Avoid These Simple Marketing Mistakes

One of the greatest things about the Internet is that you can find just about any information you want on it. This is also, unfortunately, one of its biggest drawbacks. While there is great information out there, there is also no filter that prevents bad or inaccurate information from getting out and most consumers know this. Here are some of the things that may be hindering your marketing efforts that you are probably not aware of and these cover several strategies:

Your Informational Material Always Points to You

People are pretty good at catching on to when they’re reading a sneaky advertisement. Be wary if you’re using reviews that are really advertisements – reviews that keep mentioning the same things over and over. For instance, if you check on popular sites such as Amazon, you’ll see that some reviews mention the same product – oftentimes a competitor to the product being viewed – over and over. This isn’t fooling anyone and it makes savvy readers instantly discount your reviews. If you are going to use reviews as part of your marketing strategy, be sure they are good ones.

Your Sources Are Obviously Bad

If you are going to cite sources in your marketing, make sure they are good ones. There are plenty of marketing articles out there that cite any and every source they run across without ever checking to see if the information contained in those sources is accurate. It doesn’t require much work to do this. If you are not sure whether a product claim is true or not, for instance, you can just check sites such as Snopes.com and others that deal with bad information and check out yourself. Many of your Internet visitors will be well aware of this.

Common Logical Fallacies

Do take the time to check your work for logical fallacies. Even someone without any formal background in logic will pick up on these, as they will just sound inconsistent to the reader. For example, if you keep referencing experts or authorities, point out who you are actually referencing. This not only gives your argument more credibility, it also prevents you from accidentally plagiarism.

Free Gifts!

Some marketers do very well offering free gifts along with their services, but these really should be something of value, not just another sales pitch. If you’re going to offer information as a free gift that goes along with your product, make sure that the information is useful to the person reading it and that it doesn’t try to sell your product in some clever way.
The more customers feel like they can trust you the more likely they are to take your web marketing seriously.

How to Get Good Reviews from Your Existing Customers for Local Marketing

Utilizing features such as the integration of Google maps with local reviews as a way of marketing is an idea that is just starting to be put into action by many businesses. Unfortunately, the way many businesses are utilizing those local reviews may be lacking in many regards.

One very effective strategy to getting good reviews on Google is to ask your existing customers to write reviews. There are certain things that you should request of them, if they are going to do this, that can make your reviews a lot more credible to the people who may make a business decision based upon reading them.

Skip the Long Narrative

Take a look at some local reviews and you’ll find plenty of them that have very long narratives that are essentially so personal that other people would likely have a hard time relating to them. One of the most clichéd examples will start out with something along the lines of “At first I was skeptical, but…”.

Some of the reviews that you’ll find along these lines are actual, spontaneous reviews written by customers. The problem with them is that they have the appearance of being a fake. They sound like every other review, in essence, which makes it sound like they were professionally written or that they were requested reviews that the business asked the person to write.

If you’re going to ask people to write reviews of your business, ask them to include specific points about your business. For example, instead of just putting up a flyer in your business requesting people to ask reviews, asked them to write a review about your customer service, your return policy or something else that doesn’t appear on Google at the moment. This prevents your reviews from being so generic that people either think that they’re just made up or people get very little value out of them for having read them.

Be Consistent

Local marketing is becoming such an important part of Internet marketing on the whole that it’s worth it to extend yourself a little bit to get good local reviews. Consider offering an incentive to customers who go ahead and write a review. This is a good way to encourage them to do so and, of course, to get them to remember that you asked when they walk out the door.

You may want to even consider asking people to write a review on the spot on their mobile device and offer them an incentive right away. Just be sure that the review that they do write sounds authentic and that it gives customers valid information about your business.

Provide a Better User Experience By Leveraging Caching & Utilizing CDNs

If you’re utilizing WordPress as your CMS, you have the option of using a caching plug-in, which can greatly increase performance. Two of the most popular – which are also endorsed by WordPress.org – include W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache.

