Protected by Copyscape Duplicate Content Detection Tool

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Finding and analysing Website backlinks is an easy way to build quality backlinks to your website, the more you get backlink reports, the more you'll have data about website back links. Backlink checker tools are important and you should use it in the right way because you need links information that pointing to your competitor website. It also helps for your own website, because you need to know that from where you're getting backlinks?, what is the anchor text that linking to your site? how much ? what is the type of backlink you're getting?
There are online Web applications built by high quality professional teams that allow you search backlinks for a website and get free reports. Before we search out all website backlinks. let's clear the concept of quality backlink. 



What are Quality Backlinks?

If you have thousands of inbound links but not quality and relevant then they won't be that much important as one quality and relevant backlink. Backlinks are of quality type if they are relevant, for example for a Blog publishing "Free Online Tools" will have have good type of backlinks if they are from relevant blogs. 
Blogs that are based on online tools contents, now if they are from Blog having higher page rank then they will be quality too.

Finding and Evaluating backlinks

Finding Backlinks are easy, once you done the first then the last phase would be evaluating and gaining for yours website.
We'll be using Backlink checker tools to find out all backlinks for a website, note that we can search out not just own website backlinks but also someone else (Competitor), checking own website backlinks will be important for gathering back-links data, for competitor website checking it will be good for us too because we want also to have backlinks from websites that our competitor have already.
Once we get a list of all backlinks of our website, then we have to evaluate the type and how they are linked.
For example suppose you found a backlink then the it is important to know is it nofollow or dofollow?, what is the anchor text (keyword) that is linked.

The more you've quality backlinks the more you'll have ranking in Google Search, Finding and checking Backlinks are essential , because this is the effective way to evaluate the type of backlink and get backlink reports.

Free Backlink checker

Now we're going to use online tools to check website backlinks and then analysis it. 
There are numerous tools available online to search backlinks, following are some of them.

  1. AhrefsSite explorer and backlink checker tool, allow you get free reports of all backlinks pointing to your website, the best thing about this tools is you it show you diagrammatically all data, for example a graph showing the date when you had an amount of backlinks, and were they increasing or decreasing, how much backlinks and the type of backlinks that is- how much of them are nofollow and dofollow. The best think I like in ahrefs is that it shows anchor text cloud which demonstrate the overall picture of most linked keyword (anchor text) as well as graphic representation of phrases.
  2. Open Site Explorer- Developed by SEOMoz (Now Only Moz), most of the features and reports are similar to ahrefs, allow you check backlinks free and get analysis reports. An advance tool help you find backlinks that're linking to your own website, you can do the same for your competitor and can get benefits by getting links from the websites that your competitor getting.
  3. Backlink Watch- Another Backlink checker tool, uses Ahref (World largest Backlink reporter) API, a simpler interface, give you list of your website backlinks. Show you the top domains that are linking to your site as well as the anchor text that is linked.
  4. Small SEO Tools Compared to other Backlink checker Small SEO tool backlink check is a bit slow. The best thing is that it is free and give you all backlinks report, some backlinks may not show, because their database does't frequently update.
  5. Majestic SEO -  The best one in terms of efficiency and reports, simply you search your homepage URL, and get all backlinks by pages anchor text and profile. To access the advance features you've to subscribe and pay.
  6. Analyze Backlinks- Allow you filter the search reports by checking the boxes that says Backlinks from the homepage Only, specific anchor text, total links and outbound links.
  7. WebConfs- The down side of this tools is that it will show you only the dofollow backlinks of your website and won't repeat from other pages, means if you are getting many links from a blog, then it will be counting only once. it will also show you the page rank of the website that is linking to your blog.
  8. Rank SignalA free backlink checker tool allow you easily check site backlinks with analysis, this tool also show you the rank of the site linking to your site as well as how your site is linked by image or text, if it is anchor text then it will also show you the most used anchor text pointing to a website.
  9.  Web SEO Analytics- The slower one, a free version have limited features, but still you can check backlinks free by entering the URL of your website. compared to other link checker tools mentioned in this post WEB SEO analytics tool won't show you graphical representation and thus is't convenient. it is best if you want to copy all backlinks of a website and then do analysis further.
  10. Monitor backlinks- Another free backlink checker tool allow you get website backlinks reports as well as monitor them, to monitor you'll have to upgrade to pro version. if you're getting more than one links from a website, it will show you them only once.
So these were some of the Free backlink checker tools, i hope you like them and that it will be useful for you, if you want to check social media links of your website then you can useSEOCentro. Backlinks are of quality type if they are relevant. 

