The Importance of Retargeting in 2016
2016 saw the start of mainstream retargeting, with online marketing companies now offering the service for clients. In this article we are going to look at exactly what retargeting is, why you should use it, and how to implement a simple retargeting campaign for your business!
So what is retargeting.
Retargeting simply put is trying to bring back customers and potential clients that have visited your website in the past, but may not have purchased or contacted you. For example if you have an ecommerce store that sells T-shirts and an individual added a t-shirt to the cart but didn’t continue through to checkout for whatever reason, a retargeting campaign would involve placing ads on Facebook and other websites to try and bring that individual back to finish their purchase. This can work with almost any niche or website and converts extremely well! With over 500% ROI in most cases.
Why should you use it?
2 reasons. The first is, if someone has visited your website before they are more likely to buy from you in the future and as a result bringing back these visitors will get you more sales, leads and all of that good stuff. The second reason is that it is a lot cheaper to target only these individuals on Facebook than trying to compete with other advertisers for new business. Both of these points means it is very cheap to bring returning customers back to your site! And hence you should invest heavily in this method as the ROI is crazy high!
How to implement a campaign?
It is relatively easy to implement. You must have a Facebook ads account. The next step is to set up a pixel in the Facebook ads account that tracks anyone that visits your website. Then ad this to your target audience section and then only select this target custom audience when you create an ad.
Even local seo companies are now offering retargeting for local businesses as the return on investment is simply to good not to! Simply test this for your own business and you will see the great profit that can be made from it. Once you are adept to this you can then go on to add this into client promotions!
10 Questions to Ask When Hiring an SEO Consultant
It is extremely important for the modern world business owners to stay ahead of Google algorithm updates. You will have to seek the assistance of a SEO consultant to get your website up in search engine results. Here are 10 questions that you can ask from the SEO consultant to experience the best possible service.
What is your link building strategy
Link building holds a prominent place behind search engine optimization. A good SEO consultant pays attention towards quality over quantity while building links. It is better if you can hire a SEO consultant that promises you to give natural links from quality sources.
How SEO has changed in the recent past – As you already know, Google introduces regular updates to their search engine algorithm. You need to check whether your SEO consultant is aware of these updates or not. For example, Google has given more value to high quality content in their last update.
What is your reporting process
You can measure the effectiveness of your SEO campaign through reporting. Therefore, you will need to inquire about the reporting process of your SEO consultant.
How long will I have to wait
The reliable SEO consultants have the habit of under promising and over delivering. Usually, the SEO consultant will say that you can expect to see results within 6 to 12 months. However, you will be able to see measurable results within a couple of months.
What metric do you focus the most
You might think that ranking is the most important metric in SEO, but it is not. A good SEO consultant will not ignore traffic generation while paying special attention towards rankings.
Can you provide references
The SEO consultant should be in a position to provide references of happy customers so that you can cross check.
Is it possible to show case studies
Case studies will assist you to get a better idea about the type of service you will get. It will also assist you to enhance your knowledge about the organization.
Have you ever worked for a business like mine
If the SEO consultant has worked for a company in your same niche, you can expect effective results. That’s because they have a clear understanding about the niche, geography and customer base.
How much do you charge
It is important to keep in mind that the cheapest SEO consultant is not in a position to deliver the best results to you. On the other hand, you should not overpay for the service you get. It is up to you to compare prices from different consultants and go for the best deal.
What other services do you offer
It is better if you can select a SEO consultant that offers additional services for their clients. They can include services like paid search management, web design, conversion rate optimization, marketing automation and conversion rate optimization. This guest post was provided by the SEO consultants over at Island SEO.
SEO Myths Debunked
The SEO marketing world evolves ever so rapidly as you may have imagined. Having enough knowledge about SEO 5 years ago, for example, is utterly useless now.
We change, our websites users’ change & so does the SEO rules.
We need to accept this fact and testing new techniques and pushing the limits of content marketing and traffic generation (oh and good old fashioned marketing!) in order to grow as an industry.
Thanks to the guys at Ruthless Rankers (they are a SEO consultancy from London) for providing us with these insights and offering the Phire Design crew a fresh outlook on SEO and hopefully put our old beliefs and habits to bed!
Below are some of the misconceptions that you must learn about SEO and stop practicing them.
