5 Tactics You Can Use To Manage Google+

Google+ is a very powerful social tool which needs no introduction. According to a report by the Tech Times, Google had an estimated 300 million users in 2015. The number must have surged in the past year. Google+ is a platform which has a very strong user base- like the LinkedIn.

Use the +1 button to get inside other G+ user's follower-base
Since there is no way to get a viable list of the followers of a Google+ user, we can use the plus one button to get into them. When you hit the plus one button, it will show a profile icon on the right-hand side.

When you click on this profile icon, Google+ will show you the recent activity- the shares, plus ones (which is their version of a like) and the comments. All the people engaged in one or all of such activates is listed. There you can hover over their icon to follow them.

Use Circloscope to manage your Google+ followers
This is the last week of October 2016 and it is free. Circloscope is a tool which will show you the people, who are not following back, your fans- whom you are not following, whom you have blocked, etc.

It will also list the people according to the group they belong to. You can directly un-follow the un-followers and follow your fans.

This is a technique every G+ user should know. But this technique can be used only in the classic G+ interface. The new G+ interface does not support this functionality.

Create a group for ease of use to keep track of whom you follow
Not all those whom you follow, follow back. So, to keep track of the people, you must create a new group. It will aid you in using the Circloscope tool effectively.

Name the group you are going to create related to your niche- such as travel, technology, blogging and so on. And there is already a group/circle called the following. Add new people to the niche group while you un-follow from the following group.

And when there is none left, start the reversing the process. Add new people to the following group and un-follow from the niche group. This will give the people enough time to follow back. You don't want to un-follow a person the day after you have added to your circle. Use this technique. This technique gives them enough time to respond. It works!

Be careful of whom you follow
When you start following other's followers, your feed can get very populated. And if you follow haphazardly, your feeds will get irrelevant and sometimes it might even contain adult contents. So, be careful when you start following. When you see something that is not safe for work, immediately un-follow them. Since there are no profile explanations in G+, it might be difficult to know who you are following.

Engage with your circles
Engagement is pivotal if you want to keep the audience you have gained. Imagine yourself in a situation. You see a post like it, share it and ask a question to the person who posted the update. The person who posted the update does not respond. Would you like and share the next content you see by the same person? I guess not.

But if you actually get a response, you feel exalted. Someone cared about your comment and responded. That will make you feel good (about the person) and the next post you see by the exact same person will get plus 1'd and shared by you. That is the simple part of the complex human nature. So, never ever hesitate to engage with your audience.

If someone says nice, comment back thank you or at least +1 the comment.

Engagement is not only about replying to other's comments and +1nning the comments. You must also like and share other's contents. This will help you building a better relationship with other people and groups.

Conclusion
Google+ is a platform with a lot of potential. You can do targeted marketing with Google+, build a following base keeping an eye on the professional advertisement prospects, drive traffic to your site and much more. If you are able to use it wisely, you will reap a lot of benefits from G+.

Increase Facebook Engagement in These Easy Steps

If you use Facebook extensively for your business, here are 10 simple ways of increasing your Facebook business page engagement. With these, you can improve your news feed exposure, connect to new people, let people interact with your Facebook posts and share your posts with a larger audience.

• Content plays a major role in any business page, be it a website, blog page or a Facebook page. Creating highly shareable content needs you to add relevant articles and topics to your Facebook post. This will compel people to like, comment and eventually share your content with their contacts, thus making your posts shareable. Whether it is business news, educational news, entertainment or hilarious content, the content should be unique and readable. Use multiple and instructional graphics, colorful images, carousel posts etc. to enhance your posts
• Just as sharing content is important, it is equally important to add a 'call to action' button for your readers or page visitors. This will ask people to engage with your Facebook page by inviting others to read your post, make a purchase etc.
• With Facebook introducing the 'live' button, it has now become easier to increase page engagement Go live and incorporate more videos on your page. As per studies, people react more to videos than mere text. Before broadcasting a live session, inform about the time and date beforehand.
• Make your Facebook page fun and interesting so that visitors can always learn from what they see. Create a content mix wherein you put text along with videos at least three times a week. Since many businesses are not doing videos, this will make you stand out and increase your visibility.
• Videos need not necessarily have sound. You can make videos on Facebook without sound too, just make them understandable without audio too. Using tools that allow you to ad text such as lower thirds is a great idea for videos without sound.
• If you are consistent with your posting but not getting enough positive results, try changing your posting time. People tend to browse the web more on holidays and weekends. You can also repurpose content and post them even if they have been posted earlier. Just republish it as a fresh post. Remember to check whether the reported content is still relevant. You can try posting once a day.
• Configure Facebook Instant Articles and get more positive feedback. Since instant articles load 10 times faster than the usual content, people get instant gratification instead of waiting to read the whole article. Though it does require time and effort to set up, try using it with some of your flagship content.
• You can also increase your page engagement by driving traffic from other sources. You can add the URL of some other social networking site to your Facebook page. This way some of your followers from another social networking site would follow you on Facebook too. Alternatively, you can also initiate a discussion about any topic in your newsletter.
• You can monitor Facebook pages of other business from the same industry as well as from other industries. Just go to Facebook insight and set the Page to Watch. This way you will get the information about popular pages. If it engages you, it is likely to engage others too. Apply the learned tactics to your Facebook page.
• You can embed posts and videos into your blog. Go to the timestamp and select embed; this way, you will get the embed code and will be able to embed a full video with information in your blog, thus creating more engagement.

