Social Media Archives - SEO Ahmedabad

What Is Influencer Marketing? How To Check Instagram Influencer Demographics?

Influencers are individuals who have built a dedicated and engaged following on social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, and others. They can be celebrities, industry experts, bloggers, vloggers, or even everyday people with a substantial online presence.

These individuals, known as influencers, have the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of their authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with their audience.

Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing that involves endorsements and product placements from influencers who have a significant and engaged following on the varied social media platforms.

Influencers create content (such as posts, stories, videos, and blogs) that features or mentions a brand, product, or service. This content can be in the form of reviews, unboxings, tutorials, or lifestyle posts. he choice of platform depends on where the target audience spends most of their time and the type of content that resonates with them.

Types of Influencer Marketing Campaigns

1. Sponsored Content:

Brands pay influencers to create and share content that promotes their products or services. This is usually labeled as sponsored content or ads.
2. Product Reviews:

Influencers provide honest reviews of products or services. These reviews can be in the form of blog posts, videos, or social media posts.
3. Giveaways and Contests:

Influencers host giveaways or contests in collaboration with brands to engage their audience and increase brand awareness.
4. Affiliate Marketing:

Influencers share unique affiliate links or codes with their followers. They earn a commission for every sale made through their link.
5. Brand Ambassadors:

Influencers enter into long-term partnerships with brands, frequently promoting their products and services over an extended period.
6. Event Coverage:

Influencers are invited to events, product launches, or brand experiences to share their firsthand experiences with their followers.

Benefits of Influencer Marketing

1. Authenticity and Trust:

Influencers have built trust with their followers, so their endorsements are seen as more genuine and credible compared to traditional advertising.
2. Reach and Engagement:

Influencers can reach a large and targeted audience, often resulting in higher engagement rates than traditional marketing methods.
3. Cost-Effective:

Influencer marketing can be more cost-effective compared to traditional advertising, especially when working with micro-influencers (influencers with smaller but highly engaged followings).
4. Content Creation:

Influencers are skilled content creators who can produce high-quality and engaging content that brands can repurpose for their marketing efforts.
5. SEO and Online Presence:

Influencer mentions and backlinks can improve a brand's SEO and online visibility.

Challenges of Influencer Marketing

1. Finding the Right Influencer:

Identifying influencers whose audience aligns with the brand’s target market and values can be challenging.

2. Measuring ROI:

Tracking the effectiveness and ROI of influencer marketing campaigns can be complex, requiring specific tools and metrics.

3. Maintaining Authenticity:

There’s a risk of appearing inauthentic if the influencer’s promotion seems forced or not aligned with their usual content.
Influencer marketing, when done right, can significantly enhance brand awareness, drive engagement, and boost sales by leveraging the power of trusted voices in the social media landscape.

Checking the demographics of an Instagram influencer is crucial for ensuring their audience aligns with your target market. Here are some effective methods to do so:

1. Request Analytics from the Influencer

Influencers often have access to detailed insights about their followers through Instagram's built-in analytics (Instagram Insights). Ask the influencer to provide you with screenshots or reports that include:

Age Range: Distribution of followers by age.
Gender: Percentage of male and female followers.
Location: Top locations (countries and cities) where their followers are based.
Active Hours: When their followers are most active.

2. Use Influencer Marketing Platforms

Several platforms provide detailed analytics and demographic information about influencers. Some popular ones include:

HypeAuditor: Offers detailed insights into follower demographics, including age, gender, and location.
Influence.co: Provides analytics on influencers' followers, engagement rates, and more.
Upfluence: Allows you to search for influencers and view detailed demographic data.
AspireIQ: Offers comprehensive analytics and demographic insights.

3. Third-Party Analytics Tools

There are tools specifically designed to analyze Instagram accounts. Some of these tools can provide demographic data:

Social Blade: Offers basic metrics and growth trends.
Iconosquare: Provides detailed insights and analytics, including demographics.
Phlanx: Allows you to check engagement rates and other key metrics.
Sprout Social: Offers comprehensive social media analytics, including demographics.

