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Tuesday 7 January 2014

How to Design & Develop SEO Friendly Website?

Basics of SEO Friendly Website Development

Search engines have limitation in how they crawl the web and interpret content. A webpage is always seen in a different way by search engines and by us. 

Here we are about to discuss some important technical and architectural aspects of websites, which should be taken care while developing a new website.

Quality Content

Content always plays a major role for any website success. This is one of the most important area which should be carefully planned. 

Secondly we should make the content easily index-able by search engines, by placing it in proper HTML code. 

In order to be listed in the search engines, your most important content should be in HTML text format. Images, Flash files, Java applets, and other non-text content are often ignored or devalued by search engine spiders, despite advances in crawling technology. The easiest way to ensure that the words and phrases you display to your visitors are visible to search engines is to place it in the HTML text on the page.


Link Structure

All the search engines crawlers look for a structure which is easy to understand and crawl. Just as search engines need to see content in order to list pages in their massive keyword-based indices, they also need to see links in order to find the content. A crawlable link structure - one that lets their spiders browse the pathways of a website - is vital in order to find all of the pages on a website. Hundreds of thousands of sites make the critical mistake of structuring their navigation in ways that search engines cannot access, thus impacting their ability to get pages listed in the search engines' indices.

Some common issues why web pages are not reachable for search engine crawlers

  1. Submission required forms - Search engines crawlers can not access any page where any sort of access permission is required.
  2. URL's displayed through Java Script - Search engine crawlers either don't crawl java script based URL's or they provide very less importance to those links. All the links present on website should be in HTML.
  3. Links in Java, Flash or other plug-ins 
  4. Links pointing to pages which are blocked by robots.txt or meta robots
  5. Links on pages with hundreds of links
  6. Links through frames or i-frames 
If above hurdles are taken care at the time of developing a new website, we can easily assure that our URL's, web pages or content will be crawled. 

Keywords Usage & Targeting 

Keywords are fundamental to the search process - they are the building blocks of language and of search. In fact, the entire science of information retrieval (including web-based search engines like Google) is based on keywords. As the engines crawl and index the contents of pages around the web, they keep track of those pages in keyword-based indices. Thus, rather than storing 25 billion web pages all in one database, the engines have millions and millions of smaller databases, each centered on a particular keyword term or phrase. This makes it much faster for the engines to retrieve the data they need in a mere fraction of a second.

So if you want to rank for any particular term, you will have to make sure that keyword is included in your content, title, description, alt tags, headings, title attribute and other on page factors.

On-Page Optimization

Keyword usage and targeting are still a part of the search engines' ranking algorithms, and we can leverage some effective "best practices" for keyword usage to help create pages that are close to "optimized." Here at Moz, we engage in a lot of testing and get to see a huge number of search results and shifts based on keyword usage tactics

As per SEO MOZ there are some standard practices which should be followed for on-page SEO 

  • Use the keyword in the title tag at least once. Try to keep the keyword as close to the beginning of the title tag as possible. More detail on title tags follows later in this section.
  • Once prominently near the top of the page.
  • At least 2-3 times, including variations, in the body copy on the page - sometimes a few more if there's a lot of text content. You may find additional value in using the keyword or variations more than this, but in our experience, adding more instances of a term or phrase tends to have little to no impact on rankings.
  • At least once in the alt attribute of an image on the page. This not only helps with web search, but also image search, which can occasionally bring valuable traffic.
  • Once in the URL. Additional rules for URLs and keywords are discussed later on in this section.
  • At least once in the meta description tag. Note that the meta description tag does NOT get used by the engines for rankings, but rather helps to attract clicks by searchers from the results page, as it is the "snippet" of text used by the search engines.
  • Generally not in link anchor text on the page itself that points to other pages on your site or different domains (this is a bit complex - see this blog post for details).

Rich Snippets 

Ever see a 5 star rating in a search result? Chances are, the search engine received that information from rich snippets embedded on the webpage. Rich snippets are a type of structured data that allow webmasters to mark up content in ways that provide information to the search engines.

