Strategy Archives - Page 11 of 12 - Award Winning Full Stack Digital Service Transformation Company

Understanding Blekko: The Phenomenal Search Engine You Didn’t Know

June 26, 2012

Most web users feel Google search results are not all that perfect, but that there is no choice other than the world’s most famous search engine. Google’s search results are based on algorithms that are not transparent but many results that end up at the top are somehow pushed by certain unethical SEO professionals who disregard web standards. As a solution to this terminal problem, Blekko is fast gaining accolades among web users. What is Blekko? Blekko is a web search engine that relies on social recommendations, human curation and transparency of SEO. Its stated goal is to provide better search results than Google does and makes use of 3 billion trusted sites that are handpicked by editors and professionals. Glekko summarily excludes material from content farms and uses ‘slashtags’ that provide enhanced search results. Co-founded by Rich Skrenta in 2007, Blekko has raised millions of dollars in venture capital from the biggest names among technocrats. How Does Blekko Work? Blekko works on a paradigm that is completely different from Google or its competitors. Blekko makes use of human curators, editors and professionals who pick and choose websites from the billions that exist in the cyberspace. These websites are chosen for their accuracy of content, originality and quality of information present. Blekko editors exclude many high ranking websites on Google that are obviously search engine optimized regardless of the quality of content. Slashtags are similar to Twitter hashtags and help in refining search queries. Thousands of slashtags are already present within Blekko and users are free to create their own slashtags in order to curate results that they deem important. By allowing Blekko users to see the IP address of a website that is running, registered users can label a site for hosting spam content. Thus, by eliminating spam and content farms from search results Blekko aims to compete with Google. Luckily for Blekko, there is a lot of support from various organizations including Yandex, that Russian search engine which tries to compete with Google. Web Search Bill of Rights Blekko claims to have created the web search bill of rights which rightfully explains what their outlook really is. The idea is to keep search open and that search results would involve people. Moreover, the bill states that ranking data would not be kept secret from people and that web data would be available when required. As there is no one-size-fits-all even in search engine optimization, they make sure that advanced search features are available. The tools would be open to all and searching goes hand in hand with community. The most important statement in the bill is that spam would not be included in search results and that the privacy of users would not be violated. Slashtags and How They Change the Search Experience Central to the experience of Blekko are slashtags. For instance, when you search for depression/health, you would receive search results from sites that are respected and trusted such as nih.gov, cdc.gov and webmd.com. Content farms and spam websites are completely erased from search results. One will never have to accidentally waste time reading an article on the inner mechanisms of depression, only to realize that it is marketing copy trying to sell spurious antidepressants. As one can create their own slashtags, the Internet becomes more personal, social and reliable. In fact, this is probably as reliable as a search engine could get. Blekko has 3 kinds of slashtags: Topical slashtags: These are slashtags that are created by Blekko and often curated by experts in that area. These slashtags are also built into the website and available for everyone to click and explore. Specific topics like recipes, health, media, technology are included in this list. User slashtags: These are the slashtags that users can create after registering with Blekko. After personalizing slashtags, one can go ahead and mark authoritative websites that one trusts under them. Built-in slashtags: These slashtags are built-in by Blekko team and perform specific functions such as /date, /news or /blogs. Thanks to the social atmosphere that Blekko has built into the search engine, Editors-in-chief of slashtags can collaborate with co-editors who have limited control over what they do to your slashtag. It is being noticed that using slashtags on Blekko can significantly improve your SEO effort as well. Keywords that are important to you can be used to boost slashtags. On the other hand, Blekko uses a function called Slashtag Boosting, in which search quality is enhanced and improved. Creating Your Own Slashtags With all this talk about slashtags, it can get a little confusing for the novice. It must be noted that creating one’s own slashtags are not difficult and even beginners can learn how to do it within no time. Though Blekko has hundreds of slashtags on all the major topics, you may sometimes feel there is a need to create a slashtag in your niche area. These slashtags can then be paired with websites that you trust. All that you would need to do is register for an account and click on ‘Create a New Tag’. The first step would be to name your slashtag and this has to be something that relates to your niche area or expertise. Once you name your slashtag, it is possible that someone else has already begun to add links under that slashtag. If that is so, you have the option of adding your links and collection of websites to that slashtag, or go ahead and create a slashtag that is even more specific and targeted. The next step is to add keywords about your slashtag. Not only can you add your own list of websites, but you may also search for websites to add to your slashtag. Another option is to upload an existing .txt or .opml file. One must remember that Blekko is deeply social in nature and survives with the help of the slashtag community. Your next step in making your slashtag sustainable is to invite co-editors who can

