make money online for beginners: Better

Tampilkan postingan dengan label Better. Tampilkan semua postingan

13 SEO changes for better results

The 13 SEO changes suggested in this post will help you achieve better and bigger results in Google and other major search engines.SEO is about change, either changes you have to do because Google changed their algorithms or changes you need to do in order to improve your search engine rankings. What is certain is that if you want to succeed online, by either establishing your presence as a blogger or as an online business, you need to be willing to change the way you do SEO.SEO is not something static; it is continuously evolving affecting and getting affected by a number of factors that comprise a well-designed digital marketing strategy. Anything you do on SEO will affect your campaign and vice versa i.e. your overall digital marketing efforts affects your SEO.<a href="http://www.reliablesoft.net/google-seo-best-practices-how-to-keep-google-happy/">Google SEO</A> specifically is far from static and in order to take a small share of the billions of visitors that use Google to search the web you need to be creative, ready to make changes, willing to make tests (and wait to see the results) and be prepared to invest time and money for reaching your ultimate goals.In my 12 year SEO career I have made many changes to my SEO campaigns and some worked better than others. What I will explain below is what I think are the most important SEO changes you can do now for faster and better results.Finally and before getting into the changes, do not forget that SEO is about a lot of small things that need to work together in order to produce good results. In other words making only one or few of the changes may not generate the same results as making all the changes together.There is absolutely no excuse for any website (small or big) not to offer a mobile friendly version. 2014 is not only the year of the mobile but we are actually living the era of mobile. Everything is mobile, everyone is using a mobile and mobile friendly websites are a must.Google recommends <a href="http://www.reliablesoft.net/advantages-of-responsive-design-for-online-businesses/">responsive design</A> as the best way to offer your users a mobile version and by adopting a responsive design you have a number of advantages like:Better ranking positions for mobile driven searches which translates to more organic trafficMore conversions – <a href="http://www.reliablesoft.net/how-to-increase-adsense-earnings-almost-instantly-case-studies/">increase in AdSense earnings</A> (if you are running AdSense) or increase in sales if you are selling products or servicesA more usable website – designing for mobile in mind will make your desktop website more functional as well.See below monthly statistics from one of our websites which shows exactly the importance of having a responsive website.How do you go mobile? Unfortunately it’s not as easy as following a list of steps because you need to have technical skills and knowledge of CSS and javascript but the good news is that almost any website can become responsive at a relatively low cost.We have started an initiative to help webmasters <a href="http://www.reliablesoft.net/responsive-website-design/">make their websites responsive</A> at a low cost so get in touch today for more details.Search engines love content and you want to increase the number of your indexed pages and the only way to do that is to add more content that meets the criteria below:Highly quality – you want to publish content that is interesting for the reader and written by expertsUnique  – no duplicates or copies from other websitesIn depth – Google loves <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/3280182?hl=en" target="_blank">in-depth articles</A>A blog is a great way (<a href="http://www.reliablesoft.net/why-every-business-needs-a-blog/">even for businesses</A>) to add to more relevant content to a website and it can work if you learn <a href="http://www.reliablesoft.net/what-should-i-write-in-my-blog-and-how-to-choose-post-titles/">how to choose your blog post titles</A> carefully.Let me give you a couple of examples on how to increase your content:If you are running an ecommerce website you can create new pages comparing different products from your store.If you are running a services web site (like this one), you can blog about your services or create guides helping people on subjects you are an expertIf you are running a corporate website you can blog about the latest developments in your industry.Don’t forget that there are also ways to get users generate the content for you by setting up a forum or encouraging user commenting.