June 2015 - DigitalParc

Beginners Guide: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Posted on June 19, 2015 by dpadmin

SEO must be considered an essential element within your business and marketing efforts in order to increase traffic to your website. Search engine optimization assures that your website will be found by the users most likely to need or want your product or service by garnering your high placements when individuals search the web for businesses such as yours.

Impactful SEO tactics are a vital segment within the industry of Internet marketing and advertising. A crucial factor that results in high-impact, organic and result-driven traffic to your website is the strategy of keyword research optimization. Understanding the reasons that people are searching for your business or service – and what data and specific search terms people are using to look for your service – helps you gain powerful and robust information about your client base. In turn, optimizing SEO allows your business to gain a foothold over your competitors by improving your search engine rank listings, thereby boosting the online vitality of your business.

Some companies try to “cheat” the system by using SEO terms that they know rank high within particular search engines. The truth is, there is no shortcut to gaining meaningful and lasting SEO outcomes. The goal of SEO should be to best convey to search engines what your business offers so that those search engines can determine which searches and users truly would benefit from visiting your website. While “gaming” the system may work temporarily, search engines will quickly catch on to false practices and demote your page rankings.

Organic SEO

Organic SEO means that your website gains high-page rankings without paying for the placement. Organic SEO takes effort and consistent practices to both gain a high ranking and maintain that ranking. SEO often follows “white hat” practices in order to gain organic results.

There are many practices that are involved in gaining organic SEO results, the most popular of which include:
– Utilizing keywords within your website and content
– Creating content and copy that is genuinely relevant to potential customers
– Link building
– Backlinking
– Analytic methodology, including keyword and search term analysis.

It is important to know that the more naturally – or organically – your website ranks within search engines, the better the odds are that people using those search engines will click on your website, thereby increasing your traffic.

SEO allows search engines to verify that your website is relevant to the searches that people are performing. Search engines utilize a variety of data, analytics, algorithms and other factors to determine if a website is relevant to a particular search. While the particulars of some of those assessments are highly protected within the search engines, you can safely be assured that the following factors are definitely used to determine website relevancy, and thereby high-ranking search results:

– Content and Copy: Does the copy or content on your website match the search terms or themes being used?
– User Friendliness and Navigation: Is your site user-friendly? Is it mobile responsive? Is it easily navigated and labeled?
– Knowledgeable: Does your website convey expert knowledge and authority? Do other high-ranking websites link to your website as a reference? Does your website content link to websites that are considered experts within the industry?

3 Essentials for a Successful Website Design

Posted on June 9, 2015 by dpadmin

The importance of professional website design cannot be understated in today’s digitally driven marketplace. A well designed website is not only visually attractive, it serves other functions that are critical to making your business or brand stand out. Envision your website as a house: an attractive design would be the exterior of the home – the first impression that passersby would take in. The components behind the design would be the elements that make your home functional and assure that your guests find it welcoming. In the case of website design, these elements include mobile responsiveness and user friendliness.

Visual Appeal.

Attractive website design should be one of the top priorities for the marketing of your business. Your website is the first impression of your company that potential customers take in. You want your design to stand out and look professional, especially given the amount of competitors that are just a click away. Smartly designed websites assure that visitors are instantly impressed with your business, thereby conveying a sense of trust and keeping them engaged with your site. It has been proven time and time again that attractively designed websites lead to successful calls to action – whether that means sales, signing up for a newsletter or sharing your information via social channels.

Mobile Optimization.

Having a website that is mobile responsive is an absolute must for any business. Technology is constantly evolving, but one standard remains: more and more people rely on their mobile devices to access and search the web. If they land on your website while using their smartphone or tablet, you want to assure that the website functions optimally. This means incorporating smartphone and mobile responsiveness into the design of your website to assure that your website loads quickly, is attractive and simple to read and is easy to navigate while using these devices.

User-Friendly Design.

Finally, a user-friendly website is crucial to good website design. What this means is that the navigation of your website is simple and easy to understand, assuring that visitors will not be frustrated with the process of “trying to find things” on your website. Although your website can be complex and have many pages, making it user-friendly means providing smart navigation bars, labels or tabs that clearly define the pages or sections of your website. User-friendly website design allows your customers to move through your website with ease and simplicity, assuring better engagement and making it far more likely for them to stay on your site.