Using Social Media for SEO and Top 10 Strategies for Social Media Optimization

June 22, 2012

While no SEO professional would deny the importance of social signals when it comes to optimizing websites for search engines, there is still certain confusion about the strategies that need to be followed. Social signals, or the metrics that help in assessing web user behaviour on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr and a host of others are inextricably linked to traffic and link building. Let us understand how social media optimization is inextricably linked to search engine optimization. The second part of the article shall provide you with the top 10 strategies that you should use to optimize search engine ranking. How Search Engines Assess Link Credibility Search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo try their best to provide users with the most relevant and credible search results based on the search keywords. Search engines just do not trust any website that may seem relevant, and they follow their own algorithms to assess the importance of a certain webpage. The more inbound links that point towards a web page, the more credible and trustworthy it seems to search engines. Link Building and Sharing on Social Networks Link building is increasingly dependent on social networks, as people tend to share what they link. These links that are shared on social networking sites not only drive traffic but end up becoming “references” themselves, as they are thence used on blogs, or even other news websites as sources. The importance of social media is such that, instead of robots and algorithms deciding what is credible and what is not, search engines have begun to realize that what is shared most often must be more important than what is not shared on social networks. An interesting article or a good piece of content always gets shared on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms in real time. Social Signals and Search Engine Optimization Google and other search engines have realized the importance of sharing of social media, and that when something goes viral on social networks, that link has to be important and credible. The data from social signals decide the importance of a website or webpage and understanding social influence and community impact is more relevant to search engines than mechanical link building and activities that may actually work against the credibility of a website. Thus, one can say that search engine optimization (SEO) and social signals are mutually inclusive, and shall remain so in the future. The Basics of Utilizing Social Signals If you plan to optimize a website, the first step is to explore social media and gain ground. The next step is to assess social metrics and social signals to learn where your inbound links are coming from, and who is sharing and talking about you the most. The third step is to engage the identified audience, and try to use the social platforms to get other people interested in your website as well. Engagement involves actively participating with your target audience and building social relationships online. Engagement of your audience is a continuous process, and building trust is equally important. Once trust is built and you are actively participating on social networking sites, you can begin to see more inbound links from several places, most of which would be referred by people on social media. Social promotion helps you to generate natural links, which are very important in search engine optimization. A large percentage of tweets contain a URL and the more number of times a YRL is retweeted, the better it seems to search engines. Similarly, on Facebook, the more number of ‘likes’ a link generates, the more important it seems to search engines. Thus, social promotion generates natural and organic links, which are very important in SEO. Driving traffic to a blog or any published content depends on how viral a link has gone in Twitter or Facebook. Sharing links and a little part of the text ultimately leaves your followers on Facebook and LinkedIn to click on the link and visit your website or blog. The most important goal of SEO is to generate targeted traffic, and it is only possible to do so on social networking sites. Such sharing leads to a steady stream of traffic that is well targeted. If you searched for your favourite company or product on Google, it is quite possible that along with their business website, their Facebook page, Twitter profile and LinkedIn page appear too. Curiously, these appear on the first page. Thus, social networking sites rank very high in search engines and increase a company’s online brad presence. Links shared by the company on their Facebook page or on Twitter appear in search results too, in a higher degree of preference. Key Strategies in Integrating Social Media with SEO Efforts Mashable writes that there are 5 key strategies in integrating social media with your SEO plans. Identify Audience: Like we mentioned earlier, the first step is to identify the audience and understand their quirks, behaviours, what they like and dislike and how they share content and who they share it with. There are software programs available to monitor social media, and help you to identify keywords, conversations and influencers. Define Objective: Once the audience is identified, it is important to define your objective. Social media can’t be about direct marketing. While sales and marketing are very important in SEO, in social media it takes a covert role. Presence on social media must be utilized for defining and achieving objectives. They may include marketing and sales, but has to be covert. Establishing a Gameplan: The author continues to state that a combined social media and SEO effort must focus on content building and interaction. Active promotion of objective content and sharing them on social networks is very important. Tactical Mix: Lee Odden defined this as doing homework to find where your desired audience spends time interacting and sharing content. You would need to invest time and build relationships in social networks where your target

