Thursday, 25 July 2019

How to Dominate Google in 2019


You’ve already experienced it… SEO is becoming harder and harder.
As time goes on, it takes longer to rank and you have to spend more money to get the results you want.
But the reality is, you can’t wait forever to get results. And you have no choice but to leverage SEO as a tactic because everyone else is doing it.
So, what should you do?
Well, the first thing you need to do is adjust how you think about SEO. SEO isn’t only about rankings. To be honest, I don’t even track them for my own site. It’s about getting the right kind of traffic.
You know, the visitors who are ready to buy.
So, instead of teaching you how to rank for competitive head terms, which is going to be even more difficult in 2019, I’m going to break down a formula that will give you much faster results and sales in this ultra-competitive environment.
And best of all, I am going to break it down into 4 steps as I know you don’t have the time to do everything.
Step #1: Attract customers before they are ready to buy
The most expensive keywords to go after are buyer intent keywords. You know, the ones where someone types in a keyword and is ready to spend money right then and there.
And that will always be the case. Not just from an SEO standpoint, but even a pay per click standpoint.
So, what should you do… not go after these lucrative keywords?
Of course not. More so, you have to go after them no matter how long it takes to rank. You just have to be patient.
But in the short run, there are other keywords that have similar search patterns and they aren’t as lucrative and they are more so informational related. In which people are doing some research before they buy.
So how do you find the keywords that aren’t as competitive that have a similar search pattern?
Step #2: Land and expand
Everyone focuses on ranking for new terms. But there is an issue, it’s hard to rank for new terms.
Even though SEO has a huge ROI, it’s a strategy that requires patience.
But here is the thing, you can get results faster if you use the land and expand strategy.
Then I want you to click on one of the most popular terms you already rank for and then click on pages. You should see a report that shows you the URL that ranks for the term on Google. You need this URL because you will be modifying this page.
Step #3: Build a brand
Google has been placing more emphasis on brands. In other words, if you have a strong brand, you’ll rank faster.
Let me give you examples of how to do the opposite of your competition:
• Genuinely help people – a lot of people blog and participate on the social web, but how many people take the time to respond to their community? As far as I can tell, less than 1%. Just look at me. For years, I’ve responded to comments on my blog, Facebook, and even YouTube. I am so engaged with my community on LinkedIn that they honored me as one of their Top Voices of 2018! Most people are too lazy to do this… doing the opposite has helped me build a connection with you. And if you are wondering why I do this it’s because when I started out I had no money and people helped me. I’m just trying to do the same.
• Writing 10x content – when I got into blogging, everyone was doing it. So I had to find a way to separate myself. I did this by writing in-depth guides… not those 5,000-word blog posts, I am talking about 30,000-word guides. On top of that, I spent money on the design so they would look beautiful.
• Creating video content – when I got into the digital marketing community, there were already large conferences that had thousands of attendees. I thought speaking at all of them would help my brand… and they did to some extent, but I was just another speaker. But very few people in my space were creating video content… so now instead of giving speeches at conferences, I give them on YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn. I’m able to reach more people without having to travel and the content lives on forever (and is available for free to everyone!).