Your website design should allow your website to function or interact with your customers as though they were walking into a physical location of your business. You would want your business to be attractive and draw customers in, your sales staff to be responsive and attentive to the needs of each customer, and you would want the design of the shop to be easy to navigate.

A Quick Guide to Social Media Marketing

Posted on June 5, 2015 by dpadmin

Once you have built your website, driving traffic to that website is paramount to the success of your business. We have discussed strategies so far that include SEO and various PPC and online advertising campaigns, but we cannot underscore the amazing power that social media harnesses when it comes to driving traffic to your website. Whenever you or someone else shares a link to your website using a social media account, it builds links for search engines to index, building up your website’s reputation and authority and boosting organic results.

The utilization of social media networks or channels to promote your website and content can greatly complement an Internet marketing plan and optimize website hits and visits, especially in business to business (B2B) sectors.

The leading social media networks for promotion of your website that lead to increased traffic and conversion are:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• Instagram

Facebook remains the top social media network across the globe. With over one billion active users, this social media giant cannot be overlooked when it comes to driving traffic to your website. Creating a business page, inviting friends to follow and like the page and consistently updating the page with fresh content that links out to your website will drive traffic to your site and increase your rankings within search engines. Facebook also allows businesses to create targeted advertising campaigns that provide powerful results.

Twitter currently commands the ranking as the second most powerful social media network, especially with regard to microblogging and current events. Its functionality allows businesses to easily follow, promote and engage with each other using hashtags. Hashtags allow you to follow specific social media conversations, while Twitter lists boast your credibility within specific niches or industries. Viral content can drive astounding amounts of traffic to your website very quickly.

LinkedIn is the leading professional networking social media network and has more than 100 million users (who tend to be very active). LinkedIn can drive traffic to your site by allowing you to create a Company Page where you can share industry insights, connect and network with other professionals and share content. Your content may get re-shared or commented on by a segment that is mostly made up of professionals looking to gain business, connections and credibility within the professional world. Sharing posts that link to your website can increase high-producing traffic. LinkedIn has also recently announced new analytic insights that can assist with determining if your marketing efforts are reaching your desired audience.

Instagram is by far the leading social media network for photo sharing. While Instagram is a powerful engagement tool that can be used to inspire members of the social network, offering up a social media site that has more than 100 million accounts sharing nearly 40 million images on a daily basis, it is best used for customer interaction and brand building rather than driving traffic to your website.

The primary concern cited by advertising experts is that Instagram makes it difficult to actually drive traffic to your website. This is because Instagram does not allow traffic to be directed from a particular image to your website. The only live link that directs traffic to your website is the one that you use in your business profile bio. The use of hashtags and following of potential customers and interacting with them is the primary marketing benefit cited for this social media platform.

The Top 3 Forms of PPC Advertising

Posted on June 2, 2015 by dpadmin

Pay per click advertising is usually referred to as PPC within the world of Internet marketing and advertising. PPC advertising means that you or your business (the advertiser) will pay a fee every time someone clicks on an ad that you have placed online.

PPC advertising is a results-driven and targeted effort ad campaign that drives traffic to your website by paying for that traffic (rather than gaining the visits organically through search engine queries). Google AdWords, display ads and retargeting are all popular and powerful forms of PPC.

AdWords

AdWords is Google’s online advertising service. It allows you to purchase targeted ads that you pay for only when someone clicks on your ad. When you utilize Google’s AdWords as part of a PPC campaign, you can bid for ad placement on Google’s search engines and websites, as well as on the websites of their partners who provide Google services.

Because research continues to demonstrate that nearly 90 percent of people performing web searches do not click beyond the first page of search engine results, search engine advertising remains the most dominant form of PPC. Having your business or organization appear on the first page of a Google search nearly guarantees traffic to your website. When it comes to Adwords, if traffic is not driven to your site despite your ad placement, you do not pay for it. This allows you to greatly reduce your risk of spending advertising dollars without gaining any positive outcomes.