If your search engine optimization efforts pay off, you’re going to see a significant increase in the amount of traffic to your website. The easiest way to make a web surfer think that they made a bad decision about visiting your website is to have a website that loads too slowly and that doesn’t offer them the kind of snappy response that people with broadband connections expect. Caching can help to reduce the load on your server and can make your webpage a lot more available to people when they come to visit.

What Kind of WordPress Caching To Use

There are two types of caching you can do: browser caching and server caching.

Browser caching utilizes the visitor’s own browser to reduce the load on your server. Essentially, this type of caching takes the static elements of your webpage – which usually include the headers, footers and so forth – and caches them on the visitor’s computer so that their browser doesn’t request a fresh copy every time they load a page. This is an ideal solution for websites that are getting a moderately high amount of traffic. If the amount of traffic that you get spikes to very high levels, however, you will want to look at server caching as a better option.

Unless you have an extremely busy website, you should be able to get away with using a single server for caching. For the most trafficked websites in the world, however, multiple servers are oftentimes employed for this purpose, but it’s unlikely that most businesses – even very busy businesses – will need to go this far.

Server caching is very similar to browser caching, except that the server is employed to provide the cash of static elements. This reduces the amount of calls that browsers have to make to construct active content and to load content that never really changes.

Implementing Caching for WordPress

As far as server caching goes, you want to have an experienced professional implement this for you. Browser caching, however, can be implemented by simply installing one of the aforementioned plug-ins and configuring them so that you reduce the load on your server. You may not notice the benefits until you start to get quite a bit of traffic, but they will be there and it will make a difference in terms of your visitor experience.

CDNs (Content Delivery Networks)

A CDN (Content Delivery Network) comprises of a widely spread out network of servers around the world. When you subscribe to a CDN service, some of your static website files like images, JavaScripts, and stylesheets are replicated very fast throughout dozens of servers around the world. Your website visitor is then served the requested files from a server closest to their physical location. This results in (a) greatly increased web browsing speeds and (b) reduced load on your webserver. When properly configured, a CDN can be very useful in providing excellent user experience.

While it’s been around long enough to be well past the point of being the latest trend, mobile design is getting another hashing over in the news. In several different media outlets, it’s become apparent that there are some logistics involved in mobile design that go far beyond making things accessible or reaching out to a broader audience.

Ads and Mobile Design

At the heart of any mobile design endeavor is creating a webpage that can accommodate the smaller – and frequently changing – sizes of the various mobile designs on the market. What commonly becomes an issue, according to many experts, is how to maintain the visibility of advertising on webpages while still allowing users access to content.

The trade-off here is not hard to understand. In order to accommodate the screen sizes of both a smart phone and an iPad, webpages are necessarily compacted and reduced in terms of the amount of content that they present. In addition to this, many advertisements demand system resources in a way that is not necessarily amicable to the smaller processors found on mobile devices.

To make things even more complex, including advertisements also tends to reduce them to sizes that may make them completely unreadable on mobile devices. Combine this with the banner blindness that users on the Internet typically exhibit, and you have a formula for making mobile design more complex than ever. Without advertisements, most sites lose their profitability very quickly and offering a mobile alternative to the full website may make it impossible for advertisers to maintain their conversions on the advertising that they are paying for.

Adjusting to Variability

With a constant stream of new Apple and Android devices coming out on the market, it’s become apparent that screen sizes are not likely to be consistent anytime soon and that designers will have to continue to accommodate this ever shifting playing field where getting advertisements in front of eyes is concerned.

According to some experts, this may make the mobile design trend simply a fad that is about to outlive its usefulness. With mobile devices getting larger screens all the time, in fact, it is more convenient for some users to use the full-sized, desktop version of a website than it is to use the oftentimes compromised functionalities of mobile websites. Where design is concerned, including multimedia, banners and other popular forms of advertisements is likely to continue to be a significant challenge as the mobile landscape evolves.

