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Bounce Rate - 5 Things That Turn Off This Reader

By Daisy Graham Jones  |   Submitted On February 26, 2015

When I started blogging, I also started following blogs. I was told that commenting on other blogs was a fantastic way to get incoming links. Two years later, I follow blogs, because I love reading the thoughts of others and incoming links is just a happy benefit when I'm inspired to leave a comment. Over the past few years, I've discovered many interesting blogs, have followed and unfollowed blogs, and I would love to share with you what turns me off about blogs. I'd love to read what turns you off; between us, we could come up with a great list that helps us keep subscribers.

Music: I've been involved in many forum discussions on music and the common thought seems to be that people don't like music. Here are a few things to consider:

• You may need to have a license to the tracks that are getting air play on your site.
• Your taste in music may not be shared by listeners. I love Eminem, cranked way up, on my iPod where he belongs. I think only my 14 year old stepson shares my love of Eminem.
• The volume of your music may be too high. I try to remember to keep my computer volume low, because I work on the train to and from work, but every now and then, I forget to crank it back down after I watched a funny YouTube video. Music blaring out of my laptop at 6 in the morning isn't popular on my train. Go figure. If music is a must for your site, then I think it should be optional.

Follow Me, I Follow Back: This isn't a judgment of blog parties and link ups; I've participated in these several times, hoping that people would follow me because they're interested in photography, not to just get a reciprocal follow. The problem that I see with this strategy for new readers is that you get a lot of people who stop by on one or two times and then you never see them again. I used to think that this was fine, because out of 100 people who stopped by, maybe 5 would actually like my blog and follow me in earnest. Then I realized that I was settling for 5% - not good enough.

Why not link up to blog parties in your niche? I started linking up to photography challenges where I found even more blogs to follow and genuine subscribers to my blog. I also look for blog parties that are well organized; putting each blogger in a category allows others to search out specific niches. A brilliant idea.

Crappy Pictures: As a photographer, maybe I'm hypersensitive to this, but I cringe when I see crappy, out of focus shots. This bugs me more than posts without photography, which I've come to accept happens, not everyone has time to take a picture to match up with every post when it's not a photography or lifestyle blog. But please take the time to take a decent picture; you can do it.

Bad Grammar: Thank you to the rare person who leaves a comment only to point out my spelling errors. That's crazy helpful. No really, it is. Because it's taught me to read through my posts at least once before hitting publish. I tend to get excited about a post and hit publish right after I do a spell check, only to come back later, horrified at the number of mistakes, or find myself typing a humble response to a member of the grammar/spelling police who decided to read That post. I would love to tell this mystery officer to stick it, but I've learned that grammar and spelling is a pet peeve of a lot of readers and I don't want to alienate my readers by giving in to the desire to virtually flip off a member of the law. So learn from my experience and double check your work.

Advertising: I love that everyone is working to monetize their blog, but I think it's a little overboard when there is a lot of distracting advertising ads, pop ups, or redirects to a full page advertisement. If all the ads are paying the bills and you don't see a decline in readership, then carry on. But if you're wondering why your subscribers have stalled and you're not getting comments, this may be one of the reasons. I sometimes wonder if my intolerance for ads is due to the introduction to a DVR into my life. Not watching commercials may have contributed to my short attention span.

So what turns you off of a blog?

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8939727

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10 Secrets to Hiring the Right SEO Company

By Newman Ramirez  |   Submitted On January 16, 2015

Even if you are armed with an abundance of knowledge in SEO, you may still need the services of a professional SEO company. Having strong knowledge of SEO is hardly sufficient in some cases. Even if you are doing your best to attempt to obtain a good ranking for your website, you might still wind up wondering why your website is simply not doing well. For starters, you must understand that your website will have to be fully optimized in all elements. Not just that, but your website has to be maintained on a regular basis. SEO is a continuous process that includes a great deal of time and effort. To make things simpler, you will be better off utilizing the services of a competent SEO company to do the work for your website.

