Sunday 7 December 2014

6 Best Online B2B Lead Generation Techniques

“Lead generation” is one of the most familiar words for the business owners.  If you are a business owner, you always try to find new techniques and strategies to generate quality leads for your business. As whole world is becoming digitalized at rapid pace, online lead generation has become one of the vital mantra for success in any B2B business. Stats also supports this statement - firms generating 60% or more of their leads online are two times more profitable than those generating less than 20% of their leads online.

Image Courtesy: getbrandwise.com


Here in this post, I will cover the six most successful techniques for online lead generation for any B2B business.

Website Design

Today for any business, a permanent web address is must. Designing of the website can influence the visitors to a great extent. Design your website in such a way that, every page (including homepage) must have a call to action button.

Website Optimization

Website optimization for search engine is another method to get noticed by genuine visitors. Do a research for relevant keywords and optimize your website according to them. Set up well optimized Meta title, description, image tags and last but not the least; the website content. Produce some really informative contents in your website which really adds value to your website visitors and increase the audience engagement. A well optimized website will gradually come top in search engine result and thus can acquire some genuine lead for your business.

Giveaways

People always look for some quality contents of his interest. You can adopt an intelligent technique to create the ground of your lead generation. Just create a premium content either video, PPt Presentation or video and give your visitors and option to download free by fill up their name and email address in an online request form. Just collect and keep them- the list may work for lead generation.

Paid ads

Besides search engine optimization, the business owner can also go for paid advertising option which works really well for the startups. The major paid options are search engine ads & social media ads. Among the search engine ads, Google PPC is the most effective one. Research on your business related keywords and set up ads with your Google Adwords account to get quality leads for your business. Among the social media ads, Linkedin and Facebook ads also works well to generate leads for your business.


Email Marketing

Email Marketing is one of the most effective ways to generate leads for business. An effectively written email can attract customers and thus can generate enormous leads for your business. You should keep in mind some factors while writing an email.

  • The email should be short and to the point so that the receiver can see the best part of your email without scrolling down and keep a call-to-action button there.
  • Smart Use of Color
  • Use of contact form in the email.

Social Media

Social media is an effective medium of building brand name for your business. If you are a startup and want to make aware of your business activities, achievements and values of your business to the entire world or your targeted customers, social media is the only platform which helps you to achieve your goal easily and effectively. Posting useful and informative contents in a regular interval will increase the visitor’s engagement with your social profiles & website and there is every possible chance that some of your audience may become your potential customers.

Some of the popular lead generation techniques have been documented here. But implementation strategy should depend on factors like business goal, manpower, budget allocation for marketing, business type etc.

Friday 6 June 2014

SEO in 2014: How to Prepare for Google's 2014 Algorithm Updates

It has been an incredibly eventful year in terms of updates from Google. Major 2013 changes included further releases of Penguin and Panda, Hummingbird taking flight, and the shift away from providing keyword data thanks to encrypted search.
Many have gone so far as to ask whether SEO as a profession is dead: for one interesting perspective, see my recent Forbes interview with Sam Roberts of VUDU Marketing. My own take is less alarmist: Google has taken major spam-fighting steps that have shifted the playing field for SEO professionals and anyone trying to get their site on the map in the year ahead.
At the same time, the need for an online presence has never been stronger, while the landscape has never been more competitive. The potential to make a real ROI impact with your company's online marketing initiative is greater than ever. But defaulting to so-called "gray hat" tactics no longer works. Instead, SEO professionals need to step up and embrace a more robust vision of our area of expertise.
You might call it a move from tactician to strategist: the best and most successful players in our space will work to anticipate Google's next moves and respond to them with laser focus. In a sense, the infinite digital game of chess that is SEO will continue, but the rules of the game have become more complex.
Through a mix of what I'm observing and reading and what I'm seeing working out in the field today for my clients, here are some suggestions for companies and SEO professionals that are thinking ahead to 2014 for their digital strategies.