Saturday, August 17, 2013



Learn About Pay Per Click Marketing!


Pay Per Click most commonly known as PPC is the process of purchasing keywords or key terms from search engines in order to publicise a websites products or services.
Similar keywords and key terms are linked to small text ads that are displayed within the sponsored link sections of search engine when the keyword or key term is searched for by a user within a search engine.
As particular keywords and key terms are highly competitive search engines set a predetermined minimum rate on any given word or term, according to its popularity. As there is limited space within the sponsored ad sections of a search engine (and everyone wants to be on the 1st page) PPC users must bid on keywords or key terms in order to achieve a more desirable position.
The Cost Per Click (otherwise known as CPC) is not the only factor that search engines take into consideration when displaying sponsored ads relating to a specific keyword or term. They also look at the relevancy of the text ad, its contents, its popularity with other users (has it been clicked on before) and whether the text ad destination page is relevant to the keyword or key term they typed into the search engine in the first place.

Why Should I Use PPC?


PPC is a great way to target online users directly with timely and relevant information. When users perform a keyword or key term search within a search engine, they are looking for something in particular. By producing relevant ads that meet the searches needs, you can direct highly relevant, higher converting users to your website.

PPC Benefits


PPC marketing is great way to market your company’s products or services to online users in a direct and relevant manner. By bidding on keywords and key terms that clearly define your business and creating highly relevant text ads, you are delivering an almost immediate solution to online users that may have not previously known your website existed.
The great thing about PPC marketing is that its impact is directly measurable. You will be able to control the amount you spend on keywords as well as being able to monitor the benefits you receive from the users that click on your ads.
Did they convert to a sale or lead; does this sale or lead revenue outweigh the cost spent on driving the traffic to your site?
Whatever the impact, with PPC marketing you are able to monitor the impact of your marketing efforts, refining and optimising your campaigns whenever you wish.

How do I set up a PPC Campaign?


The main PPC services are offered by the top search engines. These include Google AdWords and Yahoo Search engines, other search engine options include MSN and Sensis search.


Learn About Search Engine Optimization!


Search Engine Optimization most commonly known as SEO is the process of driving organic traffic (free traffic) to a company’s website through search engine results.

Why Should I Use SEO?


Most internet users use search engines to find information, products or services that they are looking for, in fact ‘93 percent of users worldwide use search engines to find websites’ - Forester Research.
Search engine optimization techniques allow you to be found amongst the millions of web pages available on the internet. Many of your competitors will already be using these techniques and benefiting from the traffic that this online marketing is producing.
SEO allows search engines to find your website easily, identifying the content available on the site and its relevancy to search engine users. Search engines aim to deliver the most relevant search results to their users, so they use a variety of techniques to assess website content to ensure that they are delivering the most relevant search results for their users.
Some SEO techniques that are assessed include:
  • Page Meta Tags
  • Page Content
  • Internal Links
  • Inbound Links


How Does SEO Work?


Search Engines have things called spiders, or bots that crawl the internet servers to find content on websites that it then stores in its index. Websites are then filtered according to the search engines algorithms which then store the information that fits its criteria. When a user is performing a search, the search engine will access this index to find the most relevant information it has for the user based on their search keyword or key terms and deliver it to them.
There are a variety of factors that are assessed by search engines to determine the relevancy of the content delivered to search engines users. These include:
  • Page Rank - Google page rank value base on website popularity, age and content
  • Website Links - This includes inbound and outbound links
  • Page Content - Meta Tags, alt tags and on page content

SEO Benefits


The process of performing SEO is lengthy but has great benefits for those that can achieve 1st page rankings in top search engine results such as Google or Yahoo for keywords or key terms that best define the contents of their site.

What is the Difference between SEM and SEO?


Search Engine Marketing commonly known as SEM is the process of driving search engine traffic through paid Pay Per Click (PPC) and unpaid methods, such as Search Engine Optimization. SEO is solely the process of driving traffic to a site through organic search engine results.

