SEO Archives - Page 11 of 31

What Is EXIF Data ? Does Google Use EXIF Data From Pictures As A Ranking Factor?

EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File, and the data provided can be stored to JPEG, RAWand TIFF image file formats. The data itself can reveal some pretty interesting stuff about your photos. As well as the exact time and date you clicked the picture (provided your camera time and date was correct, of course), a lot of technical information regarding the photograph is captured as well.

The Exif tag structure is borrowed from TIFF files. For descriptive metadata, there is an overlap between EXIF and IPTC Information Interchange Model info, which also can be embedded in a JPEG file.

The Exif format has standard tags for location information. As of 2014 many cameras and most mobile phones have a built-in GPS receiver that stores the location information in the EXIF header when a picture is taken .

As digital content determines your search and web presence, any data connected with the how, when, where, why of the creation is very important. As this meta data establishes correlations and adds meaning to the content.

EXIF data can offer information which can help search engines establish correlations with the search queries made by the users especially for the queries that require freshness and the file format.

Meta data accessed via EXIF is accurate and genuine hence the search engines may gradually rely more on it and may also start using it as Matt Cutts explains in the video below:

If you want the explore the data on the images then EXIFdata.com is an online applicatation that lets you take a deeper look at your favorite images!

The details I got about an image on exifdata.com are as follows:

Google / SEO - 03/03/2014

How To Tackle 5 Major SEO Issues Having An Adverse Effect On Your Site

Author : Bharati Ahuja

If your SEO has resorted to certain SEO techniques which are now creating an adverse effect on the site due to the latest algorithmic updates then you have to resort to undo all this by having a systematic and structured approach.
All the side effects of all the incorrect SEO methods implemented can be rectified and undone most of the times, but a lot of patience and step by step strategy is needed .

Let us discuss a few issues which maybe hampering the search presence growth of the site.

Unwanted Links
Scraper Sites
Duplicate Content
Dynamic URLS
Page Load Time

Unwanted Links

Make a list of inbound links to your site using any tool like Screaming Frog or any other SEO tool. Make a list of inbound links which Google shows in Webmaster Tools. Filter out the links which according to you are spammy.

Try to manually remove those links if possible or send a request to the webmaster of that site to get the links removed.Use the Disavow tool even if you have not got a manual penalty in webmaster tools.Keep monitoring the external links section in the webmaster tools and if the links that you have been successful in removing are not showing in webmaster tools then you are progressing. Repeat the process till all the unwanted links are removed .

Duplicate Content:

I came across an issue with a site which had a lot of legal case studies on their site and the similar case studies were available on many other sites as these details were provided by the legal registrars in PDFs which could be added on the site as it is without modifying any content. This content was very helpful for the client as they could send links to these case studies as references when discussing similar issues and inform the about the legal decisions taken.

The site was a genuine site but due to the Panda update the site had been affected adversely. The action taken was to shift all these pages under a subdomain and refer that subdomain as a news site. The subdomain is regularly updated with fresh content and case studies with additional inputs from the client. This solved the issue of duplicate content and logically categorized the content.

But, if you have an issue of duplicate content within the site then using the canonical tag or a 301 redirect correctly is the only way out.

Scraper Sites

There are many sites which copy content from other sites and post them on their blogs or sites. Though Google can detect a scraper site as the original content will have an earlier indexed date but there may be times when the scraper site outranks the original site which may affect the search presence of the original site.

Google has an option for that now . You can fill the Google Scraper Report form . webmasters can submit scraper sites that has copied their own content by providing Google with the source URL, where the content was taken from, and the URL of the scraper site where the content is being republished or repurposed, and the keywords where the scraper site was ranking on.

Dynamic URLs

Dynamic URLs are generated when the content on the page depends on the selection the user makes and the content is displayed from the databases. Hence the content varies from user to user. Dynamic URLs often contain the following characters: ?, &, %, +, =, $, etc.

A dynamic URL is a page address that results from the search of a database-driven web site or the URL of a web site that runs a script. In contrast to static URLs, in which the contents of the web page stay the same unless the changes are hard-coded into the HTML, dynamic URLs are generated from specific queries to a site's database.

SEOs used to have a SEO Friendly URLs for such pages which eliminated the parameters. As of today this is not considered correct. Recently Google announced that Google wants the necessary parameters in the URL and can index such URLs. http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.in/2014/02/faceted-navigation-best-and-5-of-worst.html

For example on the basis of the selection of area, type and budget I make on a real estate site the URL generated is :

http://example.com/portfolio/?location=Canggu&type=Apartment&price=250.000+-+350.000+USD&propertylist=

This is itself a dataset which conveys a meaning that this page contains data in the range selected which can be very useful for a user who makes a similar search on Google.