These simple ways of increasing engagement in your business will give you impacting results.

If you need more advice on how we can help you with your Social Media Strategy and Campaigns then contact us today.

Using Targeted Keywords to Rank High

You are constantly hearing people speak about search engine optimization (SEO) and although you may have a basic understanding about what SEO is and how it works, you may not realize that you can use it in an extremely pointed, customized manner for optimal results.

Looking at your keywords and choosing the most effective ones 

The truth is that SEO, which is an amazingly effective approach, does not always produce the results that you want for your business. You may use several different keywords and then discover that those keywords for which you have a particular affinity did not make it to the top (or near the top) of the search engine's pages. That must be incredibly frustrating for you. Well, that means that you have less control over your content once it is posted than you may have thought. However, there are measures that you can take to swing the results in favor of your business.

You need to understand that there is such a thing as over-optimizing your content for the search engines. If you over-optimize your content, it may produce results that are the opposite of what you are trying to achieve. However, here are some suggestions that should help you to achieve the results that you want to achieve.

Determine your baseline rankings: The first thing that you need to determine, before you do anything else, is exactly where your business appears in the search engines. You will have certain keywords in mind so that is exactly what you need to check. Figure out where those keywords factor into the rankings and if the performance is not what you want, you will take steps to make that happen. Your baseline is extremely important in this situation. You must crawl and then walk before you can run. If you don't have your baseline in mind, exactly how are you going to measure your other successes? You won't have anything to compare them to. The easiest way to begin this process is by searching for your keywords in the search engines (Google, for example). If you don't want to do it manually, there are several tools that allow you to determine your rankings and you can automate that process. Of course, you will need to be patient. Your rankings will probably not jump from a low position to an extremely high one overnight. However, you will see positive changes and your baseline is essential because you need that jumping off point.

Examine the differences: When you enter your keyword into the keyword tool, you should pay attention to two particular things. First, you will want to pay attention to how many different ways your keywords appear. The other thing that you will want to notice is how your keywords rank against other similar keywords that your competitors have posted. Doing the background work is extremely important and is a big contributor to your success. It will allow you to understand if your keyword is too complex and it will give you an idea of other possible keywords that you can use instead. Once you have entered your keyword, you should take note of the other keywords that the search engine has suggested as alternatives. They will fall right under your keyword. Finally, you should pay attention to the related searches that appear at the bottom of your page.

Examine the results that you expected and revise, if necessary: There is a possibility that the expectations that you set for your keyword results are too high or unrealistic in some other way. The fact is that if your keyword appears at the top of the search engine page, there will be a lot of other keywords (and competitors) that will try to knock your keyword down from its position. Not only should you look at your keyword on the search engine page but you should also pay close attention to the other keywords that are around your keyword. Click on those other keywords so that you can compare the content to what you are saying and what you represent. This is part of your research and you will find that it is well worth the effort that you are going to put forth. You will find that, when it comes to the effectiveness of your keywords, your perception may be completely different from how the search engines view those keywords. Unfortunately, it won't do you any good if you ignore the search engines because they count for a lot.

Conclusion 
Keywords and key phrases are extremely important in your content. Your keywords must be relevant to what you are doing and what you represent. You will want to pay attention to increasing traffic, the importance of back links, and increasing trustworthiness and credibility. However, be careful not to over-stuff your content with keywords. That will be almost as bad as not having keywords in your content. Learn how to achieve an effective balance that will work well for your business.

Michael Cohn is the founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications. He has over 25 years of experience in IT and web technologies. Mr. Cohn spent a significant amount of time at a major telecommunications company, where his main focus was on initiating and leading synergy efforts across all business units by dramatically improving efficiency, online collaboration, and the company's Intranet capabilities, which accelerated gains in business productivity. He also reduced company travel and travel costs by introducing and implementing various collaboration technologies.