How do I Perform SEO on My Website?


SEO is an ongoing process that can take time and effort to master. A combination of SEO techniques will help your site to rank highly with search engines, ultimately driving more traffic to your website.



As SEOs, we’ve all used common anchor text and more generic links in the past: it was, after all, just how things were done a year or two back.  However, things have now changed, and we’ve all got to focus on throwing a bit more variation and invention into our lead generation campaigns.  If the old style links aren’t proving effective anymore, then where should we be focusing our effort?

Co-occurrence.  It’s been voiced (most notably by Bill Slawski), that ranking for a term could now occur without the main keyword being used at all, simply because the link has a direct relevance to it.  For instance, creating content based around Bishop’s Finger or Old Peculiar could lead to a site being ranked the phrase ‘Real ales’, simply because the two former terms are individual brands of a drink.  Enough relevant terms that aren’t direct variations of the keyword could be a great way to build reputation whilst avoiding the dreaded link penalties.

Synonyms.  Sure, the word might sound like the evil company from a dystopian sci-fi novel, but focusing on synonyms can give your link building campaign a real sense of variation.  For instance, if you’re building a football blog, then build up links based on ‘soccer’ too.  If you’re creating an image database, then include links focused on ‘pictures’ and ‘pics’, as well as image formats like ‘JPGs’.  You’re still building a reputation for the same things, but adding far more depth to your reputation.  You’ll also pull in a lot more searches when you begin to rank for all the terms.

Partially matching.  As far as we’re concerned, the very best way to include natural links is to write your content first, then worry about the links afterwards.   If you’ve written a top drawer, 1000 piece article that would grace the New York Times, then added a link to the phrase ‘locksmith’ – with your site’s main keyword being ‘locksmiths based in NY’ then you’re going to see far better results than having two links with the exact keyword within a 200 word knockoff article.  Remember: article first, link second!

Link out.  I’m always amazed when in 2013, SEOs still don’t see the value in linking externally to authority sites.  Outgoing links, when relevant, are a serious way of building authority.   If you were discussing the merits of the war in Iraq (to use a random example), then you would likely cite arguments given by other, higher authorities who agreed with your cause (‘Well, Christopher Hitchens said…’ etc).  This is just as applicable when applied to building good content.  If you’re writing a piece about Michael Jordan, then link to videos of him playing.  If you’re writing about Hemingway, then link to some of his greatest quotes.  It’s relevant to your content, so it’s good for your reputation.

Sunday, August 11, 2013




SEO or Search Engine Optimization is now one of the most admired internet marketing strategies being implemented by one or the other internet marketing company around the globe. SEO is the process of setting up a website so that it appears as high as possible in the Search Engine Ranking Pages or SERPs’.

 The largest selling point of the professional SEO Services is that these services are helping high traffic levels to the sales funnel and ultimately producing new customers to existing as well as new businesses. The search engine optimization is helping organizations to increase the visibility of their customer service as well as creative informative content that is valuable and helpful to their customers and business clients.
An organization manufacturing different consumer products or services and having a website with SEO as an internet marketing strategy builds market awareness that in turn increases its sales and improve the concerned organization’s reputation among key stake holders. Most of the search engines like Google, Yahoo, and AOL etc display ten results on a page and research show that the results on the first page are more likely to be looked at. Therefore, the higher the ranking a website appears, the more visitors, or users will visit the organization’s website.

Depending upon the objectives for the website, an effective SEO will benefit the business in the following ways:
  • Build a reputation among customers, suppliers, employees and other shareholders,
  • Broaden awareness about the product and services in new market sectors or new geographical areas,
  • Public awareness will be enhanced about the firms services or products,
  • Businesses can sell their products and services directly to customers from their website.
  • Customer service gets improved by delivering online customer support,
  • Organizations can start a dialogue with their customers, business clients through forums, blogs, and feedback pages that can be used to improve products or services and address any issues.
SEO has helped small businesses to compete successfully with large firms and has helped them reach a larger audience with little effort. However, smaller businesses must be aware while choosing various SEO packages offered by SEO service provider as choosing a package that is not suitable for their specific business needs will defeat the entire purpose of opting for an SEO service and its merits.
It is advisable for businesses to choose SEO Company or SEO service providers after a careful and thorough investigation. One can compare the various services offered by multiple SEO service providers before making the right choice. The other important thing to note when choosing your SEO service provider is their reliability and credibility.
Four SEO Tactics That Still Work After Google Penguin Update