<img alt="search-queries" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-2223" height="315" src="/search-queries.png" width="215">This is one of the oldest <a href="http://www.reliablesoft.net/seo-tips-for-beginners-15-ways-to-google-boost-your-web-site/">SEO tips</A> but one that not many people use. The Click Through Rate is the percentage of people who click on your web site listing from the search results. If you go to Search Queries in webmaster tools, you will notice that for each keyword your website appeared in search, google gives you the CTR.How is this useful? You can spot which keywords have a low CTR, then find out which pages rank for the particular keywords and optimize their titles and descriptions to make them more attractive to searches.Once you do the changes it may take a couple of days (or more) for Google to them into account and you can then compare the results before and after the changes.You can use the reports in Google webmaster tools (search queries) and Google Analytics (Acquisition -> Search Engine Optimization -> Queries) to find out which keywords bring you traffic and the ranking position of you website for the different keywords. Look at these reports and try to identify which keywords bring you some traffic but they are not on page 1 of Google. These are definite ‘winners’ and the keywords you should concentrate on since an increase in their ranking position will also increase your organic traffic.How can you improve the position of a keyword? There is no magic solution but some actions towards the right direction are:Write a couple of blogs posts and link to that page using variations of the keyword you want to improveReview the content of that page and make it betterOptimize the titles and descriptions of the pagePromote that page in Social Media (this will increase the likelihood of other webmasters linking to that page)<img alt="Google authorship in results" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2216" height="395" src="/google-authorsthip-in-results.png" width="600">This is directly related with point 3 above as there are many studies that show that the presence of the author image in the search results increases CTR.Of course this is not the only reason you should implement Google authorship and publisher but you should also do it because it’s a nice way to:Connect the content you publish online with your profilePosition yourself (or company) as experts about a topicGive Google more information about youHelp users find out content you have written (next to your image there is a link “By….”) and this links your content togetherAs a clarification, google authorship is for individuals and google publisher is for companies or websites.To find out more about google authorship <a href="https://plus.google.com/authorship">click here</A>To find out more about google publisher <a href="https://support.google.com/plus/answer/1713826?hl=en">click here</A>Besides improving CTR and Google trust, there are many more reasons to become an active user on Google+.For starters and although Google officially does not accept it, there are many studies that show <a href="http://moz.com/blog/google-plus-correlations" target="_blank">correlations between google +1s and higher search rankings</A>.In addition, Google+ is a great social network which in some cases can generate traffic and sales as well.If you are on Google+ you can follow me here:A faster website means more visits, more sales and more conversions. Web site load speed is a ranking factor and makes a website friendlier for the user.The first step for tackling the speed issue is to run a couple of tests to find out how many seconds it takes to load your website from different locations and also get suggestions on how to improve the page load time. You can use the following free tools:<a href="https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/" target="_blank">Page speed insights</A> – This is a tool from Google which gives you recommendations on what to improve on a website to make it load faster. It works for both desktop and mobile websites. For each version you will get a rating (out of 100) and a list of recommendations. While every website is different you should aim for a score above 90% for the desktop.<a href="http://www.webpagetest.org/" target="_blank">Webpage test.org</A> – With web page test you can test how long it takes for your website to load from various locations. This is very useful especially in the cases that you do not live in the same country as your users.  Besides the time it takes for your website to load for the first time and repeating time, you also get a view with details about each and every component on your page which makes it very easy to identify what is slowing down the site and how to improve it.Unfortunately improving the page speed is a technical issue and if you don’t have the skills it will be difficult to tackle with success. In such cases the best solution is to get help from experts (<a href="http://www.reliablesoft.net/contact/">contact us</A> for more information).This is perhaps the number 1 <a href="http://www.reliablesoft.net/10-seo-mistakes-that-weaken-your-rankings/">SEO mistake</A> most people do i.e. forget about internal link building and I would say that it’s one of most important as well. By linking your pages together it’s like creating your own small web and this has a number of advantages like:It helps search engines discover, index and rank more pages from your websiteIt helps you build authority about a topicIt helps users find more information about a topicIt’s a great way to help search engines understand what the linking page is all about (by using keywords in the anchor text).You can read my previous post on <a href="http://www.reliablesoft.net/internal-linking-best-practices-for-seo/">internal linking best practices</A> for examples on how Google and Wikipedia are using internal links to build authority but as a general rule of thumb use the following guidelines:Vary your anchor text when linking to other pages on your website but don’t be afraid to use keyword anchor text when neededMake sure that the links are useful for users and not only search enginesLink to related pages and not to pages that have nothing to do with the