Mobile Marketing

As per 2012, the global traffic of internet by people via mobile has gone to 13%. This means they are sorting other different means of going online other than the traditional way which is using the PC. So now marketing strategist are increasing their efforts to be able to advertise to their mobile customers whether it would be through ads on mobile Facebook pages or in app ads that you would normally see in iPhone or Android games and other similar applications.

Utilizing Social Media

In the year 2013, marketers have increased the usage of social media to distribute their content by as much as 13%, from 74% last to 87% this year. With most of their interest going to sites like LinkedIn (83%) and Google+ (41%) with of course the involvement of trust sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Content Marketing

Not only did these companies increase resources for social media utilization, they also added funds for content marketing as well. From 22% last year they have increased to 33% this year. This means that they would increase the usage of eNewsletters and case studies to generate leads and increase website traffic in the year 2013.

Author Rank

With the power of social sites to share stories to one another, it has become a great tool in distributing published content from one person to another. People would most likely utilize or purchase something that has good written reviews by credible authors in the online world.

This infographic was provided by Dot Com Infoway – Internet Marketing Solutions

I will introduce some of the great tools available (some free) that allow you to research and implement your own international SEO strategy. Although I advise professional management in certain parts, much of the investigative work and conceptualization can be done by yourself, making the process cheaper and giving you control over the scope and direction of the project.Let’s get started.

Basic Survival

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is dependent on recognition of search patterns. How a potential customer searches for your product or service; the terms, phrases and keywords they use, the search engines they choose, the time of day and frequency of search, are all pivotal in identification of trends and the subsequent ability of a business to optimise their online activity in a bid to rank higher and increase incoming site traffic.

When approaching international SEO, the process becomes more complex. An appropriate SEO strategy will consider local culture as well as language, and a detailed research process will ensue. The benefits of getting multilingual SEO right include improved targeting and subsequently an increase in quality traffic, enquiries and conversions.

Foreign markets must be addressed on an individual basis and targeted in accordance with key market demographics and with consideration of local buying behaviours. Although Google reigns supreme as global leader, opportunities still exist for local search engines.

Having undergone complete site migration to a new platform, Language Connect was able to rebuild and restructure content to improve SenSEO scores. Here’s how the team at Language Connect recently applied multilingual SEO tactics to improve SERP positioning for the German version of the company website.

Step 1 – Keyword Research

Assuming you have already identified sufficient opportunity to justify moving into your chosen international market (based on detailed research into supply & demand, current online/search activity and competitor analysis) it is time to research your keywords.

Assuming you do not speak the target language, the first step is to identify your target keywords in English using a keyword tool (Google Adwords is the most popular and can also be used for multilingual analysis). In conjunction with this, Language Connect used LSI Keywords – an indexing tool that discovers words and phrases related to your chosen keywords across all online content. This free tool is great at providing a list of key terms that when used together, are guaranteed to give your content distinct competitive advantage.

Language Connect also used Google’s Global Market Finder to support international keyword research. This is a global market tool used to research foreign opportunities by English language keywords.

Your keyword shortlist will ideally serve as a ‘brief’ when you enlist the help of a mother-tongue translator with search marketing experience to provide in-country interpretation of keyword context. Your research will determine the focus market and provide guidance on the type/s of search traffic you intend to attract.

Mother-tongue translators researched our chosen terms in the native language (German) to see if they translated contextually; identifying where any adaptions to terminology needed to be made.

Tip: always ask your translation professional to provide back-translations to ensure you are aware of text variances and have a good understanding of the rationale behind divergence from original target terms.

Things to consider: there is less choice in terms of keyword research tools in most other languages, and search volume is often far lower. In addition, grammar and spelling (use of accents etc.) varies between languages and searches, and inconsistencies can affect trends.

Step 2 – Competitor Research and Auditing

Ok, so you have identified your list of target terms with the help of a professional linguist-come-search marketing specialist. Now it’s time to expand on your research and see which companies are competing for the same search terms as you. What are their on-page SEO scores?

The team at Language Connect used SEM rush – a great tool that provides a detailed account of the vital search engine stats of your competitors. In addition to this, our translators conducted in-country keyword research across English and German search engines to make sure all keywords applied to all engines and markets.