Misconception 1: Posts Ranks Up With Metatag Descriptions
Many people think that meta descriptions are very important to rank high in SERPs but this not true anymore. To be honest, big search engines like Google or Bing don’t really prefer this trick as they used to. But that doesn’t mean you may overlook to this step. It’s crucial you write good descriptions for meta tags as they get noticed by users while choosing a page to visit or not.
For instance, below as an example of how meta tag will describe your page’s link.
Misconception 2: More Inbound Links Are Better
This trick used to work in old days but today, time has changed to a greater extent in SEO world. There was a time when you may link up pages with low quality links to rank up your website but not anymore. If you do so, you may end up giving your website a spammy appearance.
As an alternative approach, you should try to get those links that are relevant to your industry, services you provide or products you offer on your website. Or you may obtain such links that are relevant to content you’ve published on your website. It’s better to get a link to your product ‘XYZ’ over getting a low quality link laying in sidebar or bottom of any website then even it’s a high ranked website.
Misconception 3: Page Rank Is Very Important
Common thought is to have a high Page Rank that is scaled 1-10 ranking points usually to prove the authority of a website. A higher figure indicates higher status for a particular page.
For many years, this concept ruled SEO industry.
This concept is still imperative to consider for your website. Websites with high PRs beat low PR websites but the thing that matters the most is content and relevancy of a page.
Let’s understand this with an example. You run a website with artificial products so you should get a link from another website that reviews such website then even if it has a low PR position. It’s good to get linked to a relevant website than an irrelevant website with high PR.
Misconception 4: Keyword-Rich Domains are Preferred By Search Engines
A common idea that search engines prefer websites with keywords present in domains. This means a keyword ‘pet shop’ is presented in a domain ‘www.petshop.com’ is more likely to be ranked in search pages as Pet Shop. But the truth is, search engines don’t prefer keyword-rich domains anymore until they’re relevant and valuable to users. So this concept is old school now!
Misconception 5: All Websites Should Be Submitted To Search Engines
In early days of SEO, this was an essential thing that each website had to be manually submitted to the to search engines. But now, time has changed to a greater extent. Today, we don’t need to submit the website manually to get indexed. If a site is linked to any already indexed website it will automatically be found by search engines via crawling.
Misconception 6: SEO Means Playing Tricks
A particular group of SEOs thinks that SEO is a way to fool search engines to get their websites rank, and that’s it. But this is not the case if you want a longer result for your efforts.
Good SEO practice means writing informative content and providing relevant material on your website that is unique and gives value to your user. The content that builds trust and let the user share it with other and drive wild popularity back to your website.
6 Tips to Create a Successful SEO Friendly Website Design
If you want your website to get traffic from the search engines you need to optimize the key elements the web crawlers look and read on your website to determine your rankings!
Big thank you to the team at Horizon Digital Agency, a Leicester SEO Company for providing us these top tips!
How to Create a SEO-Friendly Website
Target keyphrases are the most important part of your website, without them, your SEO campaign will fail. Ensure your target phrases have a decent search volume via the Google Keyword Planner (so you can get traffic!) and they fit your business objectives and goals. It’s no good going after key phrases that get no traffic or are not converting.
You can start by:
• Making a rundown of commonly used phrases to describe your business
• Double checking the search volumes via Google Keyword Planner again
• Grouping relevant key phrases with the corresponding pages in Excel
• Then finally craft your content around the grouped key phrases
Keyword Placement
To effectively incorporate a website into Google you first should let us know what a specific page is about and what sort of information it holds. It’s vital to get watchwords on the right position on the folio, yet don’t try too hard. Following are the best Keyword placement.
• Meta portrayal and site titles
• Site trademarks
• Breadcrumb trails
• Visual cues
• Title tag
• Alt content
• Title trait on connections
• Interior connections
• Footer joins
• URL’s
• Document or envelope names
• H1, H2 and H3 tags
Friendly Navigation Web index
The purpose of having user-friendly search navigation essentially implies making a structure that web indexes can take after. A noteworthy guilty part in web search tools not having the capacity to discover a site is because of the irrelevant pictures rather than the content itself. However, the preference of the page should be on the helpful content. Also to mention that the Cascading Style Sheets 3 can accomplish the same impacts that Photoshop can; that has contributed a considerable measure as far as enhancing the website. Wherever conceivable, attempt to evade the utilization of JavaScript as web indexes reflect that it’s hard to comprehend and might bring about slithering problems for users. Utilizing progressed scripting dialects on a certain site will not be advantageous as well.