4. Manual Analysis

If you prefer a more hands-on approach, you can manually analyze the influencer’s followers by:

Reviewing Comments and Engagement: Check the profiles of users who frequently comment and engage with the influencer’s posts to get an idea of their demographics.
Surveying Followers: If feasible, conduct a survey through the influencer’s story or a post to gather demographic information directly from their followers.

5. Influencer’s Media Kit

Many influencers have a media kit prepared, which includes demographic data and other relevant statistics about their audience. Ask the influencer for their media kit, which should provide a comprehensive overview of their followers.

6. Engagement Metrics

While not directly demographic, evaluating engagement metrics can provide indirect insights. High engagement from specific regions, times, and types of content can indicate where and who the audience is:

Likes and Comments Analysis: Identify patterns in engagement related to specific demographics.
Content Performance: Assess which types of content resonate most with their audience, providing indirect clues about demographics.

By combining these methods, you can obtain a comprehensive understanding of an influencer's demographics, helping you make an informed decision about your marketing collaboration.

Social Media - 06/22/2024

The Power of Content-Repurposing-SEO-Social-Media

The Power of Content Repurposing For SEO And Social Media

In the world of digital marketing, content still remains king in 2024. However, continually creating fresh, high-quality content can be a resource-intensive endeavor. This is where content repurposing comes into play, offering a strategic approach to maximizing the reach and impact of your content while also boosting your SEO efforts.

Understanding Content Repurposing

Content repurposing involves taking existing content and transforming it into different formats or repackaging it for distribution across various channels. Rather than starting from scratch, you leverage your existing content assets to reach new audiences and reinforce your brand message. This approach not only saves time and resources but also enhances your content's longevity and versatility.

Benefits of Content Repurposing for SEO

Expanded and Augmented Reach:

By repurposing content into different formats such as videos, infographics, podcasts, or slideshows, you can engage with diverse audience segments across multiple platforms, expanding your reach and driving more traffic to your website.

Improved Search Visibility:

Search engines favor diverse content types. By repurposing content into various formats and optimizing each for relevant keywords, you increase the likelihood of appearing in different search results, thereby improving your overall search visibility.

Enhanced User Experience:

Offering content in different formats caters to the preferences ofvarious audience segments. This improves user experience, reduces bounce rates, and increases dwell time on your website—all of which are positive signals for SEO.

Elevated Authority and Credibility:

Repurposing content allows you to reinforce key messages and establish authority in your niche. Consistently delivering valuable content across multiple channels positions your brand as a reliable source of information, earning trust and credibility from both users and search engines.

Backlink Opportunities:

When you repurpose content into formats suitable for outreach, such as guest blog posts, videos, or downloadable resources, you create opportunities for acquiring backlinks from authoritative websites, which are crucial for SEO.

The Transformative Impact of Content Repurposing on Social Media

Amplified Reach and Engagement:

Repurposing content across social media platforms allows you to connect with audiences where they are most active. Whether it's transforming blog posts into engaging Instagram carousels or converting videos into bite-sized snippets for TikTok, diverse formats cater to varied audience preferences, driving higher engagement and interaction.

Optimized Content Lifespan:

Social media platforms thrive on fresh, relevant content. By repurposing existing assets, you extend their lifespan and maintain a consistent presence in users' feeds. What may have been a one-time blog post can be repurposed into multiple social media posts, ensuring continued visibility and engagement over time.

Enhanced Brand Consistency:

Consistency is key to building a strong brand presence on social media. Repurposing content allows you to reinforce key brand messages and maintain a cohesive identity across different platforms. Whether it's sharing user-generated content or repackaging testimonials into compelling visuals, consistent messaging fosters brand recognition and loyalty.

Streamlined Content Creation Process:

Repurposing content streamlines the content creation process, saving time and resources. Rather than starting from scratch for each social media post, you leverage existing assets, adapt them for different platforms, and focus on maximizing their impact. This allows you to maintain a consistent posting schedule without sacrificing quality or creativity.

Practical Strategies for Content Repurposing

Identify And Audit Evergreen Content:

Start by identifying high-performing evergreen content from your archives. These are pieces that remain relevant and valuable to your audience over time. Examples include comprehensive guides, tutorials, or in-depth case studies.

