or leave readers confused. Accurate linguistic choices will also help your SEO by keeping your keywords relevant. Cutting corners here, on the other hand, could leave search engines as confused as your foreign-language readers.

Understand Cultural Differences

The 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that while people worldwide are becoming less trusting of what they read, ‘a person like yourself’ has become the most trusted source of information. Your job is to be that trusted person to your reader, no matter where in the world he or she is.

Localization is an essential part of becoming ‘one of us’ in another culture. Using words and expressions that local people use makes your content more accessible. Being in touch with important cultural events or hot topics can be useful too. Of course, offending people is never a good idea and cultural knowledge also can guide us around dangerous topics or inappropriate language.

Show You Care

Now that you’ve opened up your content to overseas readers, make them feel welcome. Avoid anything that places your English speaking crowd above foreign-language speakers. For example, aim to respond to all comments, not just those in English. If you offer a way for people to contact you, make sure it doesn’t exclude certain time zones or languages. Showing you care about all your readers helps you to build a good online reputation.

Write with other cultures and languages in mind and you’ll be saying Wilkommen, bienvenido and yōkoso to international readers in no time!

About the author:

Christian Arno is the founder of Lingo24, Inc., one of the world’s fastest growing translation services. Launched in 2001, Lingo24, Inc. now has over 180 employees spanning three continents and clients in over sixty countries. In the past twelve months, they have translated over 60 million words for businesses in every industry sector, including the likes of MTV, World Bank and American Express. Follow Lingo24, Inc. on Twitter: @Lingo24. Cont@ct Christian here.

April 19, 2013March 24, 2014

Expert Video: How to Create Your Future Customer Engagement Strategy

Constellation Research CEO and Principal Analyst R “Ray” Wang visited the Software Advice offices during the 2013 South by Southwest Interactive Festival to talk about some research he released called “Building Your Interaction Strategy with the 9 C’s of Engagement.”

In today’s world, we face constant demands for our attention — from social media to news alerts and loyalty programs. Wang asserts that companies must find ways to cut through this clutter if they want to compete in the future. To do this, they need to create a true engagement strategy based on authentic, natural and trustworthy interactions.

A lot of organizations think they know what this means: sending a coupon on a customer’s birthday, or liking a post about you on Facebook. But most don’t look at the big picture, or they just end up coming off as “creepy” in their engagements.

Instead, he suggests following the “9 C’s of Engagement” when building your interaction strategy. These fall into one of three categories:

People Centric Values: Culture, Community, Credibility
Delivery and Communication Styles: Channel, Content and Cadence
Right Time Drivers: Context, Catalyst and Currencies

In this video, Wang describes how companies can use these three pillars to build an effective engagement strategy.

About the author:

April 12, 2013

5 Jobs for Tomorrow’s Customer Service Team

Last summer, I wrote an article for InBlurbs called “5 Jobs for Tomorrow’s Marketing Team” that explored how trends in marketing will affect recruiting and staffing in the future. The post received so much feedback, we decided to revisit the idea this year through the customer service lens.

I rallied some of the biggest names in staffing to help me come up with roles they see in emerging in the future support organization. Experts from Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, SimplyHired and other staffing sites chimed into the conversation. The biggest change affecting these roles they see involves the shift in how customers contact a company. Forrester released a report earlier this showing customers increasing usage of communities by as much as 25 percent, live chat by 24 percent and self-service by 12 percent. Additionally, customers are increasing their use of social customer service and mobile, which will require new talent and technologies.

So without further adieu, here’s five roles we see becoming part of the customer service team of the future:

Self-Service Content Strategist

The individual in this role would continually mine for popular topics in call center notes, as well as review Web analytics data to assess which articles in the self-service community garner the most traffic. At the same time, they would also moderate content created by the customer community and facilitate the sharing of this user-generated material. Their goals would be two-fold:

Deflect tickets from the call center by encouraging more customers to resolve problems on their own with self-service options; and,
Drive customer retention and return purchases by creating a loyal community of brand advocates.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) Developer

The person in this role would help ensure the right answer is found no matter how or where the question is asked–whether it’s typed in a search box on a webpage, in a chat session, or spoken to an interactive voice response (IVR) system. This requires sophisticated algorithms that can process natural language to find the answer.

While most companies will deploy off-the-shelf or open-source NLP technology, the NLP Developer will need to make substantial configurations to apply it to their company’s specific use cases and content. I see this role as important for making the most of your content. All the effort creating it is meaningless if the customer can’t find it–fast.

Social Service Success Coordinator

The Social Service Coordinator would ensure social customer service efficiency, while keeping an eye out for opportunities to market support interactions. In order to respond effectively, companies have to use social listening technology. This person would work to refine keyword identifiers that tell these systems what signals a customer service message.

If the contact center suddenly gets an influx of calls about a particular product, for example, the coordinator would want to start listening for combinations of that word and “help,” “broken,” “angry” and so on. If a Twitter user responded with a glowing “thank you, I will tell my friends!” that person might handoff the interaction to marketing for promotional uses.

