Spire Orion Galaxy Gurgaon Call 9871329339 Spire Orion Gurgaon

Like Orion, the guardian of the night sky, there is a new landmark that stands tall in the suburban sky of Gurgaon.

Introducing Orion at South, premium, low-rise apartments which create a life of opulence and comfort for a select few. Just like the constellation, Orion at South draws its flavor and variety from seven different pillars of vision mainstream green, sustainability, planning, expertise, detailing, luxury and aesthetics. This has made it transform dreams into spaces that empower your thoughts, rejuvenate your spirit and realize your aspiration.

South 68 is India’s first project to offer 100 percent customizable apartments. The location offers unprecedented connectivity. It is strategically located off the Golf Course Extension Road at Sector 68, Sohna Road, Gurgaon. This makes reaching West Delhi a matter of minutes via the upcoming peripheral Expressway and Metro. The site is located within walking distance of planned metro station. With the highly affordable price tag, customization options and a superb location; an apartment here is simply the best value in the neighborhood.

Location: The project is aptly located in Sector 68 within Gurgaon. It happens to be in Gurgaon's suburb called Golf Course Extension. As the Gurgaon Faridabad Road makes it possible to access both, National Highway No.8 (NH-8) as well as parts of South Delhi, this recently constructed stretch of Golf Course Extension is gaining prominence among both, investors and developers, alike. The travel time from the Golf Course Extension Road to the Delhi Airport is not likely to exceed beyond a short duration of half an hour. It lies in the vicinity of Spire South , VSR 68 Avenue and Era Sky Ville Crest.

Available units: Investors and end-users can vouch for the quality of 3BHK and 4BHK apartment. You can choose from different sizes which vary from 2562 square feet to 3099 square feet respectively. The project is available at an attractive payment plan.

Amenities: Spire Orion At South has proposed ample amenities. Some examples are swimming pool, community party area, park, gym and kids play area. The developer has laid equal focus on the security of residents. Fire sprinklers have been installed to ensure safety from fire.

Interior Specifications: World-class interior specifications of apartments meet with global standards. One can enjoy views of rear gardens, lush green lawns and manicured landscapes from wide-covered balconies adjoining living room and bedrooms of apartments offered here for sale. You would love to spend some extra time in modular kitchen and impress your loved ones with their favorite delicacies. Diversified flooring in different areas and high-quality CP fittings are some other interior specifications. The floor plan provides balance of luxury and utility. You may download Spire Orion At South brochure from website.

The Scoop on Google Semantics and Semiotics

Photo Credit: Carlos Luna via flickr

A look at the past 10 or so years of search engine optimization shows both search engines and human ingenuity has come a long way. When the Internet first went viral (pardon the pun), every website was in a competitive and tightly packed race to win the top spots on every search engine results page (SERP). The tactic of choice was as barbaric and effective as a good old-fashioned club. It was blunt, bold, and it hurt—the readers at least. Do you know what the tactic was? That’s right: keyword stuffing.

Bridging the Gap between Man and Machine
We’ve spent years tweaking our content. Real, live human beings read it, but we’ve been absolutely obsessed with those golden SERP spots. The first page only has 10 open spots, and we’re all determined to snatch one.

Since the original means of snatching a coveted seat meant impressing the machine over the man, we created tons of content that…well…didn’t entertain. In fact, a lot of it was so crammed with keywords that it hurt to read; it was virtually impossible to decipher. The resulting reader headaches launched a search and user optimization that has evolved in astonishing and positive ways over the years.

What exactly is search and user optimization? It’s the bridging of the gap between man and machine, the means of creating content that is both search and user friendly. It’s the ultimate win-win scenario and, thanks to Google’s ever evolving algorithms, it’s becoming reality.

Semantics and Semiotics
We’re throwing around some pretty technical terminology. It can feel a little intimidating, but the meaning behind the jargon is fairly straightforward.

According to Moz, semiotics “is the study of the creation of meaning.” Semioticians (or people who look at semiotics) look at everything—literally. They take into considerations the words, images, traffic lights and kinship structures of content. They study what the signifiers mean and how people create meaning from them.
Three components create semiotics: syntactics, semantics and pragmatics. Semantics is, according to Moz, “the study of conventional meaning.” For example, consider the word “orange.” It can mean one of two things: the tasty fruit or the bright color.

Ten years ago, well before Google’s Hummingbird flew in, search engines focused solely on keywords. They weren’t very smart machines because they couldn’t distinguish between an orange and the color orange unless keyword stuffing indicating fruit or color dominated the page. You can imagine how redundant and irritating this was for the reader, who could instantly tell the difference from that orange to this orange based on context.

Hummingbird buzzed in, and suddenly semantics took over. Instead of merely seeing keywords, Google could now look at queries. The semantic nature of search became more obvious and ta-dah! A smarter search engine was born.