There are numerous SEO companies today, and there are a lot of trustworthy companies as well as unreliable ones. Thus, it is crucial that you select the perfect SEO Company. Here are 10 important points that you must keep in mind when selecting SEO services:

Site Evaluation Guide

Does the SEO firm offer you a site evaluation guide? A reliable SEO firm should have the ability to provide you with an extensive analysis of your site, regarding ranking and design structure. This can be done by performing a website audit. The result of this website audit will allow the SEO firm to offer you a proposal of how much work needs to be done to bring you to a certain level of ranking. They must be able to advise and troubleshoot all aspects related to performance, content, and design that might hinder the reading or indexing of your pages.

Tools in Figuring out Keywords

What tools does the SEO Agency use to look for keywords? Do they offer competitive analysis based on your chosen keywords? Understanding what methodology the SEO Agency utilizes for keyword evaluation or research is very important. It will be a great help if you perform your own due diligence using basic tools, such as conducting keyword research and analysis through the use of keyword planner in Google AdWords.

Backlinks to Website

Where will the SEO Company return links from? Backlinks are just as, if not more, vital in SEO than onsite optimization. The SEO Company should be able to obtain high-quality backlinks from reputable websites that are highly related to your niche. Ask your SEO Company what techniques they employ for gathering backlinks.

Cost Structure

A dependable SEO Company will not just give you a quote once they figure out how much work has to be included. Charging you high costs will not necessarily ensure you receive high quality services. It also doesn't ensure that the rate being quoted is proportional and consistent with the services you anticipate the SEO Company will provide. A good SEO Agency should be able to give you a rundown of services to which the performance and price contract will be based upon.

The Timeline

Does your SEO Company provide you with a timeline? It is through hard work and correct planning that results can be attained on time. Some SEO Firms offer SEO plans that claim to put you in the very first page of search results in just a matter of 10 days. Realistically, however, no SEO Company can guarantee you the number 1 position in Google in as short as 10 days.

An SEO campaign will take 6-18 months to deliver the top outcomes you expect. Make sure you don't give in to false pledges. Conversely, avoid SEO services that provide you with a time limit. A good SEO company knows that optimization is an ongoing process and they should be able to offer you regular maintenance, customer support and proper upgrading.

SEO Technique

What SEO strategy will your SEO Company use to raise your ranking? You should look out for companies that will utilize spam advertising methods to rank you on top in no time. If the strategy includes any form of dishonest practice, such as spamming or deceiving online search engines, then you should instantly turn away.

An excellent SEO company will certainly see to it that you will not be subjected to spam or misleading services. Keep in mind that if it is based on using deceitful strategies, your site might be taken out of Google's indexing, which will certainly lead your site to being blacklisted. Knowing your SEO Company and doing your own research on how proper SEO is done is extremely vital in choosing the ideal firm.

Providing Targeted Traffic

Do they understand the distinction between plain traffic and targeted traffic? You will hire the services of an SEO Company mainly due to the fact that you need to attract traffic into your website. However, what you need is targeted traffic that gets you visitors who might be genuinely interested in purchasing your products or services. This is based on your desired keywords in order to generate leads.

You don't want irrelevant traffic that comes to your website because of irrelevant keywords. Unqualified traffic only enhances your bounce rate (surfers that arrive on your page and immediately leave) and not your sales. The right SEO Company will create relevant content for your website and distribute it to relevant channels, social media and Press Releases (PR). This will potentially lead to natural backlinks that will enhance your overall ranking in the search engine.

Transparent Deliverables

A professional SEO Company should have a clear course of action to attain the desired results in a given time frame. They should be able to show the client what's being completed for the first month and subsequent months. With this, you will be able to determine how much work is being done in relation to your costs, allowing you to determine your ROI. A clear outline of work in the proposal should be available at any time to show the extent of the campaign. This includes how much fresh and high quality relevant content they are going to publish on your website every week. How many distribution channels? What social media, article directories and websites are they going to use to distribute your content? How many PR submissions? And how many backlinks have been generated? These are the qualifying questions that need to be answered by a good SEO firm.

