In this post I want to share my 10 easy social media tips for politicians, local and national. Some of these are warnings and some really handy tips, either way take them – share them and grow your social media profile.

Social Media Tips for Politicians

1) Commit Yourself to Social Media

There is nothing quite as bad as someone doing bits on Social Media but not committing to using it for all it’s worth. Be honest with yourself and your team, if you don’t have enough time to really take control of your social media presence across the board focus on just one network, usually Facebook or Twitter. By focusing on one platform, you can more easily commit to it the social network and your followers on there. Commitment to a platform will mean more engagement, in general.

If you don’t have enough time to constantly update your Twitter or Facebook it’s not the end of the world. Read on to “plan your social media campaign”.

2) Get Personal

To grow engagement with your network and grow follower numbers follow these tips:

• Complete your social network profile.
• Use a recent photo, a close up of your head and shoulders is best.
• Ensure your contact info is correct.
• Clearly show which party you support, if you can.

A great example of these in use is if you think about Twitter profiles. You, like me and everyone else, are highly unlikely to follow someone with a default picture of an egg – it shows that the person a) has no idea how to use twitter b) could be spammy and c) doesn’t care how the account represent them. Also if you make clear you are likely to talk politics, this means people won’t follow who are uninterested and will follow if they are interested or party members. Being transparent in using social media can make the difference between lots of followers and very few.

3) What Goes Around Comes Around

In the world of social media it is good to be nice. Remember that the world can see what you are doing, and they will judge if you are good or bad, naughty or nice – so be nice and it will usually be nice back! This means that you should like, share, tweet, retweet and +1 things your followers say, though of course use your judgement on this (i.e don’t retweet naked pictures or potentially malicious rumours).

4) Get Talking

Social Media is about conversations, it is not about broadcasting your message. So expect conversations, expect the people to disagree with things you say (but don’t take an angry tone in replying), expect that people you may not know and who may not even be in your constituency to take an interest. Social Media is global, so the conversation is too. Interact and Engage with the conversations of social media and you will be rewarded.

5) Plan Your Social Media Campaign

If you are a “headless chicken” talking at 101 events and have little time to interact with social media … plan ahead.

There are some great tools to help you with this, for example you can now schedule posts directly on facebook, you can also use services like twuffer to schedule posts for twitter. If you need something a little more advanced, maybe you want to post to multiple networks all from one nice place (and give your team access) then give HootSuite or PostCron a try, these have free services but for maximum effect I advise going for a paid plan.

Scheduling updates to tell your audience where you are talking next, where you are talking in a given week or maybe even when ballot papers are being sent out can really help your campaign and build your audience. It makes you appear active (even though you may not be) and it means your audience is more likely to show up to support you at events such as hustings.

6) Public Life Vs Private Life

All politicians have a public and private life, but online you need to be careful as the distinction is often very blurry – especially if you have social media before your life becomes more public. You need to think twice when you post an update about your friends or family, or even your own health, you need to consider the views of those your are talking about and whether they would be happy for you to say or post something (just as you should do on your personal profiles). But as a public figure you really need to consider everything, should you post a picture of you on a beach, should you post a picture of your family who don’t live a public life – just consider all outcomes and only post what you are certain about.

Remember: if you post something online it can’t be deleted, you may hit delete but someone may have it archived or a screenshot of it – you may get lucky but don’t take the chance.

7) Connect Offline and Online Worlds

Online media, in general, is cheaper to use and organise than the offline media of print. Imagine if you could reach all of your constituents by email or twitter or facebook, there would not be need to print leaflets or post letters – the cost hugely decreases online. Print will never end in politics, but you can help reduce it’s need and your cost (and save the forests at the same time). In addition to this if you can get your constituents online following you they are more likely to talk to you and be aware of events you are doing – it’s a win win situation.

So on your print material put your facebook and twitter information – and of course your website.

8) Be Ready To Take Control

No body wants to be involved in damage control, but online you need to be ready maybe more so than offline. For instance if you say something which someone else disagrees with (usually it being politics, it will) you need to be ready to calmly take control of the conversation – do not beat them down saying they are wrong, respect their views and explain your side. Try to keep positive, never shout.

If you have built a good online presence over a good period of time, your audience will know your are transparent and responsive – this means you are best placed to take control, and should be able to do so with ease. If you have only just joined a network or simply spout off all your views at once forcing them on people, well you won’t get too far and it won’t just be one person attacking you for them disagreeing but also maybe others on the network for you not having good netiquette.

9) Start Early

Seriously, if you are reading this you may already be on social media (I bet you are), but if you aren’t and/or you know a candidate or politician not on social media then please pass this article on. All candidates should be on social media right now, if they aren’t they won’t reach their potential nor maximum audience and support. That could be valued support and votes, it could also be even more because those supporters will likely share your updates and pictures which extends your reach further and so you campaign goes beyond the physical abilities you have and becomes present across your constituency (assuming you’ve grown followers in that area). If you are standing for election in May 2014 for example you should start now (may 2013), if you don’t you won’t have a great coverage when it comes to election time and you wont be able to during that final week make a big push online which you could if you start today.

10) Enjoy Yourself

I may have set out some rules above, but at the end of the day enjoy yourself with social media. People want to know you are an authentic person and don’t want to constantly hear your policies (apart from maybe in the final campaign run up to election), they want to talk to you the person and not you the party or organisation. So be yourself, have a little fun and don’t be scared to talk to people. Social Media is a great tool, use it.

Who is the best and why?

We would like to know who you think is the best politican or candidate is on social media and why. Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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With thanks to @theresag_eu (Theresa Griffin) for use of the picture above, please do all follow her, and visit her website.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ 10 Quick Social Media Tips for Politicians

SEO or search engine optimization is basically an important part of online marketing strategy, which helps in getting higher traffics over your site. SEO is all about influencing the search engines to rank your site higher over the different search results. Hence it is vital to make a couple of changes and adjustments to optimize your site or blog to rank higher over the search engine results. There are people who could know a number of mandatory things, which are a must in any SEO strategy, but tend to forget to check the things that they need to avoid (mistakes and blunders) coming in the form of Don’ts. So, when you know the list of do’s, it is equally important to check the don’ts so that you could be able to carry out a tangible kind of SEO strategy. Well, let’s check out the dos and donts of SEO for your site as under:

The Dos

Do create and update your site on a regular basis

When it comes to creating content for your site do make sure you put on your site up to date and useful information in a regular interval. Putting such content will helps in retaining traffic over your site for a long run, and at the same time attracts the search engines. If your site fails to cater valuable content over your site, you are going to lose both. The web crawlers too will avoid visiting you if they sense that your site do not update on a regular basis and still live with obsolete content. Hence if you want your site to rank better, make sure you update your content on a regular basis.

Do get relevant links from quality sites

The search engines give much emphasis over the number of links you have over your site from authoritative places. It’s not the quantity of the links but the quality of links that matters in perspective of search engine optimization. The search engines sees things in the perspective of incoming links, which talks more about the relevancy and authority of the content of these websites. Also, the search engines put its emphasis over the importance of site linking to your sites. For instance, your site could get a good attention from search engines if you are able to link with sites like CNN or BBC as compared to any local site, which has no presence at all.

Do submit your website over the directories

By submitting your website to a competent online directory will end up boosting up the rankings over all the popular search engines. This could include all the primary directories including Yahoo, DMOZ, About.com and Yahoo. Also, make sure you submit at the vertical directories including Business.com and Realtor.com. However, before you do so, make sure you check the guidelines of submission over these directories along with choosing the relevant category over these directories.

The Don’ts

Don’t use the hidden links or texts

People often commit this mistake while trying several SEO strategies. Among the most common option of hiding the irrelevant links or the texts comes when you use the same kind of text color in your background, which simply hides the text (in user’s point of view). If you commit this mistake, you are more likely to face the wrath of search engines and you would see your site’s ranking going very much down.

Don’t use the remote search engine submission tools

The remote submission programs are now no more a traffic generator, which remained the same long back. Now, they simply are seen submitting over the free for all link web pages. All the popular search engines now are seen blocking these submissions coming through these tools. However, if you are able to submit your site over the search engines manually, it will help you in getting some of the best results. At the same time, do not forget to check the submission guidelines of each and every search engine before you do things manually. First allow the crawler based search engines like Google find and rank your pages on your own and then try things with more intensity.

Don’t rely over doorway pages

Earlier the spammers used to create the doorway pages for the very one purpose of ranking at the top over the search engine listings. In this they were seen using a string carrying a number of irrelevant keywords links and terms, which pointed back their own original websites. However, if you still persist to use the same, you need to make the page more content rich and valuable, which remain relevant to your core idea of your site.

Final word

Taking time to learn about the search engine optimization along with exploring the do’s and don’ts can really help you in mastering this subject. With this your site would get a good standing over different search engines, which can help you in prospering over the search engine results.

About The Author: Brianne is a writer/blogger. She loves writing, traveling and reading books. She contributes on Hydroxycut

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Do and Don’ts of SEO for websites

1. Industry Respect

Nice quality articles about the goings-on in your market will bring you the respect of your competition. Don’t make your content marketing all about promoting your product. A good, strong article about something new within your industry will give you a respected voice that will serve to market your products or services without a blatant ad-like effort.

As you develop readable, interesting content that relates to your business, others will take note. If your competitor’s respect you, that’ll go a long way. Just remember to develop quality and thoughtfulness rather than resorting to obvious marketing tactics. If you don’t stick to neat, informative content and opt for sensationalized, SEO heavy marketing instead, others in the industry will resent you–and this will filter down to consumers that are in on the latest industry buzz.

2. Consumer Appreciation

Doing your content marketing the right way will be much appreciated by existing customers and potential customers alike. If you’re putting out accurate, helpful information about your services or products, customers will think of you in a good light. Teach them something useful about your market, rather than prompting them to buy! buy! buy! they will appreciate it, trust me.

Using media that your consumers will like is a great way to develop consumer appreciation, and it’ll get you the SEO ranks you desire to thwart your competition. Input helpful videos, photos, interviews, and infographics to please users as well as search engines.

3. Establish a Reputation

Well developed content marketing will make the public aware of your brand. If your marketing posts or articles don’t scream “marketing” and they have something compelling to say, chances are you’ll get some social shares that will make your business known to new and potential customers.

Getting a good reputation won’t happen if your content marketing boarders on SEO overkill or spammy content. Establishing a positive reputation for your business and getting your name known is a productive and necessary step to growing your business in the right way.

4. Helpful Feedback

Once your content marketing hits the eyes and ears of consumers, they’ll have something to say about it and your company in general. Checking the comment fields on your posts is a great way of doing some much-needed market research on your products and services. If they don’t always have something good to say about what you do, that’s ok. A good company will listen to feedback and make any needed adjustments.

Consumers respect when a business doesn’t ignore what they like and dislike. Also, there are some pretty savvy people out there that might have a suggestion which will greatly benefit your company’s future. Don’t let any tips slip through the cracks because you’re too busy to take the time to see what the public has to say.

In Conclusion

Everyone knows how content marketing can contribute to link building and other SEO efforts, but don’t forget that the main objective is not just to get visits to your company’s site.

The point of content marketing is to grow your business, get a great reputation and achieve more sales. If you set your mind to making the effort to do content marketing in a refined, informative way–with high-quality posting–you’ll not only get the respect of your competitors and the public, you’ll gain more business. And that’s the whole point!

Original Content by SEO Andy @ 4 Reasons Good Content Marketing Will Boost Your Business

If you use images on your site – and let’s face it, you really should be – then it is important to use img alt tags so that these images can be indexed by search engine crawlers. If you don’t complete img alt tags then these busy bots won’t understand some of the content on your site. And if they don’t understand some of your site, then they certainly won’t take it into account when indexing it. This could affect your rankings. If your site is image heavy then ignore img alt tags at your peril – dun, dun, dunnnnn!

It’s best to focus on your keywords in your image alt tags for the best SEO results. The alt tags should contain sufficient information to let you know what the image is and why you are using it. It is important to make sure that these are snappy, informative and spelt correctly too.

Also, since Google changed its Image Search earlier this year, it is more important than ever to make sure that you optimise images by using img alt tags and ensuring all metadata is present and correct.

In January 2013, Google made some fairly major changes to improve the user experience when searching for images. Google now displays detailed information about the images based primarily on the metadata. You are no longer redirected to a separate landing page, it all happens in one place. The image metadata is now displayed. It looks something like this:

When you find an image you like through Google Images, three pieces of information are now displayed next to the image:

• the title of the page hosting the image

• the domain name it comes from

• the image size

Image results are also now displayed in an inline panel so it’s quicker to browse through a large number of images and find one that is suitable. With image metadata now more visible, it is important to get it right.  By adding informative image metadata, you will see your images rank better and in turn the click through rate should increase. Google will also see your page as more organised and reward you for it.

Most blogging and CMSs allow you to add metadata and img alt tags. If you use WordPress (everyone’s favourite free blogging platform and CMS), then there is a fantastic plugin that you can use to make adding image tags super easy and comprehensive. SEO Friendly Image is a plugin that automatically adds image alt and image title tags to each of the images on your site, saving you from the frankly boring task of uploading the data manually. Just install the plugin and provide it with the descriptions you want. Now, you are ready to join the ‘cult of image alt’. Welcome.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ How to Optimise Images for More Site Traffic

Adopt it with a right purpose

You will find everyone doing this including the novices in the business world. In fact, it is very much simple to adopt this new and innovative idea in the company; however, if you intend to do it effectively you need to embrace the same with some foresight. Unlike the way you invest in any software, it is vital to move ahead with your social software initiative in a steady way along with considering it objectively by chalking out a clear business case that helps in defining the purpose of your investment along with a measurement system to know the success rate. By considering this social intranet initiative program for a longer run instead of short term ones; you could set forth realistic kind of expectations for your employees and other people. This will help you in maximizing the opportunities to showcase value and embark with some kind of change.

Initiative less of technology more of people

Though the software solution would come in a form of technology, however, its adoption is only meant for the people in your organization. Hence introducing a tangible social intranet initiative is less about technology and more for your employees, which will help them to motivate them to work in collaborative and social formats. However, bringing out this change would require a support from different levels of your management team. Hence the entire company should pay attention in this paradigm shift. Also, getting encouragement from the apex management too would play a key role in this process. If you see your business leaders within your organization leading social life with an example, try leveraging the same.

Combine your separate business strategies

If you are planning to implement your social intranet initiative in your company better make sure you consider this strategy in a bigger context of your complete network and content management strategies. These should imply both on paper and in practice and also for the things you are implementing and the ones that are already on place. A number of bigger and medium size workplaces or companies would fail to see any kind of connection between the different technologies and several existing working teams. Hence it is important to choose a single vendor to implement and support the tools and different strategies for this initiative. This should come up with qualities like openness and proper migration capabilities found in between different platforms along with getting the support for the open benchmarks for things like interoperability and integration.

Measure your efforts

A competent social platform is always backed with a capabilities and features; however, you being the owner (important part) of your business organization should avoid launching them straight away (at one go). It is wiser to avoid presenting before your employees with all the things on the very first day especially when there was hardly any such initiative taking place in the past within your organization. The best bet therefore is to start implementing the changes in your organization gradually. Your employees should be able to understand the different features of this particular social intranet initiative. And as they slowly and steadily start practicing the same you then introduce the complex features to them. This gradual approach of implementing the social intranet in your company could help the employees to use it effectively along with giving proper feedback to the management.

Final word

Implementing the social intranet over any workplace has become important considering the number of its benefits. However, when it comes to implement the same, the above guidelines can help you the best.

About The Author: Brianne is a writer/blogger. She loves writing, traveling and reading books. She contributes on ReputationChanger.com

Original Content by SEO Andy @ What essential guidelines you should follow for social intranet

Previous SEO Clients

Before choosing an SEO agency, consider looking at the previous clients that they worked with and potentially whether they have worked in the same sector before. By doing this, your company can directly communicate with the old client if you wish to get an opinion of this firm. Also ask for details on targets set for previous campaigns and whether they were achieved. Looking at the SEO agency’s previous client testimonials, likely to be highlighted on the SEO agency’s website or credentials, will help to show if the business delivers the service they offer.

Set Targets

You and the agency must together set achievable goals positioned against realistic timescale, and also ensure you understand how and when information will be reported. A common KPI is to have higher search engine rankings than the current benchmark, but depending on the activity being undertaken, links built and traffic figures could potentially be suitable. Whilst targets are important, don’t immediately lose faith if one takes longer to meet than was originally thought. This could be due to complexities uncovered during the first few months of work – SEO can be a tough nut to crack – and it is a part of the learning and relationship building process that can come with working with a new firm. Nevertheless, if the agency you have chosen continually under performs on promises made, it might be time to start your pursuit for another company.

Cost

Another thing to keep in mind is the cost of hiring the agency in relation to the return, so try to set a budget and stick to it. As with many services, the higher the price, the higher the quality of the work, and it is extremely easy to fall prey to SEO companies that offer ridiculously low prices. A word of warning – such low cost activities will probably be on the black side of grey and, when it comes to search, one wrong move could result in a hefty penalisation from Google. Being back at square one after a few thousand pounds spent isn’t a good place to be in, as it will cost more to undo the harm done. Always remember to compare the charges of a few companies before hiring any and understand the breakdown, in case there is an opportunity to bolt on more activity or take away what isn’t working further down the line.

Know The Team

It is important to get to know the team that your company will work with. Though it is likely a senior account director or client services manager has been liaising with you about the SEO services on offer, if appointed there will be a team of people working on your campaign. It’s quite normal to ask for the credentials of those who would be working on the account and during the pitch process, ask for others to meet you in person – rapport can be everything in a professional relationship. As well as weekly or monthly reports, it’s also best practice to have face-to-face meetings at least once a quarter. Both parties will be more comfortable with discussing campaign changes difficult issues like poor results if they feel like they know each other.

Overall, it is essential that the SEO company your business eventually works with has clear communication, a proven track record, and the knowledge and ability to improve the company’s rankings. Start with an initial phone call to eliminate some companies on your list and next arrange meetings where the prospective agencies can pitch their services and the strategy that answers your brief. If you consider the above points it shouldn’t be too long before activity can start and your business is on its way to better visibility in the search engine ranking pages.

About the author Alex Hunt is an Account Executive at UK based PR SEO and social media agency Punch Communications, who specialise in joint up thinking across online PR, social and search. 

Original Content by SEO Andy @ How To Be Sure Of Appointing The Right SEO Agency

Around 3 out of 5 keenly desire that there should be some method to help them use, monitor and safeguard their networking profiles and emails simultaneously.

More than 1/4 sends messages within their social network more than from their primary email account.

Persons within the age group of 18 to 34 log on to their social networking profiles after they wake up, but before they check their email.

People are highly attached to their social networking profiles. Around 40% are prepared to undergo any hardship in order not to give up their social networking profiles.

Details regarding which social networks are used by people for what purpose are given below.

For observing without actively posting anything

Linkedin – 68%, YouTube – 57%, Twitter – 53%, Google+ – 49%, Pinterest – 41%,

Facebook – 37%, Foursquare – 34%, Tumblr – 28%.

For sharing (i.e. posting photos, status updates)

Foursquare – 44%, Tumblr – 31%, Twitter – 18%, Facebook – 17%, Google+ – 15%,

YouTube – 13%, Pinterest – 11%, Linkedin – 10%.

This post is written by Michael Fleming and he works at Couponaudit as a writer, where thousands of valid and working online coupons are available for different stores. For example you can use iStockphoto promo code etc. to get discount.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ How People Are Using Social Media

While doing guest posting, better to look at your goals and find blogs that are of good worth. How to do quality guest posting? Here is given a 7-step formula to ensure success in high value guest posting.

1. Integrate Guest Posting Into Content Strategy

What’s the purpose of good content? It helps in

• Getting good ranks against specific keywords

• Convincing the prospects of your expertise

• Getting the desired response

Guest posting perform the same functions other than just getting the quality links. It helps in

• Conveying the business message to the target audience

• Strengthening social signals through sharing content at social platforms

• Strengthening bonds with other industry leaders

• Establishing your business brand

Guest posting should be made an essential part of content strategy, incorporating the on page and off page content goals. What are these goals? Here are given few points as hint.

• The keywords to rank at Google

• The target audience

• The target niche or industry

• The products, services, or ideas to focus

• The call to action statements

While considering these points, you can go for outlining a proper guest posting strategy. Now, move to the second step towards successful guest posting.

2. Explore The Best Blogs For Guest Posting

At first, explore who are the biggest players in your target niche. Know the thinkers, the blogs, and subjects that could cause discussions and debates. Other than building a strong profile, it also helps in gaining recognition in the field.

You can also search by using specific keywords or modifiers, like write to us, become a guest blogger, add a post, etc. You will come up at a list of websites that need contributors. Many free and paid opportunities are also available online to help doing quality guest posting.

3. Picking Relevant Sites For Quality Links

Penguin Update of Google has warned the webmasters about the quality of links to get to the top ranks. A good guest posting strategy involves picking high quality websites to get good ranks. The relevancy of the blog with the main business should be the top priority. Being an established authority and having relevant experience of the industry are the factors to be considered while choosing a blog for guest posting. Some other influencing factors are

• Sites having domain authority equals to 20

• Sites having page rank of 2 (minimum)

• Sites having Alexa rating of 5 million

• Check the RSS subscribers count

• Social media followers

• Keyword rankings

• Inbound links count

4. Claim Your Worth

Explore your writing strengths and get them established. Spend time in doing that before you actually enter the writing world. If you have your credibility established, well and good, but if not, then better start writing for blogs like Social Media Today and FamousBloggers. Convey unique ideas and approaches to attract the readers; it will help you getting their desired response.

5. Strong Pitch Helps In Creating Great Content

Most of the bloggers mention one thing that writers usually don’t read the instructions while sending their work. For a great pitch, here are given few steps to follow.

• Understand the blog, its tone, its topics, and its target audience.

• Get yourself signed up with the site for their newsletter and leave lasting comments over there. It doesn’t mean become a stalker but show that you are part of the community.

• Understand the guidelines and follow them properly. Many top bloggers complain that almost half of the writers follow the guidelines while sending content. Do reply any query that a blogger asks.

• Do mention your familiarity with the blog, not just in terms of flattering, but building a connection. Share any info that you have about them like attended their conference or have heard from some common friends.

• Follow the guidelines. Make a catchy title, write appealing description, and few lines on how your writing would be suitable for the blog audience.

• Also, mention links to your top posts. If you have great social media following, then mention that in a short paragraph, a max of three lines.

• After writing pitch, edit that. Make it sure that the pitch is shorter and easy to read. Three paragraphs are enough covering intro, pitch, and your qualifications.

• After writing pitch, send the pitch to the blogger and wait for his/her response. Don’t follow up daily, but after one to two weeks if the response doesn’t come.

6. Write Impressive Content

After your pitch is accepted by the blogger, go for writing. Writing a guest blog post may take more time, but few important points should be considered.

• The headline should be capturing, spend time over that.

• You should have a clear point of view to help the readers understand what you want to communicate.

• Support your point of view with data. Invest time over collecting research studies, references, infographics, quotes, images, and videos. Make it sure that everything you make part of the guest post is relevant.

• Get your post proofread from an expert editor. The formatting of the post should be done as per demand of the blogger.

• Write a great author bio that could tell the readers what you are and how best you are in your work. Focusing the brand name will help getting maximum juice of your banklinks.

7. Promote Your Post

After writing a great guest post, the next step is to promote that. After your post gets live, it’s time to receive additional exposure. Do reply any of the comments that your post receives at the blog. It will help in getting goodwill from the blog’s community.

Share your post on your very own social media accounts. Also inform the sites having links in your post; you will get more promotion that way. You can also go to the sites like Quora and answer the relevant questions. If your guest post supports any of your answer, give the post link over there.

Conclusion

Guest posting is the right approach to get the best quality links for a website, but the need is to look for the best bloggers and writing unique and fresh content as per interests of the readers. The more creative you are in developing content the more good response you will get from the blogger as well as the target audience. The mentioned-above strategy will surely be a success secret for you.

If you are following any other method for successful guest posting, share in the comments below. Also, give your opinion regarding this post.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ 7 Steps To Link-Winning Guest Posting

From time to time we post videos from the Google Webmaster help feed on youtube. Usually, it’s @MattCutts (head of web spam @ google) talking about something important to SEO. Today, Matt having completed 500 videos, Matt has opened up the questioning again via this Google Moderator page.

So if you have a question for Matt and Google drop it in, no reg required – it may not get answered by him for a while but I’m sure he will do his best to answer as many as possible.

img via searchengineland

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Ask Matt Cutts Your SEO Question

Social media has totally changed the way content was previously shared over World Wide Web. Some interesting stats will reveal more about the role of social media in promoting content.

• > Daily YouTube video views are 2 billion.
• > WordPress has 200 million blog posts for the interested readers.
• > Twitter receives 50 million tweets per day.
• > Facebook receives above 1 billion active users per day.

 The Rise Of Content Marketing: The Reasons

The credit of the great content marketing shift goes to Google. In 2011, the very notorious Panda Update of Google penalized hundreds and thousands of websites due to poor quality and duplicate content. After that update, the trend of content marketing gained boom, as per stats revealed by Google.

After the worst effects of Panda, Google launched another furious attack over the websites in the form of Penguin update. That update penalized the websites carrying poor quality links.

Both Panda and Penguin brought big changes in the SEO world. Techniques to automate content and get links were no more in trend after April 2012. The links are no more acquired through web or social sharing, but it’s the quality that matters the most.

Following interesting stats are revealed in a report titled “B2B content marketing: 2013 benchmarks, budgets, and trends”.

• > 91% marketers utilize content marketing as part of the overall marketing plan.
• > 87% of the marketers go the social media way for content distribution.
• > 74% of the marketers utilize content marketing for lead generation.
• > 54% of the marketers have more spending plans over content marketing for the year 2013.
• > 33% of the marketers spend specific budget on content marketing.

Denying the content marketing strategy means you are surrendering in front of your competition.

What Are The Great Ideas Of Content Marketing?

You can promote your business with content marketing and there are 20 useful ideas to do so. Read the lines below to get the insight!

1. 1.      Contact industry leaders

You can contact industry leaders and interview them to get some quality content for your audience. Whether webinars or blog posts, the content would be appealing to get quality links, and will help industry leaders in getting exposure.

1. 2.      Conduct surveys

Get help from the online community in the form of survey responses. There are several survey platforms available online to get help from without paying a single penny. The questions can be of the following kind:

• > The biggest industry challenge
• > Reason of not subscribing today
• > Frequency of buying certain product
• > The marketing channel receiving more budgets in 2014

1. 3.      Use industry news as weapon

Write blog posts to convey what you have heard from a webinar or read from a whitepaper. If possible, include questions of the author of the whitepaper or speaker of the webinar and provide the audience with the answers.

1. 4.      Use presentations as great support

Keep record of the presentations you hold or the webinars you attend and share them with the targeted audiences. Make use of SlideShare to prepare your presentations with great ease. It will also provide you with a great opportunity to create awareness among the targeted audience in any event you hold.

1. 5.      Knowledgebase is necessary

Although, FAQs are considered as the best approach to deliver the right information that website visitors are seeking for, but these aren’t that much useful. Identify the top 10 questions and complaints that users may have and give their answers in the FAQ section. It will make this portion of your website, content-rich.

1. 6.      Arrange webinars

Arrange a webinar about your company and reveal what you offer. Many services are available to help creating the webinars like GoToMeeting and WebEx. The webinar content can be promoted at several channels, which is one of its major benefits. Don’t ask for registration at the landing page; instead, update the video of the webinar as part of the content.

1. 7.      Use Pinterest for sharing reports and white papers

Useful data is available in the form of hundreds and thousands of charts, reports, and white papers, tough to read all. Having a Pinterest account means you are allowing the readers to share whatever they find good about the industry trends, you will also feel well informed.

1. 8.      Be there with Infographic

Infographic is the best weapon to fight with while following the content marketing approach. Infographic can be utilized with great ease by breaking down the larger website content into appealing infographics. The form of content to be turned into appealing infographics include annual reports, white papers, about us section of a website, and product sheets. Infographics can also be used to create a history within your particular niche.

1. 9.      Ask for newsletter signup

You might have seen certain online courses that ask just for signing up and you will be delivered with bundles of tricks and tips on the topic of your choice. The same strategy you can opt for to get more subscribers for your own content marketing campaign.

