If your website is based on WordPress then there are several plugins that can help result in better SEO and usability, and deliver improved conversions. Listed below are some excellent plugins. The best part is that most of them are available for free.

WordPress SEO by Yoast
This extremely popular plugin is also one of the easiest to use. Created by Joost de Valk, this plugin improves almost all SEO aspects of your website including insertion of high quality keywords on your website.

Widget Logic
This plugin is very useful for your widgets as you can now control the placement of your widgets. You can easily control the content of your site using this plugin. However, you need to have experience in using PHP coding since errors could result in severe problems.

Use Google Libraries
This easy-to-use plugin can be used on your server with the help of CDN from Google itself. This plugin can be used in place of JavaScript libraries and can help save valuable bandwidth by storing your scripts in compressed form. Since these files are already cached by most users, the performance of your site will certainly improve when you use this plugin.

Gravity Forms
This paid plugin starts from $39 and can take care of all your generated forms that range from basic contact forms to all of your content management. In addition, you have integration of MailChimp as well as easy creation of content including all pages and posts on your site. Finally, this plugin also allows export of all entries in CSV form and you can also import and export all your forms for backup or for use on other sites.

Twitter Feed Pro
This paid plugin developed by Alex Moss costs $19.99. This plugin can customize the output of your tweets as well as combine them with tweets of others. You can also view public mentions and replies as well as view favorites by username while searching for any hashtag or term.

This plugin has Twitter API v1.1 compatibility and uses HTML for output of tweets instead of jQuery.

Simple URLs
This plugin allows you to track all your outbound links including affiliate links and control them from your WordPress backend. You can also stop authority from going through the link by adding Disallow: /go/ in your robots.txt file. You can easily calculate conversion rates through affiliate links by using this useful plugin.

Lightbox Plus and NextGen Gallery
These 2 plugins work together to manage your image gallery. You can certainly improve your SEO by defining alt tags, image titles, etc. You can add customized templates that can be used with NextGen shortcode.

Members
As the name suggests, this plugin can help you get additional control in WordPress. You can edit and add user roles as well as limit the content for specific users. This plugin offers several shortcodes and widgets that are quite easy to use.

W3 Total Cache
This powerful caching plugin allows you to combine and minify JS and CSS to HTML linebreak as well as removal of comment, disk and browser caching, and a lot more. W3 Total Cache also plays nice with WordPress.

You should try the above free and paid plugins for WordPress to finally use ones that best suit your website and business model. You must ensure that you finally use trusted plugins for your own website or those of your clients.

Optimizing your website is just not enough to attract visitors and search engines or ensure repeated visits in these super-competitive times. Your attention-attracting website needs to combine several factors such as appealing design, useful content, ease of usability, high potential for conversion, while possessing a healthy presence on search as well as social media.

You can begin by knowing your target market in detail including their specific needs, your competition, and unique services that you can offer to your audience. Once you have set detailed goals and defined conversion points for every page on your site through nattily placed calls to action then you can begin laying the foundation of your website.

The first fundamental foundation, of course will be the design of your website. A clean look along with easy-to-understand commands and navigation buttons will help engage each visitor and will certainly reduce bounce rates. Your web design team needs to work with your SEO and marketing team to make sure that your website is not only visually alluring, but also achieves high rankings amongst major search engines while pleasing arriving visitors to the site at the same time.

Following Apple’s design elements that offer a flat look is one option that can catch the attention of your target audience while making it very easy to navigate will ensure repeat visits and high levels of user satisfaction.

In addition to striking looks, your website needs another important foundation in the form of high quality and related content. You must understand the needs of your audience and display content that keeps them engaged on your site as you subtly lead them towards a conversion.

The content on your site must be precise, relevant, easily understandable, and should be separated by adequate white spaces to rivet your visitor’s attention on that page. You must make full use of all your marketing assets and ensure that they are easy to locate on your website.

Usability is another foundation that needs to be extremely sturdy to ensure success. In the past only technical architecture was considered important to ensure successful crawling, indexation, canonicalization, and finally robots exclusion.

However, these days information architecture that involves presenting related information in an eye-catching and riveting manner has also gained importance since even a one-second delay could potentially result in losing a visitor and a sale.

Of course, no website can achieve increased visibility without effective SEO techniques. Your technical and marketing team must work together seamlessly to deliver a functional, optimized, and stunning website that attracts search engines and your target market alike.

Your URLs must be search-engine friendly and be based on a similar URL structure that includes XML and HTML site maps. Use Relevant Post Titles, Anchor Text Links, and Image ALT Attributes to call out to search engines for improved ranking. Avoid an overdose of H1 tags as well as Flash and Splash menus since they can confuse search engines.

Furthermore, you need to ensure optimum integration so that your website works with ease on an increasing number of devices such as PCs, laptops, tablets, mobile smartphones, etc. Using responsive web design can help you optimize your website for different devices and ensure that users across various devices enjoy a wonderful experience.

Finally, you must ensure that your website possesses a healthy link on proven and upcoming social media sites. Rising popularity of Facebook, Google+, Linkedln, and Twitter, among other such sites must be exploited by prominent buttons placed at strategic location. Furthermore, you must integrate your link campaigns to lead more visitors to your website. Inserting “Share” buttons on highly visible locations on your site will enable you to receive healthy organic links with higher traffic.