Reporting

A comprehensive report system should be provided to show the progress of the SEO campaign, as well as ranking status of the site. This reporting could be monthly or quarterly. The report should be clear and concise, using the right combination of graphics and texts. This will be the bench mark of how the firm is progressing towards your desired ranking status.

Performance Guarantee

Does the SEO Company offer some kind of guarantee, such as a percentage increase in traffic? Although there are a lot of factors involved in an SEO campaign, a professional SEO company will be able to give performance guarantees based on their years of experience and proven methodology.

These are the major considerations you need to look at when hiring an SEO Agency to make sure that you don't pour your money down the drain. SEO is a vital marketing strategy to make your brand highly visible online to your target market and to grow your business. It is a time-consuming effort, but it has greater ROI in the long run when compared to other marketing options.

THE NEXT STEP IS YOURS.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8887661

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Top 5 Elements of an SEO Friendly Website

By Tahir Akbar  |   Submitted On March 02, 2015

It's not enough nowadays to design a superb, functional site that addresses your customer's needs. If you really need your customer to reap the benefits of having an online presence, then SEO is a must thing. Search Engine Optimization is a system for enhancing the visibility of a site in internet searches through organic search results, and it is presently a suitable web marketing tool for a lot of businesses.

SEO has changed drastically throughout the last few years, particularly since Google's most recent updates in the last year. 2015 is the year where even more effort is required in the field of SEO for an organization to stay in competition on the internet. There are 5 essential attributes that need attention to ensure that a website's design is an SEO-friendly web design.

1. Optimized HTML Coding Structure:

It is really crucial to design a site that loads quickly and is both SEO and user friendly. The people who are responsible for developing the site must address the back end in such a way that it is well optimized for quick load speed and rendering. Website optimization also serves to drive more traffic to the site as people won't waste time on a site that does not load fast enough.

2. On-page Optimization:

One of the SEO's most crucial components has been, and still is, the website optimization. It is really of great importance to make your website friendly to web search engines and to all the pages that are visible in SERPs. A site must be planned carefully from the beginning with the goal that it is more easily indexed by search engine crawlers, as there are a large number of components that may influence an SEO-friendly site.

On-page optimization is not a method that must be performed solely within the site's original design. But it is an ongoing process that must be made and checked frequently. The most vital issues identified with on-page optimization are URLs, meta tags, navigation, usability, index options and no follow, Sitemaps, heading tags, plagiarized content, redirects, canonical URLs, multi-language issues, pagination, sub-domains, schema snippets, robots.txt, folders and others.

3. On-site Content:

A website's content is becoming very important for the website's internet traffic and SEO. The SEO professionals believe and vigorously support the 'Content is King' thinking. These days if a site has no blog area and it is not updated every day by expert writers, then it can't stay for long in the rising competition. Good articles are used to appeal to visitors from a variety of sources like social media and organic traffic. Content which has more information and interest is shared more frequently (social media) and pulls in a larger number of backlinks (organic traffic).

4. Calls-To-Action ("CTA") or Points of Contact:

It is suggested that you have a Call to Action on all of your pages on the site as they help to create a feeling that shows it is strong and conversion focused. Most web design professionals know the significance of CRO (conversion rate optimization) as one of the reasons why they are integrated on the sites that they work on.

5. Mobile:

As indicated by a 2014 research study, 25% of all web traffic is originating from mobile phones (tablets and smartphones). It is apparent that this traffic can't be overlooked and that websites must be mobile-friendly.

There are two common approaches to follow in order to make a site mobile-friendly:

1. Create a unique website for mobile users which is appropriately designed, easier to search and which can be loaded quickly, thus decreasing bounce rate. This must usually have a different URL, e.g. m.mydomain.com. A downside to this approach is the way that a visitor could search for data not accessible in mobile versions of the site (some mobile versions of particular sites exclude a few pages which are accessible in desktop versions).