Have your websites been penalized by Penguin 2.0? You are not alone. An important fact to know about this Penguin update is that it is an algorithm change. This means SEO tactics which have been working before might not be working now.
About 2.3% of English-US queries are affected to the degree that a regular user might notice.” –Matt Cutts
So, what SEO tactics are still working? Here, I will discuss about 4 SEO tactics that I am still using to maintain my page 1 rankings on my website.

1. Press Releases

An old school SEO tactic that have been working for ages. Press releases are articles that get syndicated or distributed across multiple news websites. The cool thing about press releases is that every article you write will be allowed a backlink and as your article gets distributed among the other news websites, your backlinks will increase as well.
There are multiple ways you can get press releases, one of them is by using a service called PRWeb. PRWeb service helps distribute your article to across 100+ different websites including Google News (PR 8), USA Today (PR 8) and Market Watch (PR 8).
The best thing among these press releases is not only the page rank of these websites but the traffic that you will be getting from them which potentially can be up to the thousands.

2. Guest Blogs

Guest blogging is another SEO tactic that is still working wonderfully well after Penguin. Even though, Google targeted guest post spammers in the past, you can still rank your website just with guest blogs. One advantage of guest blogs is the relevancy of the links you get and after Penguin 2.0, link relevancy is a very important factor in Google ranking factors.
There are a few ways you can easily get guest blogs. The first way is to use the manual way which is by searching Google for terms like: “become a contributor” and “write for us” + (your keyword).
For example: “write for us” + travel, “write for us” + SEO
An easier way to get guest blogs is to use guest blogging platforms like MyBlogGuest and BloggerLinkUp. These platforms connect bloggers who are looking for more posts with guest bloggers. That way it is much easier to get a guest post going instead of contacting each website owner on the search engine for a guest post opportunity.

3. Relevant Blog Comments

Most blog comments tactics have been destroyed by Google over the past year with their previous Panda and Penguin updates. This is because link builders are using automation tools like Scrapebox to spam the whole web with their backlinks.
Google has put a tight filter when factoring blog comments to rank websites. However, relevant guest blogs still work in ranking your website.
A good way to get relevant blog comments is to go to Alltop.com then find your niche websites there and finally find pages to comment on.
Another way to find relevant websites to post on is by searching Google with this query: intext: leave a reply + SEO
Just by leaving 5 relevant blog comments linking to your website everyday can do wonders to its rankings.

4. Diversified Anchor Text

The fourth SEO tactic I use is not a link building tactic but a SEO strategy instead. Every backlink that I place I will diversify my anchor texts on that backlink. Meaning I won’t leave the same anchor text over multiple websites.
For example: when placing blog comments, 20% of the time I will use link building, 30% backlink building, 20% learn more here and the last 30% I will use link building after penguin.
After Penguin 2.0, Google has placed a lot of spam filters on websites with the exact same anchor texts linking back to them. Therefore, be sure to use this anchor text strategy for the backlinks that you are going to build.

Wrapping Up

Press releases, guest blogs, relevant blog comments and diversify your anchor text are the SEO tactics that I am using to maintain my page 1 rankings after Penguin 2.0. The best thing about these SEO tactics is that they have been working for a long time now unlike most of the other SEO tactics that you hear about.

Friday, August 9, 2013



 5 Online Marketing Trends You Don't Want to Miss 

Online marketing has gone through several overhauls in accordance with the evolution of technology, which then makes us wonder, “What are the Internet marketing trends you should be focused on?” 
Check out the following list of Internet marketing trends that are already making 2013 one of the most exciting years ever.  These may be more than trends - fundamental shifts in online marketing that are change the way we do business online.  Be sure to read the entire post and comments to see how these influences are shaping our online marketing, today, tomorrow, and into the future...