While the use of rich snippets and structured data is not a required element of search engine friendly design, its growing adoption means that webmasters who take advantage may enjoy an advantage in some circumstances.

Structured data means adding markup to your content so that search engines can easily identify what type of content it is. Schema.org provides several types of examples of data that can benefit from structured markup. These include people, products, reviews, businesses, recipes and events.

Often the search engines include structured data in search results, such as in the case of user reviews (stars) and author profiles (pictures.) There are several good resources for learning more about rich snippets online, including information at Schema.org and Google's Rich Snippet Testing Tool

Source of Information : http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/basics-of-search-engine-friendly-design-and-development 





Wednesday 18 December 2013

B2B Content Marketing Strategy for 2014

How to plan for B2B Content Marketing in 2014?


Content marketing continues to dominate as a core component of a successful B2B marketing strategy – and we've got the facts to prove it. Get your flabbergasted face on, it’s time for some seriously surprising stats and facts about B2B content marketing!

Note: Most of this data is taken from the Content Marketing Institute’s B2B 2014 Report. Exceptions to this are marked.  

Fact #1: 93% of B2B marketers use content marketing. Yep – almost all of them.

Fact #2: 42% of B2B marketers say they are effective at content marketing. (Only 36% felt this way last year. Way to go, that’s a big improvement!)

B2B Content MarketingFact #3: 44% of B2B marketers have a documented content strategy (the question is – do you?).

Fact #4: B2B marketers who have a documented content strategy are much more likely to consider themselves effective (66% vs. 11%).

Fact #5: 48% of small B2B organizations (10-99 employees) have a documented content strategy, compared with only 41% of larger organizations (1,000+ employees). That’s a huge score for the little guy!

Fact #6: 73% of B2B organizations have a person in place to oversee their content marketing strategy. (And again, it’s 78% of smaller organizations that have a person overseeing content marketing strategy, as opposed to only 58% of larger companies).

Fact #7: 73% of B2B content marketers are producing more content than they did one year ago.

Fact #8: B2B companies that blog produce 67% more leads than those that don't (Ragan).

Fact #9: Nearly 80% of chief marketing officers think custom content is the future of marketing (Ragan).

Fact #10: B2B marketers use an average of 13 content marketing tactics, and have largely become more confident using these tactics. What do top tier B2B marketers consider the most valuable weapon in their arsenal? 79% said that blogs were their most effective tactic, with in-person events coming in next at 76%.

Top 20 B2B marketing tactics include (in order of popularity):

1. Social Media (other than blogs)
2. Articles on Your Website
3. Newsletters
4. Blogs
5. In-person Events
6. Case Studies
7. Videos
8. Articles on Other Websites
9. White Papers
10. Webinars/Webcasts
11. Research Reports
12. Infographics
13. Microsites
14. Branded Content Tools
15. Mobile Content
16. Print Magazines
17. eBooks
18. Books
19. Podcasts
20. Mobile Apps

Fact #11: Infographics have seen a huge increase in usage, growing from 38% of B2B marketers using them last year to 51% this year!

Fact #12: While it’s no shock that B2B marketers are using more social media than ever before, you may be surprised to find that of B2B marketers:
  • 55% are using Google+
  • 40% are using Slide Share
  • 91% are using LinkedIn
  • 73% use YouTube
  • 22% use Instagram
Fact #13: Nearly half of smaller companies consider Slide Share to be an effective tool, whereas larger companies are less excited (50% vs. 38%)

Fact #14: 82% of B2B marketers consider brand awareness to be their top goal (next up is lead generation at 74%).

Fact #15: 58% of B2B marketers plan on increasing their content marketing budget over the next 12 months.

Fact #16: What are the major challenges for B2B content marketers? 69% cite lack of time, which has been a common hurdle in years past.

Fact #17: 30% of B2B marketing budgets are allocated to content marketing.