The Importance of Video Marketing


Why Video?
Video is a versatile and engaging content format that not only gives us a real-life picture of what is going on; it’s also easy to share across multiple platforms. Consumers like it because it’s easy to digest, entertaining and engaging, and marketers like it because it can give a potentially huge return on investment (ROI) through many channels.
Video is also very accessible to anyone with internet access, both to watch and to produce. While there is certainly a trend towards higher quality video on a professional level, anyone can hop onto their laptop and create their own video in under an hour.
Why Marketers Need Video
1. Informing and Educating
97% of marketers claim that videos help customers understand products.
For the most part, marketers today are no longer taking a pitching type of approach - the reason? There’s simply too much choice out there. Consumers and businesses simply don't’ need to be sold to; instead, they’re doing a quick internet search to find the best product in their neighbourhood or even in the world where they’ll proceed to order it online.
To this end, marketers in many fields (perhaps not all) need to approach audiences with a value-based offer instead of a “sale.” And videos excel at giving customers a really up-close look at a product, service, or even an influencer or teacher.
2. Search Engine Optimization
Over 80% of all traffic will consist of video by 2021.
Search engines love videos because they see them as high-quality content, so to this end, using videos in various types of content as well as on your main web pages can work wonders for your SEO -- as long as the videos themselves are optimized properly as well. This means incorporating the right keywords, a solid meta description, and also a strong title.
3. Staying Competitive
81 % of businesses are now using video for marketing.
Videos are amazing for getting all sorts of messages out there, and if we think in terms of practicality, a short, unique explainer video can do a world of difference when it comes to educating people on the ins and outs of your particular product. By using storytelling and unique types of media you can easily catch people’s attention and hold it while they’re actually entertained.
Depending on how it matches your product, you may want to use an animated or illustrated explainer video to stand out from the crowd (and not come across as too in-your-face).
4. Getting Personal
Live video will account for 13 % of traffic by 2021.
Ever wanted to check out Facebook Live or Instagram stories? If you’re in a digital marketing career, or you’re heading in that direction, you’ll need to learn how to create basic videos and optimize them.
Instagram Stories and Snapchat are both awesome for offering people intimate glimpses or short, personal glances of what you’re up to and they are so great for creative tools. The interesting thing about these videos is that they’re only up for 24-hours so that creates more of a real-time feel. It also gives marketers the opportunity to develop ads that are focussed on time-sensitive promotions.
Real-time, ephemeral content is great for:
• Offering a feel of face-to-face interaction
• Building brand trust
• Offering audiences casual, interesting updates (eg: behind the scenes)
5. Boosting Conversions
90% of consumers claim a video will help them make a purchasing decision
Wyzowl claims that 74% of people who get an opportunity to see a product in action via an explainer video will buy it. And landing pages are great places to place videos, too. -- supposedly boosting conversion rates by up to 80% (just be sure to keep autoplay off so as not to scare the customer away with loud noises).
Another reason why video is great for conversions on websites is that they actually keep people around for long enough to look around on the site. This is especially true for those who aren’t big readers (a good rule of thumb is to assume that people’s eyes could be tired from looking at a screen all day). Supposedly people watching a video stick around for some two whole minutes longer if there’s a video.

Thursday, 18 July 2019

Future of Mobile Marketing – Part 2


Virtual and augmented reality advertising
The concept of virtual reality (VR) has been around for quite some time, with much controversy over when the concept was first realized. Nonetheless, real science is slowly catching up with the imaginations of science fiction and lo and behold; VR and AR technologies are now becoming commonplace in consumer society.
With marketers realizing the popularity of consumer VR and AR devices, and the immersive experience they offer, various virtual reality marketing agencies such as Reverge have sprung up to fill this extremely fresh niche. This is as well as mega-brands Coca Cola and McDonalds developing their own VR campaigns, which just goes to show there is a rising demand for these types of specialist marketing services.
Marketers have also been thinking up novel uses for VR technology such as real estate agents offering virtual house tours, VR rollercoasters featuring deep space battles, and greater immersion in online gaming.
Back in 2014, high street brands Topshop and John Lewis were already experimenting with VR in their marketing, with Topshop offering competition winners virtual seats to the London fashion show and John Lewis debuting an interactive story featuring a small boy and his penguin.
So with high street brands finding their feet with virtual reality, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg investing upwards of $2 Billion on the purchase of the Oculus VR, one can imagine we are likely to experience a boom in affordable VR technology. But what can we expect from virtual reality advertising and marketing in the near future?
The deployment of bots replacing human interaction
You may already be aware of bots. For example, you may have seen the likes of Murphy Bot – which answers your what-if question in the form of an image. Or prediction bots – offering high-accuracy sports predictions. Or you may have already spoken to a bot unaware that it wasn’t a human, in the form of a chat bot on an ecommerce website.
For those who aren’t really sure what a bot is, it’s a series of algorithms forming an application that can be programmed to perform automated tasks such as searching the internet or performing actions on request.
Since these systems grow as they learn, and are connected to the internet 24/7, they could potentially be able to let you know when the items you want are on sale, remind you of the events you’re planning to attend, or order pizza for you without you having to even lift a finger.
The marketing benefits for this kind of technology are immense, and with automation becoming a thing of the present, it looks like marketers wouldn’t have to lift a finger either! (That is, until our robot overlords enslave us all).
The proliferation of AI in automated decision making
There have been many advances in the field of AI in recent years, with features in your life you wouldn’t even know are governed by artificial intelligence algorithms.
The autocorrect feature on your phone for example traces the patterns of your spelling, learns from your previous errors and refines its prediction process based on user input combined with a nifty machine learning algorithm.
AI is another science fantasy coming to life, yet how is it currently being integrated into today’s marketing efforts?
Well for one, Google has made extremely progressive advances in machine learning and cognitive processing that has been successfully introducing these functions into their products and services for a while now. With AI prevalent in indexing websites, reverse image search and YouTube recommendations. It has even been integrated into their ad network.
IBM are also experiencing success with their flagship AI – Watson, who recently composed a song. Like Google, IBM have given the public access to the Watson Developer Cloud (their API) which means developers can now start to produce apps and services for a variety of marketing purposes – all featuring AI.
As for the future of artificial intelligence, we’ll let you ponder that one.