Identifying how your competitors are ranking will help you gain insight into the ways in which multiple search engines manage page authorities and rankings. We will never know exactly how search engine algorithms are decided and arranged, but we can second guess and make educated assumptions, and then test our own theories using multivariate testing. Understanding competitor strategies will mean you can choose whether to replicate or differentiate to achieve the best results.

A technical audit should be conducted for the international market to address items such as:

• Geo-selection v language-targeting: is your website language oriented or geographically oriented?
• International domain names: will you choose a country-specific top level domain or sub-folder/sub-domain?

Auditing is a timely but essential task and should also include elements such as identification of content duplication between existing international versions and an internal linking audit.

Step 3 – Optimising Your Content

This is the ‘no brainer’ section. Ultimately, your multilingual SEO strategy depends on quality content in every target language.

As a rule of thumb:

• Use keywords wisely – they should not be packed into text that doesn’t read well.
• Visitors to your site arrive with a specific goal in mind – you have approximately 3 seconds to engage them. Make content ‘skimmable’ by using headings, bullet points and visuals.
• Check your SEO scores and see how your page ranks. A page scoring 80+ is considered to be very well optimised. Refresh content regularly in line with regular keyword research to boost your score and ensure your site remains current.

For more information on multilingual content creation see my previous post; If content is king, is quality translation queen?

Tip: content should be localized – this means that the content you produce for your native site should not be directly translated into the target language. It should be adapted to address cultural nuances, such as notational conventions, differences in symbols, colour associations, colloquial slogans and payment preferences. See Delivering a locally relevant customer experience.

Multilingual SEO in Action!

Here’s a summary of our in-house project – a good example of how investment in keywords can almost instantly convert to business.

Company: Language Connect

Task: Improve SEO of German website – in particular, the homepage and interpreting service page

Where Language Connect Started:

• SenSEO grade 66/100 for keyword übersetzungsbüro (translation) on homepage.
• SenSEO grade 63/100 for keyword Dolmetschen (interpreting) on interpreting service page.

The outcome: having followed the process above and then periodically tracking traffic volume and keyword density in relation to competitor scores and content developments, on-page scores were improved within 2 weeks to:

• SenSEO: 80/100 homepage
• SenSEO: 80/100 interpreting service pageerman website click through rates have since increased by 2.59% resulting in a huge increase in conversions (35%) as a result of improved quality of traffic.

About the author: As Marketing Copywriter for leading language service provider, Language Connect, I am keen to offer insight into industry debate; projecting what I believe to be important and asking you for your opinions.

I am particularly interested in digital progression and discussions on how businesses are expected to react to these changes.

I have a varied background in Marketing and Copywriting in the Magazine, Accountancy, Recruitment and Language industries. I hold a BA in English & American Literature and a Professional Diploma with the Chartered Institute of Marketing body.

http://about.me/haddowamy

Write Articles Like Adverts

The first thing you need to do when creating you link bait, is to write articles that will really catch people’s eye and make them want to read your content. Try to think of your article as a product that offers value and then write your title as though you were trying to ‘sell’ that product. For instance then, a title could start by grabbing attention and directly addressing the reader and then by telling them how you are going to provide value: ‘Hey you – are you tired of being dopey in the mornings? This article can help’. As with any marketing, try to focus on what the end result is. You don’t sell hats – you sell warm heads. Likewise, you don’t sell articles – you sell stronger biceps or fuller wallets.

Go Emotional

If you want to leave a lasting impression on someone in your article, then you need to appeal to their emotions and make your text work on a more personal level. Try to address universal experiences and concerns and write to the author personally. If you can inspire laughter, shock or fear then your article will be much more likely to be shared.

Go Controversial

One of the reasons that people like to share articles is so that they can then discuss them with others. If you make your article controversial you will ignite this kind of debate – don’t worry about getting people to agree with you, worry about getting them to talk about you.

Keep Them Short

The perfect length of an article is something that is hotly debated but something you need to think about when trying to make articles that will get shared a lot. For content you hope to go viral, try to keep your text as short as possible. People will be put otherwise by large blocks of writing.

