What is Google Panda?

This is a set of new rules that was first implemented on Google’s search algorithms in Feb 2011. These changes aimed at ensuring that the high ranks in Google’s Search Result Pages are only occupied by websites that are of high quality, in respect to what users would like to see. According to Google’s official blog, all they seek is to give Googlers the most relevant results for their queries, fast and effectively. Of course, that is to a great advantage of the search engine’s users but it means webmasters and SEO have to do something they are not used to.

What Google Panda means to webmasters and SEOs

SEO experts have for a long time been doing more or less the same thing; quality keyword research, building credible content around these keywords and link building. Now, a lot more has to be done, and when I say a lot, I mean just that. I should mention that a change in the Google Algorithms is not something that just began. It has been there, but no changes have ever had an impact on 11.8% of the searches as Google panda has.

Now SEO experts will have to think and so broadly, about the general experience that their websites give.  The new algorithms outline technical, quality, design and content guidelines, which if followed by webmasters, will give users some of the best websites, in terms of quality, at the top of their search result pages. These algorithms mean that building a quality website is not just about presenting good content but creating a brand that users will love and most importantly share.

With Google Panda, virtually everything about your website now seems to affect your search engine ranking. Take for example a website that has quality links. Any SEO expert will argue that such a site will get a higher ranking. While that still counts, you should not be surprised to see another site that does not have as good links being ranked higher; what users, and to be specific Google quality raters, think about the website now seems to count more than anything else.

So it is all centred on user experience?

To be specific, yes. That is why the design of the website has now come in to play a major role. That means if you have excellent content but arranged in some unfriendly blocks of text, you are likely to rank very low. And what did Google initially consider as good content – some original information without grammar or spelling mistakes, and right in context, right?  Cool, you may want to maintain that but if you cannot give the content that visitors will want to come back for, and share, you may as well forget the first page of Google… and may be the second and third.

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It is only recently that Google Places was launched but what it has done for local marketing of millions of businesses is nothing less than spectacular. If you do not have a clue as to what this is, let me briefly fill you in.

Google Places is a provision by the world’s largest search engine for businesses to map themselves onto Google Maps. As a business owner, you simply need to specify the address of your business and provide a few other relevant details and your business will appear on Google maps. It doesn’t matter where your business is on this earth, this service will work for you.

I know you can already imagine the huge benefits a listing would bring to your business. I will tell you more, which you probably have not even thought of.

Google Places if FREE…that’s not obvious!

Online marketing has become very powerful and businesses are actually investing in and paying thousands of dollars for it. I am sure millions of businesses around the world would be more than willing to pay to be listed here; yet, it is all free for you to use. Your Business appears on Google’s first page

Does that sound too good? Well, it is true. If you optimise your listing properly, it will boost your rank and you will appear on the top of the very first page of Google’s search results. Keep in mind that it will not only be a listing on this page, but a map showing your business’s actual location.

Google Places is more than just an online presence

When you are listed on Google Places, people will not only find your business when they search the internet; they will also see your website, email address, your business’s physical address and the phone number. This makes it very easy for customers to find your business and even get in touch with you if they need to

Mobile users will find you too

People do not need to browse on a computer to find business listings. Google was keen to help businesses tap into the potential of millions of people searching for goods and services over their mobile phones. This is definitely to the great advantage of business owners as they get more traffic and thus more new customers.

You don’t need to have a physical location

It is not mandatory that you have a physical store for you to be accepted for a listing. If your business is purely online, you can still get listed and enjoy all the benefits that come with it.

Conclusion:

Online advertising is, without a doubt, the future of marketing. How many people still use the paper phone directories? With the trend being experienced today, no one needs to be told that these directories are soon becoming extinct and their place taken by online business listing services. So, why should you be left out while your competitors get listed on Google Places?

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Isn’t it amazing the things that technology has brought us in the 21^st Century? Just flash your mind back to the 1980’s TV sets that would occupy as much space as a fridge! Everyone was excited to watch and “low resolution” meant nothing…how many even knew what that is?

