Why your Internet Marketing Company Should Offer Conversion Analysis

If your internet marketing company is helping to drive traffic to your website, you may still be losing money. But how is that possible?

Getting new visitors to your website is only the half the battle; ultimately, they need to become new — and preferably loyal and repeat — customers to benefit your business and help you grow revenue.

The process of getting new visitors to become customers is called conversion, and if your internet marketing company isn’t offering conversion analysis as part of your internet marketing strategy, you need to start shopping around for a new marketing agency.

The Ins and Outs of Conversion Analysis

A good internet marketing company knows that success should not be measured solely by rankings and traffic. That’s why conversion analysis is an important tool in your internet marking campaign.

For example, if you purchased WebpageFX SEO packages, the conversion analysis would include copywriters, search engine optimizers, PPC managers, website funnel analysis and landing page designers to help bolster that conversion rate. That’s the type of comprehensive service you should be looking for in an internet marketing company.

What are the Different Types of Analysis?

There are many different types of analysis that play into conversion rates. One type is usability conversion analysis, which tracks whether your website is following the proper interface and design standards. If it’s confusing or difficult for users, a good internet marketing company will recommend a total redesign to make the website more user friendly.

An internet marketing conversion analysis addresses why your traffic quality may be high despite a well designed site. Generally, your copy is likely to blame, but many other factors can contribute to the problem. Conversion funnel analysis tracks the different ways people navigate your site. If those paths are too distracting, then visitors are likely to get off track without converting.

Consider Conversion Design Testing

One great option to encourage conversions is to have your website undergo conversion design testing, which will help change specific elements and track how those changes affect conversions.

For example, it’s possible that a certain picture on your website helps conversions, or a certain headline inspires visitors to convert more than an old headline. Playing around with different scenarios allows your internet marketing company to devise the best strategy to secure conversions.

One of the main reasons new visitors leave your website is that they find it confusing to navigate. A good internet marketing company will help you streamline your website in order to boost your conversion rate. One of the best investments you can make in your business is hiring a good internet marketing agency; we promise you won’t be disappointed by investing in your company.

Now that you’ve gotten more information about why your internet marketing company should offer conversion analysis, your next step should probably be learning more about finding a marketing agency. Post written by guest blogger Michelle.

Buy Links for SEO or not

Links, and in particular one-way links, have always been thought to be one of the top metrics that search engine web sites look for when ranking websites.

Although the spirit of linking to another website is to show a tacit recommendation for that website, there are many ways in which this metric can be exploited. One way is to simply buy links or pay a search engine optimization company to buy links for you. The temptation of saving the time and effort of having to build relationships and court the opinions of webmasters is quite a strong one, yet many people swear off buying links for their websites, including many search engine optimization experts.

The main reason is that the search engine algorithms can somehow tell the difference between paid links and organic links and will heavily penalize sites which have paid links pointing to them. However, many people still pay for links or allow the search engine optimization companies that they hired to do the same thing. Why? Why do people go for the quick rise in metric rather than the long-term comprehensive social media and blogging strategy? And most importantly, is it worth it?

What you will find if you ask anyone who has used paid links for any significant amount of time is that the practice is not worth it. The major search engines, especially Google, make the punishment for paid linking much worse than any benefit that you would ever gain from it. The practice is known throughout expert circles to be packaged and easily found out, mostly because people tend to become lazy about where they placed their paid links, eventually placing them on irrelevant pages with low page ranks.

It should be noted that Google, or any of the other major search engines for that matter, are not strictly against paid links. It is the lack of quality that accompanies most paid links that the search engines have a problem with. Because the search engines have a responsibility to their “customers” above all, they do not want to see your paid links from your shoe website on a blog about politics just because that blog happened to be an extremely popular one.

This also tends to protect webmasters who do not have the time to police large websites, giving them a sort of quality protection over their customers. The overall quality increase is what the search engines are going for, and as they are the gatekeepers of your visibility on the web, they are the rulemakers.

All in all, paying someone to do paid links for is not worth the trouble even in the short term. The search engine algorithms are becoming more and more accurate at identifying paid links with every paid link that they find. The penalties for using paid links too often can include banishment from the major search engines, which does absolutely nothing for your business or your brand in the long term.

What search engine optimization specialists recommend is a comprehensive search engine optimization program which takes management of social media, twitter and blogs to actually reach out to and find your true audience. In the long term, this is a much more effective strategy for business that are trying to build a brand. Keeping yourself focused and your marketing strategy, intently focused on building and maintaining a brand with a target audience has long been known as a much more successful marketing technique than simply throwing spaghetti on to a wall and seeing what sticks to it.