1. 10.  Live blog the seminar

Share your views about attending any seminar or conference. Provide the readers with important updates as well as key findings of the research or data. Do mention the time of attending the seminar as well as the name of the speaker.

1. 11.  Create a list of top industry bloggers to follow

If you want your content to be shareable, create a list of top bloggers to follow because industry experts often share their good experiences. Include a link and an image of each top blog. It’s also good to follow those blogs on twitter. It may happen that bloggers will retweet your post once published.

1. 12.  Write and publish an eBook

Writing an eBook isn’t tough, but needs your expertise of the topic as well as your writing skills. Publishing an eBook doesn’t need a publisher or spending more money. It’s simple to get your eBook published over World Wide Web and receive good response from the interested readers. Get help from Amazon and Blurb to create your eBook.

1. 13.  Write a beginners’ guide

Beginners always hunt for some useful material to get started with their professional career. So, writing a beginners’ guide would be a useful strategy to successfully implement a content marketing strategy.

1. 14.  Contact sales team for FAQs

Your sales teams know very well what the prospects ask. Ask them what questions they have to face while reaching the prospects and what answers satisfy them. It will help you to formulate a user-centred FAQ page.

1. 15.  Present content in audio format

The content being created today is huge compared to that of past few years. It means you will have to create appealing and fresh content to grab the attention of the targeted customers. By turning your blogs into podcast, you will get more listeners because it facilitates the users regardless of their location.

1. 16.  Present testimonials in video format

Customers spreading your business message are more helpful than you perform the promotion activities on your own. Get the testimonials of your customers in video form and wait for other prospects to contact you.

1. 17.  Work on existing content

Gone are the days when little was better than more. Now, more content is considered good by Google to rank websites. It gives clear hint that content marketing would gain more advantage from Google’s new concerns.

If you already have a blog post carrying more than 1500 words, you can convert that into a white paper. What you need to do that is

• - A cover page
• - Table of contents
• - Summary

1. 18.  Create a list of top 10 blogs

You might read range of blogs in your routine life. If you think the blogs you read are of high quality, then there is nothing wrong to share them with others. By spreading others’ good work, you are actually getting good repute of your own.

1. 19.  Meet up with decision makers

By meeting with decision makers face to face, you can increase your client base. You can also promote your meet up event on different websites like Meetup.com.

1. 20.  Do guest blogging

After you become an expert of content marketing, you can write some excellent guest posts and submit them with top quality bloggers. Get yourself signed up with top blogs like BloggerLinkUp and MyBlogGuest, and meet with hundreds and thousands of bloggers.

How Did Content Marketing Become Miraculous For Businesses?

Not all organizations are going after content marketing. Content marketing needs more resources and more budgets, so only a wise approach can benefit a business in the long run. The given below stats reveal the miracles that content marketing has brought to some businesses.

• > 97% rise in leads for Skytap
• > 40% rise in the revenue of Distribion
• > 81% rise in HubSpot’s revenue
• > 1 million new visitors for KISS metrics
• > 255% increase in traffic and doubled sales for Monetate

Not only the brands are seeing an increase in traffic, customers, and revenue, but content marketing has a wide range of other benefits as well.

• > It adds trust and makes a business social.
• > Same content can be promoted on several platforms, means less efforts, more benefits.
• > Search engines give value to the keyword rich content.
• > Unique content, specific to one website.
• > Low cost to bring targeted traffic at a website.

HubSpot has revealed some interesting stats about business websites where the content was upto 1000 words; they received 600% more leads.

Measuring Success

After knowing the useful ideas to create content, it might be a challenge for you to measure the success of your content marketing efforts. Here are the points to consider for measuring your content-based success.

• > Website traffic (organic and mobile)
• > Visitors’ engagement (page views, time spent on the website and the bounce rate)
• > Social aspects (shares and the comments)
• > Conversion rate (sign-ups for newsletters, downloading content, conversions)

Concluding Lines:

Content marketing is at the budding stage and has been accepted by the marketers from across the globe. It is very right to say that if any business is ignoring content marketing, it means the business isn’t equipped with strong weapons to fight against the tough opponents and claim success.

To support any online business, the content should be created like some fresh piece and be accepted by the targeted audience. Only creative content can help in attracting visitors, bringing social shares, quality links, and higher revenue.

Content marketing is a low cost strategy to promote a business and to earn big bucks. Have you tried that? If not, get started now and if yes, share your experience in the comments below.

–

This post is written by Emma Jones, a well-known writer, working with a reputed SEO company in Edinburgh, also offering SEO services in Glasgow. Emma has the latest knowledge of the Glasgow SEO industry, so she writes what readers actually want to read. The best thing about her is, she doesn’t write just because of profession, but because of passion that she has for writing since her childhood. Join me on facebook

Original Content by SEO Andy @ 20 hit ideas to make content marketing productive

Google recently released this awesome interactive infographic, it means you can learn some great facts about search and how it works.

You can find the infographic @ http://www.google.com/insidesearch/tipstricks/

Once you are content with how Search works, take a look at the policies page – it’s got handy info on how things work in the background, such as why algorithms are favored over manual rankings and just how spam websites are fought on a large scale.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Google Explains, How Search Works!

Search engines typically adopt the position that new, fresh content is better for their users and this is what companies like Google are looking to offer their users – a fresh and top quality experience. By providing up to date information and relevant content, provided by authoritative websites they can ensure that users are getting the most benefit from the results pages that they display.

The more content you add, the more keywords will be included on your website. The days of keyword stuffing pages are long gone and by adding blog posts or other forms of content regularly you can attract highly targeted visitors thanks to the large amount of longtail keywords that are introduced to your website. Write naturally but, by all means, look to include some of your most important keywords in unique phrases.

Your website content doesn’t just provide value on the pages of your website – it can also become the cornerstone of a powerful and effective marketing strategy. Your best content can be rewritten and reworked before being syndicated and shared with bloggers, other website owners, and on other websites. This allows you the benefit of being able to attract new clients and visitors to your site as well.

Visitors will deem you to be an authority on a subject if you offer them dozens or hundreds of pages filled with quality content on a particular topic. This authoritative status means that they will be more inclined to buy products or pay for services from you and your business. They will listen to your marketing message and even become brand ambassadors for your business.

If a visitors notices that you post content updates regularly then they will be more inclined to subscribe to your feeds, register for blog updates, and become a member of your newsletter. They will bookmark your page, link to it from their own social media network, and effectively do a lot of marketing on your behalf. In the modern search engine arena, these are considered effective social media ranking factors and can further help your marketing efforts.

Leave comments open and encourage user participation in the topics and discussions that you start. They will become more heavily involved which further increases the chances of turning a lead into a conversion and it also means that your website will appear more authoritative to others, you will enjoy additional crowdsourced content, and you can provide a high quality and even enjoyable experience for all that visit the pages of your site.

This article has been written by Richard Hartley, Head of Strategy at Big Red Rocket.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ A Guide to Adding Fresh Content To Your Site

1. Rand’s post regarding anchor text is weaking post
2. Bill Slawski’s rebutal on Co-Citation Observations
3. Joshua Giardino -  It’s Not Co-Citation but it’s still awesome!

I have to cast my mind quite far back to remember another time when one topic created so much discussion within the SEO community. It had most of SEO’s pundits coming out of the wood work to give their thoughts and opinions. However, it also had me reflecting on something I’ve been seeing for a while, but have never bothered to figure out why it was happening.

The question that literally had me up all night was:

Why does Google analytics rank at position #2 (at time of writing) for the term ‘ga’ in the UK?

URL of search:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ga&oq=ga&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&pws=0

There was no logical reason why it should be doing so well, especially for such a generic term. Or was there?

To figure out why this might be happening, I started first with the basics.

Title tags

If visit  http://www.google.co.uk/analytics/ the title tag is displayed as

<title>Google Analytics Official Website – Web Analytics & Reporting – Google Analytics.</title>   Clearly, ‘ga’ does not appear in the title tags

Page Content

Nowhere on the landing page is Google Analytics referred to as ‘ga’.

Incoming Links

Perhaps there are a number of incoming links pointing to http://www.google.co.uk/analytics/ that have ‘ga’ as the anchor text. To check this, I fired up all three link analysis tools below.

From the three tools I used, only Ahrefs.com found a website that linked to google.co.uk/analytics/  with the term ‘ga’. However, one link shouldn’t be enough to make Google Analytics rank for a generic term like ‘ga’.

Could Google be simply using search data to make the connection?

So I decided to look at places where related terms can be found on Google

1. Google related search
2. Google insights
3. Using the tilde operator
4. Google AdWords tool
5. Google suggest

1. Related Search

From the serp results, either no one or not enough people, are modifying their search queries around the term ‘ga’ and Google Analytics.

2. Google Insights

Google Insights also do not show a relation between ‘ga’ and Google analytics. This holds true even if you enter ‘Google Analytics’ in the search bar.

3. The Tilde Operator

Interestingly, Google does show that GA and Google analytics are used interchangeably.

4. Google Keyword Tool

Searching for keywords or phrases related to ‘ga’ on https://adwords.google.com/o/KeywordTool revealed that both terms do not show as related to each other. I also could not find any association after examining every result individually.

5. Looking at data from Ubbersuggest’s Google Suggestion tool 

The term ‘ga’ and google anayaltics does not seem to appear as part of the same search term.

Could there be a co-occurence of GA and Google Analytics within documents ?

To find out, I looked for pages where Google Analytics is mentioned and the word ‘ga‘ also occurs. Some simple operators that let me test this are listed below

What I’ve found is that if you plug them into Google, you can see that there are many cases where  ga or GA and Google Analytics are used interchangeably or mentioned together.

Could this be the cause of the ‘anomaly’ ?

Takeaways and summary

If you cannot get a link within a document, is it ok not too worry that  much about it as Google can connect two words if they occur together enough times across the web?  For example, if your brand receives a lot of online press, just incase,  you should also try to ensure your target terms are always mentioned.

Secondly if this is the case, we might need to redefine how a competitor analysis is conducted. If Google is looking at co-occurrences, it is possible that this is already factored into your competitors ranking. By only analysing links for ranking insight, we could be overlooking how terms co-occur on non-linking documents.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Co-occurrence ? – or something else – A Google Analytics Case Study

As one of the biggest names in the SEO software business, it’s rare for SEOMoz to give their users anything other than truly exceptional applications.

We manage a wide range of client accounts, and having a full suite of software apps on our side is always helpful. Like SEOMoz’s other apps, the Fresh Web Explorer is a huge help to our day-to-day operations.

Read on to learn about how the tool helps us generate awesome results for our clients.

What exactly is the Fresh Web Explorer?

For years, SEO experts have been tracking brand mentions and press coverage using alerts from Google and a variety of third-party providers. It’s a fairly reliable way to track press coverage, but not without its flaws.

The Fresh Web Explorer is a simple tool for PR managers and SEOs to keep track of where and when their website is being linked to or talked about. As the name would suggest, it’s a fresh index of web mentions, with the content it highlights only ever going back four weeks into the past.

Using the Fresh Web Explorer to track down link-free website mentions:

Isn’t it annoying when a journalist mentions your website without adding a link to their article? The Fresh Web Explorer tracks both links and mentions, making it an easy process to get in touch with journalists to request an outbound link from their article or blog post.

Enter your URL or keyword into the tool and you’ll be presented with a summary of recent links, mentions, and discussions about your brand. If you spot any sites that are talking about you but aren’t linking, pass them on to your PR team to email them for some inbound link action.

Using the Fresh Web Explorer to keep an eye on your competitors:

There’s no shame in spying on your competitors. We all do it. The Fresh Web Explorer makes it easy to keep track of your competitors’ latest links, blog mentions, and other visible online assets.

Plug one of your competitors’ domains into the tool and watch as their latest links, press releases, and blog posts pop up. From here, you can add interesting sources to a spreadsheet for a follow-up, regarding your own link building campaigns.

Using the Fresh Web Explorer to prevent negative SEO attacks:

If you’re in an ultra-competitive industry where negative SEO is the norm, using the Fresh Web Explorer to keep track of your brand could be a good idea. By keeping an eye on your brand mentions, you can quickly spot bad links before they multiply.

From here, you can quickly disavow bad links or contact the webmaster in question to request a link removal. Cut the roots off a negative SEO campaign before it grows and you’ll never have to worry about bad inbound links or nasty webspam again.

Using the Fresh Web Explorer to keep track of your link building:

Instead of relying on clumsy, user-unfriendly spreadsheets or unreliable servers for your link building archives, use the Fresh Web Explorer to keep a permanent record of the links you’ve built for clients or your own websites.

The tool contains a record of recent brand mentions, inbound links, and other data that’s crucial for managing an SEO campaign. If you’re stuck with an unreadable spreadsheet, simply export your data from the Fresh Web Explorer for a bird’s eye view of your recent link building efforts.

There’s always a buzz around the SEO community when SEOMoz release a new tool- the question is, are you making the most of it for your marketing campaigns?

The author of this article is Craig of Custard Media, the experts in search marketing services. If you want people to search for your business, we make it our business that they find you. Make the internet work for you with our help!

Original Content by SEO Andy @ 4 Simple Ways to Improve Your Marketing Campaigns Using SEOMoz’s Fresh Web Explorer

Reduce the Load Time

Always ensure that the time its takes to load the pages on your website to the minimum. If pages are loading slowly, it will waste the time of your visitors and make them impatient. Pages which are light and crisp will load quickly and will encourage the visitors to stay for longer duration and visit more number of pages. Designers can make the webpages light by removing unnecessary graphics and images.

Layout

The layout of the website is one of the most important elements of web design which can generate a good first impression. The layout of a website should be in such a way that it draws the visitor’s attention to the most important items of a webpage. Apart from making the page to look attractive, a good layout will also make it easy for the visitors to use your site. A creative layout will make a website more effective and make it to standout from the crowd.

Advertisements

Advertisements are one of the best ways for a website to generate revenue. But, websites which are totally filled up with advertisements will create a very bad impression upon the visitors. Be careful with the number of ads placed on a single page, the type of ads placed, and the location on a page where the ads are placed. Avoid placing your ads in places that can interfere with the content of your website. And place ads that are suitable for your website. For E.g. an ad on dog food placed in an automobile website doesn’t make any sense and can even irritate the visitors.

Ease of Navigation

The website should be easily navigable so that visitors can hop from one page to the other seamlessly. Poor navigation on a website can frustrate the visitors and make them to leave your website early. On the other hand, a well devised navigation plan will give a lot of positive experience to the visitors. Make sure that hyperlinks are placed at the appropriate place on your webpages. A link to the site map and a link to the homepage on every webpage is a must for all kinds of sites as this ensures that the visitors don’t get lost while navigating.

Popups

Don’t use popups unnecessarily on your websites. Popups are so much hated by most of the surfers that most of them have a popup blocker installed on their browsers. Web designers can either totally eliminate popups and place that content in the regular webpages or find a way to use popups effectively. For E.g. genuine offers and gifts announced through popups may not irritate surfers much.

Video and Audio

Video and Audio content is becoming more and more common due to the increased prevalence of high speed internet connections. However, web designers need to use video and audio content intuitively so that it will not disturb the visitors. High resolution videos posted on webpages can make the navigation slow, so try to provide as much quality as possible through lighter files. As a general rule, web designers also need to make sure that the audio and video content on their websites doesn’t start automatically without the visitors having to start it.

Accessibility

The website should be accessible to all of your visitors irrespective of the browsers and operating systems they use. Some visitors of your website may have slower internet connections, use older versions of browsers, and have operating systems which doesn’t support advanced graphics. If your website is not easily accessible to all the visitors irrespective of the reason, it may create a very bad impression on them. One way to handle these problems is to have a light and low graphics version of your website which can be accessed by almost all the visitors.

Take Away

When a visitor opens to your website for the first time a first impression will be created almost instantaneously. A good first impression will make him to revisit your website, while a bad impression will be difficult to erase from his mind. The above tips can help web designers in designing a website which can generate an instant good impression of the visitors.

About The Author: Brianne is a writer/blogger. She loves writing, travelling and reading books. She helps with marketing at Regal Cigs.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Tricks to strike first impression in web design

Pay-per-click costs are not generally amongst the most important expenditures of larger companies but they can eat rather significantly into small or medium-sized company marketing budgets. Beginners to this segment of digital marcomm (Marketing Communications) will often fall into the trap of taking these costs at face value. That is to say that, when first trying to budget for a campaign in which the front-end pricing is expressed in cents, strategists tend to disregard the fact that these costs will and do add up. Fortunately, beyond this initial trap, PPC is a time-tested marketing tool with sustainable conversion rates in general.

The threat of click fraud

Unfortunately, PPC pricing leaves the door open for click fraud. Click fraud is perhaps the most common form of internet fraud, surpassing phishing attacks and even such staples as spam. That is because PPC is automated and quite fast but also because to many publishers, including large publishers like Google AdWords or other PPC networks there really isn’t any disadvantage. PPC works indirectly, with bots generating clicks on certain sites, usually ‘in on it’ and advertisers paying the publisher network. The network, in turn, pays the initial site owner after taking a cut. Everybody wins except the advertisers.

Beware the botnet attack

Of course, botnet attacks are quite dangerous for everybody, the publisher networks included. Not only are these networks established through infection and not only are their practices illegal and detrimental to advertisers but they undermine the very basis of the publishing network. Google AdWords is a business and it cannot survive without customers, the advertisers. If the advertisers lose faith in the network and dismantle their campaigns, something easy to do and fast, the publishing network loses as well. Just like in the short run click fraud benefits everybody but the advertiser, in the long run, click fraud benefits nobody but the fraudster: The network loses customers, the site loses advertisers and may end up with bans or SERP penalties and the advertisers don’t manage to sell products. Without even taking clicks into consideration though, the botnet was raking in about 6 million dollars a month in ad views alone. At a cost of circa 0.70 cents per thousand views the scope of the whole network becomes apparent and the necessity for taking it down, one infected computer at a time even more so.

Takeaway: Invest in good security

The prevalence, efficiency and liabilities that botnet attacks have given rise to a highly dynamic and competitive segment of the online security sub-industry. At the moment, there exist several professional security companies out there, among which, most notably spider.io. Their aim is to thoroughly catalogue and fight the botnet, which is slowly but certainly expanding. The most often-encountered fallacy when it comes to Internet marketing is to believe that anything flies – see the massive amounts of pages on Facebook promising thousands of clicks for modicum amounts of money and blatantly violating the social networks’ ToS. The truth is that digital marcomm, as well as all types of internet transactions, are trust-based, so the credibility of large internet advertising networks has to be maintained or the whole community will crumble.

About the Author: Paul Estcott handles affiliate management services for a mid-sized company and has had to deal with the issue of repeated fake clicks several times.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ The Real Cost of PPC Botnets

So I began looking for yet more awesome SEO resources for beginners, one of the things I cam across  was this 10 step basic guide to SEO. It really is quite neat and something that I think everyone new to SEO should take a look at, from it you can begin asking “why?” to each point and delve deeper into each idea and suggestion.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ 10 Easy SEO Steps for Newbies

For example (this is a real life scenario) your website is linked to from an article based website which has been penalised by a Google Algo update, does my website get penalised too?

The answer to the question (they are both the same question in reality) is fairly simple. If a website is penalised the links out to another website are basically ignored and stop passing link juice. Your website itself will not receive a penalisation just from a site linking to you being told off. What may occur, which is more common, is that your rankings may slightly slump if you were getting a lot of link juice from that site (and others like it which have been penalised too).

Anyhow, over to Matt to explain a little better.

Have you been effected by such a penalisation issue? let us know

Original Content by SEO Andy @ If A Website That Links To Me And It Gets Penalised, Will I Be Penalised?

If your competition is currently beating you in the race for number one, it may be time to check out their strategy and see how you can improve yours. Ok, so they are not going to let you have a little peek of their top tactics, but guess what? You don’t need them to. You see, there will be traces all over the internet of your competitors’ activity, enabling you to get a better understanding of their actions.

Many companies participate in reverse engineering tactics in order to use their competitors’ back linking strategies to their advantage. This is a great way to mimic the success of your competition, providing you go about it the right way. We will now go onto explain how to revers.

What is reverse engineering?

Businesses of all kinds use reverse engineering as a tactic to expose the most valuable backlinks built by their competitors. Using their competitors’ research and efforts will save them time and money, whilst also helping them to identify what works and what doesn’t. Once the valuable backlinks pointing to a competing business have been identified, the business will then look to create similar backlinks to their own website and cash in on the success of their competitors.
How to go about reverse engineering backlinks the right way.

Like with everything there is a right and a wrong way to go about reverse engineering backlinks. Unfortunately many businesses simply copy the content directly from other websites and mirror their competitor’s image in order to succeed. This is actually a copyright infringement and can get you in an awful lot of trouble!

Analysis and evaluation are both of key importance when it comes to reverse engineering backlinks. The process is often referred to as competitive backlink analysis and involves studying who is linking to your competitor’s website and what their pages look like. This will enable you to find out what makes the backlink so valuable. It could be the anchor text, the link list it is part of, the page rank of the domain or the rest of the quality content surrounding the link.

It is also important to look at where the links go and the content that is displayed on your competitor’s page. Again we must stress that you should not be looking to directly copy this content, just use it for your research. Once you have established both of these points you will need to evaluate the quality of the pairing and decide whether a similar link pairing would add value to your own SEO campaign. It is essential that you look to identify the best quality links as these will be the most valuable to your website’s SEO. Keep in mind that poor quality and spam links will simply be picked up by Google’s algorithms and may put your website at risk from being poorly ranked.

Once you have identified domains that could potentially provide you with high quality backlinks, you need to go about asking them for a link the right way. It is no good to blast requests at your potential link partners as this will give you a poor reputation. Instead you need to have a high quality website that they will want to link to. Be friendly and provide good reasoning for your desire to exchange links, a little politeness can go a long way.

Tools that can help you reverse engineer you competitor’s backlinks

There are a number of free online tools which you can use to help you locate your competitor’s backlinks. Some tools will simply identify the number of backlinks a website has pointing to them and where from, whereas others will analyse and evaluate the quality of the backlinks, which will save you a lot of time and effort. Popular tools include Firefox’s SEO toolbar, Google Trends, SEOMoz, SEMrush and Ahrefs Site Explorer.

Conclusion

Reverse engineering your competitor’s backlinks can be an invaluable tactic used to improve your own website’s SEO. It is important to go about it the right way in order to source quality backlinks and prevent yourself from getting in trouble. There is a great need to analyse and evaluate the quality of all potential backlinks as producing low quality or spam links will simply do more harm than good in the long run. As well as sourcing backlinks, reverse engineering can also be used to identify and mimic your competitor’s most valuable keywords.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ How to use reverse engineering of competitors strategies as a source of backlinks

An agency may place 10s – if not 100s – of them a month.

In fact, for some websites, their entire linking strategy consists of just guest posting.

However much some may turn their noses up at this, if you’re just after volumes of respectable links -with control of anchor text – there are few better tactics.

The problem is that, as soon as you create and scale a process, you’re going to start leaving patterns.

And these patterns could well serve as clues for search engines on the look-out for people out to manipulate the SERPs.

This post is heavily indebted to James Agate, who has already commented on the expected crackdown on guest posting in 2013.

If you want to carry on using these tactics with a minimum amount of risk, you’re going to have to be extra careful to cover your tracks.

Let’s look at what the common footprints you leave when guest posting en-masse.

(And as James has reminded me, remember it’s a combination of these signals that could cause problems, rather than standalone features.)

1. Links to the same site, several times

As someone who sees a lot of guest posts, one easy-to-spot characteristic of lower-quality posts is those that link to the same website several times, either through the post, or just in the bio.

For example:

This is a guest post by Online Leather Wallets. Your one-stop shop for wallets, leather wallets and black wallets.

There’s a bit of a primal mentality here on behalf of the guest poster: you’ve worked hard to secure the opportunity, you don’t want your link juice flowing out to other websites.

And if, God forbid, you are paying the website owner to host the post, there’s a chance they’ll only allow one link anyway (a counter measure to stop you linking to several clients).

If this practice is to continue to exist and be effective behind Google’s back, then there needs to be a trade-off. Webmasters shouldn’t take a draconian approach of ‘one link and one link only’, guest posters shouldn’t abuse being able to link to several clients.

Solution: If you’re placing content that has been written with only links to your client’s site, read through and look for places where it may be relevant to link out elsewhere. The right choice will also enhance the credibility of your post.

2. Duplicate author bios

In the words of Michael King:

If I can put your author bio for your guest posts into google and find all your posts and figure out your clients, you’re doing it wrong

— MyCool King (@iPullRank) October 10, 2012

You’d be amazed at how often you’ll be able to see a link builder’s roster of clients just by searching for their author bio.

Again, if the pattern is easy for you and I to spot, you can bet the brightest computer scientists in Silicon Valley won’t have much trouble finding it either.

Google has already demonstrated they’re prepared to punish agencies deemed to violate their Webmaster Guidelines. Aggressive guest posting could well be perceived as violating these guidelines.

Solution: Don’t be lazy. Mix it up. It’s easy to just copy the same bio each time. Create new personas, new authors. Even if you outreach with your standard name, ask for the post to be accredited to somebody else.

On a side note, this is actually a good technique for sniping competitor’s links. Copy and paste their author bio in Google inside inverted commas. Often it’ll return a list of sites they’ve guest posted on and that you can too.

3. Does the post have an author?

James Agate has speculated that something as simple as a post being authored by ‘ADMIN’ could be perceived negatively.

Google is big on authorship. There’s a huge drive to understand the relationship between web content and its creators.

If they can see a clear author on a blog, they can decipher the value of the content that author produces.

And if there’s a constant stream of guest posts going on to a site all authored by ‘ADMIN’, then you can see why alarm bells will start ringing in the GooglePlex.

There’s a wider issue here of not so much looking for ‘low quality guest posts’, but looking for lower quality sites in general.

If a site has authors, then it’s an indication there are real people behind the site that care about it. Sites that people care about tend to be of value to the intended user. Value for the intended user means value to Google.

Solution: Target websites with a clear author, or who mark-up new authors. If they don’t, but you still want to guest post, encourage webmasters to put the process in place.

Image credit: Rubber Dragon on Flickr

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Cover Your Tracks: The Patterns of Guest Posting En-masse

Over the past few years a new industry has been born, began to mature and is a huge growth area for many other business industries – It’s called social media.

There are now so many social networks that it is hard to recall even 70% of them off the top of your head. But there is good news, there are still the Big 5: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and LinkedIn. And for most businesses these are the only ones that matter, and so that is what you should be focusing on.

If you wonder why I say focus on all of them, consider this: between them the Big 5 have a reach which is about that of the entire population of the world who has access to the internet and is likely to buy or use your services and products. There, today, is no such argument as “it’s not my audience” – at least one of the Big 5 will be relevant to you. So…

Be a Social Media Rock Star

Twitter: 10 Minutes

1) Set up automation of tweets using a service like Twuffer (it’s free) for the rest of your day or week.

2) Reply and Respond to those who have tweeted you.

3) Spend a few moments sharing articles from elsewhere in your industry.

Facebook: 7 Minutes

1) Respond to posts on your page, and articles / comment on others pages.

2) Share and Promote your own and others content.

LinkedIn: 6 Minutes

1) Promote your “professional” content.

2) Participate in group discussions, Q&A’s and comment threads.

3) Share others updates and posts.

Google+ : 4 Minutes

1) Join in discussions / comment threads adding something of value.

2) Write expanded content – Google+ is designed for larger posts.

3) Join communities and pages.

4) Always post your content here first.

Pinterest: 3 Minutes

1) Pin all your latest content, which has a great image.

2) Re-pin others, both in and out of your industry.

3) Engage with any comments your pins have.

—

So there you have it, 30 minutes work and you too can be a social media rock star.

Do you have any more tips to becoming a social media god?

One final note… on your site don’t forget to ask others to follow you on:

Twitter @andykinsey - Facebook SEOAndyblog / RedStar Creative - LinkedIn 

Pinterest  - Google+

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Become a Social Media Rockstar in Just 30 Minutes

Today’s smartphones have web browsers that are just as powerful as a desktop computer. This has given people the ability to access the Internet from anywhere at any time. Whether on the go or sitting on the couch at home, users now have easy access to websites whenever the mood strikes. Due to their small screen size, it is better to have a mobile website optimized for use on a smartphone, otherwise you risk frustrating your visitors and losing them to a competitor. Read on to learn some important things to bear in mind when creating a mobile ready site.

