Creating web traffic growth

Change creates growth
this leads to

The opentracker law of website traffic:

Given a constant environment, website traffic will remain unchanged unless you take action.
"Unchanged" refers to: the number of new visitors, visitors entering by search term, referred traffic, etc, will not increase.

executive summary: in a nutshell

The point of this article to make you aware of the need to change things on your website in order to increase traffic and make your site more effective.
In 10 words or less: measure and evaluate, in order to make effective changes.
We see many sites "stuck" at the same level of traffic. Many sites generate the same number of new visitors consistently, year after year, the number changing only 1-2%.
In practical terms: you can rely on changes in your search engine ranking or free publicity, OR you can work to make change yourself.

general introduction: change creates growth

Summary:

• Change creates growth
• Action is required for change

"Actionable metrics" are data or information that you can apply.
By looking at thousands of web traffic datasets we have learned that change does not happen by itself, you need to make change happen.

Steps To Take In Order To Succeed:

In order to take action you need:

1. information or data
2. the ability to implement your ideas effectively
3. a way monitor this; indicator of success or failure
4. ability to identify and implement the most effective solution

Example: you have a website and want visitors to find your products. You can use a search bar, a drop-down, roll-over or click selection. Place alternatives on your site and use measurement to think with your clients, to understand how they like to navigate.
Find out and make it happen. The best option will mean increased user satisfaction and products viewed.
A lot depends on your site strategy. Google, for example, is designed to get visitors off their site; fast results drive high visitor click-throughs, and keep visitors coming back.
Your goal may be to keep visitors on your site. Therefore you should identify the solution that results in the most pages served (clicks) & time spent on your site. We think the goal is to give your visitors a good experience.

your website: understanding the internet environment

Pay attention to what is happening on the internet, and how it affects your success:
Your website does not exist in a vacuum. Your website exists in the internet environment, this means your (potential) success is dependent on this context and how you "fit in". In evolutionary terms, this is called adapting, survival of the fittest.
What can you learn from the wider internet and apply to your website in order to improve? Specifically, what observable trends will influence your content management strategies?

how to stimulate change: seeing your website in context

• The question is "what should you do in order to stimulate change?"
• The public are increasingly savvy
• The internet is more interactive in the Web 2.0 environment.
• Can you generate content related to any changes you observe?

In the next article in this series, we will provide examples of how to learn from and adjust content to fit-in with current Web 2.0 environment.

SEO Tops Digital Marketing Tactics for 2011

Here we are just past the halfway mark in 2010 and we’ve tapped into the stream of future marketing planning with our readers for 2011 with a poll. Our question? What 3 online marketing channels & tactics will you emphasize in 2011? The number one answer? Not social media, not email marketing.

The top digital marketing tactic for OMB readers in 2011 is Search Engine Optimization

Our poll this year provided 44 different answers to choose from ranging from display advertising to no holds barred spam. Over 200 readers took the poll and made their choices. While there are many signs of marketing budgets making a recovery, the vast majority of marketers are still focused on planning the most efficient and effective online marketing mix they can for the new year.
Hopefully the responses from our poll will be helpful in making those choices as budgets and strategies are planned for 2011.

The top responses in this year’s survey reflect a more holistic perspective that includes search, social media, advertising, content and email.  While social media marketing continues to get a lot of media attention and companies are investing more ($1.2 billion 2011, Forrester), search marketing (PPC and SEO) gets the lion’s share of digital marketing budgets ($20.7 billion 2011, Forrester).

A new entrant to the top 10 this year is content marketing which is a reflection of the increasing importance on providing more than just product/service features and benefits to customers in order to get them to buy. Content is the glue for the intersection of SEO and Social Media. Content is often the outcome of social interactions online and content can be shared and linked to, increasing it’s visibility within all kinds of search. I wouldn’t be surprised if Content Marketing jumped a few more spaces next year. According to the Junta42 Content Marketing Spending Report, 59% of marketers surveyed planned to increase content marketing spending in 2010.
Advertising through Pay per click and social media rated well, but not concomitant with budgets. That is more likely an indication of the topical focus of Online Marketing Blog which pays less attention to advertising than Search Marketing, Social Media, Content Marketing and Online PR.
Keep in mind, the results of this single question poll are a reflection of our readers and with 232 responses, isn’t a significant sample size for making broad generalizations. It is however, useful insight for our readers to see what others are focusing on. Online Marketing Blog is rated well as a marketing blog and has a significant readership in the marketing community.
You can see the full set of responses and all 44 digital marketing tactics here.
Are Search Engine Optimization, Social Networking and Blogging your top digital marketing tactics for 2011? If not, what areas will you emphasize next year?
resource:http://www.toprankblog.com/2010/07/seo-tops-digital-marketing-2011/

Google updates Image Search with inline panel and more image information

Google's update to Image Search brings an inline panel, which is supposed to make search faster and minimise clicking.