Everything You Learned in 2013 is Still Relevant, Just Amplified

When you look closely at the targets of the 2013 updates (ie, websites that cheat their way to the top of the rankings or provide no value to visitors), I anticipate seeing these carried forward throughout 2014. We can continue to expect micro adjustments to Panda and Penguin that continue to target both link quality and content quality.
Smart marketers will benefit from keeping a close eye on their link profiles, and performing periodic audits to identify and remove inbound links built unnaturally. High quality content investments will remain critical.
A solid SEO performance in 2014 is going to be built on a foundation of really understanding what happened in 2013, and what these changes mean both strategically and tactically for SEO. SEO really has changed in critical ways.

Content Marketing is Bigger than Ever

Content marketing will move from buzzword to mature marketing movement in 2014. From an SEO perspective, Google will be looking at companies that have robust content marketing efforts as a sign that they're the kind of business Google wants to support.
Think of all the advantages of a good content strategy:
  • Regular, helpful content targeted at your audience.
  • Social signals from regular sharing and engagement.
  • Freshness or signs that your site is alive and growing.
  • Increasing authority connected to your body of work.
Sound familiar? It's the very approach to SEO that all of Google's recent updates have been designed to shape.
What changes you need to make in 2014 depends largely on where your company stands now in relation to an active content marketing strategy. Companies with existing content strategies will need to assess the role of mobile, specifically.
If you've just begun to move in the direction of content marketing, it's time to really commit and diversify. If you haven't started yet, it's time to take the plunge.

Social Media Plays an Increasingly Visible Role

Social media has been a major player in the digital marketing landscape for the last few years. First we saw the rise of mega platforms like Facebook and Twitter. In the last couple of years, visual content from networks like Pinterest, Instagram, and various micro-video services haa swept through.
Today, diversification is a major trend: depending on who you're targeting, it's no longer enough to be active on a single network. In fact, The Content Marketing Institute recently released a study that the most successful B2B marketers are active on an average of seven networks. Companies and SEO professionals will need to be asking the following questions in the year ahead:
  • Are we taking our social media seriously? Are we employing the pillars of strong profiles, good content, reciprocity, and engagement?
  • Is easy social sharing enabled for all of our content?
  • Does our content strategy include a dissemination phase that includes maximizing its potential for distribution through social networks?
  • Are we active on the social networks that matter in our industry?
  • Are we active on the social networks that matter to our customers?
  • Are we active on the social networks that matter to the search engines? (See below for more thoughts on making that strategic investment).
  • Does our social media marketing strategy stimulate the level of social signals required to achieve our goals?
Google's updates are likely to increasingly rely on social signals as active human curation of good content.

Invest in Google+

In addition to strengthening your overall social media marketing position, it's going to be absolutely critical that you are investing in your Google+ presence.
Moz's most recent study of ranking factors confirms that Google+ is playing an increasingly significant role in a solid SEO ranking. The immediate areas to focus on include:
  • Establishing Google Authorship of your content, and tying it to your Google+ account. Authorship, which brings your body of content together, will play an important role in the SERPs as well as strengthening your Author Rank.
  • Those +1's add up. It isn't clear exactly how much Google +1's directly contribute, but it's fair to say that it's a major factor in the "social signals" component of Google's algorithm. I expect this to increase in the year ahead.

Hummingbird Was Just the Tip of the Mobile Iceberg

2014 will be the year of mobile SEO. Hummingbird was just the very small visible tip of a very large iceberg as Google struggles to respond to the rapidly shifting landscape where half of all Americans own smartphones and at least one-third own tablets. Those statistics will probably shift upward, maybe dramatically, after the 2013 holiday season.
As a result, your site's mobile performance matters to your SEO rankings. Properties that you're trying to rank need to be designed first for mobile and then scaled up for the big screen. If you don't have a mobile-optimized website, this needs to be your top priority in terms of SEO and design investments for 2014.
Some underlying changes that happened with Hummingbird, including the increasing importance of both semantic search and Knowledge Graph, will continue to grow in influence. Practically speaking, this is to help prepare the search engine for the rise of voice search associated with mobile. But it also has direct implications (which we're still learning about) for broader SEO. This is one area that you should pay close attention to, from how you structure your content to what content you choose to put out.

