June 2012 - Serendipity Online Marketing

Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest trend in social media

29/06/2012/in Social Media Marketing /by SEO Researcher

Social media is a great way of connecting with people and you can really engage with your customers. With so many social media sites freely available, it can be a bit difficult to know which to use. The latest trend is Pintrerest and it does seem to be very popular, so don’t miss out on your opportunity to share.

Pinterest is the current darling of social media, and for good reason. According to Experian Hitwise, it is the third most popular social network in the US in terms of total visits (21.5m visits in one week in January 2012, 30 fold increase vs. July 2011).

Pinterest is primarily considered part of an overall social media strategy, but whilst doing some SEO planning for a Client the other day I realised how well it could also fit within the SEO framework….More at How to use Pinterest for link building and blogger outreach …

Keep up to date with mobile technology

28/06/2012/in Mobile Search /by SEO Researcher

As mobile devices are now used so very much for surfing the internet, it really is essential that business owners ensure that their websites are visible on all the mobile platforms or risk missing out on a huge amount of business. With social networking being accessed constantly on mobiles, it does not take long for word to get around these days and negative publicity will not do your company any good at all.

As of now, all the mobile phones being manufactured are now compatible to be used for internet browsing. Actually, this is now called as mobile internet browsing. For most internet enthusiasts, mobile internet browsing is now known as the easiest way to enter the worldwide web.

….More at How To Make An Effective Mobile Web Design

Video presentation Are you losing money?

Make sure your content passes muster

27/06/2012/in Google /by SEO Researcher

SEO content writing should not have evolved a lot right after Google Penguin update, however it did, resulting in a shockwave among a large number of online marketers who have been over-optimizing their articles.

Blog and forums feature a huge number of threads from otherwise smart folks spewing rubbish about 3%-4% keyword densities, particular LSI densities along with other junk. These methods will not work any longer.

The truth is, not only is SEO content writing is changed; it is probably dying.

And some day – when the major search engines are “smart” more than enough – composing for SEs may become a historical technique together with cloaking, article rewriting and posting in private blog networks…More at Exclusive SEO Content Writing Tips after Google Penguin Update

When Google launched its Panda and Penguin algorithms the whole idea was to make enquiries more focus on quality. In the past, when a Google search was performed, literally millions of results were published for the searcher to choose from and often these results were not what was being looked for. Penguin constanly updates, so if your website is not regularly updated with new information, it will slip down the rankings. If your website is updated with the ‘wrong’ sort of information, it will silp down the rankings. By being vigilant and playing by the rules at all times, you should see your website remaining high in the rankings.

A few ideas to make your own business videos

25/06/2012/1 Comment/in Social Media Marketing, Video Marketing /by SEO Researcher

Social networking is all the rage and many businesses are making use of it to enhance their online profiles. YouTube is very popular with many people and a short video can be really useful to your business. Whether you want to promote a particular product or service, or want to do a ‘how to’ video, YouTube can be an excellent medium for sharing.

If you decide to produce a short video, plan ahead and consider what you want to show. If you are appearing on the video, be yourself but try and come across as confident and professional. If you are doing a ‘how to’ piece, produce a case study that looks real and run through it a few times before shooting the video so that your piece looks smooth and professional. There really is nothing worse than watching a ‘how to’ video that has not been properly prepared with the host ‘umming’ and being unsure of what they are doing, this really does not show their work to their best advantage. By all means inject a little humour into the piece but be fully au fait with what you are doing so that you really do appear to be an expert in your field and not end up looking like amateur night, which could be damaging to your business reputation. Keep your video short and simple, don’t diverge off topic so that you give the information that is pertinent. It is easy to get carried away and make your video too long but if you make nice bite sized pieces, people are more likely to watch.

So, to sum up, when making a video; be yourself but be professional, keep it short and to the point, make it fun if you can and be well prepared before filming begins.

5 Tips to help keep visitors to your website happy

22/06/2012/1 Comment/in Uncategorised, Web Design /by SEO Researcher

Here are 5 tips to help you keep visitors to your website happy

1. Make sure your contact information is clearly visible. It never ceases to amaze me how many websites do not clearly show their phone number or address. Not every visitor will want to call you but at least if the number is there, the option is open for them to do so. Your business address is also important, if visitors cannot see your address, they may not purchase from you. To me, it always looks a little bit dubious if there is no postal address and I ask myself if this is a genuine company.

2. Always answer telephone calls, messages and emails promptly. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to get an answer to a query if the phone goes unanswered or messages and emails appear to be ignored. From my own point of view, I loathe answering machines and generally will not leave a message, preferring to try again later.