1. Mobile marketing frenzy
        
By “mobile frenzy”, I mean we can’t ignore that, according to mashable.com, 75% of the world currently enjoys access to mobile devices. The modern Internet marketer knows the value of offering mobile value for their clients and brands. 
Last year, mobile Internet marketing was all about making your website, making it easy to use, and searchable on mobile devices. Now, with talk of responsive design and creating a consistent user experience across every device, mobile is gaining momentum that can't be ignored. This year, it goes a step further- it's all about having a mobile app version of the website available that engages your customers and prospects alike.

2. The evolution of attribution
        
Attribution tracking is the process of giving a specific value to an Internet marketing action, such as a click, that ends up in a conversion. The future of Internet marketing holds continued evolution in creative approaches to tracking how different channels affect each other. Existing large analytics service providers will proceed to innovate their current offerings and will make them more available to the rest.

3. “Gamification”

Another must-consider Internet marketing strategy is the “gamification” of your brand by applying a game-design mode of thinking when producing non-game   applications for today’s engaged users.
        
4. Hooray for ‘inbound marketing!’

With the growth of social Internet marketing through the use of sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more, marketers are starting to invest in a new kind of value. Instead of paid advertisements, this year’s budget should be spent on richer content, beautiful web design, and inbound analytics to draw in your customers. Expect to see new software, as well as upgrades to current tools.

5. Internet marketing for customer loyalty and brands as influencers

By now we are all informed of the fact that attaining a customer is more costly than retaining one. Finding yourself a way to make your customers feel appreciated and satisfied in the early stages of the Internet marketing roadmap should now be a breeze. Customers nowadays have never been so connected, and with the dozens ways in which they are able to share their opinions customer loyalty is a crucial and valuable aspect to Internet marketing. Thanks to platforms such as Facebook and Foursquare, brands have been able to build followings of enormous sizes. So, jump into the pool and engage.

With the continuous evolution of the Internet, Internet marketing is bound to develop endlessly, and the list of trends just continues to grow. In summary, these technological advances in Internet marketing prove that content and design is king, brands are becoming social influencers, small businesses are going mainstream, analytics and customer loyalty are the key, and there would be more Internet marketing trends to look forward to and watch out for.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

 Internet Marketing Strategies Defined at MozCon Once Again




It’s been several weeks since the 2013 edition of MozCon has come and gone in Seattle, Washington. Attendees have flown home and returned to work after joining over a thousand of the best and brightest, not to mention most passionate, internet marketers in the world underneath a blanket of blue light and incredible speakers. Although days have passed, the connections made and inspiration felt from the conference are far from being lost in twitter newsfeeds of the past.  Mr. Moz himself, Rand Fishkin, kicked off the conference as the first speaker with his presentation about this year in SEO, marketing, and Moz. His conclusions? Brands are dominating the web and Google’s preference for them are not going anywhere so becoming a brand is your best bet to thriving as an online entity. Web marketing is more competitive than ever and it’s becoming increasingly crucial to know how to use both interruption marketing and inbound marketing. Rand wrapped it up with the newest in Moz and the first day of the conference began after his energetic introduction.  Matt Peters, another member of the Moz team, spoke about 2013 ranking factors and pointed out the fact that “40% of customers will abandon any site that takes longer than 3 seconds to load.” He also emphasized the importance of Google+ and Google Authorship for ranking. While the average Joe or Jane may not see the need to engage in Google+ it’s absolutely necessary to realize the weight that it can carry on the web.  Karen McGrane from Bond Art + Science spoke about the power of mobile internet access and the necessity of building valuable mobile sites. “There’s no such thing as ‘how to write for mobile’ there’s just good writing,” Karen said, continuing the constant emphasis on content at the conference. Her bottom line was, “You don’t get to decide which device people use to access your content. They do.”  One of the speakers that especially stood out was Kyle Rush. If you aren’t familiar with the name, perhaps you know a bit about the work he’s done. Kyle headed the online fundraising for the Obama campaign, a campaign that raised a whopping $690 million ONLINE. Rush presented the three secrets to his online success; experimentation, observation, and data gathering. His ability to test and optimize without fear of failure led him to become an incredible landing page optimizer.  Pete Meyers from Moz started off the last day of the conference with a presentation projecting the future of ranking. He reiterated that to survive on the web you have to become an entity. Google’s job is to model the real world and because of that he said, “Our tactics don’t have to change, but the way we approach them does.” Other notable speakers included Google’s Avinash Kaushik, HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah, and SEER Interactive founder Wil Reynolds.  Company culture was also a hot topic throughout the conference. Sarah Bird, Moz’s chief operating officer, gave a heartfelt presentation about company core values and creating a strong company culture. It was impossible not to think about what kind of a thriving and passionate industry internet marketing is becoming. To steal the title of Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh’s book, it’s all about delivering happiness. In a world dominated by Google and powered by technology, it’s inevitable that internet marketing is going to become not just big, but huge. We’re glad to be a part of it.  Download MozCon 2013 presentations here: http://moz.com/mozcon-live/agenda