Wednesday 4 December 2013

Top 8 Blogger Widgets You Should Be Looking for

Top 8 Blogger Widgets to Add on Your Blog Spot

Blogger is one of the easiest and best way to start blogging. It's the simplest way to start blogging with most flexible and robust blogging environment. There are thousands of widgets and plugins are available for blogger blogs. Which are very easy to add and manage in your blog.

Facebook Likebox

Facebook is one of the best social media platform to market you services, products or your content. It's one of the most liked social media platform to market and expend your business. It is the most popular blogger widget. It helps in increasing your facebook fans by connecting your blog with a Facebook fan page.


Share Buttons

Share buttons are the most essential part of any blog or website. They helps in increasing your blog’s traffic by spreading your voice over the internet. If you want to increase your blog’s traffic and popularity then your must add these share buttons to your blog. There are various types of share buttons are available for blogger like floating share buttons, share buttons below post titles, share buttons below posts and animated share buttons for blogger. 

 

Navigation Menu

A proper navigation of any website or blog plays an important role in high search engine visibility. A good navigation menu also helps in attracting visitors towards your blog. It will also help your blog visitors to easily navigate though your blog posts.


Subscription Box

Subscription box helps in increasing subscribers for your blog.  It contains the subscription links for all your important social media networks like Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Google plus. Your blog visitors can easily become your fans or followers on any of your social network in a single click with the help of this widget.


Social Media Icons

Social media icons widget performs similar task of a subscription widget. It also helps in increasing your social network followers. 

Social Media Follow Button 

This button helps in increasing social media followers. All the blog readers can follow you on social media  pages by a single click. 


Google Plus Followers

This widget helps in increasing your Google plus followers. You can read post on Adding custom Google plus followers widget in blogger.


Related Post Widgets 

It displays related posts along with the thumbnails.




Monday 25 November 2013

SEO for 2014 : Get Used to Structured Data Markup

How Structured Data Markup Will Play a Role  in 2014 SEO Strategy

Google has changed it's method of displaying results in last couple of updates, whether it's been Humming Bird update or Knowledge Graph. 

Humming is completely related to kind of queries which user can speak or think and Knowledge Graph is all about displaying most relevant complete information about the search query.

To start with Google was always focused on matching search queries with the content present on respective webpage, article, news or any other medium. Based on relevancy and match, it used to provide ranking for different websites. 

Semantic Markup


Now Google's has become more and more smart by shifting it's focus from just content relevancy to semantic markup or structured data markup. SEO experts started implementing this technique from 2012 onward and saw a jump in their clicks and conversions as user prefer to see more and more information about the products or services being offered by the providers.  

In 2014, Structured Data Markup will be an essential part of all the SEO Strategies being planned.  Google has also included different tools for structured data markup in Google webmaster tool

  1. Structured Data Testing Tool
  2. Structured Data Markup Helper
Here are few common questions which are being asked by all the website owners before going with Structured Data Markup:

Does Structured Markup Data Help in Improving Ranking?

Well for this query answer is "it may or it may not". As per the some online trends or audits it is clear that having structured data does not really guarantee for top ranking but it definitely works well for increasing clicks and conversions. 

Structured Data Markup helps users to take actions, as almost every information which they are looking for will be present in-front of them.

For example: 

If searched for "Chocolate Cake Recipe" we get 

 

Here Structured Data Markup is implemented for Addapinch.com but not implemented for BBC.co.uk which is ranking higher. As user see more information on Addapinch.com like ratings and reviews by other users, there will be more click and consideration for that link.

Does Structured Data Markup Increases User Consideration?

Since there are additional information provided with the product like product image, ratings, reviews, offers, author name and etc, users will be more interested to know about that. 

User always trust on ratings and reviews provided by other users based on their experience as it helps them in considering the product. 

Is Structured Data Markup Next Big Thing in SEO?

Well up to a certain level yes, structured markup data is being considered by most of the search engines to provide ranking as it is one of the easiest way to provide more and more information to users. 

Google has already made great progress in improving the ordered list format from one based on just keyword matches to one that accounts for diversity of opinion and sentiment, freshness, personalization, localization and other factors.

