Starting 2013, we will be publishing reviews on the tools we currently use for online marketing or plan to try out.

Hope these blog posts will help some of our clients and business owners get transparent understanding, benefits and weak points in these tools.

So, let’s get started with our Tool review of Hittail.com

What is HitTail?

HitTail is primarily a web analytics tool with a focus on suggesting organic keywords to target for SEO. However, unlike Google Analytics it breaks down the complex data into actionable items for the inbound marketeer.

HitTail shows the most promising “search terms” in search engines you should target, based on your existing traffic.

Read More: SEO Tool Review: HitTail.com

More advertisers are taking advantage of Google’s Display Network in their online advertising mix. Being a proponent of the GDN, I think this is great.

That being said, as I continue to get a peek into new AdWords accounts or through conversations with other advertisers or potential clients, I’ve come to realize that a lot of folks are making big mistakes in their GDN campaigns.

These mistakes are typically the byproduct of a lack of knowledge (you don’t know what you don’t know, right?). In other cases it is simply a fear of the unknown that is holding an advertiser back. Either way, today is your opportunity to dodge a bullet. Consider these five mistakes and see how you can improve your GDN performance.

1. Lumping Image & Text Ads into the Same Ad Group

One of the biggest flaws of AdWords is that it allows you to target all networks and all ad types within the same campaign and ad group(s). You could feasibly have search and display layered with computer, tablet and mobile targeting with a whipped topping of text, WAP and image ads (banners)! What good can come from this?

I could write an entire article on just that topic, but to the point - when targeting the GDN, you can build ad groups that leverage both text and image ads. This is a mistake.

• Text and image ads can and will be placed on different sites across the GDN. If these ads are running in the same ad group, it isn't possible to segment in a Placement Performance report which websites each ad type was placed on.
• Each ad type will perform differently and require a different bidding strategy.
• Separating ad types into unique ad groups will make creating segmented reports that much easier.

2. Disregarding Average Position for Text Ads on Display

Text ads and image ads perform differently on the GDN. One important difference is how they perform in relation to average ad position.

Image ads rank in position 1. That’s it. Your ad either shows or it doesn’t.

Read More

Website Design Company | Web Development Agency

Many small businesses are still severely rattled by Google’s aggressive moves in the spring of 2012.

Many webmasters received the dreaded backlink warning emails directly from Google Webmaster Tools. And the Google PR machine got to many more who did not get direct notifications, which has sent them trying to figure out what the latest search algorithm updates really mean and what new marketing ideas they need to adopt to earn Google’s trust back.

Diversify Your SEO - But How?

The overall message is clear. You need to diversify your SEO strategies – a 2012 upgrade to your link building, if you will. An SEM realignment, reorientation, and for some, total reinvention.

The message wasn't subtle, Google is using their megaphone to show that tactics once considered light gray have been re-cast a few shades darker in 2012.

While most get the message, there is still confusion about how to change. Perhaps this is old-fashioned resistance to anything new or perhaps they just don’t see that it’s possible.

My Small Business is Too Boring for a Fancy SEM Strategy

I used to sympathize with the idea that some businesses just can’t be creative. While large Fortune 100 companies (with complex products and deep pockets) seem to always have interesting things going on, little businesses operate with much smaller margins for error. And some products just aren't exciting to talk about online. Those fun online marketing ideas won’t work for the average boring small business, right?

Exhibit A: Even Magnets Can be Fun

A recent interview with Rochester Magnet opened my eyes to the notion that even super-boring manufacturing businesses have opportunity for SEM creativity. Andrew Carpentier, former Dell employee and now CEO of Rochester Magnet, was originally convinced that magnets had no place in social media.

Here's an excerpt from a pre-Penguin Interview I did with him a few months ago (see the full interview with Rochester Magnet here):

“My perception is that magnets are not dynamic enough that people are looking to blogs or Twitter for that latest and greatest thing. I’m not sure there would be much payoff. Often in the B2B world, I see blogs with the latest post dated 2010 giving me the impression it didn’t work and was abandoned. That looks really bad!”

Post-Penguin, Rochester Magnet has reconsidered their position. In June, they plan to launch a social media campaign with the hopes of community engagement, link baiting and fun. They are using tactics such as “show us the funniest magnet you’ve ever seen” and “the most bizarre invention that includes a magnet”.

Some will say that the direct backlink utility of these activities is lower than traditional SEO link building. But in a post-Penguin world, these are incredibly legitimizing marketing ideas that leave the backlink footprint any small business would admire.