Each of the fundamental foundations mentioned above are extremely important to catch the attention of search engines and visitors as well as engage them enough to lead to successful sales. Make sure that your website possesses and merges them for a successful campaign.

Google declared that it has made significant changes to Google Maps. This includes changing the entire interface of Google Maps and also making it much more user friendly.

One change that is sure to be loved by all users is that once you click on a particular area of the map, you will be able to view a list of hotels, businesses, and restaurants in that area. This feature will be especially useful for travelers that may wish to see places of interest near their hotel.

Google has also integrated a lot of data from Google+, which will now be displayed on Google Maps. If you are a business with a presence on Google+ then now is the time to spruce up your listing as well as provide the latest data, business hours, photos, and reviews connected with your business.

Reviews, especially positive ones will achieve increased importance and you will need to aggressively collect reviews on your business through Google+ since this feature will enable your business to pop up more often when people click on your area on Google Maps.

Google search results are clearly merged with Google Maps since in case a user searches for a coffee shop, he or she will not only be presented with a list of coffee shops in that area along with the map, but will also be able to view blurbs for each coffee shop.

Google Maps also displays ads in a far more detailed manner than before. Instead of looking at colorful pins previously displayed on Google Maps, users will now see actual ads in snippet form along with any special deals or related information in those ads. However, these ads are currently in test mode only and are only displayed on desktops and not on mobiles.

Currently, Google offers the new Maps only by invitation and you can go to the Help section to get a preview of the new Google Maps. The company has also stated that users of Maps can now utilize the 1 to 5 star-system to rate businesses instead of the 30 point Zagat scale even though Zagat reviews will still remain accessible.

Google has continued upgrading its AdMob tool to help app developers come up with fantastic new apps. In 2012, the company merged AdMob inventory with their AdWords system, which enabled developers of mobile apps reach out to additional advertisers.

Google has now reinvented AdMob and armed it with the latest in technology as well as added several new features. The company has begun rolling out its new AdMob for developers. The new AdMob uses technology from Google’s other ad platforms such as AdSense.

The reinvented AdMob will be launched gradually throughout the globe and in case you are an AdMob developer then you will receive the new AdMob upgrade notice. The refreshed AdMob offers several new features that are mentioned below.

Google has brought in its Conversion Optimizer feature in AdMob to help advertisers enhance conversions while reducing cost per acquisition. This feature will help app developers achieve optimum installations as per their budgets. You only need to select your target cost per acquisition applicable for every download and your ads will be displayed by Conversion Optimizers only when there is a strong possibility of an install.

The new AdMob also features improved ad filters that will help developers retain stricter control on ads that are featured in their apps. They will be able to block undesired categories while boosting relevancy as well as safeguard their brands.

AdMob now has the ability to accept local currency, which will relieve developers that needed to calculate currency conversions and arrange for money transfers. The AdMob Mediation feature has also been updated with a simple new setup and this feature helps developers display ads in their apps to multiple ad networks.

The new AdMob also allows app developers to extract intelligent reports with multiple slicing of data. Now, developers can receive reports based on platform, app or ad unit, bid type, country, and much more.

For a new developer, AdMob can help them reach out to over 1 million advertisers around the world and receive steady income through ads which will increase once their downloads begin to rise.

If you are an existing app developer then you need to just wait for an upgrade notice and if you have not yet started using AdMob then it’s time to check out this useful tool.

Google’s new study has thrown up surprising facts which reveal that consumers use smartphones to make buying decision when they are actually inside a store. Google’s Mobile In-Store Research studied consumer behavior whilst shopping, which revealed that 82% of smartphone users used their mobiles to help them shop while they were in a store.

The study also revealed that their mobile usage in the store began with search instead of using any shopping apps or visiting specific online brand or retail stores. 82% of smartphone users actually used mobile search to make buying decisions.

Studies conducted by the Local Search Association have also shown that local search without the use of PCs has increased by more than 4 times during 2012. Other studies by xAd and Telmetrics revealed that 46% of users had exclusively used mobile for research.

Here are some more facts extracted from Google’s study of smartphone users.

Of all smartphone users that used their devices to shop in a store, 97% used it to find Appliances, 89% for Grocery, 87% for Baby Care and Electronics, 86% for Household Care, 81% for Health & Beauty, 80% for Apparel, and 71% for Pet Care.
1 out of 3 shoppers actually used their smartphones inside a store to get information rather than asking employees of that store.
53% of in-store smartphone shoppers used their devices to make comparisons in price, 39% to find promotional offers, 36% to find location or directions, and 35% to know about store timings.
Out of those customers that used search as their in-store resource, 73% used search engines to find where products are sold, 72% to make comparisons in price, and 63% to find promotional offers.

The above data should open the eyes of most advertisers, marketers, and even brick-and-mortar store owners that may have discounted the use of mobiles and mobile search by smartphone users.

You may have assumed that all your purchased links that have passed PageRank are clean. However, you need to re-check those links to confirm if they are indeed squeaky clean since Google has now started taking manual action against Links Sellers.

Matt Cutts from Google has confirmed that the company has taken action against thousands of link sellers that had passed PageRank. However, details have not been provided on the names of networks that had been penalized by Google or in fact whether they were in-house link networks.