10 Step Guide to Forum Link Building

June 18, 2012

Forums are a great way to make sure that you are getting the links that you need the most. High quality links can actually come from forums both directly and indirectly. It is possible that forum members link your post and link back to your from a higher authority website they work for, or own. It is also possible that the high PR forum itself will link back to you. Though it sounds very attractive, it may actually be a bit difficult for novices. Here are 10 steps for successful forum link building. Step 1: Search for Relevant Forums It is important to make a list of forums that are related to your chosen or identified niche. It goes unsaid that you must not engage yourself in link building activities on forums that are not relevant. The easiest way to look for forums within your identified niche is to run a Google search. All that you would need to do is type in your identified niche + forums. For example: logo design forums, if your niche is logo design. Several forums will appear in the search results and it makes sense to visit each one of them and assess their relevance and also make sure that these forums are active. Step 2: Short-listing Forums to Target Once you have a list of forums derived from your search results, it is important to eliminate forums that may not be relevant, active or useful. This requires a little time and you will have to individually visit each forum and check for consistencies and relevance. You must make sure that the links are all from do-follow forums. You must remove any forum that may contain pornographic material. Also, if you suspect a forum is spamming, take it off your list as well. Forums with hateful, provocative and racist comments need to be avoided as well. Step 3: Register and Introduce Yourself Register on every forum that you have shortlisted and introduce yourself honestly. Tell the members who you are, what you do for a profession and why their forum interests you. Be as subtle and classy as possible, but try to be intelligent in your remarks. Initially, instead of typing in lengthy self-important forum posts, it makes sense to acknowledge other members’ posts and appreciate their posts with compliments and thanks yous. Step 4: Begin Slowly but Participate Effectively Do not start posting on the forums with a bang and do not leave links all over the place. It might get you banned or people might just ignore you. Instead, start slowly and engage fellow-members in conversations that are genuine. Actively and effectively participate in existing forum discussions and share your opinions and tips. Step 5: Be Resourceful and Helpful The next step is to actually provide members with tips, suggestions and valuable lessons in the niche area. You might want to share links that direct to neutral and third party websites before sharing your own links. Do not promote your website or blog hastily but take a slow and prudent approach. Step 6: Forum Signature Links Every forum allows its member to have a unique signature. This signature space can be used for promotional purposes but in a subtle way. Always have a link to your website or blog as a signature and that helps in building SERP. It is a well known fat that forum backlinks increase SERP. Moreover, it also helps in getting referral traffic. Step 7: Build Brand Awareness Once you have established yourself as an authoritative, genuine and knowledgeable member, begin to build your brand pretty much the same way as you would amongst a group of people in a real-life social situation. Share information, resource and also why your products or services need to be given attention to. Step 8: Targeting Anchor Text On forums, you may target any target text and engage in deep linking. The links would be ready with the post almost immediately. Sometimes, the links may need to be approved by a moderator but usually they don’t have to be. These links can be used to drive referral traffic. Step 9: Foot in the Door Theory Always give something for free, and present your promotional offer soon after. This psychological method of getting people to do what you want them to do derives from the belief that when you ask for something little and they oblige, they will also be obliged to do something bigger than those who weren’t asked to do the smaller favor. Thus, offer valuable resources, information or services for no cost at all. Once you build your subscriber list, present your promotional plans and offers. Step 10: Clarity and Relevance of Keywords Use your keywords and keyword phrases in as many posts as possible. However, do not overload your forum posts with keywords and keep them clear and relevant. Use them only when required but do build your personality on the forum around your niche keywords.