SEO Improved Content and URL’s
To have an SEO-improved URL posts on the website implies that the internet searchers can rapidly recognize what the page is about and what information they’re about to get into. It’s additionally a decent strategy to incorporate Keywords in the URL as this enhances Search Engine prominence. Following the examples of improved and unimproved SEO’s:
SEO Unimproved: A case of a not very inviting URL
SEO Improved: A superior, more elucidating URL
It should be obvious; the last alternative has a superior determination of wealthy Keywords that will precisely help the web search tool in their endeavors to list your website. It’s additionally a decent propensity to name your pictures utilizing expressive Keywords. A fitting record name can be the distinction between your pictures showing up in Google images category. Case in point the name “abcde.jpg” won’t be as effective as “Woodproducds.jpg” when somebody is searching for configuring motivation.
Site Images
• Pictures are regularly a neglected constituent of SEO improvement and yet it play pretty much as an imperative part all the while.
• Enhance your pictures on the website to accomplish speedier stacking times and resulting internet searcher prominence.
• Attempt to keep your pictures’ record size as little as could be allowed so versatile guests notwithstanding those with moderate web associations can get the same planned and quick survey.
• An ideal picture size is anywhere in the range of 25-90kb and the best determination is 70dpi.
• You can likewise set the picture size to a component of the relating tag for the picture.
• It is always good to put your pictures on every necessary point in the page. The more applicable the content around your picture, the better traffic you reach on your website.
• Abode your pictures inside an organizer named as “pictures” or something comparable so the last URL of a certain picture would look like this:/pictures/pictures.jpg.
Online Networking
Online networking ought to be a piece of your SEO technique as building connections and interfacing with associations can fabricate your image hugely. It conveys your introduction and manufactures a trusted group and pick up believability. The third party referencing is maybe the most obvious motivation to bounce on board the Social Media fleeting trend: the procedure of guests sharing connections inside of their own system can bring about an extensive number of inbound connections. In a rundown, online networking can furnish an association with a moderate channel that finishes results. You have to at least follow any of the following social networking websites.
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
These are a couple of critical approaches to guarantee your site achieves prominence in the search engines!
How to use Twitter for business
The first element, which makes twitter an essential application to develop your business on the internet is its ability to form and consolidate a network, whether it be locally or in your industry. These tips come fresh from Gold Promotion, a social media marketing agency.
Network and become a leader in your industry
The main advantage of the platform is Twitter allows your customers to focus on one platform but more importantly provides the opportunity to find others. A way as any to come forward and to broaden its scope, especially when a new business / brand arrives on the network, users are eager to convey general information.
Tip: to inform your customers of your presence on Twitter, make sure your twitter URL is linking correctly on your website.
Strengthen your identity and web presence
If Twitter can be a good tool for an advertising campaign, you have to master the identity of your company and be sure to treat your footprint on the network. Properly complete your profile before any kind of action is therefore vital. To do this, go to the settings on your account by clicking on the “Settings” in the horizontal menu at the top.
– At first, go to the “Account” tab and follow the advice below:
– More info url”: enter the web address of your website. This field is almost essential if you want your contacts to move to your official website when viewing your profile.
– “Online bio” This field can be likened to your ID card. Try to be specific and note keywords that best define your business. It is a party that will then be indexed by search engines. Be careful though, because you are limited to 160 characters!
– “Location”: This section can be critical as some users sometimes seek contacts to follow close to home. Complete this field is strategically sound to attract new customers and find a local clientele.
– “Protect my tweets” we recommend that you do not tick this box. As a company, to be known faster members of Twitter, it is better to offer an open profile with free access and not “hide” behind a private profile.
– In a second step click on “Picture” and select a profile picture that best represents your business. Obviously if you have a logo does not hesitate to use it, it will identify you in the first glance.
– Thirdly, go to the “Design” tab. This option allows you to customize your Twitter page. Be sure that the color of your page is commensurate with the code of your site because it’s part of your digital identity. The best solution is to work with your designer to get the best results because you can add more important information (address, contacts etc.).
Interact and communicate in real time with your customers
Beyond the features and benefits that can make a company blog or Facebook profile, Twitter places considerable emphasis on real-time information and immediacy, with the aim to promote interaction with your contacts. In reality it is a great way to establish a dialogue with a customer.
On Twitter you will be able to launch a survey in minutes to test a concept, product or measure and assess the level of customer satisfaction about one of your products by collecting feedback. You can also respond to messages from your followers, eventually solving their problems in private and why not start from time to time exclusive offers.