What if you were to open a store today and start selling such gadgets? You don’t even want to think about it; it’s simply silly, given the availability of flat screen TVs that have fantastic resolution. Now what amazes me is that some people are doing exactly that; rigid and stack to the old. Talking about marketers…

One of the things that have significantly changed in this new century is marketing. Frankly, when is the last time you listened to the radio? I noted that in the rare occasions that I watch TV, I always snap to another channel whenever commercials occupy the screen, and I guess this describes many other people. Let us not even talk about a mail advertising a given product; it is more likely to cause negative reactions than sell the product. Clearly, it is pure waste of time and money investing in this kind of advertising today.

So, what is happening in the world of marketing?

It is change, like we are seeing all around us. Customers have now changed and the days in which they would sit as you lecture them about your products are no more. Does that mean the end of marketing? Of course not, just a necessity to change tactics.

Change of tactics?

Yes; and the answer is relationship marketing. Customers now want dialogue whenever you have anything to tell them about your products. Instead of coming to them with the hype about the excellence of your products or services, you need to first have them tell you what their needs are. There are aspects that customers are missing in given products and they are seeking to find someone who would listen to these problems, before anything else.

In traditional marketing, marketers would talk at clients and tell them why they need to buy what they have. Today, these clients want to be talked to and told what is in the product that addresses the needs they have brought forward. The days are gone when a marketer would wake up one morning, create a promotional message and take it to be aired by the media. A marketing campaign today must start with the producer listening to the consumer, get to know what the consumer needs and give exactly that.

The role of the internet

You probably are already thinking about the platform on which such interaction can take place and the internet is somewhere in the picture. Indeed, the internet is a handy tool in relationship marketing and a great advantage.

Think about the now possible email and chat exchanges, blogs with provisions for people to make comments, and most importantly the social media. Millions of people are interacting on these platforms everyday and many of the comments flying the place are about products. People are looking for friends on Facebook and Twitter that are experts about given products.  It has never been so easy to reach such a wide audience like you can with these tools.

This is the very reason why traditional marketing has become extinct. Who wouldn’t want to reach out to over 2.09 billion people? Besides, it is clear that the power is now with the consumers; you either listen to what they have to say or get no audience. Relationship marketing has taken its place and luckily, with it has come a platform that carries it high – the internet.

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The company, that has for long dominated the search market, has unveiled its social networking site, deemed to bring tough competition to dominating social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. While the general social media users are sure to get a whole new set of tools to spice up their social lives, businesses are looking up with eagerness… this could be the way to the success that has been hard to come to!

But what is in Google+ for businesses?

The benefits of Google plus

1. Gets the message to the right people

Google plus comes with a feature called “Circles”. With this feature, you are able to organise the people you interact with into groups of targeted members. That means, rather than presenting your content to a world of followers, most of whom will not bother to check what is in there, you will be communicating to a group of people that you are sure have interest in what you’ve got to say.
The feature is extremely user friendly as one simply drags contacts into a specific group. You can change the constituents of any group at any time. There seems to be no limit to the number of custom circles that a user can create.

2. Find content that is of interest to you

To enable its users get content that is in line with their interests, Google+ uses “Sparks”. This feature finds all the photos, videos, articles and other forms of content on the web, and groups them according to interests. Users therefore not only easily share content, but also easily get what interests them.

3. Get people on group video chat easily

What would you do if you wanted to have a video chat with someone? Typically, you will need to invite them into the chat. Google+ seals this “loop-hole” by creating “Hangouts”. With this feature, a user simply starts a hangout session to get into a virtual video chat-room. Friends in the circles of the user then get notifications that someone is hanging out and they quickly opt in.

4. Catch up with friends even on the go

A Google+ application is available for mobile devices using the android platform. From this application, you can access updates, make your updates, share photos and videos and do all the rest that is in Google plus. There have been mobile apps for other social media sites but the uniqueness of this one is that all the photos and videos you take from your Android device, through Google+, are automatically uploaded awaiting sharing.

So is Google+ the next big thing in the social media arena?

Clearly, Google plus is the company’s attempt to get a step ahead in the fast growing social media market. Bearing in mind that the company has a failed attempt to get into the social media world, it should be expected that this feat has been carefully calculated and chances are that it is going to greatly shake the social media front.

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What is blogging for business?

I know some people are still a little confused about this art of blogging for business. If you are one of them, then you have a reason to relax – you are just about to learn much of what you have always wanted to.