According to multiple sources, usage statistics for Facebook have been rapidly declining among teenagers. In fact, according to information from Time, this valuable demographic may be starting to lose its fascination with the massive social network that is Facebook. What’s coming in to fill in that void? Unfortunately for advertisers, the most popular venue for the teenage demographic – that being a demographic with a great deal of disposable income – is also a venue that isn’t particularly amicable to advertising.

Tumblr

So, where are teenagers heading these days? According to multiple statistics – with some variability – approximately 60% of teenagers are now using mobile apps designed to work with Tumblr. Tumblr, while there are various ways to use it to get conversions and sales, is not nearly as developed as an advertising platform as is Facebook. As their parents and grandparents start ratcheting up the friend requests, however, teenagers are looking for a place where they can interact with their friends and not have to worry about everything they say ending up on the newsfeeds of authority figures in their lives.

Making it Easy

Currently, Tumblr has a mobile app for both iOS and Android devices. Utilizing this mobile device, users can share pictures, blog entries and just about anything else they feel like sharing with friends as easily as they can on Facebook. Add to this the fact that Tumblr hasn’t added advertisements to people’s newsfeeds in the same invasive way that Facebook has, and the fact that parents haven’t seemed to have caught on to the Tumblr blog format quite as much as they have to Facebook, and you have the perfect place for teenagers to hang out, interact and spend their time.

Making it Personal

Facebook, once again, has gotten itself a lot of negative feedback from users over the recent changes to the arrangement of the timeline. At the same time that Facebook maintains a rather generic profile layout and very controlled features, Tumblr has a collection of free and premium themes that users can employ to create a very personal web experience.

A large deal of Facebook’s appeal is likely due to the fact that the platform is enormously easy to use. As users – particularly young users – become more technically adept, are able to utilize themes to personalize their blogs and seek ways to get out of the social network where parents and teachers seem to be constantly looking over their shoulders, those who advertise on social media may want to consider branching out to different platforms to reach this incredibly valuable demographic.

“Blog” has become such a common language word that people casually use it in reference to anything written online, whether it’s a short story, a news report or a full length article. This actually causes a bit of indignation among people who feel they didn’t write a “blog” at all, but in fact, wrote a straight forward account in the form of an article. Which brings up the question; exactly what is the difference between a blog, an article and an SEO article?

Blogs are generally narrative in aspect. They are usually written from a first person or second person conversational viewpoint. They can contain opinions, information or short story format dialog. They often draw upon personal experience and can take the form of bulk letter writing to keep friends and family informed on daily events.

Blogs are also used to promote a business, a product or a service through subject specific information. They rely on reflective words, called keywords, that will come up easily in a search engine. The strength of a keyword is dependent on its unique expression. If your category is “law”, you’re in a very broad and highly competitive keyword range. If you specialize in criminal law, it narrows down the search, giving your keywords higher priority. By blogging, your tone stays personal, friendly, yet informative.

An article is a non-fiction document, typically formal. It is written from a third person point-of-view. Articles may be written from an essay format, news format or as a statement. Traditionally, these articles have relied on documentary evidence (APA style, for example) but low quality directories have somewhat tarnished the objective article’s reputation.

Articles can be used to inform the reader or to present a persuasive argument. Articles are written for newspapers and magazines as a means of keeping people up to date on science, social concerns, technology and events and for advertisers wishing to inform the public about a product, business or service.

Regular SEO articles are generally written for businesses advertising products or services. The articles are informative, written from a third person view, but use one or more keywords to give them search engine strength. The keywords might reflect the company name or they might not mention the company name at all in the body of the article, but provide a general description of the type of product or service offered. For instance, if the subject is “Harry’s Auto Shop”, the keywords might be “engine repair” or “transmissions specialists”. The keywords are often repeated several times for reinforcement in an engine search. The SEO article will seek to inform the public on aspects of their particular product or service. If Harry’s Auto Shop is doing engine repair, it might elaborate on the type of damage that can occur to an engine, or the parts used in repair.