existing pageWhen was the last time that you did a health check on your website? If the answer is ‘never’, don’t worry you are not alone. Nevertheless that does not mean that you should not do it.If a website has problems, most probably this will also affect both rankings but also the user experience with the site which is equally important for long term success.On a typical website health check you can perform the following tests:Check DNS health using the <a href="http://dnscheck.pingdom.com/" target="_blank">dnscheck tool</A> from pingdom – If there are any errors or warnings then you need to inform your hosting company since it is probably something wrong from their part.Check for crawl errors (crawl > Crawl errors) and security issues in Google Webmaster toolsCheck for robots fetch errors in Webmaster toolsCheck for broken links using <a href="http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html" target="_blank">Xenu</A>Check for malware or any other ‘virus’ related errors using <a href="http://sitecheck3.sucuri.net/">sucuri sitecheck</A> Besides doing the health check explained above, it is also highly recommended to perform an <a href="http://www.reliablesoft.net/how-to-perform-a-seo-audit-of-your-web-site-checklist-included/">SEO Audit</A> of your website at least once per year. The audit report will help you identify areas that need to be fixed and areas that can be improved to generate more traffic and visits to your website.A good SEO Audit will touch on social media, <a href="http://www.reliablesoft.net/5-on-page-seo-techniques-thatll-boost-your-rankings-checklist-included/">on page SEO</A>, <a href="http://www.reliablesoft.net/what-is-off-page-seo/">off page SEO</A> and generally all aspects of digital marketing.Local SEO is particularly important for small businesses that need to find customers in their local area. As explained in a <a href="http://www.reliablesoft.net/local-seo-checklist-for-small-business/">previous post</A>, local SEO is different from ‘global’ SEO and for the majority of businesses this is all they have to do in terms of SEO.Run your website against the local seo checklist and make all the changes needed to optimize your website for local searches.Everybody understands the importance of SEO for online success but when it comes to budgeting some businesses still consider SEO as an expense and not an investment. This is not the correct approach and if you are still not convinced, go ahead and read about the <a href="http://www.reliablesoft.net/benefits-of-seo-for-small-businesses/">benefits of SEO for small businesses</A>.A typical SEO budget will be in the range of 500 – 3000 (USD) per month depending on the size and type of a business. This money if spend correctly can generate a constant amount of website traffic that can help a business fulfil its goals in both the short and long term.This is not an SEO change but rather an attribute change. SEO takes time and those that are patient enough always win at the end.When you make any of the changes mentioned above you need to be patient and monitor your rankings for a number of weeks to see if what you did works or not. If you lose your patience and choose to follow any of the magic packages you find on the web then chances are that you will get a penalty by Google and lose your money without archiving anything online.Many factors affect the <a href="http://www.reliablesoft.net/how-long-does-it-take-to-rank-in-google/">time needed to rank in Google</A> but in general you need at least 5-6 months in order to access if your SEO efforts are working or not.Do not forget that you are not alone in this game so it is sometimes necessary to know what your competitors are doing. If you are targeting the global internet market then most probably you have to compete with thousands of websites across the whole world.There are many things to do to spy your competitors and different tools to use but it is not in the scope of this article to go into details. What you can easily do without a lot of effort is the following:Search google for the keywords you want to rank and see which websites/pages are currently ranking for those termsTake note of their titles/descriptions, content length and mentions of the particular keywords (and variations) in the text and compare them with your results.Check how many pages they have indexedHow often do they publish new content and what type of contentWhat type of functionality/tools they offer their readersWhat type of titles they use for their new postsYour goal from doing the competitor analysis is to learn from them and identify things that you can do better to outrank them.SEO is dynamic because there is a lot of competition on every niche and because Google is working continuously trying to make their algorithms better and their search results more accurate. If you want to stay in the game, you have to follow the SEO changes and stay in synch with the latest developments.While the basic SEO principles stayed the same the last 10 years, new things come to the surface (think responsive design, social media, google authorship) that are forcing you to reconsider your SEO strategy.As a final word, SEO is not something imaginary or theoretical but it is a practical science you can put into action and generate real results that can change the way you do businesses on the Internet. <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Reliablesoftnet/~3/SLZJhRAsaOw/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a>