*Make the site responsive – Design the site to automatically detect when someone is using a mobile device and then redirect them to the mobile site. Offer them the choice to come back to the original site. Google will analyze sites that are not responsive, but it prefers those that are, so it only makes sense to follow its recommendation if you want to rank highly in the search results.

*Understand mobile users – Most smartphone users prefer not to do a bunch of scrolling on a web site to find the information they desire. Rather than large chunks of text, break it up into smaller sections on different pages. Take the time to prioritize what is most important to customers and have that on the first page. Be sure to include the business’ information in a prominent position so it can be found easily.

*Speed is the key – Studies show that most mobile users expect a website to load on their device within four seconds. If it doesn’t, they’ll likely move on to the next one in the search results. This can mean loss of revenue for the business. Speed up load times by shrinking pictures and images on a percentage basis, rather than pixels.

*Keywords – Just as with normal web pages, keywords play an important role on mobile sites. Use an analytical tool to see which words customers use most when searching for your products or services and make sure to include them in the mobile site. This can include using them to name pictures, rather than giving them generic titles.

Mobile websites can provide a company with a huge advantage over its competition if the site is well designed. By following Google’s recommendations and knowing what your customers are looking for, a great fully-optimized mobile site can be developed that will be easy for visitors to navigate and will rank highly in Google, resulting in increased sales and satisfied customers.

Author Bio: Simon runs Touch Logic Ltd, a mobile marketing company based in the UK.

Photo credit Ian Lamont

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Creating a Google-Friendly Mobile Website

Google has designed its algorithm to punish sites with spammy or blatantly artificial backlink profiles. They even mention this in their How Search Works interactive infographic, explaining that they may penalize a site if they find “a pattern of unnatural artificial, deceptive or manipulative links pointing to [it].”

It is important to build your links carefully in order to protect your ranking and ensure success for the future. A variety of factors are considered, including the quality of the site where your link appears, the relevance of the link to the rest of the content, the chosen anchor text, and the location of the link on the page.

How to Figure Out Your Own Backlink Profile

A number of services exist for looking up your backlinks. Many SEOs are familiar with Open Site Explorer, a tool included in the suite of services from SEOmoz. Their bot crawls the web indexing sites in a way very similar to Google. Google Webmaster Tools is a free alternative and a great choice if you already use Google Analytics. In my experience Open Site Explorer has a more complete listing of inbound links, though the ones Google doesn’t list tend to be low-value ones anyway. However, this comes at a price; the service is not free and the index is updated only monthly. If you’re on a budget, you can still use a limited version of Open Site Explorer once per day.

Regardless of the tool, enter your domain or pull up your backlinks and take a look at what you have. From this point I’ll describe the process using Open Site Explorer, but you can do many of the same things in all backlink checkers. Remember that you can also use Open Site Explorer for free once per day.

What You Want to See

When you enter your domain, you will see your Linking Root Domains and your Total Links at the top. You want a low ratio of links to domains. After all, having tens of thousands of total links won’t do your site much good if they’re coming in from the same two or three domains – and there’s a chance Google will see that and not think it’s very natural, either.

Click the Anchor Text tab to see what kind of anchor text your inbound links have. Most likely your brand or name are in the top spots – and that’s completely normal. You may also have a lot of “click here” or “website” anchor text, which is to be expected, though if you have a ton of it, you may want to look into optimizing better where you can. However, if almost all your anchor text is extremely optimized, alarms should be going off in your head. This is especially true if search terms are greatly outnumbering your brand name.

Relevancy of your links is important, too, but measuring it isn’t nearly as cut and dry – for you, or the search engines. Still, if you have an online furniture store, posting furniture or interior design links on a sports blog isn’t going to do you much good. On the other hand, having the links on a blog dedicated to modern interior design would be a good choice for your backlink profile. If you have a website dedicated to background check investigations, for example, be careful where your links appear. Look for links from private security firms, identity theft websites, and career blogs – places that you could reasonably expect would cover your services. You can be creative too – a random furniture link in a post about sports might be unnatural, but what if you wrote about the best living room setup for a sports party?

Lastly, on the main Inbound Links tab, take a look at your links. Are they followed or nofollowed? A natural site will have some of each; many sites by default nofollow a user-created link, such as in comments or on social profiles. If you want to view only your followed links, change the show dropdown to “followed + 301” and click Filter to take a look. By default, links are ordered by page authority; you can click on other headings to list them alphabetically or by the anchor text or domain authority.

Keeping It Natural

When you are building links to your site, be sure to keep them as natural as possible. Avoid distribution services or shady linking schemes; the results are rarely worth the possible outcome of being penalized by Google. Build your links with care, and they will reward you over and over.

If your investigation into your backlinks revealed a few red flags, don’t be too alarmed; if you can easily remove some of the offenders do so, but focus on building better links. Scoring a high authority guest post or getting a nice legitimate testimonial link or mention on an important site can go a long way toward healing your backlink profile.

If Google finds you and serves you a penalty, it’s time to break out the cleaning crew, but if you haven’t been penalized yet for some pretty shady techniques, it’s time to break out the white hat and change your ways. Your website will thank you.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ How to Investigate Your Backlink Profile

Today Google have said “new insights on how Google+ is working to amplify auto brands’ existing marketing campaigns. For example, we found that brands can experience a 91% increase in conversion rate for non-brand terms when running social annotations on search ads.”

These insights and many more can be found in the infographic below.

If you would like to learn more about Google+ for business visit the Google Plus Business Website.

Is your business on Google+ ? Leave a comment below and link us to it!

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Google Plus Fueling Engagement – It All Stacks Up

Using Facebook

Using Facebook, you would create an event and make sure to mark it as a public event if you want to bring in additional people. Invite all of your prospective customers, fans, as well as friends or family. Everyone who accepts the invite to your event will be able to invite their own friends, and sometimes an event can end up with as many as a couple thousand of invited guests. Make sure you keep your potential guests updated as time goes on, and post a small reminder on the day before and day of the event you are hosting. This not only reminds people, but keeps them engaged and excited to attend. They will be notified each time you post, so there is no other work that must be done on your own behalf.

Using Twitter

Set up a hash tag for your specific event, and make sure it’s something both unique and easy to remember. For example, if you are about to post a gig for a local music group called Outlet, you could  use any of the following hash tags for your event: #OutletRocks, #OutletGig, #OutletsRockGig, or anything along those lines. Spread the word through that hash tag and allow others to post their own input and get their friends involved. People need only click on the hash tag in order to be directed to the main stream for your event.

Other Ways To Use Social Media To Make An Event Successful: Tips & Tricks

So now that you’ve set up your basic event details on both Facebook and Twitter, what can you do now in order to ensure your event will be a success? Here are a few useful ideas:

• > Create contests that will be held at your event and promote them on both sites. This will give potential attendees even more reason to go to your event, and might be the deciding factor in people who weren’t yet sure they would, could, or wanted to go.
• > Take pictures as you set up the venue and post them on both accounts so that people can see how amazing the set up is going to be and how much hard work is being put in on their behalf.
• > Encourage people to post their own pictures and statuses when they attend the event
• > Make sure you set up an official website about your event where people can go to access all of the necessary information in one easy to access place. Even just a one-page website is beneficial. Make sure to add the venue location with full address, date, time,cover charge if applicable, any restrictions or rules, and anything else that your potential attendees may need to know ahead of time.
• > If possible, use live streaming video once the event has begun so that people see what an awesome event it is and how much fun everyone else is having. This may prompt some people to make a last minute stop at your event in order to join in on all of the fun they’ve been seeing on your live streaming video.

After The Event- How To Ensure Your Next Event Will Be An Even Bigger Success

Chances are high that you will be holding another event at some point in the future. For this reason, you don’t want to slack once the event has finished, but rather, use the following day or two to get a head start on your future promotions. Here are some tips on how to ensure your next event will be even bigger than the one you just had:

• > Make sure to send out a thank you on Facebook and Twitter to the people who attended your event. Just a simple thank you post is sufficient.
• > Post plenty of photos and videos. This will let people who attended remember how much fun they had, and those who didn’t go all of the fun they missed.
• > If you already have another event date set, make sure to mention it once or twice in the days following the one you just had. A post something like, “If you enjoyed our last event, make sure to check out our next event…” with the date, time, and venue inserted, of course.

Keeping all of these things in mind and putting our tips to good use can help you to host an event bigger and better than any you have hosted before incorporating social media into the grand scheme of things. If you have any other tips or tricks on using social media to host a better event, let us know about it in the comments below! We always appreciate your valuable input, and look forward to hearing what you may have to add.

Author Bio: Arlene Brill loves all things Internet Marketing. She is currently working with SociaLink Media, a leading social media campaigns consulting company based in Minneapolis and Chicago. When she is not working, she is often found reading motivational books and hiking with her dog.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ How You Can Use Facebook and Twitter To Host A Better Event

That’s why most business owners understand the importance of incorporating search engine optimization into their marketing strategy. But when it comes to website design and its structure, many websites fall flat. An ineffective homepage, poor navigation, no call to action, bad internal linking, and a missing site map can lead to few conversions, little stickiness, and reduced crawlability.

So while efforts are being poured into attracting new customers by way of traditional SEO, leads can still vanish on the basis of a poorly designed site. Consider these five essential tips to make the most of your site while maximizing your SEO results.

1. Homepage

Your homepage is the gateway to your business for your customers and the search engines. It conveys an important if not critical message to your potential customer. A good homepage should capture your audience immediately while offering a call to action. Navigation should be simple and crawlable for the search engines, front and center, and preferably at the top of the page. Creative use of images and color are also an important factor in retaining a potential lead once they land on your site. Make the most of your homepage by including a contact form above the fold, redesigning navigation if it’s buried, and using images and color appropriately. If your site looks generic or outdated, the likelihood of retaining a potential lead is slim.

2. Navigation

Navigation is an essential component to a user’s experience. If it’s buried or too deep, your potential leads will exit your site leading to poor stickiness. Navigation should be straightforward. Stay away from deep menus that require the user to click through multiple pages just to get basic information. Make sure your navigation offers information quickly with the fewest clicks possible.

Navigation is also more than a menu at the top of your web page. It refers to the hierarchy that occurs as pages are built, categories are determined, and tags are created. Navigation as it relates to hierarchy is largely influenced by the platform on which you publish. Most platforms like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal give the webmaster flexibility when creating a hierarchy and are generally search engine friendly. But sites that are built on Flash, JavaScript, or heavily dependent on AJAX or JQuery are not ideal since search engines can have a difficult time parsing, indexing, and crawling these types of web languages. Stay away from building your site on these types of platforms.
A great way to check if your website is search engine friendly is to look at the cached text version of the website from Google.

1. Go to your Chrome browser and type in the URL bar: “cache:www.sampleurl.com” (Of course, replace “www.sampleurl.com” with your website.)
2. Then click on the link to the far upper right that reads “Text-only version”.
3. Look to see if you navigation links still appear.

3. Call to Action

A call to action refers to the response you want your users to perform, whether you want them to call to schedule an appointment or purchase your product. Always offer a strong call to action to capitalize on your SEO efforts. Make sure to include a call to action in your Title Tag element as this will help your website listing stand out in the search engine result page. Potentially, you could gain a higher CTR at position #4 if your Title Tag call to action is more compelling than positions #1-3. Also, include a phone number or a “Buy now” button on every single page, including blog posts. We already know that visitors make way to your website by keywords, long tail searches or direct visits, so make it easy for your visitor to buy or call, no matter how they got to your site. Don’t assume your user already knows what you want to sell. Make it clear as day with a strong call to action on every single page.

4. Internal Linking

Internal linking is an SEO strategy used to improve the functionality of a website when it comes to connecting your pages relevantly. It can increase website usability since it reduces the number of clicks required to get to important information. Internal linking also allows an SEO to strategically use anchor text to create page relationships.

Since Google’s release of its Penguin update, internal linking can make the website worse in some cases. All too often, it is abused as a keyword-stuffing mechanism, in turn devaluing its significance. Alternatively, internal linking has no strategy at all, with various keywords pointing to a slew of random pages or posts. So before you create any internal links, make sure they are 1) natural, 2) useful, 3) relevant, and 4) consistent. Come up with a plan prior to internal linking to make the most of future pages and posts should you hand off the reigns to a webmaster or blogger.

5. Sitemaps

A sitemap is an essential component to your website since it dovetails on the importance of navigation. Sitemaps usually come in two forms: one for your user, and another for search engines. The user sitemap is a single page that displays all of your website pages and subpages, making it easier for the user to find what they want. On the other hand, a search engine sitemap is usually not visible to the user (unless the specific URL is known). Instead, it is created to increase your site’s crawlability, telling search engines about your website pages and their importance through specific XML language.

When a sitemap is missing, not only is your website in danger of being crawled improperly, but user experience suffers as well. Always include both kinds of sitemaps on your site. Many people believe that if a URL is included in an XML sitemap, it will automatically be indexed by the search engines. This is not necessarily true, as an XML sitemap is only guide to Google and not a requirement. The use of popular plugins can help you create sitemaps on the fly. If a sitemap plugin is not possible, you can use any of the popular sitemap generation tools including Google Sitemap Generator to create sitemaps automatically.

About the Author: Steve Peron is the co-founder of Elevated Search a boutique SEO firm based out of San Diego. Elevated Search has over 8 years of experience specializing in on page optimization, link building, and local SEO and conversion optimization.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ 5 website structure and design tips to maximise SEO

Here is a quick pic of myself (Justin) and Andy in the office, a huge thank you to Andy for allowing me to endorse him and talk about the day through this guest blog.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Great to see Andy at SEONext HQ today!

Speeding up your website can have many benefits, from increased revenue to improved SEO performance. Read on for our free guide to why you should be thinking about site performance, and 5 tips to help you achieve a speed boost.

Increased Revenue

A slow site will hit you in the pocket. Don’t take our word for it. The big internet companies have spent millions in research on this, and have published some great numbers:

• Amazon found that every 100ms of delay reduced revenue by 1%. For a company as large as Amazon that can represent billions of dollars of lost revenue. Source
• Bing found that a 1 second delay in load time led to 2.8% drop in revenue. A 2 second delay saw revenue fall by 4.3%. Source
• Yahoo found that a reduction in page load of 400ms caused a 5-9% drop in traffic. Source
• Google published a study that showed when a slight delay was added to web searches – as little as just a tenth of a second – searchers used Google up to 0.6% less, and this behaviour continued for as long as 6 weeks after the delay itself was removed. This shows that users not only noticed the difference and altered their behaviour, but also that they continued to avoid the site for many weeks later. Source
• More dramatically, Google found in another experiment that increasing the number of search results on a page from 10 to 30 – and consequently increasing the load time of the page from 400ms to 900ms – led to 25% reduction in traffic. Source
• Google also found that the simple act of adding a shopping cart icon to results, which made the page 2% slower to load, also led to a 2% drop in searches per user. Source

Increased SEO Performance

Google confirmed way back in April 2010 that they had begun to build website speed directly into their algorithm as a ranking factor.

It is of course hard to quantify exactly how much of a boost it will give to search rankings, but the very fact that Google have confirmed it is a ranking factor – and have encouraged website owners to do something about it – makes it a technique worth employing.

So unlike link building – which can potentially lead to getting you penalised – Google actually want you to make your site faster, and will reward you accordingly.

5 Website Performance Tips and Hacks to Speed Up your Website

So right now you should be fully convinced that speeding up your website is a fantastically good idea.

Here are ten easy to implement technical tips to help you speed up your website:

[span style="dropcap4"]1[/span] Turn On Compression

Servers generally default to using standard non-compressed delivery of files. So a massive and easy win can be achieved just by turning on compression.

If you have a sys-admin, just ask them to turn on compression. How you go about actually achieving this varies from OS to OS. On Windows servers/IIS it can be as simple as ticking a couple of checkboxes. In Apache you can get pretty far by installing a module such as mod_gzip or mod_deflate, and adding some code to your .htaccess file. If you want to get really kinky you can even install Google’s mod_pagespeed.

[span style="dropcap4"]2[/span] Compress / Reduce Image Size

Using this basic tip I have helped websites reduce their total page size from in the 1-2mb range down to 150k-200k.

There are loads of ways of doing this – whether automatically using a tool like Yahoo YSlow’s Smush.it – or manually in Photoshop. But don’t stop at Photoshop. Once you have cut your file down as far as you can, run it through an image compression tool and see what it comes back with.

[span style="dropcap4"]3[/span] Get Better Web Hosting (Dedicated / Cloud / CDN)

As demonstrated by the fact you can potentially help make your company millions of pounds more in revenue a year, your CEO won’t thank you for saving a few quid on web hosting.

Have shared hosting? Slap yourself. Then get out your credit card, and go find a dedicated server in a location close to your customers.

Have a dedicated server or five? Permit yourself a gentle pat on the back, but don’t get complacent. If you really want to take things to the next level you should start thinking about using cloud hosting or a good Content Delivery Network.

A CDN will store static copies of your static files all around the world – meaning that a user can download the files from the nearest server, rather than waiting for them to arrive

[span style="dropcap4"]4[/span] Running WordPress? Install W3 Total Cache and WP Clean Up

If you are using WordPress it is as easy as buttons to speed up your website.

First, install WP Clean Up. It is an excellent plugin that you can use to quickly delete all the detritus that accumulates with a WordPress installation over the years, including: post revisions, orphaned post/comment data and more. It does a far better job than all the other standard ‘Database optimiser’ plugins out there, which generally speaking don’t attempt to delete orphaned data. Using WP Clean Up I have been able to get bloated 60mb databases down to as low as 2-3mb.

W3 Total Cache is another plugin sent down from heaven to make our lives easier. Install, configure, and boom – say hello to pages that load up to 70% faster. Though the devil is in the detail. As with all these tips, make sure you test before and after, and the take time to find the best configuration. Used incorrectly, W3 Total Cache or any of the above tips could actually slow down your site. So make sure to test your website speed before and after.

[span style="dropcap4"]5[/span] Conduct a file audit / spring clean

Run a file audit using Firebug, Xenu/Screaming Frog or similar.

Do you really need 19 different offsite/third party JavaScript files? No? Remove as many as you can. Also check for files that redirect (3xx), no longer exist (4xx) or are very large (~100kb+).

Third party tracking/analytics software is a particular culprit here. Try looking for old tracking systems that aren’t even used by the teams that originally wanted them anymore. There’s always one.

Any file that is loaded from a server outside of the country, outside of your control, and more often than not isn’t even needed anymore – should be considered for removal unless it can justify itself somehow.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Website Performance & SEO: 5 Easy Tips and Hacks to Speed Up Your Site

If you like it, hit share below!

SEO Infographic via SearchEngineLand - Feature Image by Helena Alabama

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Your Guide to Keyword Research

SEO Inforgraphic descovered at Business2Community - Featured Image via findakitten.co.uk

If you’ve enjoyed this infographic or the cute kitten photo please hit share below!

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Is there SEO Value in Longtail Keyphrases?

Well recently I stumbled upon the below infographic, Id like to encourage you to share it with friends (links at the bottom) and leave a comment about what your favourite tips is.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Pro Tips for Searching Google Effectively in 2013

Below are some olympic quality SEO tips and advice for ways you can optimise your website continually and get record beating rankings across search engines.

SEO Infographic via Volusion

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Olympic SEO Tips

Facebook offers the opportunity to connect with a huge audience, but many brands are learning that it is one of the toughest social networks to master. Paid advertisements, blog updates, and even embedded videos will all fall on deaf ears without the right approach — no matter how intriguing the content is. It’s more proof that the biggest network doesn’t always produce the best results.

Garnering success with Facebook can be challenging, but it is possible. Many brands have already revealed the formula to making it happen.

Look Presentable

The visual aspect of Facebook is overlooked far too often. Because it is a third-party platform with very little leverage for physical modifications, several marketers don’t take the time to do the decorating that will enable them stand out. For example, have you taken advantage of your cover photo space yet? It may not appear to be a big deal, but the simple addition of this image will encourage more fans to take notice and start connecting. You should also make sure you are being represented properly by a profile photo that bleeds your brand identity.

Consistently Share Valuable Content

Content is king — even in the social web. Whatever your marketing strategy revolves around, content needs to be factored somewhere in the mix. People lust for content that is interesting, relevant, and most importantly, valuable. Sad to say, but the average person wants to know what’s in it for them. Why should they watch your video? Why should they read your blog post in full? What are they going to get out of buying your new product?

Not only must you answer these questions, you must answer them on a consistent basis. With so much competing for their attention, the average Facebook user won’t miss you should you stop posting. It may not be a bad idea to get on some type of schedule where your updates are prepared and planned to be posted on specific days. ‘

Be Engaging and Responsive

The cool thing about Facebook marketing is the high potential for engagement. Once you get a page up and running, it may be your fans who are actually doing the most of the posting. But that doesn’t free you of your responsibilities. There will come a time when your supporters want you to engage, and when it arises, you better respond promptly and be ready to interact. Content is one part of the plan. A well rounded engagement strategy is another that can help you build the thriving community environment Facebook offers.

Get Connected

Thanks to API technology, the Facebook experience lives both in and outside of the popular social platform. You can host it on your very own destinations by integrating the available social plugins. From the Like button and Recommendations Bar to the Comments box and Login button, these plugins give you the ability incorporate desirable elements from the social network into your website or blog. Facebook plugins help drive traffic, and also create the community that can benefit you in so many ways.

Measure Your Marketing

Some marketers avoid social media because they feel they don’t have access to the tools for tracking and analyzing their impact. If Facebook is your target social network, there is no excuse. Facebook Insights, its analytics tool, is built directly to the platform, and you have convenient access to it via your page’s dashboard. Insights delivers statistics in some important areas, including:

- Daily active users

- Impressions and clicks

- Referral traffic to apps and websites

- Reach

- And much more

Combined with your own custom metrics and key performance indicators, these insights can give you a great idea of where you really stand with your efforts.

Conclusion

Say what you will about Facebook, but it’s the biggest thing going in the social space for a reason. It serves up a rabid fan base of internet users who are already fully engaged and ready to interact with your brand — if you play your cards right. Add these tips to your Facebook marketing strategy, and I bet you’ll at least enjoy better results than you’re currently seeing.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Is Your Facebook Marketing Strategy Making an Impact?

Screen revolution

According to the recent trends show that the mobile technology brings the second revolution in screen technology. Now the people are using the mobile device with a big screen. So they want to get more information on their mobile screen. So the online marketing gets the new light in this segment as well. The big screen will fit larger information, so the people like to get the lot of information at in a single screen. The bigger screen, more the online marketing is possible.

Online Analytic

The online analytic attributes the scope of the online marketing in the bigger proportion. So the online marketer will able to exploit the surge of the sudden inflow in the analytical activity for the online business. It is a boon for the business as well as the online marketing. It will be a positive move for the betterment of the business in the future. Of course Google has been helping in this regard for the further development in the online marketing. Actually, through the online analytic, the marketers can predict the current trend and also the future trends as well.

Gamification

Recent time, the mobile application developers are more concentration on the game like presentation. So that the users can themselves engrossed in the application for the long time and help the marketers make the money as well. This gamification trend is unique in its class. Actually, frankly speaking, the people like us are more prone to the game like application. So they can enjoy it very much.

Inbound marketing

This inbound marketing is to attract the future potential towards your website and also they can give some business. It is a good idea to grab this new trend in 2013. Actually, through this trend, you will able to read the real customers by reading their mind precisely after judging the website analysis.

Loyalty marketing

This marketing totally depends on the customers of the website. The formula of this loyalty marketing is that if you provide the best product to your customers, then your customers will propagate your products to their acquaintance and also it will help your business to flourish. So you have to continue to supply the good services to your customers over the times. And in return, you will get the positive response to their parts.

Therefore, the latest changes in the online marketing does not only build your business in the higher scale, but also it will build your business reputation on the mind of the people over the internet as well.

About The Author: Brianne is a writer/blogger. She loves writing travelling and reading books. She contributes to bornrich.com

Original Content by SEO Andy @ What’s the latest changes in Online Marketing Trends

The differences in managing AdWords in a small country like Denmark and managing campaigns in the US, were indeed many.

One difference stuck out the most though. Broad match couldn’t be applied to most accounts. The CTR that keywords in broad match produced, and the subsequent ROI that was derived, were just dismal.

In Denmark, you can still to this day use broad match to some degree of success if you manage your keywords properly. Broad match is great at picking up misspellings, once in a lifetime searches and other hidden gems.

In the US however, many of the advantages that broad match offers, are overshadowed by how they’re abused. While a Danish broad match keyword can be managed with extensive negative keyword research and limited bidding, broad match keywords in the US are almost impossible to generate a sustainable ROI from for your efforts.

I’ve had very few accounts that I’ve managed that have actually resulted in positive ROIs from broad match-based keywords.

Broad Match Isn’t As Bad As Everyone Wants You To Believe

Broad match is by many accounts, awful. I personally partly hate broad match keywords.

What I really love about AdWords is the ability to track changes and make sense of the statistics. Broad match keywords defy my approach to AdWords in some ways.

Broad match keywords are useful if you catch long-tailed and other searches that only occur once or twice a month. Using exact match or phrase match for these keywords is impossible as you’ll get a Low Search Volume and never see the keyword in action.

Broad Match can therefore be used to pick up these long-tailed searches; however this means that you’ll never see the same search generate a sale twice.

Using Broad Match Over Time is a Game of Chance

I like to refer to gambling when I explain broad match keywords. They’re great sometimes, but can be awful as well.

Seeing that you rarely have the same search generate a sale more than once, it’s proves to be very hard to manage a keyword such as that.

You can never scale up broad match keywords because once you’ve added all the searches with high enough volume to your campaign, then all conversions will derive from one-off searches.

If you go a week or two without a couple of one-off searches, that will generate a conversion and the keyword might look pretty bad ROI-wise.

If 10 or 20 of the same broad match (gamble) keywords are suddenly not producing, then you might see a pretty big chunk of your profits go down the broad match drain.

Tips for Managing Broad Match

If you’re just starting out with AdWords, or starting a new campaign, then I rarely recommend using broad match. You have plenty of potential to exploit by solely using phrase, exact and partially, broad match modifier keywords. I recommend starting out with these.

However, if you’ve achieved good results with your current campaign, and want to expand, formulating a good strategy for adding broad match keywords can give you an extra boost in profits.

Always – Always – Use Negative Keywords Aggressively

Negative keywords are your main tool when managing broad match keywords. Broad match can show up on basically any search you’d ever imagine.

I advise you to use negative keywords quite aggressively and never leave an area un-researched.

If you’re advertising for Omega Juicers, then negative keywords like:

> Blender

> Kitchen equipment

> Kitchen tools

> Juice boxes

> Fresh pressed juice…

Are absolutely mandatory to add. You can actually find a lot more and don’t think that you’re going too far in finding negative keywords – you’re not.

Don’t Bid Too High

A common mistake is to have the same bid management strategy for broad match keywords as for your other match types. Broad match has a tendency to see the size of the CPC bid as a range of how broad it can reach to get clicks.

The higher the bid you set, the more searches you’ll eventually show up for. That might not be a good thing.

I usually find the sweet spot between the 4 – 6 ad positions. I rarely get anything out of bidding on a broad match keyword on up to the top 3 ad positions (and believe me… I’ve tried).

Be Very Careful About Sudden Spikes in Clicks

Seeing that broad match keywords can suddenly start showing up for other searches than previously seen for, it’s very important that you regularly monitor your keywords for sudden spikes in click volume.

If a keyword has increased in clicks a couple of days in a row, always look through the See Search Terms Report for searches to exclude.

Broad Match Can Either Help You, or Be a Huge Disappointment

With so many facets to broad match, makes it even more of a mystery for many marketers to unlock. It can however be a highly successful tactic if managed with skill. Otherwise, you’d be missing out by not including broad match in your keyword arsenal.

Broad match can however be the biggest expense in your AdWords account and this makes me advise you to be very careful. Never add too many broad match keywords at the same time and always monitor them closely.

– About the author, Andrew Lolk is the CMO at WhiteSharkMedia.com; an AdWords agency for small and mid-sized businesses.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ The Secret Dangers and Advantages of Using Broad Match in Google AdWords

Many advertisers don’t go further than adding a minor amount of negative keywords to their campaign. This usually happens in the creation phase or intermittently, when optimizing AdWords campaigns.