Hence, retain the necessary parameters in the dynamic URLs and do not point them to a single SEO Friendly URL. As this may be considered incorrect by Google because the URL will remain constant for each selection but each time Google indexes it the content will keep varying which does not serve any purpose either to the user or the search engine.

Page Load Time

Regarding Page Load Time And Speed Google says: Speeding up websites is important — not just to site owners, but to all Internet users. Faster sites create happy users and we've seen in our internal studies that when a site responds slowly, visitors spend less time there. But faster sites don't just improve user experience; recent data shows that improving site speed also reduces operating costs. Like us, our users place a lot of value in speed — that's why we've decided to take site speed into account in our search rankings. We use a variety of sources to determine the speed of a site relative to other sites.

For decreasing the page load time the best way is to login to the webmaster tools account and go to ‘Other Resources’ then select the ‘Page Speed Insights’ 80% of the issues will be tackled if you follow the suggestions on the PageSpeed Insights Page.

But at times when all the SEO effort put in to undo the harm does not show results then the best decision is to start afresh by killing the site. But before you take such a drastic decision, its worth the while to give it a try before saying quit.

SEO - 03/01/2014

Why Superlatives Like Best, Guru, Expert In Title Tags Are Misleading And Should Be Considered As Spam

Author : Bharati Ahuja

The Title Tag is the most important aspect of the page not only for the search engines but also for the user.

According to W3C :

The title is not part of the text of the document, but is a property of the whole document

The <title> element in HTML is designed to provide a short piece of text that should stand for the document in cases such as:

window title bars
bookmark lists
result lists from search services

Titles help users find content, orient themselves within it, and navigate through it. A descriptive title allows a user to easily identify what Web page they are using.

The Title Of Each Web Page Should:

· Identify the subject of the Web page

· Make sense when read out of context, for example by a screen reader or in a site map or list of search results

· Be short

It may also be helpful for the title to

· Identify the site or other resource to which the Web page belongs

· Be unique within the site or other resource to which the Web page belongs

The titles are equally important to the search engines. Search engines also identify the subject of the web page via the titles and correlate the context of the web page content to the relevant search queries.

Regarding Titles Google says:

Google's generation of page titles and descriptions (or "snippets") is completely automated and takes into account both the content of a page as well as references to it that appear on the web. The goal of the snippet and title is to best represent and describe each result and explain how it relates to the user's query.

Titles are critical to giving users a quick insight into the content of a result and why it’s relevant to their query. It's often the primary piece of information used to decide which result to click on, so it's important to use high-quality titles on your web pages.

Google has also shared some tips on managing titles for web pages on https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35624?hl=en#3 .

But according to me Google needs to combat this subtle spam which is quite prevalent on the web as of today.

People many times write misleading titles especially by adding adjectives like best, excellent, expert, etc. in titles and get priority in the search results when people search for services and products and use these adjectives in their search queries.

For example if you search for “Best SEO Company in ..... “ (please fill in the place you live in to complete the query) then do you genuinely get a list of the best companies available? No, we get a list of search results of websites which have used the word “BEST” in the title.

The reason is that the search engines are still using word to word mapping for correlating websites with search queries instead of ranking websites semantically. Though search engines are working on semantic search and are trying to combat the spam with regular algorithm upgrades, but dealing with these spammy titles is something which the search engines need to deal with on a priority basis.

Any kind of spam misleads the search engines or/and the user. Just as spammy link building reflects false popularity, these kind of titles many times misleads the user. As the search engines do not list the logically 10 best companies in the search results on the basis of all the factors which define a ‘BEST COMPANY’ for the service that the user is searching for, but is just bringing forward the websites having best in the meta tags. In the past when people resorted to keyword spam by repeating the keywords many times also resulted to the same problem.

Calling yourself an expert, the best, guru, etc. does not make you an authority on the subject and as organic search is the earned media its high time Google started penalizing sites using such terms in meta tags especially in the titles.

