Category Archives: Small Business Marketing

Is Guest Posting On Its Way Out?

Blogging, Content creation, content marketing, guest blogging, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing, The Importance Of Content Creators, , ,

Guest-PostingGuest posts have long been a fantastic way of boosting the SEO value of a website. The value of such a post is in the link left either in the content or in the author biography at the bottom. The link back to your website enhances your SEO value and takes you up the Google rankings.

Once it was used en masse since the more links you had the higher you would rank. We’ve now shifted to a stage where the PageRank (PR) of a website acts as the defining factor for how valuable a guest post is.

With the shift to social media as the most important part of SEO, some question whether guest posting is about to come to an end.

What Will End?

Guest posting itself will never end. Websites always need quality content to share via social media. And they need the talented writers to do it. What it will end is this focus on quantity over quality. Sites will no longer see it necessary to post hundreds of guest posts on low quality websites, and thus creating link neighbourhoods.

Blogs with high PRs will suddenly become more valuable and webmasters will have to become pickier over what they publish. The value of a guest post will actually go up.

The Social Media Link

Guest posting has a direct link to social media. To entice people to interact with you on Facebook and Twitter you need to trigger the interaction. A guest post can create debate and an emotional reaction. This is what sparks popularity on these platforms. They go hand-in-hand.

There are only so many times you can repeat the same things on your website. And the same goes for everybody else.

To freshen things up a website might bring in a guest blogger to add their opinions and style of writing. It’s an attraction in itself. It’s like a newspaper asking a celebrity to write a column in favour of using one of their regular writers.

What about Guest Posting Websites?

Guest posting websites which host nothing but guest posts will suffer. Google expects you to have a certain proportion of unique content. If you have nothing but a selection of guest posts this makes your website a directory. It doesn’t actually offer anything on its own. Google partially rates a website based on what it would look like if you stripped everything away and left just your original content.

You should aim to have at least 75 per cent of original content on your website. This doesn’t apply to getting other writers to produce content. It applies to posts where a link points to another website for SEO purposes.

Bigger than Ever

In fact, guest posting is likely to become bigger than ever before. Since everyone demands higher quality content the writers who can’t produce such content will gradually fade away. The focus will be on skilled writers who can capture an audience. It makes it even more important to make connections with professionals who know the rules of proper guest posting.

Our guest post was contributed by Kenneth Adams. He is an avid blogger who shares his knowledge about blogging and SEO through his articles. He says that he finds Adelaide SEO a great source of information on SEO and blogging techniques.

KPIs: That Will Allow You To Measure Your SEO Campaign’s Performance

Google AdWords, Key Performance Indicators, KPI's, SEO, SEO tools, Small Business Marketing, , ,

KPIs: That Will Allows You To Measure Your SEO Campaign's PerformanceDo you wish to make your business a flourishing one? Are you aware of the latest online marketing trends that have been made to take e-Commerce ventures and your visibility to a whole new level? If not, then you should definitely know about Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Getting the highest ranking on the search engines for your website is the main objective of SEO. This is an important aspect to consider because the success of any online business depends on the traffic the website can attract. SEO helps a business get listed on the top most position in various search engines. Therefore, an SEO campaign is essential for businesses to achieve its objective of sustainable profitability.

Importance Of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) In SEO:
Acknowledging the importance of an SEO campaign, there has been an emergence of many Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These help in measuring the effectiveness of the Search Engine Optimization Campaigns. However, the measurement of success of any SEO campaign varies vastly depending upon the nature and objectives of the business.
Key Performance Indicators are extremely important for any online business venture because they reveal the effectiveness of their strategies to be listed on the top of the search engines. The SEO campaign can be modified and changed according to the results shown by these indicators. In addition to measuring the campaign, these indicators are extremely important for improving the campaign over time.

The KPIs For Measuring SEO Campaign:
A few standard KPIs can greatly help businesses in measuring the effectiveness of their SEO campaign. The following are the most widely  used:

  • Unique Keywords- The number of keywords can be used to measure the performance of the website on a global basis. When a site uses diverse keywords, it will surely be ranked in a good position.
  • Visits per page- The attention, which the keywords of a website can draw, is also an indicator of its effectiveness.
  • Rate of conversion per page- The keyword that outperforms the others should be found out. The key word, which gives the most desirable search results are considered to be a boon for the website.
  • Indexed Pages- The number of pages of the website indexed by Yahoo or Google can give a rough idea about the website’s crawl-ability. The number of actual pages should not be greater than those indexed by Yahoo or Google.
  • Rankings- When the website is ranked well, the search engine optimization campaign can be considered successful. The keywords should be tracked over a period of time, which gives the website owners an idea about how effective their SEO strategy is.
  • Google Links- Website owners can get an approximate number of backlinks, which point to their site with the help of Google links from Google Webmaster Tool or Majestic SEO. However, the quality of the links needs to be good for getting the desired results. Such a thing also reveals how well the website is placed in the search engines.
  • Return on Investment (ROI) – Businesses can have a system, which would track the monetary value of the conversions. This would determine the Return on Investment (ROI) for the Search Engine Optimization campaign.

Benefits Of KPIs For Business:
Online business ventures can only succeed if they have their website ranked in the top most position in the search engines. When their SEO strategy is measured by the Key Performance Indicators, their efficiency and effectiveness is revealed. With the help of KPIs, business can modify their strategies to gain a profitable position online. When the website is optimized for the search engines, the website will attract more targeted traffic, which in turn will increase the popularity of the brand. Thus, the business enterprise that is agile and analytical can reach higher profit margins while attracting thousands or even millions of internet users.