However, there are several aspects that are important in order to take full-advantage of the power of negative keywords. By not thinking about the aspects of negative keywords prior to adding them, you end up losing valuable gains.

These can be very simple things like thinking about misspellings or ensuring that the negative keyword in question isn’t coinciding with other regular keywords in your campaign.

By not managing your negative keyword lists properly, you significantly risk limiting your AdWords campaign’s potential in ways that can prove to be very frustrating for you. I’ve listed 5 considerations that I always review before adding a negative keyword to any AdWords campaign or account.

1) Does My Negative Keyword Conflict with a Regular Keyword?

On ad group level, it’s usually very simple to see if your negative keywords conflict with another keyword.

But when you start building bigger accounts and use the power of campaign and account-level negative keywords, it’ll be harder to keep track of everything so easily.

Always remind yourself to review your account for conflicting keywords. If I personally have doubts, I usually use AdWords Editor to assist me. AdWords Editor can tell you if a keyword is already in the account or, it offers to manually search for the negative keyword you’re considering adding.

Examples:

> Regular keyword: marine pump price comparison

• > Negative keyword: pump price comparison

In this example, I’ve found the search term pump price comparison, which is bad for several reasons. It’s too generic and pump can actually have different meanings (hint: high heels).

If you were to exclude the pump price comparison keyword, then you would also exclude the high value keyword marine pump price comparison.

Hint: To add the negative keyword above, without disrupting the effectiveness of the high-value keyword, then add the negative keyword in exact match.

2) Does It Exclude Keywords with the Kind of Intent We’re Actually Looking For?

Once in a while, you’ll note keywords that can have several meanings.

By using a keyword from within our field, AdWords optimization help might in fact stem from users looking for an AdWords agency to help them with optimizing their campaigns. However, it might also just be a DIY advertiser who’s looking for blog posts and videos on how to optimize AdWords accounts properly.

By blindly adding negative keywords to your account, you risk losing some users that would otherwise have been interested in your product.

Most industries have double-meaning keywords, so be on the lookout for them.

3) What Match Types Should I Add the Negative Keyword In?

When deciding what match type to add your negative keyword in, it’s all about effectiveness, as the considering factor.

If you’re looking to exclude all searches that are even closely related to the search term, then I advise you to use broad match. This will not only exclude the actual search terms in question, but also unwanted long-tail variations.

Example of Adding a Negative Keyword in Broad Match:

> Regular keyword: mold inspector pricing

> Negative keyword: mold inspector job

Instead of solely adding the exact keyword, you might as well add the negative keyword in broad match, too. This will exclude all searches for mold inspector job no matter if you add a city or other variations.

Example of Adding a Negative Keyword in Exact Match:

> Regular keyword: mold inspector pricing

> Negative keyword: inspector pricing

You’re most likely not looking for ‘generic inspector’ queries, but if you added the negative keyword inspector pricing in broad or phrase match, then you would have excluded searches for your main keyword, as well.

4) Should I Include This at Ad Group, Campaign or Account Level?

The next aspect I review is what level of my account the negative keyword will work the best at.

We have very granular methods of applying negative keywords, so there is no reason to add the same negative keyword in several ad groups, etc.

My main thoughts regarding what level I want to add negative keywords at are based on how far I want the negative keyword to reach.

If I know that my iPhone accessories store doesn’t sell any iPhone covers, then adding the negative keyword covers at account-level, will be my best choice.

However, if I’m looking to exclude a keyword from showing up in various ad groups, then the ideal approach is to add the negative keyword in the actual ad group.

5) Common Misspellings, Plural and Singular Variations of the Keyword

When you add a negative keyword, always think about whether you should expand it as well.

For instance, the negative keyword job can lead to several new negative keywords:

>Plural: jobs
> Misspellings: jops, jop
> Variations: work, intern, internship, resume

All users search differently. Always use the different variations of a negative keyword for maximum effect.

The Round Up… and Final Tips for Negative Keywords

The proper usage of negative keywords is essential to the success of any AdWords campaign. There are several ways to finding high-quality negative keywords, but one of the key ways is to identify them via your See Search Term Report.

Remember however to always think twice before adding a negative keyword to your account. You need to be fully aware of how exactly, the negative keyword will affect your other keywords.

– About the author, Andrew Lolk is the CMO at WhiteSharkMedia.com; an AdWords agency for small and mid-sized businesses.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ The 5 Most Important Aspects to Consider Before Adding a Negative Keyword to Your AdWords Campaign

1. Allow Customers to Leave Product Reviews 

Some business owners believe that it is not a good idea to allow customers to provide product feedback. These business owners may believe that the product will not sell in the future. If this is not the case, a person may simply hold to the idea that reviews are a waste of time and space. Reviews bring numerous benefits. Other customers may be able to decide if a certain item is appropriate for their various needs. The keywords present in the reviews may also act as SEO. This is something to keep in mind.

2. Develop Relationships with Customers and Other Websites

It is not enough to allow reviews on a website. If a business wishes to implement distinct tactics for 2013, it is essential to develop relationships. A business must be willing to interact with peers and potential customers. The people in charge cannot isolate themselves or expect employees to take on the same habit. The people in charge should talk to others; when they take on such habits, it is likely that another website will link to their website. This allows a website to gain a higher ranking in search engines. Such an option brings many outlets to the table.

3. Provide Helpful and Informative Content

Many search engines do not allow a website to have a high ranking if it does not contain relevant content. A website that uses SEO keywords and provides little or no useful content may suffer in the long run. If a business wishes for its website to stand out and gain a following, a person must take the right steps. He or she must create content that will help a person attempt something. It is not difficult to craft smart and suitable content. It is vital to use competent grammar and spelling in order to showcase professionalism.

SEO plays a large role in the world of business. Many business owners are aware of the fact that SEO may bring potential clients and customers to a website. However, it is not enough to know what SEO is or where it is appropriate on a website. If a business or individual wishes to gain notoriety on the Internet, it is vital to look for new tactics. The year 2013 brings a fresh set of issues, and a business must stay alert and adjust to various changes. The information above may provide assistance. Whether a website is large or small, SEO may not be ignored.

About the Author: Sarah Gotheridge represents a site called Monetise.co.uk. She enjoys writing about business advice and tips. Feel free to visit her site for more information on Lead Generation Services.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Basic SEO Tactics for Your Business in 2013

The problem is that optimize an e-commerce search engines is not as simple as optimizing a blog or a corporate website with a few pages, since most of the time you have to deal with dozens of products that are added or deleted from the catalog in a short time, and all that makes SEO for e-commerce one of the most difficult tasks in the field of search engine marketing.

And then the 7 SEO Mistakes of a typical e-commerce site.

1. Product Description absent

Unless your products are not rare or have very little competition, it will be really hard to appear in the top 10 research if the card is completely missing a description.

A measure for the amount of text needed for the description can be obtained by counting the words used in the navigation menu in the sidebar, in the footer and any other block of text in the data sheet blank, and try to enter a unique description length higher than the previously calculated value, to ensure that it has a weight greater than the default text.

Obviously the higher the amount of text inserted only in the description of the product, the greater the benefits in terms of SEO, but it is well to consider that:

> You need to enter texts that help visitors to make decisions on the purchase of the product

> We do not recommend copying texts from other websites, search engines may penalize

> It is best not to overdo it with the length of the texts, could be annoying

2. Use the description of the producers

If you want your items to be excluded from the search results, then use the descriptions provided directly from manufacturers!

The problem is that most online stores use this practice, and not only Google does not like duplicate content but recently has openly declared war on those who copy the text on the web. The best solution is to write unique texts, always.

Who manages e-commerce with hundreds of products might have some difficulty since it is an activity that requires a lot of time, but a suggestion would be to focus its attention on the best-selling products, the ones that generate the most profit or suffering more competition on the SERP.

3. No reviews

About 70% of consumers look for information on the internet before buying a product. Allowing customers to write a review about your products not only allow you to increase the ‘ audience capturing a large segment of users searching for information, but will also facilitate positioning of the product cards with text content in the theme generated by the comments.

The advantage of the user reviews is twofold:

> Generates unique content for free

> The page is still “alive”, and this is a very pleasing to the search engines

4. Do not optimize products based on the search engines

A typical error of e-commerce with a very nice catalog cards is that the products are not really optimized taking into account the query entered by users on search engines.

Here are some tips:

> enter the make of the product in the H1 tag and the title of the page

> do not forget to enter the ‘ alt attribute to the images

> Not over optimize your pages by entering the keywords too many times

> Never use iframe to display content

5. Duplicate titles

Another problem faced by online stores is larger than the duplicate title tag. Sometimes it can be difficult to try to differentiate the titles if the catalog offers many similar items, even the same brand.

A good practice would be to include in the title: Brand – Model – Type

6. URL not optimized

Optimize the URLs to pages giving addresses keyword rich, containing keywords, certainly brings some benefits.

There are many e-commerce sites that do not take this into account, only apparently marginal, and leave the URL “unreadable”, with the ID of product and / or a series of parameters due to the dynamic nature of the web-site.

Here are some advantages of using optimized URL:

> Users can already get an idea of what they’ll find on the page before you even click on the URL

> URL is too long and unreadable could be mistaken for spam attempts

> If other sites link to your pages should the presence of keywords in the URL would ensure the presence of keywords in the ‘ anchor text

> The presence of keywords in the URL is still a factor of positioning on search engines, although Google is reducing the weight

7. Duplicate content

The most common problem in e-commerce sites is represented by duplicate content, generated for example by filtering systems products, from research, from the archives, the content formatted for printing but also from the structure of the website.

Let’s say we need to load in our e-commerce data sheet LED TV Samsung 32 “model UE32EH5000W : Depending on the structure of our shop it is likely that this product is included in the categories “LCD TV”, “SAMSUNG”, “DA-32 -A-42-INCH “and that, for a limited period, is also in promotion. His card may be accessible from the URL:

1.            http://www.yourwebsite.com/samsung-tv-led-modelno123

2.            http://www. yourwebsite.com / led tv / samsung-tv-led-modelno123

3.            http://www. yourwebsite.com.it/ -led tv / samsung / samsung-tv-led-modelno123

4.            http://www. yourwebsite.com / tv-led / by-32-to-42-inch / samsung-tv-led-modelno123

5.            http://www. yourwebsite.com / products-in-offer / samsung-tv-led-32-ue32eh500w

This particular problem can be solved through the use of the tag ” rel = “canonical “, which indicates to the search engines which URL should be considered during indexing.

Here are some tips to minimize duplication of content:

> use the robots.txt file to restrict access to the sections that create duplicate content, such as archives, tags and categories

> use the canonical tag to indicate to search engines to index the URL

> use the ‘ nofollow attribute on links that point to areas with duplicate content

The golden rule of SEO

Want to be rewarded by Google? So indulge your users!

As is well known, the search engine Google takes into account its users and their browsing experience, so make your e-commerce useful and functional customers will earn his respect.

Greater the time spent consultation of your pages and navigation of the catalog, the lower the “bounce rate “, one of the main factors considered by Google to determine the quality of the contents of a website.

And you, what other errors optimization for search engines you have found in your e-commerce site or that of your competitors?

About the author: Abel Wike is a content manager at ClickSSL, GeoTrust SSL Reseller. She enjoys the challenges of creativity and attention to detail.

Img: Peter Stark

Original Content by SEO Andy @ 7 SEO Mistakes of a Typical E-Commerce Website

1. Content Rules the Internet

Knowing this, you already post quality articles. So how can you enhance your great content even more? Study authoritative news releases related to your blog topic. Note how they write, and how they use sources for their facts. Then write your own content with the same meticulous attention, and cite your resources.

Publish content that is reliable enough to be quoted by journalists and online news sites. It takes more time, but will pay off with helping you establish authority.

2. Write about Real World Events

Relate your content to the offline world, like events in nature, medicine, politics, the news, and to real people’s daily lives. This will give your articles immediacy and relevance that rehashed online content can never have. Stay current with events related to your niche that impact your targeted audience’s lives. That’s what they really care about.

3. Choose Images for Your Blog that are Intimate

Don’t hesitate to display genuine emotional content. This helps your reader identify with the article on a feeling level. And always incorporate images into your articles, because a text-only post looks like hard work, while photos grab attention.

Happy people, sad people, a dramatic moment, striking beauty, something mysterious – all will capture your reader’s interest. Keep your photo camera with you because you never know when a perfect moment might present.

4. Keep your Blog Tightly Focused and Purposed

Anyone landing on your site should know right away what your blog is about. Have a mission statement. Who and what does your blog serve? Does your content support that? Every article, every bit of content, every outgoing link, should serve your focus and purpose, and your readers’ needs.

5. Post Frequently, and be Consistent

This can be a challenge, and bloggers often commit to frequent posting but soon become overwhelmed with the task of continually producing fresh content. However, if you want to be seen as an authority, indeed, actually become an authority, then you must post often. Some of the most high traffic blogs even post daily. Keep your eye on current events for a supply of fresh content.

6. Post Videos

The search engines love videos, and that is because people love videos! Even if the videos you put up are less than a minute long, they keep visitors on your blog longer. Keep a camera with you, and be ready to record when an opportune time appears.

It can be about anything related to your niche, or just your daily life in a way that adds a personal touch. And let your imagination have free rein. You never know when you might capture a million dollar moment.

7. Pay Attention to the Physical Look of Your Content

Look at how this article you are reading is spaced out on the screen. There are small paragraphs, separated by blank lines. Content is organized with headings, sub-headings, and lists. Bold fonts identify sections. Arrange your content so it is easy on the eyes, and doesn’t overwhelm the reader with compact text that runs together.

We all remember days in school when we were forced to read Dickens with hundreds of tiny words jammed on a page…painful! Use at least a 12 point font or even 14 point, and avoid exotic fonts.

8. Use an Attractive Theme and Layout 

Put some thought into the visual impact of your site. You only have a few seconds to make that first impression. Aesthetics matter! You may even want to have it done professionally or purchase a premium theme. Don’t blanket your content with ads. This can be distracting. Give your visitors a positive, visually pleasing experience and they will linger. This definitely increases ranking.

Fine tuning your blog, in both its content and look will increase visitors’ enjoyment and satisfaction. You can compete with the millions of blogs online when you commit to frequent posting of accurate and focused authoritative content, emotionally rich images, relevant video, and beautiful aesthetics.

On the whole, use these effective ways to enhance your blog and stand out in the crowd. Meanwhile, if you’d like to focus more of your efforts in improving your blog’s SEO for small business purposes, then you should go beyond the pieces of advice listed in this blog post, and go for a real and reliable SEO expert.

About the Author: Andrew Scherer. You can find more of his work at a company providing SEO for small business.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ 8 Effective Ways to Enhance Your Blog

With the ability to create searches such as “restaurants in manchester that my friends have been too” it is easy to see why there could be some important updates to make to pages and status updates for businesses across the world. (ok it’s social search optimisation and not SEO strictly but shush).

So here are  Top 3 Pro Tips for Facebook Graph Search:

1) Ensure that your Page Name, Vanity URL and About Section are all optimised for your business name, type and location – these are all key attributes in many likely searches using Facebook Graph Search.

2) Post updates each and every day and use images in all of your posts and offers, from the results seen so far almost all searches using Facebook Graph Search will show an image with them (I am yet to see one without an image attached).

3) Focus on attracting fans to your Page and give your fans a reason to interact with your content on an ongoing basis. The more activity on your page the more likely you are to show in Facebook Graph Search.

Overall, they key is updating your page often and ensuring its continual growth of your facebook page through fan growth and interaction. The more interaction the better the chance of your page appearing for relevant searches, but also remember to post random things like “bikes seen from the restaurant window” as if someone searches “bikes in manchester” you may also show up for this! Be clever too and ask questions

Do you have a top tip for using Facebook Graph Search and optimising pages for search? let us know, leave a comment below!

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Pro SEO Tips for Facebook Graph Search

SEO is more or less robotic and mechanical

SEO actually optimizes the search query in Google, and maintains the relevancy of the website by featuring it amongst the top search listings. Through SEO, you can be sure of garnering maximum hits, however, you cannot protect your website from negative reviews, which unfortunately pops up in search engines along with your name. It is therefore impossible to counteract negative feedback and prevent them from featuring in search listings. However, that is not the case with Social Media, as you are more in control of the content you want featured on your page.

Social Media is more meaningful and human

Social media is about creating meaningful textual material according to the demand of the market and the prevailing situation. This text is then spread over larger audiences through ‘sharing’ and the numerous ‘likes’ unlike the mechanical functioning of the search engines. ‘Likes’ determine popularity and even if a certain brand or issue receives a negative review, it can still be tackled on the social media platform by communicating with the person.

Social Media extends beyond the specific platforms

Social Media now plays a greater role and goes beyond the purview of their websites. For instance Facebook likes are no longer limited to the website Facebook.com and it figures in Bing searches quite prominently. Hence, it SEO is no longer a frontrunner in garnering audiences, as Social Media platforms have now gone beyond the ambit of their specific websites.

Social Media more in use amongst the youth

It would not be exaggerating to say that the youth of today is connected through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The pulse of a nation and the mood of the general public can be read through the various issues raised, ‘liked’, ‘shared’ and commented. Hence, the recourse to taking the longer path of SEOs has considerably gone down with the youth, who are on the go and make the most of Social Media platforms.

img: forcesofgeek

About the author: Brianne is a writer blogger. She loves writing, travelling and reading books. She contributes to Dr. Cesar Parra

Original Content by SEO Andy @ SEO vs Social Media: Lets talk about the right platform for youth

Quality Wins Rankings

As in 2012, once again 2013 will see a move towards better content rather than quantity of content. On the whole I think we will see one or two huge updates with the aim of ensuring better content. This will mean a focus on Authorship of content (see below predictions), it will mean less value given to article websites, press releases again and will potentially mean more rankings being transient over days, weeks and months (aka moving continuously). I believe that 2013 will be one where keeping rankings will be harder than ever before and freshness of content will be the key to success.

Authorship Becomes Vital

For years many an SEO have played around with the idea of true Authorship of content, 2012 saw a move towards this with Google Authorship of content. This is easy enough to set up, click here for instructions. Moving forward I forsee that more sites will indeed allow for better authorship, the likes of twitter cards and facebook open graph will grow and form a concise authorship, in addition to this more tools will come with these as standard allowing for a canonical authorship ability for sites such as this.

Personalisation of Search Will Continue

Last year I predicted that search would no longer be the same ranking for everyone, things would be personalised on location, previous searches and your social graph (to some extent). 2013 will be the continuation of this move and almost no results (as above) will be static for any two users (ip’s or signed in users). Location will continue to grow in search result relevance, for instance a search for restaurant whether mobile or otherwise will show those nearest to you in results, in some cases much higher than those which rank well in other locations. In terms of your social graph this is only the case if your are signed into google+ (for google) or facebook (for bing) – but results your friends share will continue to move up the rankings, especially if they are using authorship (see above).

SOLOMO continues to GROW

Social, Local and mobile – for the non-seo out there reading this random blog. This buzzword first coined in 2011 was like a bad rash at the 2012 seo conferences and looks set to continue as a growing trend during 2013 and 2014 as mobiles become more and more able.

Christmas 2012 was the year of a “tablet for Christmas”, 2013 will be even more so as the market begins to saturate. With this in mind it’s clear to see why SOLOMO will grow this year and next. Children, Parents and Grand Parents will soon be mobile and interactive. More apps that are as simple as facebook and foursquare will appear but will so will feature rich apps – god knows there is plenty of room, especially in the uk market.

The reason this fits into SEO is that websites too can be location aware and can feed users great information for their location. Add to this Google’s focus on mobile search and you will soon see that websites need not just to be mobile friendly but mobile searchable and location active. 2013 is the year of Location.

Erm, Local Search in 2013

If the above hasn’t drummed it into you yet, Google is focused on local search. And you as a local business owner or SEO need to commit to this, you need to optimise each and every page to be local and rich in content. You need to focus on rich formatting schemes such as schema.org which takes your dull pages and allows them to be easily used in a much nicer way in search (this is especially true for products and events!).

2013 is the year when this will become common place and lets just say get aboard before the ship sets sail.

Social Transient Ranking (STR)

Those of us using Google+ will have noticed this already, the little line of “shared by…” under a search result. This will grow as Google+ does too, but more than this I foresee other social ranking signals being taken into account such as tweets and other status updates, this is already in place for news pieces with prominent twitter accounts being used a signal of the latest information. This combined with authorship across platforms (implied) will grow hugely in 2013 making this the year that marks the real start of social transient ranking.

MORE UPDATES!

2012 was for me another year of listening to the moaning and groaning of SEO’s who didn’t want to change and evolve tactics they had used for years. It followed the huge outcrys of 2011 from the same people, those people who (let me be honest) are probably grey hat at the very least – and if you are not and are a business owner apparently screwed over by Google, let me assure you you haven’t been you or the people you employed have done that too you and your business.

So what updates are coming?

My predictions for Google updates in 2013, are thus:

1) Indexing and Ranking will get faster and faster

2) Mobile search results will get even more different compared to desktop search

3) Authorship Ranking will effect ranking

4) More article websites will bite the dust as will forums

Conclusion of SEO Trends in 2013

Overall I see 2013 being a year of improvement in the search algo, with a focus on great quality of content – this will be complimented with authorship ranking and social transient ranking. It will be a year of many screams as the low quality bite the dust, but it will be a great and interesting year.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Top SEO Trends for 2013

Breaking The Cycle Of Sadness

You might have encountered SEO clients with more expectations, less budget and less time to deliver the top quality results, and you are wholly solely responsible for the project; the cycle of sadness surrounds you all around. How to break that cycle of sadness? Here are the simple ways to do that!

• > Ask more questions from the client to get a clear picture of the project.
• > Ask the client’s work examples (content, PR, outreach relationship) to know their definition of excellence.
• > Know and prioritize the opportunities by a quick sample audit of client’s site.
• > Ask an expert colleague to crosscheck your numbers and hours for the project delivery depending on the nature of the project.
• > Keep all the project details documented and centralized. Clean up the data and keep it easy to find and easy to read.
• > Inform the client about things you aren’t comfortable to do.
• > Be personable in your responses to client’s queries and add a touch of humour in communication to get an open response from the other side.
• > Be professional while dealing with the client.
• > Be effective in your strategy, timeline, and project delivery.
• > Be helpful by staying up-to-date with the latest technologies and strategies used in the SEO world.
• > Be transparent and feel comfortable while sharing bad news with the clients.
• > Be practical despite having various tasks down the list.

Defining The Project KPIs And ROI

Primary business objectives are first to be defined along with the terminology used for description. Ask about their primary marketing metrics and their link to the primary business objectives. Soft ROI metrics include mitigating risk, hiring and training employees, providing data for the new strategy, all constituting ROI, but the impact is difficult to measure.

Getting Started With An SEO Project – What SEOs Have To Do?

• > Get full project brief before signing the contract.
• > Get budget to do preliminary research before starting the project.
• > Define few topic points to build credibility and show how prepared you are for the project.
• > Ask in depth questions, instead of just the surface ones. Also, take notes.
• > Define the next steps you will take along with the date when you are going to deliver the detailed project plan.

Retaining The SEO Clients

Here are the things mentioned to increase the client retention rate:

• > Do research at the start to know that you are at right track.
• > Define clear roadmap for the project that both parties agree on.
• > Built out for 3-6 months should be there to ensure what you will provide to the client over the time.
• > Get quarterly reviews from the client in the areas of account management, project management, communication, output, and satisfaction level.
• > Keep an eye on the things changed in the client company.
• > Keep the tracking and measuring process simple for the client.
• > You should build stronger relationships with the organization’s stakeholders.
• > Go for the things that make the relationship stronger with the clients, enhance the work value, and make the project better.

Talking To The CEO About Big Budget Needs

Inform them through email what kind of budget requirements you have for their project. If it’s face-to-face meeting, then use slide presentation to express new ideas in front of the executives.

Determining Whether A Client Is Right Or Not

To know this, better to have a first call with the client for a minimum of 30 minutes. Make it sure that following of things you have cleared during that call to have a better understanding of the client business.

• > URL of the client’s domain
• > Quickly review their site to know the SEO level
• > Brief history of the client’s company
• > Look at the PR or news section of the site
• > Know your role in the company
• > Since how long the executive is there in the company
• > What is the main need behind going for SEO services now?
• > The kind of work previous SEO companies have done for the client
• > The reason behind switching to new SEO agency
• > The count of SEO agencies previously hired
• > Expectations from the new SEO agency regarding work and results

Refusing The Project That’s Not Right For You

If you accept any project that’s not right for you, all it will result in an unhappy client. It will also lead to money wasting and disgruntled employees, finally affecting the company culture. So, if you understand that the project isn’t right for you, don’t feel hesitated in refusing that. However, never refuse in a way that the client couldn’t come back to you; instead leave an open door in the communication.

Conclusion

While signing on a new client, it’s more like creating a new contract. Keep an eye on the changing expectations of the SEO clients, so that the results could be stunning. Considering all of the points mentioned above, you could make your SEO project selection much better and to make the project success a possible dream for the client.

About the Author:  Emma Johns, writer of the post, is from Dundee, UK. She is currently working with a firm that caters to the SEO Dundee needs of the local clients. The major fields of her writing interest include all forms of internet marketing, with focus on the latest trends in SEO and SMM. 

Original Content by SEO Andy @ How To Setup An SEO Project? Key Steps To Make Success A Possible Dream!

This time, we’re going to have a look at a number of more specific techniques through which those weaknesses can be exploited.

Content

Content lies at the heart of any online strategy. Fortunately, many companies have limited budgets and expertise in this area, and that leaves them open to being overtaken by a smart competitor.

A blog is one of the easiest, although certainly not the only, ways to get quality, fresh content onto a site and attract links and traffic. But it’s not enough to have a vague idea of what potential customers might want: businesses need to have a precise conceptualization of what their customers are going to be searching for at different points in the purchase cycle, and produce search engine optimized content that meets those needs.

That doesn’t mean low-quality content stuffed with as many keywords as possible; it means awesome, compelling, readable content on subjects that are going to be useful to customers – that’s what they are searching for, and that’s what search engines like Google love to give them.

Take a careful look at your competitors’ sites and identify content failings in two main areas:

Topic

Imagine you run a small online book store serving a niche market interested in vintage cars. There are an almost infinite number of ways you might frame content to bring traffic to your site. You need to narrow down the options.

You notice that your major competitor in the next town over has a fantastic blog with weekly in-depth articles focused on the mechanics of vintage automobiles – she’s a retired engineer. This competitor consistently ranks higher than you for your core search term “American vintage cars”. Her site is well established with a huge amount of expert material. It’s going to be difficult to tackle her head-on with the same type of content.

However, you know from researching your market that most of the people who buy vintage car books are not mechanically inclined. They are much more interested in history and they are nostalgic for particular eras. So, you decide to focus your blog on historical articles detailing the lifestyles of the people who drove vintage cars, with extensive illustrations taken from public domain photographs of the period and links to the books you sell that expand on the article content.

You make sure that you optimize your content for keywords phrases like “history of vintage cars”, “early twentieth century automobiles”, “cars in forties movies” and so on.

You’re tapping into a lucrative search market that your competitor has missed.

Type

It’s almost a cliché these days that there are three main types of search: transactional, informational, and navigational. People want to buy something, learn something, or go somewhere. You can split these main types into more specific subgroups and you can also categorize searches according to the purchase cycle. The point is to find out which type of search your competitor isn’t providing content for, and satisfy that need.

Different types of content serve different needs. Some businesses focus directly on the hard sell, which might be fine if all your potential site visitors were making transactional searches and had already decided that they wanted to buy and from where they wanted to buy it. However, for a searcher who is just mulling the possibilities and looking for information, the hard sell is off-putting. It might work for second hand car dealers, but the Internet is a different medium with different expectations and social pressures.
Perhaps your competitor focuses on the hard sell, and you focus – for the time being – on informational content that help clients learn about the possibilities without trying too hard to sell to them.

Both of these examples are very simple scenarios. In real life it can be much more complex to identify opportunities, but the basic principles will still apply.

Link Building

Great content and social media strategy is the single best way to build links, and in the perfect Web of Google’s fondest dreams, that’s how everyone does it. But the reality is that there are other ways to get the incoming links to your site that are necessary for ranking well.