But That’s Not All There Is To it…
We’ve all caught up to the latest Google algorithms. We know that the search engine can distinguish context. Keyword stuffing isn’t necessary. In fact, it’s staunchly discouraged and demanded to be replaced with high-quality copy.

Search engines are now capable of associating synonyms, which means there’s no need to say the same thing a hundred times in one piece of copy. We can naturally mix and match with synonyms, relevant words, and phrases to achieve SERP ranking while still delivering an appealing piece of writing for the reader, who is ever thankful.

Semiotics incorporates semantics, but it also uses syntactics and pragmatics:

• Syntactics (commonly known as “syntax”) is good old-fashioned grammatical rules, form, and spatial order. It’s the structure of properly written and enjoyable content. It’s so built into us that it just comes naturally, and now Google can understand it.
• Pragmatics is a bit more complex. Moz explains pragmatics well saying, “You…bring a whole life’s experience into any interaction…those experiences shape the way you interpret images and words.” Pragmatics is highly human and relative to individuals. You see, Google knows the dictionary inside and out. It can even learn how you associate something by the search terms you input. But it can’t understand the richness of your personal experience with the word—not just yet, anyway.

Google Semantics and Semiotics
Google’s evolution has created a smarter search engine. Semiotic thinking is ever so steadily bridging the gap between man and machine. Are you incorporating semiotic thinking into your content? If not, then you had better get started.
Search engines are smart, but they still don’t have a handle on the pragmatics used to connect with the audience. What can you do to help populate content that Google can adapt to while you effectively reach your audience and build your SEO?

• Moz recommends using satire or other humor. Search engine crawlers don’t grasp humor. It’s like telling Star Trek’s favorite android, Data, a joke. He never got it; at least not until his ‘emotion chip’ was invented. Who knows? Maybe somebody Google will have a Hyena Algorithm to teach its robots humor. Regardless, displaying a sense of humor and delivering a few good laughs will make your site memorable and increase audience appeal.
• Build a lexicon. Speak the language your customers know. Use a lexicon, and carefully consider your audience and what the words you choose will signify to them.
• Build culture into your Wweb design. The design of your website can either establish a connection with or alienate your audience. Invest time into creating a site that speaks to their ideas of beauty and caters to their way of processing information.
• Incorporate metaphor. The same old template and stock photos are overused. If you’ve seen it a hundred times, chances are your audience has too. Instead of following the crowd, use images and create a design that evokes a metaphor. It’s likely you’ve invested a good amount of time branding yourself and creating a persona. Let that uniqueness shine through. Own your story with your design.

News Source: http://www.sitepronews.com/2014/08/07/scoop-google-semantics-semiotics/

Mind Blowing Technology That is Saving Our World

The popularity, frequency and saturation of start-up companies is a direct by-product of the dot-com/tech bubble, and an indirect response to a changing economy. There are numerous reasons for larger companies to invest in smaller start-ups, ranging from being on top of the next big thing, to helping stimulate the economy and contribute to innovations made in various industries. That said, some geographic locations are better suited for the birth of a start-up than others.

Geekwire mapped out the top 10 cities for startups in the United States and the top three were as follows: 3. Seattle, WA. 2. Austin, TX and, of course, 1. San Francisco, CA. While we’ve been formidable opponents in the startup race for quite some time, a new competitor from warmer climes might be joining the ranks soon.

Last month the accelerator program “Start-Up Chile” announced a new initiative referred to as Generation Ten. Generation Ten is a newly groomed crop of nearly 100 startups poised to take over Santiago later this summer. Pioneering in yet another area, Start-Up Chile is the first state-sponsored seed fund program to come out of South America, starting a growing trend over the past few years. Other programs have drawn inspiration from this model and given birth to Incubar and Startup BA in Argentina, iNNpulsa in Colombia, Start-Up Peru in Lima and numerous others peppered across the continent.

But all that glitters isn’t gold. Atart-ups in Latin American countries have their own set of challenges to overcome. For one thing, the retention rate of newly founded companies is shockingly (or not so shockingly) low. Companies idealized in South America take advantage of the resources available from their respective startup programs, but many of them find themselves moving on once they’ve gained a working business model and enough traction to attract their own investors. TechCrunch reports that after completing six months in an incubator program, nearly 80 percent of entrepreneurs leave Chile, with 34 percent of them settling themselves in the U.S. That said, Generation Ten is the first group where Chilean entrepreneurs are the majority.

Another problem facing the South American start-up economy is one that’s actually more subjective than an identified threat. The concept and business of start-up groups was at one time an inspiration of its own, but it would seem that entire business models are being “recycled,” if you will, in the Latin American markets. One example given would be the successful (and clutch) OpenTable program, which has now been implemented in Latin America as Restorando. On one hand some might argue the merits of this tactic saying it’s not innovative or ethical, and others saying that even OpenTable was an adaptation of some form of service that was previously available and that the innovation comes from making it work in an entirely different environment.