Jeff is an internet marketing consultant, a blogger and he often writes about SEO. He likes to share his knowledge and experience with others, and helps them with their online presence. Jeff is also the owner of nPromote, a well established SEO company in NY.

InstaBG Delivers Instagram Backgrounds To Your Twitter Account Automagically

While I take great pride in managing my Twitter account through user interaction, quick responses to questions and sparse sharing of my own personal posts I don’t care much for updating my background so it remains fresh upon user visits. It’s for that reason that I began using and highly recommend the program InstaBG.

The InstaBG platform connects users to their Twitter account and the Instagram photo sharing platform in order to create backgrounds based on user preference.

The program couldn’t be easier to use, simply click on the “Sign in with Twitter Account” as shown in the screenshot above, after you give the program permission to access Twitter you will be taken to the following setup screen:

The setup steps are very simple, users start with the “Target Photos” option which is the spot that allows you to pick out where your photos come from on Instagram. For example you can choose “All” at which point the newest and most popular photos will be displayed or you can use the “User ID” option to choose a specific Instagram account. I personally avoided “categories” because there are less than a dozen to choose from. Personally I recommend the “Tags” option if you don’t use the User ID option. I chose the word “Technology” but you could get very specific and put something along the lines of  ”1969 Corvette” and because of the hundreds of millions of photos you’ll likely find plenty of matches.

The next option “Auto Update”  can be set to “On” which will update your Twitter background automagically once a day or you can choose “No Update” if you would prefer to go into your InstaBG account whenever you want to preview then update your Twitter background.

Next the “Order” is selected. If you choose the “All” feature this is a great way to display the most popular Instagram photos of the moment however you can also display the “Newest” or just choose Random photos if you’re feeling lucky.

The Layout chooses photo sizes, I personally like the “small” size because it adds more photos to the Twitter account however medium, large and custom features are also made available.

Next is the “Spacing” option. I actually like “No” spacing because the photos look more like a collage however the small, medium and large options work well.

Finally users can choose to display the date of each photo (great for a portfolio type background) and even take pride in their work by showing the number of likes on each photo directly on their Twitter background.

After all options have been checked simply click “Preview” and the right side preview pane will fill with the photos that will show on your Twitter account:

The last step is simply to click the “Set this image to Twitter” button. Users be warned it took about 5 minutes for my background to change the first time I used this program, I have a feeling that had to do with the Twitter API which can be slow at times because the InstaBG program has updated in a matter of seconds every time after that point.

Here’s a quick look at my Twitter account with my new background:

I plan to continue using InstaBG because of it’s simply to setup interface and daily updates to my Twitter background so if you want a closer look at the final outcome visit @Techobsessed.

To get started visit: InstaBG.com

Newest Free Mac Apps for Better Productivity

We all have trouble focusing from time to time. With the massive time waster that is the Internet tempting us with endless pages of Lolcats, YouTube videos, social-networking sites and Netflix, it is practically turning us all into creatures with the attention span of a goldfish. When was the last time you actually got through a task without checking Facebook? Or sending a text? I bet you can’t even remember.

It is no surprise that an avalanche of free applications has been released by developers for the Mac that helps to combat the lack of productivity that sometimes occurs in our everyday lives. Whether the issue is that there isn’t enough time in a day to get it all done or you just don’t seem to know where the time is going, these apps can help.

RescueTime

You might not realize how much productivity you lose in a day just by the tiny interruptions you allow yourself. RescueTime allows you to see it all listed for you, so you can see just how much time you spend doing what and what it is costing you. It will also give you little warnings when you have exceeded a certain amount of time on any nonproductive task – for example, if you have spent an hour that day, even broken up, on Twitter.

Time Out Free

It is easy to overwork yourself, which can cause serious problems. Headaches, painful muscles and joints, tiredness and general irritability are among the most common issues. But spending too much time working without a break can hurt your overall efficiency, as well. Time Out Free is an annoying – but effective – program that reminds you to take breaks, small and large. It is fully customizable and can really help to eliminate some of those nasty effects of staring too long at a screen.

DropCopy

To copy and send files takes some time, especially across networks or machines. This application lets you do it all with one program by simply dragging and dropping it into the Drop Zone. You can even copy on one machine and paste on another. It is so fast that you’ll be hard-pressed to know how you got along without it.