You have to be careful though: Google really doesn’t like some of the more sneaky ways of building links: basically because they rely on trickery, are dishonest, and make it hard for Google to provide a good service to its users. Google pays some very smart people a lot of money to figure out how to avoid being tricked. It’s a safe bet that so-called “black hat” techniques will work for only a short time, if they work at all, and you’ll eventually have to do the work again, or even undo what’s already done because you’ve been penalized. It’s tempting to give Johnny Blackhat a bunch of cash and have him go spamming forums and comment threads with his bots, but it’ll bite you in the behind eventually.

These techniques are firmly on the white-hat side of the eternal battle of SEO good and evil, even if some of them seem a little sneaky.

Guest Blogging

Once you’ve identified where your competitors incoming links are coming from, you can look at what sort of sites they are from, identify related sites, and offer them some of the great content that you’ve established you can produce on your own blog. Again, always be on the lookout for opportunities that your competitor has missed: higher authority sites that they haven’t got a link from, for example.

Capture their Broken Links

This one is a bit sneaky, and it’s not always applicable, but it can come in handy sometimes. We discussed in the last article how to examine your competitors inbound links. In many cases, a site will have linked to your competitor incorrectly, or the competitor will have moved content. In any case, some of those links will be broken. Webmasters hate to have broken links on their site, and they might be grateful enough to give you a link if you let them know, especially if you create some content that can replace the content that was originally linked to. There’s a great guide to using this technique on Search Engine Journal.

Linking out and sharing

Once you know where your competitor has links from, you can begin to cultivate relationships with those and similar sites. One of the best ways to do this is to link to their content, and let them know you’ve done it. Perhaps you might create a list of resources that includes many of links sites in the niche you are targeting. Site owners love to be included in these “best resources lists” and they will often return the favor or publicize the list to their readers.

Sharing their content on social media is also a great way to build relationships and eventually get links.

There’s a superb list of link building techniques at Point Blank SEO.

These are just a few of the many ways you can get ahead of your competitors. If you have some favorite tips and tricks, we’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Competitor Analysis Part II: Exploiting Weaknesses

Businesses are also in a constant battle to cultivate a backlink profile that leads to a higher position in the SERPs. SEO can be thought of as an ongoing process of refinement that takes place against a background of competitors who are trying to achieve the same thing.

Developing a keyword glossary and creating content around it is not enough to gain and maintain a decent position relative to other businesses in a niche. You also have to engage in a bit of industrial spying and find out what the other guy is up to, both so you can do the same thing but better, and so that you can find out what he’s not doing that you could be.

Find Out Who Your Competitors Are.

This should be obvious. Most businesses know who their competitors are, right?

Not always.

Here we are talking about competitors for search engine position, which might not be the same as your business competitors. For example, if you’re a potato farmer, who wants to rank well for “potato“, you’ll notice that your main competitors for search ranking are not other potato farmers, but informational resources like Wikipedia and various recipe sites.

Of course, in the real world, it would be foolish to try to rank for a hugely popular search term like potato unless you have a bottomless pot of money to spend on SEO and link building.

The easiest way to find your competitors is to use your keyword glossary to search and take note of who has the best search position. You can also use Google’s “related:” search operator to discover which sites Google thinks are most closely related to your site.

Site analysis

Once you’ve identified your competitors, it’s time to take a thorough look at their site to see how it compares to yours. If they are ranking better for your desired search terms, there are a huge number of factors that might be the cause of that. We’re not going to go deeply into that here, any decent SEO primer will make it clear what you should be looking for.

But, as we mentioned, this is not an exercise in copying, but in matching and exceeding competitors. Pay attention to what they are doing well and what they are doing poorly, and learn from it. For example, their site may have poor microdata, or it might have poor navigation. Take a particularly close look at their textual content — are they missing any keyword opportunities you could exploit? Is their social media presence stronger than yours? Do they make it easier to share content? Do they have more images and are their image tags in place?

Backlink Analysis

It’s estimated that about 60% of a site’s ranking potential is determined by their backlink profile — the links that they have coming to their site from other sites.

You can use tools like Majestic SEO’s Site Explorer or SEOmoz’s Open Site Explorer, which will both provide a comprehensive display of a site’s incoming links.

This can provide very insightful information about what a business is doing to market themselves online. Pay attention to which domains the links are coming from; it may reveal opportunities for further link building on your part. If your site appears to have better on-site optimization, and is still ranking less well than competitors, it is almost certainly because they have a better link profile. Try to figure out how they managed to build it; perhaps they are sending out press releases or are engaged in guest blogging (if so, there is an opportunity for you to get articles placed on the same blogs.)

Again, be on the lookout for what they are not doing as well as what they are. With a limited SEO budget, it may be better to exploit the gaps in your competitors armor, rather than taking them head on.

Competitor analysis is one of the more intellectually stimulating and enjoyable aspects of SEO. Part detective work and part game of chess, it can give a smart SEO or webmaster the edge over their competition that they need to secure a better position in the SERPs.

What competitor analysis tips and tricks do you use? Let us know in the comments below.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Competitor Analysis For SEO

Create Compelling Content

The content of a blog is considered to be its most vital aspect for the success of a blog. Content should be created by keeping the interests of the target audience in mind. Quality content increases trustworthiness of your blog and makes more people to visit your blog often. Quality content also help to improve the ranking of your blog and become more visible over the search engines.

Employ Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization is a simple but effective method to make your blog highly visible over different search engine results. SEO begins with finding popular key words related to your area and using them properly in your content, title and Meta tags. Your SEO strategy should cover important things like load time, simple navigation, quality inbound and outbound links, good file names and catchy titles for your pages.

Update the Content Frequently

Updating the content frequently will make people to visit your blog more and more often and become your loyal audience. Even though there is no magic number, it is generally recommended to update your blog for at least three to five time every week. Make sure that your blog is updated with fresh content before weekends as more customers visit blogs during weekends when they are free. Unless you run a news blog, there is no need to update your blog everyday.

Email your Important Blog Posts

Some people may not keep visiting your blog unless they are sure that there is fresh quality content available with you. Emailing your visitors with the links to the new posts on your blog will help in bringing the content before them.

Social Media

Social media sites are booming and you can use them for your blog promotion. Create your profile on social media sites like Facebook and Google+ and start posting links to your content on your profile pages. Users of these social media sites will be redirected to your blog when they click on the link posted on your profile page. Social media sites will also enable your blog’s fans to share your content with others.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging helps in building authority of your blog among your target audience. Guest blogging involves posting an article in a blog that is not owned by you. The article will have back links to your own blog. Users who like your guest posts will click on the links in the post and visit your blog to read more relevant posts. Guest blogging has recently become very popular after Google’s algorithm changes, which emphasize the need for relevant content linked with your site.

A successful blog needs a loyal reader base. The above discussed tips will help in promoting the content
of your blog well and increase its visibility.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ 6 Ways to Promote and Gain Visibility to Your Blog

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Merry Christmas Everybody!

There are many aspects to a good title. This article just covers some of the search engine only aspects which people often get wrong.

The unheard keyword

You must put at least one keyword in the title. Ideally the keyword will be one that is in your meta-keywords for the article/blog post. You can try to put more than one in there, but make sure it does not confuse the meaning or look/read silly or poorly.

Get stuffed

Do not stuff your title full of keywords. It will look dumb and the search engine will view it more as white noise. Worse still, the search engine may consider the page/post as being over optimized and penalize the page/post.

No nonsense geese feet

Make sure that whatever keyword you put in your title makes sense. Don’t just throw any old keyword in there. It must make perfect sense and fit it there perfectly–both grammatically and as part of a well-constructed title.

Keywords……prominence

There is an old rule about keyword prominence. This is all about putting keywords in a place where they are more prominent in order to show their significance. The rule for a title is that the keyword should be near the beginning of the title. This is an old rule and we cannot be sure of how useful it still is. Nevertheless, it cannot hurt to put your keyword near the front.

So wrong that is feels almost right

Make sure that whatever you have as your title–has something to do with your article/blog post. Stupid people will look up the most commonly searched-for search-terms and will make a title based on that because it will get more clicks. This tactic may fool the Google algorithm temporarily, but it will not fool the admins. Your entire domain could be red-flagged (even your IP address). Google has come down hard on the jerks that mislead people with their titles (and rightly so).

Annoying characters

The world is full of characters. Some people are jolly, others are fun, and others are sexy. The worst types of characters are ones who will tell you that a meta-title and a title should have a character limit. These people are so dumb that it gives smart people a nosebleed. There is not character limit for a title. You can make it 2000 characters if you like. A search engine can index a title of thousands of characters. However if you are looking for a comfortable guide, which a search engine prefers, then aim at around 70 characters. The only reason that search engines like this is because the title will fit on one uninterrupted line on a search engines results page (on the settings most people set their web browser to). In other words it means that some of your title is not chopped off on the search engine results.

Foggier than a Swedish sauna

Do not be too vague with your title. It should be intriguing for sure, but not too vague otherwise a Google admin may mistake it for misleading–and punish you accordingly. If you want to be intriguing, try posing the article/post as a question such as, “how many times must I tell my daughter to stop bullying her sister?” You could even risk, “how many times must I tell my daughter to stop?” but we are entering the realm of vague there a little bit.

Spelling it rong

Search engines are sensitive to spelling. The only time it works in your favor is when the user misspells something in the search box. So unless you are doing an article/blog post on swollen fingers, it is best to spell check your work.

Author’s bio: Sonia Jackson represents the UK web-site royal-essays.com. We’ll help you to solve all problems with writing different essays and research papers according to the rules in the UK.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ 8 Awesome Tips for Writing a Search Engine Friendly Page Title

Google won’t just charge you for merely posting your ad; they will also charge you by the number of clicks your ad gained (commonly called Pay-per-click or PPC method).

Google’s Adwords Campaign is basically easy to set up but its success rate is not that easy to come by. In Adwords, success is measured by your Click through Rate (CTR) and ultimately, your conversion rate.

Your conversion rate is more important and thus it is the ultimate measure of your Adwords success. But in order to possibly gain a higher conversion rate, you must at least work on how to improve your CTR.

Why is CTR so important?

By creating more attention-grabbing adverts, you will most likely increase the number of people who will actually click through your website within a month.

When you make efforts in improving your ad, you might end up ranking high while spending less than your competitors. But how can you exactly improve such a short piece of ad? More of that will be discussed later on this article.

Meanwhile…

Google is NOT all about the money.  Basically, it is perceived that those who bid higher for a keyword will also rank higher in terms of ad placement and thus it would achieve more clicks. But on the contrary, Google is not just about how much you pay, it’s also about how helpful your advert had been to the usual searcher.

Google always tries its best to show the most relevant and helpful results it could possibly find.  They want to make sure that the searchers are satisfied with their results so that they’ll always return.  If Google determines your advert is more helpful than your competitor’s adverts they will automatically push your advert higher up the ranks and reward you by allowing you to pay less for that position.

Since the staff at Google can’t possibly determine which adverts out of the millions are most helpful, they simply use an automated system based on your CTR.  If your CTR is higher than your competitor’s then the obvious reason is that your advert must have been more helpful and relevant to the searcher.

Conversion Rate

The second and most important determining factor of success in Adwords is the conversion rate of your landing page.  That is how many of your visitors (who clicked through your ad) actually end up contacting you and ultimately purchases one of your products or offered services.

Using a specialist’s tracking software; you can determine the percentage of visitors who end up navigating towards your contact page. The better your website converts– the more sales you ultimately make, and the higher the profits you can get from your business.

How can you improve your CTR?

Improving your CTR increases your chance of boosting your conversion rate. The more traffic your page gets, the more possibility that a number of visitors might be interested to whatever you are offering. Moreover, when your advert is promoted on a higher rank because of credibility and user satisfaction, you get to pay lesser per visitor.

Given the nature of an Adwords campaign, your ad is basically a short and concise description about what you offer or what your business is all about. Like content marketing, keywords are also very important for your Adwords.

Keywords can be primary or secondary. Primary keywords are directly pertaining to your service or product and are quite expensive since many are competing for the same ones. Whereas you’re secondary keywords are more of general keywords and they may not be directly related to your product. However, it is cheaper compared to primary keywords and will give you more chances to be exposed on a wide variety of audience. The downside however is that, you may not be able to place or direct your ads to the specific market you are targeting.

For a starting online business owner, it may be better to start with secondary keywords first so that there will be much time to study the best keywords to use and make them as primary keywords if your Adwords campaign had prove to be of some use (even with secondary keywords only).

Another thing to consider if you want to increase your CTR is the placement of your ads. Adwords can give you a choice of website partners wherein your ad can also show up. So pick wisely! Pick websites that will relate to your product, think of your target market (what pages would they most likely visit online?). For example, if your business is an online clothing shop, then opt for fashion blog sites, fashion magazine sites and the likes.

Don’t also forget that you need these elements on your actual advert:

> Short and concise description about your products/offers.

> Use simple and understandable words.

> Make it attention-grabbing.

> Don’t use misleading information.

Remember, results of your CTR needs some time of observation, so be patient in observing your page traffic trend and conversion rate trend before making conclusions. If you think your Adwords campaign is not working given the amount of observation time, it may be time to consider revising your actual advert or study what your target market types in search engines and where do they actually go in the online world.

About the Author: Ces works alongside Eskimosoup.co.uk as part of the web team. She has been featured in different industry blogs and sites providing resource article relating to Web Design in Hull. You can connect with her through Twitter @Ces_DTO.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ What Determines the Success of your Adwords Campaign?

I should make clear I am proud to be part of the Shark Stoppers campaign.

If you want to know how to block loan sharks from your Google search view this blog.

For more information about stopping loan sharks visit movement for change or sharkstoppers.com

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Stop Loan Sharking in the UK

Creating a Business Model

Before you can even begin to think about attracting a client base, you must first develop a strong plan of action with a proven market and worthwhile return on investment. All the best new businesses have at least one element of risk, so don’t be afraid to try something new, but be realistic with your expectations. Most marketers fail at least once before finding their niche. Create a well-designed website, make sure everything works correctly and only then start worrying about bringing people in.

This is the step where SEO factors in. No matter how perfect your business, or how high your conversion factor, without a steady flow of visitors you will never see a single sale. SEO takes months or even years of dedicated patience, but the rewards are well worth it. The term is used in a broad sense, but it actually only refers to actions done on a website to boost its rankings. Everything else, including link-building, is part of search engine marketing. Consider using pay-per-click advertising and writing guest posts for bloggers within your niche to increase your reputation quickly.

Making the Sale

Once you have the infrastructure and some traffic, it’s time to start converting readers into dollars. This requires a delicate balance of presenting persuasive ad copy while not coming off as desperate. No consumer likes feeling pressured into a decision. Instead, the best marketers convince their readers that they need an item or service and let them make the choice on their own. With the right product and the perfect pitch, your SEO efforts won’t go to waste.

Building a Brand

Finally, as your business starts to see some early successes, you must establish yourself as a brand. This is achieved when consumers and other marketers turn to you as an authority in your niche. You could become the premier retailer for dog collars, the final word in affiliate marketing opportunities or the most coveted book reviewer in the sci-fi genre. Whatever your passion, make a name for yourself and others will take notice. More than SEO, Web design or any other aspect of marketing, becoming the site that everyone turns to is the key to making it as an online entrepreneur.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ SEO Is Not A Miracle Marketing Solution

Which face are you, which is your partner and what about your work colleagues?

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Which Facebook Face Are You?

Last November I wrote about my 18 seo predictions for 2012, a post which many blogs have referenced in the past 12 months. But how many of those 18 trends I predicted came true? lets find out…

The Predictions and The Reality of SEO in 2012

1) Humans Make Search Rankings, aka Authority in the Hands of the People!

CORRECT! – Google have created a more human search by adding “intelligence” to search. With facts being presented alongside search results for people and locations. This is still being rolled out and tested with search however it is available today as “research” in Google Documents. Read more here.

2) Quality NOT Quantity, aka Panda 2

CORRECT! – With the Penguin update, Google has shown that quality is always superior to quantity, this is for both content and links. Many sites have been hit by penguin in several ways, you can read about how one site recovered on SEOMoz.

3) SEO’s are no longer just SEO’s!, aka a move from just doing seo

CORRECT! – This one is hard to judge for the most part, but if we take the SEOMoz Industry Survey results, there are 47% of respondents who said they were already generalists or would become so in the near future – this shows a distinct move from just being an SEO.

4) SEO’s will realise CRO’s are better – aka don’t just drive traffic, drive conversions

CORRECT! – this ties in with predictions 1 and 2, it shows that the end user is now more important and that quality dictates results. I am certainly more focused of CROs than ever before, as are many of the SEO’s I speak with.

5) Even More Confusion!

CORRECT! – this is certainly true of the SEO world, many an SEO is screaming about the various updates and how they are struggling to recover, combined with changes to Google Analytics and what not – 2012 has certainly been a confusing year for many an SEO.

6) Speech Search will be Normalised

CORRECT! – 2012 has certainly been a year of rapid growth for the mobile search world, and in particular for users of voice search. By that I don’t just mean searching Google but I mean in general voice commands and search usage on any device has picked up, this is in part due to upgrades to Android and iOS this year.

7) Mobile Search will be Huge!

CORRECT! – as explained above and by an inforgaphic about the rise of mobile search, mobile has gone big this year – again due to advances by Android and Apple devices.

8) It’s not yet Telepathy but it’s close

CORRECT! – with improvements to SIRI on iOS and the introduction of Google Now on Android the world has certainly moved closer to telepathy thanks to digital assistants on your phone. Who know’s maybe next year things will get even closer to telepathy than we think is possible.

9) Facebook continues to push but falters

CORRECT! – earlier this year facebook IPO’d in May with a price per share of $38usd today this has subsided to $27.58USD, earlier this year it hit a low of $17.49USD. So facebook is faltering somewhat as it has smacked the plateau of users. Facebook has been pushing mobile but is yet to really break through. Maybe next year will be even worse for them, kind of like when users dumped myspace!

10) Google+ will stay small

CORRECT! – a few users will say “no no no it’s growing” and I know it is but in reality its still small fry compared with twitter and facebook. I love Google+ for great and longer interactions but it is clearly not for everyone and again in 2013 i don’t see huge growth for the network.

11) Linking Social Networks will begin to die (again)

HALF CORRECT! – for the most part social networks have stayed as was, no rapid decline or real closures – though digg has kind of died and many other networks aren’t far off disappearing. It’s only a matter of time.

12) Corporate Blogging will die

HALF CORRECT! – ok they haven’t all gone away there are still some blogs that exist in a corporate boring manner, a few have changed their ways and others just slipped off the radar. One thing is clear though, the demise has begun of corporate blogs!

13) Mini Blogs Go BOOM

WRONG! – mini blogs such as tumblr just continued at their normal rate of growth, there was no boom in this niche industry.

14) Companies Scrap Blogging

CORRECT! – even the biggest company in the world has turned to social media… I give you the pope on twitter @pontifex

15) More Blogs will Go Video / Audio

HALF CORRECT! – most of the blogs I’ve read and loved this year have included rich media such as video or audio, even SEOAndy has began including more and more youtube videos. Podcast networks like TWIT and 5by5 have grown and grown, it’s an awesome age we live in.

16) Bye Bye Referrer Keywords

CORRECT! – More and more searchers are landing on sites and the owner unable to see the keywords they searched for, for SEOAndy this has gone from being around 15% in January to over 30% today.

17) Rankings Die … but Slowly

CORRECT! – as the world has moved from the desktop to mobile devices rankins have slowly began to die, as they have on the desktop. proof of this comes in the changes Google has made to searches where it will present a fact box (the knowledge graph) next to results – bing now does this too. In addition to this searches on google are integrated with the latest news and posts from Google+, a clear indication search is on the route down, bing does something similar with facebook. so “true” rankings are beginning to die in favour of social, news and locality.

18) RealTime Analytics Takes Off

WRONG! – although the arrival of jetpack means there are instant stats for wordpress lovers others have not been so lucky. Google Analytics hasn’t fully ran with its real time stats and as thats the “big one” it means not many people know of or user real time stats.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Did My SEO Predictions for 2012 Come True?

with thanks to digitalbuzzblog and hubshout

Original Content by SEO Andy @ The Rise of Mobile in Search

As part of the “big” yearly review I want to share the top 10 posts of 2012, as voted for by your clicks and views.

10 Top SEOAndy Blogs of 2012

1) SEO Trends for 2012
2) Yell.com Web Design – a waste of space
3) 10 high priority seo tips
4) how to make money from your blog
5) is Google Penguin the end of SEO?
6) how Google Shopping will effect your website
7) SEO Keywords and Keyphrases for arts and crafts websites
8) 25 Awesome Business Card Designs
9) Christmas SEO
10) Crafting the Perfect Meta Description

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Top 10 SEOAndy Blog Posts of 2012

If you think something is missing leave a comment or tweet @andykinsey

SEO / Internet Marketing Resources

SEOMoz Blog & User Blog - famous in the SEO world, a “go to” blog resource for many an seo.

Dave Naylor’s Blog - a fairly well known seo blog which looks at the latest news from the seo world.

SEO Round Table - another news based seo blog

Top Rank Marketing Blog - a top seo blog exploring many seo issues and topics

Chris Brogan’s Blog - a famous seo who writes great pieces

Google Webmasters Blog & GWT Videos - do i need to explain this?

GrayWolf SEO - not updates as much as it used to be, but still a go to seo blog

SEO by the sea - a superb seo blog for anyone interested

Bruce Clay’s SEO - a famous man and a famous seo blog

SEO Book Blog - a great resource and training course

This Week in Google – Twit.tv Podcast – covers all things web

Content Talks – 5by5 Podcast – content strategy is queen

Digital Marketing Podcast – Target Internet Podcast – a much admired seo podcast

Website Design Resources

A List Apart

Smashing Mag

Net Magazine

Boagworld + Boagworld Podcast

CSS Beauty

Andy Budd

Sitepoint Design Blog

Andy Rutledge

Jacob Cass – Just Creative

Vandelay Design Blog

Web Design Depot

Specky Boy

Digital Marketing – Target Internet Podcast

The Big Web Show – 5byb5 Podcast

The Web Ahead – 5by5 Podcast

General Tech Resources

This Week in Tech – Twit.tv Tech News Podcast

Security Now – Twit.tv Security Podcast

Tech News Today – Twit.tv Tech NewsTwit.tv

TechDrink - Tech News Blog

Triangulation – Twit.tv Podcast

In Beta – 5by5 Tech Podacast

Tech Crunch - Tech Blog

GigaOm - Tech Blog

Ars Technica - Tech Blog

Smarterware – General Tech Blog

ReadWriteWeb – General Tech Blog

–

If you think we’ve missed something from this list, tweet @andykinsey

Original Content by SEO Andy @ SEO and Web Design Resources

Do-Follow Links

Do-follow links are the most useful links for SEO purposes. When a Google indexing bot travels down a page, it explores any links it comes across and makes note of where they are going. This is how new websites first get indexed and partially determines how often your site is crawled.

When it comes to do-follow links, quality is now preferable to quantity. A back-link from a high-quality website is a substantial mark in a page’s favor and likely to boost its ranking. Meanwhile, a link from a low-ranked page has little effect, and hundreds of spammed links can actually bring down the wrath of a vengeful Google. Using do-follow links on your own website promotes discussion, but you may find yourself drowning in spam. All links are automatically do-follow unless specified otherwise.

No-Follow Links

A no-follow link, as its name would imply, instructs a Google bot to skip right past the link and continue indexing the page. At first glance, its easy to think that they are therefore useless to Internet marketers, but sometimes a no-follow link is worth just as much as a do-follow.

Many blog commenting systems, forums and member-driven communities use no-follow links to discourage spamming. A link from these sources is of little use for SEO, but it can drive substantial traffic to your site, and there’s speculation that no-follow links are still given slight consideration by Google. No-follow links are created by including a small HTML tag with the link.

Practical Uses in SEO

No one wants to waste time when working on SEO. Time, after all, is a valuable commodity when you have a business to run. Because of this, knowing when a back-link is worth pursuing is critical. Do-follow links should be the primary focus of webmasters looking to boost their page rank quickly. They offer the “link juice” needed to boost a website’s profile with Google. A no-follow link from a website or blog with a substantial readership, however, should not be turned down. In the end, a balanced mix of both shows Google that you aren’t just building links to game the system, and may be the most lucrative solution of all.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Using Both No-Follow and Do-Follow Links in SEO

Where does your SEO fit in? tweet @andykinsey and let me know.

SEO Card Game by SubtleNetwork

Original Content by SEO Andy @ SEO a Fun Game for Christmas

How to use the social media platforms in the best interest of the business?

Here’s how

For the business organizations that are looking forward to communicate more freely and directly with the customers it’s not as easy as just creating a business page, there’s much more to that. For embracing the global reach of social media, the business must create content management strategies that can be perfectly synchronized with the social media activities. However planning on the strategies is just the beginning. For leveraging the power of social media successfully; the marketing departments must redefine all the strategies. Gone are the days when a company only used to create a descriptive email for sending to the prospects. With the evolution of social media, the web world is no longer limited to a one way dialogue.

The fundamental change is largely driven by the social media; this goes on to say that marketing for any organization needs to undergo changes at the tactical and structural level. The goal of marketing must be to create an environment that solicits the reactions and behaviors of the customers and is receptive towards them.

In order to take complete advantage of the social media power, you need to answer the following questions before creating any marketing campaign:

• What is the new content strategy?
• What would be the impact of the change in strategy?
• Which part of the strategy will help in establishing a good conversation with the customers?
• How can we bring about versatility of mobile devices for amending the marketing endeavors so that they fit the customer needs?

Content Strategy

In the past, marketing professionals used to develop yearly plans and create a database of materials, images and other collateral through which it was possible to turn the prospects into customers. However, in terms of today’s business world, it is important to establish a new content management strategy that makes it possible to establish a two-way conversation with customers. In terms of a social media program it is important to establish digital assets for supporting the sales and marketing activities. Here, the key is to organize these digital assets in such a way so that they enable mass customization and respond perfectly to the changing markets. These assets would be the content that you create in accordance with your website niche.

Harnessing A Relationship

The marketing concept is based on a two-way process. It is true that establishing a long lasting relationship with the customers is also not easy, however was much more difficult in the past. With the introduction of the social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace has completely transformed the playing fields of the marketers. Online surveys coupled with the social media websites work perfectly in terms of closely monitoring the user behavior and it is also possible to adapt the customer whim in the real time.

By securing a two-way dialogue with the customer; the company has a better understanding of the personal habits, buying patterns and various other factors that drive purchasing. Knowing, understanding and analyzing all these factors enables the companies to provide the customers with an uniquely customized outreach. In a way, the marketing department in is a better position to establish a one-to-one connection with the customers that drive the sales.

Most of the times the companies are not successful in their marketing endeavors as they lack the vision of going beyond gathering the customer profile data. Social media websites provide with a unique opportunity to the customers in terms of strengthening the relationship between the customers and the company. This is an obvious fact; however it is mishandled at times. It must contain information so that everyone related to your niche finds something for themselves.

Personalizing Your Message

The shift from outbound marketing to inbound marketing has a dramatic effect on the functioning of your marketing department. In the past, companies used a marketing automation platform for creating a strategic belief, building a campaign and developing supporting collateral for determining the metrics in order to measure the success or failure of the marketing campaign. However, in reality this is a manual process that is cookie-cutter oriented.

Social media has opened the doors for new marketing tactics that are customized for specific types of customers. It provides with an opportunity for customizing the two-way dialogue between the company and the prospects on the basis of their profile data. Understanding the customers and their requirements will help the companies to create marketing assets that appeal to every individual customer, instead of making them generic for mass audience.

Working On Your Social Media Opportunities

What you need to follow on a daily basis?

Be Attentive : As a company, it is important to speed up all the conversations related to the business. There are some instances where the companies fail to monitor the information during the ‘non-working’ hours; this might create problems at times. It must be kept in mind that most of the people have access to internet 24/7 therefore you have to be alert in terms of any negative posts regarding your company that might hit the web during the weekends or during the non-working hours. Attending such posts immediately is important as it doesn’t take time for them to spread.

Dealing With Complaints: You might receive complaints at some point of time, how you handle them is extremely important. If you receive a complaint, deal with it right away instead of getting back to it afterwards. A fast feedback will help you to win back the customer.

Educate The Customer: Social media is also a free platform for educating the customers. Take complete advantage of the networking tool for providing quality information to your current and potential customers in terms of the products/services provided by you. For instance if you are operating a webhosting business, use the social media websites to educate the customers on prominent web hosting platforms, server specifications, different webhosting platforms etc. In this way people will start considering you as a leading source of information on that particular subject.