Google / SEO - 01/30/2014

Content, Guest Blogging, Authorship Markup And Social Signals

Author : Bharati Ahuja Content, Authorship and social signals seem to be the buzz for the SEO blogs today .The herd mentality in the SEO Industry is very common. Google announces a few features and makes certain announcements on the Google official blog and all the so called SEOs make certain presumptions by reading other blogs and go on a writing spree further. All this in fact is just causing more confusion and is misleading many people in the SEO Industry who call themselves SEOs but do not understand the true meaning of SEO Recently, · Matt Cutts wrote a post about Guest Posting http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-blogging/ · Google refined the SERPs by restricting the rich snippets by 15-20%. For reference, here’s exactly what Cutts said at Pubcon in October 2013: We want to make sure that the people who we show as authors are high quality authors. And so we’re looking at the process of possibly tightening that up. It turns out if we reduce the amount of authorship we are showing by just about 10 or 15 percent, we’re radically able to improve the quality of the authors that we show. Which is another nice signal for those searchers and users who are typing into Google and say, “Ah, I see this picture, I see this person is an author. This is something I can trust. This is content that I really want to see.” So it’s not just going to be about the markup; it’s going to be about the quality of the author. · Matt Cutts openly declared that Twitter and Facebook signals are not integrated in the search algorithm and they are indexed like any other web page on the internet. Hence what should a genuine SEO takeaway from all this? I think the above mentioned happenings are all inter-connected. The major takeaways from these series of announcements and changes are as follows: 1. The authorship mark up which gave the perk of having their pics. Displayed in SERPs by just adding a piece of code polluted and diluted the quality of search results. Adding authorship markup does not guarantee the authority of the author on the topic. 2. To earn the benefit of getting the author pic. Displayed in SERPs only adding code is not enough. One needs to write quality content and prove his authority . 3. The authorship markup gives the content writer or brand an identity but if the content is shared by multiple users and authority accounts of that relevant industry then it adds to the goodwill and generates an authority factor. 4. Writing Guest posts is not wrong but writing low quality guest posts just to get links back is wrong and falls under the category of spam. 5. If you write in-depth posts and share insights and detailed information about the topics related to your industry then it helps the author gain a wider out reach and is not considered spam. In fact guest posting in-depth article on authority blogs will boost the search presence of such an author. 6. Hence, guest posting is not detrimental to search presence but the purpose behind it makes it right or wrong. 7. The quality of content, the frequency and the engagement determine the overall authority. 8. If you create content using high quality standards and it has in-depth information about a topic, then it will be shared by people and referred by other sites, which will add to the connectivity and relevance then it has the potential to have a high authority and trust factor – making it a valuable resource Google will be unable to ignore.

9. Currently Twitter and FB social signals are not being integrated into the ranking algorithm but the pages are getting indexed and those pages may have quality links to your site URLs which in the long run can improve search presence. 10. A social media presence even if does not give you any direct benefit for search bring in targeted referral traffic which in the long run can affect the search presence as Google does have referral traffic metric in analytics. 11. Google+ account is your passport for your web identity. As all the Google products are merging into this account one cannot ignore Google+. Its not only a social media site but also has the local, reviews, business pages, images, videos, community conversations, etc signals woven into it. 12. Measure and monitor the progress of the site via Google Webmaster Tools, Bing Webmaster Tools and Google analytics. 13. There is no quick fix for optimizing your site for search engines but it is all about earning the search presence via overall quality web presence. If you have an overall good web presence then you can have a presence in Google results there is no vice versa. 14. Work out a strategy to gain quality web presence rather than looking out for quick fixes on the site for ranking in SERPs. 15. Guest posting, on-page optimization, social media presence, commenting on blogs, etc. all will work positively if done with the right purpose of getting your online identity get correlated to quality content by adding in-depth insight to any topic and for reaching out to the right audience. 16. Technical SEO adds to the momentum of the on-page and off-page factors. As technical factors of the site ensure the correct crawling and indexing of the site which in the long run determine the direction in which the site is heading to on the search engines. The only way to get quality search presence is to focus on all factors qualitatively.

Please do not say Guest Blogging is dead or SEO is Dead .SEO, Email Marketing, Guest Posting, Building links qualitatively and genuinely, Commenting on Blogs, social media ....are not dead but are very much alive. The only thing dying is the spammy way of implementing each of these things. Hence add the right purpose to the task and you will add life to it.

SEO - 01/27/2014

Google Says: Twitter And FaceBook Social Signals Are Not A Part Of The Ranking Algorithm

Author : Bharati Ahuja

Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, released a webmaster video today answering the question, “are Facebook and Twitter signals part of the ranking algorithm?” The short answer was a clear cut "NO".

Matt Cutts recently has spilled the beans regarding the social and search integration and has openly declared that Twitter and FaceBook pages are not passing on any social media signals for web search rankings directly.