13 SEO changes for better results

The 13 SEO changes suggested in this post will help you achieve better and bigger results in Google and other major search engines. SEO is ...

Baca selengkapnya »

09.25

When Concise Marketing Copy Converts Better

<img alt="marketing message" src="/marketingmessage.jpg" title="marketing message">Have you ever seen one of those long sales pages that never end? I know I am guilty of <a href="http://www.quicksprout.com/pro/">using them</A> because they convert well.So, does that mean you should create long pages with tons of marketing materials? No!Why?Because concise marketing tends to convert better as long as you do it right. I found this out the hard way. <a href="http://www.quicksprout.com/2012/10/08/what-spending-252000-on-conversion-rate-optimization-taught-me/">After spending over $252,000 on consultants</A> to help me improve my long marketing message, I quickly learned through one A/B test that concise marketing copy can convert better.When we first hired <a href="http://www.conversion-rate-experts.com/crazy-egg-case-study/">Conversion Rate Experts</A>, one of the first things they did was to take our concise homepage and turn it into a long form sales letter.<img alt="crazy egg long homepage" src="/Crazy-Eggs-challenger-homepage.png" title="crazy egg long homepage">The end result was a 30% increase in conversion rates. That’s not bad at all. When I first saw those results, and for years after, I assumed that you had to create long marketing copy to boost your conversion rate.Why?With long marketing copy, you can answer any concerns or objections your visitors have, assuming you can retain their attention to read all of your messaging. For example:We showed how <a href="http://www.crazyegg.com/">Crazy Egg</A> stacked up against Google Analytics and Clicktale because our visitors would continually ask us about that.We provided testimonials and a list of companies who used Crazy Egg because visitors wanted to feel we are a company they can trust.We provided results of a college study on our homepage to show the value of the product we were selling because our visitors wanted to know why they should buy our product.We answered all of the objections and concerns above in our long marketing copy variation, which is why we saw the 30% increase. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make your marketing message concise and still boost your conversions.We decided to run a test in which we would remove the fluff and make our marketing copy more concise. We didn’t try to tell any stories; instead, we got to the point explaining what Crazy Egg is and why you should sign up for it.<img alt="crazy egg homepage" src="/crazyeggnewhomepage.png" title="crazy egg homepage">The new homepage was roughly 60% shorter in length, and it still answered the major concerns and objections visitors had. The end result was a 13% increase in conversion rate.Last week, I tested out a similar strategy with <a href="http://www.kimberlysnyder.net/">Kimberly Snyder</A>. I took her long marketing message and shortened it. For the visitors who wanted more information on her product, we created a video that explained what she has to offer.<img alt="optimizely kimberly snyder" src="/kimberlysnyder.png" title="optimizely kimberly snyder">This way if you are too lazy to read, you can get the information you need by watching and listening.So far, the test results are looking good: her conversion rate is up by just over 40%.<img alt="optimizely results" src="/optimizely.png" title="optimizely results">Video tends to work well, and we saw similar results with Crazy Egg. The important point is to <a href="http://www.quicksprout.com/2012/08/13/how-to-create-an-explainer-video-that-converts/">focus on writing a good video script</A>. By including the 6 elements below, you can ensure that your video script converts well:Start your video by stating what your company does.Explain the problem you are solving.Show off the features of your product or service or explain why it is so great.Tell people to sign up or buy.Answer any major objections potential customers may have.Use proof elements to seal the deal such as testimonials.I’ve tested long and short marketing copy with 38 different companies and brands, and I have noticed one thing that seems to be a common trend. When a brand is well-known, it doesn’t need as much marketing copy as a new brand does.For example, you already know what an iPad is. You are either going to buy it or you won’t. Hence, Apple can create short marketing messages like the one below and still make billions of dollars.<img alt="ipad homepage" src="/ipad.png" title="ipad homepage">And what I found to be even more interesting is that brands with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Promoter">high net promoter scores</A> (a high score means people love your product or service) can get away with even more concise marketing.Just look at <a href="http://www.wordpress.com/">WordPress</A>. People already know all about the company, and they love the product. For this reason, it can have concise marketing copy and still have a high conversion rate.<img alt="wordpress homepage" src="/wordpress.png" title="wordpress homepage">But when people don’t know much about your brand, you’ll have to create marketing copy that is longer. The reason for that is that when people aren’t familiar with your brand, they tend to have more questions and concerns. Through longer marketing copy, you can answer these objections.As a general rule of thumb, if your brand is less than 3 years old, you’ll find that you’ll need longer marketing copy. You can find out what objections to answer within your copy by using <a href="http://www.qualaroo.com/">Qualaroo</A> on your site. And as time goes on, you can continually make your marketing message more concise.The caveat to this rule is that if you are offering something for free, concise marketing typically converts better, no matter how new or old your brand is. And if you are selling something that is very expensive and considered an infrequent purchase, you’ll typically need longer marketing copy whether your brand is new or old.People are tired of reading salesy marketing copy that is full of fluff. Try using a concise marketing message as it typically will save your visitors time and will boost your conversion rate.There are a few tactics you can use to reduce your marketing copy:List the use cases of your product or service. This way people will know right away if what you are offering is for them.Consider testing video as not everyone enjoys reading. If you <a href="http://www.quicksprout.com/2012/08/13/how-to-create-an-explainer-video-that-converts/">follow the steps in this blog post</A>, you’ll end up creating a high converting video.Get to the point by showing people what you are offering, how it works, and how it will solve their problems.Avoid using technical jargon. The more you can relate to your visitors, the better off you are.So, what do you think about concise marketing messages? Aren’t you tired of reading those long sales pages? I know I am. <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Quicksprout/~3/78ha30mkjoI/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a>