Make it Easy

Once you have the articles that people want to share on your site, you need to provide them with a means of quickly and easily sharing those articles. Something to consider then is how your readers are likely to share your content once they’ve read it. Provide a ‘share this’ button and easy access to every social network they may in theory want to share it on.

Featured images:

•  License: Creative Commons image source
•  License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2012/11/19/18/08/hand-66631_150.jpg

Author of this post, Mike K is an internet marketing consultant. He has loads of knowledge about the best practices in search engine optimization. A keen blogger, he likes to write on issues related to SEO and playing football in his spare time.

Combine work and play in a way that lets you enjoy life, even while you push forward through its economic complexities; here are five U.S. SEO events to visit in order to take a one month vacation with purpose:

1. eMetrics Summit

One of the keys to designing a good SEO plan relies on understanding how to see the trends in your bigger user data picture, putting them to use for you in planning how you develop content, products, or services in the future. With that in mind, the eMetrics Summit aims to give you a better idea of exactly what is possible when marketing and modern technology collide, leaving you with a better head for SEO – not to mention brand-building in general – by the time you return to your desk.

When and Where: You’ll get a fantastic opportunity to explore the sprawling metropolis of Chicago from June 10-13, 2013 and beyond if you choose to stop by the city for the eMetrics Summit.

2. Reviewer’s Retreat

A big part of being successful in blogging and affiliate marketing is being able to convince Google and friends that your site is one that deserves to rank highly when people are searching for product reviews, and that face will provide much of the focus at the upcoming Reviewer’s Retreat. You’ll learn how to build and market your web content in a way that search engines will appreciate, helping you to take your product review website to the next level.

When and Where: From June 30 through July 2, 2013, you can enjoy your adventure in Pine Mountain, Georgia, at the Lodge and Spa at Callaway Gardens – where you go next in the rustic Georgia landscape when the Reviewer’s Retreat wraps up is up to you!

3. MozCon Seattle

One of the most well-loved SEO conferences in the world, MozCon is a must attend event if you’re looking to get your search marketing chops up to snuff. By attending, you’ll give yourself access to hundreds of brilliant minds through workshops, keynotes, and networking sessions, all serving to make you a more effective marketer before you walk out the door on the last day.

When and Where: Pay a visit to the great Pacific northwest by taking a trip to Seattle, Washington from July 8-10, 2013, giving you access to big city delights, long ocean shorelines, and dominating mountains at a moment’s notice!

4. Inbound 2013

No matter what method of marketing happens to be your particular forte, the Inbound Conference is the premiere event for you. Taking place over three days and packing in more than 100 sessions, each of them aimed at helping you to be a better purveyor of content, products, and services, you’ll also get to enjoy a massive party, live concert, and other more laid back endeavors, making Inbound a perfect stop on any marketer’s vacation!

When and Where: Set for a date at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts from August 19-22, 2013, the Inbound 2013 event could be exactly the excuse you need to explore every nook and cranny of this picturesque New England city! If you need wheels while you’re in town, you can always find an affordable rental car via CheapCarRental!

5. SES San Francisco

Search engine specialists, general marketing professionals, brand builders, and more are all invited to take in one of the world’s largest gatherings of the same: SES in San Francisco. Based around a rigorous instructional program that has been specially designed to help ensure that each and every attendee gets the absolute most out of their experience, you’ll leave SES a better and more confident marketer than ever before.

When and Where: If you’ve been looking for an excuse to visit the fun and funky city of San Francisco, California, let the SES event be it from at least September 10-13, 2013!

See social media events here!

Before knowing the ways to get it restore it to the previous state and reputation, it is importantto find out reason behind this temporary penalty. These are most common situations (sometimes silly mistakes!) that make your website to fall down. There is nothing to worry about  as I’m not going to use no panda, penguin or tiger at all, instead I will emphasise on the misdeeds and faults and how to overcome them.

Here is the list of common tricks that were main cause of your penalization:

1. Optimization of anchor text

You generally think that use of anchor text will increase your website traffic; it is true but to a certain extent. If too many people use of this “anchor text” you are interested for popularizing, then you will lose your rankings.

What to do? Removal of links!

If you built these anchor text links using legitimate websites without paying for it, you not need to remove these links. But if anchor text optimization is done with the help of spammy and irrelevant websites, try to approach their webmasters to remove such links.