Whatever your stance on the OpenTable/Restorando debate there’s absolutely no questioning the fact that other regions are getting in on the excitement and profitability of small business investments. I’d actually like to see more American adaptations of successful companies already at work in foreign markets.

News Source: http://www.sitepronews.com/2014/08/07/mind-blowing-technology-saving-world/

Google’s “Pigeon” Update Boosts Local Directories

Photo Credit: meneame comunicacions, sl via flickr

On July 24, Google went public with a new algorithm change that, as opposed to affecting online retailers and businesses, pertains mostly to brick and mortar stores by modifying local directory listings. What does it do and how does it affect your business?

The Update and How it Works
While Google gave no name to its recent algorithm change, in keeping with the animal theme – Panda, Hummingbird and so on – Search Engine Land has aptly nicknamed the latest update Pigeon, after the birds that tend to fly back home.

While most of the changes are to the back end of the network and how it runs searches, the impact is clear for searchers on the front end. The algorithm is designed to provide relevant and accurate search results for local businesses that are more closely related to traditional search rankings and signals.

According to the network, the new algorithm uses Google’s web search capabilities on a deeper level, meaning that the way local listings are displayed in results will be more like how standard search results are generated with less favoritism toward Google Places listings.

The Pigeon update currently affects only US English results, and no information has been released as to when the update will be rolled out in other languages and locations. The main affect of the algorithm change? Local directory sites and listings are receiving better rankings and visibility in search results on Google than ever before.

Why?
While the reason behind the update has not been made public, there has been speculation as to why Google made the algorithm change.

Starting back in 2012 with the release of Google Places, online directories like Yelp started to notice a decline in the prominence of their listings. The “Yelp problem“, as it became commonly known, referred to the appearance that Google was manipulating results to put its own listings ahead of other directories, regardless of search term, popularity or other traditional SEO practices. Yelp’s report detailed one specific search term – “gary denko yelp” – and found that the results listed the official Gary Danko, a well-known restaurant in San Fancisco, California, website and multiple Google+ listings and pieces of content ahead of the Yelp listing that was specifically searched for.

While this is not listed anywhere as the actual cause or motivator behind the update, since the change, the same search term now lists the Yelp listing for Gary Denko first in Google results.

Who it Impacts
While the “Yelp problem” has been addressed with the update, other local directories will also likely see an increase in search rankings and overall popularity.

Sites like Urbanspoon and TripAdvisor that list local eateries and attractions will no longer have to battle Google’s listings. Instead, retailers and restaurants that use online directories can focus on the directories that attract the most attention, instead of catering to the requirements and needs of Google.

The update will also affect retailers and local businesses relying on traditional SEO for their own websites. Because of the new prominence of listings, going at it alone, without the support of larger networks may be more difficult than ever.

Increasing the Exposure of Your Business
In theory, Google’s new algorithm change is straightforward and easy to understand. But, what does it mean for your business? How can you be sure you benefit from the update instead of falling short? Follow these tips for success:

Study Your Listings
Maybe you switched to Google Places because of the prominence of the results and left behind a directory that was driving more traffic and receiving more attention. If this is the case, now is the time to step back. Look at where the traffic to your site is coming from and focus on that source. Because all directories now receive prominence on Google, understanding which site drives the most traffic to your site is important when deciding where to focus your attention and efforts.

Don’t Forget Google
New updates and algorithms are released daily – 500-600 times per year to be more precise. Because of this, you can never be sure of when a new algorithm will be released that will affect your business. Maintaining an active Google Places and Google+ presence is always recommended.

Focus on Major Directory Sites
As previously mentioned, the update will make it harder than ever for individual websites advertising local businesses to maintain a high search ranking with Google. Instead, directories are more prominent – and therefore more important – than ever. Take the time to create a business page on large directory sites – like Yelp and to optimize where possible.

Get Your Customers Involved
The best way to attract attention is to increase the number of positive reviews. Take the time to ask your customers to participate and to leave reviews. Link to your Yelp – or other directory – listing in your email newsletter and on your website. Leave pamphlets in your store or restaurant. Use social media pages to ask your followers for reviews. The more positivity you can generate, the more your listings will work to your advantage.

Maintain an Active Home Website
While your website may be more difficult than ever to promote through Google with the new algorithm update, that doesn’t mean it’s obsolete. It’s still the focus of your business and where your directory listings will send visitors. Be sure it is current, hosts relevant information, attracts attention and promotes your business in a positive manner.


Google’s Pigeon update may very well revolutionize the way listings are displayed in search results. Take the steps necessary today to ensure your business benefits from the new release.