Structured data is used basically to provide all the information to users without doing many clicks to get the right and desired information. Google’s knowledge graph, instant answers, and Google Now are great examples of the future of the searching experience.With these technologies, relevant information is available based on the implicit (behaviorally- or environmentally-based) or explicit (a typed or voice search) query.

By using structured markup, you can help the search engines better understand how your content provides a solution to a query now and as it evolves in the future.

Will I be Benefited By Using Structured Data Markup?

Yes, you will be. Recent market trends and reports shows that user clicks on those links where every information is present upfront and other users have given some reviews about product. 

It is clearly experienced by many website owners that after implementing Structured Data Markup, their click through rate has significantly increased.


Is Structured Data markup Enough to Get More Clicks and Conversions?

No, it is not enough to have Structured Data Markup only and get higher ranking along with increased clicks and conversions. You need to do proper On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO for your website to get higher search engine rankings. Also you will have to be actively present on Social Media Platforms to reach to your targeted audience.









Thursday 21 November 2013

Top 7 Effective Social Media Platforms for Online Business

Which are the best Social Media Platform for an online business or new start-up?

If you have a website or planning to start a new business/website online, then Social Media is one platform which can not be ignored at all. Social Media is the easiest way to reach out your targeted audience, perfect platform to communicate with users online, product or service promotion to increase brand awareness and revenue for your business.

Top Social Media Channels
Social Media Marketing for Business
Social Media has become an essential part of online marketing for every business online, but there are few doubts which bother every webmaster
  • On what channel exactly your targeted audience is present?
  • Which channel will work best for you?
  •  How should you start on different channel?
  • How can you best utilize the channels?
  • Which of your competitor is present on that channel?
Now after solving all these queries, we need to know the step by step process of bringing business on a Social Media platform and get success.

Below is a step-by-step guide to establishing business accounts on the top eight social networks. 

Facebook

One of the best social media channel present online. Millions of users are present on facebook and many big brands or small business are using this channel to reach their targeted audience.

  • Create a Facebook page for your business.
  • Claim a username for your page so customers can easily find you at Facebook.com/YourBusiness instead of Facebook.com/pages/you/123456. (Note: Once set, your username cannot be changed — so pick wisely!)
  • Upload a profile image that will still be “readable” in a tiny thumbnail form around the site. Logos or brand stamps work well and allow users to easily identify your content throughout the site.
  • Upload a cover image that expands beyond a logo to visually represent your brand. This is the largest piece of real estate you will own on the site and your best opportunity to establish a tone for the profile.
  • Ensure all applicable contact and “About” information is completed on the profile, and ensure that the most applicable “Category” is chosen.
  • Use your page’s “Short Description” (Settings > Page Info > Short Description) to display your tagline or a one-sentence summary of why your business is great. This description can be automatically displayed when other people share the link to your page, so make sure it’s a good description.
  • Authorize page administrators at appropriate access levels so multiple people can contribute content to the page.
  • If appropriate, upload historical “milestones” for your company, industry or products by backdating posts. Prevent these posts from flooding the news feed of any existing followers by checking the “Hide from news feed” option.
  • Start interacting with your audience. Post some relevant content. 
  • Always replay back to query.
  • Give some offer or discount to attract more users.
  • Always remember that you should not try to sell your services or products, try and tell the benefits and advantages to your users.

Twitter

Another very popular and effective social media channel to promote your business online. 

  • Create a Twitter account. (There’s no distinction between personal and business accounts here.)
  • Claim a username for the account, which will also become part of your profile URL (twitter.com/username).
  • Upload a profile image, header image, and background, ideally all with coordinating color schemes and messaging. Remember that your profile image will display sitewide in a tiny thumbnail, so it should be visually concise.
  • Include your website URL in your profile content for easy access.
  • Familiarize yourself with Twitter 101 (made by Twitter specifically for businesses!) to learn more about hashtags, @ replies and other network best practices.