His expertise includes business analysis; project management; management of global cross-matrix teams; systems engineering and analysis, architecture, prototyping and integration; technology evaluation and assessment; systems development; performance evaluation; and management of off-shore development.

Mr. Cohn earned a Master's degree in project management from George Washington University in Washington, DC; and a Master's degree in computer science and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ.

Mr. Cohn is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Consider These Traffic Sources Other Than Google

While other marketers look for relevant content to suffice to their needs, smart marketers take advantage of myriad other traffic sources sans Google to deliver their content. These sources involve Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.

Undeniably, Google continues to dominate the traffic generation scene, thanks to its powerful search engine and artificial intelligence learning with Rank Brain. However, other potential traffic sources cannot be ignored completely, owing to their increasing popularity among the technology savvy generation. Content search sites such as YouTube, Skynet, Facebook, and Yelp are changing the game of traffic generation.

Rank Brain, Google's proprietary artificial learning system technology helps the machines to process its search results efficiently and faster. Rather than human teaching process for machines, this technology enables machines to teach themselves how to do their job better. Machine learning and artificial intelligence, though involved in the same thing, are often used interchangeably. Now-a-days, searches are being performed several ways from several devices. This is changing the privacy, spam, and video viewing scene too.

Some of the most important issues that are driving online searches today are:

• Content has always played an important role in Google's searches. Google has given preferable to searches more than marketers. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the marketers to understand their audience and site visitors and provide them with relevant content, thus satisfying their requirements. Google makes sure to reward marketers who consider customer experience as the prime important factor of their SEO efforts.
• Google has started ranking images too. This has made the inclusion of visuals in content a relevant factor to arrest customer attention and give them a superior experience. For example, e-commerce marketers should emphasize on sites such as eBay, Amazon, Etsy etc. while for videos they should look for YouTube or Facebook, to name but a few.
• Google has been increasingly making efforts to match the returns to their searches requirements. This makes it imperative for the marketers to use keywords that are not just fed in the content for the sake of it, but provide a competitive advantage to the content. Thus, the context of the content becomes crucial at this point of time.
• Google+ has not been instrumental enough as it had been thought of. In fact, Twitter has taken its place successfully as primary social result of Google. Google+ could not meet with much success which made Google name it as a social layer across all Googles services rather than naming it as a social network. Twitter has been able to exercise influence on keywords as well as the search results page, thus helping marketers to use to their advantage.

Therefore, it can be concluded that though Google has been a clear market leader in the search engine scene, its engineers admit that the users still do not have the full picture. It is important for marketers to pay attention to other traffic sources and concentrate on pages that are performing well, thereby ensuring that their sites perform better by hiding from Google the pages with high bounce rate.

If you need more advice on how we can help you with your Digital Marketing Strategy and Campaigns then contact us today.

Create An Efficient E-Commerce Marketing Strategy

If you want your sales to be flat year over year, you can perhaps take the risk of sticking to the same marketing and advertising strategy as last year. It might work for your business this year too. However, if you are trying to expand and grow your business, your marketing and advertising strategies need to be redrafted nearly every year due to the volatile nature of the business, and the macro factors influencing the environment. So, here we are providing you with a checklist, which includes some of the most important tips an E-Commerce marketer should definitely try in the final quarter of this year.

Have an Effective Content Marketing Strategy

Content marketing is definitely the most popular marketing trend of 2015 for numerous reasons such as:

Creating useful, informative and engaging content helps and entertains readers/potential customers and influences them to become loyal customers. A win-win situation for customers and sellers alike!

When a video, article or similar marketing content circulates and becomes popular among prospective customers, it drives a considerable amount of traffic, which in turn leads to more sales Marketers in 2015 face the challenge of developing a marketing strategy that can generate effective content, which in turn, drives traffic as well as sales.

In order to achieve this,
Scrutinize earlier content marketing efforts so as to identify which posts, articles, etc., brought in traffic or increased conversion rates.
Analyze previous marketing strategies to figure out why few content pieces worked and were more successful. It can also help in identifying popular search terms or trends.
Based on your analysis try experimenting with similar content to know if it also becomes successful.
Understand what worked and adjust the content after reviewing the outcome of new marketing strategy.

Have A Thoughtfully Designed Email Marketing Campaign

Automating email campaigns can help in nurturing customer relationship and also will leave more time for doing so. As soon as a customer registers for online stores newsletter, an automated email campaign can start a welcome series confirming the subscription and assuring the customer that subscribing to the store's newsletter was a great choice. Likewise, if an existing customer leaves the shopping cart without making the purchase, an automated email can encourage the customer to return. Since, the email campaign is automated marketing people are not required to perform tedious and time consuming task of manually identifying customers and their requirements.