Failure to respond to user feedback and strengthens your brand. Share and relay links, articles, ideas will satisfy your contacts as they will have the opportunity to communicate directly with you.
In all cases, we recommend you to post messages regularly. Striking the right balance is important because post little or too much can hurt your image. But in any case, remember that an active profile, and attractive living is the number one key!
Recruit followers and generate leads
According to a study released by Twitter in 2013, 72% of members of the platform are more likely to buy products / services business after subscribing to their Twitter account, or having communicated with them on the social network.
73% of participants in this survey, the main factor Twitter account subscription to a brand is the opportunity to receive updates on new products and it offers. Justunfollow is a great tool to generate your following.
Good luck!
The Top 10 Logo Redesigns
I seen this on Twitter and I just had to share! Following from Google changing their logo the team at Bulldog Graphic Design have greated a gorgeous infographic showcasing the most iconic top 10 logo redesigns! It gets a big Phire Design thumbs up from me!
Bing begins roll out of HTML5-enhanced search interface
Internet search engine Bing has released the HTML5-and-CSS3-improved search interface. It was created as a way to showcase the ability of Internet Explorer 9 and it’s prepared for download for everyone who needs it.
The newest interface has lots of brand new attributes; the most newsworthy is the simple page transition (disappearing in and outside) and the all-new navigation tabs for maps, pictures, videos, as well as other types of content. All these now float on top of the internet search engine. WinRumors can also be reporting that a fresh attribute, which resembles Google Immediate search, was made and will be added to Bing.
Or all you have to do is wait several days until the MIX 2011, Microsoft’s Web developer summit, is held. It’s going to be on that occasion that’s where the Bing UI that is new is formally established.
Qualcomm launches Vellamo browser benchmark for Android devices
Qualcomm is not just a neophyte in regards to sizing and rating smartphones — it is already accountable for the images benchmark, which is Neocore. Now, it also wants to show you why your smartphone browser is lagging. The company has recently introduced Vellamo, a mew package of 11 test units that were built to check browser functionality on tablet computers and Android phones.
The new product also works with any device running on Android 20 or above. Even if the unit does not have a Qualcomm-made chip, the product will still work. These tests cover around 4 broad categories; rendering, JavaScript, user experience, and networking. Actually, the unit just needs two for an internet connection (even then, you’ll be able to cherry pick special evaluations to run). We took it for a spin on our old and Froyo-installed Motorola Droid; the unit scored around 237 and it has landed in the very bottom of the record of results. No surprise, that’s far behind tablet computers and newer handsets. If you’re curious where your device will rank, then get the program today by clicking the APK link.
Windows 8 getting a built-in PDF reader, Metro-style
For what may seem to be an eternity, Download Squad readers have responded targeting Adobe Reader using a thought that was common: why does not Microsoft construct its own protected PDF reader? Seemingly the Windows 8 team consents, and they are working away at a program called Modern Reader that is just that.
In the handful of screenshots Paul Thurrott has shared, it is clear that Modern Reader was constructed at heart with Metro. We have posted some bigger pictures we were able following the break from Google’s cache.
Thurrott also says that Modern Reader is a packaging technology that could enable programmers to roll one construct to both Windows 8 desktop computers — the primary software seen which is constructed using AppX and Windows Phone 8 cellular apparatus.
Konstruct for iOS creates generative augmented reality art with your voice
For those who really have an artistic nature, but you were not blessed with stabl
e hands or an eye for colour, Konstruct might be the program for you. Does the program that is iPhone allow you to create generative artwork using warbles words and whistles, but nonetheless, in addition, it uses augmented reality to bring your artistic creation.
To begin, you must print the Konstruct mark out and put it wherever you’d like to generate your AR sculpture — on the ground of your own bathroom, it does not matter, or it may be in your family room wall. Open the program, point your iPhone in the marker, and begin making some sounds! After you are done, you wipe the slate clean and start again, or just can keep your creation.
However, Konstruct is a model!
The volume of your voice changes the size of the contours which can be drawn on the display, and also you will move your face about to transform the trail of your ‘brush’ — but to shift the design of your brush or modify the colour palette you must make use of a menu. Without knowledge of the program’s internal workings, it is tough to state exactly what the specific difference between whistling, speaking and singing is — and judging from the programmer’s kinship for whistling in the demo video (after the rest), the program likely does not perform that much investigation on your input signal.