Future of Mobile Marketing – Part 1


The outcomes of the future are pretty uncertain eventualities. But yet, we as humans strive to predict future outcomes and scenarios in a variety of ways.
For example the complete guesswork of choosing your lottery numbers, to the more logical science & technology based efforts of meteorologists predicting future weather patterns.
Needless to say, human beings have an innate desire to analyze patterns and contemplate the unknown.
More effective targeting of consumers
In the last few years we have seen a real surge in targeting consumers via mobile. Be it location based, device specific or proximity marketing – the more of your data that brands and marketers can collect, the more accurate (and therefore effective) the ads & mobile offers you’ll receive will be.
Presently, marketers are placing large value on programmatic mobile advertising (also known as programmatic media buying) which is essentially using technology (such as an artificial intelligence system) in order to automate the facilitation of buying and selling adverts to target a hyper-acute audience.
Well for one, artificial intelligence systems are still in their infancy and have a while to go before they will be able to match the superior cognition of the human decision making process. However, with large strides in the field of AI and progress increasing at an exponential rate, we could be looking at a system that can make decisions as effectively (if not more so) than the average human.
Programmatic advertising is likely to become available to a wider audience at much lower costs. It’s also likely we’ll see ad agencies adopting their own personal programmatic assistants, completely programmable and able to purchase thousands of targeted ads every second – eliminating the need for human effort.
Increased use of wearable tech
Wearables have become all the rage in recent years, with Fitbit wristbands to track workouts, and smart watches you can use to pay for your lunch – the adoption of wearable technology has reached impressive proportions and popularity does not look likely to curb anytime soon.
Needless to mention, all this wearable tech comes with a lot of data and you can bet your sweet behind that brands are getting more adept at logging, analyzing and interpreting this data so as to better market you their products and services.
Current trends aside, what can we expect from the future of wearables and the marketing strategies that stem from this industry?
Well to begin with, we can start analyzing recently patented wearables that are still in their concept stages. For example, Japanese tech giants Sony have recently filed a patent for a smart contact lens that can record and store video with the blink of an eye. It is safe to say that technology like this could change the game (again) for marketers and advertisers. Some have even considered an integrated virtual assistant built into the eyepiece!
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Thursday, 11 July 2019