How to Use Social Bookmarking for SEO

June 15, 2012

When you mark a webpage that you want to visit later, read later or simply share with your friends or acquaintances, it may be described as social bookmarking. There are several services that offer social bookmarking, beginning with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn to specialized services like Instapaper, Digg, StumbleUpon, Sphinn, Delicious, YouTube, Flickr and many more. In fact, there must be more than 200 services out there that help you bookmark socially. Socially bookmarked links go viral or at least they receive more traffic than links that are not shared socially. Why Use Social Bookmarking Sites for SEO? As SEO professionals, our utmost priority is to drive traffic to the website and to increase the ranking of the page. This can only happen when there is a surge in the traffic and when the target audience click on links and arrive at the designated page. By making sure that the link is being shared on social networking sites, we can ensure a steady or even exponential traffic to the page. SEO professionals thus have to ensure that apart from traditional search engine optimization, they must take Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Pinterest and other social networking sites into account. Links that are shared from credible social media accounts add to the relevance and contextual importance of that link. Here are some important tips and tricks while using social bookmarking for SEO. Identifying Target Audience It is important for SEO professionals to identify a target audience and connect to them via social bookmarking sites. Since social media is a two-way communication, participating in communication and discussion may help in promoting your own bookmarked links. Using Tinyurl It may become necessary to shorten your URL before sharing, as it adds to the visual appeal and also makes sure that precious character-space is not wasted. A disadvantage is there is no way one can brand a tinyurl. However, spending money on customized URL shortening services may help. Temporally Optimized Sharing One must bookmark or share links only when followers are most likely to be online. There are several services like Buffer, SocialBro and HootSuite that help in addressing this issue. Automated Sharing You could use automated social bookmarking services but it may not be a very good idea. People recognize when social media accounts are automated and it doesn’t take too long for people to unfollows or unfriend you. Rather than using automated tools, hiring an employee on a part time basis to do your social bookmarking may be a better idea. Using Keywords and Keyword Phrases As an SEO strategy, even while sharing or bookmarking links on social media sites, it is important to utilize keywords in a non-intrusive manner. By doing so, readers will know what your link is all about without having to guess. Moreover, links that are tailed with descriptions with keywords have a higher chance of being ranked well. Choosing the Right Social Network Depending on the context of your content, you could choose the right social bookmarking service. If t is something personal or something that taps the goodwill of your reader, you may choose Facebook. For business and professional related posts, LinkedIn or Twitter can be more useful. Images can be bookmarked on Flickr or Pinterest while videos can be bookmarked on YouTube. Issues with Social Bookmarking for SEO For successful social bookmarking, one needs to be hard working and patient. It simply does not make sense to bookmark your own sites across all the social bookmarking sites as no one would be interested to click on such links. On the other hand, it may become impossible to create a social bookmarking account that is genuinely active and has thousands of relevant and worthy links that are updated regularly. Many people have tried to bookmark the same link from a hundreds of different accounts. However, if they all come from the same IP address, it may never help you drive traffic to the link you have shared and instead may get you banned from the social bookmarking site altogether. Another method is to collaborate with many people and begin social bookmarking on a team basis. However, this is very time consuming and may ultimately not be successful either. If you are a company or individual who would like to use social bookmarking sites for your benefit, you may approach SEO professionals who have the tools and software to bookmark sites and promote your links on social media.

How Google Plus May Influence SEO Strategies

June 15, 2012

Google+ is a social networking entity that was launched way back in June 2011. Initially, it was touted to be the Facebook killer that would change the world as we knew it. Within a few days, it gained a massive number of users who later seemed to dwindle down in terms of active usage. However, Google+ continues to be an important social networking entity that influences the way we engage in Search Engine Optimization. Being a product of Google, Google+ has a tremendous impact on search results and the plus button is the key to success in SEO. Let us take a look at how Google Plus is going to change the future of SEO. Search, Plus Your World A few months ago, Google integrated Google+ with its search engine function and called it ‘Search, Plus Your World’. Though initially criticized by many, Google+ integration into search results changes the way we look at SEO. The idea behind ‘Search, Plus Your World’ was that users rely more on their friends than a search engine, when it comes to search results. If a friend or acquaintance deems a link to be worthy, a user may click on that link more often than he would click on a link suggested by search engines. Google thus creates a map similar to Facebook’s Open Graph and helps connect people with their readers, content and websites. It helps people to evaluate how content and relationships with people are interlinked. Thus an author who has more connections on Google+ may be more reliable than someone who does not use Google+ actively. Contextual Information The most appealing factor of using Google+ is that search results become more contextual. With all Google products now housed under a single umbrella, all your account activity will influence your search results. Depending on the context of the search, the results would appear. Indirectly, we may assume that content producers who have an active audience on Google+ will have a better SERP, especially in niche areas. Thus, rel=”author” and rel=”publisher” tags become increasingly important. SEO professionals will then need to concentrate more on the context of a business in terms of its target audience than mere link building as was followed earlier. Importance of Social Signals After the advent of ‘Search Plus Your World’, everything that appears in search results is influenced by social signals. What is important to people who are relevant to you (friends, acquaintances, thought leaders you follow, etc) is important to you as well. Thus, your results are more relevant to your account activity than domain authority and links. This is not to say that domain authority is not relevant anymore. It just means that Google now considers your social signals when providing you with search results. SEO professionals will thus have to concentrate more on social media optimization of websites and blogs along with old school SEO. The Importance of +1 Button The +1 button needs to be implemented in every blog or website that you own, so that visitors click on that. It is similar to Facebook’s Like button, but only, Google uses this button to recommend content to your followers or contacts when they search for certain keywords. This is particularly useful in carving a niche for yourself in the area chosen. Moreover, a +1’d link has a higher Click-Through-Rate (CTR). This means, it might be shared later on Twitter, Facebook or back again on Google+ increasing social signals and driving traffic. SEO professionals need to remember that a Google +1 button can indirectly lead to higher ranking of page. While traditional SEO practices can’t be ignored, it helps a lot to integrate Google Plus and the +1 button into social media optimization efforts. Thrust on Content Google has always reminded us that content is king. With Google Plus and the +1 button, we may take it for granted that if the content is not up to the mark, your website or blog will not be ranked high. The idea thus is to write great content within your niche, use social media to share what you have written and then do the basic groundwork of SEO like you always have. Personalized Search At the end of the day, it can be summarized that Google Plus and the +1 button will lead to more personalized search results. What matters to your contacts and friends are assumed to matter to you. What matters to you will thus be assumed to be important for those in your network. All that personal data will influence your search results. SEO professionals will then need to place more emphasis on active social media engagement, instead of link purchasing and submitting to directories alone. Google Plus, SEO and the Future Analysts and thought leaders who have been studying the effects of Google Plus on SEO have noted that email marketing will become more important in the future. SEO may be divided into two categories: personalized and non-personalized. For the personal SEO, social signals will need to be evaluated and optimized. For non-personal SEO, traditional SEO strategies will need to be employed as usual. Low quality linking and link purchases will no longer be relevant in niche areas unless SEO professionals are dealing with a very generic topic that has no audience. It will become important to seek the support of those who have social authority. Probably, having a higher Klout score or Author Ranking will become more important.