Think Beyond Links, Build Compelling Sites with Rich UI and UX
No serious SEO can ignore the elephant in the room: black hat works. For every post informing us that we need to create compelling content in order to rank, there are hundreds or thousands of junky posts ranking on purchased links, private link networks, and tiered linking schemes. Black hat doesn’t work for long, but it does work.
So why are we sitting here telling you to “think beyond links?” Are we just industry sheeple, regurgitating Google propaganda about how you need “great content” in order to show up in the SERPs?
No.
We’re here to tell you that compelling sites take you further than rankings alone, and that UI and UX are musts if you want to optimize any relevant KPIs, as opposed to just optimizing for search. If you still aren’t convinced, take a look at our full explanation.
Today, we’re going to talk about how to do it.

1. Embrace Responsive Design

Responsive Design
At the end of 2012, Mashable redesigned their entire site. The content now resizes itself if you adjust the size of your browser. They’ve done this to respond to their changing user base. As more people switch over to tablets and mobile phones, fewer of them are willing to put up with sites that force them to use horizontal scrolling or zooming just to use the site.
Mashable is far from alone in recognizing this need.
2013 is the first year where projected PC sales are expected to be lower than the previous year. One hundred million tablets are expected to be sold by the end of the year, and smartphones already outnumber traditional cell phones.
Meanwhile, very few businesses will be able to design apps accessible from every device. Apps are certainly a good way to put yourself in view among your core customer base, but it’s much more difficult to convince a user to install an app than it is to convince them to visit a website. Add to that a huge number of conflicting platforms and it starts to get very difficult to reach as wide an audience with apps alone.
Using media queries, you can determine the resolution of the user’s browser and adjust the presentation accordingly. Some screens are too narrow to accommodate side bars or large images.
In addition to responsive design, “adaptive design” is another important element in the future of site development. With adaptive design, you detect the type of device and adjust features accordingly. You may want to enable swiping, or adjust button sizes to accommodate fat fingers as opposed to tiny cursors.
Simply saying “we need responsive design” isn’t enough, though. You need to eliminate age-old habits you didn’t even know you were using. You can’t just create a mockup of what you want the site to look like and let the designer make all the calls. You’ll need to do things like:
  • Assign a hierarchy to each page element
  • Assign a hierarchy to each part of the content (because lorem ipsum just isn’t going to cut it)
  • How does navigation change on smaller screens?
It’s not just a matter of making things smaller so they fit the screen.
Smashing Magazine recommends starting with a mobile wireframe design that makes the hierarchy and priorities immediately clear. You can then hand this mobile mockup to a designer. A good designer should be able to immediately envision what the desktop size version should look like. (Here is there example, starting with a PDF of the mobile version and ending with the hi-res desktop version.)
It’s much easier to design for mobile and envision how things will adjust when the screen gets larger than it is to go in the other direction. This is central to effective responsive design.