Repurpose Across Formats:

Transform your evergreen content into different formats to appeal to various audience preferences. For instance, convert a blog post into a video tutorial, an infographic, or a downloadable checklist. Optimize each format for relevant keywords and include backlinks to your original content.

Update and Refresh:

Periodically update and refresh existing content to ensure its accuracy and relevance. Incorporate new data, insights, or examples to keep it current. Google rewards fresh, up-to-date content with higher rankings.

Optimize Metadata and Keywords:

When repurposing content, ensure that you optimize metadata such as titles, descriptions, and tags for each format. Conduct keyword research to identify relevant search terms and incorporate them strategically into your content to improve its discoverability.

Promote Across Channels:

Once you've repurposed content into different formats, promote it across relevant channels to maximize its visibility. Share videos on YouTube, slideshows on SlideShare, and infographics on social media platforms. Encourage audience engagement and interaction to amplify your reach.

Track Performance and Iterate:

Monitor the performance of repurposed content using analytics tools to gauge its effectiveness. Track metrics such as traffic, engagement, and conversions to identify what works best for your audience. Use this data to refine your repurposing strategy and optimize future content efforts.

Content repurposing offers a cost-effective and efficient way to extend the lifespan of your content, reach new audiences, and bolster your SEO and social media efforts. By leveraging existing assets and adapting them into different formats, you can enhance your brand's visibility, authority, and relevance in the digital landscape.

Incorporate the strategies outlined in this guide into your content marketing strategy to unlock the full potential of content repurposing and propel your SEO success in 2024 and beyond.

Content marketing. / SEO / Social Media - 04/29/2024

The Digital Entrepreneur and Social Networks

The new consumer of social networks, an opinion-former who shares in the network the brands of his or her choice, and even produces content with suggestions for your company to choose a name for a new product, a book name, movies, shows, events and other services. We are living in the age of co-creation, now it is the consumer who says which is the best product or service (no longer the store owner or manufacturer).

Business is no longer as it was before; the Internet has come to create a new world of business, a new way of selling, and innovating. The photographer innovates with cell phones, which turns digital photography in real time. The newspaper will not end because it reinvents itself. Radio has not ended the invention of TV. On the contrary, radio occupies a new space on web, and it becomes an important segmented media. Business reinvents itself all the time. Is innovation a risk?

The worst risk is not to innovate. The world calls for innovation, the signed worker walks out and takes the place of the entrepreneur: the human being capable of creating new jobs and fulfilling dreams. Surfing in new wave, the digital entrepreneur is characterized as a specialist in innovation who understands creative economics and digital identities. He/she can be a producer of website, creator of connections and interactions with brands and companies in social networks.

The Digital Entrepreneur and Social Networks

The Digital Entrepreneur is the one whose business’ processes, relationships with partners, clients and employees is carried out mainly by digital means. On average, digital entrepreneurs have been on the market for almost 2 years. Of the total, 62% are in the service sector. The most sought after sector is commerce, with 33% of answers. Industry and agriculture correspond to 5% of the total.

The proportion of digital entrepreneurs with previous experience in the offline world is inversely proportional since only 18% have stated that they have had a non-digital business. Most of the businesses (59%) are informal and do not register the employees in the portfolio (69%). The gross annual turnover of 60% of the projects was between $36 thousand and $240 thousand in 2008. What are the advantages of having a digital business? Familiarity with the environment reduced initial investment cost and less dependence on infrastructure.

Why has social networking strategies failed in many companies?

The American researcher and professor Mikotaj Jan Piskotiski, who studied more than 50 companies in various economic sectors, found a very common mistake: the companies implemented their digital strategies on social platforms to disseminate commercial messages or seek customer feedback.

The main interest of the public of social networks is not to receive commercial messages, but to know and make relationships with other people, not with companies. Therefore, the approach in social networks has to be different.

Social strategy is different from digital strategy. Social strategy is about exploring the way people really want to connect with other people, for example: Helping to improve existing relationships, establish new relationships, create new ways to address unmet social needs, and only then link proposed solutions and business goals.