Social media has a wide spectrum for both buyers and sellers for getting the best. If utilized in the right way, social media will help you to move towards brand loyalty and a stronger customer base.

About the Author: Carol Wales, I specialise in writing on search engine optimization, technology and prominent web hosting platforms like Windows Hosting, Virtual Private Server Hosting and Cloud Web Hosting. I aim at providing the most informative posts so that the readers can gain maximum value for it.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Customer Management Through Social Media – Does It Work?

The site is called Google Webmaster Academy.

The GWA has come about through the expansion of the Google Webmaster Guidelines in recent years and in essence covers the basics of SEO including: how google works, influencing your site ranking, creating great content and how to integrate Google+ with your site.

There are several levels to the Webmaster Academy, these are:

SEO for Beginners
SEO for Advanced Users
Tips for Buinsesses
and Using Webmaster Tools.

Finally don’t forget the Google Webmasters YouTube videos.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Google Webmasters Academy

Content writing in the form of blog posts enhances your search engine presence

By paying for blog posts on your website, you will get more targeted traffic to your website because you will have a higher presence on search engines. Blog posts are a great way to enhance your website and add more value to the user. Ultimately, at the end of the day, that is what you are trying to do. Your overall goal is to give the users a better experience while on your website. This is what Google is looking for and that’s what you should strive for is well.

If you want to make money online, then you have to give the users a good experience. After all, even if you were to get a lot of traffic to your website, they are only going to be satisfied and buy your products or services if they have a good experience while they’re there. If your blog posts are not very high quality, then they are not going to enjoy reading them and they will not respect your business. The more blog posts that you have on your website, the more exposure your website will have on search engines. Every post that you have on your website gains more presence on the search engines and a better possibility that your website will attract website traffic.

High-quality writing will convert regular readers to buyers

Any readers that you get on your website, either on your website pages or your blog posts, can be converted to buyers rather easily by just writing high quality copy. Every blog post that you write and every website page that you have should be extremely high quality. If your content is not high quality, then there is no way to gain exposure online. You may have heard it before, but content writing is King.

Content is everything that you do on the Internet because it is what people read and it is how they perceive your business. Google themselves have said that content is what they find most important. They don’t care about backlinks or how hard you try to rank on search engines. Instead, they want websites that invest in their content to rank at the top of the search engines. They care about websites that spend more money improving the user experience and making people happy. That is what they want and that is what they are striving to make happen. Every update that they release is getting closer and closer to valuing content more highly. Furthermore, if you pay a high-quality company to write your content for you, it can take all of the hassle off of your hands.

About the Author : Bee is an SEO Copywriter for content writing king.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Discover Why Content Writing is Important to Your Website’s SEO?

Today I want to discuss 5 simple techniques on how you can organically build links to your website or blog, and it doesn’t involve begging, borrowing or stealing links from an unwitting website.

1. Write Great Content for YOUR Website

My number one tip for link building, is to build amazing content on your website and blog. I am not a believer that guest blogging will bring you fame, it may bring you a few “ok” links but never anything more (though there are a 1 or 2 blogs in each niche where it would be worthwhile guest blogging should you get a chance, such as on SEOMoz YouMoz Blog).

If you build great content your audience will find you, usually through search or social media. Once they find you, if you have built great content, they will share it and they will link to it sometimes from their own site (a true recommendation). These are what I define as “earned links”, you earned them through great content and not writing a few hundred words which mean not much but you got a link from the byline (“unearned links”), Google knows the difference.

So write great content!

2. Use Social Media

As mentioned above, great content is the key to link building, but using social media is how you will be found – again and again.

Use of social media correctly, through conversations and not just blind tweeting will earn you respect, followers, visitors and subsequently links. Again these are “earned links” – even if it’s just someone retweeting or sharing a post.

Using a great Social Media strategy in todays world is the quickest way to be found and instantly get recognized for a great piece of content.

3. Use Rich Media for Your Content

In my first point I mention building great content for your own website, but this doesn’t mean it needs to “live” on your website. Far from it. For example if you build amazing instructional videos (how to’s or answering questions) and host them on YouTube you too can gain greatly from them. Embed them in your site and build more textual content around them, but care for the social media community also on YouTube itself – watch the comments and be interactive with them. If a question becomes common place from your video, why no create another video answering it – 2 bangs for 1 buck.

Rich Media seduces the audience, it has the same effect as amazing photography does on a business website or blog.

4. Don’t Be Afraid to Link Out!

Again and again I talk to website owners who don’t want to link out for fear it will reflect badly on them somehow. This almost never happens, but what does happen is that if you link out then people will link to you. People will not look at linking to you if you are a SEO cul-de-sac, dead ends and SEO holes are useless and so many website owners and keepers won’t link to a site that doesn’t link out.

Linking out is nothing to be afraid of, so go on – link out.

5. Write About the Latest News and Write in Lists

The latest news can earn you instant links and social media juice. Write about something, jump on the band waggon of the latest tech craze, see if you can jump on before the exponential curve explodes and ride the wave to the top of the link building charts.

Writing in lists, is a great way to get attention. It’s like saying “here is a gift” or in the case of this post 5 gifts. 90% of my traffic at SEOAndy is to posts which are lists of tips or services or ideas. It’s a amazing way to gain traffic and people will link to them again and again, my most popular list is a list of 18 trends which will change seo in 2012, each month a huge number of people visit that post through links gained just by using social media to promote the post, oh and of course other lists which link to it in turn get linked too. It’s almost a circle of SEO link building.

Conclusion to Organic Link Building

Organic link building is easy in theory but hard to pull off in practice. The rewards you can gain through hard work of building great content for your website, through rich media or otherwise, can be huge. Links and links will pour down on those who can mix the 5 techniques above in perfect synchronicity – bare in mind no two website are built equal and so no two websites will use the same formula for success.

Images by:
IM3 – what content to use
HeliosDesign – Social Media DNA
(video) by zemanta

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Organic Link Building in 5 Easy Steps

Bloggers are quickly resorting to the exhaustive plugin directory of wordpress to provide a unique experience to their followers. The wordpress directory has a lot of trending plugins that incorporate different features to cater to your needs. However choosing the right plugin is crucial to the performance of your blog. Here are a few of the most popular plugins that can give your SEO rankings a boost.

Boxify

Boxify is a plugin that helps you draw the attention of your readers to the important aspects of your content. This helps reduce your bounce rate as the readers tend to stay longer on your pages. Boxify gives you the freedom to arrange and organize your content effectively. These boxes consist of simple shortcode, which allows you to modify any parameter you wish.

All-in-One SEO Pack

The All-in-One SEO Pack is an essential component that every blog must have. As the name suggests, the All-in-One SEO Pack helps you with all your SEO needs even if you have no clue about SEO. It comprises several tools that help you edit and change the metatag descriptions, permalink structures for posts, pages, categories, archives etc. among many more SEO features.

W3 Total Cache

The W3 Total Cache helps to load your pages quickly and efficiently so that your blog can keep pace with the hurried pace of your visitors. This plugin however, requires some bit of configuration to optimize it with your blog.

WP Touch

WP Touch is an effective Responsive Plugin intended for smartphones so that your smartphone visitors can totally avoid scrolling. This plugin can significantly increase your mobile traffic as smartphone users will find your blog more user friendly and attractive.  You can also benefit from the built-in advertising option in WP Touch.

Social Media Widget

Any WordPress plugin list for SEO is not complete without the Social Media Widget. The Social Media Widget is probably one of the most downloaded wordpress plugins. This plugin helps you drive a lot of free traffic to your site from shares on various social network sites. The plugin can be customized to enable the readers to quickly share your blog on any social network of their choice. There are also many other advanced social media plugins that enable direct integration of social media into your blog.

Toggler

Google ranks blogs based on how much and how good your blog content is – you should base your content strategy around these factors. This is good in terms of satisfying Google and other search engines. On the other hand you might lose a considerable portion of your followers as they may find it difficult to find what they want, which in turn is bad for SEO. Toggler is a plugin that helps you organize your headlines neatly so your readers can find exactly what they are looking for.

Other than the plugins, you must also give importance to some more SEO aspects such as including keywords ranked by webmaster tools. This can give your SEO rankings a boost. Methods like syndication and registering in the various directories such as Technorati can also help boost your rankings.

About the Author: ZK is an expert associated with WebTrafficROI, an information vault for bloggers, entrepreneurs, companies and small business owners seeking to derive maximum results from their web activities and drive online business growth.

In addition to the plugins above you maybe interested in the wordpress plugins SEO Andy suggests using.

Image by lettereyemedia

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Excellent WordPress Plugins for SEO – What All Bloggers Should Leverage

Here, we will look at a few of the most common questions that need answering.

1) How Does Social Media Affect SEO?

This is becoming one of the most common questions around, and opinions vary quite widely. Although social media marketing has been seen in the past as a separate entity to search engine optimisation, it is becoming closely associated with SEO with the two practices mutually beneficial to each other. Social media indirectly contributes to SEO through generating an audience to share content with and who may eventually create links to your website for you.

However, it is becoming apparent that social media also has some direct contribution to a website’s search engine ranking. Matt Cutts has given us mixed ideas of just how directly social media affects search engine rankings, and more detail can be found at the Nebstone blog. In short, both social media popularity and social media links have some impact on a website’s search engine ranking, meaning social media really is becoming an essential part of SEO and is likely to play a larger role in the future.

2) Does Article Marketing Still Contribute to SEO?

This question is perhaps debatable. Good quality, unique content submitted to quality article sites is probably still effective. However, it may be a mistake to fill it with keyworded backlinks to your website, because this might be flagged as SEO spam and the potential credibility of the article’s backlinks may be shot down.

Having said this, it is worth noting that Matt Cutts is not a big fan of article marketing and suggests leaning away from this (although he doesn’t say it’s ineffective).

3) How do I Increase My PageRank?

A lot of people still think PageRank is an important part of attaining high positions in the SERPs. This may have been true 10 years ago but nowadays, there is really very little correlation between PageRank and search engine rankings. Therefore, the answer to this question is just you don’t need to worry too much about it. PageRank really only tells Google how frequently to crawl that website, so if you have a low PageRank Google may crawl your website less often yes, but don’t worry about your search engine rankings, a webpage with PageRank 1 can easily outrank a webpage with a higher PageRank of 6.

4) How Important Is Domain Name For SEO?

A lot of people ask what they should use as their domain name and how important it is. Domain name can help with SEO yes, but in future, Google may put less weight on this, with numerous complaints that Google has weighted domain names too heavily in the past. Don’t get too worried about domain name though, it’s by no means necessary to have a keyworded domain name. In many cases it may be much better to have a branded domain name, showing customers who you are and creating a more personalised feel to your website. In so many cases, websites with branded domain names are at the top of the search results, because brand matters, and there are so many other effective ways to optimise your website for SEO.

One more thing to mention is not to get over cautious about negative SEO and the idea of being penalised by Google. Google is simply trying to present customers with what they are looking for, and are not trying to look for reasons to penalise everyone! There isn’t often a black and white answer when it comes to SEO, and every so often you just have to make a judgement call on whether something is going to be good or bad for your specific website.

About the Author: This article was written by George at Nebstone, an online marketing agency which offers a range of digital marketing services to help grow businesses online.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ A Few Common SEO Questions Set Straight

So how do you optimise images for SEO? well, here are are my top 5 tips

1. Keep them Contextual and Relevant

When choosing an image or photo for your website or blog you should ensure that those images are relevant and support the text which you have written. This does not mean that you need to be always on topic, but relevant even if in an abstract way. A good example of this is here on SEOAndy where my blog posts usually are illustrative of the blog post and it’s sentiment rather than closely related to the content. These images are still very useful for SEO.

Don’t forget the old saying is true, ” a picture is worth a thousand words”.

2. Choosing the Optimal Size and Settings

Getting the Image Size Correct is the first bit of this tip. There is no point in putting a photo or image on a web page which is huge, oversized or too small but stretched. Find the size of image you need and use it, if you are unsure how to do it give PicResize.com a try or online photo editor lunapic.com.

Optimising Image Settings is the second bit of this tip. Now in general you wont need to bother with this unless you’ve created a high quality image yourself or have taken a hi-res photograph. For example, on Rhona Petrie’s website she has lots of photos of her handcrafted jewellery (an example to the right), but the photos are taken at 300DPI and the output is set to the highest setting which means the filesize can be huge at times. To overcome this photographers should use something like Adobe Photoshop to manipulate images and export them in the correct settings, but if you have a photo you want to check the settings of, again use the above online editors.

3. File Names Are Important

When optimising images for SEO one of the first things to think about is how you would describe your image and how that can fit in with your SEO efforts already in existence. For example the photo above is called Textured-wire-earrings.jpg this is an optimised file name because it describes the image and includes the keyword earrings which Rhona’s website is targeting. Lets take a look at the image at the top of this post, its of a man taking a photo it’s file name is how-a-photographer-can-optimise-for-seo.jpg it’s optimised for the post talking about image optimisation but it also targets the audience of photographers.

4. Optimise Alt Text

Alt, Alternative, text is the section of text which goes along with an image such that you can describe the image in use. This in general is used by search engines to classify your image, but is actually for accessibility reasons. For instance if a user visits the site in a text-only audio browser (maybe they are blind) then images will be rendered as this Alt text and as such this means you must describe all images as well as possible. Another reason for wanting to do this really well is that it can, in some cases, effect search ranking. It is another place you can optimise for your keywords, though as always don’t get too spammy.

5. Show Your Fun Side

All of the above is fine and well but you must go further. You must show you willingness to have fun, especially if you run a blog like this. As mentioned above my images aren’t always on topic but they are in a round about way, photos are “thought zones” and as such you can use them to engage your visitors. For example in a recent post I talked about common mistakes to make in seo the photo was of a young girl licking a post in the snow… and anyone with any common sense will know why that is a mistake. But at the same time it’s kind of fun to say this is a mistake, its not an seo mistake but it can be funny. So show your fun side, take your contextual self beyond the realms of the “normal” ideas you may have. Have fun, and enjoy.

top photo from blogging.com.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ 5 Tips for Optimising Images for SEO

The following are some online marketing mistakes which should be avoided.

1. Ignoring existing customers

One of the strategies you could use to grow your business is to reach out to prospective clients. However, this is usually more costly compared to the marketing to an existing customer. In addition, existing customers are likely to purchase more products and services than new ones. Therefore, you need to think of how to enhance your relationship with the current client base. You could launch an email newsletter or ask customers for feedback on current products or services.

2. Using social media excessively

Many business owners try to establish an online presence on all the social media platforms available. This is a big mistake. Instead, you need to take time to consider who your customers are. Are they likely to look for your business on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn? Make sure you choose social media channels which are best suited for your customer base, as well as your business. You can then direct your efforts towards establishing an online presence on these specific sites.

3. Unwillingness to spend money

Many businesses are reluctant to spend cash on their online marketing campaigns. However, investing money in online marketing might be one of the best decisions a business could ever make. You could consider investing in things such as premium mail software, professional web design services, premium plug-ins or hiring professional writers or editors.

4. Not updating your online data

You need to ensure that the information about your business which is contained in your site is correct. Nothing is worse than listing prices which are not accurate or telephone contacts which don’t work. Therefore, it is important to regularly check your business’ social media accounts, sites or blogs. Keeping your information up-to-date will make it easy for customers to find what they are looking for.

5. Not seeking help

Some people think they know everything about how to market their businesses online. However, internet marketing is broad and it is unlikely that any one person is an expert in all areas. This is why it is important for business owners to get professional help for their online marketing campaigns.

About the Author: Charles Mburugu is a work-at-home entrepreneur who blogs about online business and web development. He writes posts for blogs such as that of Flash templates.  

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Online Marketing – 5 Easy Mistakes to Avoid

It takes practice, persistence and a lot of planning and promotion in-between to make your content stick. In this post, I am going to share some tools and tips to help you get more out of your content.

Practice

Regardless of whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, producing great content can be very hit and miss. The more you do it, the more you get to know what works and more importantly, what you’re good at. One of the first rules about producing a blog, for example, is to be yourself. Write about things that you’re interested in and your enthusiasm will shine through in your writing style.

In time you will start to generate comments and social signals to your content so don’t let it worry you that no one is commenting or +1ing your posts. When you look back after a year or so, you may laugh at some of the content you produced so it’s probably a good thing anyway!

Planning

Top Tip: Have an editorial calendar so that you know well in advance when your next piece is due. It helps to have an idea in your head what you are going to be writing about and when because the ideas will start to form in your mind and, more importantly, it will help you produce consistently.

If you’re stuck for ideas, then try using some of these tools to stimulate your creative side:

Keyword Tool – Also important for relevance to your target audience.

Omgili – Drop in a keyword and find conversations around the topic.

TrendsMap – See what people are talking about in different parts of the world.

Whatthetrend – Find out why terms are trending on Twitter

Promotion

Once your content is live, you need to promote it through whatever means you have at your disposal. This could be anything from sharing it with your friends and followers on Facebook, submitting it to bookmarking sites like Reddit and Digg or even spending a little bit on promoted tweets or sponsored StumbleUpon.

When you’re planning a piece of content, try and reach out to others to let them know what you’re doing and that you’d value their opinion or perhaps would like a short interview to include in your piece. This opens the door for you to get back in touch with them once your content is live so that you can share the link with them and perhaps ask for a link or tweet etc.

Top Tip: Images, videos, lists are all very effective at engaging users. Try and keep posts short, to the point and very easy to digest.

Persistence

Remember it takes practice and persistence so give yourself time to get it right. You need to be persistent with all your efforts from producing content regularly to promoting every single item you produce.

Producing great content is not easy, it doesn’t come naturally, but you will only find out how to do it by going out and doing it or paying someone who already knows how to do it, but that too carries the same risks in that some content works, and some doesn’t.

About the author: Ralph Du Plessis started online in 1999 at a start-up in London selling ad space, designing and building animated banner ads, selling SEO and optimizing websites. He has since worked in both agencies and client side, primarily on search marketing (PPC & SEO) with social media now a growing part of that mix.  

link by @boetter

Original Content by SEO Andy @ “Content is King”, right? “Just produce great content and the links will come”, right?

There was once a time when marketing agencies spammed the hell out of any article. This means that they filled the content to its eyeballs with targeted keywords and phrases in the hope that a business would rank favourably to a competitor.
How times have changed.

Any marketing agency that is still practicing this technique is deluded. Google’s latest algorithm changes have evolved the way businesses are producing content and you can either fall in line, or fall flat on your face with a penalty.
Google has even said itself that it has “gotten more synonym-savvy over the last couple of years, there’s no need to cram keyphrases everywhere you possibly can.”

So how can you write SEO-savvy?

Keyword spamming is not cool

“People can overdo it to the point that we consider it keyword stuffing, and it hurts. I would just make sure you do it in natural ways where regular people aren’t going to find it stiff or artificial. That tends to be what works best.”- Google

Google recognises the same keywords so if for example you want to rank highly for the key term ‘cruises to Norway’, you should avoid writing this multiple times. Use ‘Norwegian cruise holidays’ and mention Norwegian cities and ports etc. as well as using ‘ship’, ‘ocean’, ‘restaurants’, ‘entertainment’ etc. – this is all related language.

Write for humans, not computers

“Never sacrifice the quality of your copy for the sake of the search engines”- Google 

The most efficient method to be SEO-savvy is to write for humans, not computers. After all, it is going to be read by consumers. It if looks and read strange, it will be penalised so don’t lose the quality of the content.

Work around it e.g. if you want to rank for the term ‘Web Design Manchester’, integrate it into the sentence so it flows by adding ‘Web Design Manchester’ based.

Use tools to transform your way of thinking

There are tools on the web that can help to assess the quality of your work. WordPress has plug-ins that can assist you to write the best title, avoid duplicate content and make the most from your meta/title tags.

Place links naturally

At the end of the day, links matter so we would be silly telling you to not include a link at all. Not adding a link in your article is like telling a clown he cannot wear a red nose.

However, you can place the links into the text naturally so they appear un-promotional. If it doesn’t fit right and it looks blatantly PR, perhaps you could add it into a bio at the end of the article or alternatively, find another way for it to appear natural?

And don’t be afraid to link to others- they may return the favour. So if you write about an industry body or you have read a similar article elsewhere, link to them.

Conclusion

If you want your firm’s website to appear on the first page of Google, you need to write relevant, high quality, unique content that is SEO-friendly. That is it.

This article was provided by PR Fire, a leading online news distribution website. Visit the experts today to generate buzz around your company news and to make it search engine optimised.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Write SEO-Savvy Web Content with This Amazing Guide

Don’t bother looking for the image, its already gone.

The myth is that sex does sell (see the below slideshow for reasons), but the reality is that it doesn’t – as this experiment in 2005 shows (download it here). And my own experiment also showed this with about half the number of visitors coming to the blog that normally would, despite the discussion over the image in use.

All my experiment did was to upset some people, anger others and make less people than usual visit the blog. Since changing the image, yesterday, the number of visitors have gone up to normal levels.

If you want to read more about sex not selling read this post by bidwellid.

The myth that sex does sell

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Does Sex Sell Online?

For a long time Google has given some decent guidance on what it looks at and why, it’s not 100% complete but it never could be given all search algo’s change on a daily basis. But the Google Webmaster Guide is a good starting point for all SEO’s to build off, regardless of website type.

So how does Bing compare?

When I first look at the guidelines from Bing I thought it was some kind of joke.

The guidelines are so generic and unhelpful that I struggle to see why they exist, and why we waited so long for these. Don’t get me wrong I’m not a Bing search hater, I use it to search from time to time and really enjoy Bing webmaster tools – I am pretty many SEO’s would agree BWT combined with GWT is an awesome pairing.

This said, Bing does offer some in-depth guidance through its webmaster FAQs PDF (download here).

In their announcement, Bing admitted the guidelines were “broad” but did encompass a lot of information in general, at the same time they announced a number of webinars (including Q&A’s) would be ran, and of course guidelines updated as needed.

img by techwyse

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Bing’s SEO Guidelines Are Here!!!

Hackers are expert programmers and hacking in social media requires very technical skill but it is more of a psychological game. Social media is also considered as the biggest platform for news updates and are thus considered as useful. Today cyber crimes and hackers have posed to be a huge threat to the social media users. Hacking in recent times has become a nuisance and protection from hacking has become more complex. To prevent the users from the hackers, below are given some useful tips.

1) While creating your profile it is better if you put up less personal and professional information in it. This only gives the chance to the hackers to exploit the information and gain your trust.

2) There is a security advantage that only your friends can view your profile completely. So, it is of utmost importance that you must be very selective while accepting your friends in social media. You should accept only those people who are trustworthy and better not to accept unknown people.

3) Using anti-virus software is also an important tip where it is serving as protecting net which catches any threat that before it reaches your system.

4) It is better to hide your email id in social media and limit it up to “only me”. This will help to lessen the spread of your personal information.

5) When you allow accessing your data to an application, they hang on it forever. Sometimes we accept that for instant benefit without knowing about them. It is suggested no to use untrusted applications.

6) You should use as much as account settings that are given in your profile to save it from hackers.)

7) You should setup an email log in alert so that if someone unknown tries to login in, you can immediately change your password and save your profile.

8) Regular changing of email id and password is also considered to be useful. Don’t use the same username and password for a long time and don’t share this with anyone. Using complicated passwords is also helpful to save your profile.

9) Never open emails send by unknown or untrusted person because sometimes they send some codes and after installing that information can be easily hacked.

Some serious online hacking has been going on since past few years. We can’t stop this but this can be prevented if some of the above mentioned tips are used. Hacking has been an usual picture in today’s world. And this hacking always results in affecting others objective and trying to disturb them. Hackers are getting much better and with a little discretion it will go a long way.

About The Author: Brianne is a writer/blogger. She loves writing, travelling and blogging. She contributes to the Equity Trust Company Complaints website.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Social Media and Security Risk Tips to Save You From Hackers

Do feel free to add your resource in the comments below.

Christmas SEO Resources from SEOAndy

Taking advantage of Christmas SEO Trends
Learn how to make the most of your website each christmas with the help of google trends.

42 Christmas SEO Tips
Does what it says on the tin

Using Google Places to Boost Christmas Rankings
This of course is now part of Google Plus but it all stands as good advice.

The Christmas Diet SEO Plan
5 Christmas SEO Tips.

Christmas in the SEO World
Handy hints and seo tips.

Christmas SEO Resources Across the Web

The Countdown to Christmas
5 of the best Christmas SEO Tips from @Epiphanysearch

The 12 SEO Tools of Christmas
A great post full of links to awesome seo resources by @sandrahennessy

The Agency 12 Days of Christmas
Aimed at seo agencies but useful for SME’s  by @seoptimise

Six Helpful Christmas SEO Tips
Basic yet hand seo tips by @DavidAmerland

Tips for Enjoying an SEO Christmas
Get prepared for Christmas is coming! from @seotrafficlab

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Getting the Most From Your Website at Christmas

So are you using Twitter like the genius @ladygaga ?
Let us know

- If you want to see more presentations by Jesse visit his slideshare profile.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ 10 Genius Ways to Use Social Media Like Gaga

Do you have social media Boobs?

Lets start with the basics, what does the acronym actually mean…

B – Be adventurous and explore your niche fully
O – Open your mouth or you will never be heard
O –  be Original and individual
B – Beware of your audience
S – Start today!

When I put it like that it’s not so rude, but I recall talking to a hall of people who just looked rather upset that I would stoop so low. But just as with them, many of you reading are reading because the acronym stands out and you will never forget you need to have Boobs again.

I should point out, that image above … it was chosen again to capture attention and as an experiment (results in a few weeks).

Be Adventurous on Social Media

Social media unlike most forms of communication which is direct (and social media is both direct and indirect), has a problem. It’s problem is sheer saturation, take my account on twitter @andykinsey I follow around 3500 people / brands right now… there is no way I could ever see them all and if I did I would never get any work done.

From that and other examples you can see that you need to do some thing different, to stand out from the crowd. You need to contribute to the conversation but also be the conversation. For example that picture of the boobs above was chosen to stand out in the crowd, not many SEO blogs would have the balls to play around and potentially annoy their audience – but it grabs attention and that alone can bring traffic to your site and conversation to your social accounts.

Open Your Mouth and Be Heard!

There is no point at all in having social media accounts unless you are going to use them, and use them on a regular basis. No body will follow a twitter account that has been dormant for 6 months, and no on will Like a facebook page which has not seen the light of day in a year. So be active and talk to people.

Be part of the conversation(s) continually, offer your opinion and reasoning – share links that are relevant and ask what others think, connect with others on the platform… the more you connect the more likely people will follow you.

Originality Comes From The Heart

If you can’t think of anything unique to say in a conversation, re-tweet others, like their statuses and share them. Let them know you agree…

But for the most part you will no doubt have something to contribute to a conversation, whether its about politics or SEO or craft events or art galleries, seek a conversation in your niche and contribute. The more you contribute the more you will stand out, but you will only stand out if you speak your mind and heart and be original. Don’t just copy what others are saying, there is no love lost for the sheep of social media.

Beware of Your Audience

Your audience (of your website), Your audience (on social media) and Your audience (of the public) are all very important. Upsetting one risks upsetting them all, alienate one and the backlash could be huge. So think about what you are going to say before you type it.

For example in calling this posts “using Boobs…” I risk upsetting them all, but I know my website audience and my social audience will understand that the title is just a catching point and it caught their attention. It’s a big risk but you can take them, if you are a daredevil.

My advice is think twice before putting anything on social media, think of it as the front page of your local or national newspaper, say something wrong and it will blow up in your face. Beware your audience!

Start Today!

Social media as with many things in life is a game of experience. You cannot begin to understand the challenges until you jump in and try it out. If you are not on social media, you should be. If you are on social media, read the above and think about what you say and do and how it can effect you and your business.

Go on get out there and socialise!

(once again sorry about that photo. Admit it, it caught your attention)

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Using Boobs in Social Media

However, for those of us (more like most of us) who are on a tight budget, hiring a marketing company is simply out of the question. Thankfully there are a number of easy to do marketing strategies whose only cost is a little of your time.

Social Media Campaign Management

Do you know someone who doesn’t have a Facebook account? Neither do I. Facebook nor Twitter accounts only take a minute to create and are very user friendly. Now, I wouldn’t advise for a large corporation to be doing their on social media campaign – but for the budget savvy businessman it’s a no brainer. Unless you have a huge product rollout that you feel you need help on, managing your own campaign is actually quite simple, and sites like Mashable have great social media management tips.

