Erik Qualman's Blog, page 499

Why Every Website Should Be Using SEO Strategies

In this age of major technological advancements, every business now has a website they use to reach out to potential customers. From advertising tangible products and intangible services to giving personal information, websites can be used for a variety of reasons. The difference between the sites that succeed and those that are still struggling is the use of SEO.

source: cloudbooksapp.com

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of boosting a website’s rating and increasing traffic by improving the site’s ranking on search engine results. This could be the fine line between making your website a major success and getting access to millions of potential clients.

For every website topic, there are specific and carefully selected keywords that need to be used in the website content. The keywords are fitted into the articles posted on your site to make it stand out when the keywords are put into the search engine. It will then be on the first page of the search results and ultimately bring you more traffic to your website.

Search engines are the primary determinant of the search results. They analyze large volumes of data to determine which web pages are most relevant to a user’s search and in which order to organize them. Apart from SEO, there are other aspects which could contribute to setting apart your website from your competitors’.

The keywords you use in the content in relation to the target market
The website’s functionality and design. Ensure that you have the right team for web design to get the best results
The quality of content created in relation to the keywords. The articles should be relevant to the business or website’s objectives and informative
Having an increased social media presence

Why you need to be using SEO

Search Engine Optimization remains one of the most popular and effective marketing strategies for businesses today; there are numerous benefits but here are the key facts:

Increased traffic

The top ranking sites on search engine results usually get the main traffic from the users. It is hence important to have your site appear on the first page of the search results. When you have better descriptions and tags, the chances of more clicks are higher.

Quantifiable results

Whether your site is commercial or a personal blog, SEO specialists are able to track every aspect of your website’s activity, including additional traffic over a period of time and even the rankings of your site. It is then simpler to tailor-make the tools for the success of the site. SEO targets clients who have searched similar products or services to yours and other demographic information that could be useful. With the right specialist, the process is streamlined all the way to making a sale on your website. In the long run, SEO aims to make you more money.

Websites like Amazon make use of this feature by targeting users with similar search results. Their traffic has more than doubled over the last year and has seen increased sales.

The cost factor

SEO strategy is much cheaper than most strategies like cold-calling. It aims at saving the company money and is hence ideal for small and medium enterprises looking to expand their online presence. Since the strategy targets similar search results to your products and services, it is the most effective strategy

Enhance site functionality

The aspects which are focused on by SEO help in making the site more navigable by the visitors and increases access for the search engines to get the web pages they require. The site links are more organized and the articles are easy to find.

Brand visibility

Increased traffic to your site not only means higher sales but also increased brand awareness. People start to buy the brand and also recognize it as a reliable provider of the products or services they require. The higher your search rankings, the more people start to associate the keywords with your brand.

In the long run, there is increased trust from the clients to buy the products. Retail stores have benefited the most in building their brands and have reaped maximum benefits in creating a relationship with their clients.

Finding the right firm for the job

Aside from the benefits of using SEO, an expert in the field is required to make the dream a reality. The best way to achieve this is to find the most highly skilled SEO specialist you can get. There are certain qualities and qualifications you should look for when hiring an SEO expert:

Know what you want. As a commercial site, you should have a plan for your business. What do you want the SEO to achieve? Set goals to grow your business and work around those goals. Make the goals the foundation of your relationship with the SEO firm. A firm that understands what you want to achieve is likely to help you succeed.
Make multiple options . It is okay to examine more than one firm and compare notes on their services and quotations. It will help you narrow down to an option within your price range. It also gives you an better impression of the company’s objectives and their commitment to the clients.
Have a look at the firms’ portfolios . Nothing speaks louder than testimonials from clients. They should be able to provide case studies and references of sites they have worked with in the past. If your site is a commercial site and the firm has worked on other similar sites successfully, then they are able to give your site the attention it deserves.
Dig into the firm’s profile and history. Apart from being certified and experienced, the firms’ outlook on business, the company principles and their success story will tell you if they are the right fit for the job.