When Concise Marketing Copy Converts Better

Have you ever seen one of those long sales pages that never end? I know I am guilty of using them because they convert well. So, does that...

Baca selengkapnya »

17.16

17 Ways Knowing About Google Plus Will Make You a Better Marketer #Mozinar

<a href="http://www.jeffalytics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Knowledge-Empowers-You.jpg"><img alt="KEY acronym - Knowledge empowers you on a blackboard with words written in" class="alignnone wp-image-859" height="367" src="/Knowledge-Empowers-You-1024x680.jpg" width="553"></A>Being a long time fan of SEOMoz (now Moz), I was honored to be invited to give a Mozinar and share my knowledge of Google Plus with the passionate Moz community. As the #1 social media traffic source for Jeffalytics, Google Plus has had a major role in putting this site on the map. You could say that much of the success achieved by Jeffalytics is due to Google+, so I was excited to lead a webinar where I could share many of the lessons that I have learned along the way.With the quality of content normally put out by the folks who contribute to Moz, I knew that the presentation needed to deliver on many levels. We needed to go much further than “Google+ is important” and help viewers understand how they can use the network to be successful. By sharing examples of the most successful Google Plus users and mixing in my own experiences, I was able to come up with an 89 slide presentation and deliver a 90 minute webinar to 500+ Moz fans. For those of you who were not able to attend, you can learn all about Google plus with the resources below.If you are an audio/visual learner, your best bet is watching a recording of my <a href="http://moz.com/webinars/using-google-plus-as-part-of-your-marketing-strategy" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://moz.com']);">Mozinar hosted over at Moz.com</A>. The presentation itself is around 80 minutes long and then there are 10 minutes of questions at the end.If 90 minutes seems like too long, I have embedded the full presentation below, and you can also review it on <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/jeffsauermn/making-google-a-part-of-your-marketing-strategy-mozinar" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.slideshare.net']);">Slideshare</A>.For those of you who prefer to read a summary of what was discussed, the rest of this post is for you.Earlier this year, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-plus-is-outpacing-twitter-2013-5%20" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.businessinsider.com']);">Google+ surpassed Twitter</A> to become the social network with the second most active users.<img alt="Social Network Active Users" border="0" height="308" src="/Social-Network-Active-Users.png" title="Social Network Active Users.png" width="627">Image courtesy of <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2013/01/26/watch-out-facebook-with-google-at-2-and-youtube-at-3-google-inc-could-catch-up/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.forbes.com']);">Forbes</A>While many people discount the Google+ user numbers based on their own personal biases, the reality is that these are real people who are using the network. As Google works to further integrate Google+ into the entire Google experience, we can only expect people to become more engaged with the network.Have you noticed lately that when you are logged into Chrome that your Google Plus profile is highlighted?<img alt="Chrome is Google Plus" border="0" height="353" src="/Chrome-is-Google-Plus.png" title="Chrome is Google Plus.png" width="559">What about when you log into YouTube?<img alt="YouTube is Google Plus" border="0" height="338" src="/YouTube-is-Google-Plus.png" title="YouTube is Google Plus.png" width="640">Google Maps?<img alt="Google Maps Google Plus" border="0" height="316" src="/Google-Maps-Google-Plus.png" title="Google Maps Google Plus.png" width="640">You get the picture, Google Plus is more than just a social network, it’s the connective tissue between all Google properties. Just how big are Google properties? HUGE – reaching just short of 200 Million US web visitors a month.