Content Development Blog| Social Media Marketing Blog

Are Crippling SEO Bloopers Lowering The Position Of Your Website On SERPs?

Team Pi — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:09:37 +0000

Have you been performing search engine optimization on your corporate website for quite a few months now, seemingly without result? Well, are you sure that you are not making any of the crippling SEO bloopers that even experienced professionals end up making sometimes? Indeed, these bloopers can be notoriously difficult to detect, until you notice the drastic lowering of the ranking of your website in search engine result pages (SERP).

However, once you witness a drastic reduction in the ranking of your website on SERPs, you need to take steps to remedy that, and as quickly as possible. Speaking of which, are you sure that you have not accidentally made an SEO blooper somewhere? Here are three of the most common examples of such mistakes. Check whether you have accidentally committed one of these:

1. Home page loaded with heavy Flash animation: Search engines usually give the home page of a website major preference over other internal pages. If you have loaded up that page with heavy animation and splash screens that cannot be crawled through by search engine bots, then you are missing a major opportunity of getting more visitors to your website. Clean up that page, ASAP!

2. Same title tags on all pages of the website: You won’t believe how many experienced SEO professionals believe this to be an acceptable practice. However, this is a mistake that can kill the SERP rankings of your website like nothing else. Search engines always index titles with pages. So, if you have used the same title everywhere, then the search engine bots are bound to get confused. And the more those get confused, the more the search engine ranking of your website will get lowered. Always use title tags related to the content of the pages.

3. Using generic anchor texts for all internal links: If you have the habit of using the text “click here” as anchor text throughout your website, then it is high time you changed it. Major search engines associate keywords used in anchor texts with the targeted pages. So, if you are using generic words there, you are bound to lose a lot of traffic right there, simply because many pages in your website will simply not be indexed.

SEO bloopers are of many different kinds, and it can be quite difficult to avoid all of those at all times, even if you are quite an experienced SEO professional. So, if you ever find the rank of your website going down steadily on SERPs, it makes sense to find out whether you have been doing something wrong with the SEO of the website.

Why Blogs Lose Their Charm Without Social Media Connections

Team Pi — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:06:33 +0000

Running a business blog was never easy. You would have to keep track of a ton of factors, such as writing posts of optimum lengths, exercising brevity as much as possible, and making sure the blog had maximum exposure to search engines. And then, once all those steps were taken care of, it was time to cross fingers and hope that people visit the blog, read a few posts and actually return later for more.

The task has become a lot easier now…

Thankfully, those days are over. These days, attracting visitors to business blogs has become a whole lot easier, because of social media networks. All you need to do is ensure that your blog post is well-written, and actually has information that visitors are likely to enjoy reading. Once the blog posts are published, you can simply post the links to those on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Brevity is still essential though – you cannot write blogs of lengths 400 words or more, and expect people to read through those, unless you are providing useful information in an easy-to-read format.

You do need to have some followers on the networks though…

Let’s get back to the task of posting blog links on social media networks, once more. Of course, you would need a considerable number of followers/friends on these networks, in order to ensure that posting links in those networks really makes a difference. However, even with a couple hundred people in your friends/ followers lists in each network, you are likely to see a major difference in the number of clicks that you get on the blogs, on a regular basis. That’s because each of these users are likely to have lots of friends and acquaintances in their own social media networks. When they share links of your blog, so many other people will also be able to see those. If even a small fraction of them click on the links, you will notice sizable spikes in the numbers of visitors that your blog gets.

How Local SEO Can Be A Blessing For Owners Of Small Businesses

Team Pi — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:48:27 +0000

Did you know that searches for local businesses now constitute more than 20% of all searches carried out on Google, on a regular basis? And that’s just about searches conducted from computers and laptops. Consider mobile devices, and the percentage will jump to somewhere around 40%. If you have few friends, who happen to be smartphone users, then you may already have seen them do this. When they need to find a good restaurant, rent a car for vacation, or simply go grocery shopping, you may have noticed them whip out their smartphones and type away, looking for local companies that they can get in touch with.