Have a Diversified Social Media Campaign

Undoubtedly Facebook is the leading and most important social media platform for a majority of E-Commerce stores vying for customer's attention. It definitely takes centre stage in all social marketing campaigns. However, as important as Facebook might be, E-Commerce marketers should not use Facebook as the sole social media site to engage customers. There are other social media sites available that can have a positive influence on customer engagement and also sales, such as, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

Have a Personalization Strategy

Personalization in the E-Commerce context can mean many different things, it can be as simple as personalized recommendations about the product or it may mean a description about a type of marketing segmentation.

As part of your 2015 E-Commerce marketing checklist, devise and implement a personalization strategy, no matter how you define personalization. Give a personal touch to your online store; it will help you get closer to your customers, and to earn their loyalty.

Have Your Own Product Videos

According to recent findings it was revealed that E-Commerce marketers who use videos for marketing enjoy better sales for products promoted with videos. Also, creating videos is becoming easier for marketers, since getting access to Adobe creative suite is available to marketers. This provides them with easy access to all the audio and video editing tools. If all this sounds complicated, one can always hire an expert who can make engaging product videos.

Guide To 301 Redirect And Its Uses

If you are moving, you know how important the mail forwarding process is. You need to ensure that you do not lose any valuable information. The same goes for your website. If you are moving your website from one URL to another, it is important to take necessary steps to ensure you do not lose your customers. This is called 301 redirect in technical terms.

A 301 redirect lets you maintain your website's domain authority and its search rankings even when you change URL for your website. It sends visitors to the new URL address than the originally requested by them, without having the one to type the new address. It is a permanent redirect that sends search engines to a different URL. It also links various URLs under one roof so that search engines, with the help of inbound links, rank all the addresses based on the domain authority.

Reasons to set up 301 redirect

There are majorly three reasons for marketers' o set up a 301 redirect.

• To rename or rebrand a website: When a business is rebranding its website or company name, to maintain the power of inbound links, it takes help of 301 redirect. 301 redirect helps in migrating inbound links to the new domain.
• To direct search engines and visitor traffic to the new website from other URLS's helped by the same business: Sometimes a single brand purchases several domains under the same subject matter or name of the business. This is done to generate more traffic. 301 redirect helps the brand's original domain to maintain search authority.
• To maximize domain authority by associating common web conventions such as HTTP//, www. etc.

Difference between other redirects and 301 redirect

Other redirects such as a 302-temporary redirect are used when the content of a website needs to be moved to the new site temporarily if the website is under maintenance and the original website visitors need to be redirected for content consumption. However, 301 permanent redirect is always preferred for search engine optimisation since it transfers the inbound links from the original domain to the new one, thereby not letting any hindrance to the search traffic and help the website maintain its search ranking.

Mistakes to avoid for 301 redirect

Here are some common 30 redirect mistakes that marketers often commit that adversely impact the SEO ranking of a brand.

• Since 301 redirect helps in redirecting all the inbound links from the original domain to the new one, make sure to link all the different iterations of the brand's domain so that the search engine rankings are maintained
• Never set up a new domain without setting up a 301 redirect. not setting up a 301-redirect prior would let the Google recrawl it as a new domain and the inbound links from the original domain would not be captured by the new domain. This will hinder your site traffic
• If you are not migrating temporarily for repairing or updating your website's content, it is better to set up a 301 redirect than a temporary 302 redirect.
• It is essential to set up 301 redirect from the older internal links on your website. If you do not, your visitors might be in for a bad experience in case they come looking for reading older content that are not directed.

It is rather easy to set up a permanent 301 redirect. Do this and see all your traffic coming to your new domain without any hindrance.

If you need more advice on how we can help you with your SEO Strategy and Campaigns then contact us today.

Leveraging Social Media With Enthusiasm

The fact is that we are a culture of convenience. Most people opt for the easiest way to do whatever. However, the easiest way is not always the best (or most effective) way to do things. The same concept applies to social media. When it comes to using social media and really working our connections, it is very easy to fall into the trap of choosing what is easiest. It may be time to look at what we are doing and eliminate the easy path if it is not the way that produces the best results.

Breaking old habits 
One click of the button often gets you to where you want to go. However, sometimes, the issue is that if you get used to such extreme, easy circumstances, it is often difficult to get used to making more effort again. Being lazy (or making a little effort) is probably not the best approach to take in general. Of course, that does not mean that efficiency is overrated. It certainly has its merits. The fact is that, nowadays, people don't have a lot of time on their hands and they have gotten used to doing things quickly and receiving things that can be digested or resolved very easily. If they need to spend any more than a short time on anything, they may not be willing to do so. It is not anyone's fault, it is just the world that we live in now.