<img alt="Top US Web Properties" border="0" height="308" src="/Top-US-Web-Properties.png" title="Top US Web Properties.png" width="640">Image Courtesy of <a href="http://www.marketingcharts.com/category/top-us-web-properties/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.marketingcharts.com']);">Marketing Charts</A>For those people who use Google Plus – hundreds of millions of people in the US alone – you have provided Google with information about you that may be used for any number of reasons. It can be positive for marketers to share where they contribute content, what they are interested in and the topics where they have expertise and authority.<img alt="Google Plus Information" border="0" height="363" src="/Google-Plus-Information.png" title="Google Plus Information.png" width="640">On the other hand, this information may be used to fine tune the way you receive advertising, identify areas of unscrupulous behavior and simply to better understand more about the people who visit their websites.One of the biggest complaints that I see from people is that nobody they know uses Google Plus, so why should they use it themselves? To me the answer is simple: make new friends!There are literally hundreds of thousands of people sharing interesting information on Google Plus every day. They are generally very friendly and helpful to new users, making it a great place to meet new people.<img alt="Make New Friends on Google Plus" border="0" height="345" src="/Make-New-Friends-on-Google-Plus.png" title="Make New Friends on Google Plus.png" width="640">A good way to get started is through shared circles, which I will discuss later in this post.This may sound obvious, but one of the biggest mistakes marketers make is not sharing their great content with Google Plus. It could be because they rarely use the network themselves, or they may have simply forgotten. At Jeffalytics, what I have done is installed a plugin called SNAP that allows me to post automatically to Google+ each time I have new content.<img alt="Auto Post Your Content" border="0" height="405" src="/Auto-Post-Your-Content.png" title="Auto Post Your Content.png" width="525">One of the best ways to make new friends on Google Plus is to share the content of other people and mention them in your post. An example of someone who is doing a fantastic job at this is <a href="https://plus.google.com/+MartinShervington" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://plus.google.com']);">+Martin Shervington</A>, who is a true pro at sharing content on Google Plus. He constantly shares videos, images, circles and posts from friends.<img alt="Martin Shervington Google Plus Sharing" border="0" height="340" src="/Martin-Shervington-Google-Plus-Sharing.png" title="Martin Shervington Google Plus Sharing.png" width="640">Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of a network helps you become more informed with how to properly harness the power within. Google Plus excels in images, videos, circles, communities and hangouts. Tailor your content strategy to these strengths and you can drive all kinds of engagement to your profile and traffic to your website. For some in depth Google Plus Content Strategies, I recommend this post from <a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/google-plus-content-strategies/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.copyblogger.com']);">+Copyblogger</A>.<img alt="Google Plus Branding Strategies" border="0" height="736" src="/Google-Plus-Branding-Strategies2.png" title="Google Plus Branding Strategies.png" width="561">I posted the same article within minutes of each other using two different methods of publishing and each received drastically different results. The first image was shared as a URL and Google crawled the page to pull out an image. This post had very little reaction from my followers.<img alt="Traditional Google Plus Share" border="0" height="340" src="/Traditional-Google-Plus-Share.png" title="Traditional Google Plus Share.png" width="640">Minutes later I posted a link to the same page as an image post with a link embedded and saw significantly more engagement.