Based on Matt’s tweet, it does seem that rather than using an algorithm that automatically targeted such links, Google seems to have initially focused its attention on taking manual action against specific link sellers. This action comes in the wake of Matt’s recent webmaster video “What to Expect” in which he explained in detail about link devaluing.

So, it may be wise to quickly get back to your links and scrutinize them thoroughly if you want to avoid Google’s manual crackdown.

Running a small business in the big bad world of giant corporations may be scary, but you can still compete in your market with effective competitive analysis. Utilizing Pay per Click and Competitive Analysis successfully can give your business that competitive edge to push back your competition as well as compete with bigger businesses.

However, the first stumbling block that you may face is deciding where to start. As they say, imitation is the best form of flattery and you can just begin by observing and following the steps taken by successful competitors in your market.

In the online world, this translates into conducting competitive analysis on your competitors and their strategies that you can then implement in your own PPC and marketing campaign.

A quick search on Google or any other search engine will enable you to locate your competitors. A few clicks will enable you to view their websites as well as their advertisements. To begin with, all you need to do is to view their advertisements and create your own ad that is one-up on those ads. For instance, you can offer slightly more discounts on the products advertised by your competitor, provide better services than those mentioned, present unique offers not yet presented by anyone in your market, etc.

Your competitors’ ads can thus form the base of your own campaign and you need not scratch your head to come up with a new campaign. Based on that spying strategy, you can also look at what keywords are being used by the competition. You can look at their bids, monthly volume, CPC or Cost per Click, specific keywords, and their budget for each keyword. Comparing more than a single competitor will help you gain further insight into different strategies and choose one that seems to be paying the best dividends.

You can also use competitive analysis to go back in time to understand how your competitor handled a particular month or season in the previous year. This information will give you a head-start in the current year as you can emulate a proven strategy in the current month or season. You will need to look at the historical AdWords report to extract this data. Furthermore, you can also get backlinks and enable the tracker to track keywords as you follow your competitors’ footsteps.

Competitive analysis can help you formulate a successful organic as well as paid PPC campaign. You can use this spying strategy to merely follow a successful path taken by your competitors instead of getting flustered at the very start of your campaign. However, be ready to have another small business use the same strategy on you after a few months or years since as they say, imitation is the best form of flattery.

With Pinterest having announced Business Accounts at the end of 2012 for businesses and brands, the time is just right to make your presence felt at this growing social media site. Studies have revealed that around 47 percent of consumers in the USA have bought goods and services based on Pinterest recommendations.

Once you have opened your account on Pinterest then here is how to enhance your presence on this rapidly evolving social media site.

You need to immediately get to work on building a Pinterest community. You can launch contests with attractive rewards as well as allow Pinners to look at up-coming products or events. In addition, you should subtly reveal more about your business and its goals, and encourage interaction from your growing community to incorporate that all-important human factor.

The same applies for your business community too as you can enhance your presence by following, sharing, and pinning content of interest of other community members. You can join forces with allied businesses, which in turn will allow you to gain access to their followers.

You should also try to create unique boards that instantly activate interest among other members rather than sticking to a standard business board. In addition, you can also attract visitors from other sites by inserting Pin-It buttons on your own website as well as on your Facebook and Twitter pages, blog page, etc.

Another tip is to use stunning images to catch the attention of your target audience. You should avoid using Flash content in banners as well as very large image files that take ages to load. You should add descriptions and must remember to test the chosen images in your own account at Pinterest before offering it to the world. Pins that are related to hot and trending topics have witnessed around 94 percent rise in click-throughs and you should seek out such images to attract new Pinterest members into your fold.

You must also ensure that your eye-catching images are accompanied by attention-grabbing descriptions. In addition to images, you should certainly post videos provided they are short and interesting, and are accompanied by attractive thumbnails and footnotes that include a clear call-to-action. Such videos have the potential to boost viewer engagement by up to 80 percent.

After engaging in all the above activities to enhance your presence on Pinterest, you will also need to track your progress and measure results at regular intervals. You can use Pinterest Analytics or Google Analytics or even use different tagging tools as well as tools that have been especially developed for Pinterest.

The time is certainly right to make your presence felt on this fast-growing website and the above steps will help you to increase your visibility on Pinterest with minimal effort.

In addition to Google Analytics, there are many more Web Analytics software and tools available in the market. Given below is a list of both free and paid tools that can be used to your advantage.

However, it is wise to firstly analyze your own specific needs and expectations before you select a specific tool or tools for your business. At the end of the day, that software or tool should provide customized reports that suit your business model and help bring in more visitors and revenue.

Google Analytics
This widely-used free tool was actually targeted for AdWords Users. Google developed this tool further after it acquired Urchin on Demand in 2005. Enterprise Version of this tool is also available. All other analytical tools are usually benchmarked against Google Analytics. One can also engage in experiments in respect to A/B Testing.

Google Analytics Premium
The company has released a premium version of Google Analytics that costs $150,000 per year. Introduced in 2011, Google Analytics Premium offers several additional features such as capacity to handle one billion hits each month, 50 custom variables, data turnaround within 4 hours, and 24/7 customer support.