News SourcE: http://www.sitepronews.com/2014/08/06/googles-pigeon-update-boosts-local-directories/

Google Starts Giving A Ranking Boost To Secure HTTPS/SSL Sites

Google To Give Secure Sites A Ranking Boost

Google has announced (the blog post hasn’t gone live yet, actually) that going HTTPS — adding a SSL 2048-bit key certificate on your site — will give you a minor ranking boost.
Google says this gives websites a small ranking benefit, only counting as a “very lightweight signal” within the overall ranking algorithm. In fact, Google said this carries “less weight than other signals such as high-quality content.” Based on their tests, Google says it has an impact on “fewer than 1% of global queries” but said they “may decide to strengthen” the signal because they want to “encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web.”
Google also said based on their tests for the past few months, the HTTPS signal showed “positive results” in terms of relevancy and ranking in Google’s search results.
As you may remember, at SMX West, Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, said he’d love to make SSL a ranking factor in Google’s algorithm. Well, less than five months after that announcement, and while he is on an extended leave, Google is making it a reality.

SEO Concerns With Going HTTPS

Should you be concerned when switching from your HTTP to HTTPS site for SEO purposes? Not so much. Google has been telling webmasters it is safe to do so for years. But you need to take the proper steps to ensure your traffic doesn’t suffer. That means make sure to communicate to Google that you moved your site from HTTP to HTTPS. Google promises to release more documentation in the future, but for now has provided the following tips:

• Decide the kind of certificate you need: single, multi-domain, or wildcard certificate
• Use 2048-bit key certificates
• Use relative URLs for resources that reside on the same secure domain
• Use protocol relative URLs for all other domains
• Check out our site move article for more guidelines on how to change your website’s address
• Don’t block your HTTPS site from crawling using robots.txt
• Allow indexing of your pages by search engines where possible. Avoid the noindex robots meta tag.

Google has also updated Google Webmaster Tools to better handle HTTPS sites and the reporting on them.

One last thing: You will want to make sure to track your HTTP to HTTPS migration carefully in your analytics software and within Google Webmaster Tools.

News Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-starts-giving-ranking-boost-secure-httpsssl-sites-199446 

Google Launches Google News Publisher Center

Google announced on the Google News blog a new portal for Google News publishers to use to help manage their news sites within Google News. The new portal is named Google News Publisher Center.
As long as your news site is verified within Google Webmaster Tools and already included in Google News, you should see them already verified and ready to manage within the Google News Publisher Center. Those sites that are not already verified, can go through the process of verification.
The publisher center enables you to:

• Update your news site details, including changing your site name and labeling your publication with any relevant source labels (e.g., “Blog”, “Satire” or “Opinion”)
• Update your section URLs when you change your site structure (e.g., when you add a new section such as http://example.com/2014commonwealthgames or http://example.com/elections2014)
• Label your sections with a specific topic (e.g., “Technology” or “Politics”)

Here is a screen shot of the dashboard:

Here is when you modify or edit your news source:

If you want to view the “sections” Google News puts your site in, you can see and manage that also:

Google has also released a help section on the Google News Publisher Center over here.
News Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-launches-google-news-publisher-center-198990

A 10 Point Checklist for Choosing Your Domain Name

When getting started with a new online business one of the first things you need to do is choose a domain name.  This step is much more important than you might realize.  An appropriate and effective domain could decide your website’s fate.

Unfortunately many people will be so involved in the design and set-up of the website they will overlook the importance of selecting the proper domain name.  Your domain name will be your website’s identity and it will also be the doorway for people to purchase your products and/or services.

The following checklist will guide you and help you keep in mind some of the things you need to consider when choosing your domain.

1. Keep It Short and Simple — Keeping your domain name short, simple and easy to remember will make it easier for people to get to your site.  Choose a domain that is easy to spell and type.  Don’t use big fancy words or commonly misspelled words such as believe, amateur or collectible.  You can find lists of the most commonly misspelled words and, if they are in your domain, consider using a thesaurus to find an alternative.

2. Use Your Name — In my opinion, it is a good choice to use your name in your domain.  This will be a binding agent for your website your business and you.  If your last name is long and hard to spell, consider using your first name.  This way if people do not remember your entire URL, they will be likely to remember your name and can still find you.  I have had many people who did not remember my specific URL search for me by using my name.

3. Don’t Try to Be Cute and Clever — Cutesy and fun work with some things but it is not appropriate for your domain.  Don’t use puns or a “clever” play on words.  For example: Flickr.  Using this trendy name probably sounded like a good idea at the time but it finally had to purchase the correct spelling domain flicker.com Doing this will just make your domain hard to remember and/or it will more than likely get typed incorrectly and you lose the traffic.

4. Hyphens and Numbers — There are actually a couple of advantages to using hyphens but, in my opinion, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.  Hyphens actually make it easier for the search engines to distinguish your keywords.  Hyphens could also make it possible for you to get the domain you want if the regular version is already taken.  But, hyphens will more than likely cause you to lose traffic because people will not always realize your URL contains hyphens.  If your domain is beautiful-jewelry.com and you tell people to check out your site, Beautiful Jewelry, you will lose traffic.  It is easy to lose the hyphen when spreading the word about your site.  And it will make it more complicated for people to remember. It’s the same with numbers.  BeautifulJewelry1.com will be much less remembered and found then BeautifulJewelry.com

5. Make It Keyword Rich — Do some keyword research and choose one or two of the most relevant keywords for your site.  Using relevant keywords will help with the search engines but, more importantly, it will be much easier for people to find your site.