The basic meaning

Is blogging for business creating a blog that will directly bring you income? Well, it is not absolutely wrong to think of it that way as some people have successfully converted their blogs into money making machines. It is not a wonder to market a product on your blog and generate quite some good sales of that product on the same blog. However, away from that, most people create blogs to enhance an already existing business website.

So, the question that is in the minds of many people is “what are the basics of creating an effective blog for my business?” Here are the tricks of the art.

Consider the breadth of your topic

Definitely, the topic of your blog will be related to your business niche. What needs careful consideration is how broad your topics will be. More specific blogs will generate more loyal and consistent customers, which may be just what you need for your business success. However, dealing with a broader topic also has its advantages in that it has more potential of generating more traffic.

Keep it communicational

First and foremost you need to keep in mind that the main purpose of a business blog is to create an online presence. You want you and your business to be known by the online community. To achieve this, your blog should be communicational. That means you do not become the only one telling people things but also give them a chance to comment and react. That way, they feel part of you and part of your business.

Consistency is the key to successful blogging for business

 The basic trick of blogging is to provide quality content and doing it regularly. Now there are two advantages of doing that. First, the visitors will find value in your blog and will always look forward to come back to the blog to read that new post. They can even go to the extent of subscribing to your blog’s RSS feeds. Secondly, due to the fresh content, your business blog will find “favor” with search engines and the results will make you smile – high page rank in search engines.

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Well, the reasons are many, but the most important is that I, as a social media strategist, have realized that most of my clients fail not because they get it wrong on the social media marketing aspects but because their websites mess them up. If you are to be successful, it is of primary requirement that you have a nice, usable website before you even think of marketing it.

Now, the internet has dozens of tips and tricks on optimizing your website for an easy use, but they all seem to be based upon just a few fundamental points. These are the points I want to share with you – pay attention!

Overlook not the ancient rules

The problem of website usability did not start the other day; it has been there since the internet became a tool for business. As you would therefore expect, people started looking for solutions to website usability long ago and this is what led to the development of website usability rules. While some of them, with time, become rejected or modified in a big way, one is sure to stand the test of time, if the success of Airbnb is anything to go by.

This company could not launch their website before making it a less that three-step process for customers to book a room from the first time they visit the website. Why should you make it a long process for customers to get where they want to be? Save their time and make more profits.

Solicit and take note of user comments

I have been to many websites but I have only seen a few that ask there visitors to leave their comments about the website’s usability. I think that is fortunate and unfortunate: fortunate to those who will read this advice and take heed and unfortunate to those who miss out.

Welcome comments and criticism from your web visitors. Let them know that you are doing that so you can develop a more usable website for them. Most of them will be ready to leave their sincere comments and those who are pissed up will blatantly say it. You still need that angry comment to make the website better. Once you get the comments, work on them.

Observe your website users’ activity

This could be a difficult task but pays off handsomely. Take note of the pages on which your web visitors spend more time and those that they exit moments after landing there. Observe what links they click most and you are sure to note a trend that will help you in optimizing your website for an easy use.

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That’s not all; have you thought about the following?

Your website’s first impression

To me, the first impression that the visitor makes of your website is partly determined by the looks you give your business website. A website with a nice visual design, attractive color (I did not say too much color) and a well thought out arrangement will surely have a positive impact on the visitors. Remember that this website serves the same purpose as the store front and the customers would like to make their purchases from a clean and beautiful space.

Help visitors find what they want fast and easily

The arrangement of web pages is a very important website usability aspect for any business website. This is because, most often, you will need more than one page to display all the business information the potential customer should get from the site. To achieve the best from this, make the arrangement systematic but most importantly, make sure that the links to various pages work perfectly.

Your website usability is a chance to prove that you are indeed the best

In these highly competitive business days, every chance that will show the potential customers that you are indeed the best, should be grabbed without a second thought. Taking your website usability seriously tells the visitors how serious you are in the business. It is common thought that someone who does not take time to ensure that their business website is working properly is just not serious about their business and are therefore most likely not serious about the quality they offer.

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Things you must never do with business social media

1. Starting Without a Strategy

Well, I am one person who is business oriented and there is one fact that I know business people understand just too well – strategizing is the key to all business success. That is for sure, and like in any other business activity, failing to strategize for your social media use in business, is actually digging your own business grave.

