Google Alert is a very simple and useful SEO tool by Google. Google alert is an email update based on the specific search term defined by you. The alerts can be delivered to your specified email address or as a feed to your feed reader.

For example, if you are interested in Soccer news and events, you can set up a Google alert with search terms like World Soccer, Soccer events, Soccer championship etc. You can opt whether you would like to receive upto 10, 20 or 50 related articles, news or blog posts. Google will send an email with all the related content to your search term to your email address.

You can also define the type of content you would like blog, news, videos or discussions. If you want all the types, you can opt for everything.

Setting up of Google alerts

To set up a Google alert, simply go to http://www.google.com/alerts. You can sign in using your Google account. After login, you can create a Google alert by filling up the simple form. While setting up Google alerts, it is very important to ‘quote’ the search terms. This narrows the search operation, as it specifies the topic. So, undesired stories are not emailed to an account.

You can create multiple alerts for different search terms of interest. You can also click on Manage Alerts and make changes to the alerts. While setting up Google alerts, it is very important to ‘quote’ the search terms. This narrows the search operation, as it specifies the topic. So, undesired stories are not emailed to an account.

Google alerts can be used in many ways helpful to your SEO and Internet Marketing efforts.

Tags: google alerts, seo tool
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Ecommerce sites offer an easy way for the product owners to sell their merchandise. But there are various things that need to be taken care of to convert the visitors into actual customers. Many ecommerce owners spend considerable time to promote their site using SEO/SEM but miss the mark owing to proper usability which is more important to convert leads into sales. Typically, the conversion rate is 1%-2% which can be increased with proper usability. I have compiled a list of things which shall boost the conversion rates on most commercial sites.

1. Clutter free homepage: The landing page of the site should be clutter free with clearly defined categories and products menu. Some featured or best selling products can be highlighted.
2. One Page Checkout: Keep the shopping process simple and quick with one page checkout. This will reduce the cart abandonment rate as the lengthy checkout process may irritate the customer and prevent from completing the buy.
3. Display the contact info prominently: Display the contact info like Phone no, toll free no and email id prominently on all the pages as this will generate trust in the customer and also provide an easy way for the customer to contact you if he is facing any issue with the online shopping process.
4. Checkout process bar: Its important to have a checkout process bar so that the customer knows all the steps he need to complete before the buy is complete and also where he is at any step.
5. Thankyou and payment confirmation page: A customer needs to be clear that the order is complete and the payment has been successfully paid. So, its necessary to have a thankyou page with order number and payment receipt confirmation. Also an email with order information and payment receipt should be sent to the customer.
6. Early shipping calculation: Its now very important to display the shipping charges at the start of the checkout process as its very annoying to the customer if the shipping charges come out to be more than the product cost itself.
7. Stock Update and Display: The stock situation of all the products on the site should be correctly displayed to the user. Ideally, the customer should not be allowed to add a product to the cart if the product is not available in stock. Rather an option to either contact the seller or add to wish list should be there to the customer so that an email can be sent to the customer when the product is replenished in the stock.
8. Product details: Provide as much details of the product as possible like title, description, available attributes like color, size, styles etc, multiple images, related products. This helps the customer to get a proper touch and feel of the product.
9. Product Reviews: Displaying product reviews submitted by real customers also help the new customer to make a quick decision.
10. Multiple payment options: Its quite helpful to have multiple payment options to the customer as some customer may be comfortable with credit card payment but some may not. Also add the accepted payment options on all the pages of the site, so that the customer can know beforehand whether he has the possibility to pay using the available options.
11. Shopping Cart: Use the product pictures in the shopping cart with each item. Also, link back the product with the product detail page in a new window so that the customer can view the details and compare with other products.
12. Terms of Use: Its very important to provide all the terms in simple and clear text description. Its recommended to cover Guarantee policy, Return policy, Privacy policy and general terms of use.
13. Discounts and Offers: Special offers from time to time attract visitors and prompt the visitor to purchase. For example. Free shipping with a purchase of over $75 will prompt the customer to purchase more to save on shipping price.
14. Product Reviews: The customer love to read reviews and this aid in their decision to make a purchase. Provide customer reviews for the products on the site and also allow the customer to submit a review.
15. Currency converter: The customers always feel comfortable buying in their own country’s currency. So, if you are selling to international customers also, its much advisable to have a currency converter on the site and allow the customers to view the products price in their preferred currency.
16. Confidence building and trust logos: The SSL certificate seal, security seal, business bureau seal are some of the seals that generate trust and confidence to purchase in the customers. If you are offering credit card gateway as the payment option, security seal and SSL certificate are very important. The business bureau seals provide trust in your organization and validate that you are a legal entity.
17. Customer testimonials: The potential buyers always find testimonials from other customers useful in making the purchase decision. The testimonials should be with proper customer’s details.
18. Newsletter: A newsletter signup facility with regular newsletters to the subscribers is a good way to keep in touch with the customers. You can send new products, product offers and other promotional information using the newsletter.
19. Articles and resources on the products/services: Apart from the product information, any article or resource providing details about the processes, know how, and tutorials on uses or advantages helps the customer to make an informed decision. The customers also perceive that you are specialists for that product.
20. Support and Helpdesk: The support contact information along with the response time is very helpful to the customers. If a support helpdesk or ticketing system can be added, it would be great addition.