The cost. This can sometimes be a deal breaker but should not always be. There are firms within your price range; you just have to weigh your options to get the best value for your money. Look at the services being offered and determine whether it aims to help achieve your goals.

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What To Say When A Blizzard Might Ruin Your Vacation…

What To Say When A Blizzard Might Ruin Your Vacation…

At least it’s not a war? Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars because he finds it his responsibility but he doesn’t seem too worried about how he will get there or what he will do as to what on Earth will prevent him from getting there. In a recent interview with GQ, Musk revealed his worries about getting to Mars. His top worry is World War 3. He said, “So I think we need to acknowledge that there’s certainly a possibility of a third World War.” Don’t worry, we didn’t know there were plans for a World War 3 either. (Source Gizmodo)

Quote of the Day: “Is it too late now to say sorry?”

Microsoft is saying sorry to their users after cutting storage on OneDrive cloud storage last month. Microsoft pointed the finger at users saying the storage cut was because of excessive use. They have apologized and are offering those affected by the change the opportunity to get additional storage and chance to opt-in for free storage bonuses. You will be forgiven, Microsoft. (Source CNET)

In Case You Missed It…

This weekend’s viral picture might make you cry. SPC Brown and military service dog, Rocky, were injured in Afghanistan when an explosive device they were investigating detonated. Both were transported to Walter Reed Army Medical Center where they are recovering from injuries in the same room. (Source Fox 8)

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Smart Email Marketing is Here!

You have a Smart phone. There are Smart cars, Smart appliances, and Smart tablets. There are even Smart people who design all these Smart things. The time has now come for Smart Email Marketing – email that reaches your customers with a message they want to hear and act on.

Why use email campaigns

The simple answer is that if they are crafted correctly, they work. They deliver your message in a way that it is read by the majority of the people receiving it. Better than Search Engine Optimization, more powerful than direct mail, email is delivered to Smart phones and computers daily.

Most of us even start the day with our coffee reading our emails either on our computers or on our Smart phones. So it stands to reason that an email that catches our attention, offers us some useful information, and gives us a link to click for more engaging commentary would be a wonderful marketing tool.

Yet many companies are under-utilizing emails as a means of marketing to their current and future customers. One of the reasons email is underused is that many marketers have not found email a productive way to engage customers. What they fail to realize, though is that there are dynamic new email marketing techniques that work and courses offered that teach all these email marketing tricks and trends.

Email marketing tips

Getting your emails past the spam filter and into your consumer’s hands is a very important part of email marketing. Before you start marketing via email, though, be sure to read the provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act enacted in 2003. Violators can be fined up to $11,000 for each email address they violate according to the Act’s provisions.

The CAN-SPAM Act has the following provisions that protect consumers from unscrupulous email marketing campaigns:

Use of false or misleading information in the “From” and other headers of emails
Use of bait and switch or deceptive subject lines
Failure to include a valid postal address
Failure to tell recipients how to opt out of future mailings, and to honor the opt outs promptly
Failure to identify the email message as an ad
Neglecting to monitor what businesses you hire to do your emailing are doing.

Once you are sure you have complied with all of the CAN-SPAM Act’s rules, you can then use the following tips to enhance your email marketing campaigns:

Use of personalization in initial emails can be a turn off as it presumes an element of a relationship that has not yet been established. A better way to personalize without using a name is to target the person’s prior buys. For example, you could an email that offers useful information about the pollutants found in the air inside a car and a link to a car air purifier to customers who have purchased a house air purifier from you.
Avoid subject lines that are between 60 and 70 characters in length. Adestra reviewed over 900 million emails and found that subject lines with 70 plus characters and below 50 characters garnered more interest. The best rate of opening was for subject lines less than 10 characters long.

Email is a dynamic marketing tool when used properly. So what are you waiting for?

