5 Awesome Tips for Optimizing Your Blog for Mobile

Here’s a riddle for you: what do a restaurant, park, bus, and a dinner table have in common? If you guessed, “Everyone sitting around / standing on / walking through them is staring at a smartphone,” ding ding ding! I’ll leave aside my musings on what this means for our society as a whole, and stick more to the basic idea here that this is proof that mobile usage is continuing to skyrocket.
In fact, over half of the entire earth’s population has a smartphone, with half of those users turning to their phones as their primary access route to the internet. That means that if you run a blog — especially one that comes with an attached store — it’s likely that the bulk of your readers are consuming your work on a smartphone. Problem is, if your blogsite isn’t optimized for mobile, it’s just about impossible for your users to interact with it — and the stats say they want to interact, as mobile sites have been shown to increase user engagement by up to 85%.
A clunker of a website that doesn’t scale for mobile also makes you look out of touch, and therefore perhaps not the most authoritative blogger to consume.
Altogether, these make for more than a few excellent reasons to make your site mobile friendly. Let’s take a look at 5 tips for optimizing your blog for mobile to get started.

1. Streamline your site

First things first: if your site is an unwieldy tangle of huge graphics and “click here!” buttons, your visitors are bound to get ticked off. Big photos often won’t load on small screens (or they’ll take forever in doing so, and you have about 3 seconds max to keep a visitor’s attention), and, um, have you ever tried to click a tiny button with massive thumbs?
Here’s what to look out for:

• Long Posts: If you’re going to do them, break them up with bolded headers and give yourself plenty of paragraph breaks. The rule of thumb is: if it’s easily skimmed, it can stay. If not, keep breaking things up.
• Flash and Java: iPhones don’t support Flash and many other phones don’t support Java, so avoid them both.
• File Sizes: As we mentioned above, graphics that are too big are too much of a risk, so make sure to keep your file sizes small.
• Number of Pages: Unlike on desktops, the majority of on-screen navigation on smartphones and tablets happens via scrolling. That makes a one-page website ideal for the mobile platform, as users can simply scroll down to find what they need. However, having other pages isn’t out of the question, just as long as they’re easy to find and click in a prominent menu. What you want to avoid is an overly categorized site that feels like a maze. And no pop up windows! (They’re obnoxious on a desktop, rage-inducing on mobile).
• Text Entry and Clicks: Got a form you want your visitors to fill out before going any further? A survey that requires a number of taps? Again, you can do both of these things, but keep them to an absolute minimum. Even the most user friendly mobile platform doesn’t negate the fact that text entry and precision screen tapping are both difficult on tiny mobile screens.

2. Make it responsive

If you haven’t heard of responsive design, you’ve definitely interacted with responsive websites. A responsive website is one that — you got it — responds differently based on the kind of device used to access the site. On a smartphone? The site automatically shrinks down to fit a smartphone screen, so you won’t have to scroll horizontally as well as up and down. On a tablet? A laptop? Same thing. Responsive design means automatic customization to suit each user, which is pretty nifty.
If your blog is hosted on WordPress, getting it to be responsive is pretty simple: from your admin panel, just go into the store and select a responsive theme that suits your style. Voila! You’re ready for mobile. Most other blog sites will also have responsive templates, but choices seem to be a bit more limited.
If you did your own web design or hired it out onto a different platform, responsive design can be a bit more tricky to implement, as you’ll either need to do a complete redesign or make some serious tweaks to your HTML and CSS. In that case, it may make more sense to design a separate mobile site to which users on mobile platforms will be automatically redirected, or to at least do this temporarily while you’re building your responsive site.
The other nice thing about having a separate mobile site is that you can maintain a non-mobile site that allows you to do whatever you want, flash video included. However, I personally think this is a null point, because the trend in UI design is purposely towards minimalism, and it’s not a good idea to think of your main site as a place where you have free reign to get overly complicated.

3. Integrate Instagram

Photos are essential for drawing in and maintaining the attention of your visitors (especially in longer blogposts), but legit photos come with hefty licenses and, as I mentioned above, if they’re too big or in the wrong format they’re not guaranteed to actually load on a mobile platform. But none of that matters if they’ve already been formatted to work on mobile devices via a third party site like Instagram.
With the help of a number of different Instagram widgets, you can easily stream your Instagram photos right into your blogposts (again, it’s extra-easy on WordPress). Alternatively, all public Instagram photos come with an embed code these days, so it’s easy to spot a photo you like on a friend’s feed and post it to your blog while still giving credit where credit is due.