He says, FaceBook and Twitter pages are treated like any other pages on the web index for Google. If they are able to crawl the Twitter and the FaceBook pages then they those pages are indexed.

But the algorithm does not calculate any special social signals like the no. of followers, likes, mentions, etc. as the relationships between social identities keep on changing and many times the index may be not updated accordingly as sometimes the third party social media sites block Googlebot and they are unable to crawl the pages and may not have accurate data.

Hence the algorithms are not yet updated to influence the web search rankings according to the FaceBook and Twitter pages social signals. Matt Cutts clearly says that the FaceBook and Twitter pages are treated like other pages available on the web and no special social media signals are passed on by the algorithms to influence the rankings based on that data.

But, that does not mean that Twitter and FaceBook are no longer important because they are very powerful social media sites and the URLs shared on these platforms have a very wide outreach which increase the potential for that URL to gain popularity on the web. This popularity has the potential of creating good quality inbound links which in the long run influence the search rankings.

But what Matt Cutts has not yet answered is ...

Are Google+ pages passing social signals to influence web search rankings?

Google can crawl the Google+ pages and they know about the dynamics of the changing relationships between Google+ identities too real time. So, should we assume that only Google+ accounts, Google+ pages, Google+ Local, Google+ Communities, YouTube , Google Places and other such Google products are the only sources for the social and search integration?? Well , according to me the answer is in the affirmative.

First the authorship markup made it mandatory to have a Google+ account as the markup can be verified only if you have a presence on Google+ then this information regarding Twitter and FaceBook signals not being treated as true social media signals but like any other pages available on the web is making it very clear that if you want a good search presence you need to have a Google+ presence along with quality content on your website and blog.

According to me though this may result in making Google monopolize the search arena but atleast the link building spam will be combated. Hope the other social media sites share their social signals data with Google completely and in real time so Google can get a broader picture about an identity and hence get their due search presence. Only Google+ social signals again can be a very narrow view point about an identity which in the long run can again affect the quality of the search results.

One of our previous videos published on YouTube regarding social and search integration and quality inbound links.

Conclusion:

Please do not take it for granted that just because you have a good social media presence your search presence is going to improve. Publish quality content, share it on social media, after a good outreach when people link back to the post the popularity signals that is the quality inbound links will help improve the search presence. So,quality content is again the king. SEO Is A Necessity, Content Creation Is A Strategy And Social Media Is The Channel

Google / SEO / Social Media - 01/23/2014

B2B Content marketing v/s B2C Content Marketing

Author : Bharati Ahuja

Though there is a person behind the business to whom you want to market a product or service , there is a difference between marketing to a business and marketing to a person. A B2B purchase is based more on reducing costs, streamlining systems and saving time, effort and money to buy for further sale whereas B2C marketing is geared to make a direct sale to a customer for end use. Hence the B2B and B2C marketing differ as follows:

The Purpose of buying: A B2B buyer is buying for resale but a B2C buyer buys the product for direct use.
The Price: As the B2B buyer is buying for resale the price offered to him has to be competitive enough.
The communication with the buyer has to be as per their need via the right channel.
Purchase quantity: The B2B buyer will mostly buy in bulk to get a competitive price but a B2C buyer may just buy a single unit an may be willing to pay a high price.

When there are such stark differences in the focus between both the kinds of marketing then does B2B Content Marketing differ from B2C Content Marketing?

The goal of B2B Content Marketing and B2C Content Marketing is the same but the difference is in the approach.
The B2B purchase is a result of a logical decision but a B2C purchase for direct consumption is more driven by emotion and the immediate need of the product at that point of time. For e.g a B2B purchase for jackets for further resale may be a very logical decision made before the season arrives for the use of those jackets but a B2C decision to buy a jacket may be during the peak season when the B2C buyer is ready to pay a high price to purchase it. Hence catering to the B2B logical decision the content should be based on the intricacies of how the decision will be more profitable but the decision made for B2C which may be driven more by utility should focus on how the product is going to be more useful to the buyer and why he needs to buy it immediately.
Whether the content is for B2B or B2C audience it should be honest and fulfil a need. i.e give accurate information, offer a solution, answer FAQs, etc.
The content should be published regularly with consistency of thought to win the confidence of the readers.
The content should be not be a sales pitch though the objective of the content is to acquire new customers. The order should be educate > engage > acquire and not vice versa.
B2B buyers usually take decisions in their offices where mostly they are using their laptops or PCs but B2C buyers increasingly are using their smartphones to make purchase decisions hence the content created should accordingly cater to multi screen devices to influence the potential buyer to make the decision.
The social media platforms used by B2B buyers and B2C buyers also varies. B2B buyers usually prefer LinkdenIn and Twitter and the B2C buyers are usually influenced majorly by FaceBook but the tweens and teens are also getting influenced by Instagram, whatsapp and Snapchat social signals.
B2B content ideas and content usually comes from the employees but for B2C the content usually comes from your satisfied customers in the form of feedback and reviews.
Emailing informative content to B2B buyers may be accepted by them as they are constantly looking for more and more information to come to the most profitable decision but emailing content to a B2C buyer may not be welcomed as a B2C buyer wants the information readily available in the right format when he is making the decision and usually gets annoyed if bombarded with emails.