The Long Versus Short Debate

Which is better, long content or short content? The answer depends on who is creating the content, who is reading it, what it's about, in what context it's being consumed, and how you define "better."
For the purposes of this argument, which form of content will help you best prepare to rank well in 2014? Frustratingly for some, the answer is more "both/and" than "or."
Vocus recently cited a study that showed that the top 10 results for a specific keyword search tended to be more than 2,000 words in length. The validity of that study has been debated, but it's probably fair to say that length is a proxy for depth of expertise and value delivered to the reader.
Google values both expertise and value. As a result, we've seen a trend where the "minimum desirable length" for text-based content has shifted from something in the range of 550 words to articles in the range of 1000-plus words.
Yet we're also confronted with the reality of the mobile device: if I'm reading about something I'm only moderately interested in, there's a high probability that I won't want to scroll through 2,000 words on my iPhone. That leaves content marketers faced with the challenge of producing mobile-friendly content, which tends to be (in a sweeping generality) much, much shorter.
Proposed solutions have run the gamut from content mixes to site architectures that allow you to point readers to specific versions of content based on their devices. This is great for the user experience, but where it all comes out on the SEO algorithm front remains to be seen. For now, I'll just acknowledge that it's an area of concern that will continue to evolve and that it's something you should keep your eye on.

Advertising and PPC has a Shifted Relationship with SEO

Since Google made the decision to encrypt the vast majority of its searches, our ability to access keyword data for research purposes has been restricted. However, there's a loophole. Keyword data is still available for advertisers using PPC on Google's platform.
More SEO budgets may be driven toward PPC simply because access to the data may otherwise be restricted. It's also possible that we'll see the release of a premium Google product to give us access to that data through another channel from Google in the year ahead.

Guest Blogging Remains One of the Most Effective Tactics, With a Caveat

Guest blogging has exploded in the past year, and it's going to remain one of the most effective means of building quality inbound links, traffic, and branding exposure in 2014. However, it's absolutely critical that you're creating high quality content, and using extremely stringent criteria when selecting your target sites.
In other words, you need to apply the same high ethos approach to guest blogging that you do to the rest of your SEO efforts. If you dip a toe into spammy waters where guest blogging is essentially scattershot article marketing with a 2014 update, you're likely to be penalized in a future Penguin update.

Conclusion

This has been a year of significant change in the SEO industry. Even contemplating strategies for 2014 can feel staggering.
The good news is that looking back, it's easy to see which direction the trends are heading in terms of the years ahead. Staying the course on solid white hat tactics and paying attention to a few priority areas that are shifting rapidly should give you the insights needed to improve your organic search visibility in 2014 and beyond.
What trends do you anticipate seeing from Google in the year ahead? How are you preparing?

Saturday 31 May 2014

Did Google Panda 4.0 Go After Press Release Sites?

Nine days ago when Google released Panda 4.0 – which aims to filter out “thin” content from top rankings – we focused our attention on the big Winners & Losers charts, Since then, some have noted that press releases may have also been hit big time.
Using SearchMetrics, I looked at the top Press Release sites and checked if they lost any SEO visibility on a large scale since Panda 4.0 hit, and PRWeb.com, PR Newswire, BusinessWire and PRLog all seem to have lost significant rankings in Google.
PRNewsWire.com seems to have shown a significant drop in SEO visibility, dropping ~63% after Panda 4.0 was released:
PRWeb.com, another major press release distribution web site, also saw a huge drop, ~71%:
BusinessWire.com saw a ~60% drop after Panda:
PRLog.org saw a big drop in mid 2013 but then another dip right after this past Panda update:
Sean Malseed from SEER Interactive used SEM Rush metrics to document a lot of the same patterns I documented with SearchMetrics data. They also documented specific cases, of specific press releases that recently ranked well and now are no longer on the first page.