<img alt="Increased Engagement Google Plus" border="0" height="434" src="/Increased-Engagement-Google-Plus.png" title="Increased Engagement Google Plus.png" width="597">My theory is that images take up more screen real estate and are more compelling to visitors.In order to test whether my image posting success was a fluke or commonplace, I looked over profiles of other Google Plus users and noticed a pattern: they use images in most of their posts! Here are posts from <a href="http://gplus.to/RebekahRadice" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://gplus.to']);">+Rebekah Radice</A> and <a href="http://gplus.to/CyrusShepard" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://gplus.to']);">+Cyrus Shepard</A> that illustrate the point.<img alt="Image Post Engagement" border="0" height="416" src="/Image-Post-Engagement.png" title="Image Post Engagement.png" width="631"><img alt="Cyrus Shepard Engagement" border="0" height="393" src="/Cyrus-Shepard-Engagement.png" title="Cyrus Shepard Engagement.png" width="603">One thing that I learned in the process of using images for posts is that you can learn how many people viewed your image by looking over your image information. Embedded in the image information on Google Plus is a count of how many times it was viewed. Awesome!<img alt="Total Image Views" border="0" height="257" src="/Total-Image-Views.png" title="Total Image Views.png" width="640">There are tens of thousands of people just like you on Google Plus! The easiest way to find them is often by leveraging the communities feature and meeting people with common interests.<img alt="Google Plus Communities" border="0" height="381" src="/Google-Plus-Communities.png" title="Google Plus Communities.png" width="640">I have joined many communities in the past and found that they are a great way to discover new content, meet new people and even share your content when it is relevant.  If you have an interest, chances are there is a community on G+.While I find communities to be really helpful, I must admit that I have never gone back to 90% of the communities I have joined. Without some sort of proactive notification about activity in the community, I just forget to go and check out what’s new. For the communities that I want to interact with the most, I have started to turn on notifications for whenever something new is posted.<img alt="Google Plus Community Notifications" border="0" height="388" src="/Google-Plus-Community-Notifications.png" title="Google Plus Community Notifications.png" width="511">Just beware of notification overload. When you sign up for notifications, you may find that you have 10-20 extra emails a day in your inbox.<img alt="Notification Overload" border="0" height="395" src="/Notification-Overload.png" title="Notification Overload.png" width="587">One of my hobbies is travel blogging, so I wanted to share some of my awesome posts about visiting exotic destinations all over the world. The problem? I could not find a great community that shared travel stories!  Rather than wait for someone else to get this started, I created a community called <a href="https://plus.google.com/communities/110997143077736618243" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://plus.google.com']);">Amazing Destinations</A> and tapped some of my travel blogger friends to share their content. Within no time people were starting to engage with the community.<img alt="Amazing Destinations Google Plus Community" border="0" height="293" src="/Amazing-Destinations-Google-Plus-Community.png" title="Amazing Destinations Google Plus Community.png" width="640">Now I need to do a better job of keeping up the community and getting more contributors, but it’s a good start. If you run into a similar situation, start your own community! Just make sure that you keep focused on posting good content and get others to participate as well. And if you are interested in travel, please do join amazing destinations.If a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound? If you post on Google+ and don’t tell anyone, will they ever know? The best method I have seen for getting people to notice your activity in Google+ is to tag them in posts that they would find relevant or where they are mentioned. Simply using the + sign and their name will go a long way toward engagement.