Paid Search Marketing and PPC / CPC

Paid search marketing is process of gaining traffic by giving advertisement directly on the search listings in a particular search engine.                  



It is also known as PPC (Pay per Click) or CPC (Cost per Click). Most of the advertisement campaigns in different search engines are run on PPC or CPC basis.


These ad slots are bought from Search Engines against particular keyword or keywords. Now, when someone searches that particular keyword in search engines, you website links will come under the sponsored listening. So these paid ads are helpful to gain good amount of traffic, especially target audience.


Search Engines will charge you according to number of clicks made on your website link by users.


This type of advertisement can also be run on other websites relevant to your website.

Site Map and SEO

Creating a sitemap is important and it plays a great role in Content Optimization.                 



1. Better Indexing: Sitemap helps site to be indexed by search engines better and easily.


2. Page Rank and Link Popularity: Sitemap can be used at a quality source of links with descriptive text.


3. Easy Browsing: It helps visitors to browse through the website quickly and easily.

All about Anchor Text

What is Anchor Text?                                      

Anchor text is defined as the text hyperlinked with another url. In brief, it is the text which is displayed in a webpage and redirects to another webpage after being clicked.

For example,


Learn Web Branding. Here, “Learn Web Branding” is the anchor text and www.thebrandmaker.blogspot.com is the url hyperlinked with it. Users will be redirected to that url after clicking on the anchor text.


Why Anchor text is important:



1. Increase in page rank: Search engines, especially Google, consider anchor text to a great extent for page rank of a website. Search engine’s crawling software captures the anchor text and displays the website in their listing when that particular anchor text is being searched as a keyword.


i.e, http://www.thebarndmaker.blogspot.com/ is likely to come when user searches “learn web branding” in search engine.


2. Increase in Target Audience Traffic: Anchor text gives a clear idea about the content of the website (hyperlinked url) to the users. So websites gains more visitors who are looking for it.


i.e http://www.thebrandmaker.blogspot.com/ is likely to get more visitors who are willing to “Learn Web Branding”.


Anchor Text can be used for both external and internal link.

Google Trends and SEO

Google Trends and SEO

Google trends are the keywords which are being searched in Google search engine at a particular time by most number of people. Those keywords in Google trend are arranged in descending order according to their popularity. The list of these keywords is dynamic and changes in every hour. Google publish these trends for every country separately.

Google trends and internet traffic

As Google trends are most popular search at a particular time, it can be used to generate good amount of internet traffic in your website. Submission of articles on Google trends is an effective way to improve Page Rank. Webmasters often include Google trends keywords in the website to fletch traffic.

Social Bookmarking and SEO

Social Bookmarking is an important part in Content Optimization and also plays a vital role in page Rank improvement.

What is Social Bookmarking?

In brief, Social Bookmarking is a method to store, organize and search your favourite website address (website urls) in a public and popular website so that you can access it from any computer whenever required.

Relation between SEO and Social Bookmarking:

When you do Social Bookmarking (i.e store your favourite web urls in that public website), your bookmarks are available for other visitors also and more importantly, they can also view and follow. Whenever a site is bookmarked by many people, the page rank of that particular site is bound to get improved. Apart from that, Social Bookmarking can help to increase the number of back links.

Following sites are recommended as good and popular Social Bookmarking sites:


1.Digg                                                                            

2. Del.icio.us                                                                              


3. StumbleUpon


4. Reddit


5. Squidoo


6. Furl


7. BlinkList


8. Blogmarks.net


9. Ma.gnolia


10. Simpy


11. Spurl


12. BlinkBits


13. Shadows


14. Raw Sugar


15. Yahoo MyWeb

Links and Back link building for Website Optimization

Link building is an important part in content optimization. Quality links play a vital role in Page Rank improvement. Links are of 3 types, i.e one way links, reciprocal links and 3 way link.



It is always better post links in the sites which are relevant to content of your site.

Different ways of Link Building:                                       


1. Posting links into forums.


2. Posting relevant articles with the link.


3. Posting blogs with the links.


4. Posting links in Social Media sites.


5. Posting links in directories.


6. Reciprocal Link building – 2 way mutual link.


7. Content exchange and Affiliate programs


8. Bookmarking and RSS feed publishing.

Steps to Maximize ROI in Website

These are the most important steps to strategize the investment plan for a website:                                     


Defining Target Audience: Have a Clear idea about Target Audience and their common characteristic or interest.


Website Goals: Define definite time-bound, measurable and investment-bound Target.


Execution Plan: Plot a definite plan involving every major and minor segment of execution. It is always better to get it reviewed by experts after making the plan.


Promotion: Promote and Market the website among the target audience. Engage, Involve and Interact with target audience through communities and groups with the specified common interest.


Review & Measure: Review the progress and measure the success in regular time interval and fix future strategies accordingly.