4. Keep it secure

As the recent Heartbleed episode has proven, security is a huge problem on the internet in general, but it’s all the more so in the Wild West of mobile devices. A recent report from the mobile security company, Lookout, entitled “Mobile Threats, Made to Measure,” cites adware, chargeware and malware as the greatest risks to mobile users, especially those in countries where regulations are sparse. You can keep your own site from getting hacked and help to safeguard your mobile visitors by taking the following steps:

• Stay Up to Date. Has your platform notified you of an update? Great. Do it, now. Oftentimes updates contain patches for security flaws.
• Change Your Username and Password. Especially if your username is “admin” and your password is “12345.” It’s also a good idea to change your password on a regular basis.
• Dole Out Admin Privileges With Care. Sure you love your boyfriend now, but in 3 months? Yeah, you might not want him to have admin privileges to your blogsite. Keep it limited to the absolute minimum users.
• Scrutinize Your Advertisers. Ads are often targets for malware, so grill any advertisers on the security measures they take before signing up.
• Be Wary of Photos. They can hide malicious code. That’s why the Instagram trick mentioned above is a much better idea, as is purchasing photos through a respectable stock photo site.
• Stick With Widgets. Applications can be filled with junk, so when you’re looking to give your site a little more functionality or wow factor, stick with the widgets already vetted by your blog platform.

5. Test, test and test again

Of course, responsive design isn’t perfect, and it’s not 100% guaranteed it will resize to just the right size for every kind device and screen (hey, give the code a break, the mobile ecosystem is pretty diverse). As a first step, gather all of your friends with iOS, Android and even Blackberry smartphones and tablets to see how it all works. Does it look nice? Is all of the text readable? Do pictures and videos load across devices? Do the social buttons work?
An even better idea is to use an emulator — a tool that lets you simply and quickly test across an even broader range of devices.

Takeaway

These days, optimizing your blog for mobile is just as important as having a blog in the first place. With one, you’ll be far better able to engage readers and pull them deeper into your site. Plus, a responsive site just makes you look “with it” and someone deserving of a follow. Good luck!

Best 8 Insights on How to Optimize Your Social Media Marketing: Study

As a marketer you have many options with your digital marketing. Social media, email, search engine optimisation, content marketing, visual content marketing and now even mobile marketing. We are still learning and have questions.

One simple question I struggled with early on in my social media marketing journey was “how often should I tweet?.”

Now the burning answer to that question didn’t keep me up at night, but I decided to tweet every 15 minutes for 24 hours a day several years ago. Still do. I have been told by some that it is too frequent. Sometimes stones were thrown in my direction.

But I have a certain philosophy on Twitter. It’s not an inbox but a stream. The reality is that the life of a tweet is short lived as it bobs by in the Twitter torrent and is often never to be seen again. This social network’s design means that you have to keep tossing the content into the tweet stream, otherwise you will be missed, ignored and even forgotten.

I discovered some research by Simply Measured which revealed that tweeting every 15 minutes was very effective. How effective? The results showed that tweeting every fifteen minutes instead of thirty led to the following:

• Increased traffic by 31%
• Engagement was up by 89%

This means my current practice continues and I rest my case!

How are marketers optimizing their social media marketing?

Social media marketers have many bigger questions than the tweet frequency decision.

So the questions that whirl around marketers mind neurons are many and varied. How many social networks should I be using? How often should I post  on each network? What content and tactics will be effective?

The social media, blogging and online marketing is also a content hungry beast. It is continuous, complex and is made of many moving parts. Google and social networks hate silence. They require constant feeding.

So what are some answers?

A recent study by Software advice in conjunction with Adobe has shone a light on the answers to some of those question by revealing the tactics and activities that most marketers are implementing. It did display a range of insights on how to optimize your social media marketing.

To be effective on social media you need to consider the following.

1. How many social media channels do most marketers participate on?

Social media visibility and participation achieves a variety of goals. Brand awareness, lead generation, trust, credibility and sales. The annual Edelmann Trust barometer revealed that people need to hear or see something about your company 3-5 times to believe its veracity. This means placing your content onto multiple social networks will be beneficial in achieving that visibility and build that trust.

The study displayed the following social network participation levels:

• 23% are on 3 social networks
• 25% are on 4 social media networks
• 16% are on 5
• 10% are on 6 channels
• 3% are on 11 or more

As all social networks are not equal the effectiveness of each will vary. Also it will depend on whether you are a business to consumer facing organisation (B2C) or marketing to other businesses (B2B).

My participation and focus varies according to a range of metrics and goals including helping drive traffic, sharing, conversions and sales.

2. How many social media posts should you be publishing?

Creating social media posts doesn’t mean unique content for each network but re-purposing.  A blog post can tweeted, published on Facebook and Google+ and now even LinkedIn. It can also even be turned into a Powerpoint that can be uploaded to Slideshare. There are four right there!

