With the war between the world’s major social networks raging on, there’s much debate amongst SEO agencies as to which site will eventually outperform its rivals to become the most popular (and most lucrative) network available, from both an individual user and business perspective. Unfortunately for early entrepreneurs Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, the original founders of Myspace, it’s often a case of ‘out with the old and in with the new’ within this particular web arena – but does the introduction of giant Google Plus and the continued development of Facebook really signal the end for the service?
According to the most recent social media report by comScore, Myspace is still generating a hefty amount of traffic on a daily basis, despite fierce competition and a dwindling reputation. Naturally, Facebook and Twitter top the list of the world’s most visited social sites, but the statistics (which document the number of unique visitors from the US the site receives) indicate that users are actually flocking to MySpace ahead of Google’s much-talked-about Plus platform.
It seems that, despite consistently being described as ‘outdated’, Myspace continues to entice back those who have enjoyed the site since it was launched way back in 2003. And who can forget Myspace’s golden days? Often considered the pioneering social network of the early noughties, this platform was once renowned for its innovative features and was even recorded as the most visited website in the US in summer 2006. It was attractive, it was fun, and above all, it was simple and accessible.
But there are a number of reasons why Myspace has experienced a steep decline in popularity of late. Many people have criticised the network for not expanding to keep up with the demand of users. Although it’s introduced a huge number of layout changes to try and chase its competitors, this has had a huge impact on the load time of its pages, many of which are easily customisable and fairly image heavy anyway. Myspace has always been heavily reliant on ad banners and as a result tends to look a lot more cluttered than Facebook – a major turnoff for those seeking a user-friendly experience!
Secondly, Myspace is lacking a broad strategy. While many users consider it an important hub of activity for the music and entertainment industry, it’s failed to continue to appeal to people outside of this niche for a long time. Simply taking a look at the newly revamped homepage says it all – users are bombarded with banners from up and coming artists and are encouraged to head over to ‘Music News’ and ‘My Music’ straightaway. It’s a great deal for the performers, who get to advertise their tours and releases free of charge, but those who once used the site for communicating with friends and family may be overwhelmed by its current direction.
Then there’s its alleged lack of commitment to web protection. The site suffered a bad rap a number of years ago for failing to produce a decent spam filter, leaving many concerned that kids were able to stumble across adult content at the click of a button. While this is nothing new for social media sites (Facebook and Twitter have all experienced bad press as a result of ropey privacy procedures and security issues), Myspace has always been designed to appeal to teens and young adults, and it’s this demographic that are considered most vulnerable.
While there’s a lot of condemning evidence of Myspace’s shortcomings here and many will still question the relevancy of the site, we’re never quick to judge a platform as a waste of time for businesses looking to advertise on the web. While your company may be eager to join the millions of firms who flock to Facebook and Twitter to sell their wares on a daily basis, ultimately your social media strategy needs to be based on your individual needs, and for many, Myspace still remains an indispensable tool that continues to attract an active audience. The site may never stage a proper comeback, but on the flip side, there’s no reason why it should be considered dead in the water if it’s working for you.
Remember, if you’d like to learn more about the potential of Myspace and social media as a whole, SEO Positive is now offering comprehensive social media management and monitoring services. Feel free to get in touch if you believe a social strategy could boost your business’ online profile.
A Roundup of Great Google Resources
Google provides an abundance of products and services that simplify owning or managing a website. In addition, they have also made available several resources for learning how to use their products to the maximum potential. I’m going to break down my favorites and why.
“Google’s mission: Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
Google Analytics
There are two great resources for learning to become a Google Analytics power user, Google’s IQ Lessons and Google Analytics YouTube Channel.
Google’s IQ Lessons provide short, easy to follow videos using screen shots of the Google Analytics dashboard. It’s a comprehensive look at Analytics beginning with an introduction and moving on to more detailed features like creating admins, interpreting reports, and concluding with in-depth videos for more advanced features like advanced segments and event tracking. If you watch this complete series of training videos, you will be well on your way to being an advanced Google Analytics user.
