Impact of Social Media over SEO

Over last few years, social media has grown very quickly, with over millions of users on the social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Reports show that one million links are shared in Facebook in every 20 minutes. With much of the content being shared on such social media platforms, it can benefit the search engines in finding out the best possible result desired by the users.

Google and other search engines are growing day by day, not just with the social media presence, but also in terms of social media that affects the search results. Therefore, setting up certain standards for the content that is being shared is necessary to be seen on the top page of search results. While creating content, one should maintain certain standards to be viewed on the SERPs:

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Most Important Deliverables To Consider During Website Development

There are many web development and SEO companies that strive hard to deliver results but it is important to understand and recognize the companies that offer the best in terms of design and quality. All web design projects should begin by aiming at some core deliverables that are required to build the website and to make it a success.

Let's have a look at the top important deliverables that every website design company should offer to their web designing clients.

1. Initial Site Architecture

This is an important aspect to be considered before deciding the color theme, image sliders or even the layout of the website in consideration. The Initial site architecture will lead to deciding the internal linking structure and the site navigation map. This aspect will show you the outline of the website pages and a brief about the content that will go in each page. This structure s later materialized into what is known as sitemap. This is an essential step to be taken while developing a website.

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Boosting Social Engagement in 2014

Social media platform is one of the most effective platforms that have been adopted by most of the marketers to promote a business. Social media campaigns should be carried out smartly, to make sure that the campaign turns out to be as effective one. Below are the four social media strategies that every marketer could implement to carry out a successful social media campaign.

1.      Making social presence on Multiple Channels

Engagement with Facebook and Twitter is not enough, audiences are present on such social networking sites in a wide range, but at the same time audiences are also present on other social networks too, therefore, social presence of business on those social networking sites is equally important. Use the content sharing on different channels according to its functions and audiences and implement the social tactics that manage one streamlined campaign.

2.      Quality content that encourages consumers to get engaged

It is necessary to analyse and understand what the customers want, what are they looking for. Creating content that interests the fans is important, as it helps grabbing the attention and this way, people know about a business or a brand that is being promoted. Encouraging the social audiences to create content themselves and are likely to share it further will result in a strong reach to more audiences.

3.      Creating Community Platform

Marketers can make use of community platforms to reach more audiences. Creating a community strategy may turn out to be an effective strategy which gives consumers to have a bigger voice and be a part of broader community. Engaging the audiences by asking various questions and polls will be a good strategy. A friendly forum is always good to have a conversation about various topics and elevate brand’s social credibility.

4.      Enhancing personality of Fan Page

The look and layout of the fan page must sooth one’s eye so that one must stick to the fan page and keep checking for the updates. Using media such as different photographs, videos also contribute to the social reach of the page. Creativity fosters the social engagement of a page, therefore, creativity on the social platform is a must.

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Google’s Top Trending Searches For 2013

With Google having published its list of top ten global trending searches of 2013, it is now clear what people searched the maximum this year on the search engine giant. Without any doubt, Madiba rules the hearts. To many, it must be an unsurprising fact that the #1 trending searches of 2013 was an international symbol of strength and peace: Nelson Mandela.

The global search interest for the former President of South Africa was very high even before his passing away. And now after him, people from all over the world have turned to Google to learn about the life and contributions of Nelson Mandela’s legacy.

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Mobile Apps: To boost the performance of business

Smartphones have drastically changes lives of not only a common people but mainly business professionals. Smartphones supports a variety of mobile applications that make life of people convenient. Businesses have started understanding the multiple advantages of the mobile applications and have started utilizing them to benefit the business.

MobileApps provide a number of benefits to the people, smartphones have replaced the normal personal computers and people can access no matter where they are, it has become more convenient as well as efficient. Mobile apps are now one of the advertisement strategy used to promote a business. It has made most business communications smoother and effective.