Adobe Site Catalyst
Adobe SiteCatalyst costs $5,000 and above per month and offers features such as drag-and-drop dashboard, embeddable reports, and several options for customization. In addition, you can also enhance it with Test & Target for A/B Testing.

Unica NetInsight from IBM

IBM Unica NetInsight requires a custom quote from IBM. Key features of this analytics tool are customizable dashboards, heat map overlays, multiple configurations for data, and on-premise storage.

Mint
Mint is created by Shaun Inman and has several in-depth analysis and comparison tools by flagging 2 pages, although it does not have split testing tools. Charges are $30 for each site as a one-time fee. The main features of this tool include unlimited tracking of sites, extensive plugin library by the name of Peppermill for enhanced functionality, and on premise storage.

MixPanel

MixPanel started small in 2009, but currently tracks over a billion actions each month. Prices for their services range from Free to around $2,000. Main features include save and tag pages, in-built component for analytics, and charts/graphs to share data.

FoxMetrics

FoxMetrics by Rydall Williams is a recent player since it appeared in the analytics market in 2011. It costs $20 to $120 each month to use this tool that features real time data, ability to track data from all devices, unlimited attributes, and individual visitor profiles for individual analysis of visitors.

Woopra
Woopra entered the scene in 2008 and possesses a single interface that integrates CRM analysis too. Pricing plans range from the Free Basic Plan that allows 30,000 actions each month to $349.95 each month for larger needs. Key Features include real-time single visitor path tracking, funnel and retention analytics, and segmented analytics.

Yahoo Marketing Dashboard

Yahoo has also jumped into the analytics arena with its Free tool that extracts data from Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, Yahoo! Web Hosting, or Google Analytics. Main features of Yahoo Marketing Dashboard include unlimited visitor tracking, integration of Constant Contact and Orange Soda, and 24/7 customer support.

Clicky
Clicky was founded in 2006 by Roxr Software and fees range from Free for a single site with up to 3 million page views, to custom quotes for larger needs. Main features include tracking of up to 30 goals, tracking outbound links, heat map overlays, and Google Search rankings.

iPerceptions

iPerceptions is basically a tool that needs to be integrated with Google Analytics for a detailed VoC reports. This tool has 5 main components including 4QSuite, WebValidator, WASP, TeaLeaf, and Mobile Website Feedback. You need to ask for a custom quote for these services. Key features include capturing of VoC or Voice of Customer data, customer path analysis in real time, live feedback, customer surveys, and iPerceptions Satisfaction Index.

Web Trends
WebTrends entered the market in 1993 and requires a custom quote. Key features of this tool include heat maps, unlimited custom metrics, and custom mobile as well as social measurement tools.

Reinvigorate
Reinvigorate is offered by WebTrends as a separate analytics tool. Service fees range from free to $20 per month and you can also get custom quotes for specific needs. Main features include real-time analytics along with social, web, and mobile channels.

KISSmetricsKISSmetrics provides in-depth analysis tools and charges range from $49 to $499 per month. Key features of this tool include analysis of data from different channels on a single interface, integration with email marketing and CRM along with other software, and visitor-centric data rather than broad statistics.

Site Spect
Site Spect moved up from A/B testing as well as Multivariate testing from 2004 and offers several additional services for around $3,000 per month. Key features of their tool include WATTS or Web Analytics, Tag Transformation, and Segmentation. In addition, you can integrate this tool with various other analytics tools and also get complete analysis reports from any third party analytics tool.

Autonomy
Autonomy offers some of the most in-depth analytics programs in the market. You will need to get a custom quote for their services. Key features of this tool includes integration of data across all channels, display of full picture involving customer experience, A/B testing, Multi-Variate testing, social analytics, customer feedback, and VoC or Voice of Customer.

comScore Digital Business Analytics
This tool has been in the market since 1999 and has evolved to track around 40 percent of internet searches per month. This tool is currently used to handle more than a trillion interactions involving 175 countries per month. You will need to ask for a custom quote for this tool. Key features include integration with third party apps, on premise or in cloud storage services, and lowest form raw data.

Piwik
This is an open-source Free tool that offers unlimited tracking along with on-premise data storage. There have been over 1.2 million downloads of this tool since its appearance in 2008. This free tool supports over 100 search engines. Main features of this tool are on-premise storage of data, ease of exporting, reports and widgets based on visitor location data, and manual tracking of mobile users that do not use Java.

GoingUp
This is yet another Free tool for unlimited sites. Main features include inbound link monitoring, visitor location, tracking of actions and goals, user profile data, tracking of Google PageRank and Alexa Rank, and page optimization.

There are a few other free as well as paid web analytics tools that can also be considered based on your needs. A little time and effort will help you find the ideal free of fee-based analytics tool for your business.

While Yelp was used mainly by the restaurant industry in the past, all businesses can easily use this site to enhance visibility and respectability. Yelp has over 100 million unique visitors each month through mobile and desktop, and this presents a wonderful opportunity to market your business as well as engage in social engagement too.

You first need to claim your Yelp listing and also provide the required information connected to your business. You can begin by going to the “Yelp for Business Owners” webpage and then clicking on “Claim My Business”. You will be offered 3 options to check if your business name has already been claimed by another user and if not, then you will be allowed to claim your business.