Only Losers Really Know If They Lost

As we said in the Winners and Losers report, lists like this aren’t perfect. The sites above may have had gains and drops for other reasons; less visibility this week because last week they were visible for different news stories, for example.
It’s also worth remembering that this is a sample of search terms. The only way to really know if any update has hurt or helped you is to look at your search-driven traffic from Google, rather than particular rankings or lists like this, which have become popular after Google updates. If you’ve seen a significant increase, you’ve probably been rewarded by it. A big decrease? Then you were probably hit.

Monday 26 May 2014

How to Recover a Business From a Google Panda 4.0 Penalty

What is Panda and Panda 4.0?

Panda is a quality algorithm released in 2011 which is designed to reward sites with high quality content, and bring down sites with low quality content. Affected sites with low quality content will receive a noticeable reduction in traffic. Panda 4.0 has been given the “4.0” designation which tells us that it is a more significant update that the most recent Panda updates.

How big is the Panda 4.0 Update?

Matt Cutts just announced the update on Twitter a few hours ago. It will be days or even weeks before we can thoroughly grasp the full affects of the Panda 4.0 update. If you are a business owner and log in to your Google Analytics accounts next week and are seeing a drastic reduction in traffic starting around May 20, 2014 or shortly thereafter then you have been hit with Panda 4.0.

How do you recover from a Panda 4.0 penalty?

Backlinks and onsite/technical SEO aside, ranking in Google search today is not that much different than it was a decade ago, especially for competitive niches. Anyone telling you otherwise is probably not ranking in search themselves. Unique and quality content always wins in the long run. I have personally generated several million dollars in sales via ranking content in search and people that haven’t experienced this have a difficult time comprehending the value of content. Back in the pre-WWW days people visited online services for what they offered or visited online services for a specific reason. These days Google is attempting to weed through mountains of spam, scraper sites and spun articles to deliver relevant search results and quality content to its users via algorithms. Will user input one day affect search? It will have to. But right now consistently generating quality content for your website is what it takes to rank in search and is what it will take to recover from a Panda 4.0 penalty.
Sites hit by Panda 4.0 will have no warning in their Webmaster tools account as this is an algorithm change. Some websites will need to start blogging and adding consistent and quality content to their site. Others will need to completely scrap their site and start a new one- that is harsh news but necessary in many cases as algorithm updates usually affect entire domains.
Recovering from a Panda update is simple. Your new website should be a WordPress site using a responsive theme and you need to be putting out quality content on your blog on a regular basis. Site owners can rest assured their websites are safe and even look forward to future algorithm changes.

How do I create Panda friendly content?

Your content should always be geared towards informing your audience. When I am creating content for my clients I pretend Google doesn’t exist. Every personal injury attorney has a page on car accidents, and every optometrist has a page on eye exams. My slogan is to “take your content one step further”. Traditional SEO companies want to optimize your car accident page and charge you a huge recurring fee. Content writers and real SEOs do not concentrate on one page about car accidents- they elaborate and discuss the value of your left hand, how getting rear ended by a truck is negligence, how a Toyota Prius holds up against a big rig and how long a lawsuit takes to complete. This type of content can be created for anyone including cake designers, plumbers, wardrobe consultants, IT professionals, funeral directors, etc, you name it. Pandas are cute animals that want lots of quality bamboo, just feed the Panda.

Do you need help recovering from Panda 4.0?

My best clients have come to me via word of mouth. Most of them have been burned by an “SEO firm”. Fortunately, I do not have to go around beating on doors and harassing business owners with ridiculous, misleading or deceptive sales pitches and I sleep quite well at night knowing that I’m providing an outstanding return on investment. I owned a brick and mortar business for 12 years which was successful due to its content and I have also experienced the benefits of ranking in search since the days of Excite and AltaVista. I am easily able to assist business owners with their SEO and content creation needs. Some of the best content creators out there are business owners that are experts in their niche, however, for 95% of them they are better off hiring someone that specializes in ranking in search and creating high quality content that is not penalized by Google updates, but is rewarded by them. If you need this type of assistance be sure to visit my page on copywriting and content creation to see how content can help your business.