Google Analytics YouTube Channel hosts a variety of videos ranging from 30 seconds to an hour long, including Q & A’s hosted by famed analytics guru Avinash Kaushik and Nick Mihailovski, a series of videos called ‘Analytics for Agencies’, new features and more. This is a great resource for both beginners to Google Analytics and experts.
Google Webmaster Tools
If video tutorials are how you like to learn, then you can learn all about Google Webmaster Tools here. The entire video is about 20 minutes long and it covers the basics like submitting your site, title tags and meta descriptions and also provides other resources for webmasters, this is a great place to find additional helpful Google forums, articles and more.
Google Webmaster Tools are useful for finding any errors in your website, seeing which search queries are showing your web page as results and more. Google’s Quick Start Guide breaks down what you will see when you log in to your Webmaster Tools account and offer a brief explanation and then a “Learn More” link taking you to an in-depth explanation of the chosen topic. I like how they have set this up because it is a nice refresher for those who have used Google Webmaster Tools before and it is also great for the complete beginner because you can run through the Quick Start Guide, and then go back to the beginning and go through each of the Learn More sections and gain a solid foundation in how to use Google Webmaster Tools more effectively.
Other Google Resources
Matt Cutts walks through some of the “hidden gems” of Google resources in this two minute video. He talks about where to find “Tech Talk” videos, all of Google’s Tech Talks from Google IO that have been digitized and uploaded, and “Reporter Center” which features short videos by reporters with tips on interviewing and tips on reporting of any kind.
For some insider info, subscribe to Google’s own anti-spam software engineer Matt Cutts’ blog. He maintains a blog rich with information and has also made countless helpful videos on YouTube.
Rebecca Derdoski is a search engine marketer for Internet Exposure, a Minneapolis SEO agency specializing in web development, web design and digital marketing.
Yahoo and Bing have created a search alliance together. This new found partnership enables web masters to manage their PPC campaigns on both search engines, but only from one site. This means that running a campaign on both websites is more convenient than ever.
Step Up
Google is the search giant; there is no dispute about that. However, we all know that Yahoo have been slowly declining and have been in need of a comeback. This alliance could be exactly what Yahoo needs to begin to bring back higher user activity on their site. Especially since Yahoo site explorer went down, which was a tool that displayed incoming links, this tool was heavily used by SEO ‘s around the world. Now the alliance has been formed, this could be Yahoo’s big break.
What The Bing?
The question must be raised, what is in it for Bing? Well the most obvious reason would be a higher volume of search. Although Yahoo is on a downhill slope right now so the search volume required would not be that great. I think there are other reasons for this Alliance. Possibly Yahoo’s tech heads are better with PPC or may have a more technical algorithm than Bing.
Taking On The G!
Since Google is the king of search, I believe this is an attempt for the two engines (Y! + Bing) to team up and group together their current volumes of traffic and make an attempt to beat Google, this will be tough to accomplish straight away, any search engine to take on Google will not receive an instant win. So unless an awesome advance in the industry is made by Yahoo and Bing, then it will be difficult for them to overcome Google and become the top source of information on the web.
Conclusion
It is unlikely that we will be informed the true reason for this alliance. It is most likely an attempt to combat Google but the reason why they are teaming up is much more than we know. Yahoo are most likely part of this to bring themselves back from their decline. However the reasons for Bing to be a part of this alliance are unclear.
Google Plus may be the new kid on the block, but it has everything other social networks have and maybe even more. Google have had their social network not only available to the public for a while, but now also a mobile app.
Potentially copy catting Facebook and Twitter, but the famous saying of Apple is that they have an app for that. Google cannot be blamed for jumping on the mobile band wagon, every social network should be available on a mobile device and now they are.
Features
Google Plus has five main sections to the platform (not including games). These areas are the stream, messenger, photos, profile and circles. All of these factors are available on both the web on a desktop computer, and the mobile app. Notifications are also displayed at the bottom of the screen which is great when you would like to be instantly notified.