All you need to do is create the account, upload profile pictures and any relating pictures, fill out your profile as best as possible and begin updating the world about your business. Sticking to a posting schedule can help give you a guide on when and what to post (so for example, if you were a product company, posting one picture of a product a day would be plenty). Looking at what your direct competitors are doing for their social campaigns can give you an idea of where to start.

Be sure to reply to any user comments – but address any negative feedback or concerns offline. A simple, “thank you for your questions. Can you give us your email so we can discuss the matter with you further?” will suffice.

Blog Writing

Blogs have more of a purpose than most business owners think. Blogs not only update the users on new products or services, but they actually go out and notify the search engine that your site is being updated regularly. This is important because Google’s algorithm checks sites for regular updates. By having it “ping” the search engine, it’s letting them know sooner that you’re always working on your site to improve it for the better. It also helps with relevancy. The more you write about a topic (not to the point of redundancy, it still needs to be useful to the readers as well) the more you become an authority on the topic in the search engines eyes.

The best part about blogging for yourself is you are already the expert in your field. You already know everything there is to know about your business and all that pertains to it, so all you need to do is write down some topic ideas and create a blogging schedule. By finding and sticking to a blogging schedule, you will keep your content fresh and regularly updated. This will also give you more material to publish on your social media channels!

Guest Posting

If you’re planning on doing a large number of guest posts, it may be wiser to hire a guest blog posting agency. However, if you’re only needing a few posts to gain some more readers and start getting your name out there, this is something you can definitely do yourself.

It’s the same concept as blogging, with a few minor differences. For starters, you’ll need to get in contact with bloggers in the same industry and see who would be willing to publish your content and what they’d like you to write about. Make sure your post fits within any guidelines they provide. Include a backlink to your site either within the body of the content or in the author bio at the bottom. Make sure whatever you link to, it sounds as natural as possible when read.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Three DIY Online Marketing Strategies

Experian summarised by saying

October saw the launch of Windows 8 with bing set as the default search engine which may have gone some way to increasing Microsoft’s market share. Online searches for Windows 8 increased by 120% throughout October showing the increased online interest for Microsoft’s new operating system. As search continues to diversify however, the market is likely to continue to shift and change.

Clearly, Google still maintains a huge competitive edge over the other search engines in the UK market. There are 18 times more searches conducted on Google Sites than on all the other search engines combined. However, this is encouraging news for Microsoft as bing once again starts to gain some momentum and traction in the UK search market.

But what does it mean for SEO in the UK?

In truth slipping below 90% was an almost inevitable event in search given the growth of Bing over the past year. Also given Yahoo has showed tiny signs of recovery following the appointment of Marissa Mayer as CEO (formerly of Google), this isn’t a huge shock to the search industry.

But does it mean you need to change your SEO tactics?

The quick answer is No.

Google still has by far the biggest share in the UK, currently most SEO’s target Google as the decisive search engine. They are Google centric. What this does mean is that you need to consider not just doing SEO for Google but also SEO for Bing and SEO for Yahoo, which powers search engines such as Lycos.

Images by Experian and BGR

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Google Market Share Slips to 90% in the UK

Today I discovered this interesting inforgraphic and wanted to share it with you. It shows how Obama is not just ahead on social media in terms of followers etc but also details how he uses social media in his campaign.

If you are hungry for more stats beyond his 2008 campaign here is another handy social media in politics inforgraphic.

Infographic by Adage

Image by Mashable

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Social Media – A Race to The White House

What is 4G?

4G is the upgraded standard from 3G wireless networks for mobile phones. Previous 1G and 2G generations were distinguished by movements from analogue to digital connections, with 3G taking phones into data transfers and online access. 3G offered, at its best, Internet speeds of about 5Mbps to 20Mbps, although many users would have experienced a lot of variety on that. Anyone with 3G who has to travel will have seen their speed and connectivity change depending on where they are in the country. 4G will improve this by enhancing the existing cellular network through Long Term Evolution technology, and by multiplexing existing signals. The expected speeds for 4G are likely to be anywhere from 30Mbps up to 100Mbps for download rates, making it a major step up from what we’ve been used to from 3G.

Business Benefits

Users of 4G will receive faster downloads and uploads, as well as a more secure connection. This means that more data can be transferred and stored, while HD videos and high quality music can be streamed and downloaded. For businesses, it’ll be easier to maintain connections and make calls on the go, while voice calls over Skype will become much more stable, making it easier to save money on international business calls. VoIP protocols for 4G over 3G similarly mean that any voice calls should be a lot safer.

Faster video streaming speeds also mean s there are a lot more marketing opportunities especially when it comes to videos. More and more companies are using viral ads as a way to get millions of potential customers to view their brand and this becomes easier with 4G as it allows more people to view, share and comment on videos on the move. 4G also allows for companies to ensure that more people see their latest news and updates, whether it be on Twitter, Facebook or on their own website – higher connection speed and reliability results in more views and more business.

The higher data rates associated with 4G should also mean that businesses can share more information via the cloud, or transfer larger files. The current leader in 4G for the UK is the T Mobile and Orange partnership Everything Everywhere (EE), whose first network launched on October 30th. High data limits of 128GB are available, with businesses paying a starting price for a 4G connection of around £3 a month. The speed of 4G could mean that businesses with a dongle and Wi-Fi can use the network as a faster alternative for network slowdowns or power outages. Workers on the go and travelling abroad will also be able to access the Internet faster and communicate more efficiently.

Rural and small businesses that have been limited in terms of online access could particularly benefit, as will anyone who is self employed and travelling around the country. Remote working will become easier, as will maintaining contact with clients on the go. Recent 4G trials in Cumbria resulted in a stable 20 Mbps mobile connection for businesses, and this speed is set to increase.

When Can We Expect It?

EE’s 4G network was launched on October 30th 2012, but will only be available in large UK cities like Manchester, London, Bristol, and Edinburgh. Other networks and providers will follow in early 2013, with delays having been caused by disputes over access to a radio spectrum. Businesses investing in 4G connections will also have to factor in having to upgrade to handsets with 4G compatibility – phones currently include the new iPhone 5, the Nokia Lumia 920, and the Samsung Galaxy SIII. Battery life will also be affected by the amount of energy needed to run the network. Businesses should do well to wait to see how the network runs from November, and whether competitive prices will emerge from other providers in the New Year.

About the Author: Liam Ohm writes about the latest updates in the technology industry. He highly recommends you keep on top of your ever-changing electrical goods by using pressmaster crimp tools that allow you to repair the latest gadgets.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ How Can 4G Benefit Your Business?

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Have an SEO Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen

Here are several key tips to get you started.

1. Make the Best Possible Titles

Don’t neglect your YouTube titles and focus on making them as optimized as possible. Create an enticing, briefly descriptive title that synthesizes what your video is about as clearly as possible. A universal Google Search gives you about 50 characters to play with, so if you can include your videos main keywords and an important niche inside those 50 words, all the better. Remember, the key thing is to have at least one main niche keyword in your title and a brief description that explains what you’re going to talk about in a way that’s most similar to how you think someone would search for a video on the subject matter.

2. Work on your Video’s Meta Attributes

The metadata includes your videos abovementioned title description, but it also consists of the words you use to tag your video as a search subject in YouTube, the quick keyword rich description in your videos URL and the larger video description that accompanies your film clip inside Google.

If you’re embedding your YouTube videos on your own web pages, you also need to add an HTML attribute tag that attaches to the video and carefully explains what it’s about for the benefit of the search spiders. This won’t be visible, since it’s part of your HTML (although describing the nature of the video inside the text content above or below it is not a bad idea either.

3. Brand all your Videos and Include a Link

Every single one of your businesses YouTube videos should be carefully branded with a special image, visual effect or some other brand related distinction that sets it apart from other videos on similar subjects. You want your growing audience fan base to recognize your videos as yours specifically and have a chance to seek you out for future needs.

You can give your fans a chance to track you by giving them a link to your actual website, wither in your video or embedded beneath it. Don’t neglect this step.

4. Focus on an Instructional Video Presentation Style Whenever Possible

Typically, when people search for videos on YouTube or make queries on Google (both search systems are completely connected anyhow) for problems that they have, it will be in the form of a question. If your business is about niches in which clients have a certain problem to solve, this search style on their part gives you an excellent opportunity to be found and listened to. Simply present your videos in an instructional “how to” or “what is” type format. Structure them like this and base their titles, tags and descriptions on the same idea.

5. Don’t Shirk on Video Quality

Your Videos need to be well made if you want them to really represent your brand or gain popularity. This means clear video, solid camera work, good lighting and top notch audio. Even the best message is going to be ignored if you’re video presentation is lacking. You don’t need to create a video that’s on par with Hollywood special effects and you don’t need any fancy graphics or special effects. However, at least make your video clear, easy to watch and easy to hear.

It’s also a good idea to have your videos first image, the starting frame, clear and displaying a visual that is likely to show video searchers that your video is interesting and relevant to them.

About the Author: Steven Boggs has been writing about technology and business solutions for nearly a decade. Check out EnMast’s small business budget template to see more of Steven’s work. 

Original Content by SEO Andy @ 5 Awesome SEO Tips for YouTube Videos

How to Claim Google Authorship

1) Sign up for a Google+ Profile, this can be done here.

2) Ensure your avatar on Google+ is a clear image of your face.

3) Have your website listed in your Google Webmaster Tools, and in your profile.

4) Confirm you want to claim your authorship.

5) Add the code below to your website head, replacing the number at the end with your profile url.

<link rel="author" href="https://plus.google.com/116358717541152168016"/>

Theres a WordPress Plugin too!

One of the best SEO plugins for wordpress I’ve found and use is Yoast SEO. Built into this is many abilities, including that to insert your Google Authorship code, your twitter card name (claim your page on twitter) and facebook open graph settings.

Have fun, and get claiming.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ In Short: Google Authorship for Blogs and Articles

That’s it in a nutshell.

Did you really think that is all I would say, c’mon now.

Refreshing the Memory: How Links Work in Search

In the Google search algorithm there are hundreds of factors which create your ranking for a given search term. These factors are in constant flux and this is why from day to day, location to location etc your results will vary.

One of those factors, a big factor in many cases, is links between websites. Google see’s them as a vote from one website to another, from the linking site to the linked to site. That’s great but links are often abused and so the link worth is diminished and in some cases can have a negative impact on your search rankings.

In recent month we have seen Google make attempts to warn webmasters that they have bad links and that they should try to remove them as they may potentially be harming the rankings of their website. These “manual link warnings” have led to lots of webmasters rushing to remove bad links from websites they consider “bad neighborhoods” (aka harmful). These include the likes of porn websites, malware ridden websites and link farms, among others. Some websites even changed their url and asked the “good websites” to change the links they had on a given page, something I feel has a better likely hood of working.

So What is the Disavow Link Tool?

Disavow: Deny any responsibility or support for.

Put simply the new tool release by Google is to allow website owners who’ve tried everything they can in their power to removed links by “disowning” them. You simply upload a list to GWT and Google will disavow those links and ignore them within a few weeks (apparently). You can update the list to add and remove links, but as Matt Cutts explains in the video below it will take a long time for a link to be “re-avowed”.

So there you have it a nice shiny new tool for webmasters having problems with links. And here is Matt Cutts to explain a little more about the Disavow Link Tool.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Removing Stubborn Bad Links – Disavow Links Tool

Promoting that blog post to as many people as possible via social media boosts those benefits further but it’s surprising how often people just post up the link and expect that to be enough, regardless of platform.

Worse, a lot of people link all their social accounts together so they auto-publish. This often ends up producing really ugly results that no-one is going to want to click through and it’s a real bugbear of mine.

Each social network, from Facebook through Twitter to Google+ and the rest, give you many different ways to publicise your written work. By ignoring them, you’re significantly reducing the chances of your high quality content achieving what it should.

With that in mind, here’s a few ideas to make the most of both our content and your social presence.

Facebook

Facebook has that handy little feature where you post a link into the Status Update field and it goes off, finds the content and tries it’s best to show it in a nice way, with the title and image. Unfortunately not many blogs are optimised for this and the results look terrible. Not only that, it doesn’t take advantage of the brilliant new way Facebook handles images.

Try this instead. Using the image you’ve no doubt added to your blog post, add a photo to Facebook, write a brief, descriptive intro to the post in the Status field (a quote from the post works really well) and include the link there. Your image will show up huge in the Newsfeeds of your followers, catching the eye and enticing them to click through to your blog post in much greater numbers than a simple link and thumbnail.

Twitter

The restrictive nature of Twitter and the fact that your image is not guaranteed to show up in your followers’ Twitter feeds (especially if they use a third party app like Tweetdeck) means that, in most cases, you won’t be able to include a quote from your fantastic blog post or include an image in your Tweet with as much effect as it would have on Facebook.

Not to mention the fact that you’re limited to 140 characters INCLUDING the link to the blog post and an image. So you’re going to have to be creative! Which is where hash tags come in.

Do your research into what’s trending, what tags people use in the same area as the blog post you’re trying to promote and make best use of them. Two or at most three will do, putting your Tweet in front of the largest possible audience. Now build your Tweet with that 140 character limit in mind.

You’ll need space for your hash tag(s), your link and an intriguing bit of text. That could be the title of the blog post, or you might want to make it a bit more interesting, eliciting that click. And if you can, leave 10-15 characters to allow for edited retweets.

Blog post promotion on Twitter does require some serious thought when constructing your Tweet, but it will be worth it when you start seeing retweets all over the place and, more importantly, a significant jump in traffic to your blog.

Google+

Google+ combines the best of Facebook and Twitter – big images, space for text content AND hash tag usage.

Lead with an image rather than a link, include a quote or snappy, descriptive intro to the blog post, add the link into the status update with a call to action, just as you would on Facebook. And as you would on Twitter, research trending and relevant hash tags and include those at the end of your update.

In terms of promoting blog posts, Google+ is the best tool around…except for one thing. The audience on Google+ is much, much smaller than that of Facebook or even Twitter. Google might tell you it has 100 million active users but you’ll find the reality much different. That said, those who are active are likely to be the cream of your target audience, so it is worth using.

Other Promotional Tools

There are a lot of other tools out there to help you promote your blog posts. Take a look at scoop.it, Paperblog and Paper.li. Consider using Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest and the other so-called niche social networks too.

Just remember to really look at how they display the content added to it and make best use of it, especially where images are concerned. Remember the title of this post? A picture really IS worth a thousand words.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ How To Publish Your Blog Posts To Social Networks Effectively Or A Picture Really IS Worth A Thousand Words

Follow Links in Your Profile

Like many social networks Google+ offers you a profile, you complete it on sign up and can edit it there after. But unlike many websites and social networks Google+ offers you follow links directly from within your profile straight away. For example here is my own.

As you can see the links contain any anchor text you want, in my own this is “free internet marketing resource for small business owners”. In addition to this these followed links are complimented by links to websites you own and/or contribute to.

Google give you these great profile features for a reason, so use them.

Embed Links in Your Updates

As with your profile, you can also insert followed links into your status updates. Doing so means that your pages are likely to be indexed quite quickly, as SEOMOZ’s Rand Fishkin says “Google+ is the new Google Submit URL”.

Although Google claims that Google+ has no direct input to search rankings there certainly appears some correlation between statuses with links which get +1′d and shared alot and a web page ranking quite well. Even if only for the duration of a few weeks whilst the post is popular.

Optimise Your Profile Photo

You may have noticed that next to some search results on Google you now see an image of the author of that article or blog. These set your page apart and seemingly increase click thru rates.

In addition to this they can also increase your “connection rate” within Google+ as Cyrus Shepard demonstrates in the blog post on SEOMOZ.

Follow Those You Wish To Be Followed By

As odd as it may sound, its the same on many social networks, to get onto the radar of those you wish to be followed by you should first consider following them. They will usually get an alert of some kind, in Google+’s case it’s a notification saying you’ve just been followed by X, Y and Z. Lets be honest when you get that kind of notification you think, “yes this is working” and it is.

So go on follow those you wish to follow you. Some inspiring figures to follow include:
Barack Obama (needs no words), Richard Branson (an awesome entrepreneur), Tim Capper (a great SEO who’s work i follow), Search Engine Land (a nice marketing resource), NASA (a regular poster), Rand Fishkin (of SEOMOZ fame) and not forgetting Andy Kinsey (you can follow me from my sidebar too)

Adopt Early and Gain More

As with everything it takes guts and effort to be an early adopter of a service, especially one such as social media sites where you are never sure if it will “make it” or not. Unlike some networks like friendfeed and myspace, Google+ isn’t likely to be a drop in the ocean, more of a new ocean in the making. Google+ has the backing of the worlds biggest search engines and they have gone all-in to put G+ everywhere and anywhere they can – and successfully so.

So why do I say it’s early? well Google+ is still small fry compared with Twitter and Facebook, it’s catching up but will take some time. That said Google+ has a much more active following, users are about 5 times more likely to leave comment and converse in depth on Google+ than you posts on twitter or facebook. The later are more of a passing fad if you get a comment, where as Google+ seems to have users who are willing to give some serious time and effort to leave some worth in their comment. Not least because it may gain them followers and more +1′s to their profile means more visibility means more marketing effect for what they are doing on Google+.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ 5 Handy Hints for Using Google+ for SEO

Multilingual SEO it is not only about doing SEO in another language, it is about optimising your website/s and keyword phrases to the way that people in your target countries search.

What might be the money phrase in one language or country is likely to be of little worth in another. Therefore, cultural differences are very important. Two countries with the same language may use different keywords to search. For example, Spain and most countries of South America are Spanish speaking nations, but they use different words in many cases and different ways to elaborate their sentences – very important for multi-word search phrases.

What else should you take into consideration when thinking about International SEO? Even though Google dominates many English language searches, there are many people that doesn’t use Google. In China, the largest country in the world, Baidu and Tencent QQ have more than two thirds of the search market. In India, Rediff has become a very tough competitor for the North-American company. South Koreans use Naver and Russians have Yandex.

So the conclusion is clear, multilingual SEO goes hand in hand with internationalisation and global marketing strategies. If you want to grow you company abroad you will need to understand that if you want to be successful, you will need to immerse your marketing strategy into the local culture and language. You should use these to your advantage!

Original Content by SEO Andy @ What is Multilingual SEO and Why is Becoming so Important?

What is a page title?

The page title is usually the text that appears in blue/purple in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) with the keywords highlighted in bold like you can see below.

What does it look like in the code?

Every webpage should have a page title which appears in the HTML like this:

<title>Internet Marketing &amp; Online Advertising | Dublin, Ireland – Vroom SEO</title>

If your website is using a CMS like WordPress or Joomla you will be able to edit the page title from within the admin backend, otherwise you’ll have to get your hands dirty!

How do I write a page title?

There are a few important things to keep in mind when constructing a page title:

> You page title should accurately describe the contents of your page.

> You should include your primary keywords close to the beginning of the page titles as more weight is placed on earlier words.

> Avoid repeating keywords multiple times as this looks ‘spammy’ and unprofessional. It could also be interpreted as keyword stuffing which is against Google’s webmaster guidelines.

> Search engines only display a maximum of 70 characters including spaces so you should keep them shorter than this.

> Symbols such as ‘-‘, ‘|’ and ‘>’ can be used to separate your page titles into its various components.

> It’s easy to get preoccupied with including your main keyword phrases but it’s also important that it reads naturally and gives the user the information they are looking for.

>Page titles are similar to advertising copy. They should differentiate you from your competitors and incentivise the user to click on them.

> You can use a snippet optimisation tool to preview and perfect your page titles.

> Monitor your organic traffic and CTR (Click through rate) in Google analytics and webmaster tools respectively to gauge the impact of your page titles. Look at ranking too but don’t get obsessed!

About the author:
Dave Dungan is an SEO consultant at Dublin based Internet Marketing company Vroom Digital.

If you have enjoyed reading this you may also be interested in crafting the perfect product description.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Crafting the Perfect Page Title

Your textual content is one of the top factors search engines use to rank your website compared with all others, and in particular those within your niche market. In addition to this, your content needs to be compelling to users because that is what they have come to see on your site. From these two point I am sure you already understand why your content is so important for your website and how if you don’t have good content you probably won’t do so well.

Know the Mantra: Great Content is King

My mantra towards SEO has always been Content is King, however I recently updated this to Great Content is King. The reason for the update is that images are content, your navigation and logo are content, but it’s not the best content and it’s not what you will be ranked on. You in general will be ranked on your textual content, but to rank well this text needs to be great and rank worthy. So lets take a look at a few things you can do to improve the text content on your website.

Write for Your Audience
Knowing your audience, as mentioned on the boagworld blog, is very important. It means you can target your content easily and accurately. To develop a sense of who you are writing for create a persona for your audience, for example the persona for users of this website (from my view point) is: Men and Women, aged 20 to 40, who are either business owners or internet marketers. As you can see it is fairly vague but accurate enough to enable me to write interesting content targeted at those users. A great example is this post which is targeted at business owners of start up businesses.

Make Your Content Easy To Read
Writing great content is not easy, it never will be. But easy to read content makes your work accessible and understandable to your users. This is where knowing your audience comes into play, if you know your audience you are targeting your content to them and for their “education” level. This put simply means you are talking to them on their level and not a complex level above them (which they don’t yet need to know) and you are not dumbing it down so much it sounds like you are talking to them. Again SEOAndy is a great example of this, we cut out all the jargon and try to keep things simple enough for almost anyone to understand.

Stay on Topic
One of my pet hates in visiting as many websites as I do for research for both blogs here and working on other sites is that you read so much crap that isn’t related to the topic in hand. For example, why on earth if I am researching about Barak Obama would I want to know about cute cats – it makes no sense, yet there are examples of websites talking about obama with pictures of cute cats on them… please note, if you landed on this website looking for them try another search term

Stick to a “Known” Format
Put simply, this means that you need to keep a format of text throughout your website. For instance, this website uses clear headings and sub-headings, sub-titles are in blue and the content is fairly informal (which makes it easy to read). If I changed and just put out page upon page of just plain text it would be understandable if I lost thousands of visitors because I was suddenly not talking to them and it would be confusing and annoying. So please ensure your content is written in the same tone and format across your website.

Use Relevant Terminology
This again goes back to a known format, staying on topic and easy to read content. Terminology is something that changes, again with educational level, but you can cater to multiple audiences with varying amounts of knowledge in your niche. For example “SEOAndy is a blog about search engine optimisation (SEO).” – in this example the term search engine optimisation is for beginners who may not know about the shorter term SEO, but a more advanced reader in the niche of SEO would know what it meant. In this sentence it caters for both beginners and advanced users.

Keep Writing Fresh and Unique Content
This one is fairly simple. Great content will not write itself, and it will not refresh itself to stay relevant to your users – it is therefore very important to keep writing new content (SEOAndy posts 3 or more times a week, usually) which is relevant to your niche and targeted to your audience. Creating Unique Content is not easy, but once you’ve had some practice you will be able to roll out unique content based on your research. A good way to practice is to start a blog, as it develops you will be relying less and less on quotes from your research and more on your own experience in the subject field. For example for this post I looked at what I’d already written in a few previous posts and thought about what I had learnt since then and how to form it correctly for my readers – that was my research.

Things to Avoid When Writing Great Content

Now that we’ve looked at a few ideas of what you can do to improve your content and your content writing skills lets take a look at a few things to avoid. Ignore these at your own peril

Do Not Babble
Dancing around the push (as it’s known in the UK) is a little like those in power who are meant to be debating but would rather filibuster to fill the time and waste the debate away – so nothing gets talked about. This again comes back to staying on topic but it’s important not to talk about 17 different things in one page or post, when actually you are meant to be just talking about a single topic.

Do Not Write in a Sloppy Way
From someone who doesn’t proof read all of his work this is quite hard to say (but do as I say and not as I do). Always proof read your material, or have someone else to do it. They will spot your typo’s and grammatical errors (something I am prone to, as I have dyslexia). This will improve the quality of your content and they will also point out what they do and don’t understand and this can help you to go back and add or subtract content to help make your content truly great.

Do Not Copy or Rehash Content
When you stumble across a great post you may want to copy it, plagerise it or even just reword it all to make your content. But doing so adds little value to your content for your user. It also means your content is unlikely to rank anywhere near as high as it could if you had written the whole piece yourself or you hadn’t copied and changed another article. This also means, Do Not Duplicate Content across your own website(s).

Do Not Keyword / Keyphrase Stuff Your Content
If you keyword stuff or force keywords into your content you will likely find your content reads unnaturally or is hard to follow. For example if I stuck “great content” everywhere i said content this article would read oddly and would also decrease the trust worth of the post. People want natural flowing texts, as do search engines.

Do Not Embed Content (Text) in Images
If you have a featured image like this post, then great it may have text in there, this is not a problem. However if you have images in your main content then you don’t want to have 500 words within that image, those words should be in actual text. You can of course use the “Alt” tag in the images, but this should be no longer than 140-ish characters (the size of a tweet). Think about it, if someone wants to reference you in a piece of research or other work then they may want to quote your content, don’t make it hard for them. Also remember although images can be found in search the content within them is generally not found in search.

What is Your Tip?

Do you have any tips or ideas for creating great content that you would like to share?

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Optimising Your Textual Content

Follow the consumers anywhere and everywhere they go

When it is about social media marketing, there are surely a vast array of options to choose from. To leverage the performance of eCommerce business towards the next top level, numerous social networking sites can be approached like Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, Google Plus, etc. The list goes on and on. Even, YouTube can be quite a helpful option to avail. It is extremely necessary to select the correct channel to market the business. Marketing through a proper social media channel can be helpful in reaching towards more customers. And hence, success will definitely be achieved. To fetch more information about the customers, the best procedure is to approach them straight. In this context, conducting a formal poll or survey can be quite helpful.

Monitoring the social media sites can also help in providing some idea about the customer popularity and ranking status. There are several free tools available for this purpose. Some of the most popular monitoring tools include Radian6 and Trackur. These tools can easily figure out certain social media whereabouts of customers like where customers gather all together to discuss about products, tagetted keywords, or even about contenders. There is another easy way to learn about online marketing health.It is through the help of USER STATISTIC ANALYSIS.

Only promoting products may well be a wrong approach

It may not be a great idea to simply promote products in order to run an eCommerce store. is not all that you need to do in order to run a successful eCommerce store. Remember, the marketing plan should cover the widest range of tactics. It will never reap any successful fruits when focusing too much only on product promotion factor.Incorporating other fruitful and effective ideas is a must. Some of the most fruitful ideas may well include publishing newsletter or articles from several external resources.

How about owing a personal blog site. It is a great concept and should be done by any means. Also ensure that part of the blog content is clearly visible on the social media account. But it is necessary to engage the followers. Very simply can it be done. Ask the followers to take part in community survey or some interesting discussions. How about asking them question on certain associated topics?

Using social media network as a selling shop

Why not use the social network to sell products? There is nothing illegal to it. Create a FB store to sell products without logging out of the user profile. A great approach that helps in promoting the eCommerce business.
There are hundreds of tips that can be followed to enhance the performance as well publicize the overall eCommerce business approach through social media. However, the above mentioned tips are quite easy to follow and promises 100% genuine positive outcome.

About the author: Brianne is a blogger by profession. She loves writing, reading and travelling. Beside this she is fond of luxury cars and wishes to own one day Lamborghini Gallardo.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Social Media Marketing: Tips to promote your eCommerce business

These days, the web and its usage have changed light years into the future. Biz internet sites are more originative and widespread, and websites with user-generated content are becoming gradually more and more popular. Social media internet sites including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and lots others are offering people and business organizations a place to hook up with their existing as well as prospective buyers. Accordingly, when it comes to reaching to our prospective markets banking exclusively on internet sites and customary marketing channels will no longer be enough.

The significance of Social media in the area of marketing cannot be overstated. It is simple to trust that social media is nothing more than the newest trend; something which will vanish eventually. The fact is, social media has eternally altered the technique we witness the web as well as the mode people relate. As a result, it only adds up to utilize this modification for the advantage of your biz.

Social media marketing is an inexpensive technique of marketing your good or service to potential clients while keeping up with those you already do biz with. SMM provides several advantages you would be hard pressed to discover in other types of marketing. Social networking turns it achievable to set up kinships and build faith on the web that permits business houses to indirectly advertise their goods and services to individuals who are more responsive to the marketing contents you’re forwarding. SMM is helpful in many ways.

