Tactics To Promote a Website

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Is Facebook Offers Worth It?

Okay! I must say there is a feather added in Facebook Business Page’s feature and that’s “Facebook Offers”. Now your business can offer discounts to your customers using Facebook Offers. Your customers who have joined your brand’s page on Facebook can claim this feature by clicking ‘Get Offer’ from the story they see it on Facebook.

Once your customers or fans click ‘Get Offer’ Facebook will send them an email that they can print off or show on their mobile phone at the store to redeem the discount.

Well, you might be wondering what’s so good about it? In the past, you were able to offer discounts through status updates, landing pages or advertisements and it wasn’t so easy to reach individual’s inbox through Facebook (As Facebook Page doesn’t allows you to access to the email address and other private information of your fans).

Facebook Offers will help your customers claim for the offer you have put on showcase and this indeed helps you reach your customers to their inbox at the same time it also gives an option to your customers to share the offer with their friends.

A survey conducted by Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and Lithium amongst 120 CMOs and 1300 customers concluded 67% of consumers connect with brands on Facebook to avail offers. The good news is the survey also shows 79% consumers will continue to look forward for Offers and Discounts from Facebook pages in year 2012. I believe Facebook offers will help consumers claim offers easily and also help brand save some penny on creating coupons or offers related application

Facebook Offers are free for Facebook page admins to create and share but are only available to a small number of local business Pages at this point of time. Facebook offers are completely free and to increase the visibility of the offer you can consider an ad or sponsored story.

Here is some help that you can avail from Facebook to understand how to design a Facebook Offer:https://www.facebook.com/help/offers

64 Tips for Marketing on Pinterest: Infographic

Pinterest a very popular social networking tool these days is a apt marketing tool for many businesses world wide. Pinterest has been widely used by designers, cooks, interior decorators, travel agents etc and helped them visually treat their customers or prospects by showcasing some awesome photographs.

Pinterest completely abides by the thought “a picture speaks more than thousand words”. In the last 6 months Pinterest is the most talked about social media tool for marketing on web. It has helped ecosystem to experiment, play and use different images to engage audience, increase sales and also increase the website traffic to the landing pages for capturing leads or increasing purchase.

Some words that are actively popular on Pinterest are:

How to Perform Marketing on Pinterest?

Here are 64 tips that can help you effectively perform marketing practice on Pinterest:

Source: Maria Peagler: Social Media Online Classes

Is your brand Pinterest ready? Share your views in the comment section below. Pinterest is a must for ecommerce brands that are selling a lot of attractive stuffs!

Happy pinning!

Monday, May 28, 2012

Google Maps Highlights Google Local Recommendations

Google has added highlighting for businesses in Google Maps that ties recommendations made by users through their Google account to others the company thinks match their reviewed locations.

"Starting today, business labels for locations you've rated with Google Places will be highlighted on the map with your corresponding rating beneath it. Additional places that our system thinks you might enjoy visiting -- either to eat, shop, or more -- will be highlighted as well. These personalized recommendations are based on the places and ratings you've already shared," according to Google LatLong.

This move is clever. It reinforces interaction with Google's reviews, further distancing users from review sites like Yelp.

ReadWriteWeb sees the move as Google trying to dominate local marketing:

"These new features push forward Google's efforts to be a one-stop-shop for mobile, location-based searches. From finding the restaurant to walking in the door, Google is building applications to compel smartphone users to use Google and only Google to find, shop and eat at local businesses."

Yelp recently testified at the Senate hearings investigating Google's possible threat to competition. Yelp founder stated he would not start the company right now as there is no longer a "level playing field." You have to wonder what he's saying about this latest feature.

There could be an argument made that Google is slowly moving to a "closed community" like Facebook. Many people have Google as their default home page and the more they add to their products - accessible now from the new black navigation bar - the more people won't need to go elsewhere.

The new game is going to be working out the algorithm used to select the suggestions Google adds from people's reviews. When the reviews from Zagat's - the recent acquisition by Google - will be rolled into the Maps is another question people will be waiting to see answered.

Improve Your Organic Rankings With Google Places, Part 3

One question you might well be asking yourself after reading Part 1 and Part 2 of this series on how to use Google Places to enhance your organic results is: how long does it take for the organic effects of creating a Google Places page to be realized?