You can type in your business name even if you currently do not have an account at Yelp. If no one has claimed the business name then you need to click on “Add your Business to Yelp”. If your business name is already unlocked by another business, you should understand that the name has been claimed by another user. If not, then you can click on “Unlock” and begin feeding in your business details including your own name, email address, and finally your password.

You can specify your industry such as restaurant, professional services, education, etc., and will need to wait for a confirmation email from Yelp on your provided email address before you can proceed any further.

Now, you can extract the most out of your Yelp business listing by optimizing it. You must ensure that you have filled in all fields to provide a detailed account of your business. You should upload photos and make full use of analytics and social features provided at this website. Once you click on the “Edit Business Info” link, you will be able to modify your business details.

You should certainly include high quality photos of your business since studies have shown that Yelp listings that contain photos have people spending 2.5 more time on such listings during their visits.

Once you begin receiving reviews, you must make it a point to respond to as many as you can. While you can thank people that post positive reviews, you must make sure that you respond to each negative review in order to show viewers that you care about these reviews as well as your business. If any review is against the guidelines specified by Yelp, it will be removed or even filtered.

However, you should make all efforts to solve issues faced by people that post negative reviews. Anyway, a business with only 5 star ratings at all times will probably evoke suspicion from most viewers. You should also encourage people to post their reviews since larger number of positive reviews will certainly bring in more business.

You can do so by providing an eye-catching button on your business website that links to Yelp and allows visitors and customers to post their reviews. You can also insert links to your Yelp listing in your email signature in all your outward emails. In addition, you can also stack flyers at your physical business location, if any, or hand them out to visitors. These flyers can encourage customers and visitors to provide their reviews while explaining why they are important for your business. However, you must not promise any reward for posting positive reviews since this action will not be approved by Yelp.

Just like optimizing your website for major search engines, your Yelp listing will also need to be optimized for enhanced visibility. You should insert keywords in your business listing as well as pay heed to the above tips such as encouraging reviews, releasing press releases, engaging in guest posting, etc.

In addition, you should also use Yelp social features that help users locate their friends on Yelp as well as observe their recommendations and reviews. You need to click on “Find Friends” displayed at the top of any Yelp page and check out what people are writing on not only about various business, but can also check what they think about your competitors businesses.

The above tips will help you create your Yelp business listing and account, and help you optimize it to reach out to your target market. Use these tips to extract the most out of your Yelp business listing.

Facebook released its version of local search under the brand name Graph Search on January 15, 2013. Graph Search has tremendous potential considering that Facebook has around 665 million users that access the site on a daily basis and around 1.2 Billion users that do the same on a monthly basis.

However, there are several issues that plague Graph Search and Facebook made a wise move by providing this tool to fewer than 1 million users although more users will be added at regular intervals. Graph Search allows people to search through 4 key parameters, namely; places, people, photos, and interests.

Facebook is also refining its search algorithm just like Google. Here are some important tips on how to boost rankings on Graph Search.

You can begin by creating your own Facebook page in case you already do not have one. Facebook local search results will depend on the number of likes and visits, among other factors, and not having a page will not allow friends and visitors to like you in the first place. Facebook’s social connections feature will help boost your business only when your business has an official business page that people can visit and like.

While Likes are quite important for improved rankings on Graph Search, you must ensure that you do not try to manipulate this feature. If you have not achieved the desired number of likes then you need to change your strategy to create more interest and garner more likes in a natural way.

Increasing numbers of Check-Ins also play an important role in Graph Search rankings. If you operate a local business and have a Facebook page then you need to select “Local Businesses” as your category. You should guide visitors on the right way to check-in at your location. For iOS users, Facebook has a mobile app that can help users to research and check in while Android users have the Nearby feature to do the same.

You must absolutely ensure that your address is mentioned correctly and in complete detail on your Facebook Page. You should also include mentions of your city as these factors will help display your business details in related searches. Mentioning target locations will also help Graph Search during bordering town searches.

Star ratings also influence Graph Search results and it is thus important to not only provide a fantastic user experience both online and offline, but also encourage users to provide the maximum number of stars for your business. This feature too is extremely difficult to manipulate since Facebook monitors activities of all users and simply asking your friends to provide 5 star ratings will certainly not improve your rankings.

You must also engage in optimizing your Facebook page, which includes title tags and meta descriptions, page content, navigation, and internal links. You should remember to fill up the “About” section of your page by providing general information, contact details, detailed address, and services offered to please both Facebook bots as well as visitors. You must try to ensure that you provide useful high-quality information that fulfills the needs of your visitors.

Another factor that could possibly influence search results on Graph Search is the “Photos In” and “Visitors Of” feature. Facebook will show photos tagged to a particular business by users if you click on “Photos In” and will display a list of people that have visited the business when you click on “Visitors Of”.

Since Instagram data will be considered by Graph Search in coming times, this factor could play an increasing role in determining higher rankings. You can begin now by encouraging your visitors and customers to click photos at your location and uploading them.

In case you have not yet discovered it, the “Nearby” app, which is known as “Local Search” for iOS users, is present in the menu of Facebook. Visitors can quickly search nearby places based on their actual physical location. Nearby not only provides additional data on local businesses, but also allows users to view ratings and provide stars, which in turn will help you boost your presence before other users and Facebook search bots.