Mobile Customer Service App Manager

The Mobile Customer Service App Manager would act much like a product manager exclusively for the customer service mobile application. They would work with internal or external developers to optimize the user experience for all of the company’s customers.

If analytics showed one feature is used more than another, for example, they might try featuring it more prominently on the app home screen. Or maybe they’d work with the NLP Developer to refine speech recognition for that function. Optimizing content in this way can increase customer satisfaction as much as 60 percent, one report showed.

Virtual Call Center Director

The individual in this role would oversee the virtual call center — a network of customer service agents that work off-site (typically from home). This person would decide when and how to interact with these individuals, monitor their performance, and adjust the size of the team as needed. During peak communication cycles, for example, the Virtual CSR Manager might increase the number of agents on duty.

The Virtual Call Center Director would also consistently comb through key performance metrics to identify weak spots. If they noticed one remote agent lagging behind their cohorts, they could start monitoring calls and provide additional training.

These are just a few of the potential job titles our experts see emerging in the future. What changes do you see? What’s missing from this list? Join the conversation by commenting here.

About the author:

March 13, 2013March 24, 2014

How to Effectively Launch Your Business or Product in a Foreign Market

Have you set your sights on expanding your brand to overseas markets? In today’s global economy, going international is a smart move.

It’s also one that needs some careful planning to get the best return on your investment. Foreign markets involve not only different languages but different cultures. That sure-fire strategy for your home market won’t always win customers overseas. In fact, in this world of social media, getting it wrong can be a business disaster.

Let’s take a look at some things you can do to make your international launch a success – and what went wrong when others failed to pay them enough attention.

Look Before You Leap

There’s no such thing as too much research for an overseas marketing campaign. Your target demographic in a foreign market might appear similar to your home one, but could have very different buying habits. For example, in Russia 65% of consumer electronics were bought at a physical store, according to a 2012 Accenture study. Japan and China showed a similar preference. On the other hand, in Germany only 36% were purchased in this way.

The more research you can do into the habits and mindset of consumers in a particular country, the better informed you will be. On the other hand, even the best ideas can fall flat if the marketing campaign doesn’t appeal to your potential clients or customers. British supermarket giant Tesco discovered this when launching as ‘Fresh & Easy’ in the US. The supermarket spared no expense on a social media campaign, but failed to take into account the importance of TV, radio and print advertising. From the design of its stores, to its self-pay checkouts, the stores failed to meet American shoppers’ expectations.

Language Matters

Tesco’s example shows the difficulties that exist even with markets that share a common language. Bring a foreign language into the equation and overseas marketing can turn into a minefield.

The more care you give to the translation of your campaign, the better your chance of avoiding the dangers. Pay attention not only to translating the actual words but to phrasing them in ways that make sense to native speakers. Professional translators can help you to use appropriate idioms as well as find the right tone. Just as importantly, they can help you to sidestep slang or crude terms that wouldn’t be immediately obvious to an outsider.

Fail to spot these and you can end up with the same problem that Mazda had with the Laputa. The minivan’s name sounds like a term for a prostitute to speakers of Latin languages and had to be renamed in Chile. Clairol also ended up creating the wrong impression when launching its hair curling iron, the Mist Stick, in Germany. Not only does Mist mean manure, but when used with stick sounds like the insult “Miststück” (similar to ‘bitch’ and definitely not the best choice for a women’s product).

Cross the Cultural Divide

Culture is more than religion or festivals, it’s a whole way of living. It can influence everything from product branding to the formality of language used in marketing. The greater the cultural differences between your target country and your home country, the more carefully you will need to adapt your campaign. Those who neglect to do this risk coming across as insensitive or ignorant. It only takes a single cultural faux pas to undo months of good work, destroying trust in your business.

Most of us know that certain animals hold religious taboos, or that some hand gestures change their meaning from one country to another. Other cultural symbolism can be less obvious, such as the associations with certain numbers or colors. Take time to find these out beforehand if you don’t want a marketing disaster on your hands. This is exactly what happened to Pepsi in Southeast Asia when they rebranded their dark blue vending machines. The pale blue they chose was associated in the region with death, with the unfortunate result that their regional sales died too.

A Tourism Australia campaign is a good example illustrating the fine line between what’s culturally acceptable and what isn’t. Its tagline, ‘Where the bloody hell are you?’ combined with beer references hit the wrong note in several countries. The down-to-earth Australian hospitality they thought they were offering to overseas tourists came over as boorish and hard drinking.

There’s simply no substitute for local knowledge when launching in a foreign market. Even though some of the biggest companies have found this out the hard way, you don’t have to follow in their footsteps. Instead, arm yourself with the benefit of research and insider knowledge and you’ll be well-prepared to win friends and customers worldwide.

About the author:

Christian Arno is the founder of Lingo24, Inc., one of the world’s fastest growing translation services. Launched in 2001, Lingo24 now has over 180 employees spanning four continents and clients in over sixty countries. In the past twelve months, they have translated over 60 million words for businesses in every industry sector, including the likes of MTV, World Bank and American Express. Follow Christian on Twitter: @l24ca. Cont@ct Christian here.