2. Understand Split Testing

Split Testing
You’re not going to maximize conversions, user engagement, or create the most positive user experience if you don’t perform split tests, or don’t perform them correctly.
Danny Inny at CopyBlogger compared split testing to sex in high school: everybody says they’re doing it, most of them aren’t, and most of those who really are probably aren’t doing it right. Truer words have rarely been spoken.
Here are a few of the biggest mistakes people make when they split test their pages:
Statistical significance is not some vague feeling that you’ve run the test long enough to verify that one page works better than the other. When you ignore statistical significance, you surrender to statistical flukes and your own biases. You need to reach 90 or 95% confidence before you decide that one page is working better than the other. If you don’t know how to do that, you can take advantage of this free tool by Firepole marketing, you can learn what a two-sample t-test is, and you can take advantage of Google’s own split-tester right in Google analytics, or use the Premise WordPress plugin right from the WordPress menu.
You need a lot of traffic to spot small changes. 100 impressions is only enough to spot a 20% difference between two results. It takes 10,000 impressions before you can spot a 2% difference between options. That’s why, unless you can afford to pay for the traffic, you should start with major changes like:
  • Entire landing page concept
  • The headline
  • Price
  • Content
  • Images
Some will argue with me on the first point, but I think that’s unwise. I maintain that changing the entire page is still “changing one thing at a time,” and it’s probably the very first thing you should test. The landing page concept contains within it hidden assumptions about how your audience acts. You need to test what kind of audience you’re working with before you test individual things.
Testing individual page elements will help you get the best version of a page, but it will not get you to the best page concept.

3. Behaviors Speak Louder than Words

Behaviours Speak Louder than Words
Split testing is great for maximizing conversions, time on site, etc., but there is another kind of testing that is absolutely vital for UI and UX: usability testing. It’s very important to understand that usability testing is pretty much nothing like split testing.
The purpose of usability testing is to see how users actually use the interface. It’s user-centered design at its best, and it helps you build an interface that accommodates the way people actually expect it to work. This results in an intuitive user experience that flows naturally.
So how does usability testing work?
In usability testing, you present users with the interface and ask them to perform a series of steps. Their interaction with the interface is recorded, observed, and documented.
Unlike split testing, a very small number of users are actually needed in order to arrive at conclusions. The reality of the situation is that most people, especially those relatively inexperienced with technology, will respond to the interface the same way. It almost never takes more than ten users to spot a design flaw or opportunity, and typically takes fewer than that.
User testing is not market research. It is not about asking users what would make them like the interface more or asking for feedback. It is entirely about observing behavior. The truth is, people rarely know what they want or what would make the interface work better…at least not consciously. It is only by observing their behavior that you can learn what the product is missing, or where opportunities lie.
Jakob Nielson of Sun Microsystems popularized the concept of a large number of very small usability tests during development in the ‘90s. All that is typically necessary is five or six random users. This has come to be called “hallway testing” because of the implication that the users to test will be random people picked up off the hallway.
Put simply, as soon as you spot two or three people struggling with the interface, you don’t gain very much by watching hundreds or thousands of other people go through the same problem.
Statistically speaking, samples this small aren’t really representative of the general population, but that’s not the point. You can almost always spot problems of some kind with samples this small, and it’s pointless to test further until the problem is fixed. Testing larger samples is unnecessary until no problems can be detected with such small samples.
The point is to focus on iteration. Usability testing is much less scientific than split testing, and is driven primarily by the experience and intuition of the designers, combined with the behavioral data of users. With enough iterations, the overall sample size does become large, but the benefit of using this method is that initial problems are resolved early on and never encountered again, so that smaller problems can be uncovered by subsequent tests.
Usability testing can be made more effective and efficient by using tracking software, heat maps, and eyeball tracking tools.
It doesn’t have to be expensive, however. One method that is being advocated for startups is called paper prototype testing, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. This involves using paper mockups, which may even be hand sketched. It involves a user, who interacts with the paper mockup, a facilitator, who takes notes and delves into the problems with the users, and a “human computer,” who is familiar with the interface and manipulates the mockup to simulate the final interface.
Such paper prototype testing has been working quite effectively since the ‘80s and is unlikely to go out of fashion any time soon.
While usability testing isn’t the same as market research or qualitative questionnaires, it can be useful in some cases to mix them together. Face to face interviews tend to be most useful, particularly right after a user testing session. These interviews can help uncover the root issue behind the behaviors. They can be very informative, as long as you remember that behaviors speak louder than words.