B2B and B2C Content Marketing Trends:

B2B vs. B2C: 10 Marketing Experts Have Their Say (SlideShare) from Babcock & Jenkins

The Following Stats By The Content Marketing Institute give An Idea About What To Expect In 2014 As Regards Using Content As A Marketing Strategy:

86% of B2C marketers and 91% of B2B marketers are using content marketing as a key part of their strategy today.

60% of B2C content marketers expect to spend more in 2014 than was spent in 2013.
Over the past year, only 55% of B2C content marketers saw a budget increase.
58% of B2B content marketers plan to spend more in 2014 than was spent in 2013.
Over the past year, only 54% of B2B content marketers saw a budget increase.
69% of the least effective B2C marketers plan to increase their budget.
Only 55% of the most effective B2C marketers plan to increase their budget.
Brand awareness is the top content marketing goal for both B2C (79%) and B2B (82%) marketers. Customer acquisition (71%) and retention/loyalty (65%) are the next-most common goals for B2C respondents, while lead generation is next among B2B respondents.
Web traffic is the top content marketing metric for both B2C (66%) and B2B (63%) marketers. Social media sharing is relatively more important to B2C respondents, who are far less interested in measuring sales quality and quantity.
Lack of time is the top challenge faced by both B2C (57%) and B2B (69%) content marketers. B2C respondents are relatively more concerned with producing the kind of content that engages, while B2B marketers are more concerned with producing enough content.
39% of B2C marketers have a documented content strategy, compared to 44% of B2B marketers.

Is the content strategy for your brand ready to face this emerging trend?

Image Credit:http://www.brandingbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/b2bvsb2c_627x330.jpg

SEO - 01/13/2014

In-Depth SEO Training At Ahmedabad Management Association By WebPro Technologies

We shall be conducting an in-depth SEO training at Ahmedabad Management Association from 20th January 2014 onwards.

IN DEPTH SEO TRAINING

Days: Monday to Friday,Dates: January 20 to February 4, 2014 (12 days)Timings: 6.30 to 8.30 p.m. Download brochure here :

http://goo.gl/A6Auhx

COURSE CONTENT

Module 1: Introduction to Google

· What is Organic Search Engine Optimization?

· What is Pay Per Click (PPC)?

· White Hat vs Black Hat optimisation?

· How does Google work?

· How does Google see the world?

Module 2: Site Architecture and Keyword Selection

· Importance of Keywords

· How to choose your keywords

· Why use multiple keywords

· How to find niche keywords

Module 3: Content Design and Page Optimisation

· How to optimize your keywords

· What is a website theme?

· How to optimize page and file names

· How to structure your page content

· How to optimize Meta tags

· How to optimize page title tags

· How to optimize Meta description tags

· How to optimize h tags

· How to optimize alt tags

· How to optimize title attribute tags

· How to avoid the misuse of header tags

· Choosing the best writing style

· How to avoid penalisation

Module 4: Linking Strategies

· Why are links important?

· What is Google PageRank?

· What are internal links?

· What are the three types of external link?

· What are the best sources of links?

· Should I link to blogs and social media sites?

· What is a link farm?

Module 5: Technical Considerations

· CSS vs table based design

· Understanding website frames

· How to choose the best domain name

· How to choose the best hosting company

· How to validate your website pages

· Canonical Issues

· Authorship v/s Publisher Markup

· Customized 404 pages

· Microformats and Schemas

· Twitter Cards And Facebook Open Graph

Module 6: Introduction to Content Management Systems

· Introduction to WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento

· Demo.

Module 7: The Importance Of Social Media Presence and Its Integration With Search

· Google+ and other Social Media Platforms

· Google+ Profile And Google+ Business Page

Module 8: The Latest Google Algorithm Updates

· What is the significance of the Panda Update?