If good and legitimate links are produced by you, then you better keep them intact. In place, try to build more and more non anchor text links from authentic sites. Some of the usable variations are hereunder:

-  <yourdomain>.com

-  <yourdomain>

-  Title tag text

-  <click here>

-  www.<yourdomain>.com

Try to create more variations that are not suspicious and use them in rotation after certain intervals.

2. Spammy links

Days are gone when spammy links built were popularized overnight with steep ranking. You need to remove all such links pointing to your websites.

Spammy links are the links from:

a)      Link farming sites

b)      Sites containing duplicate content and low quality content

c)       Sites linking to alcohol, drugs or even pornographic content

d)      Sites banned or penalized by search engines

If there are some sites that are using your copyrighted content then it will be better that you tackle with them by law. File a lawsuit and send notice regarding removal if they refuse to remove those spammy links with consent.

For links that are still alive, use NoFollow so that they are not traced by the GoogleBots for being estimated for page ranking.

3. Building links too fast in little time

It is generally observed that building links at a fast pace in little time affects your ranking. There is no need to halt but start creating links at slow pace and wait for some time for the rankings to improve when link density becomes low over time.

4. Creation of junk and duplicate content

Most of the SEO optimizers use copy and create lots of junk content on your website to get high rankings. But days have changed and Search engines like Google do not torment these duplicated content any more. These contents are penalized as well. The only reason is low quality!

Go through your site, remove all of such content and add some new one.

Low quality pages can also temporary be blocked using indexing in the robos.txt file in your sitemap. Once you add high quality content revert back to the previous indexing. Isn’t this simple!

5. Other methods include removal of links cluttered on a single page or set of pages of a particular website called as ‘all page links’. For quicker restoration remove all those links. You can later add more links using legitimate methods to make for them.

Conclusion

It is not necessary to take a leap and close the penalized website. It is better to observe the intensity and make use of the abovementioned tips that will work for Google SERP restoration without doubt. I appreciate the efforts that you have implemented for establishing a reputable identity in this fast developing market. Buying new domain and creating fresh content will fetch same results but with a lot of labour as discussed above.

You better make use of these tips and restore your site. Have faith… you will surely succeed.

About the Author

Nisha Pandey is SEO expert/blogger. As an hobby she is going through various SEO techniques to help enhance online businesses to make a reputation with legit methods and low quality link removal services.

Image Credit: 1.

Panda Still Rules

When Google rolled out their Panda update, the world quailed. Some of the top-ranked websites on the planet took massive tumbles in terms of ratings, and many of them have yet to recover (and many never will). It’s important to understand that while Panda rolled out quite some time ago, it still rules where website visibility (and website penalties) is concerned.

Perhaps the most important thing to realize about Panda was that it was not about how easily a site could be searched or what keywords you used to optimize your pages (well, not completely, at any rate). Rather, it was about “quality”. The update to Google’s algorithm focused on ensuring that Internet searchers were able to find the information they wanted, and that the sites shown in the search results were high quality, industry leaders, rather than those using back linking tricks, keyword stuffing, incorrect contextual linking and the like to falsely boost their rankings.

Regular Updates Matter

This concept has been preached for some time now, but it’s more important than ever before to ensure that you really get it. Regular updates are vital. Once, they were important to encourage search engine spiders to crawl your page on a regular basis. Now, the meaning has changed, but not the practice. Today, regular updates are vital for building a backlog of accurate, quality, informative content that actually offers readers something of value (more on value later).

What should you update and how regularly should those updates occur? This is one of the hardest questions to answer for some businesses, particularly if you have an ecommerce site that doesn’t change very often. One of the better solutions is to integrate a blog into your site (or build a standalone blog that links back to your main site). By blogging on a regular basis, you can build up that mentioned backlog of content, but you can also use contextual linking to tie your blog to the rest of your website.

Giving Value

Before we go any further, it’s vital that you understand one thing about your regular updates. As mentioned previously, it’s essential that your updates provide real value for your readers/visitors. That means you can’t just slap up paragraphs cobbled together for the sake of keyword optimization. That also means that you can’t just regurgitate what’s already been posted elsewhere – duplicate content offers no value to your readers, and it will get your site smacked down to almost invisible levels.