The study revealed that 70% are posting to social networks at least once a day. That is a good start but that frequency will not make you very visible.

3.  How many marketers schedule posts in advance?

A publishing schedule is now a common practice. The study showed that 65% were scheduling at least one day prior with 41% planning up to a week in advance.

4. What are the most important social media optimisation tactics?

Giving your content the best chance of being shared means using a variety of tactics to achieve optimal results with your social media marketing. These include in descending percentages as “very important” by marketers:

• Visual content marketing with images and photos – 50%
• Hashtags – 35%
• Targeting – 33%
• A call to action – 27%
• Optimizing image size – 23%
• Use videos – 20%

This displays the importance of images in marketers priorities in social network marketing optimisation. Visual content marketing has become one of the key marketing strategies to achieve marketing goals on socia networks.

5.  How do you work out when to post?

This importance of this question will vary for each business. Why? Some are global and then you need to post around the clock. Others are local and then you need to make sure that they aren’t slumbering in an armchair  or watching the “Voice”!

Marketers were found to use a variety of methods to determine their tactics for posting timing including:

• Trial and error
• Tools
• Industry reports
• A/B split testing

6. What goals do marketers want to achieve with social media marketing?

I was intrigued to notice that the top goal wasn’t sales (at only 3%) but gaining followers (20%) as being rated “very important” with business marketers. Social media’s biggest direct benefit is engagement for most businesses. This is the first step in the process to the final resulting sales.

So the mantra in social is “engage  first and sell second“.

7. Should I automate my social media marketing?

Automation of social media was seen as an evil tactic a few years ago as it wasn’t true to the essence of social media. Marketers have come to realise that doing “social at scale” requires a platform. The study revealed that the majority (at 57%) are  using software to scale their efforts.

8. How do marketers feel about the difficulty of optimizing social media?

When marketers were asked about the ranking of the overall difficulty the majority seem to be struggling somewhat with 55% ranking it as at least somewhat difficult or “extremely difficult”. This isn’t surprising as the large range and differences between social networks is placing heavy demands on optimizing and even participating.

 What about you?

How are you optimizing your social media marketing? Are you on 3 social networks or 10? Do you post once a day or more?

How is your visual marketing tactics?

Look forward to reading your insights and stores in the comments below.

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Learn how to make your blog a roaring success

My book – “Blogging the Smart Way – How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” – will show you how.

I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.

I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 230,000.

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Best 3 Ways To Grow Your Business With LinkedIn

Let me ask you a question: Do you ever feel like everyone in your industry is doing the same thing? Everyone’s newsletters look the same. Everyone’s websites are starting to look the same. Same. Same. Same.
Don’t worry, you’re not alone;
I’ve faced this issue many times throughout my business journey. And what I’ve come to learn is that marketing is 10% what you say and 90% how you say it. Now if you’re marketing your company using the same methods as everyone else in your industry not only is it going to be hard to stand out but chances are your business will never be innovative enough to stay ahead of the pack.
And in my opinion there is no marketing tool more powerful in today’s business world than LinkedIn if your business is primarily B2B. With over 300 million users and 49% of those being key decision makers, LinkedIn has ultimately become the most precious marketing resource of the 21^st century.

Is your networking not working?

Gone are the days where you need to spend countless amount of hours implementing marketing strategies in order to get in front of key decision makers for your product or service. LinkedIn allows you to search, connect and develop relationships in real time with anyone around the world 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
No longer will you have to spend hours and hours travelling to networking functions, in the hope that you will make a valuable contact. With LinkedIn you can connect with 100’s of targeted business professional every week.
I while back I connected with a guy by the name of Alex Pirouz from Linkfluencer.com. An Australian entrepreneur who’s achieved a fair bit of success in using LinkedIn over the past couple of years. At that stage I had a fairly good understanding of LinkedIn and its potential but the more I spoke with Alex the more I realised how many different ways you can use the platform to grow a business.
He’s managed to use LinkedIn to grow his various businesses so that you too can start applying them within yours.
Here are 3 key ways to grow your business with LinkedIn.

#1. Personal branding with media exposure

Gaining media exposure on a consistent basis is a powerful way to boost your credibility in the market place, get your message in front of thousands of people and position you as an authority figure within the industry. This will ultimately drive the bottom line if effectively used. When Alex first started using LinkedIn back in 2007 he had just launched his business advisory firm so he was looking to build his personal brand in the market place.
What started off with one or two connections here or there; quickly escalated to well over 250 contacts within 3 months. A network he has managed to successful use to get featured in over 50+ media publications including Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur.com and many more all without sending out a single press release.
Personal branding is more important than ever before. Make a list of the top 10 publications you want to get featured in and start connecting with journalist and editors who cover stories for that publication.