There is no doubt that by adopting the right Key Performance Indicators, businesses can bring about a great change in their overall position on the internet. They can attract a larger number of customers on a global level.  Businesses can become very profitable over time if their SEO strategy is effective and agile.  By implementing a good SEO strategy the brand, products and services a business offers will be visible and on the minds of their prospective clientele so when a client is ready to buy they will come to you.

Author Bio: Robert Bryant is an online consultant for Cuffs Mart – locket cufflinks men. He likes blogging about online strategies that are related to Social Media, SEO, and Online Marketing.

Reasons Behind Successful Local PPC Campaigns

AdWords, Google AdWords, interactive ads, Mobile Marketing, SEO, Small Business Marketing, , ,

local ppc campaignsWhat are the things which affect PPC campaigns in different parts of the world? Culture and language are no doubt the biggest obstacles, but there is more than just that. Let us look at some of them and know why these campaigns are not a success, as compared to local ones.

Understanding Your Customer

Obviously, anywhere you go you have to settle in and become a part of that place before you actually start doing business. The rules, laws and business practices undertaken are different in different places. You need to understand this and your customers first, before you begin with anything. For example, people in South Asian countries will have a different taste as compared to Europeans. Selling something to the former will be very different from selling the same product to the later.

Use Correct Words, Don’t Just Translate Existing Ones

Keywords play an important part of every website and all of you know that. But when campaigning in another place, you need to search for keywords which exist and work in that particular place. Words can have different meanings in different places, therefore you need to research thoroughly and use keywords which are apt in that place.

Invest In Local Search Engines

Every place has some local or commonly used search engine. Make sure you target that search engine and set-up your campaign on that search engine. You will get a better response from people if they come across your campaign on a popular search engine.

What About A Market And Competitors For Your Product

One major reason campaigns don’t succeed is because either there is no market for your product, or there are already a number of people selling the same thing. If you are campaigning for a product which is already being sold by say around 10 people, and that too at a price lower than yours, how can you ever expect your campaign to be successful? This is an important factor to keep in mind before setting up a campaign in a new place.

Check Out Rules And Regulations Of Law

You need to do things legally wherever you go, or you might just fall into trouble and be sent right back packing! If your competitors come to know that you are doing things in a wrong manner, they will definitely use it as a weapon against you. Even though a search engine allows you to do something, it does not mean it is lawful. For example, the law in Europe does not match up to Google’s policy.

Deliver On Time

When somebody order’s something from your website, make sure you deliver it as soon as possible. If other local business deliver products within a couple of days, while you take a week or two to do that, people will obviously prefer buying it from the others. So make sure you deliver goods quickly.

These are some of the ways in which you can create a successful PPC campaign in various places and with effective results.

Scott, an expert in PPC management, considers PPC as a very essential tool for ensuring the success of any business. To know him better, click here.

Businesses Turning To Minimalist Web Design

Business Tech, HTML5, SEO, Small Business Marketing, Web Design

minimalist websitesOver time, websites have used a wide variety of methods to capture and keep attention. A few years ago, flashing banners and sound effects were common. But now many Internet destinations, including such sites the New York Times, are choosing a “less is more” approach and realizing that many of today’s viewers would prefer clean layouts as opposed to bombarding the senses with movement and noise.

A Responsive Attitude

Since ideals, design, attitudes, and design analytics often change, web design specialists keep their finger on the pulse and strive to know what’s on the horizon before clients even ask for it. Despite some fluctuations for what’s in demand at a given time, some things remain the same.

The New York Times website design will follow suit with what other similar news outlets like The New Republic and USA Today have already done. It’s thought that the streamlined approach will drive advertising dollars because website visitors will have fewer things to distract them.

In many cases advertising dollars keep websites afloat so even as some preferences change there’s a near constant effort to keep advertisers satisfied. But advertisers are only satisfied is their marketing expenditures return the desired results. Whether it be building their specific brand in the marketplace, establishing themselves as an industry expert, or simply driving sales revenues, web design plus function has to be successful in the minds, and budgets, of the advertising community.

Successful web design firms consistently look for ways to stay abreast of website changes. Often, it’s easy to do that by watching to see how some of the most highly trafficked national websites are making alterations and responding in appropriate ways that suit local clients.

A Different Approach to SEO

Both businesses and enterprising individuals looking for online success commonly focus on ways to drive traffic to their websites and encourage visitors to interact with content in meaningful ways that align with their business objectives. However, optimization strategies have shifted over the years, too. Some of the most popular search engines, like Google, change algorithms several times a year and what worked in past years isn’t always similarly beneficial now.

A skilled SEO company will be well aware how over-populating a webpage with certain keywords can quickly cause it to drop in rankings or even disappear from results pages. In this regard, search engine optimization is leaning towards minimalist techniques as well.

Recent algorithm updates have favored websites that use keywords sparingly and instead focus on valuable content that makes sense for particular search strings. Now a website that only uses a few specific keywords could rank much higher than one where the emphasis is on keyword usage over quality.

Some companies that provide SEO services can also create a beautiful and user-friendly website for your needs as well as help you appeal to mobile audiences too. Keep up with recent developments and help viewers enjoy a simpler experience by remembering that it’s not always necessary to go over the top to get the top rankings results.

Our guest blogger, Sandrine Cachette, has worked in the web design industry for the last 8 years. She enjoys reviewing web design portfolios. She writes industry articles for MDesign Media on regular basis.