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Marketing Wave Volume 1 / Issue 1
In this Issue Why Do You Need a Business Website? Google Panda 4.0 SEO: Website vs Mobile
COVER STORY: SEO: Website vs Mobile - is there a difference? www.4IMI.com
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As a global leader in Digital and Traditional Marketing, Internet Marketing Images deploys a full compliment of custom services designed to accommodate all business types and strategies. We create, design, and implement custom marketing strategies for our customers. To see how our strategies and services have helped other companies grow their businesses and how we can give you the same personal and honest service, visit us at www.4imi.com
Your Digital Image is Our Business! www.4IMI.com
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Contents:
Letter from Vice President:
Why You Need a New Website
It’s the dawn of a new day at Internet Marketing Images, with the launch of the Marketing Wave. We are proud to begin bringing you a new magazine built on delivering quality information and ideas to grow your business. I am very honored to be part of a great team and look forward to this endeavor. We promise to Google Panda 4.0 find the most current information and deliver it with integrity and accuracy. We will look for new and unique ideas to reach your customers. We understand marketing is the blood that flows through the veins of your company and supports many facets of SEO: Website vs your business. From here the sky is the limit. Mobile
Cheers, Joe Chandler, VP, Internet Marketing Images
Internet Marketing Images 2150 S. Central Expressway, Suite 200 McKinney, TX 75070 Phone: (214)504-1919 Email: Social@4imi.com Website: www.4imi.com www.4IMI.com
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Website 101 (Why you need a Website) Why Do You Need A Business Website? Business has undergone a huge shift and there is no lingering indecision that a website is an essential need. Websites are the new business cards. The Yellow Pages are a thing of the past, along with many pre-internet methods of finding businesses. Potential Customers use the internet to find what they need. Search engines are the “Yellow Pages” of today! Additionally, an
With these five reasons, there are many more, why would you not want a website? One.
Building a Website is Too Expensive – Surprisingly, a gorgeous, fast, and easy to use website is very cost affordable and even easy to use on the backend. A couple of thousand and a custom website is yours.
Many small business owners are still not adopting modern technology and marketing approaches. Although just over one in two SMB owners (51%) use technology to help with accounting operations, this dwarfs technology utilization for appointment booking and scheduling (39%), customer relationship management (34%), point-of-sale systems (25%), and acquisition marketing (14%). Additionally, more than half of SMB owners do not have a website (52%) or even measure the results of their marketing programs (56%). Forbes ever increasing number of these customers are making buying decision via their mobile or smart phones, bypassing the brick and mortar stores altogether. Reasons Why: One. First Impression – for most potential customers, your website is the first impression of your business they will receive. The lack of one already puts you behind in the race.
Two.
I will not be able to update my website – The new content management systems is very intuitive and easy to use. If you know Microsoft Word, then you are already ahead.
Three.
I Only need a One Page Website - Not it you want to be found. Google is all about fresh, new content. A static one page website will not gain much traction in todays search world.
Four.
Once I build the website I am done – What if the Yellow Pages of old were not in alphabetical order, would you have been found? No, the next step is to optimize your site for the search engines.
Two.
Doing Something – Your website must Do Something to contribute to the bottom-line. Even if it is just to collect names and email addresses of leads.
Three.
Provide Information – to provide information about “Build it and they will come!” your business, the who, what, and how your That worked in the movies but not in the new age of the product or services benefits them individually. internet. Once you build your site you must be found. Competition – Your competition has one and now In society today and the speed of business, your website is the is a step ahead. You need to get back in the ball first point of contact for you business for the majority of game. potential customers. Not only must you have a website but it Levels the Playing Field – puts your business on must be asthecially pleasing. level with large businesses in your field.
Four.
Five.
So what are you waiting for?
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Ingredients for a Custom Marketing Blend: 3 scoops Website Design 8 T Search Engine Optimization 4 t Social Media 2 t Branding 2 t PPC Advertising Sprinkled with New and Unique Ideas Inaugural Issue / Page 5
Google Panda 4.0 What Can You Expect?
What is Google Panda? The easiest answer is what it is not. It is not a warm fuzzy black and white bear that hangs out in treetops. It does not have a nice little sign outside its zoo environment that reads “Don’t feed the Animals!” It will however bite you if you do not learn and follow the rules it has laid forth in Googles convoluted secret algorithm that only a few select individuals are privy to. What we do know! The Facts
Google Panda is a change to Google’s search results ranking algorithm that was originally released in February, 2011.