Downside
One downside about + for mobile devices is that hangouts is not really available as there would be some compatibility issues which would just cause a bad user experience. For example, the iPhone 3GS would not be able to hangout via video because it only has a back camera available so the face would not be able to be seen so it would be pointless.
Conclusion
All features that are available on the web are also available on the Google Plus app, which makes this app an ideal tool for social media marketing which goes great with SEO campaigns and other various internet marketing activities.
A Brief Overview of YouTube:
YouTube is one of the biggest social networks online today; in fact it is the second largest search engine in the world. Although it seems like a video sharing platform it has a huge social aspect which can be overlooked. Primarily YouTube’s success for your business stems from the ability to share your video content with your target audience which in turn will bring in a huge amount of views of your content and awareness of your brand.
What To Expect From YouTube Optimisation
The quality of your video content will have a great impact the numbers of people who wish to view your video. For example, if your video was about a contest your company is running, then buzz about that contest would be generated which could turn into potential sales as curiosity would be created about the business and product.
However, if you were to create an instructional video, possibly a tutorial of SEO, one which your customers have asked about in the past, then this will help customers to feel more tended too and generate positive feedback.
Promotional videos are a hit and miss. Depending on how interesting the video is, it could go viral or just be forgotten about. If the video does go viral, them sales will not be generated instantly, they will become more of a brand awareness exercise leading to potential sales.
How We Measure Success
YouTube has its own insights available for each video which will show exactly where the videos views are coming from, this is helpful to find out what sources are the most beneficial. Regular checks of the video’s positions will be recorded for the keywords and phrases that are being targeted plus the amount of views.
Key Factors Of YouTube Optimisation
Optimising a YouTube video is very similar to a website. Title, description and tags must be filled out precisely to generate the best outcome. Views, likes and comments are also important for the videos success but these factors are down to the quality of your original Video content. Therefore it is vital to create the best video content within your budget as this will ultimately decide the success of the campaign.
Exposure Of Your Video Content
We would recommend using the share option on YouTube as this is simple way to add your video with other social network sites. This is a great way to generate further exposure for your video content. Suggested sites would include Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other social bookmarking sites.
One of the important things to do is to embed this video content on your own website. This will help traffic flow from YouTube to your site and vice versa. This approach will also benefit your videos performance directly and increase the number of views
Once your video channel is in place further advanced activities for your business would be the interaction with the YouTube community. For example, by adding Video Responses to popular videos that are relevant to your content will generate further views of your own video content.
For the first 200,000 UK Facebook users – 5 simple steps
Hi and welcome to my Blog at SEO Positive, each week I will be providing you with my digital marketing Top Tips on how your online business can stay ahead of your competitors! We manage online marketing campaigns (SEO, PPC, Social Media and Website Design) for some of the biggest clients on the internet providing them with a healthy ROI (Return on Investment) here’s a few of them: promocodes.co.uk, luggagesuperstore.co.uk, voijeans.co.uk, partybritain.co.uk and spabreak.co.uk for more examples please see our case studies.
So you’re a Facebook user and would like to know how to get 50 FREE Business cards that costs you absolutely nothing that’s right not a penny just 5 minutes of your time!
Follow these 5 simple steps and receive 50 FREE Facebook Business Cards:
1. Log into your account.
2. You will need to be using the new Timeline profile for this to work, if not you will have to convert it.
3. Go onto your contact info in the about section in your Timeline profile.
4. Click on the Business Card logo.
5. Allow MOO Business Cards access to your information and then follow the simple steps.
Facebook has launched this to coincide with the new Timeline profile, allowing everyone to integrate more with each other’s details. So if you are considering starting up a business or already have a business and would like to take advantage of 50 Free Business Cards then why not it’s FREE!
And yes I can confirm it’s 100% free as I received mine today!
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If 2011 was the year of quality website content, thanks to the upheaval caused by Google’s Panda update, 2012 is not going to be any different. However, this year, seo trends will branch out into three more avenues, if not more.