10 Advanced Settings of Google AdWords to Boost Your Campaign

June 15, 2012

When companies decide to launch a Google AdWords campaign, they would need to bear a number of factors in mind. While much of AdWords settings can easily be understood and customized to suit the needs of a particular campaign, many companies tend to ignore the specific details that are very important. One may call these specificities as ‘Advanced Settings’. SEM professionals understand that these advanced settings not only consist of all the steps available in AdWords’ very own Advanced Settings tab, but also consist of a few other customizations and tweaks that one may need to engage in manually. Let us take a look at the top 10 advanced settings of Google AdWords to boost your ad campaign. The Advanced Settings tab in Google AdWords has some of the most important techniques to launch a successful campaign. Let us take a look at all the options that Google provides under this tab. 1. Schedule: Start date, End date, Ad Scheduling This option allows users to set a particular date to launch a campaign and to turn it off, when the campaign is no longer needed or when the season comes to an end. This option helps campaigners to automate ad scheduling and avoid lengthy and unnecessary campaigns which may become relevant and hurt a company’s marketing efforts. Ad Scheduling on the other hand allows users to set certain days of the week or particular times during a day for campaigns. This may be particularly useful once you profile your target audience and how they behave temporally. Ad scheduling also provides the option of setting the percentage increase/decrease in bids by hour, day or week. 2. Ad Delivery: Ad Rotation, Frequency Capping Ad rotation helps you to evenly rotate and optimize ads based on which ad is doing well at the particular time. Again, ad rotation depends on how much time you can invest in managing AdWords campaigns and how best you understand which campaign may be particularly useful. SEM professionals usually can help you understand ad rotation and its importance. Ad Delivery Options to choose from: Optimize for clicks: The ads expected to provide more clicks will start showing more frequently Optimize for conversions: Frequent showing of ads expected to provide more conversions Rotate evenly: All the ad copies currently active will be given equal preference and will be rotated and shown same number of times. Now, this will be continued for 30 days and then the ads will be run with ‘Optimize for Clicks’ features. These settings work upon the available ad performance data of the particular campaign and its ad group(s). Campaign launchers sometimes witness a number of impressions but very few translate to clicks. This may hurt a campaign’s quality scores and frequency capping helps to reduce the number of impressions during a particular time. It could be a given day, a week or per month. You also choose whether the limit applies to each ad, ad group, or campaign. 3. Demographic Bidding As the name suggests, it helps you to segregate your audience according to their gender, age or other criteria that you may notice in your Google AdWords demographic reports. Over-performing or underperforming demographic segmentations can be identified and bids may be modified accordingly. 4. Social Settings This setting allows you to incorporate the +1 button and annotations. Google+ is Google’s social networking endeavor that may also add to your revenue and ad campaign to an extent. You may request your friends, acquaintances or just about anyone else to click on +1 when required. 5. Automatic Campaign Optimization This setting helps you to analyze historical conversion data in your campaign. It is particularly useful if you do not have time to do it yourself or hire a professional. However, you may bear in mind that by choosing this setting, you are giving Google a lot of control over your campaign. In most instances, it is advisable to optimize a campaign with the help of professionals who know how Google AdWords and SEM work. 6. Campaign Experiment AdWords Campaign Experiments help you to sequestrate certain factors of your AdWords campaign and test certain areas by segmenting your traffic the way you please. You could test keywords, bids and placements, according to Google. However, there are limitations to the number of experiments you can carry out and at present there is no API support, which means you will have to use their web interface. However, it can be a great tool to test different keyword match types. If this is a little confusing, hiring an SEM professional may be necessary. Apart from the 6 settings available under the Advanced Settings at Google AdWords, here are other ‘advanced settings’ that you can utilize yourself by tweaking your campaign a little bit. 7. AdWords Sitelink Google first unveiled Sitelink way back in 2009 and it consisted of 2 to 6 links under an advert. Now, AdWords Sitelinks come with social, call, location and product extensions. Exploiting available Sitelink real estate should be your primary goal, and you might want to play with your campaign in order to do so. 8. Negative Keywords Google allows you to filter out negative keywords which may bring unwanted traffic that is not relevant to your ad campaign. By avoiding certain keywords, you may direct desired traffic who actually might click. This helps in improving the click through rate and directing our ads only to relevant searches. Usually words like free, cheap are used as negative keywords. For e.g. – for a Website selling designer watches, negative keywords would have been cheap, inexpensive, discount, affordable, free, etc. Hence, ads won’t appear for any keyword having any of these phrases in them. Also, for the brand names which they are not selling (e.g. – Christian Dior, Rolex) can be used as negative keywords since they would cut down unqualified traffic. 9. Separate campaign for Display Network By creating a separate campaign for display networks, you will easily be able to make changes or experiment