 

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Google has rolled out another round of update to its Image Search that is supposed to make the search faster and require less clicks. The update bring in a range of changes, the images now being presented via an inline panel.

“Based on feedback from both users and webmasters, we redesigned Google Images to provide a better search experience. In the next few days, you’ll see image results displayed in an inline panel so it’s faster, more beautiful, and more reliable,” says Google in a blog post. “You will be able to quickly flip through a set of images by using the keyboard. If you want to go back to browsing other search results, just scroll down and pick up right where you left off”.

When users search for images currently, they see large thumbnail images for whatever they are looking. For example, someone searches for the Taj Mahal, the search shows up images of the monument. Clicking on the image enlarges it, and the web page is shown in the background. With the update, Google Image Search shows a display of smaller images with one main image at the centre enlarged, with more image information.

Google also explains what the tweak to its Image Search would mean for webmasters:

- We now display detailed information about the image (the metadata) right underneath the image in the search results, instead of redirecting users to a separate landing page.

- We’re featuring some key information much more prominently next to the image: the title of the page hosting the image, the domain name it comes from, and the image size.

- The domain name is now clickable, and we also added a new button to visit the page the image is hosted on. This means that there are now four clickable targets to the source page instead of just two. In our tests, we’ve seen a net increase in the average click-through rate to the hosting website.

- The source page will no longer load up in an iframe in the background of the image detail view.

- This speeds up the experience for users, reduces the load on the source website’s servers, and improves the accuracy of webmaster metrics such as pageviews. As usual, image search query data is available in Top Search Queries in Webmaster Tools.

resource:http://www.thinkdigit.com/Internet/Google-updates-Image-Search-with-inline-panel_13189.html

Facebook Launches Graph Search to Rival Google

There was whispers recently that Facebook had some big news to share and now we know what it is…Graph Search which CEO Mark Zuckerburg announced last week.
Very soon Facebook users are going to be able to search with in a garden wall for things their friends like, places they have been as well as pictures they have posted.
What is a graph search and how does it work?

"The search bar is going to start by retuning the top search suggestions. This is going to include: people, pages, apps, places, groups and other suggested searches. Facebook users are going to be able to search for things like restaurants that are near them, hotels they would like to visit or photos that have been posted by friends or pages that they have liked. It will even allow users to search for what games their friends like to play.
There are a lot of things you need to consider when you are setting up your Facebook for successful search results. Likes on Facebook are actually going to be one of the most important components of this graph search. The more times something is liked, the larger group of individuals it is going to connect with. Make sure you fill out your profile, group and/or business page completely. It is also important that you make sure you only use real information. If there is something you DON’T want to reveal, it is better to leave area blank than to make up information. You should also avoid trying to create your own sub-categories or adding your own information. While it is only natural to want to embellish what you have to write, it is only going to hurt the search engine results.
What are the implications for SEO and online marketing?
Quite significant according to Marketing Pilgrim:
In the worlds of SEO and internet marketing, Graph Search will change the game entirely. Your fans are more important than ever. With Graph Search, people who like your Facebook Page and share your content will automatically become unofficial word-of-mouth brand advocates on your behalf. Facebook’s new pillar is further affirmation for a trend that we’ve been seeing for quite a bit of time – simply put, people prefer to turn to their friends for advice.
With the prospect that Facebook’s Graph Search could eventually become a fairly effective local search and recommendation engine, SEOs need to pay more attention to like signals, review signals and check-ins. Think about it, users will be typing in “pizzerias that my friends like” (meaning having a page that people “like” is a signal) or “pizzerias that my friends have been to” (meaning Facebook check-ins are a signal). The same goes for our clients – It’ll be our job to train our clients to focus on attracting the right fans to your page and giving your fans a reason to interact with your content on an ongoing basis. This includes providing incentives for checking-in upon arrival and engaging your audience with worthwhile content. This puts a whole new spin on the significance of developing a content strategy for Facebook – your business page just gained a whole new level of importance."