If you are running a small business on a tight budget, and are dependent on profits you make from it, then this might be the ace you always wanted to have up your sleeve. Get local SEO performed on both regular and mobile versions of your business website, and you are bound to get a lot more attention from customers. Fortunately, the process is not as difficult as you might think. Here are a few things that you need to get done, in order to start off on the right foot:

1. Get your business listed on aggregator websites: Did you think every customer visits your website through Google search engine result pages (SERP)? You could not be more wrong! There are many aggregator websites out there, which list the ratings of small businesses based on customer feedback. Get listed on those, and you will gain attention of many prospective customers, who might be checking around for local businesses.

2. Use local blogs for publicity of your business: Do you know any avid blogger, who happens to live in the same region as your business? Why not pay him a fixed sum of money at regular intervals, and ask him to insert keywords related to your business, and the name of your brand, in some of his blog posts?

3. Create listing on Google Maps: This is something a lot of entrepreneurs do not even consider doing. However, it can actually help your business to a great extent. Create an account on Google, and create a marker for your business facility on the map of your city. This will ensure that the name of your business becomes well-known among users of the map. Prospective customers will also be able to find your business quickly.

So, what are you waiting for? Get local SEO performed for your small business, and get an edge over your competitors, today!

What Is The Future Of Digital Advertising?

Team Pi — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:55:17 +0000

Inner workings of the industry can never be understood by us because they are constantly changing. Changes are more common than we actually perceive them to be. Winston Churchill once said, “… this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning” – through this saying he saw a great Utopian dream for the new world order. What we see in the world of digital advertising today is actually just the emergence of a new beginning.

The term “digital advertising” is used more popularly by industry giants because the general public tend to equate the term “online” with the Web in most cases. We are able to witness a media explosion, a shift which is slowly but steadily going to happen. As all forms of media are going to be delivered through IP, we will have to strategically use all information we collect from advertising and divert it to the medium of digital advertising.

Technology providers need to look into this shift in the market. They must be prepared to accept, and cope with it by using video and audio ads in marketing campaigns. During the recession, there was a lack of technological innovations. All that time, technologies were being built to serve and manage advertisements and generate sales reports, but due to an economic downturn they were not funded well to gain much recognition. With this new shift in media, the industry can get back to create core technologies which will be able to do justice to the media buyers. This transition is going to be larger than “online advertising” and create a totally new future for the media.

Pitfalls To Avoid When Blogging For Your Business (Part – 2)

Team Pi — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:13:00 +0000

Last time, we discussed 5 pitfalls, which you need to avoid when blogging for your business. This time, we would like to share with you 5 more pitfalls, which you may not recognize as something that can actually prevent your business blog from becoming really popular. Take a look:

1. Not optimizing content as per changing search engine policies: Have you noticed how search engines change the way they react to blog and website content, from time to time? You need to modify the content of your blog, in order to ensure that it conforms to those modified guidelines. Otherwise, your blog may lose its position in SERP-s (search engine result pages) pretty soon.

2. Not submitting your blog links to online directories: Did you know that there are many popular blog directories out there, which deal with business blogs? Make it a point to submit links to your blog in at least 5 such directories every week. It will take very little time, and will get you quality clicks from visitors actually interested in content published on your blog. Do this today!

3. Not submitting blog links to social bookmarking websites: Do you submit links of your blog to social bookmarking websites like Delicious, Digg, and StumbleUpon? If not, then may we suggest you start doing it today? You are probably missing out on a wealth of quality clicks, without even realizing it. StumbleUpon is especially useful, when it comes to bringing lots of clicks to business blogs. Just make sure the content is written well, and you are likely to see a spike in the traffic flow to your blog soon.

4. Not using links to the blog on corporate profiles: Encourage the employees and directors in your company to use links to the home page of the blog in their corporate profiles. Put the link wherever you can – from e-mail signatures to business cards. The more your clients get to see the blog URL, the more likely they would be to check it out. And if you have high quality content in your blog, then you may actually get quite a few extra visitors. Do this now – it will only take a few minutes, after all!