Google’s Penguin Update

May 8, 2012

When Webmasters and Bloggers are still struggling with Google Panda Update, the new algorithm in the name of “Google Penguin Update” has come up as yet another threat to a considerable number of websites. Google has rolled out this update in order to decrease the ranking of all such sites that are violating the existing quality guidelines. The Penguin Update is focused to penalize those who are using tricky webspam tactics for over optimization. In post Penguin Update period the Penguin update can not only decrease the traffic of the websites but it also has a big tendency to damage the SERP ranking. Penguin Update has been launched as an effort to promote quality content and reduce webspam. Google’s Penguin Update is an improved version of Panda Update which was released on the 24th of April 2012. It aims at demolishing all those websites that are over-optimized with webspam techniques. Many sites have been seen to use wrong tactics and a shortcut to bring traffic and rank higher than expectations; these tactics are of no use to the users and Google’s new algorithm is targeted to penalize such sites. Therefore, while Google Panda will fight against low quality pages the Penguin will focus on spam content. You can be safe and stay away from being hit by Penguin update if your website is not using any spammed, old-fashioned strategies. It is mainly going to affect those websites which are loaded with low quality contents and abuses the guidelines of inbound linking. If you are wondering whether your website can be hit by Penguin or not, it’s easy to find it out. Simply search with common keywords in Google to check whether it is getting the same rank that it used to get previously. Check the website statistics to find out whether there is a major traffic drop compared to the previous stats. If it is yes, you are likely to be hit by Penguin Update and if there is no change, then you are safe. To Avoid being Hit by Panda do the Following: It is time to stop comment spamming; commenting on high page rank websites for the sake of getting BackLinks or using automation commenting over-stuffed with keywords and links, will make Google identify them easily and the sites using such spam techniques will be penalized in Post Penguin age. Avoid the contents which are overflowed with same keywords. Since keywords are an essential part of SEO and it is the keywords that help the users to get relevant contents by means of search engines; repeating the same keywords again and again make Google suspect and penalize. Avoid duplicate content; you cannot attain high rank in SERP by copying contents. Therefore, instead of copying contents from others, concentrate on making your unique, fresh contents. Otherwise, you many face penalty and your blog may get banned from SERP. Link Building Tips for Surviving the Penguin Update: Whenever you post fresh contents to your site make it a point to share it on your social pages like Google+, Facebook or Twitter. During Link building do not make the mistake of linking to your homepage, rather link to the inner content pages. Keep in mind that apart from external links, internal links are also very important and will help both Google and your visitors to crawl your site easily. Avoid over-optimization by diversifying your anchor texts. There should not be a feeling that you are you are forcibly trying to rank a site for a particular keyword, therefore, try to diverge your anchor links in a natural way. Keep focus on quality, not quantity; having a large number of backlinks from untrustworthy sites, you can be penalized, therefore, prefer high quality, small number of posts rather than large number of low quality ones. Focus on producing high quality contents that people like to link from websites and from their social profiles. Do not worry! Google Penguin update is not going to affect those websites which are using pure SEO and high quality contents. This new algorithm is surely meant to give the users a better way of searching and better search results. It will also give a boost to high quality blogs or websites by ranking them high in Search Engine Results. If your site is already a victim of this update and has lost ranking an traffic we can bring it back by our purely white –hat technique of Link Building. Before the situation gets more worse contact us today and allow us to help you to regain your lost position. Mail us at info@indusnet.co.uk