The answer here seems to vary. A Places page isn't a silver bullet. It may have an affect, but still not push you to the first page.

The shortest amount of time it appears to take is about two weeks. I've seen it take as long as a couple months, however, which may be more a factor of the rest of the search engine optimization (SEO) process weighing in and pushing the site up than for the Places page to be carrying weight.

How Much Weight Does A Places Page Have?

Unfortunately there is no answer to this question (and no, that's not a cop-out). As with all factors (or as Google likes to call them: signals), it's about balance.

Even if there was a specific percentage I could give you, there's a good chance that percentage would change in the time between the writing of and publishing of this article, as a fluctuation in any signal is going to change all the other weights as well.

Those in an incredibly competitive sector may see virtually no affect from adding Google Places. By the same token, you'd see very little affect from the building of one solid link -- but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be link building.

Those in less competitive sectors could see their site catapult from outside the top 50 right into the top 5 with the help of Google Places.

Let's go through some more tips and results, based on our own tests and implementations, as well as experiences others have shared with us.

Image Optimization

Selecting the right images to include in your Places page can have an impact on your clickthrough rates (CTRs). Most of us have noticed that when Places results are blended into the organic results, they include an image. This image is drawn from one of two sources:

The Places page
A third party site (e.g., one that reviewed your business)

Placing your own images on your Places page and testing them can give you control over which image appears in the organic results, thus improving your CTR.

We played around with the images for one of our clients. This was an ideal test because their listing had a fairly generic image pulled from a review site.

The week before the image appeared in the Places-inclusive organic rankings, there were no significant changes in rankings; in the week following, the site received 24 percent more visitors. This included double-digit increases in traffic from phrases with a number one ranking.

This carried over into subsequent weeks, although as the dates get further apart the credit gets skewed with likely more factors at play. So, to be on the safe side, let's just say they received a 24 percent boost in organic Google traffic for phrases where the Places results were blended. Definitely worth the 30 to 40 minutes of time invested in testing a few images.

Adding Reviews

There's been a clear connection between reviews and rankings, though it's clearly not purely a numbers game.

Out of the gate, Google neither seemed to have a strong handle on detecting spam tactics in reviews, nor did they properly consider good versus bad reviews, but they've gained ground lately. It appears that many of the lessons they learned in the manipulation of links have been applied to reviews and that Google is quickly learning to adapt to those pesky SEOs once again.

Unfortunately, we don't have any consistent statistics or concrete tests run on the very important area of reviews. However, we have learned a few things.

One useful strategy is to run an analysis on the top competitors in an industry when determining where to recommend getting reviews. Look at the distribution of sites the reviews are being drawn from and the distribution of ratings, then seek strategies to mimic that environment.

Also, try to come up with strategies that encourage your clients to review your site. Send an email asking them to contact you if they've had any problems or review you at [insert your URL here” if they've had a good experience.

Don't send it to just the people who will give you five stars. If a bad review does appear, though, you'll definitely want to direct more of your positive clients to that location for reputation management reasons.

Location, Location, Location

The majority of my Places advice is based on one core principle: that you are geographically located in the area you want to rank. More than a couple times, however, a client has targeted terms in a large city, only to discover that Google has determined the area of that city and decided the client is outside of that area.

Let's use the example of a lawyer in Los Angeles. If that lawyer is geographically located on Santa Monica Boulevard, they won't get the benefits of Google Places because Google has decided that area won't be included in where they pull Places results from when blended with the organic rankings.

One thing we have tested, though never implemented on a client site, is the use of a UPS P.O. Box (which lists as "Suite" not "P.O Box") to register for two or more locations. At this time the strategy seems to work and in the case we tested it on -- the company had the UPS location listed as their address and appeared on the map and received the bump in organic results we had expected -- all within three weeks from the time of confirming the location.

This specific strategy is a bit risky, but worth noting. Ethically I don't have a problem with it from a fairness perspective if used correctly. If your company is in a city but Google has chosen not to select that area of the map then an argument can be made that you are being put at a disadvantage for no legitimate reason.