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What To Say When You Can’t Find Your Keys…

What To Say When You Can’t Find Your Keys…

Where in the world could they be. That’s also what people have been wondering about the creator of Bitcoin. In case you need a refresher, bitcoin is a digital currency that has no actual operation behind it. Well, it looks like tech websites have possibly found the guy. Craig Wright goes by the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto and is supposedly the creator of Bitcoin. For more than half a decade he has been MIA and now that his name is out there his social media presence has vanished and his home had been raided. But we know that privacy is dead so he can’t hide for long. (Source The Washington Post)

When You Look Into The Future

Another day, another self driving car. The latest company to hop on the self driving car bandwagon is Samsung. The company is keeping the information on the DL but we know they are establishing a new team to develop “next-generation” auto parts. Sounds futuristic. (Source Wall Street Journal)

We’re All In This Together

Two months ago, Yahoo introduced a third-party email support to their Mail app. This app only supported Hotmail, Outlook and AOL while Gmail was off doing their own thing. Yahoo realized that something was missing (or realized that people love their Gmail) and decided they would invite their rival to join in on the email party. Gmail support is available now on the Yahoo Mail app and website. Syncing your emails just got easier. (Source Engadget)

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The Many Big Mistakes Online Businesses Make in Digital Marketing Strategies

The world of internet is full of articles, blogs and forums that talk about the importance of digital marketing for modern businesses. The more you emphasize on this aspect the less it is. It needs to be understood that modern digital marketing is really changing lives of people and shapes of businesses. It should also be stated here that it takes proper digital marketing strategies for a business to really make something from it. There are many ways for businesses to connect with their worldwide audience today and SEO, email marketing, banner marketing, affiliate marketing, SEM, PPC, etc. are examples of those methods.

However, there are businesses that have understood the essence of digital marketing and there are other businesses that have made huge mistakes. You could literally read many stories on the internet about businesses that completely destroyed their reputation and image with their bad internet marketing strategies. So, while it is important for business owners to know the dos of internet marketing, they must also gain knowledge about the don’ts of it. Here are some of the biggest mistakes that companies make in their marketing strategies while using various digital marketing channels:

Bad SEO

Yes, there is literally a thing called bad SEO. While black hat SEO is a more common term used for it, there are some things that don’t count as black hat SEO but are still bad. For example, it is not black hat SEO if you link your website to many other websites on the internet for a large number of backlinks. However, it is definitely going to hurt your ranking on Google if most of those links are coming from websites that don’t have a good PageRank for Google. Any links coming from shady websites will go more against you than in your favor.

Early Expectations from a Blog

Companies would decide on having a blog after hearing the great things about blogs and reading the online statistics about their success rates. However, they would soon stop giving any attention to their blogs when they don’t see a response from people within the first few months. Ask any blogger and they would tell you that blogging bears any fruit at least after a year. You have to consistently and frequently keep updating your blog with interesting content for more than a year to get a response from the people. Once you have started getting a response, there is not stopping you.

Completely Ignoring Local SEO

The latest steps that Google has taken in the direction of local SEO, you would be making a huge mistake if you don’t include local SEO in your marketing expenses. Local SEO targets your local audience and that’s the most potential group of people for you on the internet. Depending on the type of business you have, you could really make a huge difference in your monthly income and revenue with a proper local SEO approach. Get listed on Google Places as soon as possible.

Missing The Essence of Social Media

Social media is the place where you have to be in to be recognized by the worldwide audience. However, some businesses have not truly understood the essence of social media and so their marketing strategies are not fruitful. When you post something on social media you have to keep in mind the interests of the people. You have to know how to mold your marketing into a strategy that aligns with what people want. You don’t have to give people what you have. You have to give people what they want on social media to get any recognition.

Not Using Email Marketing Properly

Email marketing is not about building a database and sending annoying emails to your customers frequently. First, use the proper software designed for effective email marketing. Such a software will divide your customers in different categories so you can send emails that concern only particular customers and not all. Furthermore, you should be able to choose from various professional templates to send an appealing email. Your software should also be able to tell you how many of your emails were read and how many went right into the trash so you know what steps you should take afterwards.