By developing a mobile app for a business benefits brands awareness, and spreads about the business to a wide range of people and also to the social media platforms. A well performing app will be welcomed by everyone and this way the advertisement will be carried out. Mobile app development encourages a business to get a good edge over its competitors, if they make use of innovation and ideas and the application gives advantage to its user. This way, customer interaction is generated.

If a client makes a deal with a company, it is important to sustain the client for the long term basis, loyalty from both sides should be there. With mobile apps, loyalty is enhanced, by making it easier for the customers to interact with the company through apps. People find it convenient to use it and by adding some interesting features in the app, generates interests and fetches more clients, it is also a new way to generate revenue for the business, investing lesser and ROI in greater.

Therefore, Mobile Apps development is a good strategy to get business from the world that is now surrounded by technology. It helps a business to promote it to a wide range of audiences and at the same time it helps a business to generate revenue.  

How to initiate Social Media interaction with Blog Content

A blog plays an important role for a business; it is an individual medium for educating the clients and audiences about the kind of work being done. A blog represents its clients and readers about the unique selling proposition, the expert knowledge that is demonstrated, and the trust factor to be made. Not only this, but also a blog serves are a medium for social media content and encourages interaction with several others on the social media platforms. A blog can do very well for a business and encourage the social media crowd to visit the blog and maintain the interest and subscribing to the blogs whenever a new one is being updated. This brings greater level of engagement and effectively grows and makes the trust stronger and increase and maintain the audiences as well as making the business go viral.

Getting audiences for the blog is not easy and making the blog content interact with the social media platforms is not easy as well, therefore it requires proper ideas and strategies. There are few tips to improve the social media interaction with the blog content:

·         Providing simple call to action

A blog should have a simple and precise Call to Action so that it encourages the readers to interact or get engaged. Encouraging the visitors/readers/clients to give response to various topics is very important. Therefore, implementation of something that initiate interaction is mandatory.

·         Insisting readers to initiate discussion

Theblog content should match the expectations of the readers so that such it should initiate a discussion and for that the topic being discussed or shared should be interesting. The content should prompt in such a way that it should initiate a conversation; the blog should contain prompts like questions and opinions, probing for people to share their experiences and so on.

·         Highlighting short amusing story

Different demographics and audiences will have different choices and preferences for where and how they interact with the content. Some people might not be interested to commenting on a blog but may be more interested in interacting with the same on other social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Short stories can be made on the topic present in the log which may encourage the reader to respond to it.

·         Respond to all

It is necessary to respond to whatever responses are being received by the readers. Whether it is a comment, or a question or even when a reader shares the blog content, a response is necessary so as to build and maintain a relationship with the reader. No comments or questions shall be left unanswered as it discourages not just one, but many.

It will be great to chat with you and know your views about the topic in the comments.  

Online reputation management to enhance business

When a business is set up, it starts offering its products and services, people approach and use them, the story never ends here. In the present scenario, where people are connected to each other over the internet, not only individuals, but also businesses are spread across the internet world to promote themselves.

Running a business is not just about providing services and influencing the customers to buy the products, but it is also about finding out what the customers think about the products and services being served, whether it is liked by them or not, what improvements are required to satisfy the customers and so on. 

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Things to consider while covering logo rationales

A logo of an organization plays an important role. It acts as a mirror and reflects back what the organization deals with. While planning a logo for a company, different-different ideas strike the mind which is based on strong concepts and imaginations. While presenting the logo concepts to the client, it is preferable to present it in written rationales so that the ideas and concepts could be accompanied together and very well explained and clarified to the client. It becomes convenient for the one who added logic to the logo, the designer to better explain the concepts and express it in front of the clients as well as to reach a final decision when it comes to selecting a final logo. Written rationales help to defend and explain the concerns and questions that may arise from the client during the process of logo revision.

 Some topics to be considered while writing the logo rationales:

• Symbolism: A strong explanation and clarification is required while expressing for what reasons a logo has been chosen. Explain it as much as it is important and that is easy for the client to understand and see the reflection of the whole organization within the selected logo.