Pay close attention to your style of writing and your choice of SEO content before you plan your campaign. A combination of magazine quality articles, blogs, and regular SEO content may be necessary in the long-run.

Another one bites the dust.

News came out last week that a security breach affected at least one million customers of Nationwide Insurance.

This actually took place on October 3, 2012 according to a statement on Nationwide’s website.

Their statement says: “Although we are still investigating the incident, our initial analysis has indicated that the compromised information included certain individuals’ name and Social Security number, driver’s license number and/or date of birth and possibly marital status, gender, and occupation, and the name and address of their employer. At this time, we have no evidence that any medical information or credit card account information was stolen in the attack.”

At this point there is no indication whether the data itself was encrypted or not, however, I would have to assume it was not, otherwise I am sure they would be touting it.

How many times do we have to endure this kind of lax security behavior from the companies that we entrust our confidential information to. I have written in the past about the very same thing (see How much do you really know about your internal computer security) (see LinkedIn security breach). Looks like it is the same story time and again.

The top brass of large companies are rarely in the loop about their own internal security processes. I have spoken to a few of them and almost all are convinced that just because their firewalls are in place, everything is protected. Very few people are taking a proactive look at how their data is secured and whether it is encrypted or not at all points. This air of invulnerably is very dangerous because this means they are not actively protecting customer data and as a result these types of incidences will continue to occur.

Let’s think about some of the pieces of data a typical insurance company will have on its clients:

• Name
• Address
• Phone (home, work, cell)
• Social Security number
• Bank Account info
• Date of Birth
• Employment Details
• Salary Information
• Net Worth details
• Medical conditions
• Credit Card details

This is just a short list. This much information in the wrong hands would result in more than just typical identity theft.

Instead of taking things seriously, many companies often count on the standard response “one year free credit-monitoring and identity theft protection”. Unless there are SEVERE penalties levied on companies who disregard their fiduciary responsibilities, this will continue to happen. Existing regulations are not enough. There are plenty of loopholes in the HIPAA regulations that most of these companies will get just a slap on their hands.

The state insurance commissioners, bank regulators, FTC as well as SEC (most insurance companies also have investment divisions) need to get involved in this and demand that financial institutions get off their butts and secure their customers data immediately.

In the meantime, let’s hope these companies have a good cyber liability insurance policy.

Do you feel confident about this? Are you callling up your financial institution and demanding that they RESPECT your data? What are your experiences? I would love to hear from you.

A lot of the SEO news you are receiving lately is coming to you from Google, and this is no surprise considering that Google is the world’s top search engine. Nevertheless, Yahoo remains a force to be reckoned with. It is still one of the top five websites on the Internet and has an estimated 700 million visitors each month. It is also a consumer-driven site that is available in 30 languages.

Yahoo may not be as successful as Google or Facebook, but don’t let that deter you from considering it. And you’re not the only one to notice; actually the Yahoo brand has averaged one new CEO per year for the last five years, and it is a company trying to reinvent itself. Don’t count Yahoo out yet; it may be only one creative idea away from re-launching itself as a rival to Google and Facebook.

Still, you might as well try to get on Yahoo’s good side now. What does it take to be listed in Yahoo search results? If you have been primarily focusing your SEO strategy on Google and ignoring Yahoo, then it’s not surprising you’re getting very different SERPs for a Yahoo search.

Yahoo favors more on-page optimization than Google does. Yahoo is finicky about link quality (perhaps even more than Google and their current Penguin link epidemic). In fact, you could say that Yahoo is almost elitist in comparison to Google, since they prefer links that promote their own site, from within the same Yahoo network. Yahoo even has a paid listing for businesses, with no guarantees as to results, but the offering is conspicuous enough.

Yahoo insiders might also give you consistency tips, regarding slashes in domain names (not a good idea), high authority page links, caution in linking out, new content on a regular basis, and article-press release directory submission.