Top 10 Blunders You Must Avoid on Twitter

April 17, 2012

While Twitter is an amazing tool to drive traffic to your website or to market yourself as a professional, it can also become a liability if you do not follow certain rules. In fact, there are certain blunders that many people commit, and end up wasting their time on Twitter and worse, harming their own business and credibility. Here are the top 10 blunders that you must avoid while using Twitter. Being Impersonal One of the biggest blunders on Twitter is bring impersonal. Agreed, that it is a micro-blogging service where you do not need to engage in personal conversations. However, it is still a social network where certain aspects of who you are need to be projected. First off, it is important to have a clear picture and then have links to your blog or website. Secondly, do tweet at times about your life and not just about the product or business you want to promote. Try and be nice to people, and maintain cordiality and a degree of familiarity. Not Customizing Background There are several great businesses and professionals who just do not use a custom background for their Twitter profile. This is a unique space where you could give out a lot of information that is not possible within the 140 characters bio. Also, don’t go overboard and write a story about yourself in the background image. That really is a blunder. Not Being Active There are great Twitter accounts that I unfollowed because they were just not tweeting anymore. It is very important to remain active and tweet at least a few times in a day. Consistent tweets that are informative, fun and useful are always appreciated. However, tweeting 10 times within a span of 10 seconds and not tweeting for the rest of the day is a blunder too. Space your tweets across the day. Don’t be Noisy One of the most annoying blunders is to tweet too much. How much is too much? Well, that is a difficult question but no one likes to see your tweets and links constantly appearing in their stream. It is important to resist tweeting all the time. If you really have to tweet anything that comes to your mind, have a different Twitter account for that. Do not confuse your business, personal and anonymous Twitter accounts. Each has its special purpose! Following too Many People The idea is not to follow everyone you see on Twitter. The trick is to follow only the most useful people in your industry and a few others from other areas of life. Following too many people will send a wrong signal that you are not an important business who has authority or influence. Being Full of Yourself Of course, Twitter is a great place to market yourself. However, it would be a nasty blunder if you tweeted only about yourself, your business or what you want to market. 70% of the tweets must not be self promotional. Only around 30% of the tweets could be used to promote yourself. Otherwise, you will come across as a hustler. Being Cold Many twitter users tend to be cold and non-responsive. It is not only rude, but a big blunder not to engage with your audience and talk to them. If you do not connect with your followers and audience, they will eventually get bored of you and will unfollow you. It is important to engage in Twitter conversations and participate in them. Not Being Helpful One of the most selfish acts could be to not help others on Twitter. Whether they ask for it or not, if you come across questions in your stream that you are in a position to answer, make sure you do so. Otherwise, you might be mistaken for a cold and profit minded business that cares about no one but promoting oneself. Not a great strategy to drive traffic to your website. Spamming Your Followers No matter how tempting it is to share links related to your products, your blog posts and just about anything that is related to you, you must not overdo it. You will come across as a spammer who has more malicious intent than just self-promotion. You can get blocked for appearing as a spammer. Being Irrelevant There is nothing worse than being irrelevant. If you are a design company and start tweeting about politics, you will confuse your followers, who may eventually unfollow you. The idea is to stick to what you claim is your mission on Twitter. If you need to tweet about other things, you can always have a second Twitter account that can be used for non-professional purposes.