It is thus important that you quickly grasp the working of Local Search and Nearby, and also guide your customers on the best way to use it.

Facebook and Microsoft’s Bing have worked closely to produce Graph Search and you must realize that Facebook will display Bing search results in cases where it cannot produce its own. Such results will also display paid Bing ads and this in turn presents an excellent opportunity to boost your presence by advertising on Bing.

All the above tips should convince you that your business will certainly benefit once you achieve higher rankings on Graph Search. You should begin by requesting access to Facebook’s Graph Search and implement the above tips to get a healthy head-start.

Google had launched the Google Shopping commercial model based on its Product Listing Ads last year. This feature was launched in the United States and all over the globe.

Google has now announced several improvements to the Google Shopping Feed specification in a bid to help merchants and retailers exploit new opportunities and attract much more web traffic to their stores.

The changes are as follows…
The changes include improved merchant-defined multipack support. For instance, several products such as toilet rolls need to be offered in customized multipacks and the new feed specification explains the right way for submission of such products.

Google has improved image resolution for better shopping experience and now recommends high quality images with a minimum resolution of 800 pixels in both height and width. Google has also updated guidance related to color and description attributes to ensure better precision and action.

The new changes also include a new “identifier exists” attribute. This attribute will be especially useful for custom products, antiques, and collectibles, among other products that do not possess unique product identifiers. In addition, Google has updated requirements needed for unique product identifiers.

For merchants that wish to sell products in Switzerland and the European Union, Google will provide dedicated support for unit pricing as well as energy efficiency labels.

Merchants that wish to sell non-family safe items will now be able to sell them on family-safe sites after marking individual products as being non-family safe.

Google has stated that it will be some time before Google Shopping users notice these changes since the company wants to provide some time for merchants to understand and implement these updates. Merchants will be able to test these changes by using the feed debugger or test feeds feature to make sure that all updated feeds get processed in the right manner.

The company advises merchants to review these new feed specifications as well as comply with all legal requirements when they partake in the Google Shopping program.

The company has also stated that accounts that do not need unique product identifiers at present will have to adhere to the new specifications by July 15, 2013 in the USA, the UK, France, and Germany, and by September 16, 2013 in all remaining target countries since these are the dates on which Google will enforce the new changes. Google also states that products that do not comply with these changes will be disapproved and will vanish from Google Shopping.

Merchants will need to use the “identifier exists” attribute after the dates mentioned above since Google will no longer support account level exemptions for unique product identifiers.

Merchants should make it a point to visit Google support to view and understand the summary of the new changes to Google Shopping Feed specifications.

Multiregional SEO enables you to create an optimized website content for specific regions while Multilingual SEO enables you to optimize your website content in several languages. Here are multiple tips on how to get the best results from your SEO efforts.

You need to firstly determine the target regions and offered languages before you begin the actual SEO project. Next, you need to select the structure strategy that you plan to pursue based on domain or URL. Google states that it is better to consider utilizing a URL structure which makes segmenting pages of a site easier for geotargeting since it is not easy to implement geotargeting on a page to page basis.

You thus need to decide on your location structure first. However, there are several advantages and disadvantages in using the domain or URL option and you need to study each in detail by getting this information from Google before you make up your mind.

You hence need to look at the plus and minus points of using ccTLDs, subdomains with gTLDs, subdirectories with gTLDs, and URL parameters before you devise a final strategy. Specifying your goals of the website along with those that you plan to target by using these SEO techniques will help you pick the right option.

There are several domains that are generic while others that are specific to specific locations. A few generic gTLDs or generic Top Level Domains that are not specific to any country and can be geotargeted with Webmaster Tools include .biz, .com, .edu, .gov, .net, .org, .travel, and several more.

Regional Top Level Domains or rTLDs include .eu and .asia. As per Google’s search engine gccTLDs or Generic Country Code Top Level Domains include .as, .bz, .fm, .la, .me, .nu, .tk, and many more.

On the issue of choosing between subdomains or directories, Google recommends that in case of limited resources and time, you should buy a non-country specific domain that will host all versions of your website. You can opt to do either of the following. You can insert the content in each chosen language in different subdirectories. Your site would then contain example.com/en/, example.com/es/, etc.

On the other hand, you can insert the content of each chosen language in different subdomains. You would then have en.example.com, es.example.com, etc. Since subdomains do seem to be somewhat more separate in terms of content segmentation than a directory structure, you could opt for that option.

While opting for the ccTLD option can be a good choice to attract search engines and users, you can also face several problems, especially if you use multiple ccTLDs. You can opt for manual geotargeting of gTLDs by using the Set Geographic Target feature.

You merely need to click on the chosen site on the Home page of Webmaster Tools. Next, you need to click on Settings under the Sire Configuration option and then select the required option in the Geographic Target option. You need to choose the Unlisted option in case you do not plan to target any specific region or country.

While many SEOs assume that location of the server impacts multiregional and multilingual search results, Google states that although server location is usually near the users, some websites make use of CDNs or distributed content delivery networks or are hosted in countries that have better infrastructure in terms of web-servers. Hence, Google does not rely merely on the location of the server.