· What is the significance of the Penguin Update?

· The Humming Bird Overview.

Module 9: Google SEO Tools

· How to setup and use a Google Webmaster Account

· How to verify your website

· How to setup and submit a Google sitemap

· How to produce and install a robots.txt file

· How to use a 301 redirect?

Module 10: Monitoring Traffic

· How to setup Google Analytics

· Google Analytics live demo.

Module 11: Maximizing Conversions And Metrics To Monitor For Search Presence

· What is website usability?

· Why is it important?

· How to design the ultimate website

Module 12: The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors and SEO Workshop

· Your chance to ask questions about your own websites.

SEO - 01/12/2014

Content Marketing Is A Business Strategy...How To Design A Content Strategy?

Author : Bharati Ahuja

Any business serious about a quality web presence and a wider and priority search presence needs to focus on publishing quality content regularly.

Hence, content is at the core of any online marketing activity. As a result the term “Content Marketing” has surfaced as a new wave online. But, we need to understand that “Content Marketing” does not mean marketing the content , but using content to market the product or service which your business offers.

Just adding blog posts written by any third party regularly does not achieve the purpose of content marketing. One needs to have a content strategy which needs to be implemented, monitored and the outcome measured regularly too.

How To Design A Content Strategy?

Decide upon the categories of topics which need to be published on the company blog or as guest posts.

Decide upon the different formats of the content

- Text Content
- Videos
- Audio
- Infographics
- Images or Cartoons

Have a clear idea about the type of audience.

- Is it the existing buyers you are targeting?
- Is it the potential B2C buyers?
- Is it the potential B2B buyers?

Have a clear idea about the demographics of the audience.

- The age group of the audience to be targeted.
- The gender if necessary
- The geolocation of the audience so that the right terminology is used which is prevalent in that location. (Local or Global)

Decide upon the outreach and distribution channels to be used for sharing and promoting the content.

- Twitter
- FaceBook
- Pinterest
- Linkedin
- Youtube
- Google+

Work out a set of norms to engage with the audience on social media platforms when they reply and respond. Company representatives on social media platforms should engage with the audience based on the rules and norms set by the company to avoid wrong messages to reach out online.

After all this exercise the analysis of the social media metrics will surely give an idea about the direction the content wave is reaching out to. The social media metrics via Google Analytics gives an idea about how the content strategy is getting executed. As social and search are integrated the no. of unique visits to the site via referral social media sites also is a positive indicator about the content strategy and the social media campaign being implemented. As per statistics social drives 25% of inbound traffic!!

Always have an Editorial Calendar which will organise the publishing of content. The headers in the calendar can be as follows:

- Date Created: The date when the content was written and submitted by the author to the team.
- Category: The category of the content.
- Title: The title of the content.
- Date To be published: The date when it is scheduled to be published.
- Author: The name of the author.
- Editor: The name of the person who edited the post.
- Target Audience: The audience for which the content has to be targeted so that the social media platforms are accordingly selected for its outreach and promotion.
- Outreach Channels: The list of social media platforms on which the blog post has to be shared.
- KPP(Key Performance Parameters): The key parameters which determine the success of the content : for e.g. likes, downloads, retweets, conversions, etc.

Get Found, Get Shared, Get Leads, Convert.

Social and search integration has to start at the site level. The website which is at the nucleus of the whole search and social ecosystem has to be optimized first to be found on the search engines as 80 % of the people start with search engines. An optimized site ensures that your business is found on the search engines when the user is searching for a product or services related to what you have to offer. The social media signals add to the trust factor and build confidence for the brand. Next when the potential buyer contacts you the conversion depends how fast and accurately his queries are answered and whether the impression that he gathered during the search experience matches with the real time experience he has with the sales staff .

Some Important Points To Ponder On About Content Strategy:

See that content is created by subject matter experts.
Every piece of content should add value.
73% of B2B content marketers are producing more content than they did one year ago
We're in the age of data driven marketing
Content Marketing is a business strategy
Think about ROO (Return On Objective) when analysing metrics.
The content should focus on the utility aspect , inspire the reader in some way or empathise with the reader so that the reader is influenced by the content in a positive way to achieve the objective set and achieve the purpose of publishing and promoting the post.
The main content marketing metrics which measure the success or failure are outreach, engagement and conversion.
Don’t sell but share knowledge.
Real influence isn't huge fan & follower counts, it's niche communities that take action.
Its not quantity of leads, but quality and conversion rates that matter
Conversions may not be immediate ...28% of invited executives engage in program after 7 months.