Facebook is a mass network, where it is more common to add people we already know. But for the sake of privacy and security, people are now choosing to build connections on segmented social networks by developing offline relationships. Creating niche networks is a social strategy for professionals, doctors, dentists, lawyers, teachers, consultants. For the fashion lovers, the social network Fashion.me, reaches more than 1 million registered users.

There is a sea of opportunities linked to the needs and motives that lead the individual to always live in groups, going back to the times of the "tribes" today; we have the creation of segmented networks, which are a representation of the relationships between their groups with specific interests. The main purpose of niche social networks is to connect people, in chats, forums, communities, video channels, online symposia and others.

The correct strategy is to focus on the community and not the tool. Try to find out what is more useful and accessible to your niche. And above all, stimulate the engagement of the members through the exchange of information and experiences.

Social Media - 10/27/2017

How Social Media Impacts Search Behavior and How Search Behavior Impacts Search Results Eventually

Search queries express the search intent of the user on the search engines. Every search query is influenced by many aspects. It can be a question about:

• A new product or brand,
• It may be about a product they already know and use,
• Or it may be a product that they have seen on social media platforms and are curious to know more about,
• Or a brand which is promoting via other channels and has caught the searcher’s fancy.

Out of curiosity the user may search for:
• Product name
• Product name + Brand name
• Product Category
• Product Category + Brand name

How Social Media Presence Has An Impact On Search Behavior:

In 2009 a research explored the correlation between social media exposure and search behavior over a three month period across different verticals, including automotive, consumer packaged goods and telecommunications.In addition to looking at total internet users, consumers were divided into three segments:

• Consumers exposed only to a brand’s paid search
• Consumers exposed to social media relevant to a brand’s category . A blog, message board/forum, user review, social networking site (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn), Twitter/micro-blogging, or video-sharing site (e.g., YouTube, Google Video), as well as a brand’s social marketing program’s “target” sites, or sites which have the most natural potential to hold content about a brand
• Consumers exposed to influenced social media specific to a brand. Identified sites containing distributed social marketing content of a brand’s social media program

Search behavior was broken into segments based on where queries fell among stages of the purchase funnel. This included upper-funnel terms expressing awareness and consideration (industry relevant terms, general product attributes) to lower-funnel terms expressing action and loyalty (campaign brand terms, brand product terms).

The study showed searchers who engage with social media, especially those exposed to a brand’s influenced social media, are far more likely to search for lower-funnel terms compared to consumers who do not engage with social media.

Further, consumers exposed to a brand’s influenced social media and paid search programs are 2.8x more likely to search for that brand’s products compared to users who only saw paid search.

The study also showed a 50 percent CTR increase in paid search when consumers were exposed to influenced social media and paid search. This revealed consumers exposed to social media are more likely to click on a brand’s paid search ad compared to those exposed to the brand’s paid search alone. Among searchers using a brand’s product name in the query, the CTR increased from 4.5 percent to 11.8 percent when users were exposed to both influenced social media and paid search around a brand.

In organic search, consumers searching on brand product terms who have been exposed to a brand’s social marketing campaign are 2.4x more likely to click on organic links leading to the advertiser’s site than the average user seeing a brand’s paid search ad alone.

“Social media-exposed consumers are far more likely to search for brand and product-related terms, and click on a brand’s paid search ad,” according to Graham Mudd, vice president of comScore, Inc. “This finding provides strong evidence that investing in social media marketing can both increase initial brand consideration and drive higher conversion rates once the consumer has decided to purchase.”

These research results were published in 2009 when social media was just at the initial stage and everyone was just trying to learn how to use each social media platform. In 2015 we can now understand how this is having an impact on search results.

How Brand + Product/Category Search Queries Have An Impact On Search Results:

We have been talking about how search has integrated social media signals to their search algorithms. Now it is time to see its impact on search results.
Social Media is not only Facebook and Twitter but each and every foot print created on the web which has a potential of being shared further.

This is where the content comes in. Social Media presence can be fueled only by valuable content. This content can be in any format. It can be in the form of text, images, audio, video, infographic, etc. As consumers spend more time online and fragment their attention away from traditional media channels across various devices, the task is more challenging than ever before for marketers.