You also need to specify your intent to Google as to which URLs need to be displayed for specific regions or languages. You need to use the rel=”alternate” hreflang=”x” annotation to achieve this aim. Google states that you can either achieve this markup by adding a HTML link element in the header, or for non-HTML files opt for a HTTP header, or provide the language information in a Sitemap instead of utilizing markup. You must remember that there are specific hreflang values that are supported for different languages and regions.

You should use the new “x-default” option offered by Google to ensure that people from an untargeted region do not end up on a landing page not created for them. This option allows you to specify the default page for visitors from unspecified regions in case you do not have a landing page for a specific region.

In addition, optimizing on features such as user agent detection and IP location detection will help deliver content that is best suited for specific devices and IP locations. Your multiregional and multilingual strategy too can benefit from this optimization and will result in reduced bounce rates and increased conversions as visitors get an improved user experience.

You may also have considered using Rel author, but may have been confused since it may not relate with your entire target market. However, you can certainly implement rel author by way of specific articles or by specific language or region. On the other hand, you will still need Google+ profiles that command good authority and even then may take some time to reflect in SERPs. You need to consider all aspects of your strategy and your specific needs before implementing the rel author option.

Alternatively, you could consider Rel publisher, especially if you have a decent region and language strategy. The rel publisher option will help display an impressive Google+ page together with updates during search results and you can even segment circle-based updates.

In case of other major search engines such as Bing, you must remember that they prefer the language meta tag, although they also keep an eye on HTTP headers, reverse IP lookup, and top level domain. You should make use of the Content Language meta tag when you want to embed document location within the <head> section of all your documents.

You will need to use the 2 letter language code along with the matching geographical code for the Content attribute. On the other hand, you can also use the <title> or <html> element to embed the chosen document location.

Bing specifies that only ccTLDs influence the location of documents from TLD categories decided by the IANA and you can learn more at the IANA website. Bing indexing also involves a reverse IP lookup, which you should bear in mind.

Your multilingual and multiregional SEO efforts will certainly bear fruit if you implement the above tips. Use them to impress search engines and targeted markets, and watch your website deliver better results on all fronts.

Google seems to have shut down Places search since the company no longer offers the link in the More section on the search results. You can now locate local businesses only by using organic or paid search on Google+ Local or on Google Maps.

Google has also stopped displaying the More Results near….location option when displaying their 7 pack in local results. On being asked for feedback, Jade Wang from Google responded that the company was working towards improving local search experience with the aim of offering a more seamless exploration for places along with increased merger of local data. The company has asked users to wait for coming updates.

On the other hand, Google has stopped providing local search results outside your perceived location. Thus, if you are in the USA and using Google.com then you will not be able to see local results for England. You will need to use Google.co.uk to get local results for the UK.

Google seems to have permanently shut down Places search right after launching their Google Places for Business dashboard. However, Google is stated to link up with 3 sites of their competition in Europe while pledging to label Places Search results and such a move hence seems baffling to many.

Only time and future updates will tell what exactly is in the mind of Google when it either shuts down Places search completely and opts to further thrust Google+ on local businesses or comes up with a surprise option for local search.

Google’s recent search algorithm updates including its Penguin update gives a lot of priority to guest posting. This is one correct way of building links, but you do need to proceed to content marketing to improve site rankings.

In case you have indulged in guest posting on a regular basis then here are some useful tips to help you shift towards the next step of effective content marketing.

You can begin by firstly expanding the sites on which you post content as a guest. By typing a matching search query on Google or on other search engines, you can get a list of sites that accept guest posts.

The trick is to locate websites that are respected by both viewers and search engines. Rather than merely using rich anchor text to get links, you need to locate sites that possess a high trust factor in the eyes of search engine bots. Any site that has a robust editorial policy will not allow any rich anchor text in your post or attribution, which actually should be a good site to engage in guest posting.

Your next aim should be to try to get a column at a reputed online editorial rather than just a guest post. This move will earn respect from your readers as well as search engines even as you get a fourfold chance to expand your visibility with this new-found admiration.

One important factor that will help you establish authority and earn respect also depends on the topic of your posts. In order to achieve this aim, you need to be an expert on a specific topic, but more importantly need to find out the form in which your content will be best accepted by your target audience.

You can write posts on new or even old topics, provided to manage to impress your audience and convince them to come again as well as bring in new visitors to your columns and posts. Packaging your content is as important if not more, than the actual content in these competitive times.

You can measure your growing popularity with your audience by looking at the number of likes, tweets, shares, etc. In addition, you need to encourage readers to post their comments to get valuable feedback that can be used to provide much more engaging content.

With the Not Provided keyword data playing an increasing role in SEO campaigns, it is important that you learn how to factor in this element while displaying campaign results. Unfortunately, 53 percent of B2B marketers did not know how or just did not calculate site strategy ROI as per details provided by MarketingSherpa.

Here are some crucial tips for effective measurement of B2B SEO campaigns after you factor in the Not Provided factor.

One quick way of measuring your SEO strategy in case you witness higher Not Provided percentages is to monitor landing page performances individually. You need to filter Not Provided data by choosing secondary dimension Landing Page to look at the pages and content viewed by visitors.

You can now view and measure various metrics including pages created by specific SEOs as well as measure your keyword strategies that are further limited by the Not Provided factor. You can also set benchmarks to compare traffic of your SEO assets with various other referral channels.