In order to give value to your visitors, your content needs to be:

• Original – Don’t repeat content, and don’t copy and paste content from other sites. Create your own, unique, original content or have it created for you if you don’t have the time or struggle with writing.
• Informative – Again, the content you create has to offer value to your readers. The best way to do that is ensure that you offer something that is informative, something that your readers find appealing. While you don’t have to make every single post and update an encyclopedia entry, make sure there are informative elements.
• Engaging – Original, informative content is engaging on its own, but you need to do a bit more. To really engage with your readers, you have to connect with them. You can do that by creating content that they want to share, posts that make them say, “Wow, I’ve got to link that on my Facebook page!”. Of course, every update won’t be shared massively, but you need to make the attempt, nonetheless.

Choose the Right Framework

Whether you’re building a blog or creating an ecommerce site, you need the right framework underpinning your efforts. There are tons of different options out there, but one of the better choices is WordPress. It’s robust, there are tons of free plugins to help you improve your efforts and results, and you’ll find a plethora of <a href=”http://themefuse.com”> Premium WordPress themes </a> available to help you get the look, feel and functionality that you need.

As you can see, SEO has changed dramatically. It’s now much more about what you can do for your visitors rather than how you can manipulate the system to gain better visibility.

About the author: Anny Solway is an original writer at ThemeFuse.com – a leader in the premium WordPress themes industry. She is fond of sharing Online Marketing and Blogging ideas.

Image Credit: 1.

In the design world, the word ‘hierarchy’ is used to explain the order of importance that particular elements have. This applies to all kinds of art in ways you might not always expect – even a photograph of a landscape for instance will have a hierarchy as your eyes will naturally be drawn to some elements before others. You’ll probably follow the garden path with your eyes for instance to see the house in the background first, or you might see that some elements are just out of focus lending more prominence to the items in front.

In web design hierarchy is particularly important because you have so many different interactive elements to consider. A typical web design will include content, it will include borders and images and it may also include videos and forms. All this can be a literally overwhelming for a visitor, unless there is a clear hierarchy to help guide them through each of the items.

So how do you enforce this hierarchy and guide your visitors through your site? Here we will look at some of the ways you can add order to the chaos.

Contrast

Contrast can be used to separate one element from another. This can mean a contrast in colour, or just a contrast in shape. Without this though, all of your different elements will blend into one another making it hard for people to know where one item ends and another begins. If nothing else, make sure that you have a border around these aspects so that they are viewed separately.

Size

Now that each item has definitive boundaries, you can make one item more important by giving it more space on the page. The bigger the item of course, the more important it will be presumed to be and the less important the other smaller elements will seem.

Colour

A well designed website should use a colour code as part of its organization. You can achieve this by using a ‘base’ colour, with separate elements on top of it. If you have a white background for instance, then black text will stand out most because it has the most contrast. You can then use grey as a ‘secondary’ colour to mark sub headings and other things that you don’t want to draw as much attention to. Any colours with similar relationships on the colour wheel will work this way.

Detail

If something is very simple we will often tend to presume it offers less of importance than something complex – as complexity suggests interest. On a page full of blank shapes, our eyes would automatically be guided to the one complicated image on the page for instance. Avoid having too many complicated elements share a space as it will leave the visitors unable to decide where to look.

Position

The position items have on your page will also make them seem more important or less so. Design throughout the ages has taught us that the most important thing will normally be the thing in the middle of the page and sometimes the thing at the top of the page. These are the two places we’ll look then to find out what the focus of a layout is, so that’s where you need to place your most crucial features.

Featured images:

•  License: Creative Commons image source
•  License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2012/12/24/08/39/background-72243_150.jpg
•  License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2012/04/10/23/40/flat-27085_150.png

Author of this post, Mike K; is an internet marketing consultant in a leading web development firm. Analyzing websites is part and parcel of his job and knows all the key factors that help a website get noticed. So, he has talked about few of those aspects in this article.