5. Not providing a link to the blog on the home page of the corporate website: You would not believe how many people still make this mistake. Always put a link to the blog on the home page of your corporate website. That way, your blog will get a lot more clicks, and customers will also feel comfortable dealing with a company that has an active blog.

So, go ahead, avoid these pitfalls when blogging about your business. Your blog will get lots of extra traffic, and your business will also gain the trust of more customers/ clients than ever before.

An Important Tip For Marketing To Digital Natives

Team Pi — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 13:59:46 +0000

Reaching out to an audience of 17- 34 year olds can be a difficult task since they were born during or after the introduction of new technologies. Through simultaneous interaction with digital technology, this audience is more informed about its concepts than those who came before them. Since they are so well informed, it is hard to bluff them. They understand selling strategies and won’t buy any product if they are not convinced about it’s worth.

One of the best ways to connect to digital natives or “Generation Y”, is through the mobile. This is more than a must than just a passing marketing tip. Generation Y is most likely to research on any service or product on their mobile phones than Gen X. They are more tech savvy and do not want their time to be wasted. In order to save time, they multi task keeping many tabs open on their Internet browser while updating latest news through their iPhones, Blackberry’s and Androids. You can market tools and applications which they can utilize to channelize their busy schedules. They will be more than happy to utilize your tool than be burdened with a product or application which is going to “hang” their devices and lives.

Pitfalls To Avoid When Blogging For Your Business (Part – 1)

Team Pi — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:23:32 +0000

Will you believe if someone told you that 95% of blogs started across the globe get abandoned shortly after getting launched? A survey recently conducted by Technorati has proved just that. And let’s not forget, around 30% of those are business blogs. If you Make sure that your business blog does not end up like all those dead and abandoned ones across the globe. Start it off on right track by avoiding the usual pitfalls in corporate blogs, given in this two-part post. Here are the first five pitfalls, which you need to avoid like cancer when blogging for your business:

1. Starting the blog without discussing with BoD: You are going to blog about your entire business, so it definitely makes sense to hear what the other members of the Board of Directors have to say about it. Some of them may be able to provide you with valuable guidelines and insights regarding how you should present the company’s goals and ideals in the blog.

2. Working on the blog without a detailed plan: Before you write a single post for the blog, make sure you have a structured plan in your hands. It will help you keep track of the goals you have in mind about the blog, and verify whether those are being met, at regular intervals.

3. Not investing in a content management system (CMS): If you do not have enough resources at hand to go for a paid CMS, at least consider getting one of the free, open source ones, like Joomla or Drupal. There are so many Joomla and Drupal development services available out there that managing the blog should not be a problem at all.

4. Running the blog without proper SEO and SMM: Make sure that search engine optimization and social media marketing are always being done for your blog. Ask SEO specialists to optimize the content using relevant keywords, and use social media networks like Facebook and Twitter to bring more visitors to your blog.

5. Discontinuing the blog due to poor reader response: During the initial stages, it is quite normal for a blog to have very few, or even no responses from readers. Do not let that dishearten you. Keep posting high quality content, along with carrying out proper SEO and SMM. Your visitor count should improve constantly that way.

Be sure to avoid the pitfalls mentioned above, when blogging for your business. And do not forget to check out the second part of this guide with five more pitfalls you need to cautiously avoid, coming in a fortnight.

How To Deter Visitors From Posting Vulgar Comments On Your Company’s Facebook Page

Team Pi — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:56:17 +0000

If you have a page on Facebook representing your company, then making sure that no offensive comments are posted there about your business should be one of your prime concerns. Indeed, nothing ruins the reputation of a company faster than derogatory comments posted on its FB page by a disgruntled customer. However, if you try to threaten your followers with dire consequences in case they wish to get vocal regarding their dissatisfaction about your products and services, then you may soon have no followers at all. How can you handle this situation in a diplomatic manner?

Here is one easy step for accomplishing that. Simply add a tab to the Facebook page with an easy-to-understand title like “Ground Rules”, “Read Me First”, or such. Add a list of guidelines that a visitor must adhere to when posting any comment on your FB page. Make the text of the tab as easy to read and comprehend as possible. Use plenty of subheads and bulleted lists to help readers browse through the information quickly. Highlight certain significant sections using color, or different formatting styles (bold, italic, etc.).