Media delivery has an established place in the media mix. But, search remains the dominant direct response channel. People may come to know about a brand on any social media platform but he will surely go to the search engine to search for the brand and the product and check the search results. The first 10 – 15 search results of the brand are a deciding factor. Social Media presence positively affects consumer purchase consideration, specifically through the search channel

The social media presence influences the searcher to search for the brand and the product on the search engines. As the social media presence increases (brand + product) searches also increase in number. Over a period of time, the brand gets correlated to the product. Once this correlation becomes stronger the brand’s search presence improves for those product searches.

For example if a brand deals in 5 products and wants its brand to get correlated to all the 5 products then a proper balance is needed on the social media platforms in terms of what is shared on social media. All the 5 products need an equal web presence individually to get correlated to the brand jointly.

Hence, the social media presence of any (brand + product) and (no. of search queries for that brand and product) on the search engines boost the correlation between both the terms i.e (Brand + Product/Category).

Hence to increase the no. of (brand + product) search queries one needs to have a quality web presence via social media, an updated blog, email marketing, participating in online discussions and every other media which can be shared further by the reader easily.

This clearly explains why every brand today needs a social media presence and how search presence and social media presence are integrated. Social media presence triggers the brand and product searches, the more the social media presence (as in Quality not in quantity), the more no. of brand and product search queries. These search queries coming from more no. of distinct users from different parts of the globe act as social signals for search algorithms and as the correlation increases the rankings for brand and product terms jointly and individually improve over a period of time.

The posts published on social media do not only create awareness among the users but each post gets indexed by the search engines as unique URLs. These URLs become the quality, informative and topical inbound links for the domains and establish the correlation further.

The cost of attaining a new customer is always more than that of retaining an old one. Hence it is not only important to focus on increasing online awareness of the brand and product but also focusing on how to respond to the online inquiries immediately and efficiently is equally important. The real ROI is achieved when a new aware customer becomes a loyal customer in the long run.

Hence, quality social media presence service to me is the best off-page optimization that a genuine SEO company can offer. This not only improves the search presence but also has the potential to retain the search presence and make it stable for a long time. SEO is a necessity, Content Marketing is the strategy and Social Media is the channel.

SEO / Social Media - 07/10/2015

When The CEO Wants To Know About Digital ROI Before Sanctioning The Digital Marketing Budget (With A Focus On SEO, Social Media, Email Marketing & Content)

Author : Bharati Ahuja

Recently many companies though convinced about investing in the online presence are hesitant about sanctioning budgets for SEO, Social Media, Content Writing, Email Marketing and other online presence campaigns. The reason being, the top management need the facts, figures and futuristic growth assurances before sanctioning these budgets.

The earned and owned media help in establishing online reputation and also help in building a brand. Focusing on earned and owned media i.e SEO, Social Media, Content and Email Marketing a business can sow the seeds of web presence which in the long run can help in branching out to the world wide web and gain the targeted traffic to their website and increase the outreach on the social media platform.

In order to achieve this of course a well planned strategy and a holistic approach is needed. Every media has got a different purpose but eventually leads to a common goal i.e quality online presence.

Just as a balanced diet is needed to keep oneself healthy an integrated approach or a healthy marketing mix is essential for an overall web presence which leads to the online growth of the business.

We shall focus on :

· SEO

· Social Media

· Content

· Email Marketing

SEO

SEO is at the root of the earned and owned media campaigns. Only when the website will be indexed and crawled properly and will get correctly correlated to the relevant search queries the targeted traffic from the search engines will be accessed.

SEO Campaigns work on the On-Page factors, Off-Page Factors and the Technical factors of the website to see that all the pages of the website are getting crawled and indexed regularly.
SEO also monitors that the relevance of the search queries for which the website is getting correlated to.
Moreover, SEO also checks whether the traffic is coming from the targeted geo locations.
More pages becoming the landing pages for relevant and targeted search queries is also one of the goals of the SEO Campaigns.
Increase in non-branded search queries over a period of time is also a positive offshoot of an SEO Campaigns.

SEO ROI can be easily calculated by the data available from Google analytics and from the in-house sales team.