Google Plus

Google also has joined the social media platform by introducing Google+. Now Google gives more preference to the links which are shared on Google+. Also Google authorship plays an important role in search engine ranking.

  • Visit google.com/+/business/ and click “Create a Google+ page” in the top-right corner.
  • Sign in with a Google account that you control, and choose the category that best describes your business.
  • List your business’s name and website, and confirm whether your content is appropriate for all age groups.
  • Under “Settings,” add a phone number to the page, and confirm that number via an immediate text message or phone call.
  • Click on the “Profile” item in the left navigation, then the “About” tab at the top. In the “Links” block below, you should see a “Link website” button. Click this to produce a snippet of code that should be placed on your website in order to link your profile and your website.
  • Ensure that all location and contact information on this profile stay up-to-date, as Google uses your profile here to provide your address, phone number and more in local search results.
  • Once you have established the page, go to plus.google.com/dashboard and click “Manage this page,” then “Verify this business” underneath your address. Confirm the business’s mailing address, and a postcard containing a unique PIN will be mailed to you. When the postcard arrives, follow the verification instructions on it to complete the process.

You Tube

Another popular social media channel by Google. This is one of the best channel to promote your video content.

  • Go to YouTube.com and click on “Sign In” in the top-right corner.
  • Sign in with an existing Google account (make sure you’ll be comfortable sharing these credentials with anyone else who may need to contribute to YouTube work), or click “Create an Account” and follow the prompts.
  • Once signed in, click on the user icon in the top-right corner and from the drop-down menu select “My Channel.” In the next pop-up, click the link at the bottom that reads “To use a business or other name, click here.” In the “Name your channel” field, input your business’s name, or a branded username that people can use to find you.
  • In the “About” tab of your new Channel, list “custom links” to your website or other online properties, as well as “social links” to other networks.
  • Also in the “About” tab, provide a Channel description, and upload channel artwork to brand your page.

LinkedIn

This platform is for professionals. So if your targeted audience is professional people this is the best platform to work on.

  • Log into a personal LinkedIn profile and in the main menu navigate to Interests > Companies. Then, in the top-right corner, click on “Add a Company.”
  • Enter your company name and your business email address. (Note: LinkedIn will only allow you to activate a new company name if you have a company email address like me@companyname.com. If your LinkedIn account was set up with a personal email address, you will need to first add a business email to your profile before moving on.)
  • Populate the following fields of LinkedIn’s prompts with general company details and products or services.
  • Upload a version of your logo as the page’s profile image. You will need three separate versions sized at 100×60 (displayed on the company page) and 50×50 (displayed throughout the network) pixels to complete the profile.
  • Upload a page banner (themed similarly to Facebook cover photo) sized at 646×220 pixels.
  • Create unique banners and thumbnail images to highlight your top products and services. Feel free to use these labels liberally if your business has less traditional offerings.

Pinterest

This is best platform if you have your content in form of images. This is a growing channel and user base is increasing on a regular basis.

  • Use http://business.pinterest.com/ to sign up as a business page. (If needed, this page also provides a link to convert a formerly “personal” account to a business one.)
  • Provide contact information and establish a username for your profile.
  • Upload a 165×165 pixel version of your logo or brand stamp.
  • Connect other existing social networks to your profile if you want to push out Pinterest activity to those platforms.
  • In your profile settings, enter your website’s URL. Verify your ownership of the site by uploading an HTML snippet.

Instagram

This is a platform to promote visual content. So if you have amazing visual content which you want to share with your audience, this is the place for you.

  • Download Instagram from the App Store or from Google Play to a mobile device.
  • Sign up to create a new account.
  • Upload a 110×110 pixel logo as the profile image.
  • Include your site’s URL in the profile settings.
  • Use the “bio” area to provide an overview of your value propositions.
  • Review the Instagram for Business blog for tips, trends, and examples of successful brands.
Above platform are very effective to promote your business or new start-up and to create a brand in user mind.

NOTE: Source of the article is Social Media Check List.