• Relationship: Relationship has to be established while selecting a logo. Viewers should relate the company’s personality, goals, the area that they deal, vision, values within that particular logo. Therefore, it is necessary to decide a logo that very well compliments the organization and its goals.

• Style: The client has to be very well explained why the style for the logo has been chosen. Clarification should be provided about why the style has been chosen and how does it resemble the personality and image of the business.

• Colour: Explain the colour choices, in what way, the colour relates the business, how does it represent the business and so on. Selecting the colour for a logo is a necessary part and has to be discussed and chosen carefully.

• Typography: Explain, why the typefaces used in a logo has been chosen and how does it represent the company and other elements present in the logo. How dies it relate the design and the company itself.  

However, a written rationale is a good tool for communication but the client preferences, requirements and opinions are more important. The clients better know about what they want, who are their target audiences, therefore the logo should be from the client’s point of view rather than generating own ideas. 

How to cope up with Google’s 2014 Algorithm Updates

The year 2013 had been an incredible year in terms of Google updates featuring Humming Bird algorithm, further releases of Penguin and Panda and so on. Due to such major updates, many SEO strategies were ruined and played no role in improvement in the Search Engine platforms. SEO industry faced a major problem and was a doubtful issue whether they will be able to cope up in the market or not after such major changes in the updates and strategies of the search engine giants Google. The future can never be predicted and so is 2014. No one has any idea of what the search engine giant is planning for 2014 and what changes it shall bring it in the search and keyword strategies. But nothing is impossible, monitoring the behaviour of the search engine giants and other techniques may give an idea about what’s coming next! Research and development is a necessary part to predict what changes might come. Therefore, after a research, here are some suggestions for SEO companies and professionals who want to get prepared for changes that might come in the year 2014.

·         2013 updates carried forward, only the volume and details will be added

All that happened in 2013 will be carried forward in 2014, but some micro adjustments might be done to Panda and Penguin that will target both link and content quality.   Read more.....

Components of a Good Web Development Company

Webdevelopment world is misunderstood by a majority of people. Generally people posses no idea related to web development. All they know is developing a website and it is done. When it comes to designing a high quality website or web application, it becomes necessary to identify which web Development Company shall be hired. Below are the key points, how to identify a good web development company.

A good web development company has following qualities:

·         Able to do both front-end and back-end development

A good web developer posses the understanding of full development cycle and the ability to deal with a project from start till the end and achieve a target successfully. Therefore, it is a must, that a developer shall understand the importance of both front end and back end development and shall deal with both.

·         Should follow best practices

A good developer is the one who use healthy and best practices and not the technologies that he uses. Technologies keep on changing, but the best practices with remain be best and will evolve. He shall make use of techniques such as writing semantic HTML, follow web standards for all front end coding, use of a MVC frameworks and so on. Such practices will not only make a website healthy, but will remain the best.

·         To understand the project and the strategies that surrounds it

It is necessary to understand the strategies and elements that are associated with the project. It is generally because, to understand the needs and give the perfect advise to the clients and provide them with best possible solutions, therefore making their business reaching zenith.

·         Investing and taking enough time for research and development

As the web industry is one of the fastest, it is necessary to allocate time each week for research and development and find out new evolving trends and techniques. For a developer, R&D is important, each week and use it in to make wonders. 

Why your Digital Marketing Strategy is failing?

 DigitalMarketing helps to fetch leads and increase sales for a business. It worries a lot when there is a decline in the sales and no leads are being fetched. However, it may be the result of poor Digital Marketing strategy. Let’s discuss the 3 must haves that will help boosting and increase sales and leads.

 1.       Conversion of more visitors should be the first priority

The first and foremost priority of the Administrator is to increase the number of visitors to respective website. The visitors should find it really friendly to access the website, keeping the website simple yet full of information and other products and accessibilities that generally a user is in need. Being clear, open and honest about what exactly being served, not wasting the time of visitors by unnecessary form filling procedures, which usually many visitors find it frustrating and is considered to be a bad impression on the website and most importantly, updating with new products and information to the users, who visits website. These tips help creating a good impression further leading to a long term relationships with the customers creating goodwill and influences the users to visit again.

