Content models are nothing new. Used to specify types of content its procedures tell what HTML elements are contained where. An element defined specifies the meaning associated with a block of text and gives the name of it in the form of a tag.

HTML5 Categories

Originally only two categories existed under HTML4. HTML5 expands the categories to seven major ones which are still in the process of becoming defined fully particularly as it applies to mobile applications.

1. Meta Data Content
2. Flow Content
3. Sectioning Content
4. Heading Content
5. Phrasing Content
6. Embedded Content
7. Interactive Content

Notice the terminology is not “key word” emphasis but much more on the context of the media. It does not mean keywords will disappear any time soon. Queries in question or phrase form will pull up a 360 degree view on a particular idea or concept. More information will appear from social media since the categorization will reach into phrasing there as well for answers to questions.Also the additional categorizations allow audio and video to become better placed into a content category meaning it will pull up into the top ranks whether a person was specifically looking for audio or video or not.

New Elements

To give greater meaning (semantic)s to the structure of any web page HTML5 created new elements. For example, elements such as header, footer, and nav will give the areas where logos, navigational menus and copyrights will go. Standardized and clearer the new structural tags will literally say what it is. An example is

. A machine searching for a particular piece of data on a particular paper, art work or writing can find the copyright and display it;, if the author so choses to tag it. What if the author wishes to share freely and only asks that the work be attributed to them?

Curator’s Code

Just as before the Internet changed many items in publishing and communication so to will HTML5 change it. Now it becomes much more likely that developers, programmers, and a host of others who write expert level text will rise to the top pages of search engines. Many times people on the Internet are not plagiarizing but simply sharing ideas and expressing concepts and ideas in a language the masses can understand. A new movement has come forth in the same spirit as the Semantic Web.—the curator’s code.

The curator’s code allows attribution to the original source by simply acknowledging the labor whether one is an author, artist or programmer. Two agreed upon Unicode symbols denote the level of attribution. A person wishes to share with an audience a direct repost with few changes the code “Via” ᔥ in an element tag or on the page lets everyone know who thought of such a great idea. The code “HT” ↬ means indirect discovery which means a person’s inspiration started with some else’s idea and was partially modified or elaborated on.

The semantic web takes the best of each sphere on the web including mobile and then makes for easy searching and easy attribution. HTML5 is expected to evolve for some time to come particularly as it is integrated into present networks, but also as it is adapted into mobile applications.

Information “HT” ↬ these sources below:

http://www.w3.org/wiki/SwBooks

HTML5 Mastery: Semantics, Standards, and Styling

By Anselm Bradford, Paul Haine

http://www.w3.org/RDF/Metalog/docs/sw-easy.html

http://www.curatorscode.org/

Janes Scott writes about rugged and mobile computing for www.rugged-systems.com

Web design trends are shifting rapidly as mobile devices take over as the desired platform used by most consumers for accessing the web. The pull of mobile devices is the size, mobility and the cost effectiveness of the devices. As a result, web designers are scrambling to keep up or stay ahead of the trends.

Content

The content trend is not going away. In fact, the need for great relevant content that appeals to users is only going up. Successful web design involves not only great content but must now focus on how best to present that content with so many device platforms available. Trends will see content shifting presentations that are more efficient, searchable and accessible by all including those with disabilities, and be able to work on multi-platform to reach the most users. Interactive content also continues to grow in attempts by web designers to attract and keep the attention of short-attention spanned users.

Simplicity in Design

Gone are the days where cluttered sites are acceptable. Instead, those sites are falling to the side as new clean, simple interfaces are presented to users because they scale easily across multi-platforms and offer the best user experience across the board. Designers must take into consideration how their web design will scale down to the smallest smartphone or up to large screen TVs and how the site will present on all of them. Clean and simple is the trend here.

Apps

Simply put, every platform is heading to using apps, as a result, websites are being designed to act and function like mobile apps regardless of the platform. The release of Google Chrome, Microsoft 8 and Interactive TV are proof of the leading trends towards app based platforms for all devices. Once again, the need for simplicity, unified content and design while creating an interactive responsive experience for the user is key to app design.

Design Sensors

Mobile devices, computer screens, gaming devices and TVs are all seen using sensors guided by touch, voice or movement. Wave your hand over or across the screen and your pages scroll. Voice tells your devices what you want them to do and touch screens are here to stay. Web designers have to consider creating pages or apps that respond to these sensors and react. No longer are these ideas from a sci-fi movie, instead, the reality is that devices are getting smarter and easier to use.