It is very easy to see some content that may or may not be of value and, without thinking too much about it, just forward it to other people in your online social circles. It is a wonderful idea to share valuable content; however, there are times when it is probably beneficial to take a careful look at what you are forwarding before you actually forward it. If you make that effort, you may find that you don't think that forwarding it to other people is such a brilliant idea after all.

It is important for you to remember that if you forward content to other people online (people whom you presumably trust and value), it is your reputation on the line. That is why it is so critical that you share only the content that you really believe is worth sharing. If what you are sharing is in any way inappropriate (or insensitive), you shouldn't do it. The one thing that you should never do is to share a piece of content without reading it first. If you are trying to boost your professional reputation, that is not the way to do it. In fact, it may damage your reputation.

This is not meant to discourage you from reposting articles that you find interesting and valuable. It is just meant to encourage you to make informed decisions before you repost. There are a few ground rules that you may wish to follow.

Only share content if it is truly justified in your opinion: If you come across content that you feel will help other people in some way (and boost your reputation at the same time), it is worth reposting. In that situation, you are giving something positive to someone else. However, if you are on the fence about whether the content actually holds value and you aren't sure that anyone else will benefit from reading that content, you probably shouldn't send it to anyone.

Give something of value to the other person: If you come across an article and you enjoy reading it, that isn't necessarily enough of a criterion to pass it on to someone else. Even if that article is extremely well written, you need more than that to justify sharing it. You need to be fairly confident that it is not only worth your time but that it is also worthwhile for the other person. Again, it is your reputation at stake so make sure that you are certain that you know what you are doing.

Read the content all the way to the end: This can't be emphasized enough. If you don't read the entire article, you shouldn't share it with anyone. That should hopefully relatively painless for you. Many pieces of content are not very long. However, they can be very valuable. You will only be able to determine that if you read it. It is a fact that the title of an article is the first thing to attract the reader and that reader will only take 3 seconds (or less) before he or she will decide to continue reading or move on to someone else's article. If you make it past the title, hopefully, the rest of the article will hold a lot of promise. Take the time to read it. Most likely, you will be happy that you did.

Do more than just like content: Once you have read the article, it is really valuable for you to express your opinion about what you have just read. Everyone is interested in what you have to say. If you just like everyone, people may start to think about you as the boy who cried wolf. Liking everything is the same as liking nothing. Frankly, it is the easy way out. It might make other people think that you are involved when you really aren't. You should be genuinely involved. That is how you establish relationships and that is how you build trust and credibility.

Push yourself to do more: Make it a consistent habit to make some sort of valuable comment or post a thought-provoking question of some kind at the end of each post that you forward. It will get the conversation moving and the interactions that everyone experiences will be stimulating. If you make the effort to get involved, other people will have a positive perception of you and they will want to interact with you further.

Identify your target audience before anything else: It shouldn't be extremely difficult to determine exactly who your target audience is. Once you have done that, you will be able to wrap your mind around what they want and need and make a big effort to give it to them. In addition to your target audience's wants and needs, you should also try to figure out what is interesting to them. If you can determine that, you will also have a clear sense of how to "speak" to them in their language, which will be extremely effective and useful.

Conclusion 
Laziness never really results in anything positive. Not for you and not for other people around you. Another side effect of laziness that you probably want to avoid is procrastination. If you give into that, your productivity will go out the window. If you are naturally inclined to choose the easy path (which most human beings are), stop and think about it and try to redirect and choose the approach that requires more effort but that also yields more positive results. You should do everything possible to stay motivated. You will do exceptional work if you do.

Michael Cohn is the founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications. He has over 25 years of experience in IT and web technologies. Mr. Cohn spent a significant amount of time at a major telecommunications company, where his main focus was on initiating and leading synergy efforts across all business units by dramatically improving efficiency, online collaboration, and the company's Intranet capabilities, which accelerated gains in business productivity. He also reduced company travel and travel costs by introducing and implementing various collaboration technologies.

His expertise includes business analysis; project management; management of global cross-matrix teams; systems engineering and analysis, architecture, prototyping and integration; technology evaluation and assessment; systems development; performance evaluation; and management of off-shore development.

Mr. Cohn earned a Master's degree in project management from George Washington University in Washington, DC; and a Master's degree in computer science and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ.

Mr. Cohn is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Keyword Research - Effective For Domain Names, Too

What is keyword research?

Keyword research is all about discovering exactly what it is that people are searching for, and then trying to rank highly (hopefully on the first page) for the search results of that term. This is really the foundation of your SEO strategy, so it's important to get keyword research right.