Placing of keyword for Good Page Rank

Most Important Places for putting keyword:    


• Page title.


• In headings.


• As links.


• In bold text.


• In the first 25 words on the page.


• In the file name (i.e. the URL).


• META tags.


• Body Text.


•

, Tag.


• Alt text / Alt Tag.


• Title Attributes.


• Anchor Text.


• Table Summary.

Major Page Rank Factors

Major Page Rank Factors:

Following factors are Major factors in Google page rank.

1. Keyword  in Content.                                                   
2. Keyword density in Content.
3. Keyword in url.
4. Keyword in domain name.
5. Keyword in Title tag.
6. Keyword in Meta tag.
7. Keyword in Alternate text.
8. Keyword in Anchor text.
9. Keyword in Graphic and image caption.
10. Number of incoming internal links.
11. Authenticity of incoming internal links.
12. Number of outgoing external links.
13. Stability of outgoing external links.
14. Size of content (bigger sites are more preferred).
15. Freshness of the content.
16. Age of the site ( old sites are more preferred).
17. Good Sitemap.
18. Directory listening.
19. Links in DMOZ directory.
20. Number of Bookmarking by visitors.
21. Hosting server reliability.

Google Page Rank Factors- Utimate Truth of SEO

Analyzing and Implemeting the Google Page Rank Factors are the Utimate secrests of success in SEO.

There are Total 118 factors which decides a website's Google Page rank againts a perticular Key Word. Out of these 118 factors, only 21 are "Major" Factors and rest are called "Minor". There are few factors which is also defined as "inactive" factors.

I will discuss all these factors Major and Minor factors spet by step in details in my following posts.

All the Factors are divided into 4 categories.

1.Positive On-Page factors -- 38 factors
2.Negetive On-Page factors-- 24 factors.
3.Positive Off-Page factors-- 43 factors.
4.Negetive Off-Page factors-- 13 factors.

Importance of Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a comprehensive reporting tool that allows site owners to get valuable data about website visitors and internet traffic. This data is very important in terms of strategy and policy making.

It provides information regarding

1. Number of Visitors.

2. Location of Visitors.

3. Time of Visit.

4. Traffic Source & Source Redirection.

5. Time Spent on Visit.

6. Bounce Rate Report.

7. Content Overview Report.

Brand Valuation Standardization

Brand Valuation Standardization

Every kind of brand valuation process has a balance sheet. The balance sheet prompted a similar recognition of internally generated Brands as valuable financial assets within a company. In 1988, Rank Hovis McDougall (rhm), a leading UK food conglomerate, played heavily on the power of its brands to successfully defend a hostile takeover bid by Goodman Fielder Wattie (gfw). rhm’s defence strategy involved carrying out an exercise that demonstrated the value of rhm’s brand portfolio. This was the first independent brand valuation establishing that it was possible to value brands not only when they had been acquired, but also when they had been created by the company itself. After successfully fending off the gfw bid, rhm included in its 1988 financial accounts the value of both the internally generated and acquired brands under “intangible assets” on the balance sheet.

In 1989, the London Stock Exchange endorsed the concept of brand valuation as used by rhm by allowing the inclusion of intangible assets in the class tests for shareholder approvals during takeovers. This proved to be the impetus for a wave of major branded-goods companies to recognise the value of brands as intangible assets on their balance sheets. In the UK, these included Cadbury Schweppes, Grand Metropolitan (when it acquired Pillsbury for $5 billion), Guinness, Ladbrokes (when it acquired Hilton) and United Biscuits (including the Smith’s brand.

Source: Madden, T.J., Fehle, F. and Fournier, S.M., Brands Matter: An Empirical Investigation of Brand-building Activities and the Creation of Shareholder Value.

Elements and Characteristics of Viral Marketing

GP – Geometric Progression is the term which defines the ultimate characteristic of viral Marketing.

1. It scales easily from small to small with time.

2. It gives away product or services.

3. Takes Advantage of other’s resources.


4. It utilizes existing communication network.


5. Exploits common motivations and behaviours of potential consumers.

Advantages of Directory Submission

Directory Submission is a very cost effective and often free process in SEO. It severs the following purposes really well.

1. Increase in backlinks.                           

2. Guaranteed search engine indexing.

3. Frequent Bot visit by search engines.

4. Increase in direct traffic.

5. It helps to measure keyword relevancy.

Benefits of Video Marketing

Most Important Advantages of Video Marketing:
1. Any Product or Service can be sold through Video Marketing without spending much money in PPC program or costly Banner Advertisement.

2. Video Marketing is the easiest way to earn in Affiliate Programs by selling other's product or service.

3. Internet Traffic can be driven to a Website or Blog by Video Marketing without waiting much long for search engines to pick up your content.

4. Increase Search Engine Raking without writing and submitting much Articles.

Social Media Marketing Stategies

Salient Features of Social Media Marketing

• The most effective way of getting users attention OR To reach online people.