3. Use correct spelling and grammar, there are still a lot of people who do care that language is well written, spelt and punctuated. If you are not confident about your writing skills, ask someone you trust to read what you have written and help you correct any errors.

4. Be clear in showing prices and shipping costs. I don’t know how many times I have gone looking for shipping costs and not been able to find them until I get to the checkout. I like to know roughly how much I will be expected to pay towards delivery before I buy goods. Many potential customers will abandon their shopping if they are unable to find out how much shipping will be or even when they arrive at checkout and feel that the costs are unreasonable.

5. Have a call to action on each page of your website. Calls to action are used to engage visitors, so where you see things like ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Follow us on …’ or ‘Continue reading’ these are used as invitations to encourage the visitor to do something that you would like them to do.

Always do your preparations before you begin your online marketing campaign

21/06/2012/1 Comment/in Google, SEO /by SEO Researcher

Preparation is the key to much that we do in life and if we are well prepared before we begin, it gives us the best chance of success. It does not necessarily mean we will win every time but at least we have the comfort of knowing that we have done all the groundwork beforehand and that we have tried our best to succeed. The same is true of arranging your online marketing campaign. When you begin to plan your campaign it is important that you do some groundwork so that you are properly prepared and do not miss out on something that may turn out to be important later on.

Take optimizing your website, it is important that you have original and interesting copy which is carefully laced with keywords and key phrases. How do you know what keywords and key phrases to use? This is where doing some keyword research really pays off and you can pick up some really productive keywords to use that will give your site something interesting for the search engine spiders to digest. Do not overload your site with keywords or phrases as this will be dismissed by the spiders and your site will not move up the organic rankings. Keep your writing short and to the point, try not to ramble or go off topic. It is a good idea to change your copy from time to time as this keeps your site dynamic and again is attractive to the search engine spiders.

Make sure you are not missing out on the mobile market

12/06/2012/2 Comments/in Social Media Marketing, Uncategorised /by SEO Researcher

When planning your website, you need to remember that not everyone will access it via a computer, many people will use their mobile devices to visit your site, so you need to take this into account. There is an old saying that ‘less is more’ and in setting up a website for mobile devices, this is very much the case. Keeping it brief means that visitors are not using up their precious data allowance and it loads quickly. You could perhaps set up 2 different mobile landing pages to see which is more effective in making conversions. As with a traditional landing page, continual testing and monitoring is essential so that you can quickly resolve any issues or make changes for the better.

Believing that a mobile campaign will help your business will encourage you to be innovative and using a site that has been specifically set up to capture the mobile market can really enhance your business. Make sure you make use of all the free social media sites to gain followers so that you can tell them about your site, special offers, handy hints, useful articles and blogs. Think about what you like to see as a potential customer or set up an SMS survey so that you can get some feedback. Acquiring and keeping customers is the name of the game and it is jolly hard work to keep feeding them interesting titbits, but remember that Joe Public is fickle. Having excellent customer service will always put you ahead of the competition, so make sure that you are doing everything possible to ensure your customers and even potential customers are being well looked after.

Mobile technology is such a big part of daily life now that if your website is not accessible on mobile devices, you could be missing out big time.

The purpose of internet marketing

01/06/2012/1 Comment/in Uncategorised /by SEO Researcher

The whole purpose of internet marketing is to generate traffic and turn visitors into customers. You need to target the traffic that comes to your website so that you increase the chances of conversion. There are some things you can do to help achieve this.

Your website must be designed to suit your business style and give visitors what they are expecting to see. If they don’t see or can’t find what they are looking for, they will leave. It is important that you understand your own market so that you know what your visitors are likely to want and you will be able to give them that. Make it easy for them to navigate your site so that they can find what they are looking for. Make sure that links to other pages are clearly marked and that your basket and checkout are easy to find, there is nothing worse for a visitor than selecting goods and not being able to find the checkout. It is surprising how many times this loses a sale.

Do not treat visitors like idiots, try to connect with them and make them feel welcome on your website. If you can make them feel that your website has been built just for them, they are more likely to remain and complete the purchase. Make your content interesting so that you look as if you know what you are talking about without being a know-it-all. Use language that is easy to understand but without talking down to people. Be inspiring and fresh so that you stand out from the crowd.

Use tracking software so that you can see what visitors are doing when they arrive on your site. Where do they go? How long do they stay on each page for? Where are they coming from? These are questions that you need to know the answers to so that you can tailor your marketing strategy and get the most value for your budget.