<img alt="Plus Mentions" border="0" height="400" src="/Plus-Mentions.png" title="Plus Mentions.png" width="609">Here are some more <a href="http://maximizesocialbusiness.com/google-plus-strategy-networking-8209/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://maximizesocialbusiness.com']);">Google+ networking strategies</A> to try out from <a href="https://plus.google.com/+MarkTraphagen/posts" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://plus.google.com']);">+Mark Traphagen</A>, the most influential marketer I know on Google Plus.Want your friends and followers to know who you find relevant? Create a circle of influencers and then share that circle with everyone. Shared circles are the easiest way to find interesting people on Google Plus, and being included in a shared circle can deliver all kinds of new followers to you.<img alt="Shared Circle" border="0" height="662" src="/Shared-Circle.png" title="Shared Circle.png" width="640">Here is a <a href="http://bit.ly/shared_circle" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://bit.ly']);">circle of 440 of my best Google Plus friends</A> that you should absolutely follow.Authorship is one of the original utilities of Google Plus and is what drew me to the network in the first place. By linking your Google+ profile to websites where you publish content, you can see lend credibility to your search results.<img alt="Google Plus Authorship" border="0" height="362" src="/Google-Plus-Authorship.png" title="Google Plus Authorship.png" width="483">To learn more about marking up your website with Authorship, here is a comprehensive article from <a href="http://searchengineland.com/the-definitive-guide-to-google-authorship-markup-123218" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://searchengineland.com']);">Search Engine Land</A>.<img alt="Authorship Mark Up" border="0" height="314" src="/Authorship-Mark-Up.png" title="Authorship Mark Up.png" width="596">I firmly believe that <a href="http://www.jeffalytics.com/establish-google-plus-authority/">Google Plus impacts search rankings</A>. While many people agree with me, there are also others who disagree. Those who disagree are not debating the utility that G+ provides to search, but rather debating the direct impact to any one factor.<img alt="Google Plus Impacts Search" border="0" height="406" src="/Google-Plus-Impacts-Search.png" title="Google Plus Impacts Search.png" width="504">Rather than trying to mediate differing opinions, I would rather share with you some of the opinions cited in the webinar:Feel free to read along at home and form your own opinion.Setting goals is one of the most important things that we can do in order to ensure repeated success in our marketing campaigns. In my post called <a href="http://www.jeffalytics.com/measuring-google-plus/">The Ultimate Guide to Measuring Google+</A> I cover several things that you can measure in Google+ and how to set KPIs for yourself. Much like the post you are reading right now, I provided multiple ways to learn this content, including video, slides and a <a href="http://www.jeffalytics.com/documents/UltimateGuideMeasuringGooglePlus.pdf" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','download','http://www.jeffalytics.com/documents/UltimateGuideMeasuringGooglePlus.pdf']);">PDF guide</A>. While I covered these topics again in the Mozinar, I suggest that you read the original post to get the best understanding of what you can measure in Google Plus.Hopefully after reading these examples, viewing the slide deck and watching the webinar you can understand that Google Plus is very important. To me, it is important because it is a social network that encourages engagement between members, allows me to meet new people from all over the world and has numerous marketing benefits. Generally the hardest part about Google Plus engagement is simply getting started. I am hoping that these tips help ease the pain of getting started and get you started on the path to loving Google+! If you are waiting for Google Plus to just go away, I think you will be waiting a long time.Your turn – go and get your learn on! Make sure to follow me at <a href="https://plus.google.com/+JeffSauer/posts" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://plus.google.com']);">+Jeff Sauer</A> for more tips and sharing. <a href="http://www.jeffalytics.com/google-plus-mozinar/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=google-plus-mozinar" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a>

17 Ways Knowing About Google Plus Will Make You a Better Marketer #Mozinar

Being a long time fan of SEOMoz (now Moz), I was honored to be invited to give a Mozinar and share my knowledge of Google Plus with the pas...

Baca selengkapnya »

16.00