2.       Adopting SEO Strategy for the Website

Google has been updating its search engine with its major updates such as Hummingbird, it is time for a website to tackle the SEO strategy to create its online presence, and also keep a check whether the SEO strategy is done according to the Hummingbird updates or not. Ensure that the search engines have a purpose as each pages on a website that have been allowed, should get optimized according to the search engine. Analyze each keyword that matches to a particular field of a website, have enough content to support a particular keyword, which may drive relevant traffic. Do a deep dive analysis of backlinks and be updated. Keep a check on what the rivals are doing with their SEO techniques and strategies.

3.       Don’t be scared of making wrong decisions

Visitors like to feel and experience changes. Keep testing a website with few interesting changes and coming up with exclusive features, which other websites do not have. There is nothing to worry about being wrong in changing the look and feel of a website, or with the creativity, simply get the website live. Data analyzed shows whether the changes achieved the targeted goals or not, if not then the website can be updated very quickly and for testing other ideas.

Digital Marketing strategies can never be perfect, but understanding and adapting the technology and the changes can advantage in the future of businesses.

Creating content in response to Hummingbird Algorithm

After the announcement of Google’s Hummingbird search algorithm, it left a lot of questions and confusions in developing the content strategy. The first and foremost step in development of a healthy content is to understand what the audience want and what are their interests, and how the analytics can be boosted and understanding the trends to be followed. The second step is to maximize the visibility of the content in both organic as well as social media channels by developing and structuring the content.

According to the Google’s search algorithm Hummingbird, the following two concepts may help structuring an appropriate content:

Understanding the changing search trends and behaviour and developing content accordingly

Hummingbird update was introduced to understand the behaviour of users while searching on web. Queries are day by day becoming long tail and conversational; users tend to ask questions instead of searching for keywords to find exactly what their requirements are. Such queries are true with voice based search which is still in its infancy.

While going through the trends for question-based searches over last 7 years, a distinct rise in such queries had been found in 2009 and continuing today.

It is really very important to understand the search patterns of the users while developing a fresh content for a site. Due to the increase in the question based search trends and the motive of Hummingbird search algorithm to provide quick results, it’s important to create content in an informational manner to address the needs of the audiences.

Giving appropriate title to the content

The title of the content plays a vital role as it is necessary to achieve success and exposure, whether it is a blog posts or infographics. The title has to be decided carefully to catch the attention of several online users to share it on a social platform or on the RSS feeds, therefore, a matter of seconds matter to grab the attention of online users. Try to make the content go viral from the following techniques:

Include numbers:

Lists of numbers perform extremely well, especially when the number is a large one and closer to the beginning. A larger number may attract the users influencing to them to think about the number of options available with the content and learn from, which will encourage them to click the post as well as to share it. Preferably actual numbers should be used instead of words.

Prefer using attractive words

Titles should be decided in such a way that it grabs the attention of the users. Try using words like “Dead” or “Bleed” that performs extremely good. Such types of words catch the attention of the users immediately and create a level of anxiety and curiosity that the users don’t afford to ignore. 

By: Search Infomedia

Search Engine Marketing or Social Media?

Everyone likes the new shining objects. So does the marketers, who started switching from, search engine marketing to social media, and such trend followed by other marketers. Of lately, there has been a shift or thinking to shift their Digital Marketing focus from Search Engine Marketing to Social Media. Switching search to social was a smart move? Can marketers rely completely on Social Media instead of Search Engine?

Few years back, the companies that shifted their Digital marketing focus from search engine to social media are now bringing back the search engine marketing as the strategy that is the part of Digital Marketing. The major question is, why did the search engine was chosen again? It is because; the marketers didn't receive the kind of performance that they were hoping to get out of the social media campaigns.