The Ecommerce SEO is very important to achieve high traffic but once the traffic has been attained, the priority is to convert it into sales. We specialize in ecommerce consulting and conversion optimization.

Contact us for a free consultation on Ecommerce SEO.

Tags: conversion consulting, conversion optimization, ecommerce seo
Posted in Conversion Optimization, SEO | 1 Comment »

Keywords are broadly divided into two categories – Short tail and Long tail keywords. Short tail ones are meant to target highly competitive niche markets and the long tail ones are used for targeting rather less competitive niche markets. Marketing concept for “Long tail keywords” is based on describing hundreds or thousands of keywords and phrases of a website that normally goes unnoticed by owners of the site.

The general trend of online marketing is to focus on the best keyword list that brings maximum number of visitors to a site. So, agencies are found to focus on top 10-20 keywords for marketing a website. But on studying the referrals of search engines, it is often found that their traffic generated miss the top 10-20 terms in the majority of their sale markets.

Highly competitive keywords that generally fall in the top ten keywords list do generate a lot of traffic for the site. But their numbers fall after the top 10 most popular keywords. In fact, the cumulative traffic generated by long tail keywords far exceeds the traffic generated by the top 10-20 keywords. So, less important keyword that brings 1-3 visits when summed up results in more traffic, much greater than the top 10 keywords generate. There are cases when initial reports showed that top 10 terms brought half of site’s searches. But when the sale part is considered, the 18-19% conversions took place from first 10 keywords and the rest of 80% sale conversions happened from long tail keywords.

Working on long tail keywords may be a significant means to attract easy traffic to a site. Though it is true that such keywords do not bring much traffic individually, but then, when used on a large scale i.e. targeting on many long tail keywords, can actually generate lots of traffic for a website. Moreover, as there is less competition, so you can easily rank in Google’s first page with long tail keywords. Another benefit is that when visitors make searches on Google based on long tail keywords, they know exactly what they are looking for. So, the probability of their conversions to sales and ad clicks is far greater.

If a website is earning $5 per 1000 impression then with long tail keywords it is possible for it to earn $100 per 1000 impressions. So, it is very beneficial for a business even in cases where the website is not achieving high Google rankings for its competitive keywords.

Tags: conversion consulting, long tail keywords
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Are you struggling with bad press that has surfaced on the search engines about you or your company, damaging your commercial reputation, then Reverse SEO is what you need. It is the quickest and most effective solution for Online Reputation Management (ORM). In its simplest terms, it is a way of knocking negative publicity off the first page in search engines and preventing it from getting there ever again thus, limiting its exposure and stifling its impact.

Social networking sites act like comfortable platforms where unsatisfied customers, resentful employees, lazy journalists, and malicious competitors can voice their grievance/opinion, which may tarnish your image. The genuineness of such grievance/opinion is always questionable, but tracking it down is not possible as it is often anonymous. The ripple effect of such a post is much quicker. So, is it wise to let yourself or your company, become a target of bad press?  The answer is obvious and therefore, it is time to launch Reverse SEO.

The next question is how negative publicity gains traction within the search engines, and how it can lead to a public relations nightmare.

It is a simple phenomenon. Google, Yahoo, and Bing rank pages based on a large number of criteria. If a website and its individual pages satisfy the most important of those criteria, those pages will rank well.

A lot of the bad press that targets companies (possibly even yours) is placed on websites that meet key ranking parameters in the search algorithms. That means the negative publicity can climb into the top positions and gain exposure. When people search for you or your company, they’ll see the bad press. That damages your reputation.

How does Reverse SEO work?

Like search engine marketing, reverse SEO uses a methodical, multi-pronged approach to protect your online reputation.

1. First step - Identify the sites and pages that contain negative publicity about your company and the keywords that rank high in SERPs. Those keywords might include your name, your company’s or key employees.
2. Second step – Analyze those sites and pages for their respective ranking authority. That will help you determine the effort and tools required in order to move them from the first page of listings within search engines. A negative PR blitz that is spreading across social networking sites is more difficult to overcome than a single blog post that is on a non-authoritative domain.
3. Third step – Gather necessary tools and execute the reverse SEO campaign. Such tools might include keyword rich optimized press releases, a fresh network of sites and blogs, social media profiles, and a social bookmarking program that are self propelling, compete effectively against existing bad press and help suppress it. Regularly posting such content on the web will ensure that negative rankings do not emerge on the top. Reverse SEO may also include heavy content syndication to build high-quality links. Search engine marketing specialists have these tools at their disposal.

Pro-activeness is the keyword here – Reverse SEO Begins Before Negative Press Emerges

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” By: Benjamin Franklin

Walmart, PayPal, Home Depot, Bank of America… represent a small sample of companies that have been the target of negative press in the search engines. While large companies can simply shrug it off their shoulders, beginners cannot afford to risk their future growth.

It is better to launch a reverse SEO campaign before bad publicity appears in the search engines. Negative press can spread rapidly as people attach the press to their own blogs, sites, forums, and social media accounts. That creates a growing portfolio of links pointing towards the damaging press, cementing its position in the top listings. The problem then becomes more difficult to address. By launching a reverse SEO campaign upfront, you can prevent the negative publicity from gaining exposure in the first place.

Contact Us for a free consultation on monitoring your online reputation.

Tags: reputation management, reputation monitoring, reverse seo
Posted in Reputation Management, SEO | No Comments »