So what goes with strategizing for business social media? This is it – you need to do the following:

• Clearly define what you need to achieve through social media…is it more visitors to your online store, better customer relations, improved public relations, or an enhanced online presence?
• Find out which social media network fits best into your plan – Facebook is good but twitter could be better depending on your aims, and vice versa.
• How much are you willing to spend on social media strategies for your business? It is worth a little investment especially if you will need the services of a specialist. Too small a budget could just be a waste of time.

I know that that information is not exhaustive. We could actually need a whole eBook (should be coming soon) on strategizing for business social media. However, those three are the basic and most important things you need to keep in mind.

2. Being Oblivious Of Social Media Decency Requirements

What the hell is Social Media Decency Requirements? Well if that is one thing you just shouted, it is okay. I am sure you are not alone. It is actually one of the most serious causes of business social media failure in most cases.

Well, I’ll try to give it a simple approach… You need not be told that Facebook users, and indeed users of many other social networks, do not use them for business but social networking. We, as business people only take advantage of their enormous presence there. It is therefore common sense that any advertising or message with sales “taste” will invoke negative reactions. This is actually a breach of social media decency requirements.

Now social media has evolved, and it is becoming accepted that it can be used for business communications – even marketing. Should you be lucky to set up successful business social media practice, then one fatal mistake you could make, as noted with many businesses, is being inconsistent. What do you think would happen if a customer who knows that their needs will be met on their favorite social media network just to find that there is no one there to address their problems?

Be sure to check out the other articles in this series, to learn more about the business social media Don’ts.

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But before you join the rest of the people, shifting attention from the traditional website usability checks, you need to take your time to study the effects of the trends that they are taking. Accepting change is indeed a wise thing, but I have also noted that sometimes it is wiser to look at things from a distance as they change. Be part of the change only when you become certain that the change is positive. Take a look at the following:

1. Load time is just a traditional usability test

That is indeed very true. The loading speed of websites is one of the concerns that were addressed long ago when websites become the big thing for any business. Most developers today will give you a website that is less than 100kb. However, I still come across 400 kb websites that take ages to load. If your business website falls in this category, you are either seriously unserious with it or you just don’t care about your visitors’ experience.

2. Color contrast needs not be taught to webmasters

No dispute; every website owner is aware of this fact just too well. You can tell that from the black font color against a white background that is so common on the World Wide Web today. But tell me what some people are still doing with websites with a grey background behind black text!

3. Legibility applies even to word documents

Again no one can dispute that and the font size and character spacing is something that website owners should hold with high value. As much as this may be considered as one of the facts that have been known for a really long time, it is so important because all the other usability checks would be worthless if this is not checked.

4. Navigation: the backbone of website usability

Can we really talk about optimizing your website for an easy use without mentioning something to do with navigation? This is the only way that web visitors use to find information on your website (the search bar – if you have enabled it – is only an addition). It is for this reason that we find it crucial to remind website owners how important this check is.

What you need to take home

The basic checks you should consider when optimizing your website for an easy use seem rather old school, but they form the backbone upon which all other checks are built. It is therefore important to start from the simple checks upwards if you are serious about optimizing your website for an easy use.

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What is social media marketing?

Well, to put it in the simplest words possible, social media marketing is one of the many online marketing strategies, but one of a kind. With social media marketing, you can achieve from the most basic goals of marketing such as increasing web traffic, page views, ad exposure, conversions and sales, to the complex ones such as business development and positive brand building.

Does that sound much like an exaggeration?

You’ll most likely answer yes…but it is not. Follow keenly as I am about to tell you just how social media marketing achieves this seemingly too big a dream.

Social interaction: let the target population know you

Social media marketing is one of those strategies that must be implemented systematically for it to work as you would expect. You start by building a social interaction with the targeted people. This interaction is aimed at making these people get to know you, your skills and your specialization.

Develop a liking

Once the targeted people have known you, depending on the first impression you make on them, they will most likely be interested in what you do. They will therefore follow your social media activities and if you know how to play this part well, they will like you.

Developing trust

This is where consistency in your social media activities counts a lot. It creates an image of a reliable professional and friend, who is always there and ready to help solve problems. You also need to be very careful at this stage about what goes to your social media profiles. See to it that you screen it properly to ensure that it paints a picture of the most experienced and talented guru in your niche.

If you stick to these few and simple social media marketing strategies, you should soon begin to see more sales and profits flowing your way.

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