Of course, you should be interested in building quality links in general, as opposed to obsessing over Yahoo’s feelings about your site. After all, once your site earns a strong authority reputation with many quality links, you are far more likely to earn attention from Yahoo, Bing and all the major search engines. At the same time, don’t count on Yahoo doing you any special favors. Yahoo follows the crowd and right now, Google is a fairly good judge of popularity. Yahoo mirrors Google’s solid linkbuilding criteria.

The best plan of action is to develop a long-term SEO plan and keep the new content coming. Where possible, try to integrate your site and social media pages in with other Yahoo links, whether it’s Yahoo local or Yahoo Questions. Don’t expect overnight results, but expect to see improvement if you stay the course and differentiate yourself from the competition.

Blogs and SEO articles are an effective means of getting the word out and increasing publicity and revenue for your business, but climbing your way into a top listing on an engine search takes a bit of strategy.

First

There are sites that engineer their services specifically to businesses, such as Business.com and Bpubs. Some will request a small fee for their services. Other search engines, such as Yelp, which lists itself as an online community, will offer free services, including online tools to track the number of visitors to your site, but charge a fee for preferred search engine placement and extra listing features. Google Places is a free online service, with the added advantage of being one of the most frequently used and widely known search engines.

Second

The best way to place high in business indexing is to write original and informative content. You can treat your content in one of two ways; as a friendly, conversational blog, or as a formal, subject matter specific, article. Search engines give highest priority to sites that deliver fresh views and demonstrate activity by adding new content on a regular basis. Content should be written in your own words or in those of a skilled SEO writer. Search engines, such as Google, will penalize sites that “scrape” or copy content from other similar sites by not including them in a business search.

Third

Add quality links to your website. This is done by searching other sites that have similar interests to your own, have a good reputation as a reliable source for information and services, but that are not in direct competition. If your product is garden tools, you may wish to link to sites that contain gardening information or horticultural landscaping design. Many sites are willing to link if you offer a guest blog exchange. Quality links are defined as links to sites that remain active and maintain steady viewer traffic. Search bots will not consider links to “dead” or inactive sites used only for the appearance of receiving traffic.

Fourth

Your site will be most effective and attractive with good internal linking. Over time, you’ll find pages accumulate at your site as you add fresh content and new product information. These pages can become buried and forgotten, as they will not come up automatically. Make it easy for search bots to find hidden articles by placing fresh links in a new one. Do not use the words, “press here”. Your built in link should be for a keyword that will allow the reader to know exactly what the linked page is about, creating more willingness to press the link for additional information.

The quality of your site will be determined by the presentation of your material, interesting content and the strength of your links. You will gain more traffic by keeping your site active, adding new information and updating existing criteria. Register with a business directory and watch the interest in your website grow.

If you are new to article marketing and SEO, then you may wonder what the significance is of a site’s page rank. Technically speaking, Page Rank refers to a link analysis algorithm, and one that is commonly used by Google. (Actually, Page Rank is named after Larry Page, the co-founder of Google) Wikipedia states that Page Rank
“assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents.”

Online, you will find various page ranking services, including PRChecker.info, that can help you determine where your site is in terms of ranking. Entering a site name into this software can reveal to you that your site is PR0 through PR10.

The significance of the PR ranking is that, ideally, you want to create links that have a high PR ranking. Link exchanges are only valuable if the other site you’re doing business with is evenly matched and has high traffic. In fact, creating a bunch of low quality, low traffic links will probably backfire. Buying links is also a mistake, as search engines like Google and Yahoo consider context and relevancy when determining link popularity.

So, if you are investing in article marketing (which is essentially a form of linkbuilding) ask the SEO firm which directory sites it submits to, and what their PR rankings are. Submitting to a PR0 or PR1 site is not going to do you any favors. Ideally, you want to work with sites that have the highest levels possible, so that these links will be valued by search engines.

Some of the top directory sites in terms of popularity and high PR rankings include EZineArticles, Buzzle, Suite101 and Articles Base. Not only is quality linkbuilding important, but in the end, you want to work with these higher PR sites because that means more traffic for you!

For more information on creating quality links talk to an SEO consultant.