Updates for Panda were originally implemented every month.
Major updates are in versions and this is version 4.0
There is a purpose and method to the Google madness. Panda is designed to target the lower quality sites. The sites containing thin content will have their ranks lowered in exchange for higher-quality sites, who will be near the top of the search results. Original, fresh, and frequently updated content are rewarded versus copied material. Therefore, original authorship is a must. Not only does content have to be original and unique, it must be of high quality. No more keyword stuffing. Google Panda affects the ranking of an entire site or a specific section rather than just the individual pages on a site. What is the effect of Google Panda on businesses? Lowering the rankings of copied, plagiarized, and low-quality websites, Google’s Panda is aiding the websites that have proved to be authoritative high-quality, useful resource to consumers. Websites whose content is original and regular, more visitors will be driven to the website via organic search results. Large sites such as eBay and ask.com have seen a vast decrease in site traffic after the update. Surprisingly, press releases and press release websites are taking a huge hit. PRNewsWire.com seems to have shown a significant drop in SEO visibility, dropping around 63% after the Panda 4.0 release. The Good News: Google is focused on spam prevention and black hat punishment. Thus, White Hat tactics will allow businesses to climb the internet search engine ranking ladder. What you need to do:
Make sure no content is copied from other sources
Make sure content is not duplicated within your site.
Check the quality of your content
Verify content on all pages.
Remember, it only takes a few pages that violate the Panda rules to hurt website traffic and rankings. At worst, pages may be removed or blocked from being indexed by Google.
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Stop Sending “Email Blasts” Hitting everyone on your list with the same, blanket email won’t cut it in 2014. Instead, segment your list according to behaviors/preferences and send personalized emails.
Let Inbound Spread Throughout Your Company Attracting customers through creating content and adding value isn’t only for marketers. Let this be the year you spread the inbound love to other departments (like sales).
Stop Running Campaigns
The traditional marketing campaign -- with its established start and stop dates -- is on its way out. The new model? Real-time marketing based on the consumer’s schedule, not yours!
Invest in Content to Improve SEO
Google can now recognize full-question searches (instead of just specific keywords). To take advantage, answer the questions your customers are asking with compelling content.
Boost Your SEO with Social
Social signals and recommendations are now among the most important ranking factors in Google results. So, to give your SEO a boost, focus on getting those “+1s” and “likes.”
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Be a Good (Social) Listener
“Social listening” means more than simply trolling networks for keywords and trigger events. The best listeners develop lists of prospects and engage with them human-to-human.
Close the Loop
Being able to track visitors to leads to customers is a magic bullet for inbound marketers. Armed with this closed-loop reporting, you can truly see what’s working and what isn’t.
Encourage Audience Participation
While audiences were once passive listeners, they now regularly create and share media via social. The next step? Encouraging audiences to help with product planning and creation.
Be a Holistic Marketer
Consumers have all the power, and they research and buy across many platforms and screens. Instead of focusing on a specific channel, focus on delivering a holistic experience.
Have Doubts, Question Everything!!!
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Inaugural Issue / Page 8
SEO Website vs Mobile Both Website and Mobile SEO are basically focused on user interface, functionality, and content. With the onset of new and improved algorithms, the need for a more concise and strategic SEO strategy has arisen. SEO is not about machines, it’s about people. Search engines want to deliver the site that is the most relevant and best-equipped to answer the mobile searcher’s query. Search engine spiders – the robots that patrol the Web indexing sites and content – are designed to emulate human visitors. The secret to good SEO, in many cases, is to making sure your site serves the mobile user/searcher better. The good news: if your website SEO is already in good shape, then you’re ahead of the game. There are a few differences that must be taken into consideration and implemented if needed.
How Google Ranks Pages Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines construct an index of the web by crawling website pages. They check each page for signals that define the context of the page — so they can better match it to different search queries. Typical signals include: 1. What are the keywords on this page? 2. Do other pages on the same topic link to this page?