Mobile Design First

Where once websites for large format screens was the norm, web designers are seeing a demand in the need to design first for mobile devices then consider the large format. This trend will continue because mobile devices are more affordable for everyone, not to mention the allure of staying connected constantly.

Cloud Based

Web designers who designing cloud based applications are seeing the advantage of their applications being more scalable than fixed server applications. This allows for easy scaling and adapting if an application takes off with users. This trend is continuing to grow as large companies such as Adobe, Microsoft and Autodesk come on board with offering their products on cloud based platforms, making it possible to easily view and edit photos professionally on a mobile device or to type up a report. Expect this trend to grow rapidly as more reliable cloud providers come online to give designers and users more options.

These six trends are just a few of the continuing or expected changes to affect web designers in 2013. Over the course of all these trends lies a common theme: interactive simplicity and unity in design is the demand from users who like a site that will scale across a range of platforms.

Sam Matton is a big believer in a more beautiful World Wide Web. He enjoys sharing his web design tricks, and also how to source quality web designers

The relationship between smartphone apps and internet presence is synergistic: a well-ranked website will help promote a smartphone app and the existence of an attractive smartphone app will help bring links and traffic to your site.

Recent talk of the smartphone placing the web in its rear view mirror depicts the two mediums as if they are engaged in a road race where there can be only one winner. In reality, as marketing tools, the two can complement each other and help feed ongoing customer acquisition, engagement and retention.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scobleizer/4779911251/

Those championing the smartphone point to research revealing that we now spend an average of 81 minutes a day using mobile apps and 74 minutes using the web. Whilst this reveals how critical it is to have a mobile app as part of your marketing mix it does not suggest the declining importance of traditional website marketing. Mobile apps are an extension of the ways customer find and interact with your brand, not a replacement of your web presence.

Those championing web marketing have cautioned against app investment by pointing out that its content is not indexed by search engines and remains effectively dead content. Whilst true, this is a slightly disingenuous depiction that ignores the less immediate benefits a compelling and attractive app can bring to your site. The best apps create the same sort of buzz for your brand as a carefully seeded infographic or article. They can act as the ultimate link bait and help to boost your site’s search engine rankings.

The best apps

The best apps enhance your customer’s experience, engage them and give them reasons to come back. The importance of mobile apps in terms of engagement and monetisation of customers is increasingly clear and it may well be that in the near future companies will use the web to attract customers, and the apps to retain them.

Here are some of the best apps out there at the moment, from big brand names like the eHarmony dating service to deal-of-the-day website Groupon.

eHarmony UK

eHarmony is a leading online dating service that has quickly realised the benefits of a mobile platform. The eHarmony mobile dating app frees its users from needing to rush home to see their latest messages and allows them to review, communicate and manage their dating prospects wherever they are. By extending the convenience of their service eHarmony has been able to attract and retain more users.

Starbucks

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doos/5338468615/

The clever app from Starbucks also builds customer loyalty by delivering convenience. Customers can find their nearest coffee shop and then pay directly from their smartphones and receive instant MyStarucks Rewards too. So there is no need for cash or loyalty cards – you can just scan up and drink your coffee.

Groupon

Groupon uses the GPS capabilities of smartphones to tailor the daily deals it serves up to you according to where you are at the moment. This means that even when away from home you never need miss out on a cheap meal out. Groupon CEO Andrew Mason explained to investors recently that money spent on overhauling their existing app had been money well spent, as mobile users spend about twice as much as their desktop counterparts.

Dead content?

In terms of delivering customer retention, maximising returns and even helping build your site’s rankings, mobile apps are very far from dead content. Ignore them at your peril.

Author Bio

Tracey Chandler writes for travel blogs and a number of female-interest publications on a freelance basis.

A long-standing debate in online advertising is whether or not organic campaigns (via SEO) and paid search campaigns (through Google AdWords) when run at the same time actually end up damaging the work that the other does separately or whether they support each other overall in the development of the online marketing presence of a given advertiser.

At the end of March 2012, Google released a report to settle these concerns as far as possible. The report reveals that organic and paid search advertisements are actually good for each other, when run at the same time. They each help to increase the effectiveness of the other and therefore it is well worth the time, effort and (in the case of PPC) money in running both kinds of campaigns at once.