6. Stay Away from Slang — Using slang words for your domain is not a good idea for much the same reasons as using a trendy play on words.  It is just too easy for people to forget or misspell your domain and end up somewhere else.

7. Match Your Domain to Your Website Name — If your website name is All Auto Parts and you choose the domain carparts.com you may lose traffic to whomever owns allautoparts.com. If your website name and domain match, people will be more likely to remember both.

8. Beware of Copyrights — Never use a domain if part of it is already in use.  Always check your choice at whois.net to see if anyone is using that domain and with copyright.gov to be sure you are not infringing on someone else’s copyright.

9. Don’t Use Word Strings – These types of domains are extremely hard to remember and making a mistake while typing them can be very easy.  Don’t try to put everything you sell in your domain.  For example: chairstablesbedssofasandmore.com I have seen domains like this and it is nearly impossible to remember everything so it just gets lost and forgotten.  Something much more appropriate would be AllFurniture.com

10. Use .Com — Although there are many domain extensions available, it is always best to go with .com if possible.  Most people will assume you have a .com URL so unless you stress your .net or .org extension at all times, it is best to use .com.  This is the choice people will make when typing in your domain.


Remember that your domain is not just where your site “lives.”  It is a crucial step in becoming an online business owner. Take the time to really think it through, do the research and choose a domain that will help bring you success.

Source: http://www.sitepronews.com/2014/07/21/10-point-checklist-choosing-domain-name/

How to Prove ROI Potential of Content Campaigns - Whiteboard Friday

  We all know that creating and promoting content can be a ton of work (not to mention expensive). So how do we know whether it'll be worth it? In today's Whiteboard Friday, MozCon 2014 speaker Mike King shows you several ways you can be sure your content has the potential you need before you even start making it.

For reference, here's a still of this week's whiteboard!

Video transcription

Greetings and salutations, Moz fans. My name is Mike King. I'm from an agency called iPullRank, and today here on Whiteboard Friday we're going to talk about how to prove ROI potential of content. Basically, before you launch content, get a sense of will this perform before you go ahead and spend tens of thousands of dollars on promoting that content.

Content components

Surveying your target audience

So let's just hop right into it. One of the things you want to do for your content component aspect of it is survey your target audience. There are a lot of channels that you can do this effectively in. In fact, the ad platforms have gotten even better at letting you hyper target audiences and drive that traffic right away.
One of the things you can do is use StumbleUpon Paid Discovery. I love this platform for content promotion as well. But it's great in this use case because it's only $0.10 a click. Again, you can target based on different audiences, not as granularly as you can with something like Facebook or something to that effect, but you can get audiences around ideas, concepts, and things of that nature.

What you can also use is a tool called UserReport. What this tool does is allows you to do custom surveys on your own site. You put up your content experience. You throw UserReport on there. Once the user gets to a certain point in the page, you can make that survey pop up. You can ask them questions like: Hey, would you like this? Would you share this? What is it that you didn't like about this content? Does this solve a specific need for you?

You can do that with StumbleUpon Paid Discovery. Start collecting data on the users that would visit your content, and then it helps you build a business case saying that these people would be interested in this content.
By the same token, you can also use Facebook ads to do this. Like I said, Facebook ads allow you to really granularly target your audiences. They've gotten increasingly more sophisticated with their ad targeting options. In fact, at this point, the ad targeting very much aligns with standard market research in that you can target based on income, education, and so on and so forth.

If you're going after the B2C clientele, that's probably your best bet, using Facebook. If you're going after the B2B clientele, then LinkedIn ads make the most sense. You can also target very specifically on firmographics rather than just demographics. In both of these cases, you're going to then continue to use UserReport to collect that data via these custom surveys on your site.

Additionally, you can use SurveyMonkey Audience. I love this tool because you can, again, very much target very specific demographics and ask them direct questions. What you can do is host that piece of content in the survey, have them take the time to review it and fill out the questionnaire, and then, boom, you get your results right away.

Competitive analysis

Those are different ways you can do surveying to understand whether your content's going to perform. But, of course, competitive analysis is a really good way to make a case. I worked on a brand called LG back in the day. The best way to get them to do anything was to show them that Samsung was doing it.

By that very same token, you can use a tool like Social Crawlytics. What that tool does is crawls the site and identifies the social shares of every piece of content on that site. You can do that for your site and a competitor's site and see what's working, what isn't, and quickly identify what you can create that is similar to what they've made.

Additionally, you can use BuzzSumo, which kind of takes out the legwork out of that, because they've indexed a lot of content. They've pulled out the semantic relationships from that content, the entities. You can search by keyword for different pieces of content and then see what's the most popular content that fits that keyword. Now their index isn't huge, but they have a lot of content, especially around the SEO space, that you can look at. So you can quickly identify what's working for other people and then make your case that way.