Additional considered signals for mobile searches include: 1. Does this page have an equivalent page on desktop? 2. Are both desktop and mobile versions of this page properly linked to one another? 3. Is location relevant to this search? Each signal is only part of the sum that makes up a page’s overall ranking for a particular search term. Key Point: Achieving top search results won’t simply happen because you address one or two of these signals — for example, putting lots of keywords in your page, or building a mobile-optimized website. Making your website easily accessible across all devices is definitely becoming a bigger piece of the puzzle for Google, but in order to rank well, you need to consider a bigger picture. Your website has got to be filled with relevant content that people want to interact with, and it must be optimized in a user-friendly and future-friendly way. And don’t forget, user-friendly also means fast; Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s Webspam team, recently stated that mobile page speed has been added to the list of search engine signals.
3. Is it linked to through social media or review sites? 4. Is this page more relevant for a particular locale?
Why Does Mobile SEO Matter?
5. Is this page mobile optimized (as per Google's recommendations)?
Customers “Google” Everything Forrester Research recently reported that webinfluenced offline sales and online sales combined account for more than half of the $3.3 trillion total retail spent in the US. As search is the #1 mobile browser activity, businesses with websites that are primed for mobile SEO gain more opportunities to: 1. get brand exposure from mobile searches 2. increase mobile traffic and conversions (Continued on page 10)
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3. convert visitors into loyal customers online and offline
1. searching again on the second device 2.
navigating directly to the destination site
4. ultimately drive revenue across all channels
3.
sending themselves a link to revisit later
Customers Buy When They Want To
It doesn't matter whether a consumer completes a sale online or offline, most purchases begin with, or at least include, a search.
90% of people move between devices to accomplish a goal, whether that’s on smartphones, PCs, tablets or TV. The three most common ways users move between devices are:
Google Says So Now that global mobile traffic accounts for 15% of all internet traffic (and up to 30% for retailers) Google is taking a clear stance on mobile SEO best practices.
merous directory, review or price-comparison sites/apps including Google Places, Yahoo Local, Bing Places, YP, Yelp (US directories), Thompson Local or Yell (UK directories), or Tripadvisor (travel reviews), but can occur on any Website or app with a search facility.
Google’s new recommendations for building mobileand tablet- optimized sites are driven by a vision to make better user experiences on mobile devices, as well as to improve mobile web development practices. To encourage global compliance, Google has made changes to its mobile SEO rank algorithm to rank websites that follow its recommendations higher than websites that do not.
The search provider responds with links to relevant thirdparty Websites of two types:
Businesses that adopt Google’s recommendations in their mobile strategies are poised for greater returns and long-term success.
Important Parts of Mobile Search
What is Mobile Search?
Definition of mobile search: using a web-enabled mobile device – feature phone, smartphone or media tablet – to query a search engine, using a relevant word or phrase – e.g. “emergency plumber in Manhattan” – known as a search term. Most commonly, this search will occur on Internet search engines, such as Google (the dominant global player in mobile as in desktop search), Yahoo, Microsoft Bing, Baidu (Chinese search engine); Yandex (Russian search engine) or on nu-
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A. Organic results – the Websites are organized by relevancy, which is likely to be a mixture of subject nature, popularity, locality and mobile-friendliness. This can be enhanced with SEO. B. Paid results – the advertiser has paid for their site to be prioritized.
1. Location of search 2. More local intent 3. Time sensitive 4. Context 5. The device – capabilities 6. The device – limitations 7. Voice search 8. Search by image and visual search 9. Mobile apps 10. Attribution and measurement
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headings (humans and search-engine spiders, alike, scan pages to find out what’s there). Make Web links obvious and label them accurately so they describe the page to which you are linking – avoid 'read more' or 'click here'.
Mobile SEO Best Practices
1. MAKE IT MOBILE – mobile optimization and search optimization go hand-in-hand.
Features of mobile-optimized sites, as used by US retailers:
Click to Call Mobile Coupons Store Locator
SEO experts refer to the words commonly used in searches (relevant to your site), as keywords or search phrases – allowing these to influence these naming conventions and your copy-writing is known as on-page optimization. If you are a “Hotel in Times Square” or if you make “mobile games” make this the focus of your Webpage(s). The key rule is to design the site and write the copy for the user, while making sure you have ticked the boxes for the search engines, never the other way round.