Completely Forgetting About User Experience

If you think your website is ready to be published because you like it, you are going the wrong way. How much does it matter how much you like your website? It does not matter much but it definitely matters the most how much your visitors like your website. It is an important thing for website owners to focus on the user experience of their website and create a website that makes users stay on their websites for long. This is done by creating a clean, professional, easily loading, user-friendly and intuitive website.

Doing Boring Marketing

You are telling people that you have these many products on your website but you are forgetting that there are many other websites that might have more products on them than you have on yours. How you make your offers more interesting is by offering discounts, promotions and spreading the news about your discounts on the internet. This could be best understood from websites allowing people to invest in penny stocks. Some interesting details in this regard can be found here. These websites are there to allow people to trade in stock markets but have some of the most mouth-watering and attractive discount and bonus offers for their potential customers.

Doing Blind Internet Marketing

Yes, companies have been doing that in the past but with not-so-great technology that had an excuse to do the blind marketing. The amount of data companies have today and the high-tech technology of the modern times leave no excuse for such marketing. Online social networking platforms like Facebook and the search engine giant Google are now allowing businesses to do targeted marketing i.e. companies will be able to send marketing messages to customers that have in the past looked for stuff that the company is selling. This type of marketing literally has a huge advantage over blind marketing.

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Why You’re Always Running Late

Why You’re Always Running Late

Twitter is playing  tricks with your timeline. Instead of seeing all tweets in chronological order we’ll be seeing them based on the “best content for users” a spokesman stated to Mashable. This isn’t the first time Twitter’s played around with the order of content, it’s just become a more dramatic impact now. During a Q2 earnings call CEO Jack Dorsey stated the company would “continue to question our reverse chronological timeline.” The change is similar to how Facebook already displays their content. Hopefully you’re up to change because we don’t expect to see Twitter playing it safe with this one. (Source Mashable)

The 1st Place Winner Is…

Facebook has just announced this years hottest searched topics and thankfully Justin Bieber didn’t make the list. The data was pulled from January 1st to December 1st and winners were selected based on how many times the topic was mentioned in a post. So who trumped the global popularity list? The U.S. presidential election was #1, followed by the November 13th Paris attacks and #3 was the Syrian Civil War & Refugee Crisis. Here’s one catch, the global list is way different than the U.S.’s most talked about — go figure. Check out all the differences here.

Vampire Accessories

Wearable technology is all the rage this year, and Google is hopping aboard the bandwagon. Kind of. Google is discretely announcing the first ever blood watch. The watch is needle-free and will be a way for diabetics to monitor blood sugar levels. The watch uses gas-powered microparticle technology to prick the skin and instantaneously dispenses it into a chamber to be analyzed. The technology has been filed to the U.S. Patent and Trade Office and Google hasn’t confirmed if it will be a definite product yet, they’re just keeping their options open. (Source MSN)

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What to Say When Your Friend Asks Where You’ve Been…

What to Say When Your Friend Asks Where You’ve Been…

Just jamming to Bieber. Spotify took all of your most listened to tracks from 2015 – the good, the bad, and the embarrassing — to create a personalized Year in Music. The feature shows your top played artists, songs and albums as well as breaking up your music habits into seasons and minutes. Pretty cool to throwback the soundtrack of your summer. (Source Gizmodo)

Quote of the Day: “We’re losing a lot of people because of the Internet.”