Currently, Facebook Graph Search is only available in beta, but make sure you sign-up to the wait list so you’re one of the first to get access when it is officially launched.
recourse: http://blog.ineedhits.com/search-news/facebook-launches-graph-search-to-rival-google-211512285.html

Google Overhaul’s Image Search; Webmasters Rejoice

As most people are aware, the current Google Image Search requires multiple steps to view images. Currently, when a user searches for an image, they are brought to a search result page with different images. To see a bigger version of the picture, users have to click on it and then they are brought to another page. To view another picture, they have to go back to the image result page and then click on another picture. It can become quite a hassle for those who want to look at multiple pictures.
The new change to Google Image Search will now bring up a larger image when an image is clicked on the image result page. Users will have the ability to look through multiple images in a way that does not require multiple clicking. Simply using their keyboard, users will be able to skip through the different images instead of needing to go back to the search result page and selecting a new image.
This new change will also add four clickable targets that will make it easier for users to visit the actual website that the image is being hosted on. This update to Google Image Search will also prevent phantom visits, which many publishers have noticed happening to the current system. More information on the results will also be displayed, including metadata, the page hosting the image, its size, and domain name. This is designed to increase click-through rates to the sites hosting the images.
During the testing of this new update, it was reported that Google noticed an increase in click-through traffic, which should make webmasters very happy.
You can find out more about this update to Google Image search here.

1st Google Panda Update Released for 2013

Even though Google initially denied that there was an update taking place, it was announced on January 22 that a new Panda refresh has been pushed out.
This is the first update from Google in 2013 and the 24th version of the Panda refresh update. Google says that this update has affected only 1.2% of English queries and many webmasters are reporting to not have even noticed a change in their website’s ranking at all.
Google’s main focus has been cutting down the amount of low quality web pages and Panda has been one of the ways that Google is doing just that. Since Panda’s release almost two years ago, Google has been able to target those websites the feature spam, keyword stuffed content, serial plagiarism, and much more. The websites that have been targeted receive lower ranks by Google. Websites that receive very low ranks will be removed completely from Google Search.
The updates to Panda refresh are designed to perform regular refreshes that allow Google to weed out websites that are content farms, spam, and overall poor websites to improve the overall user experience. This Panda refresh update is not creating as much buzz as the December 21, 2012 update though.
Ever since Google Panda was released in February of 2011, there has been at least one update a month, sometimes even two. Most of these 24 updates were announced by Google, but some were not. The last few updates to Panda refresh have only affected English queries.
resource:http://blog.ineedhits.com/search-news/1st-google-panda-update-released-for-2013-291312305.html

Blog Posts to Read for November 1, 2012

Below you will find our favorite blog posts that are related to SEO, search engine marketing and social media marketing from this past week. Please feel free to visit each, we hope you find them as helpful as we do!

31 Easy Ideas To Create Content Your Customers Want
The big secret in content marketing is that it is not that hard to begin creating a steady stream of relevant content. Here are 31 ideas to help you get started.
5 Things to Check Before Sending Your Press Release
Before you send out your press release, you need to check these 5 important things.
8 Questions to Ask When Guest Blogging
How do you know if guest blogging is worth your time? Here are 8 considerations.
Five Lessons Learned After Five Years of B2B Social Media
Today, brands are embracing social media and are becoming more effective at integrating these tools into their communications. Here are five lessons from someone who has been involved in B2B social media for the past 5 years.
Yelp Cracks Down on Fake Reviews
Yelp claims that employees will investigate and respond to all related solicitations by going undercover to catch the perpetrators.
Infographic: State of Social Media Marketing
Awareness has published “The State Of Social Marketing Report” and an associated infographic. The report dives into the numbers to detail items with important business value.
How Your Brand Can Leverage the Power of Other Brands on Social Media
Just like we interact with friends on social media, we (brands) should interact with other brands.
More Marketers Spend On Content, Fewer Know If it’s Working
Last year, 40% of the B2B marketers surveyed said content marketing was “effective” or “very effective.” This year, that figure dipped to 36%.
Google Analytics Tips for Small Businesses
Use Google Analytics to help measure how your website is doing. Here are some ways to make sense of all of the reporting options.
Using Social Media For Lead Generation
Simply opening up a Twitter account or creating a LinkedIn profile isn’t enough; you have to know how to turn your connections into qualified leads.
These were our favorite SEO, SEM and Social Media blog posts this week. Check back next week for more top posts!