1. Let them know that the internet is not magic – I am not sure where the concept came from that just because a business is on the internet that it will be successful. I am assuming it came from a cartoon or people who have never worked in the industry. Like any other business you need marketing, the ability to find the correct audience, and to have the right product! The internet is another form of store, yes the reach is huge, but business is business.
2. Aim low and blow it out – When I worked with one of the best SEO’s in the business this was his model of doing SEO. When you think about the concept, it makes total sense. Let’s say you sent 1,000 unique visitors to a site in a month. If you and your client had agreed that you would try to send 3,000 than it is going to be a tough meeting with the client at the end of the month. However, if you had said that it would be great to get 750 and you receive 1,000 than you are a superstar. Either way you worked the same and got the same result, just one way you have happy clients
3. Talk about how big the internet is – This is what I call the Lottery syndrome. People only hear about others who have won the Lottery or were just “one number off”. So naturally when they buy a ticket what they are thinking about is those who have won the lottery or their friends who were so close. In the same way when clients think about the internet all they think about are the Gangham style’s or the eBay’s. Those are great dreams for the site but they need to realize how many places have tried to be eBay or tried to put out a Gangham style video – focus on the sheer amount.  Obviously, you don’t want to be crushing dreams here – but again focus on being realistic and what the next step is and you will have happy clients and a de-stressed life! (As de-stressed as the life as an SEO can be!)

Adam Lundquist is the CEO of Nerds Do It Better a Philadelphia based digital marketing company. He has been the number one rated radio host and published in a variety of online and offline publications. When he is not performing SEO he is either yelling at the TV or going for walks.  Connect on Google Plus. Tweet at me on twitter. LinkIn with me.

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There are a number of ways to diversify for SEO, starting with anchor text. Consider all of the links you may have in cyberspace. Let’s say your go-to phrase is “the nation’s best organic rabbit repellent.” When there are dozens, or even hundreds of URLs with that anchor text, it’s automatically going to be considered spam.

Link Diversification

It’s equally important to diversify links. If the same tactic is used time and time again, Google’s algorithms are going to catch on. What you need are quality links with different approaches. Don’t stick to the same old thing just because it worked once.

SEO requires original content, and that extends to link building. Otherwise, it will read as spam at some point and hurt the bottom line of your site or business. You can do better than that, so it’s important to try out a few different approaches to build links.

Avoid Burnout

You know that great SEO requires wholly original content with keywords naturally peppered throughout. Although that’s SEO 101, the truth is that a lot of SEO writers get burned out. This doesn’t mean you should have a high turnover rate and hire new writers every few months. Instead, encourage your writers to pursue alternative points of view.

Anyone can get into a rut when they write about the exact same thing day after day. Every writer has their own natural voice, strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes it seems like there’s only so much you can write about a hotel in Los Angeles. Focus on diversifying content by reading related blogs, news and generally approaching subjects from a new angle.

Garner New Marketing

Just like writing, it’s easy for marketing departments to fall into the same old routines. Every marketing campaign or approach needs to shake things up sometimes. If the marketing team is lagging, get them on board with SEO. Utilize their skills to find out what’s unique about the company, what should be highlighted and try to see if there are perks that haven’t been focused on before.

When it comes to SEO, diversity is the key to success. So start branching out, get new ideas and try to keep things fresh. It’s the best way to earn those top result spots!

Adrienne Erin is a blogger and aspiring novelist whose work has been featured on Search Engine People, MarketingProfs, and Content Marketing Institute. She does internet marketing for a number of clients, including one who does indeed have the catchphrase “the nation’s best organic rabbit repellent.” Follow her on Twitter to see what she is doing these days.

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Today I have come across Shimon’s interview with Greg Hartnett, the President of Best of the Web, otherwise known as BOTW (pronounced BotWah). I’ve known BOTW for ages but even I have heard so many bad things about the directories that my immediate thought was “Really? They are still in business?”

I regret thinking that. The truth BOTW is an awesome directory and their president has some awesome insight:

A web directory is a classification of the web’s content. All day, our editors search the web for quality websites and then list them in the most relevant category within the directory. Each listing is human reviewed, so users can be sure that all the sites are relevant and not spammy.

Another person who knows a lot about directories is Gail who created the cool list of valuable ones at DirJournal directory (another high quality directory!) and also posted an update on directory deals.

So do directories deserve any bad association that have acquired? Definitely there are still awesome ones that don’t!