Trump hasn’t been voicing his opinion quietly during his campaign. His latest is the Internet is causing problems to terrorism and he believes Bill Gates can help stop this. Trump said, “We’re losing a lot of people because of the Internet. We have to see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what’s happening. We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that Internet up in some way.” Closing the Internet? Sounds like a stretch. (Source Fortune)

In case you missed it…

Apple finally released an iPhone battery case. iPhone battery cases are nothing new and have been done by other companies for years, so why Apple didn’t hop on the bandwagon earlier doesn’t make much sense. For now, the Apple battery case only works with the 6S. For $99 you can get 25 hours of additional talk time and 18 hours of LTE Internet use. Think of all the extra Instagram scrolling you can do. (Source USA Today)

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The Cat May Be Out of the Bag – Twitter May Soon Unveil a New Response Tool

Few weeks ago, a programmer at Twitter accidentally accessed something new. He discovered that when he held down the heart icon, he was given a number of emoji from which to select. Because he of course has access to the developer iOS, he is able to view what developers are working on and see things that regular users cannot. And the developers at Twitter are obviously working on expanding emoji responses, so that Twitter users have many more options when they respond to tweets, 36 in all. Right now, users have the heart, which replaced the star, in order to signify that they “like” something. What the programmer discovered were the following emoji:

 

 

The revelation that developers at Twitter are working on a new response tool was met with mixed reactions. Some are accusing Twitter of simply copying Facebook, which is right now testing new response emoji’s in Spain and Ireland. Mark Zuckerberg, when asked about the testing in the two countries, stated that for years, Facebook users have been asking for a “dislike” button, so that when something is posted on their walls that is objectionable or with which they disagree, they have more options than just to delete the post. The emojis being tested on Facebook include the following:

Others, who don’t care whether the emoji response tool is an attempt to copy Facebook or not, state that this is exactly what Twitter should be doing, and that the time has come for users to have far more options than the heart – options that are much more specific to show reactions and levels of reactions.

Twitter and Research-Based Decisions

 It may just be possible that Twitter is using the results of its own research to make decisions about changes it makes. Recently, it began to allow images based upon such research; it changed the star to a heart permanently based upon research showing that the heart was being used far more than the star was before. Taking a research-driven approach to what it does is just smart, and all indications, from its own data blog last week, are that the emoji changes being considered are research-based as well. The idea is to provide users many more options to express themselves – something that social media is supposed to encourage.

Data Collected by Twitter

Twitter has been tracking the use of emoji in tweets since 2014, specifically account holders’ use of emoji in the 140-character posts about TV shows. Their data shows that the use of emoji’s in tweets has increased from 9.8% when they were first introduced in 2014 to about 14% in July of this year. Twitter assumes that this increase crosses over into other areas of tweeting as well. Here is just one example from Twitter’s research. These are the most commonly used emoji’s in tweets about TV drama.

Using emoji in tweets tells the reader a lot without using any words, and allows Twitter users to convey more than they could with 140 characters. And Twitter is not alone in its belief that emoji’s are really important. The Oxford Dictionary “word of the year” is not a word at all. It is an emoji that means “crying from laughter.”

When emoji are all lined up, as they are above, it’s easy to see why Twitter may want to introduce its response tool to encourage more discussion without having to change its character limit.

Demographic Information Makes the Emoji Response Tool a Smart Idea

Toward the end of its data blog post on TV emoji research, Twitter also pitched some other very interesting information – the demographics of who is using emoji’s the most. Here is the infographic that Twitter posted.

The important information is not so much the percentage of male and female use of emoji in tweets. The really important data is in the pie graph that shows the age brackets of the Twitter users who use emoji in their tweets. Clearly, younger account holders are using far more than are older users.

The logical conclusion that Twitter has obviously reached is that it needs to meet the needs and desires of the two age groups who use emoji the most. These are the Twitter users they want to keep “within the fold,” as they are the users who will stay for many years, if they are satisfied with how they can use Twitter as a social media platform. Meeting these needs and desires will continue to attract new users from those age brackets as well. The following is being embraced by Twitter as a strategy, and rightly so:

It has to continue to offer tools that appeal to the younger two demographics on the pie chart, who are increasingly using Twitter as a part of their daily lives
The habits of the two demographics are to present and respond to tweets quickly and move on. They want the ability to demonstrate their responses in a matter of seconds. Emoji allow this to happen.
The research will obviously continue. Twitter has a strong mission to continue to evaluate social trends and to find ways to accommodate them on its platform.
While others may see these accommodations and adaptations as “copying,” who cares? The goal is to consistently improve the functionality of the channel for those who use it most. If they do not keep on top of this, users will simply go elsewhere.
Success for any social media platform is that it offers products and services that will keep users attentive and engaged. In short, their relevance of purpose will determine their success or lack thereof.