AdWords lets you set a budget and bid for an ad placement within Google’s search engine. Your ad appears when users search for key phrases or search terms that are related to your business or service and appear as a result listed as a “Sponsored Link”.

The ads are usually comprised of a title and a short description of the service or product that you are advertising. Although the ad may appear on the first page of search engine results, you have the option of only paying for the ad if someone clicks on it, thereby being directed to your website.

Creating a PPC campaign with AdWords is fairly simple to do. However, many businesses utilize Google AdWord Management to most effectively target their market and drive traffic to their website that is most likely to result in a sale or completion of a call to action. While spending money with AdWords will certainly lead to more website traffic, the ultimate goal of that traffic is to gain sales. That is why targeted ads are critical to a successful PPC and AdWords campaign.

Display Ads

Display Advertising is a popular component within AdWords. Display advertising is often utilized as part of a PPC campaign and includes using banner ads, video ads, multi-media advertisements, audio clips and much more to make your ad appear more prominently than a typical AdWords link. You can set your budget for your display ads and create the advertisements that you wouldd like to see displayed.

Display ads allow you to target your audience using a variety of targeted marketing efforts, including demographic targeting, interest targeting, topic targeting, automatic placement or managed placement.

Automatic placements allow Google to decide where your display ad will be promoted. Typically, you will want to utilize some sort of targeted market information in order to optimize the results of where your ads will be shown. Managed placement (also known as contextual marketing or targeting) gives the advertiser complete control of where their display ads will be placed on the Internet by allowing them to specifically state which websites they would like the ads to appear on.

Demographic targeting allows the advertiser to set specific statistical information about whom their display ads are shown to. For example, an advertiser may offer a service or product specifically designed for men in their 40s or for women in their 20s. Demographic targeting assures that your display ad will be shown to that particular audience and is most optimally used in conjunction with keyword targeting.

Topic targeting uses keywords to have your banner ad, video, audio or multi-media ad displayed when searchers are looking for a specific topic or term, while interest targeting focuses on the interests of the searcher, not necessarily the topic that they are looking for.

Display ads can offer a powerful boost to any PPC campaign, but they also have been cited for their drawbacks, the largest of which is that they are known to irritate the user. Examples of display ads that might deliver negative results are ads that automatically begin playing upon a search, rather than letting the user select the ad or link.

Retargeting

Retargeting allows an advertiser to continue to interact with potential customers after that person has visited their website and left. Retargeting is a popular PPC tool because it is a generally accepted fact that roughly 2 percent of first-time website visits result in sales or the completion of a call to action. Retargeting allows businesses to stay connected to users that did not initially utilize their service or purchase their product.

Retargeting varies from other forms of PPC campaigns in that it only targets users that have already visited your businesses website. This allows businesses to funnel or drill down the retargeting strategy to specific parameters, including detailed data based upon users that went to a specific page or product on the company website. Retargeting allows you to spend advertising dollars only on potential customers that have clicked onto your website, versus regular display ads or PPC ads where you spend money on people that click on your site for the first time.

Retargeting is optimally used with AdWords as part of a larger marketing effort, including targeted topic ads. Retargeting drives traffic to your website largely as a conversion optimization tool, with optimal results seen when used as a component of a detailed PPC campaign.

Retargeting is the placement of a Javascript code (also known as a pixel) on your website that is not detectable by your visitors. The code is extremely small and does not interfere with the functionality or responsiveness of your website. After someone visits your website, the pixel anonymously adds a cookie to the browser of the user. This cookie tells the code, or pixel, to track your audience as they continue to navigate the Internet. When users are surfing the web later, the retargeting provider is prompted to deliver your ad only to people that previously visited your site. Like other PPC campaigns, you can exert quite a bit of control over where your ad is seen by selecting which sites you would like your ad to be displayed on.

Organic SEO

Visual Appeal.

Mobile Optimization.

User-Friendly Design.

The leading social media networks for promotion of your website that lead to increased traffic and conversion are:

AdWords

Display Ads

Retargeting

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