Digital Marketing Mastery: Insights, Strategies, and Tactics for Success

Yearly Archives: 2013

What is Google Penguin?

Keeping up with a blog or a website can keep a person very busy. Developing high quality content and following all the SEO best practices are just part of the worry that an individual has to bear, not to mention how to get it ranked high in the search engine result pages (SERP). It’s important to maintain a blog or site for an established audience; but it is equally important to get it listed in the top slots of the SERPs so that more people can find it. That’s just good business. There trouble is that just about the time it is all up and running Google releases a new update like Penguin and it’s back to the drawing board.

What is Google Penguin?

Having an online presence is essential for the successful business of today. Google Penguin is really a process used to penalize black hatters who abuse the system in order to gain the advantage and manipulate the search engines into ranking their sites higher in the SERPs. Penguin is really an attempt by Google to clean up the search algorithm and reduce spam as well as site rankings that are from “questionable” sites or irrelevant because they manipulated the system to get located in the coveted 3 slots. It really aims at penalizing those who use “black hat” SEO methods like keyword stuffing, link building schemes, spamdexing, or duplicate content as well as the multitude of techniques used by some SEO companies in order to help clients gain exposure on line.

What is Viral Marketing?

Viral campaign
Go Viral Button

Just a few years ago the internet was like a one-way street where a person got online simply to get information. There was no interaction, and there was no such thing as a share or a like. But as the internet evolved into the Web 2.0 world we know today interaction became the primary element. It is now a super highway running both ways with all sorts of social interactions. This is basically what drives viral marketing. The main idea behind a viral marketing campaign is to initiate social sharing of your message for you. Some experts suggest that a viral campaign will have between 500 and a 1000 times more impact than a campaign that is not viral.

Why is it called “Viral” Marketing?

When we think of a virus, we generally think of flu season. But viral marketing is a strategy which helps pass information on from person to person simulating how a virus is passed until an enormous amount of people have been in contact with it. A viral marketing message has the potential of exponential growth in terms of how many people it is exposed to or how many individuals are influenced by the message. Just like a virus, this strategy will require taking advantage of very rapid multiplication in order for the message to explode out to thousands or millions of individuals.

How to Use YouTube for SEO

SEO Rank
SEO elements

Successful inbound marketing requires a lot of optimized content, and content is not just written words. Videos are one type of content and YouTube is certainly the most popular site for watching them. It just makes good sense to take advantage of YouTube since it is just behind Google when it comes to the sizes of search engines. But YouTube also has a huge impact across social networking sites. In just one day people watch about 500 years’ worth of videos via Facebook; and over 700 videos are shared on Twitter every minute. These large numbers simply demonstrate what an enormous reach videos have. Videos can be useful for boosting a company’s discoverability as well as help to encourage consumer engagement. This is where SEO strategies come is since it is imperative that people are able to find the videos that you put online. There are several strategies for optimizing YouTube videos for SERPs.

What is the Definition of Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing strategy
Digital Marketing

In the simplest of terms, digital marketing is promoting products, brands, reputation or services through one or more types of electronic media. One of the biggest advantages to using digital marketing over more traditional forms of marketing is that marketing campaigns can be analyzed in real time to see what is working and not working. A digital marketing company can monitor what is actually being viewed, how often it is viewed, as well as how long it is viewed. Through the use of digital marketing analysis, companies can even tell what types of content works or does not work and even the specifics of sales conversions. In most cases when the term digital marketing is used people think about the internet or websites, but there are also many other channels and that can be used such as wireless text messaging, mobile apps, Podcasts, electronic digital television, or mobile instant messaging.

The Difference Between Digital Marketing and Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is a form of digital marketing and they are not synonymous. Internet marketing does incorporate the use of many digital channels such as SEO, advertising or email marketing. But digital marketing goes past what just the Internet can provide and includes many other digital or electronic devices.

Types of Content

Content is king
Content

There is really no doubt that creative content is essential to a web marketing campaign. Many businesses already maintain regular blogs as part of their marketing strategies and most are starting to lean more toward social integration. These can be very useful components of a strategic campaign; but if you are using the same kind of content over and over it is most likely just as boring to your audience as it has become to you. It’s important to note that there are a variety of content options available and by using a good mix you can keep your audience engaged and stimulated. It is important then to know about the major types of online content in order to diversify marketing efforts and successfully reach a diverse audience.

Good Content is King

The phrase, “Content is King” was applicable to printed materials even before the Internet. Today, as online content has begun to dominate print content, most web marketing specialists still hold that content is king. Basically, no matter what type of medium is being used solid content is still the heart of the matter. Content is the central part of marketing and SEO campaigns and without it, being found online just isn’t going to happen. There are many ways that content contributes to a successful marketing or SEO campaign and adds value to a site.

Content Builds Customer Loyalty

Too many times inexperienced SEO professionals build campaigns around first-time or unique visitors. While this is an important aspect of the campaign and essential to growth, businesses cannot be well established based on first-time visitors. Successful companies do not make their money from a single visit by a first-time customer. The real money is made by consumers who choose to return over and over again. A good example is the Wall Street Journal who has made their money from people who have read their content and decided that it was interesting and good enough to purchase the paper again, or subscribe. The Wall Street Journal would not be the giant it is today (both online and off) if they relied on getting a new customer to purchase the paper every time.

What are the Best Social Media Sites for SEO?

LinkedIn Logo
Logo for LinkedIn

Just a few years ago SEO and social media simply coexisted. But over the last few years the line between the two began to blur. Now more than ever the major search engines use social signals as part of their ranking algorithms. In web marketing today an effective SEO strategy will be incomplete without incorporating into it the social aspect of the Web 2.0 which is built around the social element to begin with. And on the other hand, an effective social media strategy will be contributory to the SEO initiative. It is important for the two to work together in order to achieve higher rankings in the SERPs, increase site traffic and of course increase the ROI for a business. Over the last few years there have been several giants in the world of social media; but recently there have been some changing of the guard. Here three top social media platforms that should be part of any social media strategy used in an SEO campaign.

rand seo

How to Brand a Site

A company brand is a symbol which represents the business. In one respect it is meant to represent the characteristics, associations, and experiences of the business in one abstract form. It may be a logo, phrase, sound…; but a brand is designed so that it makes people who see or hear it think about the company and what it represents to them. When it is done well, a brand image can keep consumer’s mind on your particular products, services, quality, value, size, market position or whatever else might matter between the company and the individual. The way the company web site is designed will represent what consumers should be able to expect out of the company, their product or service. An online presence should be open, honest, up-front and transparent. Branding your website is about constructing a very concise, neat online personality and applying it consistently across the site as well as across the web.

Web Site Consistency

Your brand is more than just a logo with a tagline; it represents you and everything about your business to consumers. When branding a site, it is important to reinforce the image of the brand throughout the web site. Make sure to be consistent in style, or design. A logo should be positioned in the upper left hand corner of each page since this is where a visitor’s eyes tend to go first. Don’t oversize the logo; but don’t make it so small that it is difficult to identify. Use images that are reusable in order to optimize the site’s speed. In order to successfully brand your site, it will have to be memorable to site visitors.