The problem is that this strategy could be subject to abuse (why not register in many cities?) and if I were Google, I'd request from UPS all their locations to filter out of the Places results. Should they do this, you have to wonder what would happen to your legitimate Places page. I prefer to play it safe and go for the long-term rankings, but promised to note info on the tests we've run and this is one of them -- albeit crossing into the gray zone of SEO.

Conclusion

The data gathered thus far is of a Google service and ranking factor in its youth. Google is adjusting and testing new ways to weight and utilize Google Places in their results and I can't recommend enough -- don't just build it and leave it. Like everything with SEO -- watch what the ranking sites are doing, ask yourself why this is working, what Google is trying to glean from their attributes, and seek to mimic the signals they're sending to Google.

Improve Your Organic Rankings With Google Places, Part 2

In last month's Google Places article we discussed the basics of setting up a Google Places page and the benefits of doing so on your organic results.

Today we'll discuss ways to optimize your Places page to maximize its effectiveness and further improve your rankings.

It's All About Signals

We all know that Google's rankings are determined by algorithms. These are mathematical formulas used to rank sites based on a specific set of criteria; the criteria and their weights being determined by humans.

When these humans sit down and try to figure out what should be used to rank sites, they have to rely on signals from the outside world -- signals they believe indicate quality and relevance. Signals like link popularity, anchor text, content, semantics, etc.

So what we need to do is try to figure out what those signals are and make sure we send them. When it comes to localized search, there are few (if any) signals stronger than a well-optimized Google Places page.

So how do you optimize your Places pages to improve our rankings organically on Google? Filling in all of the information is step one, but let's go through these areas step-by-step to better understand how to enter/edit the information for your page and send the right signals.

Basic Information

Fill this in completely, including e-mail address, website, description, and categories.

Make sure to include your keywords in your description but don't stuff them. Like your meta description tag, you want readability and relevancy. If your keywords are relevant, you shouldn't have any trouble fitting them in.

So far you've told Google where you are, who you are, tied that information to your website, given them a description to display and to draw relevancy and keywords from, and then told them what categories of search phrases you're related to. That's a lot of information you've managed to tie to your website and that's just the beginning.

Service Areas and Location Settings

You can either select that customers need to come to you or that you will go to them. If you select the latter option, you'll be asked for a radius from your place of business, or specific regions that you will service.

While I haven't seen issues caused by adding this information, one can conceivably think of a time when Google might omit a site for a phrase like "emergency plumber subburb wa" if the searcher was in a region that wasn't included in the serviced areas. That may sound fine, because you don't service the area anyway, so you won't lose business.

However, entering this service area information could be a negative if you hit a period where business is slow and you're willing to extend your reach a little. That said, make sure to adjust your Places Page when this happens and you'll always do well.

Hours of Operations

Fill in this information so people know when to contact you. Again, the more information you give Google and your customers/visitors, the better.

One potential trouble area is if you're working longer hours than normal due to business situations (e.g., holiday season, peak time of year for your business), and you don't keep your hours of operations updated. In this case, your site won't show in Google's results because it's based on your regular hours of operation -- even though, in actuality, you're working longer hours.

Payment Options

While not necessary, you should add this information for the same reason I recommend all information where applicable -- the more you give Google, the more they can assume you'll give your visitors on your site.

Photos

Adding photos further reinforces that you offer a variety of resources and that you take your Google Places listing seriously. While this message is important -- even more important is that adding your own photos allows you to control how your SERP appears for blended results.

Also, as discussed in Part 1, photos can have a tremendous impact on clickthroughs. Improving your click through rate (CTR) is a clear signal to Google that your site is relevant.

So add photos, test your CTRs when specific photos are displayed in your blended organic results, and adjust accordingly. This will help your CTR and make your Places page more compelling.

Videos

I haven't seen much in the way of direct organic benefits from videos in Google Places listings yet.

However, it's no secret that YouTube is featured prominently in Google's SERPs and Google loves sites that send a lot of traffic to their various properties. Tying together your business and a YouTube page for your business, assuming you have enough views/impressions, should help your organic rankings overall.

Additional Details

If you want to rank for branded local terms or if you would like to include details that haven't already been entered and are relevant to your business (e.g., free parking or fully accessible), this is where to enter these details.