Let us go a little further into the subject and explain why they work well together and what the positive results are from running campaigns at the same time…

When your organic search results are in the number one spot
One of the principal findings of the report reveals that an average website might reveal 100 organic search clicks from Google and 100 paid search clicks from their AdWords Campaign when both campaigns are running simultaneously.

However, if the advertiser in the above example chooses to pause their PPC Campaign at any given moment, it is likely that the overall number of visits to the site will reduce from 200 to 150. This means that, yes, to some extent you might be paying for clicks that you might be able to get through organic search clicks, but when both campaigns are in action together, you are liable to get 50% of clicks overall.

Remember, these figures are relevant when your organic listing is in the number 1 spot on the Google SERP.

Google is quick to remind us in the report that these figures are for the average site and that each single advertiser might receive different data from their campaigns.

When your organic search results are in the numbers 2 – 4 spots
When analyzing the data belonging to organic search results featuring at spots 2 – 4, the figures are even more pleasing.

In general, the report reveals that there is an 82% increase in clicks overall when both organic and paid search campaigns are running at the same time.

When your organic search results are in the numbers 5 to 10 spots
When analyzing the data belonging to organic search results featuring at spots 5 – 10 the figures continue to climb.

In this instance, the report shows that there is a 96% increase in clicks when running both organic and paid search campaigns together.

The pleasing pattern, which develops incrementally through spots 1 – 10, emphasizes that it is a positive move to be involved in organic and paid search advertising at the same time, which is why an effective PPC Manager will be able to help you implement an effective SEO plan whilst he or she concentrates on the paid search marketing side of your online presence.

Make sure that the PPC Manager you select to run your paid search advertising for you has a strong understanding of SEO too in order to be able to help and guide you as effectively as possible.

Author Bio
David Chapman is Director of Marketing at Webrageous and he has a wide range of experience in pay per click management and SEO.

The online advertiser’s link building strategy is something very different to the generation of link bait and it is essential that the difference is clearly understood as a really effective link building strategy can either make or break an online marketing campaign.

Linkbait is, in the simplest of terms, a piece of content which has been deliberately created in order to go viral and attract lots of links. Ordinarily, a piece of linkbait that happens to be really successful comes around once in a blue moon. It is not a sustainable form of creating links and therefore should not be relied upon to the point where it is included as part of the main link building strategy.

Linkbait can sometimes be a dangerous route for the online advertiser to go down because content generated for link bait purposes will not necessarily form the best experience possible for the Internet user. If the user is not happy, your site is never going to get more visitors. Churning out data after data which is then posted every few hours on your company blog and which is all about your company’s triumphs is not a good idea.

Boring posts that you churn out just to make sure that you have something to post every day is a waste of time too. You might have hooked onto the idea of generating top ten lists, with lots of links to useful pages, for example, but the Internet user is savvy and he or she will soon tire of this repeated style of content.

Working out how you are going to get links to your site, or in other words, working out your link building strategy, takes time, thought and lots of monitored testing. Confusing link bait for a link building strategy is often the best way of not meeting the expectations you have set for yourself or have been set by your boss for the site you are managing.

As with any area of online marketing, if you want to get it right you need to give great consideration to your target market, your goals and an analysis of your metrics so that you can select the best route of action available for your site when in the process of securing worthwhile links.

Author Bio
David Chapman, Director of Marketing at Webrageous, is an expert in online marketing.

Three online marketing articles of interest came to light this morning:

Is Link Building Becoming Content Marketing? featured on Point Blank SEO
Are you Attracting Links or Just Building Them? featured on Daily SEO Tip
Why Content Marketing is the New SEO featured on Quick Sprout

It seems that everyone is talking about the importance of content marketing, how it is different to simple link building and how it is a far more effective SEO strategy in the long term for all businesses and all blog aficionados.

Careful analysis of the pros and cons of content marketing reveal that the present hype is by no means misplaced. Content marketing is certainly a very effective way of improving your site’s quality score, climbing up the rankings on the search results pages and driving traffic to your site on a regular basis.

What do the experts have to say about content marketing?
Over at Point Blank SEO, the general consensus seems to be that the positive effects of content marketing last longer than those which develop as a result of link building. Content marketing is also far less expensive than link building.