Finally, you can use any of the link indices -- Open Site Explorer, Ahrefs, Majestic. All of these tools, if you go to the top pages reports for the different competitors, you can quickly see what's working and what's not, and then you have those metrics to make that business case.

Pose/review discussions

One of the other tactics that I really love to use to identify content that will work is by using the different discussion sites. Quora is a really good one. You can actually identify questions that people have already asked in the past and then see how many people have responded to that. You can see whether or not it's a popular question that you can then use into your content.
You can actually pose your own questions, see how many people follow the question and how many people answer the question. Then, you can look at those people that are following the question and see what their demographics are and, boom, another solid business case based on actual data.
The finally, Reddit is really good for this as well. People love to get in discussions on Reddit. We've posed questions in the past, and people have given really passionate responses. Then there have been cases where we've posed questions and we got no response. Once you know it's crickets, it's not a good piece of content to launch.

People components

Business case

These are all the content and metric components of this. But what you really need to focus on, when you're trying to get buy-in for this type of content internally, is the people components. When you're building business cases and you're dealing with a variety of people, your boss in fact, you've got to think about what metric is the one that helps him get to his bonus, and how does the content that you're looking to create help fulfill that metric.

In most cases, those metrics aren't necessarily channel metrics. It's not: Are we going to be number one for this keyword? Are we going to get more visits from organic search or more likes in social media? It goes back to things that affect the business.

In the case of a SaaS company, it can be: Okay, how does this contribute to our cost of acquisition versus our LTV ratio? Does this lower our cost of acquisition because we're going to get a wide range of people that are going to ingest this content and then come back to the site, ending up signing up? Then, is it reaching the right side of our audience that is high value a customer? Is it the one that has the bigger long-term value or lifetime value?

Think about those metrics rather than, oh, we're going to get some more likes and shares, because these metrics are typically the ones that go back to the metrics that help your boss hit his bonus.

Also, is there a conversion rate based on your existing content on your own site? I've talked at length about doing content on that's both qualitatively and quantitatively, in a guest post that I did for Copyblogger, which will be below in the description, about doing content audits where you can identify what is performing and what's not, and then see what types of content you may want to create in the future.

Using that as a framework to work with, you can then look at these content ideas that you've gotten on this side and see, okay, we have content that fits this, and generally the conversion rate is X. So you can make some sort of prediction based on the search volume and the keywords that go with this piece of content, or the amount of traffic you're likely to get from social media to go with this content, and then back that into the conversion rate and then get back to these business level metrics that we talked about before.

Finally, or the last two things rather, how does this map to your brand's story? A lot of the times when you're talking about content, you're talking about the brand messaging architecture, the voice, the tone. What are the brand's goals? What is the brand trying to put out there?

Moz is really good at developing a good brand story. They have Roger that they weave into a lot of things. How does your piece of content go with that brand's story? Again, back to the Moz example, they're about doing better marketing.

My Whiteboard Friday here goes with that idea. So it's really easy for me to make a business case for this piece of content to align with the business. How does your piece of content fit that brand's story?
Then, finally, what phase in the funnel does this piece of content serve?
 
Because ultimately, at the end of the day, we're always trying to market something. We're marketers. We're trying to move people through the funnel.

So, if you've identified in your content audits that, oh, we're missing a lot of stuff for the decision phase, so this content will specifically speak to that decision phase. Here are all the metrics that go with it. Now, we have a strong business case.

That's all I've got for today. My name's Mike King. I'm happy to help you guys out. In the comments, let me know anytime that you've come against anything where you couldn't get a piece of content pushed through at your business or your agency or what have you, and I'm happy to answer your questions.
Have a great one, and I'll see you guys next time on Whiteboard Friday.

News Source:-http://moz.com/blog/how-to-prove-roi-potential-of-content-campaigns-whiteboard-friday

Is Your SEO Agency Ripping You Off?

He was so slick.
He talked about algorithms, keywords and the science of SEO. For that fascinating hour, you were completely sucked in to his world. He guaranteed you quantifiable results. He sold you an expensive contract. Now, all these monthly checks later, you cannot help but wonder, “Did he really just rip me off?”
The fact that you’re asking this question at all should be your first red flag. SEO professionals take great pains to include you in the process and show you the steps they are taking to elevate your search rankings. And they very rarely consist of just one guy.

A true SEO agency is comprised of a multitude of pros encompassing a vast area of expertise. There are website designers who build search optimization right into the code of your site. There are developers whose purpose is to create or tweak applications and tools that will maximize your online identity. There are SEO pros whose business is to understand the ever-changing algorithms utilized by search engines to deliver quality results. There are content developers whose role is to create compelling blogs, tweets and posts that will entice users and keep them coming back week after week until they ultimately buy your product or utilize your service.

