Showing posts with label SEO Services. Show all posts

Tuesday, 10 June 2014

6 Ways To Optimize Your Business With Foursquare

What is the hottest mobile trend for 2010? The answer seems obvious. It’s Foursquare, the Twitter of 2010, the leading location-based social network which, with a game aspect, encourages people to explore their neighborhoods via their smartphones, share their visits with local attractions, events and businesses and gives them rewards when they do so.

Further than that, Foursquare, which in April 2010 reached a million users in just over a year of existence, is driving new online strategies for businesses. It offers them multiple ways to attract customers and gain qualitative and quantitative feedback on their establishment. If you own a “physical” retail business such as a shop, a restaurant, a bar, a hotel, etc,. find 6 ways to use Foursquare in order to boost your sales and increase your customers’ loyalty:

1. Are you listed?

First thing to do is visit Foursquare website and search for your business to see if it is already listed. If yes, make sure the information presented is correct and complete. You will need to create a personal account in order to correct your information or add your business.

2. Offer “Specials”!

Businesses can offer discounts or special offers to reward people who “check-in” their establishment and develop stronger relationships with their customers. There are many ways to treat your customers with Specials: Some of them are the “check-in specials” that help you reward the customers that reach a specific number of visits or the “frequency-based specials”.

3. Give tips!

You can give your customers tips in order to enhance their experience within your business. If you own a restaurant, you can leave tips about the day specials, the best time to come for a drink, the things to do in your establishment, etc. It is definitely a fun and creative way to attract customers!

4. Learn about your business

FourSquare offers business analytics that makes it possible for business owners to see how customers interact within their businesses. Additionally it helps them improve their services, since they can read the reviews about what customers like, what tips and comments they leave, understand their needs etc.

5. Reward Mayors!

The person who “checks_in” the more frequently in your business in a period of two months, reaches the “Mayor” status. Offer the Mayor something really special to reward him for his loyalty, like “free drinks” or give him the power to be a creative part of your team by choosing the music you will play or a theme for a special night, etc. Not only you will make your Mayor happier, but also you will increase the competition amongst your customers in order to de-throne the current mayor and take his/her place!

6. Interact with your customers

Foursquare gives you the opportunity to get closer than ever with your customers, since, not only you will discover your best customer by checking his Mayor status, but through the game, you will interact with all your customers and acquire a friendly reputation.

Most of all, always keep in mind that Foursquare is a game which gives businesses the chance to be creative and build relationships with the customers. If you adopt the Foursquare philosophy, your customers will inevitably talk about your business and reward you back for your services.

Monday, 19 May 2014

Tactics We Used To Build Links Last Month

5 Tactics We Used To Build Links Last Month

There are a lot of questions around link building tactics these days, especially when it comes to how companies can actually build links that won’t get them in trouble. In fact, one of the most common questions I hear at conferences and from clients is, “How do you build good links?”

The answer, of course, varies by site and company but I thought for my column this month, I’d cover some tactics that we actually used last month to successfully build links for our clients.

1. Trade Show Interviews

Many of our clients are in the manufacturing industry, and while none are direct competitors, there is often some overlap when it comes to trade shows and events.

Last month, a few of these clients were either attending and/or exhibiting at the Modex Show in Atlanta. Several members of our team went down to get firsthand experience of what’s happening in the industry, conduct interviews with attendees and exhibitors, and get new material for blog content.

We were able to talk to manufacturers, distributors, attendees, and of course members of the client teams we hadn’t previously met.

The interviews resulted in multiple pieces of content for multiple clients, and more importantly, each piece of content was picked up by other sources, resulting in relevant links and traffic to their sites.

Now, I’ve talked before about building links through events, but this is a bit different, and there are some steps I recommend taking to set yourself up for success:

Connect with the events team pre-conference. It’s important they know you’ll be there, and they can provide some information on what to expect.

Identify companies you want to interview. Look at the exhibitor list or conference hashtag to see who will be there. Make a list of who you want to talk to and be sure to get client feedback and approval so you don’t waste anyone’s time. Don’t hesitate to reach out pre-show to set up some interview times.

Have your questions ready. You aren’t going to want to wing it and you certainly don’t want to spend all that time interviewing people only to be left with an incomplete story. Make sure you write down what you plan on asking.

2. Partner Outreach

A client is a national distributor for a large manufacturer, but their website doesn’t offer much information about the manufacturer. One of the things we wanted to do was create some original content about the manufacturer and their products. To start the process, we decided to reach out to the manufacturer about obtaining any distributor/partner marketing collateral.