2. The best approach for most of the sites is the "responsive design". Following that approach, a site will be better able to recognize the end user's device (e.g. if the client has access through a laptop/PC or a cell phone) and adjust its appearance relying upon the end user.

There are many more elements that are important for an SEO-friendly website, but these five elements are essential. Follow these simple points to make your website a more successful one!

My name is Tahir & I work with Makesbridge.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8943566

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Factors That Help to Identify the Right SEO Company

By Urvi Tandon  |   Submitted On March 02, 2015

Search Engine Optimization has become a necessary requisite for every business with an online presence; it has thus gained immense popularity as an essential component of website optimization. The relevance of online presence of the business is measured by analyzing the context of the content while the authoritative aspect is based on the quality of content, the number of links to a particular webpage and so on.

If a company has a website, it is essential to use search engine optimization strategies. A SEO company can be hired to do the job but the brief and instructions given to them must match the requirements of the company both present and future, and therefore it calls for a great deal of planning and formulating a strategy that can be both workable in the short-term as well as long-term. A good SEO company must be able to provide overall services that improve the quality of the website.

Essential services provided by a SEO company

Basically, a SEO company has to help the business achieve its business goals through -

• Increasing relevant web traffic to the company's website

• Achieve higher ranking for the site in search engine functions through optimization of website content

• Reduce online competition in search rankings through identifying common usages of terms and use 'intelligent' terminology and content

• Provide advice and design strategies for an online marketing campaign

• Identify areas of future / further growth and provide a competitive environment

• Make the company website SEO friendly by structuring and linking it with other trusted business

Having said that, finding the right SEO company is quite an arduous task and it will certainly help to know some factors in identifying the right one.

1. No one SEO company can guarantee perfect results; however evaluating their competencies in relation to a company's business needs is of prime importance. Honesty is the key.

2. The SEO company should have credible word of mouth recommendations and references from business associates - researching the company's background, reading customer reviews etc. is essential.

3. Understanding their portfolio of services in relation to case studies of success stories with other clients is necessary.

4. If the SEO company has been able to optimize its own PR rating, then that should speak volumes about their experience in achieving the desired results.

5. A little digging up on the techniques used by them will be useful - some SEO agencies use unethical means to get page rankings quickly; search engines quickly recognize these and prohibit them. A good SEO company will adhere to the regulations laid down by the Webmaster.

6. The profile of the people in the company should be inspiring; along with knowledge and experience, they should be practical and realistic, not 'promise the sky'.

7. Any company that is regular in scheduling meetings, discussions, reviews and identifying areas to act on; in short, a SEO company that relies on continued communication and constant feedback on the progress is a reliable one. Their support system as well as means of communication should always be open and constant.

8. In turn, the SEO company should also be in a position to understand the content of the website and provide more creative ideas and suggestions for ethical use and inclusion of keywords and phrases in a manner that generates more sales leads.

They should be open to suggestions from the website owner and his team and be amenable to changes in strategy depending upon the results seen.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8943497

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Build Your Business With a Free Tutorial

By Terri Seymour  |   Submitted On February 24, 2015

People love to get free information so using a free tutorial to share your knowledge is a great way to promote yourself and your business. By doing this, you will be establishing yourself as an expert and building your reputation. Then when people need products and/or services, you will be the one they trust and believe.

Divide your tutorial into lessons, one for each day of the tutorial or ecourse. Once you get your lessons written up you want to set them up individually on an autoresponder. There are many autoresponders available for free and for a fee. Some hosts may have autoresponders available as well. WordPress also has autoresponder plugins.

Let's say you own a home décor and furniture website store. You could set up an ecourse on how to successfully paint a piece of furniture. Your lessons would be something like this:

Lesson 1: Choosing the Right Paint

Lesson 2: Preparing the Piece to Be Painted

Lesson 3: Painting the Piece

Lesson 4: Maintaining the Finished Look

After your lessons are completed, you can set them up to go out each day in a row or separate them by a day or two. It would depend on how many lessons you have and how long you want the tutorial to last.