Because there isn't a solid set of data Google is collecting and because this area is easily abused (you can put almost anything there) I believe it has low weight and I haven't seen a huge impact on results. However as Google Places ages this section will likely be used by Google to determine what other types of information they should be collecting.

This information may also impact results without producing a blended Places SERP listing. Just because the results aren't blended with Places data doesn't mean that information wasn't drawn from Google Places to help form those results.

On Your Site

Having a well-optimized Google Places page is one thing, but what it's linking to is equally important. If your site doesn't hold visitors or if it's not deemed relevant to the query in question -- it's still not going to rank.

Let's use an extreme example. If I optimize my Places page for "victoria bc restaurant," my site still won't rank for "victoria bc restaurant" because the site itself is related to search engine optimization (SEO).

More Work

So I've got more work for you now. Here we've gotten into how to optimize the Places page. In the next article we're going to have the results of some specific tests we're running and additional hints.

Before then, you need to get your optimization completed. To get started, read the other great articles here on Search Engine Watch to familiarize yourself with SEO and link building strategies so your efforts will reap the maximum rewards.

Improve Your Organic Rankings With Google Places, Part 1

Most of us remember that chaotic day last October when map-based results stopped being just an alternative search function at Google and started impacting the organic results directly. For the first time we witnessed in the live results Google Places integration right into the organic listings and the impact of Google Places pages on those SERPs.

Google tells us that more than 20 percent of search queries have a regional specifier included in them (e.g., "lawyer seattle wa"). This means that this change is affecting a large number of queries.

In some cases we're still seeing the old onebox result with all the Places results showing together and 10 organic results appearing below, but in many if not most cases we're seeing a blending of the results with the map appearing to the right with the AdWords listings and Places information being included in the organic results right below the classic description.

We'll begin this series on how to improve your organic rankings with Google Places by discussing the basics of a Places listing, how to set one up properly, and some of the principles behind why this is important.

Getting A Places Page

To set up a Places page:

Sign up for Google Places.
Verify your listing (via SMS, e-mail, or postcard).
Enter all the easy to add information you can about your company (address, hours, payment methods accepted, etc.). There will be time to add more details later.

Now that you have a Google Places page it's time to spruce it up for two audiences.

Optimizing the Places Page for Google

The primary reason we're doing this is to enhance our organic rankings (at least in relation to the purpose of this article). If I have to give one underlying philosophy to follow when seeking Google rankings, it's "drink the Kool-Aid."

Google needs data. They feed on it. The more you give them, the more they can reward you.

It's not a case of them forcing webmasters to use their services per se, but if you add pictures, videos and more details to your Google Places page they can assume that:

You're a real business willing to invest time into getting your message out.
You have a lot of resources to apply to your site.

One might even go so far as to believe that Google can assume that if you're willing to put a lot of resources onto your Google Places page that you likely have a lot of resources on your website.

And what does Google want to give their searchers? Information, answers, and solutions.

Send the right signals and you'll get the right results.

Optimizing the Places Page for Your Visitors

So often we forget that when we're talking about search engine optimization (SEO) we're not really talking about rankings at all. What we're talking about are visitors. I'm an SEO myself, and if I discovered that I'd get more traffic on page five than page one, I'd be working hard to drop in the results rather than writing this article.

Higher rankings result in visitors to be sure, but there are numerous ways to influence and impact your click-through rate once you're ranking. One of the easiest is by enhancing your Google Places page.

For those of you paying attention to your Google Places listings, when you run a search you get the Google Places page below the description. Accompanying the Places page is generally an image. This image can either be drawn from pages referencing the company (e.g., review sites) oryou can take control of your own environment and add your own images.

Generally (though not always) these images will be the ones used to complement the listing. These images, properly selected, can be used to draw the eye.

Please note: images with big red "buy now" text are not a good reflection of your site and, I dare say, won't positively be reflected in your traffic.

That said, I have a client running a food tour service and we've selected some of the best images of the restaurants, cafes, and stores he visits in his tours. It makes me salivate when I look at the photos we've chosen and it appears to have had the same affect on the searchers as his traffic has improved.

Like your description tag, don't leave it up to chance how you'll be presented. Select photos that will appeal and draw the eye just as you'd write captivating description tag copy to make sure your description in the SERPs is a positive and controlled marketing message.