A simplest SEO ROI calculation would be attained by answering these following questions:

How many visits received from search engines?

Let us denote this as – a

How many enquiries received via the website form or calls received from visitors after visiting the site which they found via search engines?

Let us denote this as - b

The no of enquiries thus received got converted to sales?

Let us denote this as – c

The amount of profit from these invoices drawn?

Let us denote this as – d

The cost of SEO monthly / annually depends on what basis you are calculating ?

Let us denote this as – e

I suggest the ROI to be calculated half yearly or annually as this gives a clear idea.

Hence , (assuming you keep the period of the calculation the same for all the metrics)

SEO ROI = (d – e) / e * 100

Basically,

ROI = ( Annual Profit from the sales which were achieved via the Enquires from search engines – The annual cost of SEO for the website) divide upon (The annual cost of SEO for the website) multiplied by 100

There can be many permutations and combinations that can be worked out in order to get various performance data as per your requirement. For example if you want to measure the conversion ratio of your sales department keeping in mind the online enquiries received then it can be done as follows:

Conversion Ratio = c/ b * 100

This can become as a KPP (Key Performance Parameter) for your sales team which can be monitored on a periodic basis to have a direction and guidance for chalking out the sales plans for the next period with a targeted approach and also the reasons for the low or high ratio can be discussed and therby helping to find the strengths and weaknesses in the system .

Social Media:

Measuring the ROI for social-media marketing can be a lot more challenging since its results involve such intangibles as engagement, audience reach, and “buzz.”

Social Media may or may not be an engine for direct sales but it surely helps in reaching out to the existing and potential online customers by creating a communication platform where both the parties have a equal chance to voice their say.

Usually people focus on the no. Of likes, followers, +1s and other such quantifiable metrics to calculate the ROI from social media but it does not limit to these metrics only. Social media ROI is much more it is the online reputation and brand awareness that gets generated as a result of the engagement on social media platforms which is the real ROI from social media presence.

Social Media is the platform where the word of mouth goes viral. Hence it reflects not only the plus points of the products and business but also the drawbacks get a chance to get highlighted. The challenge lies in how the criticism is faced and handled to turn the tables in your favour. The social media is a place where you interact with your existing customers and the potential customers in one place which can be tricky but can help sales too as your satisfied customer can be your best evangelist.

Content

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.

Regular fresh content can trigger the conversation and engagement on social media as managing social media for business is not like personal social media . Content Marketing adds more footprints on the web for web presence but also becomes the crux of connecting to people on the web which in the long run help share the word of mouth which is the basis on which decisions are taken by online buyers. As in real life we are what are thoughts are and we share our thoughts via discussions, seminars, exhibitions, road shows , etc. on the internet we need to share our thoughts via blogs, social media sites, videos, comments, reviews, etc. And establish the thought leadership.

Email Marketing

In 2011, the Direct Marketing Association estimated that email marketing typically returns £40 for every £1 invested. A number of sources have suggested that this is better than any other platform.

Email is an easy and inexpensive way of establishing early and long-lasting relationships by sending newsletters, promotions, new service announcements or event invitations we can remain connected .

Via email the receivers receive curated content about your company and industry and are kept informed. The recent trend is that people want to be informed about the latest without searching for it and email is the best platform that any business can use for this purpose.

With email, everything can be tracked and you can see who clicked on certain links and much more

Email marketing is 20 times more cost-effective than traditional media it's six to 12 times less expensive to sell to an existing customer than to a new one.

The fact is that just one platform in particular and singularly is not going to reap the desired benefit and the ROI needed. Only when all the above mentioned media are implemented together a certain online reputation can be created.

When your potential customer sees your website ranking for the searches he made on the search engine and then also checks the social media for the buzz and finds the presence of your business and reads what his contacts had to say and also get an email from you in his inbox giving more information it surely going to register in his mind and will surely consider when he takes a decision related to the products and services you have to offer.