Separating the information into lessons works better than sending all the info in one mailing because it keeps your name and business fresh in the mind of the potential customer.

When writing your lessons, sprinkle in information about your business and what you offer but try to make it fit into the tutorial so it doesn't appear too. Offer special discounts for signing up for your ecourse/tutorial.

Be sure to place your contact email in each and every lesson and let the reader know you are readily available if they have any questions or comments.

Another good idea is to have a preceding thank you note with an introduction of yourself and your business along with a summary of the tutorial. This would precede the first lesson. And then once the course is finished you would have another thank you going out encouraging them to visit your site for much more information and to contact you if they have any questions.

You could also let them know about your special deal or discount they receive for taking the course. Be sure to add your social media links so they can easily follow you.

Make them fun as well by adding trivia or little games along with the lesson. Keeping people interested can sometimes take work but it is well worth the time and effort.

If you have any other tutorials, list them as well and be sure to ask them to sign up for your mailing list. These details will go a long way in building the foundation and relationship needed to gain the customer's trust and patronage.

Once your tutorial is complete you want to start promoting it so people can start signing up.

Add it to your email and networking group signatures:

FREE 4-day tutorial on painting furniture

place your URL here

Promote it on your social media pages and promote it often.

Offer it to your newsletter subscribers and post it on your website/blog.

Advertise it with ad swaps.

Put it on your business card and/or flyers.

Integrate it into your resource box when guest posting or submitting content.

Tutorials can be educational and fun so use them to your advantage and let them help increase your sales and build your business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8937263

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How Your Business Can Benefit From Hiring A Virtual Assistant

By Bart Rikket  |   Submitted On January 05, 2015

The Internet has changed the way for many businesses in different sectors, aside from the fact that it has made such a big difference in the lives of people. When it comes to employment, it has opened a lot of opportunities. To start with, there has been a continuous increase in the number of individuals who have gone freelancing. For families who have either one or two stay-at-home parents, they are still able to have two income sources. Through telecommuting, many companies are able to cut down on expenses. Outsourcing services have likewise become easier and more convenient. Aside from that, it is generally more practical. As such, hiring virtual workers these days is easy. Among the popular positions is a virtual assistant.

There are a lot of advantages that you can gain from hiring a virtual assistant. Business executives were able to see how doing such can greatly help in their business. For one, such type of assistant can be available any time. If you need the services of an assistant, hiring a virtual assistant instead of getting a regular employee can help you save money. Whether you need service 24-hours a day or just for a seasonal project with a determined period of time, you will be paying less as compared to what you would pay on a regular employee with a monthly salary and benefits.

An assistant who works remotely can also help offices save on overhead costs. As compared to a regular assistant who stays on site and uses office space and supplies, an assistant who is in a remote location will not require a space in your office so you don't have to provide a table, chair, computer, etc. Also, such assistant will not be using your electricity and any of your office supplies.

Since these assistants do not need employee downtime, you will be able to save money. You also do not need to provide for their training on specialized skills. Should a project require a specific skill, you just have to hire a virtual assistant who already has that skill. There is no need to arrange and spend money on training like you would on a regular employee.

You can use a virtual assistant to help on tasks during after hours when your regular assistant is done for the day. By doing this, you can do away with having to pay for overtime work, which is higher than the regular rate.

A virtual assistant is certainly one of the best solutions that the Internet has made available. And for companies, hiring one is not only a practical move but also an efficient.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8870582

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Give Your Business a SMAC Down

By Lee Lister  |   Submitted On March 02, 2015

You cannot have failed to notice the proliferation of mobile devices being used in business and leisure. Social media, of course you know about and either love or hate. Perhaps working with your documents being available remotely in a cloud might have piqued your interest. Well this trio have been joined by sophisticated analytical software that is providing business owners with competitive advantage. Put them all together and you get the latest technical phenomenon - SMAC.

So what is SMAC?