• People tend to take part in online conversations and are happy to communicate with brands.

• The information found on the Social Web can be genuinely interesting and quite informative when applied to a business.

Important Steps of Social Media Marketing Plan:
 
1. Starting with the Goals


2. Research to Design the Strategy

3. Take a Call on “Actual path”

4. Important regular Practices

5. Result Measurements

6. Risks

7. KPI (Key Performance Indicators)

Advantages of Email Marketing

Email Marketing

Main Advantages of Email marketing:                              
1.It is Cost-effective
2. It is Instant Communication Process
3. It is Measurable
4. It is most simple among all Web Branding techniques

Important Strategies of Email Marketing
* Inviting existing customers for Up-Selling.

* Campaign Management – promoting business during Christmas, Holiday, etc.
* Promoting latest products and services through email marketing.
* Building business credentials and create a strong marketing message to your targeted customers.
* Enageging customers and driving traffic to web sites.
* Online surveys and polls and Online campaign management.

Important steps of Implementaion of Email Marketing:
* Email Marketing Template Design

* Content development
* Image hosting
* Online signup box implementation
* Email list management and segmentation
* Campaign analysis and reporting

Mission & Vision in Branding Process

Express a Great Vision or Mission Statement

Mission is Purpose and Vision is Goals

Important Checklist:

Set out Your Goals and Purpose Clearly.
Identify your Primary Reason for being in that perticular Business.
Establish your Standards, Values and Integrity properly.
Keep your Company, Management and Employees focused on your Primary Purpose.

Branding: Step 1- Have a Great Idea!

Having a Good Idea is critical to building a great brand.

The General Checklist to evaluate an Idea:

Does the idea do something dramatically new or cater to a New Market?

Does the ides fill a Gap or Need in the Market?

Does the idea Improve the way of doing Something?

Useful Internet usage Statistics

Internet Usage Statistics from Morgan Stanley survey report.

7 Vital Steps of Branding in brief

1.Have a Great Idea.

2.Have a Vision.

3.Positioning of Brand.

4.Designing the Brand Identity.

5.Protecting the Brand.

6.Establishment of Brand.

7.Optimizing the Brand.

Steps for Web Branding

Social Media Marketing.

Web Branding Segments

Free and Paid Classified Advertisement.


Email Marketing.


SMS marketing.


Mass Messageing.


Free online couseling.


Directory Submission.


Free link excahnge.


Link posting.


Postings Answers.


Data Collection.


Blogging Posting.


Article posting.


Online community engagement..


Video posting.


Traffic analysis.

What makes a Brand Powerful

Direct Relationship of Brand with Financial Value

The Shift Model to Understand Web Branding

Explanation of Shift Model:

1. Earlier concept was to catch the attention of target audience while the latest trend is to engage potetial customers or consumers into fruitful conversation or interaction. This more effective way to conversion.

2. Earlier concept was to reach as many as people possible (Spray & Prey) through branding while the new concept is to reach only targeted audience. Saves valuable cost and money.

3.Earlier concept was to throw somthing towards crowd and no instant feedback or queries while the latest concept is the 2 way conversation to recieve feedback and queries instantly. This is really important for future policy making.

Why Web Branding?

What makes a Great Brand?

Great Design - Unique Positioning - the Brand Impression  
➡ A Superior Product or Service
➡ Consistency on delivering on a Promise
➡ A Great Customer Experience
➡ Internal Commitment to keeping the Brand Great
➡ Staying Relevant to Market and Consumer Expectations

What is there in a Brand?

Let's Consider an example-- CocaCola

• Stock Market Value: $135billion

• Net Assets $10.5 billion

• $125 billion value –intangible confidence of shareholders
• Value of Brand estimated at $70 billion
• 50% of value is in the brands.


So what does a Brand do?

• Add up to 70% to the value of your Company.


• Have a lasting impression on the public imagination.

• Ensure Loyalty from customers and shareholders alike.

• Rally Employees to your Culture and attract new Recruits

• Allows you to diversify into other categories and businesses.

What is Branding and What is a Brand?

What is a brand?

“A brand is a distinguishing nameor symbol intended to identify goods or services of a seller and to differentiate those goods orservices from competitors.”

Purpose of Brand


Inspire
Inject your organization with heart and soul.
Motivate.
Spur action.
Connect.
Unify departments and divisions for “global” presence. Link products and services to a “promise.”
Simplify.
Clarify and crystallize your mission.
Inform.
Convey values, attributes, and advantages.

Fundamentally a brand is created to


Establish and increase customer & loyalty with products and services.

Reasons for Branding                                        

Alignment with Trends.

Increased Perception of Quality.

Increased Consistency.

Image.

Practice.

Increased Sales.

Increased Net Return.

Meet Customer Expectations.