> As more individuals notice your biz name along with the link to your internet site, your emblem, and other inside information detected in social media reports, you set up more brand consciousness among your prospective customer base.

> Faith is set up through natural links and relations, which build up in web communities.

> Your key internet site will get traffic from niche discussions had through social networking internet sites, debate, groups, and via blog remarks.

> SEO is augmented via the growing number of premium links to your internet site or blog as other group associates forward link to you and as you link to yourself from a range of social media websites.

> Augmented visibility in search engines will improve the amount of visitants who discover your internet site when exploring keywords connected to your biz.

> Your contribution in social media deliberations and groups assists you witness what is happening within your place and discover what individuals wish to notice in the goods and services you present just by listening to what individuals say to each other.

> When you are keenly occupied in social media, you have the chance to administer your status. You can react to grievances in a timely way, hearten people to discuss their excellent skills with your firm, and watch what is being stated about you on the whole by your customer base.

About the Author: Kathryn is the author for Charisalex Corp. She also writes for a website which offers online discounts, online deals and promo codes at discounts.ca.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ What Are The Long Term Benefits Of Social Media Marketing?

A Google Penguin “data refresh” algorithmic update has again landed which includes both Panda and Exact Match Domain Update from August and September. This recent update has affected 0.3% of the English Queries. News of this algorithmic update came via tweet from Google’s eminent engineer Matt Cutts. He has announced tweeting that Google is launching its recent Penguin “data refresh” algorithmic update which will affect searches across multiple languages. Here what Matt Cutts reported that the update will have effect on the following languages:-

0.3% of the English queries will be visibly affected

0.4% of the Spanish Queries

0.4% of Fresh Queries as well as 0.3% of Italian Queries

Penguin Updates from Google so far

Including the first Penguin update from Google which was unleashed in late April, this is the third update which came from Google, so we are calling it as Penguin Update 3. Following is the list of Penguin Update which came out and the percentage of English queries that were affected.

Penguin Update 1: April 24, 2012 (3.1%)

Penguin Update 2: May 26, 2012(less than 0.1%)

Penguin Update 3: Oct 5, 2012 (0.3%)

Details on Penguin 3

The third penguin update affects 0.3% of the English queries as tweeted by the Google chief, Matt Cutts. The first Penguin update originally known as ‘Web Spam Algorithmic Update’ was rolled out in April and has impacted around 3.1% of the English queries which was a large rate to be affected. The goal of this update was mainly to clean up link profile relying mainly on spam comments and exact match anchor text. The second data refresh update rolled out in May, thus affecting 0.1% of the English queries.

This is the third penguin update from Google and it is mainly the data refresh update focuses highly on previous Panda and Exact match domain algorithmic update. Google announced this late on Friday (Oct 5, 2012) and it has also impacted other language queries at the same time with Spanish getting its impact as 0.4% and Italian impact is 0.3% of the queries.

Thus, Google launched the first Penguin Update in late April thus having a huge impact on its queries. The previous update mainly focused on sites with low-quality inbound links. This recent Penguin update is mainly the data refresh update and Google has also promised further shoves related to the Penguin algorithm.

About the Author:

Aditi Datta is a professional social media analyst who works in a leading SEO Company India and also she is a regular blogger who inscribes seo tips for newbie optimisers. 

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Google Landed Again With Penguin Data Refresh Update

A laser-targeted, successful campaign can improve sales and increase website traffic. By bettering the interactivity level with your consumers, it will help to retain them and employ new prospective customers.

But how can brands win big with social media campaigns? A fruitful, effective technique is to utilise the ‘big four’ and these include Google+, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Google+

The search engine giant Google can be used in social media marketing in terms of analytics and tracking but it can also be used as part of a social media campaign. Reports indicate that it can help to optimise content quickly; its hash tag and + features are valuable tools to engage with relevant communities.

Facebook

Grow your business with the help of Facebook. Don’t wait for fans and friends to come to you; use the platform to go out and meet people. Be an active participant and build relationships- turn your friends into customers by sharing content. A Facebook page that is just self-promotional won’t succeed- share other people’s images, videos and statuses to build a community.

Twitter

Twitter is a huge platform for social media; it has 140 million users worldwide and billions of tweets are published every day. This means there is a huge scope of possibilities but to stand out from the crowd you need to set yourself apart.

Engage with your consumers- get the brand noticed by responding to other people’s tweets and directly speaking to them

Retweet other people’s content- does someone mention your brand? Connect and retweet. Connect with big names on Twitter and try to retweet what they are saying.

Bookmark your own quality content- Content is king and readers want informative, unique high quality content. Share and retweet your content to become an authoritative industry source.

Know the buzz- keep up-to-date with the latest knowhow. What is going on, what are the hottest stories out there? These usually go viral so jump on board to generate the same type of buzz for your brand,

Know when the best time is to tweet- If your tweets are not going to be read and the content isn’t going to be optimised, don’t waste your time. Different industries and time zones have different targets.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a great marketing channel; Google ranks the site and its profiles highly so you can improve your brand’s visibility. Connect with employees, executives and industry experts; solve people’s problems by interacting in the community; place text ads in front of the individuals whom you’d consider to be the most qualified prospects; and track leads as they move to new companies.

What is more, you can utilise the site to find high qualified future employees, and as well as profiles, list your products and services with links back to your website and YouTube videos. Clients can review your products/services too!

This article was written by Craig at Custard-media, a leading full-service digital media agency. You can speak to the experts to find out more information on social media strategies for your business today.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ How Brands Can Win Big With Laser-Targeted Social Media Campaigns

Everything we are talking about today lives in the “body” of the webpage. In theory, anything in this section is visible to the user though their browser. The area looks something like this.

...
<body>
<Main Content Area / Section>
Your Content Here, Including Images
<End of Main Content Area / Section>
<Sidebar>
Sidebar Content
<End of Sidebar>
<Footer Section>
Footer Information
<End of Footer Section>
</Body> <!-- end of body-->

To examine each area / section in detail we need to understand a few things first.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the code behind websites, its the framework everything sits on – on top of this you can have some neat CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and JS (Javascript). Below it, in the framework, you will have things like your CMS (content management system) such as WordPress and your Database (which holds all the data in storage). This post concentrates on the HTML of the website, not it’s presentation (CSS & JS) and not its back end (CMS and Database).

There are now 2 common forms of HTML, HTML 4 which is now slightly old but most commonly used, and HTML 5 a new standard which is quickly being adopted. This post doesn’t concentrate on either, though examples in both forms (at times) may be given.

Main Content Area / Section

The main section of any web page is of course it’s primary content. A good example of this primary content would be this article. It is made of up an image, text, header tags and links. As such it’s a fairly standard piece of content to dissect and understand.

Textual Content

Text is the main content on almost every website, it is certainly the most common form of content and the easiest for a search engine to parse and understand semantically. Textual content can include many things such as emphasis (italics), strength (bold), understokes, strike through’s and more. They should be used sparingly as they can have some effect on SEO, though the extent of this is not known – so be aware and use with caution.

Textual content should be clean and easy to read. In most cases it should be free of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors – though not in all cases. For example a blog such as this may have many typographical mistakes but not so many as to detract from the quality or meaning of a post – therefore it does not always matter to get everything perfect in web content.

As we will spend more time on each of these sections and how to optimise them in coming posts I won’t spend too long explaining these areas of content.

Images and Graphics

Images, such as Photographs of Weddings, can be amazingly useful on a web page, for both giving a focus point and expanding your content in general. As they say, one photo is worth a thousand words.

Optimising an image is down to a few things. 1) always using “alt” text with each and every image to explain what is in the photo to search engines (and browsers for visually impaired users). 2) place the image using CSS not inline styling (this speeds up load time). 3) optimise the image for web usage in terms of file and physical size, using software such as photoshop or GIMP. Doing these 3 things can help optimise your images for SEO.

Again we will look more at SEO for images in coming posts.

Header / Heading Tags

Heading tags are ranked 1 to 6, 1 being the most important. They are used to section and subsection content on a website and in general add some structure to your textual content. They look something like this.

<h1>Your Primary Heading Text</h1>

Used correctly, heading tags can help search engines filter your content and show it more often (in many cases) in search results because it knows a given section is about a given topic. For instance this section has a heading tag saying “main content area / section” and the next says “sidebar area” this means that search engines know there are two distinct topics in this post and not one “big topic”. Heading tags are therefore a good way to introduce keywords to a page.

Link Optimisation

Link optimisation is often something you hear in regards to “external links”, links which point to another website and not internally. But did you know that optimising your links can have as much effect on your internal ranking as those you pass to the external world?

Use of correct anchor text to another internal page can make the difference between link juice being passed and not. For instance at the top of this post i link to the previous article, part 1, but I do so to the title not to just “part 1″ this is because part 1 is non descriptive and therefore of very limited value in SEO terms. So therefore I link to the main title to pass more juice.

Another advantage to this is that is people scrape your content, as is often the case with SEOAndy, they often leave links alone and so you get a nice keyword rich link to your content. Also this brings me to a second point. All internal links should be absolute links, this means not just to “/about” but rather to “http://www.seoandy.com/about” this is much nicer in terms of future proofing and if someone takes your content.

Finally, all internal links should be without a “target” and all external links should be target “_blank”, this means they open in a new tab.

In the next post we will look at optimisation of textual content and how to ensure you are getting the most from your website text content.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Learning the Anatomy of a Web Page – Part 2

Firstly, the way in which you acquire email addresses to market to needs to be very different from the consumer-marketing model. A great place to start building your list is your own email inbox. Are there any clients that have opted in to receive communication from you that you can target to up-sell to or maybe potential clients that didn’t convert at the last hurdle? Do you market to these people already? If not, then this is your starting block; get them on to the list!

Email capture through giving away ‘free’ content still works at a b2b level but just needs to be more tailored to your target market. Ideally, the content needs to include latest industry statistics, insight from experts and give actionable tips or some tools, software, templates that help to optimise the work of that organisation. Business people have lots of things, but time isn’t one of them so make sure the content is concise, precise and adds value because that will result in the link being shared across social media platforms and email to their targeted networks who will, in return, give you their email address. The more the list can grow naturally the better it is for you. You are already committing time, effort, energy and money in to producing the content so you may as well go the extra mile to make it special!

It’s great to have all the email addresses but how can you market to them effectively? Many people make the mistake of sending out a bulk email to everyone on their email list. If you really want to increase conversion rates then separate your marketing list using email marketing by iContact so that you can really target the content and calls to action in each email. A short example of why this can be so effective can be seen by looking at marketing to a technical helpdesk technician who has no budget or buying power in the slightest. This most certainly isn’t a wasted contact. If you have a product that you know that technician would understand, want to use and can that it would add genuine value to their role then here is how to go about getting the company they work for to purchase it:

a) Get the technician on board. In your email, give them a functions/features list and a comparison to products they are likely to be familiar with.

b) Highlight generic pricing overview that shows it is reasonable when compared to alternatives and efficiency savings.

c) Provide the email receiver with a document that was targeted at purchase managers; this document needs to focus on the detailed figures of upfront costs and ongoing costs.

d) In the email, have a call to action for the technician (in this example) to forward it on to their manager for consideration.

This works on a very similar basis of peer recommendation because an internal request or recommendation is much stronger than an external. Dividing your email marketing list allows you to harness the power in this data!

This guest article is by Mike Savage. he represents an email marketing company and have written extensively in this field. He can give you advice on email marketing and how it can be of benefit to you and you business.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ B2B Email Marketing

Now, for some, if they are selling a product, then it’s the percentage of people who actually purchase the product that really counts, but you can be able to investigate some issues if, for example, you have a lot of people clicking to the sales page, but not buying. In this case, you have a conversion rate problem.

So, here are 5 tips to help you increase your conversion rate:

Have great copy

Original and worthwhile content is a must if you expect the reader to continue visiting your site. Great copy will essentially cause your bounce rate to fall thus increasing the over conversion rate of your site.

Make the site easy to navigate

It is important to keep your navigation simple by placing it where people expect it to be on the site. Placing the site map in a place that the visitor wouldn’t expect will most likely result in a high bounce rate. Keeping the navigation titles short and concise is also important as it makes them easier to read.

Don’t use scams to sell people

Scams are a big turn off and will quickly result in the visitor leaving the site.

Provide something of value

What will you give the user in exchange for their contact information? A weekly newsletter, A call for a sales rep? Whatever it may be, it needs to be something of value to your prospects. The greater the value, the higher the conversion rate will be.

Make the buy button very clear

Psychology plays an important part in the buyer’s decision to purchase a product. A clear buy button will always have a positive impact and have a much greater conversion rate compared to a button that is hidden or hard to find. Secure payment is also a term that provides peace of mind to the buyer. A positive buying process will help increase your sites conversion rate.

In terms of design, it is really important to make your site easy to read, and clear to follow. You don’t need fancy designs if you have great copy which is going to sell your product and a strong call to action. Always make sure it is very clear what you want potential customers to do. Make sure the site is very simple to navigate and you will certainly make more sales.

Also, those with the best conversion rates online are those that are selling quality products and providing value to their customers. If you lie or use underhanded techniques to make a sale, then your business won’t be in business very long.

Customers will more often than not, purchase again and again from people they trust, if you provide a great product and can find an interesting and creative way to tell people about it, then you are going to be far more successful, because people will come back for more.

Each of these tips will end up helping you raise your conversion rate, once you combine them, then your site should start bringing in a lot more clicks and purchase in no time.

This article has been written by Craig at NuBlue, one of the leading hosting providers in the UK. Beyond just hosting, NuBlue offers a variety of services such as UK web development services and UK shared hosting. To find out more about the services they can offer you, please consult their website. 

Original Content by SEO Andy @ 5 Web Design Tips to Help Double Your Conversion Rate

What are others doing?

Go to other niche sites and check out their source code. You are going to be able to see their keywords. Copy them and test them to see which you can use.

Advertised much

If you are running a niche site, and your competitor is running a big advertising campaign with their name as a keyword–why not add that keyword into your Meta keywords tag. No humans will see it, but when they search for your competitor, you website will drop nicely underneath it (like the crow stealing corn from the blind chicken).

What language?

Note the language in and of itself. Keep the language to your native one (if you can). Consider what language level you should set your site at. Are your readers bone suckers, carrot crunchers or moustache twisters?

Your university degree may allow you to understand the existential burden of knowledge intake and/as-of your voyage towards paroxysms of delight, but if your readers have only just finished reading “Billy and his big blue ball”, then you may need to dumb down your language level a little.

Side note – Be prepared to change. You may think you know your own niche, but you don’t know your viewer’s…yet. If their comments all seem to take a certain tone, you should adapt to make your text more pleasing to them.

For example, you may notice that text talk creeps into your comments. Dnt try 2 copy it, jus adpt 2 it. So for example, if you did notice that a lot of your viewers use text talk, you could try starting a few paragraphs with it. Like a big L8r instead of “later”. If you notice a new fad word kicking around your comment boxes–consider adding it to your next blog post title.

Keywords the users use

The last paragraph brings us nicely onto the next topic – the keywords your users use when they comment. They are going to drop a few good keywords every now and then. If you alter your keywords every now and then (so as to keep up with the trends), you should consider using a few keywords that your commenters have dropped.

You may find your readers/user is looking for a “clean hotel in the city near the railway station” rather than “cheap accommodation at a reasonable distance of public transport.” The difference between the two formulations illustrates the kind of misunderstanding that often occurs between the creator of a website and its visitors: they talk about the same thing, but not the same way. Use your observation skills to pick out what your readers are looking for, so that you may appeal to them better in the future.

What if this is a brand new site? You won’t have any comments, however, all of your competitors will. Browse what people have written in the comment sections on their websites. Doing this may also give you a few good ideas for your site too.

Your location

All keywords are not equally important. Often, the location of a business is crucial. Readers do not seek a “great Japanese restaurant” but a “great Japanese restaurant in New York.” If your business is local, it is essential to specify its location. Moreover if your niche is a regional thing, use that too (people won’t look for Texas oil in Hawaii).

Your own keywords

No, not the ones you have already come up with! The ones you would personally type in to find your niche site. This should be easy if you followed the advice above and searched for your competitors. When you did your search, what did you type into the search engine?

In marketing terms, these words and topics will be part of your website that will address what you might call a “niche”. For example, if you were looking for someone to do your college coursework, you would not type in “someone to do your college coursework”, you may type in “custom essay”.

Side note – beware of seller and buyer words, such as with the example above. You may be tempted to added keywords such as, “someone to do your college coursework”. They are not terrible keywords, but they are “seller” words, not “buyer” words. A searcher would type in “someone to do my college coursework”.

About the Author:

My name is Sonia Jackson. I represent the web-site Custom Essay Writing. We’ll help you to solve all problems with writing different essays and research papers in a short time; we’ll answer all your questions and give you useful advice.

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Original Content by SEO Andy @ SEO and the Right Keywords for Niche Sites

First we need to understand that the internet is made up of websites, websites are made of web pages and web pages have various elements – it is these elements we are studying today.

What is a Web Page?

A web page has two key features, the Header area and the Body area.

The Header Area contains things like your Page Title, Meta Description and other “meta data”. Meta data is data which the user does not see but the machine viewing the website (including search engine spiders) can see, this data is very useful for search ranking and social marketing.

The Body Area include all of your content, your sidebars and your footer. It also includes the code used to hold your content, though the styling is usually taken from an external source (another file within the website).

The Header Area

In the header area there are several key blocks of information you will need to know about. Knowing about this information, called Meta Data, can help you to optimise web pages across your website and make the most of them by leveraging this data. The header area will look something like this, but with much more information and “messyness”:

<head>
<title> Your Page Title </title>
<meta name="description" content="your meta description"/>
<link rel="canonical" href="http://example.url" />
</head>

Note: Not all Content Management Systems (CMS’s) will allow you to edit all of the data below, some will require seo plugins to do so, others will take a “best guess” that you can sometimes override. In some cases though you will just have to put up with what the system outputs. For websites you’ve built yourself with no CMS (your brave person) you can no doubt use all of the below.

Page Title

The page title is the short snippet of text, no more than 60 characters, that sits within the <title> tags.
This should be seen as your 5 second pitch, if it takes longer than that to read think again my friend. It should be a catchy sentence or question to entice users to view the page. For example the title of this page is “what is a web page?” this is then ended with the website name, though in most cases on this website that is not included.

You can read more about creating a page title in this post.

Meta Description

The Meta Description is something I’ve talked about many times before. Think of this as a 30 second pitch, or even better a twitter pitch where you have a single tweet (140 characters) to convince someone to visit your page. It should contain the essence of what the page is about but also where possible explain why someone should visit. The meta description for this post is “novice to seo and want to learn about what a web page is made of? read this post today.” – this both grabs the attention and gives someone a reason to click through (to learn about this).

You can read more about creating the perfect meta description here.

Rel=”Canonical” – Canonicalisation

The idea of a Canonical is fairly simple, you are saying this is where the original content is. It is used to limit the chances of duplicate content penalisation for Google and Bing. Now this should be used on every page, so this blog post’s url is its canonical, but if I had a duplicate of this post the canonical would still be this post and not the canonical. In general this isn’t something to worry about as most CMS’s will take care of this in one form or another. But if you are unsure if your pages are canonicalised just look in your header for rel=”canonical”.

Just as a side note, you can also have cross-domain canonicals, so if you have two sites with the same content you could claim one as the original source content.

Meta Keywords – Unused

Keywords and Keyphrases in themselves are useful to concentrate your focus within content, however the Meta Tag “keywords” in practice is ignored by Google and Bing. Therefore where possible I do not include it for SEO purposes, though it will not harm your page in anyway.

Page URL

Whilst not strictly in the header the Page URL is important and should be considered as such. As its not “within the page” I wont spend time explaining why but here is a link on creating a great seo page url.

In the next post in the series we will take a look at the Body Area, including textual and graphical content, plus your sidebars and footers and how you can optimise them best.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Learning The Anatomy of a Web Page – Part 1

Social Media Do’s

Make It Personal

A social media marketing brand should be all about engaging on a personal level with a client or consumer base. This means making a campaign as personal as possible, rather than just being another faceless promotional push. In this context, focusing on emotive language that emphasises ‘we’ and ‘you,’ and that uses Twitter and blogs to create an ongoing narrative for a company can make a significant difference to making your brand stand out above others.

Establish a Coherent Brand Over Platforms

When looking at different social media marketing brands, it’s important to establish a coherent brand across different platforms. Doing so means being able to recognise the key strengths, and compatibilities between different platforms. For example, a home website can act as a hub for tying together different social media campaigns, while more up to date news, and customer feedback, can be included on Twitter and Facebook.

Encourage Interaction

Social marketing should have a strong interactive element if it’s going to be effective. This means avoiding static pages, and focusing on creating games, competitions, and apps that consumers can use to interact with and immerse themselves within a brand. Converting this brand loyalty into repeated page visits, and setting contests and loyalty schemes up as part of competitions can also work well, in this respect.

Break Down Audiences

A customer base is not a broad, undifferentiated mass of people. Break down your target audience into key demographics, and try to hit each of these groups, without necessarily focusing on one in particular. Specific campaigns can be targeted to Twitter users, while Facebook pages can be set up for individual products and services that have a special interest for different groups.

Social Media Don’ts

Overload Audiences

Hitting customers with too many ads can have a negative impact on your brand perception. Pop up adverts are particularly irritating, and particularly if they appear every time someone logs into a website. Try to integrate a campaign as smoothly as possible into a social media platforms, and remember that quality content and offers will find their way to customers with careful positioning.

Overlook Feedback

The best social media presences are based around being able to provide rapid feedback to queries and complaints. Don’t assume that you can get away with providing bland answers, and focus on ensuring that someone is always able to log in and provide personal feedback for questions.

Ignore Trends

While it may be tempting to keep at the same marketing campaign, ignoring trends and negative feedback can mean that you end up investing a lot in a marketing campaign with a low ROI. Sometimes it’s better to accept that a campaign has been poorly thought out, or that a target audience has reacted differently. Try to retain parts of the campaign, and take the time to develop a better relaunch.

About the Author: Rob James recommends Computrad for IT Services London.  He setup business 10 years ago and has grown, and IT support has become increasingly important.  Rob can be found blogging about both online and offline marketing strategies.

Image - Do’s & Don’ts by AKZOphoto, on Flickr

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Social Media Marketing – Do’s and Don’ts

2 years ago we broke the news that we were having a break from posting. The break lasted somewhere around 6 months. We then spent a while in limbo picking up the pieces and getting momentum going. Since restarting we’ve smashed the 300 post barrier and will break through the 400 mark before Christmas 2012.

At this point it’s only right and fair that I stop to thank a few amazing people (I promise the questions are coming after this). First, Sarah (my better half), next up my family and my friends (your support is simply invaluable), next up the readers of this blog (without you we’re nothing) and finally those people who help to bring together the content on this website. You are all awesome.

Finally, I like to set a target in each of these birthday blogs. This year we are moving into new territory, we’ll be outputting a podcast (hopefully once a week) – follow @andykinsey for more info on this.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, your questions!

Ok, so lots of you have had questions over the years about SEO Andy, the wheres whats hows and whys. I’ve grouped together a few of the more common questions for your reading pleasure. If you’ve any questions about SEO Andy leave them in the comments below.

There are lots of other SEO Blogs, why keep SEO Andy going?
I know there are lots and lots of other great seo resources, I’ve a whole section dedicated to some of them. But one thing they all have in common is that they are for internet marketing people and speak in lingo no real “normal” person could understand. SEO Andy stands apart for this reason, there is no lingo here and never will be. SEO Andy is about giving all website and business owners a resource to help themselves.

Why I keep it going is simply because demand from readers says I should. I keep it going because readers just like you enjoy what they read and find it interesting. I also keep it running because it keeps me on my toes with the latest trends, I get to do research and talk about it and you get a free internet marketing resource.

Why do I write about what I do?
I think I answer this above. But incase you haven’t noticed from the effort I put into SEO Andy, I love internet marketing. It’s not really a job to me, yes it pays the bills but if you enjoy something quite a lot can it ever be called a job?

Whats my favorite part of running SEO Andy?
Now this is a tough question. As previously noted I enjoy what I do quite a lot so picking a favorite part is quite hard. If I had to pick I’d say talking to people and answering questions on facebook, twitter and of course in conversations on the site itself.

What is next for SEO Andy?
I’ve played with the idea a few times of starting a seo podcast and as I’ve mentioned above that will happen this year. It’s not something I think will help grow the business alone but I think it will help SEO Andy become a more rounded resource with something for every business, big or small.

Another thing we will be doing more of is interviews with business owners and business leaders, both of big business and small ones too – each has their own merit as we’ll discover.

Finally, whilst continuing not to push them “in your face” I plan to continue the growth of SEO Andy as a business with SEO Services which out match out competition like-for-like, such as our SEO Website Audit.

What Do I Do Outside of Blogging About SEO?
Great question. I’ve too many things to really list but at the top of what I love doing outside of blogging on seoandy and for other blogs is; spending time with family and friends, I study and I am an activist within the Labour Party and work to make the party more available online - oh and finally, I spend time drinking coffee and sleeping. If you want to know more about me, view my about page (top nav).

Finally, What is the Most Read Blog on SEO Andy?
Eurgh, this is always a big question as I never know the answer other for than for the past 30 days. So in the past 30 days it’s a post called “how to make money from your blog” and it has had about 5 times the number of views of the next nearest blog “10 high priority seo tips for 2012“.

Looking at the picture from the start of blogging on SEOAndy.com, which requires some guess work – as we’ve not always been friends with Google Analytics. The top 5 posts are: 1) SEO Trends for 2012, 2) Yell Web Design a Scam, 3) Google Penguin, the end of SEO, 4) 25 Awesome Business Card Designs and 5) Creating an Effective Small Business Brand.

Do you have a question? Leave a comment below.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Happy Birthday to Us! (Your Questions Our Answers)

Over the last five or ten years, technological advancements have taken a quantum leap forward. Social media more so than anything has impacted lives deeply. Today, social media tools have a profound effect on the way you interact with and socialize online.

Accessing news

Come morning, before you hit the newspapers, check the TV or brood over the weather, do you ever do a round of Facebook or Twitter? If you do, then you belong to a growing tribe of people who have turned to social media for information. Social psychologists have said more and more people are turning to social media for their daily dose of information. They are more likely to get it from online groups and friends, who share their likes and interests. This way you can regulate some of the information you read every day.

Conducting business

Social media has come as a boon for marketers and salespeople. It is easy to find focused groups, potential partners and even employees on social media networks. More importantly, it gives businesses with time to spare but not the money, the chance to engage people and promote their offerings. In the past, business was conducted in neighborhoods, but social media has opened up worldwide opportunities and new possibilities.

Keeping in touch with people

People still meet in social gatherings, in pubs and discotheques, but it has become easier to find people who share your interests and likes on social media sites. People are also expanding these online interactions to meetings. First introduction are made through social media platforms, then they develop them through phone calls and meetings. In other words the role of social media has become bigger and more complex.

Revelations

Before social media, people would reveal little of their doubts and fears. But now the onus is on being more transparent. More and more people are shedding their inhibitions and opening up. They are expression thoughts and ideas more openly….and becoming more social!

What can be influenced?

With social media being used by by millions the world over, the dynamics of power are changing. Mainstream media like television, newspapers and magazines are no longer influencing people the way they used to. Take for example, on Twitter some celebrities have more than a million followers. Some Facebook pages have multitudes of followers. Videos uploaded on YouTube can go viral in minutes. Viral videos may not attract millions of views just for their entertainment value; they may create awareness about an important political or social event in a bid to encourage opinion, voice anger or support. In other words, social media can act as an instrument of positive change.

In every age, culture undergoes many changes. In recent years, no other medium on the internet has influenced us more than social media. Social media has provided us with more options and the means to engage people more effectively. All these factors have made social media indispensable in our daily lives.

About the Author: Grace works with Godot Media, a article writing service provider. She is passionate about writing and is a specially skilled ebook writer. She writes about a variety of topics from technology, health and safety to fashion, home improvement, etc.

Original Content by SEO Andy @ The Impact of Social Media on Our Daily Lives

The infographic explains how search works and just how complex search is today – and from that gives you a real sense of how much reliance we place on search and the technology behind search that makes everything easy to find very very quickly, despite it’s huge load from searches.

Infographic from Stone Temple

Original Content by SEO Andy @ Just How Complex is Search?