How To Find Your Best Keywords for SEO

Make a list of important, relevant topics based on what you know about your business. Think about the topics you want to rank for in terms of generic buckets. You'll come up with about 5-10 topic buckets you think are important to your business, and then you'll use those topic buckets to help come up with some specific keywords later in the process.

To do proper research, we need to be very clear on what our product is and we need to get quite specific so that we aren't trying to compete with too many other websites. It's generally better to rank highly for a search term that gets less searches than to rank on page 10 for a highly popular term - within reason, of course. There's no point ranking highly for something that only gets five searches a month.

How to Do Keyword Research

Google Keyword Planner

Google provides a free tool that will help us with much of our keyword research. Use the Google AdWords Keyword Planner to find new and related keywords, but ignore the search volume data! The search volume data in the planner is really only useful for keywords that you're actually spending money to advertise on. Otherwise, these volumes are not reliable. While not really helpful to decide which keyword is most used by your potential audience, Google AdWords Keyword Planner makes a useful tool in coming up with ideas for potential keywords!

How To Use Google Keyword Planner

When trying to access Google Keyword Planner, there is a very important step that needs to be taken. Keyword Planner is intended to help advertisers plan their Google AdWords campaigns by telling them exactly what people are searching for. you do now need to sign up for an AdWords account in order to get access to the Keyword Planner tool. Most people have a Google account already, so setting up an AdWords account takes just a few seconds, but this is where the crucial step lies.

1. Firstly you need to sign into your Google account.

2. Next, visit AdWords.Google.com and click on the "Start Now" button.

3. IMPORTANT: On the next page, you'll be presented with a screen that asks for some basic information about your business. You MUST click the link that says "skip guided setup." If you do not click this link then you will be, for reasons only Google knows, forced into creating and paying for an ad before you get access to the Keyword Planner tool.

We don't want to do that. This small oddity caught my attention and led me to forums full of other frustrated people facing the same issue. There apparently is no way to go back once you have passed over this first page, so do not miss the link and do not explore the further pages expecting to be able to click back later.

Once you've input your initial keywords into Keyword Planner, you'll get a result that tells you, on average, how many times that phrase was searched for in your chosen region. Beneath this will be some further suggestions for similar keywords that you might want to consider as well.

After you've decided on the best keywords to target for your page, you want to make sure you use them in your content, your meta description and even the URL if possible. Google is pretty clever these days, though, so don't keyword spam with page titles

Keep the phrases genuine and your site will look all the more professional to your potential customers. And don't forget image file names as a place to use your keywords, as well as the image ALT text, which can be easily edited in the media insertion panel for WordPress posts and pages.

Other Keyword Research Tools

Keyword Planner isn't the only keyword research tool you can use. Here are a few other common tools:

1.) WordStream's Keyword Tool (free)

Of course I could never forget WordStream's keyword tool for both SEO and PPC keyword research.

The WordStream keyword tool allows you to target certain niches (groups of related keywords), gives you further suggestions, and also allows you to group them based off of a common theme for easy ad group launches.

2.) Moz Bar

Moz Bar is a free tool is a Firefox or Chrome browser extension that performs a ton of analysis on the pages you visit. It's a great tool for checking out competitors' websites in order to get a better idea of what you're up against when you try and outrank them in the SERP (search engine result page).

Moz Keyword Difficulty Analysis

Moz's paid Keyword Difficulty and SERP Analysis Tool uses all of the backlink and search data they have to provide you with a simple score that aims to define the difficulty of ranking for a particular keyword with your domain. It's probably the easiest and fastest way to do serious initial keyword research, but it does come at a price. If your time is valuable, though, this might be an option to look into.

3.) Soovle (free)

If you have multiple channels you wish to do keyword research for and want to sound like an idiot explaining the pronunciation of this tool to your watercooler buddies, then Soovle is a perfect fit.

Soovle allows you to explore the most typed in keywords on multiple search engines based on the keyword root you give it. It even includes Amazon and eBay.

Not only is it a great keyword research tool to use, but it's also a great brainstormer as you can slowly start typing in your ideas and allow it to auto-generate its own ideas.

4.) Ubersuggest (free)

Meet the keyword research tool on steroids, Ubersuggest.

Ubersuggest takes any keyword you give it and immediately gives you an almost unlimited list of alphabetized and numerical keyword variations of your original keyword.

5.) Competitor Source Code (free)

This might not be the best and most fruitful keyword research tool but it allows you to see what meta keywords your competitors could be using to try to rank organically.

Since I use Google Chrome as my browser, it's super simple to right-click on a site and select "View Page Source."