In doing the research for this, our team noticed the manufacturer had a blog… Do you see where this is going?

In our correspondence about the marketing collateral, we offered to have our client write a regular column on the blog, and the manufacturer accepted. While the link itself is awesome, the more valuable part of this, is the on-going relationship the client now has.

Just remember, it can’t hurt to ask.

3. Industry-Specific Advertising

We don’t do any paid link building but we’re always on the lookout for any and all advertising or promotional opportunities that may be helpful to our clients. Sometimes that means auditing their trade show calendar for marketing opportunities and other times, like last month, it’s a recommendation for a print ad.

Coffee is for closers.

We came across a very niche magazine in our client’s market that offers both a print and online version of their publication. Many of the client’s competitors are using it, and the rates were very reasonable. In investigating, we also saw that links were included for advertisers. In this scenario, the client gets both a print ad, and a new link to their site.

Even though this is technically a paid link and potentially offers no actual link value, it’s extremely relevant and will drive targeted traffic back to the site.

In the words of Alec Baldwin, “Always Be Linking.” Wait… that’s not what he said but the point is, always be on the lookout for linking opportunities. A print ad may not seem like a link-building tactic, but if you dig deeper, it just might be.

4. PR Integration

We write a lot of content for clients and even though we promote it and they promote it, the best scenario is when their PR team is also able to promote it.

A couple months ago, we wrote an article for a client’s site about 2014 industry trends. The post did pretty well through social but the real benefit came when the PR team got a hold of it last month.

They were able to repurpose it for a planned editorial, resulting in a high-quality link to the client’s site, and again, relevant traffic.

There are a number of articles out there about the integration of PR and SEO, but if you are interested in reading more, here are a couple references:

5. SERP Analysis

SERP analysis is one of my favorite tried and true methods of link building. Last month, we took a client’s target keyword and performed a link analysis on several of the sites showing up in the search results.

We were able to find multiple link opportunities on everything from review sites to press opportunities to niche directories, many of which have now been realized.

The key to conducting a good SERP analysis is knowing when to not waste your time. Performing a link analysis on the eBay’s and Amazon’s of the word is virtually impossible, so focus on the sites you know.

Need more information on performing a link analysis? Here are a couple references:

See… It Can Be Done!

Of all the link building strategies we use, and of the ones mentioned above, there is nothing so mind blowing or difficult that every single person can’t do the same thing. For example, attending a trade show is something that people have been doing for decades. Attending a trade show with content and link building in mind, however, maybe isn’t something you’ve done. Give it a try!

And remember… build links that help your business and drive traffic that might actually convert.

Sunday, 18 May 2014

Best Ways to Increase Twitters Folowers

20 Ways To Increase The Number of your Followers on Twitter

Twitter is one of the most popular social media networks where users are able to meet others with similar interests, find experts of a particular field, learn about the current trends and share useful articles andwebsites. A recent well known quote describes exactly the difference between Facebook and Twitter: “Facebook is the people you went to school with. Twitter is the people you wished you went to school with.”.

Currently Twitter receives millions of users every day, it ranks on the top 10 websites globally according to Alexa and on the top 29 according to Compete. As a result, it has become a very handy tool for online marketers and webmasters because it can drive large amounts of traffic to a website or blog. Of course just by opening a Twitter account you won’t be able to get this amount of traffic. As we explained in the previous article “12 Tips for developing a Successful Twitter Campaign”, in order to achieve those results you need to design carefully your Social Media campaign.

How to increase Twitter Followers

On the internet you can find tons of articles that describe various tricks and tips on how to increase the number of your followers. Additionally lots of companies have created software and services that can help you automate the procedure. Even if some of those programs and techniques work in some cases, it ishighly recommended not to base a social media campaign on unethical or spammy techniques because it can heavily affect the image of your company.
tweeties_free_twitter_icons1

In this article we will focus on well-tested whitehat techniques that can be used in order to increase the number of your followers. I stress that these are not some magic tricks that will increase your followers in one day. These are techniques that can help you on the long-run increase the number of your followers, maintain them and build a loyal target audience.

1. Be an active user

If you want to increase your followers make sure you post regularly and send most of your tweets during the rash hours when most people are online.

2. Place social media buttons in your blog

If are an active blogger you should place social media buttons on a strategic position of your blog. Have in mind that usually the best position is on the top of the article, near the title. Additionally it is highly recommended to use the standardized buttons that people know and trust. Finally it is recommended to use buttons that allow your readers see how many shares a particular post has. This encourages them to share it with their followers.