Exhibit B: Rockin’ the Church Bus

Selling and servicing small and medium buses for churches is a fairly mundane business as well. Dominic Menard, Director of Communications at Carpenter Bus, shared Carpentier’s initial resistance to creative SEM campaigns in 2011. But in a recent discussion he revealed that views have evolved on the topic and why social media is now more appealing.

“The value in social for us is that it’s a new way to get to decision makers using channels that didn’t used to exist,” Menard said. “We are starting to see in 2012 that even our brand can benefit by corralling online activity that’s already there. We now recognize an intrinsic value in these online communities that we didn’t see before.”

Carpenter Bus, no stranger to charitable giving, has decided to donate church bus rental time to youth groups this year. But here’s the twist: Unlike previous charity giveaways, they figured out that the entire donation can (and should) be run through social media in an effort to generate more buzz online, positive social media press for the firm, and backlinks.

Youth groups, due to their age, are active in social media, and very much need transportation. Why not tie this activity into a creative SEM campaign?

Conclusions

Google has spoken loudly in the first half of 2012. Link building tactics once considered reasonable – or at least not black hat – are clearly on the wrong side of the line now. Small business is struggling to digest this and figure out exactly what new marketing ideas are needed in their SEM strategies.

The first alignment may well be in how owners view themselves. Small business needs to embrace the new SEM reality just as Rochester Magnet and Carpenter Bus have, digging deep with interesting marketing ideas that provide new online venues for visibility. This should include educating more than marketing, recognizing that content marketing has evolved, and bringing your small business SEM strategy up-to-code in post-Penguin 2012.

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Search Engine Optimization Expert | Web Development Agency

Yahoo has unveiled its answer to big data-driven audience targeting. The company's new Genome offering combines the huge inventory capacity of the network it's formed with AOL and MSN with Yahoo data and an added layer of third-party data from Yahoo-owned Interclick.

The product, to be made available in July, is intended to satisfy "a big unmet need for targeting and greater insights," said Rich Riley, Yahoo EVP Americas.

Yahoo introduced Genome yesterday at a splashy event in Soho, New York at the Internet Week headquarters, which was kicked off with a talk by Billy Beane, general manager of Major League Baseball's Oakland A's. Beane's story of applying new data and statistics to increase efficiencies in choosing players was featured in the book and film "Moneyball."

Though Beane didn't draw direct comparisons between baseball and the online ad business, insights provided in his speech are appropriate analogies. In baseball, he said, "You can measure every single event and the value of every event."

Genome follows in the footsteps of other audience networks that incorporate several data sets to target online ads. The magnitude of the inventory available in the network should differentiate it from smaller data-centric audience targeting networks.

Yahoo said the system will combine its registration, search, and behavioral data with information from 25 data sources, along with advertiser data, to perform predictive modeling for ad targeting and optimization. The platform will be used to target ad formats including display, mobile, and video.

While so-called big data is all the rage, it appears many advertisers have yet to apply the data they have at their disposal in a meaningful, systematic way.

"It's really difficult for us to use all the interesting data in order to make it actionable," said Michele Morelli, SVP display, lead generation and digital marketing for Citibank. Morelli spoke on a panel during the Yahoo event.

She also suggested that the systems like Genome might not fulfill the ultimate needs of companies that advertise across several forms of media, rather than just online. An online solution is not necessarily appealing to Citibank, Morelli said, adding that her company needs a "marketing solution."

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Web Development Company | Website Design Company India

In my previous article I talked about four main goals or “personas” you should keep in mind when writing content for your website. Your visitors display a lot more variety than that, though. Four different visitors could have the same goal, but approach it in completely different ways. If you want to sell to all of them, you need to write with their buying personalities in mind.

Once again, I owe a hat tip to Stoney deGeyter for discussing this point. In his article, though, he draws indirectly on a philosophy dating back to Hippocrates. Back in those days, and for a long time afterwards, doctors believed that both illness and one's personality stemmed from four “humors,” and treatment aimed to balance these humors. While science discredited the medical part of this theory, it turns out the idea of four different basic personalities has some merit.

To be honest, we're all a little too complicated to be easily broken down into one of four categories. But in trying to build content to encourage a very specific behavior, you can afford to simplify a little. The real challenge comes in creating content that appeals to each buying personality, and is easy for them to find. As you'll see, they all care about somewhat different things, and something that will turn one personality off will actually help to convince another one to convert.