Keywords helps humans and search-engine spiders understand what is contained on a Webpage. Use them where they would naturally occur, but don’t force keywords in or needlessly repeat them for SEO purposes – search engines take a dim view of such manipulation. For example The Manhattan Hotel (N.B. this URL delivers an entirely different site and experience on a mobile device to PC) emphasizes its location in its brief copy (and URL), with four logical links to sections:
2. MAKE THE MOST OF MOBILE – use mobile devices’ unique capabilities to serve your visitors better. 3. MOBILE IS DIFFERENT – mobile and PC users search for different things. 4. GOOD HOUSEKEEPING – apply the basic rules of Web design and SEO will follow.
Understanding the mobile context of the user, and what they are likely to be looking for will place you in a better position to define the purpose of the mobile site and the content therein. Make sure that site sections, navigation and pages are all given titles and URLs that accurately describe the site and what is on the page, using common terminology e.g. “contacts”. Take into account what will appeal to the mobile searcher and what language they are likely to use when they search. Start each page with a descriptive introductory sentence, use logical heading and sub-
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Implementation
URLs
Content
Responsive design
One URL for both desktop and mobile
The page serves basically the same content to all users but detects the device and screen size and builds the layout accordingly. As the screen size gets smaller, the page may show fewer images, less text, or a simplified navigation.
Dynamic Serving
One URL for both
The page serves different content to users of different devices.
desktop and mobile Mobile URLs
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Different URLs for desktop and mobile
The mobile and desktop experience might be completely different.
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reservations, accommodations, directions (with mapping), and contact us (with click-to-call/ email). 5. CONTENT IS KING – the three stages of compelling content.
Content that promotes and sells your company and its goods and services.
Content and services that add value to the sale, including in-depth product information, advice and reviews, and regularly updated offers that drives opt-ins and increases loyalty.
Helpful articles and information, entertainment, giveaways and competitions that are related to the business/customer relationship, but may not necessarily drive sales.
11. GET DISCOVERED – it’s not just about search engines, nor is it just about the Web. There are plenty other ways of letting the world know about your mobile site, or the new content, offers or features it contains – other than search engines. Use your existing mobile channel, such as SMS and email. Add your mobile site URL, or use a quick response (QR) code, to marketing materials, books or brochures and out-of-home or print advertisements. This is likely to prove more effective where there is a contextual relevance. Airlines are particularly good at this, printing their mobile site address directly on napkins, in-flight magazines and banners in the airport.
Back in the digital world there are mobile directories such as YesWap, galleries that highlight mobile excellence, such as Mobile Awesomeness, Media Queries for RWD sites, JQuery Mobile Gallery for JQuery Mobile sites and there are lots of different Mobile Awards where a win could bring considerable kudos and publicity.
Seek out referrals, free or through paid ads (N.B. don’t buy links from irrelevant sites) from the mobile sites of your business partners. The planning tools from Google and other mobile advertising networks can help discover the most relevant sites.
6. MOBILE FRIENDLY OR MOBILE OPTIMIZED? – use the type of mobile site that suits your customers and your requirements. 7. MAKE IT LOCAL – locality and timeliness is more important to mobile searchers than PC searchers. 8. MAKE IT SOCIAL – make it easy for people to recommend you. 9. MAKE IT FAST – your mobile site should load on a smartphone in 1 second. 10. DON’T HIDE CONTENT IN APPS – Web search engines can’t search in-app content.
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Click Here to Start Your SEO Adventure Today!!!
GET STARTED
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Specifics
Responsive Design Using responsive design that detects the device and adjusts the layout accordingly can be a great one-size fits all implementation. You just have one URL for any type of device and the layout adjusts. This works great for smartphones, tablets, laptops, huge monitors, and the dashboard of your flying car. The crawl is efficient, users don’t experience the slowdowns that redirects bring, and search engines have just one page to index and rank. Users love it; Google loves it; everyone’s happy.
Dynamic Serving With this set up, the server detects the device before returning content and serves the response on a single URL (as above with responsive design). The difference is that the content that’s loaded onto that URL may be totally different depending on the device type. This is a good option if loading the full content from the desktop version would slow the mobile page down, but it can be more complicated to implement.
Mobile URLs Since Google sees different URLs as different pages, you can do several things to ensure that Google understands the relationship between your desktop and mobile pages so that your site is as visible to mobile searchers as it is to desktop searchers. Google searches both desktop and smartphone users from a single index, and in cases where both a desktop and a mobile page exist, clusters them together and serves the appropriate version.
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