Online marketing Vs offline marketing


Technologically advanced, we do pretty much everything online now and marketing is no exception. There’s no denying, though, that offline marketing is still pretty popular and making a choice between the two mediums is often a tough decision.
Offline marketing
Also known as traditional marketing, this includes print, TV, and radio campaigns. Offline marketing has been popular for decades but in the light of online marketing, its recognition seems to have faded a bit. For example, ad spend on TV marketing came down from 18.9% in 2012 to 15.8% in 2018. There are many brands who still swear by it, though. Why?
1. The visibility is tremendous: This is the biggest seller when it comes to offline marketing. Be it a newspaper ad or a TVC, the reach of the advertisement is wide. Hundreds of thousands of people see the ads even a conversion rate of 1% is pretty big.
2. The longevity is much higher: Hoardings and TVCs, for example, stay for a long time. Of course, results may not be instantaneous but these advertisements leave an impression and the brand is remembered. Catchy jingles and slogans become a part of our lives before we realize. We are still familiar with Airtel’s Har ek friend zaruri hota hai jingle, aren’t we?
3. It is quite effective: As explained in point 1, even 1% conversion rate amounts to a lot through offline marketing because of the visibility. Thus, it is safe to say that offline marketing is quite effective.
Online marketing
The Internet is quite new for many businesses but it has become attractive for a few reasons. The number one reason is word of mouth. More and more businesses are reaping benefits online and the curiosity is encouraging others to try it out as well.
Most businesses, it has been noted, give online marketing a try without expecting too much. They are online because everyone else is. Only after they start gaining benefits do they realize just how strong the platform is. Let’s take a look at the specifics here:
1. It is very cost effective: Especially when you compare it with offline marketing, you will see that online marketing is easy on the pocket. This is one reason why businesses don’t mind giving it a try. They don’t mind losing a small chunk of their money to test the medium out and any benefit they reap is a bonus.
2. It helps you reach the right audience: While offline marketing helps you reach a wide audience, online marketing helps reach the right audience. When we say right, we mean exactly who you are targeting. For example, advertisements about baby shoes would be useless to teenagers and single adults. Through Internet marketing, you can push your ads only to those who are married and have kids (in case of social media) or are looking for baby shoes or baby products (in case of Google). This will avoid spillover and ensure higher conversion rates.
3. Just about every penny is accounted for: Online, you can analyze your spend. You can understand how much money is being spent on which campaign. You can optimize your campaigns accordingly to make them more effective. This is a major advantage that offline marketing doesn’t come with.
4. You understand your customers: Online, you can interact with your customers directly and understand their pain points. You can find out whether they are happy using your services and how you can improve to serve them better. Understanding your customers also helps personalize ads according to their expectations, thus helping you connect with them. And, we all know emotional connection does magic!
It is important that you have a strong presence online and use this amazing medium to scale your business by reaching the right audience. Of course, offline marketing does wonders as well and if it has been working for you, we suggest you balance both mediums to obtain the highest benefit. One thing to remember is to ensure that both go hand in hand and you run similar campaigns together. This will help strengthen your branding. Your audience will find it easier to remember you.

Mobile Marketing vs. Digital Marketing


Digital marketing is a term to describe marketing strategy that involves reaching customers through digital channels such as websites, social media, search engine advertising and email. Mobile marketing is a component of digital marketing that targets customers who access information through mobile devices.
Mobile marketing, although technically a part of digital marketing, has quickly risen to become the largest component and is frequently given its own team who work separately from others in the marketing department.
Digital Marketing Overview
Digital marketing technically encompasses everything that involves sending marketing messages and launching campaigns through websites, social media, email, WiFi analytics or any other digital means. It also encompasses marketing tailored to different devices, including laptops, tablets and mobiles.
Digital marketing has many components. They include strategies, tools and tactics such as:
Pay per click advertising. Placing advertisements on search engine results that include keywords related to what the business offers.
Search engine optimization. Using content and coding on a webpage to help a site rank higher on search engine results.
Content. Creation and publishing of content that provides useful information to people searching for specific keywords.
Website. Using words, images and designs to create attractive websites that also have success converting website traffic into paying customers.
Social media. Popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram provide marketers a chance to interact with large numbers of potential customers, having conversations on issues that involve their products and services.
Email. Although one of the oldest digital marketing methods, email remains highly effective at reaching potential customers or keeping current customers loyal to your brand.
Data analytics. Data is the tool behind all these strategies, as digital marketers use information found through data analysis to guide more targeted, successful marketing campaigns.
Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing takes many of the above approaches, but tailors them specifically to those who use their mobile devices to conduct searches, visit social media platforms and check out websites.
This is becoming increasingly important as more consumers transition into using mobile devices to find and purchase products and services. AdWeek reports that about one third of all purchases in 2018 were on smartphones and other mobile devices. Also, Google surveys have found up to 46% of respondents report they prefer completing purchases via mobile, according to AdWeek,
The American Marketing Association provides an entire toolkit for using mobile marketing, including developing a strategy, analyzing data, tracking customer activity and properly assessing any risks.
One key step when it comes to both digital and mobile marketing for many businesses is to hire consultants who are digital marketing professionals and can help both develop and execute marketing strategy.
Some of those strategies include:
• Making websites mobile-friendly (Google ranks such sites higher in search engine results)
• Emphasize email, as 65% of all emails are first opened on mobile devices, according to Marketo
• SMS and MMS text marketing, sending messages directly to a person’s mobile device
• Developing mobile apps for your business
That’s just a taste of the digital and mobile marketing techniques companies can use to reach a wider customer base. In the new age of marketing, both are necessary to keep pace with the competition.