A research showed that, only 1 per cent of online transaction could be generated through social media. At the same time, there was a great contribution of Search Engine Marketing for e-commerce sites for lead generation, sales and representing 31.43 percent of sales traffic. E-mail marketing had 2.82 percent and social media just had 1.55 percent of all e-commerce traffic.

It doesn't mean that social media failed those businesses, but the marketers failed to understand how to use and optimize social media in their respective businesses. If a business makes use of social media, it should generate genuine people who’d get engaged in the activities and trends put by the business. Social media is not about adopting give-away campaigns like “Win iPad” and converting people who want to win, follow the brand using social media such as Twitter and Facebook. This will not bring in genuine fans or leads. The business will face a decline in the engagement due to not implementing a perfect strategy that suits social media which will lead to generating the leads and actually the genuine ones.

Another trend flowed in Asia is to put Paid Ads (PPC) to be focused of the search engine marketing and not concentrating on the SEO. It might be because of the assumption made by the people of SEO getting too harder. But if a website is healthy and well optimized, more than half of website traffic can be fetched through organic search results. One can easily get traffic to a website if SEO strategies shall be implemented properly and following rules and regulations of search engines and rather focusing on paid ads.

Social media, Paid ads and SEO have their own different roles in the digital marketing field and despite of adopting these techniques one over another, try bringing all together and implementing it in the business which results in bringing business goals closer.

To collaborate the above 3 techniques, a business shall make use of the following 6 steps:

·         Behavior of Audience in Search and Social Media

It is really necessary to understand how people behave on search engines and social media, such as what people search for, in search engine and social media. For that, a marketer has to look and analyze own website so that relevant audiences can b targeted according to their needs and purposes.

·         Setting up goals for search engines and social media

Set up the search and social media goals, once a marketer have well understood the audience and adjusting it according to the digital marketing projects.

·         Using maximum advantage of social media on SEO

The social activities that is being performed by social media has a greater impact on search engine and a marketer should take maximum advantage of social media on search engine optimization, so that improvement can be brought in the organic search performance.

·         Combine search and social media

A marketer goes wrong as far as they consider search and social media to be different. A marketer shall create a cross-functional process between the search and social so that you can integrate the search learning into social media, and the social media learning into search.

·         Implement the best practice and influence people to follow it

Give a shape to the findings, research, goals and process and implement it and enforce the people across the world to follow it.

By: Search Infomedia

What does being a social business really mean?

Of lately, Social media and Social business are the terms which people are talking about. Both have their own importance and are perfectly distinguished, and the organizations which do not have the knowledge that how these terms are distinguished, are missing out a huge opportunity that will improve the functioning and business process.

What is the difference between Social Media and Social Business?

Social media is a platform that acts as a channel and a market that makes it possible to interact with everyone throughout the globe, which technology made it happen. Social media now days serve as an agent for the social changes as well. Social media has made it possible to be user friendly, so that every human being could use it. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are the perfect examples for it, as millions of users can be find on these social networks spending and sharing their life events throughout the day.

Whereas the Social business that has been spotlighted since few years, has been gaining popularity in the recent times. There is a big difference between a business that uses social media like posting the product details on Facebook and Tweeting the same on Twitter and the job is done! And one that establishes social connections across the web and influences people to talk and share about the businesses or products. Social business is basically accessing the social networks to produce an effective and efficient output.

Social media has now become a communication and marketing channel so that people and even business could reach around the world and increase productivity, whereas the social business blend of business processes and strategies, technology and people to be successful by adopting the social media techniques in their own way but by following certain protocols. Social media is a broader concept as compared to the Social business as the social business is a part of Social media now, which allows an organization to communicate and interact with the external factors.

Social business is the game player which adopts the strategy of boosting the development of new products by using the internal and external social communications for lead generation and employing social listening and analytics. The traditional way of business has been revolutionized  to social business now and the way business process is carried out in the era of social processes, e-business and mindsets and how the social business interact with the external factors, team and collaborate and share the experiences and knowledge.