7 Search Engine Optimization Fundamentals You Must Know!

Search engine optimizers may appear like snake oil charmers to many, however the truth of the matter is they are still those guys who can help you reach on top, because even now there are many things which a regular webmaster may not be aware of or capable of. From the SEO point of view they need to be aware of some fundamentals so that their client is able to extract the best possible rankings for their keywords. Let’s start our checklist of seven basic search engine optimization fundamentals.

1. Use the right keywords in the right places like title, h1 tag and url . Make a list of all the possible keywords with the help of keyword tools, self research and client’s input. Then decide which one to be used based on competitiveness and place them in the right places so that Google is able to index your site by those keywords in the appropriate categories.

2. Silo your website i.e. cut the flab. Remove all the unnecessary code which is increasing your load time, remove all the old content which has not been refreshed in ages. Replace it with smart code and content.

3. Use evergreen content which will not lose its value with time. In addition to it, do not underestimate the importance of the seasonal content as well. Seasonal content can give unimaginable traffic in short spurts, whereas evergreen content will always ensure the supply of minimum desired visitors.

4. Leverage the importance of social media. Go after targeted audience, the masses and the influencers. The priority should be building the relationship. I repeat, create trust and make place for your acceptability. Not in your wildest dream send any spam to them. That would be the biggest blunder of your SEO career.

5. Build Email list. Capture your own audience. Entice them, educate them and entertain them. Your email subscribers will lay the foundation stone of your success. They could be your potential customers. Nurture them, if they love you , you will become the Lord of your niche, if not, you will continue to struggle.

6. Keep your website updated: Not for nothing the “The query deserves freshness’ is regarded as an important signal in terms of keyword ranking. Keep auditing your content, code and design on a periodic basis.

7. Keep learning: The world of online promotion is changing at a break neck speed. Even now when you are reading this, there are lots of new stuff happening in unknown corners of the world which you might not be aware of. Subscribe to important blogs, news feeds, keep an eye on all the important happenings of the SEO world. Stay updated to stay ahead of the curve.

If a SEO adheres to above mentioned fundamentals, his/her clients will never have to worry about their search engine ranking ever again.

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5 Social Media Lessons To Learn From MS Dhoni!

Indian Cricket and Chennai Super Kings captain, MS Dhoni may have lost the finals of ill fated IPL which got surrounded with fixing controversy, however he has a dedicated fan base who swear by his name and vouch for his performance. If we try to study Dhoni as brand, and what makes him the most successful captain of all times we can draw some interesting lessons in reference to social media. Let's try and know those lessons.

1. Be Consistent: If there has been one single player who has been consistent all throughout, it is Dhoni except for a few bad patches here or there. No other player has been as consistent as him (in all the game formats) in terms of performance.  In social media too, one has to perform consistently. You cannot be there for some time and then not update your account, get bored, or simply update at will, without any schedule adherence. Your social media profile should be like an entertainment channel, who not just entertains its followers but keep them engaged as well.

2. Keep Learning: The Dhoni of 2007 and the Dhoni of 2013 are two different entities. The flamboyant guy with wild celebrations has evolved as captain cool. He himself has admitted that he learnt a lot from the company of all those senior pros who are legends in their own league. In social media too, we need to keep learning from others. Whenever we see a successful social media campaign we should make an attempt to study it, understand the factors involved, what did they do to make it successful and how can we incorporate those things. Evolve and keep revising your social media strategies as you learn.


3. Creative Thinker: It is one thing to tread a path shown by others, it is quite another to create your own. All those social media campaigns which have been successful have this common trait of doing something different. Dhoni too has executed many unconventional decisions and he has been rewarded for those risks. Not that his every gamble worked, however most did. In social media too one needs to take calculative risks by being a creative thinker.

4. Keep a Cool Head: This one is my favorite. No matter what the situation is , Dhoni doesn't loses his cool. This is what makes him so much more different from others. Social media is a difficult beast to tame and many a times things will spin out of control. People might take offence, when you least expect them to and in return it starts affecting your brand severally. Don’t panic. Don’t start the blame game. Just lookout for ways to diffuse it. The sooner a social media controversy gets sorted out the better it is. And only cool heads can do it not the grumpy faces.

5. Lead From the Front: Dhoni leads from the front. He is a star performer. A Social media campaign manager needs to lead from the front too. We understand it is a team work, however, he needs to lead from the front for all the out of box ideas, for timely execution and give the credit to the team if it becomes successful and take the responsibility in case it doesn't.

Remember: Right now, Social media is that kind of sport which every few understand or are able to play it well ;)

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5 Common Mistakes To Avoid in Pay Per Click Campaigns!

Pay per click (PPC) is all about accountability and when we see a campaign, not producing desired results then it is bound to raise some serious questions. Google’s Adwords, the most used PPC program also credits its success to mainly 3 factors, Reach, Relevance and ROI. So when you see a campaign getting off the mark, instead of pressing the complete overhaul button, a better idea will be to take a step by step approach on rectifying the key issues. Let’s try and understand the 5 common mistakes which any PPC campaign may have resulting in under performance.

1. Keyword Chaos : The keywords being used are not targeted enough. Further they don’t include the different stages of buying cycle. The phrases being used are not being used intelligently. Moreover, not much attention is being paid to the effective use of negative keywords. Pay attention to these four points and your keywords related issues will be over.

2. The Not So Granule Approach : When you look at your adwords account structure, ask yourself - is it granule enough? What this means is, can you break it down further. The ad groups you have created, are they still broad based in nature or have they been broken down to complete specifics. The success of any PPC account depends a lot on its structure. The more granule, the better.

3. Lazy Ad copy : When you are designing a PPC ad, no one expects you to be maverick ad guru; however, a reasonable quality is certainly expected. Take a second look at your ad copy, see how can you make it better, is there any USP which can make you stand apart from other PPC ads in the same niche or can you rework on the call to action text or use a better image or a better color combination, for better CTR.

4. Landing Page Leukemia : How many of us use website optimizer or other tools like http://wingify.com to see what is going wrong with the design, UX or usability of our website.I have been saying this for long that, getting traffic is one part of the problem, what to do with that traffic in another part. The key to a successful PPC campaign lies in its ability to get high conversions. This is where landing page optimization becomes so much important.

5. Report Reviewing fatigue : When you look at those black numbers assorted together in some excel sheet, are you actually able to make sense of it? Apart from the basic information (like low CTR, number of clicks, quality score) are your really able to dive into your reports like a reporting ninja and come out with actionable insights. If the answer is no, then read some blogs like, http://searchengineland.com/8-crucial-adwords-reports-for-measuring-success-49167 , also kaushik.net (even though he talks about analytics report, it should be good enough to make you understand the basic in a very simple and lucid manner). We will write on PPC in the upcoming days, specially on the reports, so watch out for this space.

If you analyze your PPC account as per the above mentioned points, I am sure, after a certain period you will end up having a better account with more targeted reach and a higher Return on Investment.

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