#2. Joint venture partnerships

In my opinion one of the best ways to grow any business is to form strategic partnerships. A joint venture is a legal term that describes the relationship between two or more parties entering into an agreement to work towards the same strategic goals while remaining separate entities.
Such an agreement might exist between a digital marketing agency and a graphic designer, a web designer and a database management firm, a business advisor and accountant, a hairdresser and beauty salon, or an Internet service provider and an email provider. Just to name a few of the many possibilities.
Following on from his success in using LinkedIn to gain media exposure, Alex decided to also use the platform to connect with owners of accounting firms given they would be ideal joint venture partners.
Over the course of the next four months he managed to connect with 500 accounting firms out of which he secured 20 to come on board as partners producing 60+ qualified leads per month and increasing his revenue by over 328%.

#3. One on one clients

You may have the best product or service but if no one knows about it then you don’t really have a business” I am sure you have heard that saying before. The fact of the matter is regardless of industry, location and target demographic you, I and the rest of the business world all share a common theme:
“We are all in the business of: Marketing”
But in this day and age where people are being bombarded with a barrage of information, products, and businesses, it can be difficult to ensure that your business gets noticed amongst the slew of potential competitors.
In my opinion to compete in a business world that is rapidly changing all the time, learning and implementing the latest sales and marketing strategies is critical to your success in business.
Recognizing this Alex decided to market his business advisory firm differently to everyone else by connecting directly with key decision makers in his target market through LinkedIn. Over the past 2 ½ years he has managed to build his network to over 7,000 contacts and in doing so he has successfully made thousands of dollars for himself and the clients he has worked with.

Best 10 Facebook Contests that Captured 10,000 Emails

Growing up, Faith’s willpower was constantly tested by an overbearing family. She always had more responsibilities than she could handle.
Faith, now 35, used this willpower she developed during her childhood to venture out and start her own business.
Faced with no starting capital, not a lot of time, and limited energy, Faith eagerly looked for ways to market her new business in a quick and easy way.
Creating a website would cost her about $900, too expensive. Instead, she turned to creating a Facebook page because it was free and would allow her new business to have a home.
When Faith was in college, she interned at a marketing department where she learned the power of email marketing. She knew if she could collect 100 emails, she could create value for those 100 people and eventually sell products.
The big question was how to use her Facebook page to efficiently capture emails.
After much testing, Faith launched a Facebook contest that generated 1938 views and captured 918 emails – almost 10 times what she was hoping for.
Faith used a unique contest layout that generated a 50% conversion rate (918/1938) with no ad spend.

10 Facebook contests that captured 10,000 emails

Faith wasn’t alone, and her success wasn’t luck. Here are 10 smart marketers that span 10 different industries who all used this unique Facebook contest layout to capture emails.

1. Industry: AAA Minneapolis (Car Repair Service)
Name: Jaime Christianson, Social Media Coordinator
Incentive Used: Free ticket to a local sporting event
Results: 4924 people viewed the Facebook Contest and 2066 entered their email for a 40% conversion rate.
Likes at time of contest: 1800 (Note that Jaime captured more emails than her total number of fans. You don’t need a lot of likes to grow your list quickly.)
Facebook Page: http://ift.tt/1icNUzZ

2. Industry: Car Dealership
Name: Brian Ortega, Marketing Manager
Incentive Used: Used Car
Results: 2240 people viewed the Facebook Contest and 1154 entered their email for a 50% conversion rate.
Likes at time of content: 3000
Facebook page: http://ift.tt/TaH0iM

3. Industry: Antique Shop
Name: Kayla Slager, Founder and CEO
Incentive Used: Free Antique
Results: 1414 people viewed the Facebook Contest and 597 entered their email for a 42% conversion rate.
Likes at time of contest: 3400
Facebook Page: http://ift.tt/TaH1Dz

4. Industry: Authors and Speakers
Name: Chad Abbott, Social Media Consultant
Incentive Used: Free Book
Results: 4501 people viewed the Facebook Contest and 2282 entered their email for a 50% conversion rate.
Likes at time of contest: 139k
Facebook Page: http://ift.tt/1ocaQ1s

5. Industry: Family Owned Motorcycle Shop
Name: Support Sons of Arthritis
Incentive Used: Sons of Arthritis T-Shirt
Results: 1974 people viewed the campaign and 544 entered their email for a 38% conversion rate.
Likes at time of contest: 67k
Facebook Page: http://ift.tt/TaH0iU

 