This is not to say these SEO companies don’t have a sales team whose job is to sell you on the products and services they have to offer. Any good business has to sell itself. The fact is, however, that a qualified SEO agency looks very different than a single consultant.

Consistency is key when it comes to seeing a return on your investment. So is repetition. When an SEO agency works for a client, they have to stay on top of what the client is doing. This doesn’t necessarily mean they need to speak with you every day or even every week, but for the agency’s pros to market you effectively, they must stay abreast of your company’s latest changes, campaigns, and news. All this information is searchable, and publishing it through multiple channels integrates your brand into the Web and ensures search engines make it a priority.


Perhaps the best way to prevent against being ripped off by an SEO imposter is to research the agency. Read reviews and testimonials. Check out bios of the agency’s personnel on social media sites like LinkedIn. Educate yourself about the process of SEO and see if what the agency is selling you matches up with what you have learned. You don’t have to be an expert in SEO yourself, but basic familiarity with the subject can go a long way toward finding the satisfaction associated with knowing your money has been well spent.

News Source: http://www.sitepronews.com/2014/07/15/seo-agency-ripping/

Facebook Testing ‘Buy’ Button

Image courtesy of (arztsamui)/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Facebook is testing a new button but one must wonder if it’s been fully thought out. Unveiled Thursday, Facebook has launched a small test of the “buy” button allowing users to purchase products they like from businesses they follow. The button was explained on Facebook’s “For business” page as a way to “help businesses drive sales through Facebook in News Feed and on Pages.”

“With this feature, people on desktop or mobile can click the “Buy” call-to-action button on ads and Page posts to purchase a product directly from a business, without leaving Facebook,” the site said.
That’s a smart move and beneficial to businesses — if it takes off — but it must leave some businesses scratching their heads after developments earlier this year when it comes to how Facebook has been dealing with businesses.

Back in March, as we reported, businesses found their ability to reach potential customers through Facebook was being scaled back. At that time it was reported a study completed by Ogilvy and Mather found companies’ posts dropped from reaching 12 percent of followers in fall 2012 to only six percent by February this year.

Facebook, at the time, said it was hoping to reduce the number of posts users were seeing in their news feed from companies they had “liked” to one to two percent.

“Like many mediums, if businesses want to make sure that people see their content, the best strategy is, and always has been, paid advertising,” a Facebook spokeswoman said in an e-mailed statement to Time earlier this year.

Mixed messages considering the launch of the “buy” button. If companies aren’t reaching customers it may prove difficult to get a full feel for how the “buy” button may be effective.

The new feature — currently limited in its testing to “small and medium-sized businesses in the U.S.” — has been created, though, with an eye on ensuring a user’s financial information remains secure.


“We’ve built this feature with privacy in mind, and have taken steps to help make the payment experience safe and secure,” Facebook said on its page. “None of the credit or debit card information people share with Facebook when completing a transaction will be shared with other advertisers, and people can select whether or not they’d like to save payment information for future purchases.”

Source: http://www.sitepronews.com/2014/07/18/facebook-testing-buy-button/

Social Media Security

As well as individuals, companies large and small can be the victims of lax social media security. Accounts have been hacked, changed and used to spread political and scatological messages. Brands have been besmirched, and customers and prospects lost.While large international corporations and other major players may be able to recover from these kinds of attacks easily enough, for the small business they can (and have) proved fatal.

So how can you counter these threats?

Getting out of social media is not a solution. More and more people are using this kind of media to follow companies and brands, to talk about them, and to decide whether to buy their products or services. The role of social media in marketing is expanding continuously and is set to stay. In fact it looks set to eventually overtake more traditional sales tools.

The reality of the threats is that most of the breaches of security that have happened so far were due to the business owner or an employee falling for simple scams… by opening suspicious e-mails or clicking through to rogue websites without a moment’s hesitation. Here are a few simple things you can do to protect yourself and your business.

Education and training

You or your staff may lack the caution needed to use networks securely. The only solution in these circumstances is education and training. Structured social media educational programs that deliver training on the use of special tools and how you can do so securely are available. These come in a variety of formats, from brief how-to manuals to webinars. You can find programs that fit for your business and financial resources through Google. Malicious links are a common way in which accounts are compromised. Caution is best, especially if links lead to pages that ask for usernames and passwords.

Thus a fundamental part of these educational programs is training in how to recognize a suspicious messages, e-mails or links that could act as a gateway into your systems for a hacker. In addition to improving basic security, these programs can also help improve the overall performance of social media campaigns. Indeed, many of them deliver training in the more advanced aspects of social media such as attracting new clients.

Protecting passwords

If you and a member of your staff are sharing social media activities, you are likely to be sharing accounts and passwords. The more accounts you have, the more the passwords that will be shared. How can you keep these passwords secure? The answer is… with great difficulty. Here’s what you need to do: First, you should create strong (complex) passwords, rather than relying on simple, very common passwords such as 12345etc or password. Password generating tools are available.