3. Add a twitter banner on your website

Adding a “follow me” twitter banner on a visible area of your site can help you attract more users. Also it is always a good idea to add your social media profiles in your Contact page. Some people might find it easier to contact you through these channels rather than sending you an email.

4. Add your twitter account in your email signature

This encourages the people that contact you via email, to find you on other social networks. Adding also your other social media profiles like LinkedIn and Facebook can be a great way to increase your business connections.

5. Add your twitter username in your business card

It is a similar to the above technique that can help you increase the number of followers from yourindustry.

6. Use hashtags

Twitter uses hashtags to group together tweets or add additional info about a message. Even if you can create your own tags, it is generally recommended to use the popular ones. Note that for every topic, industry or event the community uses lots of different hashtags. Here are some examples: #SEO #socialmedia #hotels #success #fail #followfriday etc.

7. Participate on #FollowFriday

Every Friday twitters recommend other interesting users to their followers. Make sure you recommend other important persons to the people that connect with you. In many cases you will see that they will do the same for you. The 2 most popular hashtags about Follow Friday are the #ff and #followfriday.

8. Interact with other people

If you want to be popular on any social network you must interact with other people. Discuss, provide feedback, retweet the messages that you find useful, ask and reply questions. Don’t forget that the main target of social networks is to socialize with others, not to promote your company.

9. Update your bio, image and Background

Adding accurate bio and information in your profile can help other people find you and follow you. Selecting an appropriate profile image and background can help you also show to the users that you are aprofessional. Don’t forget that first impressions are very important.

10. Follow people with similar interests

Twitter is a great place to find new e-friends, exchange ideas and participate on discussions. By socializing with other people you will not only increase your followers but also be able to influence other twitters.

11. Send quality tweets

Sharing quality content and messages with your followers is extremely important in order to become popular. By sharing your views, news, trends, quotes, links and websites that you found useful, you can increase your followers and become influential user.
retweet

12. Don’t send 140 char twitter messages

People usually give credit to the original author, when they Retweet (RT) a message. Many times they choose not to use the RT button because they want to add their comments. By sending messages shorter than 140 you give the chance to other people to give credit to you by placing your username in the post or to add their comments. This can help you generate conversation and increase your followers.

13. Add yourself in Twitter directories

There are a lot of twitter directories where people can find other users with similar interests. Note that not all of them are worth using, but there are few such as WeFollow that receive lots of traffic.

14. Conduct a contest

As we saw on a previous Social Media Case Study, conducting contests on social networks can help you increase your brand awareness, your followers and the traffic of your site.

15. Connect your Facebook profile with Twitter

There are lots of applications that can help you connect your Facebook or LinkedIn profile with Twitter. In this way you can post the same messages to all the people that connect with you on the various social networks and increase your total connections.

16. Use your twitter profile when commenting on Blogs

When you post a comment on a blog, it is a good practice to add your twitter profile as a link. This can help you start conversation with the authors and increase your followers.

17. Mention and Thank the people that help you

When people RT, mention or help you, make sure you thank them. Not only this is the proper thing to do, but also they will appreciate it and they will continue supporting you.

18. Don’t Spam, Be honest and transparent

If you start spamming your followers they will unfollow you and you will ruin your reputation. Keep in mind that honest and transparent behaviour can help you not only increase your followers and keep the ones that you have, but also make a good name for yourself.

19. Create a list of useful tweets

As we said above it is important to tweet often and send quality messages. Due to the fact that you can’t be on Twitter 24/7 or you might not have always something useful to send, you can create a list of interesting topics, tips, techniques, articles and references and use them when you are stack. This list can contain useful information about your industry, tutorials, how-to articles and references to your blog.

20. Use Twitterfeed or similar services

TwitterFeed and similar services or programs can help you automate your tweets, connect your blog with Twitter & Facebook and schedule your future messages. Those services can increase your followers because they can help you tweet more often. Nevertheless remember that those services should not replace youon social media and that you should remain an active user.

Don`t forget to bookmark & share on Twitter this post if you like it.

The PageRank sculpting techniques and the nofollow issue

On 15 June 2009, one of the most important changes occurred in the SEO field. Matt Cutts (head of Google`s Webspam team) announced that Google no longer treats nofollowed links (<a rel=”nofollow” href=`…`>) in the same way.

In this article we will explain what PageRank Sculpting is and what changed in Google`s Algorithm. Briefly we will suggest a PR Sculpting technique that is analyzed in the article “PageRank Sculpting: You can still use nofollow“, thus experienced SEO Engineers should read directly that article.