How to Make Website Usability Work for You

March 28, 2012

Before designers and developers begin to argue about how a website must look and feel, the first and foremost factor they consider is that of usability. What is Usability? Usability in layman’s terms could be described as a quality attribute which allows us to assess how easy the user interface is. A website interface’s usability depends on its learnability, efficiency, memorability, recovery from errors and satisfaction. Firstly, users should be able to learn around the design and the interface of a website’s interface. Secondly, the interface should be efficient and easily perform tasks and help users to navigate around. Even if a visitor returns to the website after a long time, the interface must be easy to remember so that they can start using the website easily. The interface must pose minimal errors, and when errors are presented, they should be able to resolve easily. Lastly, the interface must be satisfying and pleasant. Another aspect to usability may be utility, which refers to the quality of an interface actually doing what it is supposed to do. This leaves us with the question why usability is important. Why is Usability Important for a Website? Usability’s sole goal is to retain the attention of the visitor. Any flaw in a website’s interface will cut short the span of attention, prompting the user to leave the website for its competitors. This is very crucial in a competitive world, where every website competes with another in order to retain the attention of the visitor. If a website is difficult to use, if the homepage does not clearly state what the company offers, if the users aren’t told what they could do on the website and even if they get lost while using the website, they simply leave. If the information is not written well or if the language is superfluous and lengthy, users again leave. Aesthetics, preciseness of content and usability of design are crucial to usability and to retain the attention of the visitor. Research shows that spending about 10% of a design project’s budget doubles the website’s desired quality metrics. This translates to purchasing products, if we are talking about an ecommerce site. Thus, usability not only depends on the design of the interface but also on typography and the way the content is presented. Usability Checklist for Websites Web designers and developers who seek to make websites as usable as possible should go through certain usability checklists in order to make sure that nothing important is missed out. Like mentioned earlier, the more usable a website is, the longer the users would stick around. This ultimately leads to better interaction and probably purchase decisions as well. KeyRelevance has a checklist of 101 usability tips that designers and developers must always keep in mind. These include design, typography and aesthetics related tips. Smashing Magazine too has a number of links to usability and user experience tips, which lead to better interaction with web interfaces. Mashable listed 7 key website usability tips of which keeping content as concise as possible remained at the numero uno spot. The idea is to get to the point, cut out unnecessary information, avoid jargon and use shorter phrases and sentences. They also recommended using headings to break up long articles as many surveys and studies point towards better retention of content when it is presented under headings and subheadings instead of lengthy paragraphs. Another important factor is to make the content appear in an inverted pyramid format. The most important and newsworthy material must be written first, and the supporting details should be given later. Finally, related information can be discussed so that even if someone gives up reading an article due to lack of attention, they read the most important information first. Using bullets and text formatting is always pleasing to the eyes and easier to perceive information. One must space paragraphs, words and lines appropriately. Clumping words and paragraphs tightly around each other gives a claustrophobic effect. Spacing is very important. Hyperlinked text must be user-friendly and should be marked in bold or in different colours. Using visuals and graphics have their own appeal. One must remember that a single image can speak a thousand words. How to Engage in Usability Testing for a Website? Usability testing allows you to learn what works and what doesn’t work on a website. It helps you to make critical decisions regarding design, aesthetics and typography. Usability testing can be very expensive if you set it out to do it all on your own. There are several free, freemium and premium tools that can be used according to your needs in order to engage in usability testing. These tools and services help you to gather real-world data and decide what works and what doesn’t. Some of the free and freemium tools are Ethnio, xSort, KISSinsights, etc. A tool called Simple Mouse Tracking helps you to see how visitors interact with a website. It helps to record mouse activity and play it in real time. This helps you to make changes if visitors tend to leave after a certain pattern of mouse movements. AddUse, UserEcho and other services help you to track online activity on your website similarly. For more complex data and tracking of web activity, paid and premium services of free tools can be used. These can reveal complex patterns of users, and even get professional users to point out flaws in design and usability. Smashing Magazine has a list of free, freemium and premium tools and services that help in usability testing. Some of the Common Myths Regarding Usability can be Described Below Economic: Usability is either seen as something that is expensive, and almost a luxury. In fact, it can be quite affordable if one is considering daily usability. There are evolved ecosystems that help to bring in usability in design projects. Of course, another myth is that usability is so common that it is actually free. Unfortunately, there are no free lunches. Aesthetic: People

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Models Learn more

Products Learn more

Solutions Learn more

Solutions Learn more

Solutions Learn more

Solutions Learn more

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Models Learn more

Products Learn more

Solutions Learn more

Solutions Learn more

Solutions Learn more

Solutions Learn more

Category: Strategy

Services

Industries

Company

Resources

Press Kit

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Models Learn more

Products Learn more

Solutions Learn more

Solutions Learn more

Solutions Learn more

Solutions Learn more

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Services Learn more

Models Learn more

Products Learn more

Solutions Learn more

Solutions Learn more

Solutions Learn more

Solutions Learn more

CONTACT US

Let’s connect!

CONTACT US

Let’s connect!

Almost there!

Download the report