Articles
Establishing a global web presence and optimizing for search engine results is more than just translation. In fact, without a true understanding of the cultural, political, linguistic, and social differences of the targeted country, marketers run the risk of driving users away. And, without the proper International SEO Strategy, they run the risk of something worse – never being found by users in the first place. Take a look at some of the best-practices and strategic tips below to help you gain international exposure and SEO value.
So your website has got it all. It’s flashy, findable, and you even have great pay-per-click ads bringing in a ton of traffic. However, if your visitors are having trouble navigating your site and can’t find what they’re looking for, you could be throwing huge opportunities out the window.
Ask yourself, “Why am I reading this article? How did I get here? Is this interesting?” If it’s not, you’re going to bounce right… about… now! Still here? Good. This article will explain why capturing a person’s situational interest is critical to a good content strategy.
Consider this…you’re invited to a house party. You’re not doing anything Saturday night except for feeding the cat, spending inordinate amounts of time watering the crops on FarmVille, and watching SNL. So you think “Sure, why not?” You print out directions from Google Maps and head out.
Earlier this year, Steve Jobs took the stage in the Moscone Center in San Francisco and announced a new Apple product that he described would be "magical." Heated debates immediately flooded mainstream media and online channels such as Twitter, with many writing off the iPad as nothing more than an enlarged version of the iPhone. Many thought it was...
Social media optimization is the art of fully leveraging your social networks to extend your messaging to as many people as possible. There is a subset of those activities that can have a dramatic effect on search engine optimization. In this article I will be discussing the value these activities can bring to your SEO campaign in addition to how using SEO metrics to help paint an ROI picture around your social media campaign.
By now, you’ve certainly seen video popping up in blended search results for Google and other major search engines. These engines are designed to display a mix of content types based on the keyword...
As social media marketers, we all understand the notion that “content is king.” While it’s understood that a king is a relatively important character, the notion leaves us quite disconnected...
Are you experienced? Aside from an outdated Jimi Hendrix reference, this question refers to your experience as a user of the internet. This notion has given rise to a new term in the web design field...
Is your marketing budget tight with little chance of increasing? Are you expected to do more with less? How do you prove ROI to justify your activities? Well, you're not alone...
Businesses are beginning to understand the amazing opportunity the online space offers them, and are now moving towards it quickly. As more consumers search for products or services online...
When agencies pitch new business, the focus is typically on the service offerings they can bring to the prospective client – presumably centered around solutions to achieve charted goals and objectives. But what happens after...
Understanding your customers and designing the right user-experience is essential when building websites, blogs, social media applications, and marketing programs. If you’re looking for strategic tips and best-practice recommendations, look no further...
BusinessOnLine recently conducted in-depth SEO testing to understand how Google reads and weighs internal links. Through this process, we have verified that Google only considers the “first links” and ignores the rest. Despite the name, a “first link” is not necessarily the first link appearing on a web page...
If you’ve ever created a search analytics dashboard, you probably included a few rectangular slots dedicated to the “top 10 referring keywords”. It is such a commonly used metric that a dashboard seems incomplete without it. But, as an analyst, I question whether it generates any actionable insight, or helps to drive an effective SEO strategy.
Bookmark is web terminology that originates from web browsers. Netscape first used the term to refer to all the webpage URLs you would save and then access anytime without typing access anytime without typing in long URLs.
I was born in Switzerland – a country that has 4 official languages and uses English as the primary business language. So, as you can imagine, verbal communication has played a prevalent role in my life. I’ve always been fascinated with how a single language can differ so greatly from one country to another.
It seems these days the characteristics of a website are becoming increasingly sophisticated. And, with sophistication, there is an inherent need for more collaboration and documentation, which can increase delivery times and costs. It doesn’t have to.
Many websites fail to take into account their international audience. Only 31% of the world speaks English as their primary language and many international searchers search with their native tongue, even if they also speak English; however, most businesses focus their optimization on one specific search engine or one primary language.
This past year, I’ve been approached by numerous people asking me to “tear apart” their website because they know “something’s wrong with it” or it’s “broken.” Most of the time, the situation involves a recently launched website that is not meeting expectations or success metrics. Each individual is usually left feeling confused and defeated. With all the time and money invested, most are reluctant – but still willing – to start over from scratch. Sound familiar?
Design is subjective. While one person may love the shiny metallic teal of a new compact car, another may find it appalling. The same goes for websites. Your design agency might create what they think is the next greatest online masterpiece, but it might look nothing like what you want.
If you’re getting ready to kick off a new website project then please keep reading. Consider this your homework before your homework. What I want to do is arm you with direction, something which your web agency is going to be asking of you in the weeks and months ahead.
Last November, just before the 2008 presidential election, Rick Davis, Senator John McCain’s Campaign Manager, declared that the winner of the campaign will be based on personality.
Twitter is one of the most popular social media sites in the world. Described as a "micro-blogging" platform, Twitter allows users to answer the question, "What are you doing right now?" and broadcast the answer to their Twitter followers (friends) in a short text message of up to 140 characters. It's seemingly simple design and application has taken the social media community by storm.
As a consultant, often times my job is to make technology a non-issue. I’m not explicitly asked for it, but hidden within your questions and comments is a yearning need to find simple ways to hop aboard the social media train without requiring such heavy investments in time and money. This is particularly important during a time of declining budgets.
Every website is created with a purpose, and for most, there is more than one. Whether your site goals are to sell products, generate leads, or provide services, it is crucial that you measure and prioritize the most important conversion points.
Depending on whom you ask, web analytics can have a wide variety of definitions but is ultimately focused on a single goal: understanding the online experience such that it can be improved.
As marketers begin to better understand and reap the benefits of online marketing, a large pervasive gap remains between the results we are able to achieve through online marketing and the budget we allocate to these efforts.
Regardless of what industry you’re in or what you’re selling, today your customers are more connected and savvy than ever before – with a simple click they have infinite amounts of information at their fingertips.
Companies today face a unique set of challenges when it comes to their online presence. With increased user-dependence on the web as a primary source of researching information, and the vast amount of resources and information available, it has become progressively more difficult for companies to successfully utilize this medium as a way to attract and engage prospects.
In recent years, the concept of design has lost some precedence to the hands of usability. This can be verified by countless conversations I have had with clients in which, while gathering feedback for the visual style of their website, I received responses to the likes of, “I want a professional website that is clean and easy to navigate.”
Over the last few years, Social Media and Web 2.0 technologies have commonly been associated with Search Engine Optimization (SEO); however, for many people, the SEO benefit of these sites and technologies remains unclear. So what exactly can Social Media do for your SEO? More than you think.
In Pay per click advertising (PPC), people are constantly saying, “The more you can spend the better.” What most people don’t talk about is the point at which additional investment stop generating an equivalent incremental gain.