It’s also made very clear that content marketing gives more back to your clients or readers and so does wonders for your branding marketing campaigns as much as it does to help increase sales or raise all types of conversions associated with your business and your business’ marketing campaigns.

Daily SEO Tip also concurs that the main reason business owners choose to invest in content marketing is because of the long term marketing success that it affords. The experts at Daily SEO Tip go a little further and offer advice as to the style and focus of top quality posts for content marketing purposes.

It is recommended that the blog or website owner focus specifically on educational content. Writing content simply about what your company does and why it is so fabulous is not the best way of securing a loyal following because there is nothing in your content that your readers can take away with them. Instead of encouraging them to buy through your content, share tips and advice with them from your expert knowledge of the industry in which you work.

It is also really important, Daily SEO Tip, makes it clear that there’s a huge drive on social networking promotions of your content because nobody will read it if they don’t know that it’s there to read. Along the same lines, there’s no shame in reinventing old content by reposting it as one of your best posts ever (if it truly was) or by using a snippet of an old post as the basis of the idea in a new post.

Quick Sprout makes two really important points. The first is that content marketing, unlike link building, is not affected by search engine algorithms… great news!… The second is that headlines form one of the most important elements to consider when working on a content marketing strategy.

The thing to remember is that content marketing is now making it more difficult for dodgy websites to appear with lots of links and do well in terms of search engine ratings, which is just as it should be.

The cons of content marketing are…
If we break things down as simply as possible, the cons of content marketing include the following:

You have to actually care about what you write (not a con for people who are genuinely interested in their busy, industry or content, but it is a con for those people who are looking to climb the search engine listings fast)

You have to be devoted to developing content regularly
Your content must be high quality and must help people in some way
You will need to continue providing fresh content, which means the work will never stop
You might find that there is so much work that you have to invest in a professional content writer or content marketing team in order to produce the amount and quality of the content required

The pros of content marketing make all the difference…
One of the great things about content marketing is that you are able to provide information about the industry and provide interesting content / tips for your readers to benefit from.

If you really love your job or enjoy working in the business industry that you are working in, a content marketing strategy begs you to be creative, to dream up quality headlines, to win Internet users over with your turns of phrase and to provide essential information for someone out there who might just be really grateful for your help.

By investing, and truly investing, in your website / blog / business, you will gradually develop followers for life and perhaps even catch a few customers along the way too. The time, money and creativity that you invest in content marketing will last for years and years. Every day, the return on investment will improve and when you begin to reap the benefits of this marketing approach, you will feel that the effort was completely worthwhile.

Link building is a get rich quick way of going about online marketing and it rarely works (like most get rich quick scams). Content marketing is a respectable marketing strategy, full of integrity and soul. Internet users know the difference and your efforts will be repaid.

How does content marketing complement a pay per click campaign?
As a final thought, it is also worth highlighting the ways in which a content marketing strategy can help to boost the efforts that you might be making via a pay per click advertising campaign too.

If you want to pay less for your pay per click advertising, your website needs to have a high quality score, your landing pages need to be well-designed and your website needs to be full of useful and appropriate content that is updated on a regular basis. Content marketing can naturally guide you towards achieving all of this, which means that your paid search marketing will start to cost you less thanks to a real investment in your target audience and their needs.

Pay per click advertising and content marketing are two very different forms of online marketing and they operate independently of each other, but the positive effects that one has over the other are indisputable. In this sense, investing in content marketing can actually end up saving you advertising money too.

Content marketing is a win win situation for all advertisers looking to take their businesses to the next level. So… get writing!

Author Bio
David Chapman, Director of Marketing at Webrageous, is more than willing to explain how content marketing and pay per click advertising work together at any time.

Keyword generation does not have to be random. It does not have to be based on a trial and error approach. Sometimes, the simple creative approach, whereby you begin thinking about what kind of keywords a user is liable to select when conducting a search, can be useful.

However, in the long term, a systematic, well constructed approach to keyword generation is what is required. Firstly, because the above approach, while effective in some ways, is time-consuming, generates few ideas when we consider the amount of time dedicated to the task and has no real sense of order. Therefore, the keywords that we generate cannot be fairly tested.

In addition, keyword generation via random approaches is not as effective as a well organized system because the ideas that are generated come from one source… your own head… and invariably it is a really good idea to get some outside, objective opinions when it comes to keyword generation.