Mainly in this blog post we will try to answer the following questions:

Google more or less used to discourage the PageRank Sculpting techniques. From their point of view the SEOs were messing with their algorithm. In their documentation, in several events and in some blog posts they mentioned that they do not suggest using those techniques because a) they are not as effective as we think (they are time consuming), b) in some cases they can do more harm than good (nofollowing by mistake important information that users need to find).

On the other hand many SEOs found that PageRank Sculpting is a very good technique and that the rel=”nofollow” attribute was a very good tool that helped them to speed up the process.

Let’s see briefly what PageRank Scuplting is:

By using PageRank sculpting techniques we try to change the way that PageRank flows within a site. In many cases most of the incoming links of a site point to the homepage and thus this is the page with the highest PageRank. The PageRank of the homepage then flows to the other pages of the site because of the links. In some cases, many pages are not considered as important as others (for example: contact pages, disclaimers etc) and thus we do not want to pass any PageRank juice to them. In order to do this we have to block these links. One of the methods we used was adding the rel=”nofollow” attribute in the links (there are several others: Flash, Java, Javascript, iframes, etc).

What changed in Google‘s algorithm?

Important Notice: The PageRank value that you see on Google toolbar is not the real rank. The actual score is not revealed by Google. Generally we consider that the toolbar scale is more or less logarithmic.

Let`s see how Google used to treat nofollow attribute at the beginning.

Suppose that you have a site with 4 pages. The homepage has 6 points of actual PageRank and there are 3 links that point to the internal pages. By using the original PageRank each internal page will receive 6/3=2 PageRank.

In the past if we blocked a link with nofollow, the 2 followed pages would get the PageRank of the blocked page.

Unfortunately now Google handles nofollow attribute in a different way. By nofollowing the first page it still gets PageRank 0, BUT the other 2 pages gain no PageRank. This causes a PageRank loss. See the image below:

Is it still possible to do PageRank Sculpting? Can we use nofollow? (Yes we can)

Matt Cutts mentioned in his blog that “More than a year ago, Google changed how the PageRank flows…“. I partially agree with the above as I am positive that in the last year wherever we used the nofollow attribute we saw good results. Perhaps the results were not as good as they used to be on the past, but still the websites that used PageRank Sculpting techniques had better PR flow than the ones that did not. But that’s not the point.

The main question is if we can still do PageRank Sculpting without suffering PR loss. First of all let`s make it clear that the above technique is not something new. The nofollow attribute introduced in 2005, but the PR Sculpting is something that SEO Engineers did long before 2005. It used to be much more time consuming though because the other alternatives (javascript, iframes, flash, java etc) were not as straightforward as nofollow.

So we could say that rel=`nofollow` was a tool that was generally used for this purpose because of its simplicity. Thus the problem in these days is that the SEOs lost one of the most useful tools for PR Sculpting.

Or they did not?

The solution that WebSEOAnalytics suggests is a little bit tricky but very easy to implement and reliable. What if we continue using the nofollow attribute in our code and just before we send the HTML page to the user we convert the nofollowed links into something else?

The solution to your problems is the The SEO Expert Linker. It is free script that replaces the nofollowed links with javascript functions by using Regular Expressions.

Because of the fact that Google is able to parse basic javascript code, in order to block it we use:

Recursive Function Calls
The HTTP POST method
Base64 Encoded URLs

All you need is to add the code in your pages. This will automatically convert the rel=`nofollow` links in to <span> that use javascript. You can find the installation instrunctions in the above article.

The SEO Expert Linker helps you to continue using the rel=`nofollow` attribute in your code and be able to perform PageRank Sculpting in the way you did before. It can be installed in every site with minimal effort and solve the rel=`nofollow` problem once and for all.

Sunday, 11 May 2014

SEO Effective Tools

SEO Tools

Check your blog page load time, Google Page Rank, backlinks, broken links, reciprocal link and meta tags right here on Blogger Sentral. Just enter your domain or your web page URL in the appropriate text box and click Check! button. Results will be displayed below the text box.

All SEO tools below are provided and hosted by iWEBTOOL, except for Google Page Rank checker.

1. Speed tester

Check web page size and load time.

2. Rank checker

Check Google Page Rank of your domain or web page. Result will be shown in a new window.

Your domain/web page:
	This page rank checker is powered by Page Rank Checker

3. Backlink checker

Check backlinks to your domain or web page.

4. Reciprocal link checker

Check whether your link partner is still linking back to your site.

5. Broken link checker

Check for broken links in your web page.

6. Meta tag checker

Extract your web page's meta information and tags.

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