6. Industry: Chip Company

Name: Dylan Patel, Social Media Manager
Incentive Used: Bag of Chips and Salt
Results: 4309 people viewed the campaign and 2709 entered their email for a 64% conversion rate.
Likes at time of contest: 16k
Facebook page: http://ift.tt/1eJSSMV

7. Industry: Tools
Name: Amanda, Social Media Consultant
Incentive Used: Free Laser Level
Results: 1840 people viewed the campaign and 1064 entered their emails for a 55% conversion rate.
Likes at time of contest: 35k
Facebook page: http://ift.tt/1icNVnJ

8. Industry: Nursery
Name: Scott Bardash, Marketing Manager
Incentive Used: Free Plant
Results: 396 people viewed the campaign and 168 entered their email for a 42% conversion rate.
Likes at time of contest: 1200
Facebook page: http://ift.tt/1icNVnK

9. Industry: Bed Linens
Name: Marina Guirey, Social Media Manager
Incentive Used: Bamboo Linen Bedlinen
Results: 1871 people viewed the Facebook Contest and 814 entered their email for a 43% conversion rate.
Likes at time of contest: 3100
Facebook page: http://ift.tt/1pHcbRJ



10. Industry: Brick and Morta Name: Milena Regos, Founder of own consulting practice
Incentive Used: Free pair of ski’s
Results: 17000 people viewed the campaign and 4500 entered their email for a 27% conversion rate.
Likes at time of contest: 100k
Facebook page: http://ift.tt/1bmodtj

You’ll notice in the screenshots above that each of these campaigns followed the unique Facebook Contest layout. Keep reading to learn why the layout works. If you’re a go-getter and want to get started now, I highly recommend that you try Heyo’s Free Contest Builder by clicking here.
If you’re wondering why these campaigns worked so well, continue reading. I’ll breakdown each element and explain why you can double your email list using a Facebook contest even if you’re starting with less than 100 likes and have no budget to spend on advertising.

The 6 Parts of The Unique Contest Layout

 You met Dylan earlier in the article. He is the Social Media Manager for Burt’s chips. I’ll breakdown the 6 elements in his campaign that enabled him to capture 2709 emails.
1. Strong Incentive: Give away something that is directly aligned with what your potential customers and followers are interested in. In Burt’s Facebook Contest, the incentive was a free bag of chips and a cup of Burt’s signature chip salt. Total cost? Maybe $10.
What you should do: Come up with a strong incentive. Old inventory, digital products, or tickets are always good choices.
2.  Brand recognition: By positioning the Burts logo in the upper left of the campaign, Dylan made sure Burt’s brand was highly visible. This branding is critical to quickly build trust with potential contest entrants.
What you should do: Put your logo in the upper left of your campaign.
3. Countdown for urgency: At any point in time a Facebook user could get distracted by a new notification. Dylan was smart to include a countdown in his Facebook Contest to drive the user to take immediate action. This was critical to getting a 64% conversion rate.
What you should do: Put a countdown on your contest that has less than 7 days on it.  If fans see “45 days” left, they’ll leave the contest and may never come back.
4. Easy to follow opt in form: Most folks screw this up. Making sure your email form is highly visible and easy to enter is key. Using Heyo’s Facebook Sweepstakes Template, you can link up the opt in form with ConstantContact, Mailchimp, Aweber, or other email marketing platform to easily manage Facebook Contest opt ins.
What you should do: Set up Aweber if you don’t already have an email marketing tool and then integrate your contest with Aweber to put contest entrants in a drip campaign to build a deep, long lasting relationship!
5. Clear Facebook Contest entry steps: Dylan made it crystal clear how to enter the Burt’s Facebook Contest. He clearly told people that in order to enter they needed to follow steps 1-4 on the left side of the Facebook Contest. These steps are what enable fans to become a marketing force for you so you can get free traffic to your Facebook contest.
What you should do: Make sure you make it simple and clear what people need to do to enter your contest.
6. Smart URL: Heyo automatically created a Smart URL for Dylan so that when Burt’s fans saw his update about the Facebook Contest in their Facebook mobile app, they could easily click and enter.  You’re likely missing out on at least half of your total potential conversions if you don’t launch a mobile version of your campaign.
Bonus tip: By asking fans to “like” “share” and “tweet” you’ll get free traffic to your Facebook Contest from your fans social networks.  Dylan got 4309 views with no advertising spend. Below, you’ll see 5 out of the 100’s of fans that tweeted the contest, driving free exposure and new emails for Burt’s.

If you want to double your email list with a Facebook contest, click here to try Heyo for free.

Conclusion

Leveraging Facebook as a key part of your marketing plan doesn’t have to be a mystery. Following the 6 step system above, you’ll be well positioned to double your email list in a short amount of time without spending money on advertising.