Let's start with the first personality. Hippocrates labeled this one choleric. Another term you might use is competitive or goal-oriented. This visitor will want to see all his options before he buys. He does not like inefficiency, and gets annoyed if he can't bag the “perfect” solution. He will look at your site with one question in mind: will what you have to offer help him achieve his goals?

You may have also heard the term “Type A” used to describe this personality. They're impatient; they don't have time to shop around, and they don't have time for the “BS” of marketing language or other fluff. Quite the opposite, in fact; if you want to earn this buyer's respect, be honest about any negative aspects of your product or service. In turn, you should respect their time by making your website easy to navigate; they won't stay for long on a complicated, difficult-to-use website. Why should they? If they can't easily find what they're looking for, they're quite willing to go elsewhere.

The down side of selling to a Type A person, as I'm sure you've guessed, is he's not an easy sell. The up side, though, is that once you've sold to him, he's a loyal customer. So put your most trustworthy foot forward, and “demonstrate the true value of your product without over-hyping it,” deGeyter recommends. Make sure your visitor can find all the information they need quickly and easily. Get them to take the next step toward conversion with links and calls to action.

Hippocrates also noted a personality type he called “phlegmatic.” We might use the term “spontaneous.” This kind of buyer cares very much about the latest trends and other people's opinions. He'll check with his friends via social media and look up online reviews to make sure he's making the right choice.

He wants quick gratification, and doesn't want to miss out on a good thing. Notice that this need to check other people's opinions and the need for instant gratification can strongly conflict with each other. You can help balance them out by providing great customer service at every point in the sales process – including after the sale, to help deal with potential buyer's remorse.

You must reach this kind of customer on an emotional level. Never mind the “bland corporate mumbo jumbo,” as deGeyter puts it; write content that will captivate this visitor, with your products' unique value proposition right up front. Calls to action may help this visitor convert, but positive testimonials will really push him into purchasing. Unlike the competitive customer, you'll need to keep negatives under wraps; this purchaser is especially turned off by negative reviews.

The personality Hippocrates called “sanguine,” we might call “humanistic.” Like a spontaneous buyer, he'll look at your reviews, but with a much more critical eye. Will you meet his needs, or let him down? He has his eyes on the bigger picture, which makes him extra cautious, as his own needs may not be the most important ones he's considering in this purchase. He almost expects to be disappointed, and wants to protect against it by not being “locked in.” Make sure you put your guarantees and easy return policies right out front to reassure this buyer.

The good news is that once you make a humanistic buyer comfortable, he'll keep coming back. The bad news is that he'll need at least as much reassurance as a spontaneous buyer, if not more. Make sure to provide plenty of positive reviews and testimonials for him to read. Expect this buyer to visit your “About Us” page to get a better understanding of who you are and how you think. This buyer, even more than any of the other kinds of buyers, needs to know that he can trust you, so give him every reason to do that.

Finally, we come to Hippocrates' “melancholy” personality, which we might characterize as “methodical.” This detail-oriented buyer just might read every page on your site, reviewing and weighing all the evidence in making his decision.  The more information you can give him, the better – but note, I said “information,” not “fluff.” As with a competitive or goal-oriented customer, a methodical buyer wants all the facts, and nothing fancy. This buyer boasts a natural skeptical streak that you risk annoying with too much hype. If you make any claims, make sure you can back them up.

To woo this kind of buyer, dress yourself in authority. According to deGeyter, a methodical buyer “likes graphs and tables, specs and other detailed 'proof' you can provide...Don't say anything that sound too good to be true, because it likely is” and that will only cause a methodical buyer to walk away.

Finding the right way to address each of these personalities can help you win more conversions. It's a tricky balance and a fine line to walk in some cases, but it can be done. Good luck!

Source

Professional Web design Firm | Search Engine Optimization Expert

You know all the benefits that writing a guest post for a well-read blog in your niche can offer. You know you can write great content because you're an expert in your field. But how do you get into guest blogging? Let me give you a few clues from the blog editor's perspective.

I'd like to tip my hat to two people here. The first one is Matt Goffrey. He's written articles for SEO Chat for the last quarter, and he's done just about everything a guest poster should do. The second one is Matt Beswick. He wrote a piece for Search Engine Journal on how to cheat at guest posting and get away with it. Some of the tips I'll be including here I got from his article – but I'll be talking about them from the other side of the desk.