Conclusion

By understanding and applying the basics of keyword research, you can make a steady and realistic climb up the search rankings. This will enable you to drive traffic to your website and attract new customers even while you're not working.

http://thelifetech.com

Facebook Ads and Google AdWords - What's The Difference?

As a small business owner with a limited marketing budget, how can you get the best results for your online ad campaign?

Google and Facebook are the largest advertising platforms on the Internet, both allowing you to target customers and spread your brand message.

The most important difference between using Facebook ads & Google Ads is the way your audience will encounter your ad. While Facebook chooses ads to display based on a user's stated interests and demographics, a Google ad is targeted based on the user's search terms. The difference is similar to browsing (Facebook) vs. going straight to what you know you want (Google). Both approaches can be useful for reaching potential customers. Facebook is an effective tool for generating brand awareness, while Google works best as for pull marketing.

This article looks at the similarities and differences between the two and when you might choose one approach over the other.

Google AdWords

AdWords lets you bid on a certain keyword or phrase to have your ad show up when a user searches on that term. The key to making the most of this approach is to carefully research keywords and know what language your customers are using. Your main goal when using Google pay per click (PPC) ads is to make sure that your advertising copy and landing page match up well with a user's search term.

If the user is looking for a certain product or type of item, you'll get a higher click through rate (CTR) when your content matches their needs.

Facebook advertising platform

Facebook offers a broader marketing approach, where you are able to market to people who fit certain demographics or psychographics but who aren't necessarily searching for your product. This lets you educate potential consumers about the value you provide. Facebook restructured it's advertising platform earlier this year to make its target marketing approach more powerful. You can target customers by location, demographics, or connections.

The connections option lets you reach friends of those who like your page, for instance. You can also target people based on stated interests and the Facebook groups they've joined, as well as based on their past shopping behaviour. If you are trying to build brand awareness a loose targeting approach is a good strategy. This lets you cast the net wide and reach a large group of potential customers. The opposite tactic is to tightly target your ads and run multiple short campaigns to see what combination of factors gives the best ROI.

Relative costs

Even though the approaches of the two platforms are complementary rather than identical, it's fair to consider the cost per click (CPC) amount for each approach. Facebook advertising tends to be cheaper than an AdWords campaign, with a CPC charge of $0.25 on the low end. In contrast, if you want to rank highly for very competitive search terms on Google, the cost can be $100 per click or higher. Obviously that isn't always the case, but in general a Facebook campaign will cost less. But cheaper isn't always better, so it is more important to compare the results. For this, the number we want to look at is cost per acquisition (CPA), not CPC. For example, lets assume that the CPC for a Facebook campaign is $1.00, while an AdWords campaign is five times more expensive with a CPC of $5.00. But because the Google campaign is very effectively matched with the right search terms, it has a 10 per cent conversion rate compared to Facebook's 1 per cent. For this example, we'd say that the CPA for the Facebook ad is $100 while the Google ad has an acquisition cost of only $50.

The key to making the most of your marketing budget on these platforms is to carefully measure ad performance. Fortunately, Facebook ads & Google ads both offer powerful analytics to track traffic and conversion rates.

Choosing a platform

While Google ads often have a somewhat lower cost per acquisition because it is so focused on customer search terms, this approach has its limitations. Facebook ads allow you to reach a wider audience, including people who may not have realised they wanted or needed your product. Both types of advertising can pay off if you have the right data to run an effective campaign. For Google ads you'll need the keywords that your customers are searching on and for Facebook ads you'll need to experiment with targeting different markets. Your best bet may be to try a mix of both advertising channels and track the number and types of leads you get from each service.

Should you bring in a pro? One way to get the most out of your marketing budget is to work with an online advertising agency, also known as a social media agency, mobile marketing agency, or digital marketing agency.

A social media agency offers many benefits, including marketing expertise, and outsider's view, and knowledge of the latest tools and trends. The largest benefit is that you'll instantly acquire expertise and access to professional tools. Online marketing is always changing, and it takes time and effort to keep up with trends and make the best decisions. You'll also get access to the best analytics tools so you can track customer response metrics easily and effectively. Some of these tools can costs hundreds of dollars per month to license, but with a digital marketing agency you'll have access to all the data you need to make the most of your budget. Whether you work with a team or handle everything yourself, the best bet for online marketing success is to spread your marketing budget across both platforms. The percentage you spend on each depends on your current goals. Are you aiming for broader brand awareness (Facebook) or hoping for a more immediate ROI (Google).

Companies are reporting good results for both types of advertising so experiment a bit and find out what works for your business.

A professional with over 7 years experience working within the advertising and marketing communications industry. Practical knowledge, understanding and experience for a wide range of business disciplines including the financial services, legal, commercial services, retail, online, charitable and civil service sectors.

