Posts Tagged ‘SEO’

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Website Usability and Accessibility for SEO – Top 10 Tips

Sunday, January 22nd, 2012

Search engine optimization (SEO), website accessibility and usability go hand in hand. Accessibility refers to making a website approachable for a wider range of users including those with special needs. Whereas, website usability refers to making a website easy to browse for an improved User Experience (UX) and, hence, to increase engagement and conversion. A website which is easily accessible and relevant for users or searchers is also going to be more accessible and relevant for search engines as well and, therefore, is good from an SEO perspective.

Here are top 10 tips to improve the accessibility and usability of websites which affect SEO.

  1. Purpose, Keywords Selection and Contents: Make the purpose of the website clear; carefully select the keywords and build quality contents around those keywords in order to deliver a consistent message.
  2. Load Time:  Web pages should be able to load quickly. It becomes even more important with the increasing use of mobile devices for browsing purposes.
  3. Enough Text: Though there is no limit of minimum and maximum text on the page. But, every page should have at least couple of paragraphs of unique quality content.
  4. Appropriate Front to Background Color Contrast: The same font and background colour can create problems for SEO and users (especially for those with special needs).
  5. Limit the use of Nested Tables, Flash and Javascript: These types of technology/ methods can create problems in terms of accessibility of the website for users and search engines. If excessive use of these technologies is a ‘must’, also offer a text-only version of the website.
  6. Navigation: Use clear and consistent Navigation; Descriptive and User Friendly URLs; Suitable internal linking; Avoid unnecessary deep pages.
  7. Meta Data and Image Alt Tags: Intelligently use Meta description  and other metadata necessary for smooth and meaningful indexing of the website; Image alt tags are important from optimization as well as user experience purpose.
  8. Search, Headings and Keyboard Short-cuts: ‘Search’ option should be given for the website and be prominently displayed. Headings: Headings and sub-headings should be clear and descriptive for visually impaired persons (and for search engines). Appropriate keyboard-friendly shortcuts should be given.
  9. Error Handling: Both users and search engines simply hate page not found error message.  A sitemap or any other appropriate page (e.g. search page) can be shown in case this error occurs.
  10. Fewer Steps: Avoid trying to get detailed user data by offering detailed sign-up forms.

These are just ten tips, there can be many more usability and accessibility issues. A true SEO Specialist takes all accessibility and usability issues into account when recommending ‘on-page’ changes. In other words, he helps to make the site equally valuable not only for search engines but for users, as well.

See also: Top 10 Benefits of SEO for Businesses ;  Top 10 Benefits of Social Media for Business ; SEO and Social Media Marketing Integration ;  SEO Specialist’s Website ; Is SEO Dead?

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Will SEO be Dead in 2012? Or, Is SEO Already Dead?

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

‘SEO is Dead’ or ‘SEO will be dead soon’ these are the most common statements I have been hearing since first adopting SEO as a hobby and later on as a profession. I hear these phrases at a greater frequency at the start of a new year – not to mention many times within the year as well.

Is SEO really dead? Well it’s not and it will never be as long as there is a need to search. It is almost impossible to find results without the help of an ‘engine’ from the huge amount of information available online.

It is important to understand what really SEO is, otherwise SEO will be dead after every major change in the online world. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is not Google optimization – though at the moment it is very much like this. Basically SEO is about optimizing your digital assets for any search engine. Therefore, even if Google is not the number one choice in the long run, there still will be search engines which consumers will have to use in order to dive through the huge amount of information available. SEO will only be dead, if one dares manually find all the sites!

Actually, the fact is that Google has matured so much over the last 15 years or so that it will not be easy to replace it totally. I can’t see Google going away for at least one more decade, if not longer. It is just unmatchable in speed, accuracy and relevancy when it comes to returning search results. It has huge database of web pages, secure data centers, very user friendly interface, support for variety of languages and geographical areas and is innovating all the time.  I feel pity for the people who try to compare Siri of iPhone with Google. Siri is just in the initial stages and is good in doing simple routine jobs. Not only just Siri, any tool which beats Google will have to go a long way.

Technology and online world is changing and every related field is evolving quite rapidly and SEO is no exception. It will evolve too – as it has evolved over the last fifteen years or so. To stay on top of technology and be successful in SEO world, one should take every change as opportunity. Obviously there are few basic elements which are and will always remain among the important elements of SEO such as quality and shareable contents, user-friendly web interface and understanding what people might type in to find you.