So let's assume, for the moment, that you're an expert in  your field, and you want to find someone – or many someones – who will appreciate that expertise. It's a little like dating seriously; you'll looking to build a relationship that will last for a long time and be mutually beneficial. Instead of going to an online dating site, though, you might start by hitting up Google and searching for the keywords “guest post by” or “write for us.” Beswick recommends this. I don't know if Goffrey did this, but he certainly could have found SEO Chat that way; we do, in fact, have a “Write for us” page that covers the entire Developer Shed network.

Once you've collected a list of candidates, forget about sending flowers and chocolate to all of them. If you really wanted to score a date online, you'd study profiles, and that's what you're about to do. Go to each site on which you're thinking of guest posting and read a bunch of entries. You need to read enough posts to get a feeling for the site. Remember that saying about being known by the company you keep – so if you find a site that isn't posting quality content, cross them off your list. Aim for websites that will appreciate what you have to offer.

After you've narrowed down your list, you need to approach each website with your offer to write a guest post. Beswick almost glosses over this as part of the hunt (so totally like a man, right?). As an editor who will receive your offer, however, I see this as a separate step. Focus on each website, and write an individualized letter for each one. Get the name of the editor if you can, and include it in your salutation. Tell her what you like about the website, why you want to write for it, and what value you can add. List your qualifications and include links to examples of your writing.

If the website features a “write for us” page that includes a procedure to follow, follow it. Few things turn on an editor as much as a writer who can follow directions. If that means you need to include a free writing sample, do it. As an editor, I must see what your writing looks like “naked” to know how much time I'll need to invest in fixing your deathless prose. Matt Goffrey did this, and his sample became his first guest post on SEO Chat. It included our first link back to him.

So you've impressed your target editor enough to convince her to give you a try. The next step is to come to an agreement. Make sure you know your editor's requirements as to the length of your posts, the topics you will cover, how links back to your site will be presented, and so forth. Use your own voice, but match the tone of the site. For example, you probably won't find any authors on SEO Chat that write with the mellifluous grandiloquence of an Oxford don, but you won't find texting shortcuts or “leet speak” either. Above all, don't be boring!

Do your research and turn in a high-quality guest post, on time. You can't flub this step; a good editor will spot it. We know our specialties, too, and we can tell when someone is feeding us a line. If you must delay submitting a post, you'd better have a good reason. Remember, this is supposed to be a long-term relationship; that means you might be doing regular guest posts, and getting link juice from all of them. So do what you can to keep your editor and the website's readers happy.

Bringing up the blog's readers reminds me of the other target audience you need to please. If you've written a good guest post, you will probably get some comments. Respond to them. Readers love it when writers engage with them. It keeps them coming back for more. And believe me, editors notice this! So answer questions from readers, engage them in discussion, and so forth. If you need to set up some kind of alert or spreadsheet to check your blog posts for comments, as Beswick suggests, do it.

You're still not quite done, however. After you've written your first guest post for a website, make sure to thank them for the opportunity. If you want to politely pitch your next idea for a guest post at this time, you can, but be low-key about it. Your editor may want to see how this post does first. Fortunately, that's another area in which you can provide a boost.

If you're guest posting on a blog, you're probably getting traffic from a link that leads from your guest post to one of your own properties: your website, your own blog, your Google profile, your Facebook page, what have you. It's only right to return the favor. Get on your social media and send out a link to the guest post. “Tweet your post, share it on Facebook, vote it up on Reddit, and generally make sure that you’re being a good guest author,” Beswick recommends. He explains that “this will be noticed and massively increases the chance that you’ll be invited back.”

You'll want to repeat this process for every website for which you'd like to write guest posts. Yes, it takes a while, but when was the last time you built a long-term relationship in just a few minutes? Do it right, and you'll benefit yourself, the websites for which you write, and all of the readers that come to visit. That's a beautiful outcome in anyone's book. Good luck!

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Web Development Agency | Website Design Company

Could Facebook's cash machine be slowing down? That's one possible conclusion observers can draw from the paperwork the company recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. While it's not likely to slow down investors, it's not the best news to get so close to the social media giant's IPO.

According to a quick item from David Angotti for Search Engine Land, Facebook reported that its net income fell 12 percent in the first quarter of 2012. Looking at the previous quarter's total revenues, the latest quarter saw total revenues fall six percent, to $1.06 billion. That may not be cause for serious concern, however – especially when you consider that the previous quarter included the holiday shopping season, and Facebook makes its money from ads. Indeed, the company itself noted that the downturn was due to “seasonal trends.” Compare Facebook's revenues to the year-ago quarter, and you see growth of 45 percent.