Definitions first: Social Media, Mobile technology, Analyticals, Cloud computing.

This group of four new technologies combine to form a major disruptive technological change. People are now expecting, in both their business and leisure time, the ability to work or enjoy their leisure at anytime, anywhere from any device they own. These expectations are starting to have a major impact on how businesses interact with their customers and the customer is driving this change.

It is only in the last year or so, that this technology has become robust and cheap enough for business use. Even the smallest company now needs to ensure that end-user experiences are convenient and productive to both parties. SMAC enabled architectures will enable this to be undertaken in a cost effective and efficient way. Let us look at the parts that make up this technological platform.

Social Media

Since Facebook first burst onto the scene just ten short years ago, other major social media sites such as LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+ and Pinterest have become staples in peoples' personal life. Gradually these sites have seen the chance to make millions of dollars by offering the opportunity to market goods and services through these pages. Now it is common for a small business to have a Facebook page, the director to network with a LinkedIn page and maybe a YouTube video. Other social sites are gradually becoming popular and small businesses even have accounts with them. Few businesses, however, market effectively on social media. This will need to change in the coming years, as marketing becomes more competitive, and potential customers look to social media to make buying decisions on a more frequent basis.

Mobile Technology

Mobile technology is everywhere. Most people own smart phones, even young children. Tablets are the top of most Christmas lists if not already owned. BYOD or bring your own device is becoming popular with employees wishing to use their own mobile tablets at work. Mobile technology is used for at least half of all transactions and even more searches. It would be a foolish company that did not optimise its web sites to enable enquiries and purchases via a mobile device.

Analyticals

If you have decided to market via social media and take into account mobile technology it is very important to measure your success. It is only in the last few years that sophisticated analysis software, suitable for measuring social media marketing campaigns and allocating sources has become available at a reasonable cost. There are even free resources on some websites. Now that they are here, you can ascertain where your potential customers come from, how successful a particular advert is and your return on your social media marketing investment.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is the practice of keeping documents and files on a remote set of servers, accessed via broadband. This enables a vast set of data to be saved securely and quickly accessed. Clouds are frequently used for secure, off site back ups. The use of cloud computing enables for smaller lighter laptops, working from tablets and smart phones and sharing of files across users and devices.
Microsoft has released a version of MsOffice that works from their cloud. Large IT companies frequently offer secure cloud technology, using their servers, so that you know your data is secure and well looked after.

Using SMAC to your advantage

Smaller companies can transform quickly, updating their websites and marketing campaigns to meet new challenges. Whilst they do not have the budgets of a large company, they can make changes within a few days whereas a large company may take months to achieve the same thing.

SMAC Business Models

SMAC will change business models as it puts the potential customer in charge. Your company will need to be more responsive. Available when your customer makes contact late at night, in front of them on social media web sites and fully responsive to changes in social trends.

Cloud computing will put all your files at your fingertips and gives you a full office to work with. The company will need to work faster and more immediately to requests. Staff will need to be retrained to find the potential customer in different places, at unusual times and then engage them as friends.

Business Marketing Message

Be sure to investigate your analyticals and fine-tune your marketing message. Discover who your real customers are and find out where you can find more of them. Investigate social media sites and ensure that you include a full range in your marketing. Use videos to show your marketing message, video messages are very popular and convey a marketing message better than mere words. In the same vein, include memorable graphics on your postings. Engage and respond to your customers. Show them what you can do for them, how you can make life better and solve problems.

SMAC Marketing Material

Brush up your marketing material and make sure that much of it is digital so that people can easily download your brochures and sales information. Set up a newsletter so that you can keep in regular contact and possibly upsell to your current customers.

Make sure that all your files are saved in your cloud so that they are always available to you. Cloud based systems allow for trade specific software to be accessed so you can run your business from your tablet or laptop.

Mobile technology allows you to get in front of your customers, cloud technology puts your office at your fingertips, social media spreads your marketing message and analyticals let your measure your success.

Surely a SMAC down in anyone's books?

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8943305