SEO is not dead. SEO has huge benefits for the businesses and is best ever pull marketing method. There are many skilful SEO specialists out there who can do magic with their knowledge and experience to bring huge ROI for the business. The only thing is to select the right knowledgeable SEO, otherwise SEO will very likely be dead for you!

See also: Top 10 Benefits of SEO for Businesses ;  Top 10 Benefits of Social Media for Business ; SEO and Social Media Marketing Integration ;  SEO Specialist’s Website

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Posted in Google, Internet Marketing, SEO | No Comments »

SEO and Social Media Marketing Integration

Friday, October 7th, 2011

Since Social Media advent, SEO specialists have used social media for various different tasks for example conducting keyword research,  incorporate it into  website for updates, getting links and improving rankings, direct traffic to the website and distributing the contents.

Clients often ask me ‘what is the best integration of SEO and social media marketing?’ In reply, I quote Google, “Focus on the user and all else will follow.” According to a recent research on social media done by myself, in which some of the world leading social media experts participated, it was found out that customer experience was in the heart of social media interactions from a business point of view. Customer experience results in enhanced loyalty and customer satisfaction. This enhanced customer experience is very helpful in building communities and engaging them in conversations about the brand. Even though word of mouth is often not under the direct control of companies, they may still impact it by improving customer experience and using communities.

How can customer experience be managed from SEO point of view:

 

While real-time problem solving and customer service are of prime importance for enhancing customer experience from Social Media point of view, the following are the main elements from SEO point of view:

  • Targeting only relevant keywords
  • User friendly website design (Clear navigation and contents layout, lighter page size, FAQs, Clear and smooth check-out process, cross-browser compatibility etc.)
  • Creating well-optimized quality contents frequently

This will, in turn, result into more traffic and more time on site with less bounce rate while giving valuable backlinks to the site.

Online reputation management

Sometimes unwanted things may happen for various reasons, which can badly hurt online reputation of the firms. It is, therefore, important to have a risk management plan ready to deal with such an unwanted situation. This is where integration of SEO and social media becomes so important.

A good reputation is extremely necessary for increasing sales, making joint ventures, improving customer experience and helping with the recruitment and retention of talent. So companies should have a risk management plan regarding that.

SEO, Social Media and Online Reputation

When companies ignore customer experience and make them upset by not providing them with what they have been promised, they may express their anger by writing negative reviews over social media channels about the firms which ultimately are shown on top of search results for the brand related keywords. In such cases it becomes increasingly important to repair the reputation.

Consumers trust Google organic results and they know that Google ranks the trusted and well-reputed websites on top of search results. Hence, a positive presences on the first page of Google greatly increases the positive perception and reputation of a brand.

SEO and Social Media marketing integration

As it is almost impossible to delete negative press, firms can push any negative press deeper in the ranking by having well-optimized contents on variety of social media and other online platforms which best represent the business. It is also important to respond proactively to any negative press using all the social media channels. SEO is not just about optimizing the main website, it is about optimizing all digital assets. By knowing the customers and their keywords, by SEOing website, blogs and other social presences for those keywords by frequently generating quality contents, companies can secure many top positions over search engines which can push negative comments down in the ranking and can help with online reputation and hence building trust. Thus, a proactive self-defence by developing social and other web presences in a search engine friendly manner through SEO is another top way of integrating SEO and Social Media marketing.

Long-term SEO and Social Media marketing Integration

The long term integration requires the use of social media carefully in a well-optimized manner to stay on top in ‘semantic web’. I will write a separate blogpost about it later on.

See also: Top 10 Benefits of SEO for Businesses ; Top 10 Benefits of Social Media for Business ; SEO Specialist’s Website ; What are SEO and SEO Specialist? ; Should Facebook Have a Dislike Button?

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How to Improve Your Online Reputation Management (ORM) – Reverse SEO

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

 

Online reputation management (ORM) is today very important to maintain for keeping customer, clients, business partners and workers happy.

Basically, online reputation management (ORM) or Reverse SEO, is the practice of consistent research and analysis of one’s personal or professional, business or industry reputation as represented by the content across all types of online media (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_reputation_management).

How to get positive reviews

With Google now showing results from social networking sites like twitter real time, it becomes even more important to keep a strong check over online reputation management as comments are available in Google search results.