While those numbers should hearten investors, digging a little deeper reveals some cause for concern. As Angotti noted, “acquisition and operating expenses are rapidly rising.” Some of that can be attributed to the explosive growth in Facebook's membership. The L.A. Times reported that Facebook is up to 901 million monthly active users as of the end of March. That represents more than 50 million new users in just three months.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that many new users means Facebook needs to keep building on its infrastructure to make it scale properly: new machines, new software, and more skilled employees, in both technical and non-technical areas, to keep everything running smoothly. In fact, operating expenses have risen enough to make accountants put out whatever may be left of their hair after this tax season. Looking at the year-over-year figures, operating costs went from $343 million for the first quarter of 2011 to $677 million last quarter. That's nearly double the expenses in just one short year!

But these aren't the only new expenses facing the social media site. Last year, Facebook's total acquisition costs came in at $68 million. Just this quarter, the company agreed to purchase Instagram, a relatively new but wildly popular photo sharing app, for $1 billion ($300 million in cash plus 23 million shares of stock). Facebook also spent $550 million acquiring rights to a patent portfolio from Microsoft. Observers expect the company to use these patents to help defend itself from a Yahoo lawsuit.

The messy legal situation could complicate matters. As the Wall Street Journal explains, Yahoo accused Facebook last month of violating 10 Yahoo patents covering online advertising and communications. The patents Facebook bought from Microsoft, according to WSJ's unnamed source, “relate to fundamental Internet technologies, including email, instant messaging, Web browsing, Web search, online advertising, mobile technology and e-commerce.” In addition to the patents purchased from Microsoft (which the software giant originally got from AOL), Facebook has also recently bought 750 patents from IBM, and gone on the attack by countersuing Yahoo.

Observers seem to be all over the map as to whether these figures will put a serious damper on Facebook's IPO. Even the same person may end up telling you two different things. For example, take Lou Kerner, founder of the Social Internet Fund, which invests in social media companies (but not Facebook, or at least not at the moment).

For the Wall Street Journal, Kerner started by sounding a warning note. “We are seeing slow growth [at Facebook], which is never a positive thing,” he said. But he also noted that “Few investors are buying Facebook for first-quarter results. Facebook is trying to dominate a massive new sector — social media — and is willing to forgo short-term revenue growth and profitability.”

Facebook may offer a lot of good surprises in the future. As part of the Microsoft deal, for instance, Facebook agreed to take over the shell of Netscape, along with some patents that originated at that pioneering Internet browser company. That may not be that surprising to those who know that Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape, is also a Facebook director.

Not everyone is convinced that Facebook has its act together for the future, especially if they plan to continue getting their revenue from advertising. One of Angotti's readers commented on his article to note that Facebook's “FastTrack” program is “a total joke.” While he admitted that their ad program can be effective, in his opinion it did not compare at all favorably to AdWords or AdCenter. “Seeing as that is how they generate the bulk of their revenue I think they should focus on improving their ad infrastructure, I see it as a huge weakness and it’s far too important to ignore. I have no illusion about Facebook going anywhere, but before I’d personally invest in a company I’d like to see their system to generate revenue significantly improved,” he concluded.

Another commenter, Bryan Gene Thompson, disagreed. “Facebook has the potential to become the leading ad platform, even surpassing Google,”  he observed. “A site where millions of people share their likes, interests, and opinions should be any advertisers dream. The trouble lies in finding that perfect balance of making people still believe that their not being sold something, and it is an actual social network.” He cited MySpace's mistake of flooding their site with ads and selling landing pages, and noted that Facebook so far has remained popular because it continues to keep things simple. (I have to wonder where he's been every time Facebook has made a change to the system that has angered its users – which seems to happen at least once per quarter).

So if you're in a position to invest in Facebook, should you? Well, the company will almost certainly enjoy the largest IPO in Internet history. Angotti noted that the social network is expected to raise as much as $10 billion, and could come away from the IPO with a valuation in excess of $100 billion. Compare those numbers to Facebook's expected revenue this year of $6.1 billion.

Better yet, if you have a historical bent, compare it to Google's IPO, back in August of 2004. It raised $1.67 billion and gave Google a market capitalization of more than $23 billion. Google's performance since its IPO has seen its stock rise 580 percent. Does Facebook have the potential to do the same, or even better? That's the question investors need to answer, because with an IPO, that's what you're really buying.

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Web Development Company | Website Design Company India