Thursday, 4 July 2019

CLEAN UP YOUR GOOGLE REPUTATION PART - 1


Google completely sanctions your attempts to push out a negative web page from its search results. You just have to make sure you understand its search algorithm and its webmaster guidelines.
Ramp up your optimization
When you look at your audit, pay attention to any web pages that you Own, Control, or Influence, but haven’t yet optimized. Do you see any opportunities to add a Superbrand link? Are you using pronouns in your descriptions when you could be talking about yourself in the third-person?
Now would also be a good time to ramp up your efforts to publish Amazing content. If you previously put off designing an infographic or a creating a new video because you decided it would be too costly, it might be time to reconsider that decision. Compare the cost of investing in web content that might rank above the negative web page versus the lifetime cost of your detractor’s attack finding a permanent home in your Google reputation.
Assess the damage
If you’ve not conducted a Google audit since you suffered your reputation attack, this is your first task. As mentioned on Day 18, your audit should cover the first 30 results that are displayed when you Google your reputation. If you don’t see your detractor’s attack, then you can breathe a sigh of relief, but don’t let complacency set in. You should conduct a new Google audit daily for the next two weeks, then extend it to weekly for the next month or two, before settling back to your normal schedule. This process will ensure you can move quickly, should the attack start to rank inside the first 30 results.
Hire an ORM professional
If you find all of this to be completely over your head, then you may decide it worth the investment to hire an online reputation management (ORM) firm. There are literally hundreds of ORM firms and consultants—all willing to take your money. Like any industry, you have large firms, such as Brand.com, all the way down to individual consultants.
The road ahead
This is not going to be a quick fix. It may take you many months to fully clean up your Google reputation. Let that be a reminder and an encouragement to never let this happen again. Remember, you may be able to clean up the mess this time, but your stakeholders will be looking for consistency from you going forward. That’s why you need to circle back to the core of your reputation, your character, and make an effort to be better.
Buy your way out
Many online review sites are less than honorable. Poke around the underbelly of the internet and you will find sites that post anything from unverified customer reviews to naked photos of a scorned lover. Many of these sites have some kind of “advocacy” program that, for a small fee, will ensure the negative review is quietly removed. I use quotes around advocacy because many of them are nothing short of extortion. Still, paying a sleezeball webmaster $500 to make the nastiness go away could be a lot cheaper than the amount of time, effort, and money needed to push it down in Google’s search results.

The 2020 Google Search Algorithm So Far


Only 10 days into the 2017, and we were hit with an update that targets mobile websites with intrusive pop-ups or interstitials. As both a consumer and an SEO – I’m all in with this change. Why didn’t they think of this sooner?! After all, there’s the right way to do a pop-up and there’s the wrong way to do one because no one likes pop-ups that take up the whole screen. Google finally recognized that the bad way lessens the user experience and happens on low-quality pages. The Intrusive Interstitial Penalty points to Google’s growing focus on the mobile search experience.
What We Can Expect in 2020
This leads us back to 2017 and what we think Google has in store for us. The reins were loosened on backlinks thanks to Penguin 4.0, but we don’t know for how long. Google has said they are not planning on announcing any new updates to their Penguin algorithm, but I would expect them to eventually tighten up the reins again. People in the SEO community will see how far they can test the limits, which will eventually lead Google towards placing more control on the issue.
AMP and Structured Data Will Rise in Prominence
We can certainly expect more updates that emphasize a positive mobile experience for Google users. I suspect it’s going to expand the use of AMP and place greater importance on those pages. Also, the growing trend is to enhance the search results page with search features that include carousels, rich cards, knowledge graphs, and answer boxes. With Google favoring these types of search results, this will place more emphasis on adding structured data. Google keeps adding more types of rich cards and if you have a website that applies, you’ll want to mark up your site. In 2020, your goal could be to rely less on ranking #1 and more on showing up in other search feature areas on page 1.
The Growing Trend Towards Mobile
At the end of 2018, Google announced they were experimenting with mobile-first indexing. This means Google will soon primarily get their data from mobile sites as opposed to from desktop data, which was their main source in past years.
To pile on the mobile trend, accelerated mobile pages (AMP) were created to provide a fast way to get the content to the searcher. It has now become noticeably prevalent in the Google search results page. There hasn’t been an official announcement, but the SEO trends for 2017 all point towards a mobile friendly Google search algorithm.
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