An accurate ROI of any one media may not be possible but the real ROI is generated when each of these activities supplement each other and make the web presence of the business stronger and boost the online reputation so that the people can trust you online. Gaining trust online should be the long term goal for any web presence activity. (Read more about the Trust Factor on What Influences The Trust Factor Online ?)Eventually , If Content Is King Then Context Is Queen And The Trust Factor Is The Royal Crown.

Others / SEO / Social Media - 11/10/2014

What Influences The Trust Factor Online ?

Author : Bharati Ahuja

Trust is the topmost layer of the semantic web. It is like the cherry on the top of the cake which makes the cake look appealing. People do business with those that they like, know, and trust. If a consumer believes that a specific brand produces quality products or services then such a customer is most likey to become an online brand ambassador.

Trust is the end result of many factors in action. 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.Trust cannot be purchased, it has to be earned over a period of time via continuous and consistent efforts and reliable actions.

Potential online customers critically evaluate a site before finalizing the call to action on the web page.Some of the factors the online customer may scrutinize and critically evaluate are:

A good updated and a functional website: A website which is regularly updated with the latest stock and offers is more trusted than the rest. A consistent logo displayed on an overall web presence on across all platforms builds brand value and also helps customers have a better recall value. Being genuine and avoiding any over the top announcements and claims also adds to the trust factor.

A blog that is regularly updated: A blog is a platform where you can share any news about the industry or about your company. Please do not make your blog a sales platform and avoid spreading sales messages. A blog is a place where you can establish the foundation for your online ‘Thought Leadership’. By offering information and by sharing your knowledge you show that you care and are willing to help your readers / customers / visitors. A person landing on any page of your blog via search engines or social media or via any media should get information about what he was searching for. This encourages repeat visits which lead to recommendations to others. A blog can also become a communication platform via comments.

Social media activity: Social media is the best platform where your satisfied readers and customers are going to share their experiences. This same platform offers you also the option for sharing the content of your website and blog. Social media is not about likes, followers and the no. of people in your circle but about what people are writing about your business/ blog or products and how it is being further shared. Social Media signals in the long run are the main source which help establish the online reputation of a business.

Reviews And Ratings: Reviews and Ratings where people have to login to express them have a better trust factor than the ones posted on the site by the website owners on the website. Though there is a lot of spam involved with this and this factor has to be taken with a pinch of salt it adds to the trust factor in a limited way.

Testimonials: Testimonials from authority people of your industry and from satisfied clients who have a good online reputation does add to the trust factor and influence the user positively.

Good Search Presence: Search engines are the place where all your potential buyers start from . If you have optimized your blog and website and are found by the searcher for more than 3-4 search queries made by him , it will surely sow the seed of trust in his mind and as he goes further and searches on social media and other platforms and again he finds the same presence it goes on adding up and develops an interest and curiosity to know more about your business and products.

Secure Payment Gateway: A secure site where the user can share his personal details and credit card details securely without any fear surely again gains more trust.

Quick response to the inquiry form filled by the user: An online buyer wants quick answers to his queries as he has multiple options available online. If you delay in providing the answers he is surely going to move on to the next option.

Brand search results: Ranking for relevant search queries surely gets you the targeted traffic but when these potential customers want to know more about your company, they expect you to rank for brand search queries too. If your website does not rank for brand search queries then it has a negative impact on the searcher. Hence, ranking for brand search queries is equally important.

Contact Page: A detailed contact page which explicitly has the address and contact numbers adds to the trust factor. If you do not share contact nos. and address and only have a form then it may be detrimental to the trust factor. Why should they share their contact information when you cannot share yours? Openness, genuineness and the willingness to offer answers will surely win the trust vote for your online presence. In this case being found on local search results of Google with all the details too helps in winning the trust of the online visitor.

About us page: Last but not the least, though people are buying the products online they always are curious to know the humans behind the front end and feel confident when the ‘About us’ page has the details of the team offering the facility online. After checking out the products people may also check out the management and other team members online especially when the amounts to be online are substantial.

Just like in real life it takes time before your friends or customers can trust you , online too it takes time to build trust and then retain it. It may range between 2 – 5 years to build the initial trust and then to retain it is a constant exercise and is a continuous effort in proving them that their trust in you is not a wrong decision made by them.

SEO / Social Media - 09/22/2014

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