SEO / Social Media - 01/09/2014

SEO , Social Media And Content Strategy Posts Of 2013 On The WebPro Technologies Blog

SEO / Social Media - 12/19/2013

SEO 2014 The Year Of Positive SEO And The Survival Of The Fittest

Author : Bharati Ahuja The Year 2013 has given the most shaking algo shocks to the SEO industry.... Courtesy Google.... But, despite all the shocks and after-shocks of the Panda and Penguin updates the SEO industry is still positive (at least I am and am not going to say ‘I Quit’ for a long time to come) . SEO is still alive with more energy and synergy with the web and the search engines.

In fact as I had mentioned in one of my blog posts in 2011 Why the changes made by Google meant good news for the SEO industry . This was at a time when the whole SEO industry was against the changes being made especially when Google introduced Encrypted Search and the keyword data got taken away from us. http://www.seocopywriting.com/content-marketing/why-googles-recent-changes-mean-good-news-for-the-seo-industry/ In December 2013 we had mentioned the following points to be focused upon for SEO which will be applicable in 2014 too:-

On Page optimization as per the W3C standards
Have a web presence on various platforms
Update your blog regularly
Co relate web presence with fresh content by blogging, commenting, discussing, sharing links on social media from your own site and blog plus from other authority sites of your industry.
Have a YouTube video channel and share videos and embed them on site or blog.
Google+ as of now may not be the most widely used social media platform but it as major Google products in some way or the other converge on Google+ your Google+ account has the potential of becoming your passport to your online identity hence ignoring this platform or not having a presence on Google+ is like applying for a VISA without a passport .
Submit XML sitemaps for site, blog and video XML sitemaps for videos embedded on site or blog.
Apply for Twitter Cards and integrate them with your blog once the application is approved by Twitter.
Integrate FB Open Graph on blogs.
Integrate Authorship Markup on the blog to co relate your content with your online persona which can lead you to be a thought leader of your industry which in the long run can add to the trust factor.
Focus on ‘Less Is More’ instead of having 5 posts a week publish 2 posts per week but of relevant in depth information in all forms i.e text, video, infographics, podcast,etc. It’s the quality that counts not the quantity.
If you cannot create content regularly then curate content.
Use Schemas for addresses, events, people, recipes, books, ebooks,video, etc.
Focus on building a community and retaining their trust as your community can play a major role in helping your content go viral.
As in real life you are known by the friends you keep , in the online world you are known by the people that follow you and the people that you follow.
In the real world you are what your thoughts are and in the online world you are what you publish and share.
The above points help you earn links. Let the inbound links get built as a result of quality web presence rather than running after them.
All the above points have a direct impact on the off page optimization giving a boost to the search presence .
Focus on the technical SEO by working on XML sitemaps, by monitoring Google WMT , canonicalization issues, HTTP headers, rich snippets in search results which are achieved by using schemas and microformats , customized error pages, robots.txt, improving the site speed, etc.
Local search is as important as global search hence cannot be ignored.
Follow the path of hard work to develop this overall presence gradually rather than following the short cut of buying fake likes , followers and +1s . The short cuts followed today will become a penalty in future once Google upgrades its algorithm for detecting it like the Penguin Update for spammy links which made all the link builders undertake the task of undoing those same links which they ran after once.
Go mobile and check the accessibility of your site on hand held devices else develop Mobile Apps. For widely used services of the site.
Help Google to give quality search results to the users and Google will help you in return by giving you the search presence you deserve.
Focus on the metrics that matter in Google Analytics according to what goals and priorities you have set for yourself to improve search presence.
Do not put all the eggs in one basket. Have a Bing WMT account too and monitor the search presence on Bing too.

All these points are very much applicable in 2014 too. In addition to that what needs to focused on is the approach, strategy and the monitoring of each short term goal to achieve the long term goal of quality and prominent search presence. Approach, strategy and monitoring has always been a part and parcel of an SEO campaign but in the coming year these need to be given more importance because without a proper strategy and listing out the immediate targets to achieve will only delay the SEO success. In continuation of the above points we add the following points to be focused in 2014. 26. The approach to SEO should be like the one you have when you plant a tree in your garden. You know that if you nurture it and add the necessary nutrients at the right time regularly the tree will grow and bear fruit one day. Nurture it regularly and wait patiently for the fruit. Similarly, focus on quality web presence and take care of the technical, on-page , off-page SEO and social media and wait for the search presence to improve gradually. 27. Work out immediate goals to be achieved and work out a strategy to achieve them. Ask yourself:

Where did you start?
Where have you reached?
Where you would like to reach?
How will you reach there?
Implement the plan.
Monitor and create a plan
Implement the updated plan > Repeat

Work this out yourself with your SEO team if you have an in-house SEO team or take active part in the discussions with your SEO if you have outsourced the SEO campaign. 28. Accept the fact that your SEO Agency cannot do much without your involvement and participation. Accept the fact that after all the digital footprints which are being created as a part of the SEO campaign are the company’s digital assets and you need to be aware about them and its high time the company takes ownership about these digital assets. 29. Every site is different and your competitor in real time may not be your online competitor hence evaluate online competition differently from real time competition as the 10 blue links on the search results page are a result of the data in the search engine index and your real time competitor may or may not have the high quality web presence like he has in the real world. 30. If you have an ecommerce site and you want it to grow then, only SEO is not enough . Be aware that the online competition is growing tremendously and your ecommerce site is a full-fledged business and you need to have staff and the expertise to manage online customers and also have a complete integrated marketing mix to promote it and help it get the right WOM online.

31. If your site does not sell anything online then content strategies become more important as only content and the social media presence will help you establish the thought leadership online which in the bargain give the necessary quality signals to the site. 32. Winning the online trust is one of the major goals of any SEO campaign. Trust is the end result of the authority and the thought leadership you establish online. Trust is the emotional and logical aspect of the users decision to refer and recommend the site and content if he has been getting valuable information from the site.

33. The strategy can start from inside out or you can go outside in. That is you establish the goals and then decide what changes need to be made on the site or web presence as your site is at the nucleus of your web presence or you can start working on the site right from scratch and reach the outer circle of search presence. Explained in detail on The Concentric Circles Of Quality Web Presence

34. Do not go for cheap SEO Packages as SEO is not free or cheap. It requires expertise and effort and any company offering services which offer genuine long term, futuristic search presence will charge a reasonable amount. 35. SEO is a necessity, social media is the channel and the content creation strategy determines your online brand identity. 36. Today the challenge for the website owner is how to keep these activities coordinated and connected and make each task benefit from the other and get an overall boost to the online presence by capitalizing on the digital assets created thereby. It becomes more challenging if these tasks are performed by different services providers. http://www.webpro.in/the-digital-world-challenge-faced-by-the-chief-marketing-officers-cmos-in-2013/

37. SEO is not limited only to the SEO team but each and every team member needs to be aware of how social media , content and SEO are integrated . SEO is not a onetime process, hence SEO has to be an ongoing process and has to be integrated in the whole marketing mix. 38. SEO is less about bots but more about people. Customers will love the company only if the employees love it first. Hence, educating the whole team about SEO should be an on going process and the SEO should include training the client about the new developments as a part of the SEO project. 39. SEO should not only limit itself to perform only repair functions on the site to get into search results but just like a good engineer applies scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge in order to design, build, and maintain structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes. A good SEO needs to apply technical specifications that define and describe aspects of the World Wide Web which directly or indirectly affect the development and administration of web sites and consider include the interoperability, accessibility and usability of web pages and web sites from the WWW perspective. Instead of dissecting the algorithms we need to understand the standard norms of web design and development which will make the web a better place and websites robust technically. 40. The SEO industry is at that point of the graph where it is going to scale new heights and emerge as more meaningful and essential for website owners and search engines as well. Content and quality have always been king since the first web page was published but Google has been successful in penalizing the low quality content and help clear the content clutter and the linked clutter on the web with its algorithmic updates just recently. As the web evolved the search engines evolved and only when the SEO mindset will also evolve side by side the status and the reputation of the SEO industry will achieve the due respect and importance in the coming years. Last 3 year-end SEO posts of our blog: Dec. 2010 : http://www.webpro.in/seo-and-online-presence-in-2011 Dec. 2011 : http://www.webpro.in/saying-bye-to-seo-2011-and-a-very-big-hi-to-seo-2012 Dec. 2012 : http://www.webpro.in/points-to-ponder-on-for-seo-2013

SEO / Social Media - 12/15/2013

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In-Depth SEO Training At Ahmedabad Management Association By WebPro Technologies

IN DEPTH SEO TRAINING

Days: Monday to Friday,Dates: January 20 to February 4, 2014 (12 days)Timings: 6.30 to 8.30 p.m. Download brochure here :

http://goo.gl/A6Auhx

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