Your Turn: Your Facebook Page

If you found this article valuable, please like, share, and tweet it. Please post a link to your Facebook page in the comments if you’d like contest ideas for your specific page. I’ll reply quickly!

Author Bio:
Nathan Latka is the CEO and Founder of Heyo. He’s worked with over 200,000 small businesses and entrepreneurs on launching social campaigns that capture emails and drive sales. You can find Nathan on Twitter. 
Want to start building your own website or blog?
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Learn how to make your blog a roaring success

My book – “Blogging the Smart Way – How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” – will show you how.

I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.
I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 230,000.
Download and read it now.

2014 Google is rolling out our Panda 4.0 update starting today | It's Take seriously

Last month one of the most notable events in the SEO world was the release of the latest version of the Google Panda update – Panda 4.0. The release was started in 20th May, as Google’s Matt Cutts tweeted:

Looking at the long list with Panda 4.0 losers, makes it hard to believe that websites like eBay.com and Ask.com got hit by the update. Yet, there are dozens of websites that experience strong traffic boost, so this is actually the first Panda update where there are websites that actually get a ranking boost.

Who is on the Panda 4.0 Radar?

After the release of the Panda 4.0 update, I think its time to make a recap on the exact type of websites that got hit and most importantly find out why this happened.

Duplicate Content Caused by Syndication

Since the Panda algorithm is designed to target websites with thin or duplicate content, its not surprising that the new Panda 4.0 took down many websites syndicating content.
Although, content syndication is a great way to publish even more content on your website, its recommended to place cross-domain cannonical tags to the original source of the publication. This can definitely save you the hassle from becoming a victim of Panda 4.0 or other versions of this update. Also its highly recommended to place links to the original publication within the post itself.
Beside the technical setup, its also highly recommended to create a content strategy and start publishing valuable and unique pieces of information on your website yourself. Furthermore, always keep an eye on the ratio between syndicated content and orginal content since this is a red flag for Google.

Low Quality Content

SEO experts never seem to stop talking about low quality content and how important it is to avoid it all costs. However, it seems that only few webmasters actually listen to that advice. When creating really valuable content, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does your articles help your visitors in any way?
• Do they contain extensive information on the subject?
• Does your content inspire your readers to take action?

Every piece of good content should provide positive answer to all questions above. Bare in mind that the main reason why the Google Panda 4.0 has been created is to kick out websites providing poor user experience. Create valuable content not for Google, but for your visitors and you will never fear the Panda again!

Too Many Ads

Believe it or not placing too many ads on your website will not increase your earnings, but instead can cause serious drops in traffic. Websites having too many ads above the fold or in overall are being penalized by the Panda 4.0.  In general you should keep your ads to no more than 2 per page – this is not only good for Google, but also visitors are more likely to become interested in the advertised product and click on the ad.

What to do if hit by Panda 4.0?

If your website matches any of the factors used by the Google Panda algorithm, then you are likely to lose large percentage of your organic traffic. The main thing do is roll-up your sleeves and start digging for low quality/duplicate content. Once you identify the main sources, you can then start creating better or improve the old content to boost its rankings.
Nowadays, SEO is rapidly becoming part of the overall user experience provided on the website, so if you want to recover from the Panda 4.0 update, you need to seriously rethink your content strategy and produce valuable insights for your visitors.

 

Best 5 Steps to Boosting Website Traffic with User Generated Content

The Internet has undeniably become more social, visual and viral. But to date almost all of that evolution has occurred on social networks.
In the age of Big Data and eCommerce, where there is a real, measurable business benefit to “owning” your online audience, brands are re-thinking the marketing tactic of putting their social efforts almost exclusively into social networks that control the data, reach and audience.
Today, brands are attempting to lure customers and potential customers back to their websites with rich social experiences, like the photo- and video-sharing that has made networks like Vine and Instagram so popular.

User generated content influences purchasing

The value of these social experiences is clear. Millennials spend more than five hours per day consuming user-generated content (UGC), according to a study conducted by Ipsos and Crowdtap. The study also showed that user-generated content is 20 percent more influential on Millennial’s purchasing decisions than any other type of media, with an average of 59 percent of Millennials trusting UGC.
Websites that leverage these user-generated photos and videos to attract traffic and retain a loyal audience see a payoff in both eCommerce sales and brand loyalty.

Peer reviews create more trust

User-generated content is rising in popularity even as the effectiveness of traditional forms of online advertising is diminishing. For example, only 19 percent of Millennials trusted online banner ads — 49 percent less than trust peer reviews.
Here are five steps companies can take to incorporate a social element into their websites and harness the power of user-generated content to drive sales:

Step 1. Build excitement about your brand

The first ingredient of a successful social website is a highly motivated audience. Just like Facebook or Instagram only work if people are motivated to snap and share photo or write status updates, a social website only works if the customer base of a brand is willing to participate. Use social media to drive customers to your website. Give them friendly tips on what makes a great selfie submission.