Once you have such a guideline page added to your company’s FB page, you can rest assured that comments posted in there will remain within tolerance levels. And if someone does get a little carried away, you can always delete the comment. Do send a mail to the person though, stating that the violation of guidelines was the reason for deletion of his (or her) comment.

A Quick Refresher On How To Get Started With Blogging

Team Pi — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:52:40 +0000

These days we constantly hear about new methods which are supposed to draw more traffic to our websites, personal or business. Today it seems that people are ‘really fast’ in writing things off once it doesn’t work for them quickly enough! Take the example of blogging, how many of us are confident that our every single post would draw quite an appreciable amount of traffic? Let’s face it, “we’re not sure”. As a result, we tend to run after new strategies, every now and then, and wouldn’t even hesitate to shell out a considerable sum to buy domains or pay another to host our blogs. However, the end result, in most cases, would still be ‘less-impressive’.

If someone said to you that there’s a secret recipe for successful blogging, be assured, it’s an over-rated statement. The reason why some blogs are exceedingly popular than the others and register enormous web-traffic do not depend on how attractive the theme looks or how appealing the pictures are. “It is what you share that matters.” But again, not everyone who blogs is an acclaimed writer! So, what about them? Well, it’s not the end of the world if you aren’t as good as Seth Godin! All that matters is “what you share” and “how you share” and whether your blog can ‘really’ live up to the expectations of your inquisitive readers.

So, before you start writing your post for the day, here’s a quick refresher on how to get started with blogging:

Focus on a Niche

Most popular blogs are concentrated on specific subjects, for instance technology, life skills, politics, online marketing, social media, fashion, and more. Select your niche. Pick a subject that you’re interested in. And you’ll find that it’s not that difficult to brainstorm for unique blogging ideas. The ideas would come to you naturally.

Know your Readers’ Pulse

If you’re looking to promote your company through blogging, your posts shouldn’t necessarily concentrate on the core areas of your business competencies. You should try to establish yourself as an expert in your business domain. Churn out meaningful posts; connect with your target audience by writing about industry-issues relevant to them. Your blog should serve as a ready source of information to industry-insiders, as well as offer advice and guidance to starters.

Reach Out

You shouldn’t only target people from ‘within’ your industry to read your blog. Reach out to as many people you can through your posts. Share ideas, discuss issues (relevant/ industry specific & general as well), offer advice and never forget replying to questions asked by your readers. You must make your blog subscribers realize ‘how special they are’. It is crucial to know what your target audience wants. Scan your previous posts. Identify, those older posts which registered the maximum number of feedbacks. Analyze popular posts and develop contents in sync with your most popular posts.

Why Performing Gray Hat SEO On Your Business Website May Be A Very Bad Idea

Team Pi — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:25:46 +0000

Are you familiar with the term Gray Hat SEO? Simply put, this refers to the act of performing search engine optimization on your website in a way that simply skirts the boundary between legitimate and illegitimate SEO tactics. If you are using these techniques, you are still in the safe zone. However, all of your actions may suddenly become illegal the next time Google decides to update its search engine guidelines.

Not quite getting it, are we? Well, the following example should help. Let us suppose you have a website selling liquor online. Obviously, you need to verify whether visitors are above 21 years of age, before you can let them access your website. Say, you use a pop up window to verify the age of any visitor. However, you do not want to let crawlers from Google to access the pop up, since it would restrict links from your website to be visible on search engine result pages. So, you manipulate the robots.txt to ensure that Google spiders can only crawl through the main page of the site, without having any access to the page with the pop ups.

The example given above is obviously not a clear example of white hat SEO, since it involves cloaking of a link in order to get more web traffic. On the other hand, it is not exactly black hat SEO either, since you do not have any malicious intent. Such are gray hat SEO tactics – which do not break any laws yet, but may very well do so at any given moment. You would do well to remain away from such tactics!