In essence, seo in 2012 is going be more personified. This means that seo will depend more significantly on social signals derived from social media. While this is not something out of the blue, it is just that this time social media strategy is going to be an extension to all SEO strategies. So, till now if seo could do without social signals, it won’t, from now on. This appendage to seo has largely been facilitated by Google giving more leverage to social signals when it comes to rankings. In fact, after Google+ was rolled out last year, it indicated Google’s growing inclination towards adapting the social aspect into its algorithm. Google+ roughly translates into what people will find more relevant to them. And at the end of the day, the search engine giant will look to these very social stimulants, to determine what people find relevant to them and churn out personalised search results. This is not some farfetched idea, nor is it looking doom seo in any way. By lodging cookies or acknowledging logged in users, users will see search results more relative to their online behaviour. Add to this the element of ‘share’ and social signals may just rule the day for seo. This in no way indicates the death of seo. If anything, it is an opportunity to expand its scope into impacting a user’s social sensibilities which will in turn reflect strong social signals for improved ranking.
A second trend to play a more serious role in search rankings will be mobile search. Blame it on mitosis qualities of android and iOS smartphones, internet enabled communication devices are beginning to take the centre stage as far as search engine use is concerned. Almost 90 per cent of the smartphone users have internet enabled on their devices and more than 70 per cent are likely to search for a query using their smartphones and tablet PCs, while 53 per cent are likely to opt for online retailing. While search results generated on a mobile device are not much different from those on a regular computer, a website that works well across different mobile phones, loads easily, is properly coded and renders well on the platform is the one which is given preference over others. This calls on seo strategies to diversify into mobile search more strongly than ever.
Lastly, quality content will continue to hold fort. If you were required to regularly put up quality content, now you can expect to be penalised for not doing so.
Convonix is India’s leading internet marketing firm and offers SEO & social media marketing to over 400 clients. Based in Mumbai, its thorough research & expertise enables it to establish a perfect synergy between SEO analysis & social media strategy.
Everyone needs SEO
In a world where we are bombarded with more and more choice, how do you get your message heard above the din of clamoring advertising on the television with annoying theme tunes like, “we buy any car” or who can forget “its’ fun to shop at confused.com”. Well the simple answer is online marketing. From a business point of view Search Engine Optimisation or SEO has to be the answer.
SEO is one route to market that has no boarders or class distinctions, it offers a democratic approach to any size business weather you’ve a small start-up or a multimillion pound corporate giant. The only pre-requisite is good quality compliant practices from your marketing agency. So as a business what should you be looking for when trying to find an agency to work on your behalf?
Quality Agencies
It can be a mine field out there when picking an agency so what are the elements that indicate a Quality agency that offers the best chance of success for your business? The first place to start is in the Google listings themselves, if an agency is worth their salt in the SEO marketing sphere they should rank highly in the natural listings of Google specifically. Being No.1 in Bing or Yahoo has very little real Kudos, as whilst this is impressive to a new comer; in reality this is quite an easy win compared to Google.co.uk. Currently Google accounts for around 86% of all searches on the internet in the United Kingdom and therefore represents the best chance of success from any single search engine.
So what are the key indicators to look for when choosing an agency to trust your business to? Once you have established a short list of agencies highly ranking in Google’s natural listings, it is worth spending some time reviewing their web offerings. Look for good clear language (beware of agencies that use highly technical language to baffle you with) and website that have clear service offerings. If these elements start to make sense to you then review their client list (Testimonials & Case studies). See what they actually do for these clients and measure the success they bring them. Remember anybody can add a logo to their website just because they printed a batch of business cards for the prestigious client.
Agency Short List
Once you’ve establish two or three agencies you like the look of, give them a call and ask some practical questions to test their level of expertise. You can use a number of online forums to establish the top line questions you wish to ask, as new comers to Internet marketing don’t be surprised at the apparent costs of this service. Remember the professionals working on your campaign come from a development background and are highly qualified individuals who have an immense knowledge of Google’s algorithm and how it performs.