SEO Practices to Strengthen E-Commerce Fronts

We all know that Search engine optimization (SEO) can be the real deal breaker for any website and it is even more critical for the success of E-Commerce websites, as SEO plays a major role in attracting, converting as well as retaining potential customers. However, performing SEO for E-Commerce sites is highly complicated due to the presence of hundreds and thousands of product listings, which require regular updating. This is the reason why following a set of SEO best practices becomes essential in order to make sure that your site always performs at optimum levels. While reviewing, research and optimization must continue on a regular basis to be successful.

You must focus on few core areas before you can begin performing SEO to get your listings ranked higher on Google search results:

SEO assessment: Begin by performing a comprehensive assessment of your website, so as to identify SEO shortcomings. While it is advisable to perform assessment for your entire website, you must pay special attention to your product pages. This is where majority of the flaws are detected and are also imperative to your website's performance. Tools such as Screaming Frog can be used to crawl through your images, CSS, links, etc., so that you can identify errors, missing tags, duplicate entries and other issues that can have a negative impact on your site's rankings.

Keyword research: Keyword research plays a major role in getting your website ranked higher. Targeting wrong keywords can lead to driving low quality traffic and lower sales. Using the right keywords strategically can attract qualified customers and also boost your sales and conversion rates. Perform your research based on keyword relevancy, ranking difficulty and search volume. You may use long-tail keywords relevant to your products, as they have a higher exact-match search volume as well as a significantly lower difficulty ranking when compared to the competition.

Competitor research: Analyze competitors' website to prepare a list of keywords that are being used by them. Perform research to determine the keywords you wish to compete against. Also, figure out the architecture used by these competing websites. Primarily focus on their product pages to attain better insights about ways to organize your websites navigation.

Create compelling product descriptions: Don't make the same mistake that most E-Commerce store owners make, i.e. using manufacturer's product descriptions. Search engines consider this to be a case of duplicated content, which might attract penalties. Product descriptions provide you with an opportunity to create unique, informative and compelling sales copy that boosts sales and conversion rates.

Using long tail keywords: Long tail keywords are highly targeted keywords having three or more words. People using long term keywords usually know what they are searching for, therefore a product page that has been optimized for long term keywords has a greater probability of attracting customers and converting them into sales.

Include customer reviews: It has been estimated that product pages having customer reviews are successful in converting over 58% more visitors, while boosting revenue by over 62%. This is because customer reviews help in establishing credibility and act as a social proof for potential buyers. Product pages featuring customer reviews rank higher since Google rewards pages that are frequently updated with unique content.

Integrate social media on your product pages: Google rankings play a major role in influencing the quality and amount of social media signals since they reflect a page's relevance. It is advised that you add social sharing buttons for popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc., to your product pages in order to allow your customers and prospects to share product information with other potential customers.

Optimize page load speed: As many as 40% of visitors will leave, if your product pages don't load within 3 seconds, and approximately 80% of your customers won't return to your site if they are disappointed by your site's load time. Page load time can be optimized by employing lazy loading, compressing product images and fixing coding issues.

Write appealing metadata: Your product pages need unique, compelling Meta titles and descriptions incorporating popular keywords to increase its visibility. It is considered one of the most crucial aspects of on-page optimization. It is important to note that metadata is usually the first thing your potential customers come across, while making a Google search, so it is best to provide your potential customers with a compelling copy of product description that prompts them to make a purchase.

Include rich snippets: Snippets in the form of coded data can be included in product descriptions to provide more information about the product such as price, availability, etc. Incorporating snippets result in better Click-through-rates (CTR) as well as higher rankings on search results.

Include product images: Quality of your product images have a direct relationship with what your potential customers feel about your products. Always include visually appealing images to help your customers make informed purchase decisions. Also, tag these images with appropriate metadata so that they are easily searchable.

Use search-friendly URLs: Your product page URL's needs to be unique and should be optimized for main keywords. Appropriate URLs tell search engines what the page is all about while providing visitors with helpful product information.

Optimize your E-Commerce site for mobile: Mobile shopping has reached its peak and it has made it important for you to make your E-Commerce store mobile friendly. It is wise to use a responsive design for your website in order to create a seamless shopping experience for your customers across all platforms. Improving your E-Commerce site's performance is an ongoing process requiring you to stay updated with SEO best practices at all times. It is advised that you regularly test your website for errors, perform keyword and competitor research, observe Google's algorithm updates, and make the required changes to optimize your E-Commerce website and provide your customers with a great shopping experience.

Make navigation intuitive: Your website's architecture can be incremental in attaining higher rankings and providing great user experience. So it is best to organize your product pages into appropriate categories so that it facilitates easy navigation.

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