Use email newsletters to advertise your new social capabilities. Build excitement by giving your customers prizes and giveaways as incentives to interact with you online. And consider ways to convince customers to draw their friends into the conversation as well, through campaigns that reward referrals. 

Step 2: Unlock “User Generated Content”

Once you build an engaged audience, you want to turn these website viewers into content producers. Your customers have the photos, videos and reviews that can powerfully influence fellow customers. But getting them to contribute content can be tricky. Start off by offering incentives. They don’t have to be prizes; consider choosing content-contributing consumers to feature in email newsletters or pick the customer with the best photo submission as your new fashion cover model. Incentives that tie into the brand message reinforce the marketing strategy. Pick an incentive that you know will mobilize your customer base and watch the content roll in.
Be sure to use a marketing software platform that has a simple and easy way for customers to authorize the photos submission for other uses. This steers you away from the legal landmines of using social content for other marketing purposes without permission, unlocking the full potential of user-generated photos and video.

Step 3: Ask for submissions by hashtag

Use social media as a content funnel that is activated by hashtag. Ironman used the hashtag #IRONMANTraining to get race participants to share photos of their training swims, runs and rides.

Using a hashtag, brands can pull together content submissions from across multiple social networks, including Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. The hashtag is both a mechanism for content submissions, and a way for brands to expand their social media footprint at the same time.
Some tips to effective hashtag use:

• Promote the campaign hashtag on social, through email blasts and on your website.
• Set a deadline
• Advertise the prize to build momentum.

 Step 4:  Turn customers into models

As the banner ad fades and staged, contrived photography loses its punch, user-generated content is being asked to fill in as a powerful brand image source. Imagine browsing a fashion retailer’s website and instead of seeing a bunch of posed models, coming across real photos of real people wearing a brand’s clothing in real-world situations.
UK and Ireland fashion retailer Wallis gathered customer photos through a “#WallisDressedIt” campaign. The campaign inspired social media users to submit high-quality photos of customers-as-models that were then showcased on the Wallis website.

Brands get value out of this arrangement in two ways. Their website becomes much more authentic and relatable, and brands can save big on the pricetag for photo shoots and video production.
As an added bonus, the consistent use of user-generated content brings brands and consumers closer together in a two-way relationship that makes customers feel like they are a participating part of a brand’s marketing strategy.

Step 5: Re-use customer photos

User-generated content is versatile, and companies should maximize the impact of their customer’s best work by using high-quality photos in as many ways as possible.
Try for a user-generated grand slam by seeing if photos submitted on social can be used on the website, in email newsletters, on marketing collateral and in social advertising.
Some brands are taking the use of UGC one step further by suggesting eCommerce products alongside customer photos, giving website visitors a chance to click through and purchase the items they see their friends, acquaintances or fellow customers wearing.
SoccerPro used photos submitted through their #SoccerPride photo campaign to generate eCommerce suggestions from their online stores. Customers can browse fellow soccer fans photos on SoccerPro.com, and see clickable product suggestions right alongside the user-generated content.

Just like social media unlocked the power of millions of everyday citizens to become published writers photographers and videographers, social capabilities on corporate websites will turn consumers into content marketers. The brands that tap into this powerful user-generated content and leverage it to influence a new generation of savvy consumers will reap the rewards of sales driven by consumer content.
Guest author: Colleen Horan is director of product marketing at Offerpop, a digital marketing software company that helps audiences connect with brands.

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Everything I Needed To Know About Social Media I Learned From Star Trek

I am a Trekkie! Literally watched every single episode of Star Trek in every series, plus the movies as well. From the time that I first heard James T. Kirk utter those famous words I was hooked. After 25 plus years of Star Trek fanaticism I have come to an important conclusion.
If you do nothing else in your life, but base your business decisions on those famous lines, business would be off the charts awesome!

Star Trek mantra

Think about the original mantra from James T. Kirk. While it has been changed often over the years, the message remains the same.

Space, the final frontier. 

These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its continuing 5 year mission is to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilization.

To boldly go where no man has gone before.

Yowzer, that is awesome!

How to be a Social Media Trekkie

Have you ever noticed how most intelligent business owners look at social media as if it were from outer space? Watching them writhe at the edge of their seat in discomfort over words like Facebook and Twitter makes you think there is a Trebble outbreak or they were transported into the vacuum of space.
That does not need to be the case.
Once you are done, you will gladly don the four pips of Picard, Kirk, Janeway, Archer, and Sisko. Note: Four pips is a reference to the captain rank. Oh captain, my captain!