Another essential measurement benchmark to measure is to conduct a navigational performance analysis. You need to track and measure the actual paths taken by your visitors when you conduct an analysis of SEO landing pages too. You need to go to the Content section in Google Analytics and click on Navigational Summary to view these metrics.

This step will help you extract data from specific SEO pages such as blog posts or other viral marketing assets that are more focused on attracting traffic and links rather than direct leads. Such a report will help you monitor visitor behavior on each page of your site as well as enable you to locate hidden keywords and links for future use.

Daily reports that provide metrics on referral source, keyword referral data, and pages visited will provide important information on how your SEO landing pages are faring by tracking visitor movement. You must evaluate such reports to monitor your SEO and link acquisition campaigns, and make suitable changes for improved results.

Google Webmaster Tools provides Inbound Link reports that delivers inbound link information specific to your SEO content marketing assets. You need to focus on domains as well as total links that you have acquired through such assets. In addition, you can also use Bing Webmaster Tools to compare results with Google and find out differences between both these search engines. You can also use other tools such as Raven Tools Link Manager to get detailed reports on inbound links.

With social media achieving increased importance, you must remember to measure your social media campaign as well. You need to focus on social media profiles that can provide significant business opportunities while analyzing mentions and shares on different social media websites.

Profiles that possess high business opportunities will include those that have excellent link building potential, industry influencers, as well as target prospects or even customers. You can use tools such as HootSuite to measure your social media campaign in an easy and detailed manner.

The above tips should help you factor in the Not Provided factor when you measure your B2B SEO campaign. Use them to get the actual standing of your campaign and make suitable changes for better returns.

Country Code Top Level Domains or ccTLDs represent a specific country and websites with .com.au would indicate that this website contained content for Australia while a .co.uk site would contain content for the UK. If you require such specific domains then you will need to prove that your website is operating in that specific country.

While such registrations were restricted in the past, currently most countries allow anyone to register. On the other hand, domains like .com are generic in nature. Google’s search engine algorithms factor in site location during ranking and a person searching in Australia will probably get to view .com.au sites higher in the results. However, Google also considers several other factors including server location to determine the relevancy of a website to a particular query.

Website owners using Google Webmaster Tools have the ability to specify a target country for generic TLDs, but not for country-specific TLDs that are restricted to a particular country. Still, this limited feature in the past had disappointed several web owners that desired a global presence while being registered in a particular country. Certain web owners in countries such as Colombia that had the ccTLD of .co, wanted to rank in searches outside their country, but were unable to do so in the past.

However, Google has now expanded their generic TLD list that includes several ccTLDs. You now have the ability to specify any specific country that you wish your site to be associated in search results.

If you do not want your site to be related to any country then you should not specify any country. This will indicate to Google bots that your unrestricted ccTLD should not be associated with any specific country and will in turn provide appropriate rankings for related searches.

With Google’s updates striking hard on sites that falter in following Webmaster guidelines, it is time for you to take a very professional approach to your link building campaign. You certainly need to think and act like an engineer as you use traditional and social media as well as content creation and paid marketing strategies to build quality links.

An engineer thinks about and acts on several processes before a product goes from thought to design to production. These processes include a thorough study including a feasibility study, conceptualization, various stages of design, planning of production, and tool design, before engaging in actual production.

By thinking and acting like an engineer, you can enhance traditional link building exercises such as outreach and guest blogging to a new level thanks to better planning and execution that also stays on the right side of search engine requirements.

You can begin by thinking about the end. In other words you need to define your final link building goals before you devise a plan on how to achieve your aim. The next step is to engage in a detailed study of your existing backlink campaign, if any.

You need to find out why your competitors are ahead of you or why you have not achieved desired rankings with your current strategy. You need to understand how far your renewed goals are and how you plan to reach that goal.

Next, you need to conceptualize a workable strategy that will provide far more improved results that you have currently received. You need to sit down with your team for brainstorming sessions to come up with uniquely creative solutions to current problems. Whether you need to engage in new promotional activities such as distributing free tickets for popular events, offering free scholarships or internships, or any other idea suitable to the business model of your client, you need to explore and implement it.

You then need to incorporate the cost factor of implementing your revised link building strategy. You need to calculate the best possible returns against costs for each individual strategy and implement those that hold the best ROI.

With a clear strategy in mind, you now need to actually design your link building campaign and figure out the exact requirements for seamless implementation. You will need to determine as to how much percentage of your anchor text needs to be branded, targeted keyword, miscellaneous, image based, etc. You will also need to combine different strategies that you may need to implement for your link building exercise such as content creation, content promotion including Facebook stories and tweet promotions, guest blogging, outreach through emails, etc.

You will now have to proceed to several stages of design that merge your final goal along with your approved list of strategies. Each exercise needs to be planned in detail and it would be a good idea to delegate specific tasks to specific members of your team so that you can monitor the progress of your campaign.

Your next step as an engineer would be to engage in tool design, which in this context would be to use appropriate tools to build quality links as well as repair broken links. You can try out new tools to achieve improved results if they fit within your time limit and your approved budget.

The final stage involves going into actual production. This means executing your link building strategy and sub-strategies with full force and monitoring outcomes.

Such a detailed and well-monitored process is sure to reward you with a successful link-building campaign.