4. Build Consumer Psychology into the Site

Consumer Psychology
User experience is all about what is happening mentally, so it’s important to understand a few things about consumer psychology when you design the interface and decide on the content. We can start with Robert Cialdini’s six principles of influence:
1. Reciprocity – Humans, in general, are more inclined to do favors for people who have already done favors for them. The more value your website offers to its users, the more inclined they are to offer value of their own in return.
2. Commitments – People are more likely to follow through on something if they make a commitment, no matter how small, and even if it is a mental commitment. For example, you are more likely to get a positive result in most circumstances if you ask “Will you…” instead of “Please…” Small commitments also open up the door to larger commitments in the future.
3. Authority – We tend to trust people with credentials and expertise more than people without them. A seal of approval, a group membership, or an endorsement from a trusted authority can go a long way. This is also the entire premise of content marketing: that you can become a trusted authority by offering valuable, helpful content on subjects that matter to your target audience.
4. Social Proof – We’re more likely to be influenced by somebody who is trusted by others, especially if they happen to be popular in groups that we associate with. This is even truer when somebody that we personally know endorses a product, organization, or person.
5. Scarcity – The more rare something is, the more valuable we tend to think it is. Unfortunately, this tactic has been used so often, and has become reminiscent of so many “don’t miss your chance” infomercials, that consumers rarely trust it anymore. It’s best to allow them to come to the conclusion that your brand is rare on their own, by producing content, products, and an online experience that is hard to come by.
6. Rapport – This is where market research and user targeting can get especially helpful. The more consumers feel like they have in common with you, the more likely they are to trust you, and to eventually buy from you.
In addition to these six principles, we can add 4 cognitive biases and heuristics that affect the way we think:
7. Loss Aversion – Generally speaking, the fear of loss is more influential than the promise of reward. We’re more willing to take a risk to avoid a loss than to earn a reward, and this is true even when the outcome is exactly the same. This has been scientifically validated many times. It’s the reason we fear the unknown, and it’s why stock market players hold on to losers too long and let go of winners too early.
8. Status Quo Bias (Default Bias) – If we’re given a series of options, we tend to choose whichever one seems to be the “default.” Anybody who’s ever been overwhelmed with decisions by the restaurant waitress (or the confusing menu) knows what I’m talking about. We like options, but don’t like being forced to make a decision. This is why smart restaurant menus highlight just a few dishes with special coloration and pictures, and why smart site designers make it clear where they want users to start.
9. Anchoring – Humans don’t think in absolutes. They think in relative terms. We tend to anchor things on our first impression or our most memorable (probably most emotional) one. As an example, if we see the highest price first, the lowest price will tend to seem lower. If we start with the lowest price, the highest price will seem much higher. The same goes for any other quality we might evaluate. This is why it’s important to be very careful with first impressions, and how we move forward from there.

Conclusion

Hopefully this introduction has given digital marketers something to think about. The careful balance between UI and UX is every bit as important as off-site SEO, and it is a crucial part of the buying cycle. Master these basics and you will be worlds ahead of the competition.
What are your thoughts on UI and UX strategy?

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

01 - Learn to take advantage of social media networkeing







Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or an apartment with really bad wifi connection) it’s impossible to miss the affect that major events and holidays have on the twittersphere. While you may be watching fireworks from a beach, rooftop, or big city skyline, you’ll most certainly catch an additional glimpse of the show from every social media platform out there.
It’s easy to be aware of the impact that these kinds of festivities have on your personal life but it can be equally as easy to pass up the professional opportunity that they also create. Never underestimate the power of a good trending topic. Find the local trending topics that relate to your business. In the world of Google, content is king. This means that adding popular keywords to your site that have no relevancy to your actual business is a big no-no.
The key is to find ways to connect to the masses. Think about all of the details that surround a holiday like 4th of July. If you still can’t find a way to connect use it as a way to add personality and voice to your company. It’s ok to have a more casual post every now and then as long as it’s appropriate and positive. Major companies with booming social media platforms are extremely creative about their posts. The best part about casual posts is that they invite interactions and help boost followers.
Don’t forget, with great klout comes great responsibility. If you’re posting, tweeting, instagramming, vining, etc. from a personal phone or computer during a holiday, be careful. As the use of social media for companies increases, so do the amount of employees fired for making mistakes. Double check that you’re actually on your personal account and not your company’s account when you’re about to tweet that picture of your friends having one too many drinks.
The world of social media will continue to exist even after your office closes at 5 p.m. or your employees take off for a holiday like Independence Day. Make sure that you don’t get left behind by keeping your social media platforms relevant day or night, holiday or not.
SEOprofiler SEO software

Top Headlines

Protected by Copyscape Online Plagiarism Check
Subscribe to RSS Feed Follow me on Twitter!