Spelga PhoneLog

Keep track of every call that comes in with this advanced phone log. It allows you to categorize calls and place notes on each one. Details go directly into the app, with a built-in reminder system. There is a professional option for a fee, but the basic call log application is free of charge.

Remind Me Later

This is an easy-to-use reminder application that runs in the background as a calendar and then pops up when you have set an event, including monthly needs like paying bills, buying groceries or keeping appointments. It was designed to quickly add tasks to save time, making it a better program over most that require a lot of initial organization.

Alfred

This is essentially an application-launching program that puts together all of your browser icons in one place, along with other applications, to let you pick and choose without going through all of your files. Unlike other launchers, this one is genuinely simple.

Evernote

One of the most popular applications ever made, Evernote lets you make notes, save web pages, attach images and PDFs, set reminders, make shopping lists and more. Then, it automatically syncs with all of your Mac products, from your computer to your iPhone and more. This makes them accessible from anywhere and links them all up in a simple-to-use way. Now, it is compatible with Windows, all Internet browsers and various mobile phone brands, such as Android, BlackBerry, Windows and Palm WebOS.

Credit Card Terminal

If you have an Inner Fence Merchant account, this is a must-have application. It works by connecting your financial account to your cell phone, turning it into a credible card terminal so you can accept payments, send invoices and more while on the go. It works very well, though if you don’t have an Inner Fence account, you will have to get one – that does cost money, though the app is free.

SketchBook Express

Sometimes you just have to sketch something, which is why many artists carry around a tablet with a stylus. With SketchBook Express (and SketchBook Pro), you can draw to your heart’s content, using professional digital tools and saving your images to your Mac. It has layers for building up a drawing, a ton of preset brushes and pens, the ability to import images and more.

StuffIt Expander

How much time would it save to just be able to compress files rather than send multiple zips? StuffIt lets you compress, decompress, share and browse other public zips. It also opens files from other zip programs, such as WinZip, RAR, Rucksack and more.

Conclusion

You don’t have to feel like you are drowning under your own lack of productivity anymore. There are plenty of tools to help you stay focused and make the best of the time you have. What are some of your own favorite apps? Let us know in the comments.

Sonia Tracy is the content editor for PsPrint and editor of PsPrint Design Blog. PsPrint is an online commercial printing company. You can follow PsPrint on Twitter @PsPrint.

Have You Selected The Right SEO Keywords?

The first step in any successful search engine optimization campaign should be to consider your target market. What products and services do you sell? What sets you apart from your competitors? Why should people shop online with you?

These questions help you to build up a picture of those who are likely to buy your products or services online. They also give you an immediate insight into the keywords (search terms) that will be used in order to find your website online.

This is a great starting point when considering the keywords that you wish to target. Some would argue that keyword analysis and selection forms the most important part of an SEO project. It’s hard to disagree with that.

Keyword selection

You may feel that keyword analysis is all about finding the search terms that Google users look to use on the most frequent basis. It could be argued that being top for these terms will produce the best results for your business. But is this necessarily true?

The reality is that you don’t have to target these terms. In many cases, it’s actually best not to. Why should this be the case?

The answer is that you’re looking for customers, rather than visitors. Any SEO campaign can lead to increased visitor numbers, but you’re aim is to find buyers. This is where the danger lies when it comes to keyword selection. There’s a risk that you may only ever attract window shoppers.

So how do you avoid these dangers? One way is to ignore keywords that are associated with research, rather than the buying phase of the process. Phrases including words like free, information, advice, help, assistance, returns and faults are not often used by buyers. They are, however, used by individuals researching products, or by those who already own products. These probably don’t represent your target market.

Find your niche

You’ll also notice that keywords attracting large volumes of searchers will often also attract numerous competitors. Some of your rivals are likely to have significant advertising budgets. Do you want to compete with them, in a financial sense, in order to gain positioning?

It’s likely that your money would be better spent by looking to target niche areas. Within your market, you might want to think about areas where you really excel. Is it possible that you are the very best within a smaller niche?

You may realise that you offer better customer service, a wider range of products, or an increased level of expertise. All of these discoveries can be turned to your advantage.

The beauty of seeking to tackle niche areas is that you’ll find that you’re competing with fewer rivals. You’ll also realise that there’s more chance of getting targeted visitors. In other words, you’ll be able to concentrate your efforts on attracting those who are most likely to buy.

If your SEO project is already under way, then take the time to stop and consider the keyword selection. Are you targeting the words that will really produce the most cost-effective results for your business?

With his SEO consulting approach, Keith Barrett provides small businesses with advice on a wide range of search engine optimization and online marketing issues.