Voyages of discovery start with “action”

First, consider the idea of the voyages of the starship Enterprise. No one ever talks about the lurking Enterprise. In fact, the poorest rated show out of the bunch was Deep Space 9. I guess no one wants to watch a space drama where people do not move around that much.
However, throw Janeway in the Delta quadrant, and you have a runaway winner. Maybe it was the fact that she boldly declared that even though they were 70,000 light years away from home, they would never forget their Federation principles (More on the federation principles later). Then she told Tom Parris Warp 6, let’s go home.
Wow! Your entire life got turned upside down thanks to the Caretaker and your main concern is taking bold action to get your crew safely home.
Taking action, and deciding upon doing something with your business on social media fires your passion. It is this “action” that allows you to boldly go where no man has gone before.
Pioneers in business are so called, because they took action before everyone else.

Missions are your plan of action

Do you think that Captain Kirk or Picard would just aimlessly wander space until they found weird aliens that would always be eliminated in 60 minutes or less? Heck no! Kirk had a 5 year mission to explore strange new worlds. But of course, you must be saying. That is why he had more first contacts than any other star ship commander in history. It was his job. No scratch that! It was his mission in life for 5 years.
Can you imagine a Vulcan like Spock hanging around in the Federation if they did not have a plan of action? Of course not, that would not be logical.
You need to have a little bit of green blood in you, so you can sit down and work out what strategies and tactics will work best for your business.
Research the different social networks. Ask your current clients and prospects what social networks they frequent most. Then determine the best course of action for your business.

Seek out new connections, fans, and followers

If your business only flies on impulse, then you will never meet anyone. You need to go to at least Warp speed in order to reach out to people. Warp technology is the sign that a civilization is ready to connect with other species. Otherwise, the prime directive is to leave a culture alone and allow them to grow at their own pace.
Most cultures in Star Trek have a policy similar to the United Federation of Planet’s Prime Directive. The Prime Directive is the directive that no interaction be made with pre-warp civilizations first. While I want to modify this a bit for our discussion, it plays a very important role here.
Most people are afraid to reach out. They have their own Prime Directive, which keeps them in their comfort zone. That is why it is so important for you to be proactive in reaching out to connections, fans, and followers.
If you do not take the first step, then you should not expect prospects to magically appear at your doorstep. I am come on! This is not Harry Potter or something like that. Ooh! That sounds like a great article for another day.
However, with warp civilizations, you can take the initiative, just like Jonathan Archer did when he helped form the coalition of the United Federation of Planets between Humans, Vulcans, Andorrians, and Tellarites. He took the first step in a move that would align these various groups together into a harmonious whole.

Boldly differentiate yourself from your competitors.

I am pretty sure, Star Trek would never have created a cult audience if they only explored the Wisconsin Dells. No offense to the Dells, but people want to be inspired about the future. To do that you have to boldly go where no man has gone before.
This idea captures your imagination.
Well, then imagine how bored your prospects will be when you rehash the same old ideas in the same way everyone else did. Give it a little bit of pizazz!
This article is a perfect example. If I wrote the 5 steps to improve your social media today you probably never would have opened this article.
Instead, I am telling you how everything I learned about social media came from Star Trek. What other nerd could possibly do that?

Even Captain Kirk had Spock, Dr. McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Chekov and Sulu

Social media is a team sport. If you go into thinking what is in it for me, then you will never be able to create the dynamic, engaging business you need to succeed online.
Social media is about team building. That means your own internal team to help you produce content and engage with fans, followers, and connection, along with partners who can spread your message across the social media universe.
To do this successfully, you must cultivate these relationships like you do with new prospective clients. It also means, you need to spend as much time on social media sharing other people’s information as your own.
While I will admit that it is not always possible, do your best to help others. The more value you bring to the relationship, the more you can get back in return.

Live long and prosper

As with all strategies on the web, when you continually apply yourself to improving not only your situation, but those around you magical things happen. That is why whatever you do, you need to be prepared for the long haul if you want to prosper from social media.
Otherwise, you are like a Harry Kim hopped up on speed hoping and wishing for a worm hole back to the Alpha Quadrant. Generally does not happen! That is, unless you have a time travelling captain with access to a Borg transwarp hub. Alas, we must travel back to reality.
So, create a plan of action that can help you build your presence on social media. Then take action and create the connections you need to find the targeted clients you want for your business. Deliver tons of value, so you can help your prospective clients get a feel for how you can help them.
In the meantime, I have to ask. If you were to characterize your social media, which character would you be? Kirk, Spock, Janeway, Picard, Sisko, Archer, Riker, etc? Let me know in the comment section below.