Systematic, Well-Organized Keyword Generation Ideas in Action
The following ideas for keyword generation are not exhaustive and they are not necessarily the best ways for generating keywords for every single PPC campaign on the planet. What’s more, the world of PPC and online advertising moves fast. This is worth remembering as styles and approaches change constantly.

Be sure to use the following ideas after assessing their possible value for you, your style of PPC campaign and the type of audience that you are trying to attract. Take from the ideas what you believe to be useful and leave those which don’t appeal by the wayside.

This objective and selective approach to keyword generation ideas is exactly the right kind of approach to take as a PPC Manager or PPC Advertiser. Don’t underestimate the importance of your instincts and your in-depth knowledge of your own product.

Step 1: Use a thesaurus

Using a thesaurus might seem like a very basic and old approach to take with keyword development, but it truly does have a very effective effect on the kind of keywords you can find to help you build an effective bank of keywords for your PPC campaign.

You should start with a bank of ten keywords to work with and then see what the thesaurus throws at you. The good thing about the thesaurus is that it helps to take you out of the realms of your own thoughts and your own ideas.

It also helps to ignore the advice of computer generated keyword terms sometimes and go back to the very basics because the computer generated keyword development programs are pre-prepared for keyword generation. The thesaurus was built for another purpose and therefore approaches the task of keyword generation with fresh eyes too.

The really exciting thing about the thesaurus is that you might unexpectedly stumble upon a new keyword for your campaign that hones in on an unexplored niche that ends up bringing you lots of traffic and lots of those all important conversions.

Step 2: Using Grammar to Create Match Types

When you have your list of thesaurus generated keywords, it is important to find a systematic way of placing them into the distinctive match type columns and one of the best ways of doing this with precision and meaning is to approach the task from a grammatical perspective.

It is important to organize our keywords into broad, phrase and exact match categories. If we don’t do this we cannot organize our bidding strategies properly and we do not open ourselves up to the right kind of user who will be truly looking for the services or products we provide and not someone looking for something unrelated because of poor keyword match construction.

However, this article on keyword generation suggests that you approach keyword match generation from a grammar starting point, which is perhaps something that you have not tried before.

Consider the following example, assuming that the PPC campaign we are managing is for a sports shop:

Begin by splitting keywords into nouns, adjectives and verbs. In this way you can think about three things in particular…

1. How to arrange the keywords into keyword phrases
2. Where to make breaks in those phrases and classify them as either broad, phrase or exact match keywords
3. How to continue developing further on those keywords by generating more keywords of a specific category (eg: more adjectives, more verbs or more nouns)

Let’s explain things a little further via some clear examples for the sports shop PPC campaign…

Nouns
Sneakers
T-Shirts
Tracksuit

Adjectives
Adidas
Female
Lycra
Discounted
Cheap

Verbs
Buy
Get
Order
Choose

Once you separate your keywords into these grammatical building blocks, it is much easier to see the various ways in which keyword phrases can be extended on and developed further. For example, you might begin with:

Adidas Sneakers (Broad Match)

Then you can extend to:

Cheap Female Adidas Sneakers (Phrase Match)

Then you can hone in even further to:

Cheap Female Classic Adidas Sneakers Ohio (Exact Match)

Indeed, this kind of grammar approach to keyword generation is a great way of then influencing the way in which you develop the headlines for your PPC advertisements too.

For example:

Buy Cheap Female Classic Adidas Sneakers Ohio

Sometimes, going back to the basics is exactly what we need. Test these very simple techniques out when developing new keywords for your PPC Campaign and find out whether or not this basic, but systematic, approach to keyword generation will work for you.

Guest Author Bio
David Chapman is Director of Marketing at Webrageous and an expert in online sales and online marketing management.

It sounds silly… but one of the best strategies for choosing the content to create for your website is Google’s Auto-complete feature.  When typing in search queries into Google, wait a second and see what suggestions they make for you.

Do you know why they make those suggestions?  It is because those are the most searched queries!

To make things really simple… I will show you how I chose the title of this post.

I already knew I wanted to write about using Google suggest for choosing long tail search terms when creating content… but I wanted this post to rank organically for some keywords.

So I typed in “keyword tool” and waited a second… Yep “keyword tool generator”.

I then went a little further to get to “free keyword tool generator”

I wanted another long tail term to target for this post so I typed in “content”…. Ok then “marketing”…

Then I continued to “content marketing”, and see “content marketing strategy”.