Friday 23 May 2014

Panda 4.0: Why eBay Just Lost 80% of its Organic Rankings?

Poor eBay – they're having a pretty bad day. Thanks to Google’s roll-out of Panda 4.0 and the Payday Loan 2.0 update, eBay is suffering a massive loss in organic traffic and rankings. Adding insult to injury, they had to ask all users to change their passwords after a database hack.

Matt Cutts kicked off the SEO hysteria yesterday as he often does, with a tweet:


First released in 2011, Panda is a component of the organic search ranking algorithm designed to weed out low-quality sites, or those with "thin content." In its initial release, Panda affected approximately 12% of all search queries – by March 2013, Google had refreshed Panda 25 times, making it a constant source of aggravation in SEO circles.

This update is particularly worrisome for webmasters, given that Google had stopped announcing Panda updates/refreshes. At SMX West in March last year, Cutts said Panda would become a rolling, monthly update. Since he actually announced Panda 4.0, this seems to signal a major change to the algorithm – more than just a data refresh.

Wednesday 21 May 2014

Google Begins Rolling Out Panda 4.0 Now

Google’s Matt Cutts announced on Twitter that they have released version 4.0 of the Google Panda algorithm.
Google’s Panda algorithm is designed to prevent sites with poor quality content from working their way into Google’s top search results.

But didn’t Google stop updating us on Panda refreshes and updates since they are monthly rolling updates? Yes, but this is a bigger update.
Panda 4.0 must be a major update to the actual algorithm versus just a data refresh. Meaning, Google has made changes to how Panda identifies sites and has released a new version of the algorithm today.
Is this the softer and gentler Panda algorithm? From talking to Google, it sounds like this update will be gentler for some sites, and lay the groundwork for future changes in that direction.
Google told us that Panda 4.0 affects different languages to different degrees. In English for example, the impact is ~7.5% of queries that are affected to a degree that a regular user might notice. 

Saturday 23 November 2013

6 Vital Attributes of a Successful Blogger

In recent times blogging has become one of the most popular hobbies and people are enjoying sharing views and experiences through blogs.

But Blogging is not everyone’s cup of tea.

Feeling upset? You do not need to be. Though it’s true that even good command over language is not sufficient to make a good blog post, just keep an eye on some key factors and you will become a successful blogger.

Image Courtesy: allanstanglin.com


Passion

Passion is the thing that makes your work more interesting. A blogger must have passion to write, to create something new, imposing thought, sharing something within community is must. Don’t do something that you have to do; do things which you love to do. 

Keep Focus on the Subject

This is the most important factor to be considered. You should focus on what you want to express through your blog. Try to be more creative while choosing the subject matter of your blog. 

Impose your thought 

Blogging is the means of expressing your thought. Don’t forget it. Try to put your own views and interpretation about the subject. Readers love to read the blogger’s viewpoint.

Regularity

Creating a blog with huge enthusiasm and keeping the tempo intact for a long time are two different things. It is seen that many bloggers start their blog with huge interest and then gradually lose their attention towards the blog and stop updating it. So, consistency is another vital factor for a blogger. The blog must be updated regularly to fulfill the expectations from the readers.

Promoting Skill

A good blogger should have a good marketing skill. A blogger must know how to promote his/her blog using different online marketing mediums. Participating in related community, using different social signals like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and many more can be done for marketing purpose. Knowledge in SEO will be an added advantage for the blogger.

Be cooperative to fellow blogger 

Lending a helpful hand to the fellow bloggers is a great idea. Helping each other will increase the bloggers’ networking area and social recognition. Responding to the readers’ comments is a must for a good blogger as that will increase the trust of the readers upon the blogger.

Image Courtesy: moderncommonplacebook.com

These are some of the factors which a good blogger must maintain. If you have some more points, please add them in comment section.

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