To find out your online reputation and where your brand stands, you just have to search your brand name in Google. Aim to provide top quality services to your clients or customers and keep the employees satisfied so that you receive more of positive reviews.

It is possible that your brand and company not only receive positive reviews but also negative reviews. If you have couple of pages with negative reviews about your business, give it immediate attention.

Tips to improve your online reputation

  1. First, you have to set Google Alerts for your Company/Brand name to know what people are saying about you. Besides Google Alerts, there are other tools which you can use for online reputation management like. MonitorThis.com, Trackur & RapLeaf.com .
  2. You can also use the help of RSS feeds for online reputation management.
  3. Online reputation management is not limited to Google and traditional searches. There are many other online medium options you can use like Youtube searches, Blog search engines, News search engines etc.
  4. Moreover, as search engines treat sub-domains as separate domain names, you can have a sub-domain for your company/brand to get more top rankings in search results.
  5. Try using social media sites for online reputation management.
  6. Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr and Myspace are excellent sites to get your company/brand to top position. Just make sure that you use your company name as username or ID for your profiles that you make your profiles public, and then keep on updating these accounts regularly.
  7. Make it a point to link your site, blog or other profiles to these profiles so that search engines give them more weight and thus make the your company/brand appear on top of search results.
  8. Press releases are also helpful for online reputation management. For better results, use your company name in the Title of the PRs and distribute them to sites using some good PR distribution service e.g. PRWeb, 1888PressRelease & PRLog etc.
  9. Create a company profile on leading ezines and frequently publish a few articles about your company/brand in top article directories. As these directories are authoritative, any profile created on these sites help to get top rankings to your company/brand.
  10. Pay per click ads also work fine if you bid against your own brand name. These ads are shown on top of search results and will also help move any bad review about your company/brand to a lower page ranking.

Always be nice to people

Negative reviews can come from unhappy customer or clients through forums and blog posts. Your competitor may also write negative reviews about your services or products on leading Review sites that appear in top search results. The best thing to do to counteract these negative reviews is to answer all these objections through your blog.

Besides using all these tips for creating a good online reputation, be careful in your online interactions and be nice to people. Thus there is no possibility of your getting bad reviews.

See also: Top 10 Benefits of SEO for Businesses ;  SEO and Social Media Marketing Integration ; What is an SEO Specialist ; Should Facebook Have a Dislike Button?

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Posted in Branding, Internet Marketing, Reputation Management, SEO | 1 Comment »

Article Marketing

Friday, June 6th, 2008

What can online article marketing really do for you? It not only has the ability to get enough targeted traffic to your website but it will help you to build your brand. At the end of the day, it is all about product or service visibility and brand awareness. Only when your product or service has the required visibility, will it transform into a brand and bring in the moolah!

Article marketing is considered to be one of the most promising aspects of online marketing as well as SEO. There are several vehicles of online brand awareness but none of them are as cost effective as well as more powerful than article marketing.

Article marketing can be defined as a branch of advertising where businesses find keywords and use them in short articles that are related to the services or products offered by them or their industry on the whole. Once the articles have been written, they are made available for distribution as well as publication in the online marketplace.

Benefits of Article Marketing

Article marketing definitely has its own set of benefits especially for a start-up or small business. Some of the benefits that you can derive include:

1. Credibility: This is the first and foremost. If your business doesn’t get the required credibility then that will be the end. What article marketing can do is help increase your credibility. For eg: If you have a blog or a website that presents information regarding loans then you can always use numbers and statistics within your articles and yes the topic should have some credibility too. The more factual, relevant and to the point your article is, the higher will be your credibility.

2. Link popularity: This is one of the important aspects of search engines optimization and goes a long way to drive targeted traffic to your website. Providing links of your website as well as other websites related to the same industry will attract more clicks to your website as well as the article submission directories. For example: If you post your article on www.ezine.com with the link of your business and if your article is of high standard then you can expect a high rate of visitors to your website.

3. Search Engine Ranking: Sprinkling your articles with the highly rated keywords and adding a resource box at the end with your link or URL will ensure that internet user click on the links. The higher the number of clicks, the faster you will climb up the PageRank of some of the top search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc.

There are no immediate drawbacks of article marketing except the fact that if your article is not of high standard then you might not be able to get as many visitors. Secondly if you donot submit your article in the top directories that have high PageRank then it will be a lost cause. The crux of the matter is that article marketing is the cheapest way to get noticed and can boost your overall internet visibility as well as Page Rank.

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