For a second example…

Lets say you have a website that sold “wedding dresses”…. You can go through the alphabet for description words to use before your product keyword.

The goal of a content marketing strategy is two-fold.

• Create great content that will help your visitors and get links naturally
• Create content that will rank organically to bring in targeted traffic

For auto-complete keyword research on steroids

Try

http://ubersuggest.org/

Other strategies for choosing content for your marketing strategy are:

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2181590/10-Ways-to-Get-Your-Content-Marketing-Strategy-in-Motion

One man’s journey to find his name in auto-complete

The not so technical  explanation on how Google is so good at auto-complete

So when choosing the keywords to target for your next blog post or article… Just don’t hit the return button!  I suggest you never hit the return button anymore when using the search engines.

Google auto-complete is a goldmine… so check it out.

The 7 techniques for long-term online marketing success are “white hat” and will serve your, or your client’s, website for the long term.  No more 3-way linking or private link networks here.

The 7 techniques I will be covering:

1. Sharable Evergreen Content
2. Knowledge Base/Q and A
3. Press Release and Public Relations
4. Conversion Tracking
5. Live Chat
6. Rich Snippet and Author Tags
7. Building a community and working your list

By following these 7 techniques you will build traffic and conversions, and the most important thing to a website owner… return on investment.

1.  Sharable Evergreen Content.  Evergreen content is content that is educational in nature and will help the user make educated decisions about a topic.  The time of $25 articles is over, my friends… what is needed now knowledge-rich websites, with 100+ content pages and articles that are so good, others will reference and share them.  Those articles are researched and written by professional writers – and they cost a lot more than $25!  BUT, this is what Google wants… and ladies and gentlemen… this is real stuff that will be helpful to your users… and it works.

Action:  Form a Glossary on your website… or call the section [your industry] Info, that defines your industry’s intricacies in great detail.

Keep adding to this every month.  And keep your pages up to date.  I like to try and bring people to my new evergreen pages by posting to the top 5 community forums and industry blogs.

I am going to link to a site that posted some evergreen content on creating evergreen content Check it out.

http://kaiserthesage.com/evergreen-content/

2.  Create a Knowledge Base and a spot for users to submit questions. We used to have our SEO specialists participate on behalf of our clients on other blogs and forums.  We would find conversations in forums and Q and A sites and provide valuable answers to the users of that other site.  One day, I realized that is stupid!  Why would I provide my valuable expertise to questions outside my own website?  I’m trying to build traffic and value to my site… not some other site.  And I have  good chance of ranking for these long tail questions people are answering.

Action:  Type in a main keyword in your industry and look for forums and discussions going on in the internet.  Personally I have our team search Google under Discussions done if the past year.

We find a great question and possibly an answer… and then we use that information to create a similar Q and A on our website.

Put it on your site under a Bnowledge Base or a Q and A section.  Do it (I am telling you this in a low voice… from the new Starsky and Hutch movie).

I’ve been playing with a new wordpress plugin at:

http://madebyraygun.com/wordpress/plugins/q-and-a-plus/

I just wish they would add comments and rich snippets to this plugin.

3. Press Releasees and Public Relations

The focus these days is on brands, my friends.  And what do big brands have?  Public Relations.  Write a great press release and submit it via PRweb.com or prnewswire.com.  No, it is not cheap… Prweb submission will run $200 and prnewswire will run $299.  Expensive… but these are fantastic links that will help your rankings.  And these types of links are super hard to come by these days.

Our company actually hired on a full time Online Public Relations Specialist that pitches our clients to top news publications and industry magazines.  Public Relations for internet marketing will be huge in the future.   Getting your site mentioned in a national publication is the holy grail of links.

Action:  Submit a press release to both prweb and prnewswire.  Don’t link to your site using anchor text!  This is not good anymore.  Link to your site using your URL or company name.  Get those links and see your rankings go up across the board over the next month.

Try to find a Public Relations person that knows digital marketing.  This is tough… but it is the future.

4.  Conversion tracking  for real company quantitative reports

As an internet marketing firm, our primary focus used to be keyword ranking reports and a list of all the links we built.  This has changed significantly… who really cares about how many first page rankings a site has?  Does it make a company money?  No.  What is important is traffic and conversions!

Action:  Instead of ranking reports provide clients and site owners the statistics they should be tracking for business success.