Not many people actually like the new feature known as Facebook timeline. A lot of users see this as a step back in social media and Facebook as a whole. If anything it shows off a profiles past which, 9 times out of ten people don’t like.
Because so many users have taken a disliking to it, this has created a lot of scam apps and so on. It’s also given me a great linkbait title. We can take from this and pretty much every change in social media history that whenever there is a change, there are users who are dissatisfied and marketers/scammers will take this opportunity and use it for their own benefit.
Who is to blame?
It’s easy to point the finger, but when you actually think about it, who can really be blamed? Let’s take Facebook and their Timeline as an example. Facebook are doing their best to stay ahead of the social networking game, which is basically Twitter and Google +. They are trying to show their users that they have a tonne of features and can be perceived as the best network around.
Scammers are using an opportunity. If anything they are being very clever about their actions. Ok, they are exploiting people’s dissatisfaction, but they are using an opportunity created by Facebook. Agreed that this is unethical and can piss a lot of people off, but ask yourself this, would you do it if you had thought of it first?
Conclusion
There have always been these sorts of scams on social networks, but also with PPC and SEO campaigns. There is nothing new here. What is new is the features that are being exploited. We as users need to accept that social networks are going to keep changing, that is simply a part of life and we must learn to change with it or fall behind.
Press releases are often considered the secret weapon of SEO companies. While there are many things businesses can do to raise the profile of their website (marketers can, for example, set up a regularly-updated blog to encourage interest in the site and add a unique sense of interactivity to the platform), press releases remain a sure-fire way of increasing the exposure of your firm and cementing its reputation within your business sector.
However, it’s important that marketing directors assess the impact and implications of purchasing the service and pick a package that suits their exact requirements. Many companies may choose to write these articles themselves, but here at SEO Positive we believe that employing professional writers to create your releases remains the most economical way to utilise this advertising approach, as you may find that your own marketing team may struggle to find the time and resources to distribute press releases regularly. Producing press releases for the online arena is different to writing for traditional outlets such as newspapers and magazines, after all.
Below we’ve listed the pros and cons associated with press release writing and distribution. These points will help you decide whether this service will suit the vision (and budget!) of your business.
Pros:
- Writing and distributing press releases boosts link juice and is notoriously good for SEO because many PR sites are authoritative and have a high PageRank. Remember that making use of anchor text links in the articles is especially beneficial for your campaign.
- Press articles can be distributed at the click of a button to relevant industry sectors, encouraging quality traffic to your website. Although many consider the typical press release format to be a more traditional form of marketing, this template remains an age-old favourite with the media, which means that editors are more likely to take a look at what you have to offer as all the information they need is easily identifiable and in one place.
- If written well, press releases can help with the corporate branding of your company. These kinds of articles add credibility to your firm and signal to your competitors that you’re a force to be reckoned with in your industry.
- These kinds of articles can support your online reputation management strategy, too. Well-distributed press releases will often appear high in the search engine results, pushing down unflattering entries and making your company appear in complete control of its image.
Cons:
- Competition for distribution is high and there is no guarantee that your article will be successful.
- Finding newsworthy topics can be difficult. Standard, run-of-the-mill press releases are unlikely to be picked up by online editors and journalists. However, if companies choose to partner with professional press release writers, they are able to leave this side of the process to creative individuals who will be able to provide a fresh take on the news story.
- Press releases will only remain in prominent positions on associated PR sites for a short amount of time. This means that if the approach is going to remain worthwhile for your business, you need to be writing regularly.
Put simply, writing and publishing press releases will dramatically improve the image and standing of your company on the web, but you will need to review whether press releases are as valuable as other marketing channels. Investing in an on-going service can be daunting for small to medium sized firms who are used to running similar projects in-house but with the knowledge and support of the right provider, you can save your team time and money by choosing to outsource the work to the professionals.
Our expert copywriting team at SEO Positive are able to tailor their press release packages to your needs, so we recommend you get in touch today to learn a little more about what we can do for you.