Conclusion

Twitter is doing the smart thing. It is looking at what other social platforms are doing; it is conducting its own research; and it is responding to that research by taking initiatives that will keep and grow its popularity. It is what any business would do.

 

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Social Media Panty Raid …

Social Media Panty Raid …

California maintenance worker, Arturo Galvan, was arrested late last week  for using social media to track college-aged women and steal their personal items including bras and panties.  The 44-year- old father of three pre-teen girls, used social media to select his victims and then tracked their whereabouts by using the GPS location embedded in images they posted on social media. He went into their on-campus homes and snatched their jewelry, laptops, bras, and panites. California police searched his home to find dozens of stolen items and will be working with agencies to access if there are further victims. (Source ABC 13)

The Ugly Meme’s Gotta Go..

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt opens up about eradicating the web of bad content. Schmidt is a big proponent for openness on the web, specifically opting for backdoor policies free to government tracking. He proposes that we should build “tools” to sift out “hate and harassment” on social media so we can prevent terrorist material from going viral. Collaboratively to build a better society someone’s gotta take charge, “Without this type of leadership from government, from citizens, from tech companies, the Internet could become a vehicle for further disaggregation of poorly built societies, and the empowerment of the wrong people, and the wrong voices.” Well said Schmidt, we’re all in this together. This isn’t the first we’ve heard about this topic, Schmidt’s statement follows a similar talk from President Obama on Sunday, as well as candidate Hillary Clinton.  (Source MSN)

When you lock the keys in your Car…

It’s just not your day. This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone, but Yahoo isn’t doing so hot. Shares have taken a tumble of 31% and there’s rumors circulating Yahoo’s been talking about selling some its biggest assets. There’s also been some jabber about CEO Marissa Mayer hitting the bricks with a severance package so large it would make anyone’s head spin. Think $110 million if the sale happens. Nothing is set in stone, so we’ll just have to see what plays out in 2016. (Source CNN)

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The Ugly Meme’s Gotta Go..

The Ugly Meme’s Gotta Go..

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt opens up about eradicating the web of bad content. Schmidt is a big proponent for openness on the web, specifically opting for backdoor policies free to government tracking. He proposes that we should build “tools” to sift out “hate and harassment” on social media so we can prevent terrorist material from going viral. Collaboratively to build a better society someone’s gotta take charge, “Without this type of leadership from government, from citizens, from tech companies, the Internet could become a vehicle for further disaggregation of poorly built societies, and the empowerment of the wrong people, and the wrong voices.” Well said Schmidt, we’re all in this together. This isn’t the first we’ve heard about this topic, Schmidt’s statement follows a similar talk from President Obama on Sunday, as well as candidate Hillary Clinton.  (Source MSN)

When You Lock the Keys in your Car..

This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone but Yahoo isn’t doing so hot. Shares have taken a tumble of 31% and there’s rumors circulating Yahoo’s been talking about selling some its biggest assets. There’s also been some jabber about CEO Marissa Mayer hitting the bricks with a severance package so large it would make anyone’s head spin. Think $110 million if the sale happens. Nothing is set in stone, so we’ll just have to see what plays out in 2016. (Source CNN)

Weird is an Understatement..

California crook Arturo Galvan was arrested late last week  for using social media to find dirty underwear.  The 38 year old used social media to find victims and then tracked their whereabouts by using the GPS location embedded in images they posted on social media. California police searched his home to find dozens of stolen items and will be working with agencies to access if there are further victims of the peeping tom. (Source ABC 13)

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