• How many pages brought in traffic (this should grow month to month)
• How many different keywords brought in traffic
• Put conversion tracking on your forms and contact request pages
• Install call tracking
• Install e-commerce tracking if you run an e-commerce site
• Try to provide the customer cost per acquisition of a conversion (your cost/salary /or organic spend divided by conversions)
• Provide organic value to the traffic that is brought in via organic and referral visits.

Business owners care about revenue and profits… not rankings!  And if they still care about ranking… you need to re-educate them.

Check out the tool I built to get the average cost per click value.  Then use the actual traffic numbers x average cost per click = Organic SEO Value

I pull the compete.com numbers… but I suggest you pull the actual numbers from your analytics to get real numbers.

 5.  Live Chat

If you have the resources ( a person to do it)… install a live chat option on your site.  Think of your website as a store… and think of going into a store with nobody there to help you.   Not having Live Chat is like running  a store with nobody working there.

Action:  Install a live chat program that has the capability to start an initial chat automatically according to specific rules.  I like snap engage.  It integrates into Google analytics so you can track how many people chatted with customer service.

I have a 30% lifetime discount code I can provide to you by request.  Just leave a comment and I will get it to you.

6.  Reviews and Rich Snippets

This is going to be huge.  I personally love reviews and if you are not collecting reviews on your service or products you are missing the boat.  You can include rich snippet/micro data code so the search engines will show the reviews or votes as stars right next to your listing!  This also goes for author pictures and info.

Action:  Start getting reviews!  Get reviews on your site, or transfer your older reviews into those that have actual ratings so you can add rich snippet data.  I developed my own custom wordpress plugin for this that I will provide for free to those that request.  Power Reviews has recently added this functionality.  And start getting reviews on your Google page, Yelp, and any other review site.  And display links to these reviews on your site!

If you are blogging on your site… good for you J but you better have an author name, and be including a link to the authors Google plus page.  If you aren’t, you are missing a huge opportunity.

7.  Building your community and working your list

Google isn’t the only game in town.  If Google hiccups, you don’t want to be out of business… do you?  Start getting other sources of traffic from social media, your blog, and by sending out newsletters to your customers.

Action:  Start blogging at least once a month.  Start building up your Facebook community.  I really like Wildfire for this.  It costs about $115 to run a Standard campaign for 30 days (I recommend the standard so you can export the e-mail addresses out).  If you offer a great prize, like a $250 amazon gift card, you could get over 1000 new followers in 30 days … legit followers.

And start sending newsletters from services like Constant Contact… include links to your latest blog posts and start interacting with your community with polls and contests.

This stuff works and site owners love to see their social media communities grow.

Things have really changed in the SEO industry… and what we can do now to make our clients and our own sites’ money has changed.  Now that the big G has outlawed spamming… the real marketers will prevail.

I’ve given you quite a bit of stuff to do… and some of it requires some implementation.  Try these and let me know your thoughts.  I know some of you are already using many of the above tactics and have seen some great results.  We are using these for our clients and are seeing fantastic results.

Leave a comment below and let me know what has worked for you.  Did I miss something?

Last week Google launched a new feature to AdWords which allows advertisers to create one large budget to replace individual campaign budgets. This new feature gives a large amount of control and flexibility for advertisers. Let’s explore how it works in this week’s blog post.

The Benefit of Shared Budgets

Shared budgets on AdWords is a great way to allow individual campaigns to have additional access to funds. Previously budgets had to be divided between the different campaigns.

For example, before shared budgets if you had a budget of $60 a day and 6 different campaigns to divide the money between you’d have to give each campaign a daily budget of $10. The problem is that each of those campaigns will spend a different volumes. Some campaigns will have a higher volume of clicks while others receive less traffic each day. So at the end of the day some campaigns have only spent half of their $10 daily budget while others have spent all of their daily budget and need more to cover the costs.

Use a shared budget in AdWords to allow each campaign to have access to the needed funds for traffic. High traffic campaigns will get the money they need to keep running without the low volume campaigns cutting into their daily spends.

How To Create A Shared Budget in AdWords

Creating a shared budget is easy:

1. Select the Campaigns tab.
2. Click the Shared library link in the left navigation bar.
3. Beneath that link, click Budgets.
4. Click +New budget.
5. Name your new shared budget, select some campaigns to apply it to, and set a budget amount.
6. Click Save.

And you can always edit your shared budget later.