Secondly, you must make sure that passwords are never stored on shared computers, on mobile phones or in e-mails, nor on post-it notes or other scraps of paper. Complex passwords can be hard to remember, especially where several are in use. You can reduce the number of passwords your staff uses by ensuring that they sign into your firm’s accounts using the same username and password as they use for their company e-mail account.

This has the additional advantage that, should an employee leave, their access to all company media can be disabled in an instant. A disgruntled employee can wreak havoc through your social media accounts if he or she still has access.

Centralizing control over social media

Most people and businesses, even the very smallest firms, will have multiple accounts on many different networks, eg: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and so on. Maintaining control over several accounts can be difficult and time-consuming, especially if you company includes several people who are involved in creating tweets and posting updates. The first think you need to do is to undertake an audit of all your accounts, noting who manages them and who has access to them. Then you can close-down any accounts you don’t need and remove permissions for the remaining account from any employees who don’t need them.

Once that is done, you can consolidate these accounts within a social media management system. An SMMS will allow you:

• Write messages and publish them to several accounts on several social networks from a single interface or dashboard
• Monitor all social activities from one place (thus simplifying a time-consuming task).

Several well-known SMMS are available. Most operate on a freemium basis, ie: basic services are free to users but additional services are delivered on a paid basis. A good SMMS will have built-in malware tools to notify users when a suspect link is clicked. A secure system will also notify you if suspicious activity is taking place on your accounts, giving you a chance to shut-down a possible security threat.

Paid social media, such as Facebook’s Promoted Posts, has made the need to bring all social media under central control using an SMMS all the more urgent. Imagine a situation in which you invest tens of thousands of Euro or dollars into Promoted Tweets on Twitter and someone who hacked your account ruins the whole campaign with an offensive tweet.

The malware tools built into an SMMS should be able to prevent scenarios like this happening. In addition, such an SMMS should also be able to monitor the outcomes of paid social media without requiring the additional passwords usually associated with paid media platforms.

Message approval

A mistweet or other mistake on social media can happen easily. The only way to avoid these kinds of errors, which can seriously damage your reputation, is to set up an approval process that must be followed before a social message can be posted.

Of course, a formal approval process is only applicable if more than one person is undertaking social media activities. In these circumstances the process will probably be vital in order to ensure that the standards you expect in your social messages are achieved.

The simplest approval process is just to allow another person to review a tweet, message or update before it is posted. Good social media management systems should include an approval process for all social media messages.

As well as allowing the content of posts to be checked, an approval process means that typos and spelling errors can be corrected and links checked. The process also gives you and your employees a chance to learn from each other as suggestions and corrections are made.

An approval process will dramatically reduce the likelihood of a major social media crisis. However, it will not guarantee that nothing goes wrong.

Disaster recovery

Mistakes happen. No matter how many security measures you undertake, there is always a chance that something will go wrong and an inappropriate message will be sent, either because something was missed by accident during the approval process or a hacker gained access.

So, what can you do if the worst happens?

The only answer is the boy scouts’ motto: be prepared.

‘Being prepared’ means that you and your employees must have a specific plan on how to respond quickly and effectively when a crisis erupts. As crises tend to be unpredictable, this plan must be flexible. You should test and evaluate your plan to ensure that it will actually work in emergency. You also need to practice the plan so your and your people know instinctively what to do.

Social media happens in real-time so you need to respond in real-time. Social media, in fact, can help you respond appropriately. This is best doing using a tried and tested social media management system. A good SMMS will enable you to monitor how your customers, prospects and the public at large are reacting to the issue so that you can respond with appropriate messages.

Social media allows you to reach a massive number of people quickly so you can tell them about the problem and how you are working to resolve it. This can increase your credibility with customers and prospects and the public at large… which is what social media for business is all about.

Source: http://www.sitepronews.com/2014/07/18/social-media-security/

How to Optimize Your Content for Social and Search

Website owners used to focus on every technique solely for increasing their search engine ranking. Optimization was all about cramming an ungodly amount of high dollar keywords and phrases into every inch of every web page. Today the focus has changed. Keyword stuffing is gone with the wind and a new standard of search AND social optimization is in.

If you have no social presence, you simply cannot gain rank as quickly or solidly in the SERPs as you can if you have a strong presence. So, how do you optimize for social and SEO? The first step is getting into the right mindset.

The Differences between Social and SEO

According to the Content Marketing Institute, there is a distinct difference between social and search engine optimization. While the goal of both is to up rankings, each is approached differently. When it comes to social, you need to think engagement and sharing. Social media marketing focuses on:

• Brand, messaging and calendar managed topics
• Short form content, such as status updates, image tiles and blog posts
• Increasing organic reach via paid options
• Real-time content opportunities via social monitoring
• Engagement – and view – based performance

When it comes to SEO, you need to think strategy and tactics. The Content Marketing Institute points out that it’s the condiment, not the sandwich: “If a… content marketing program is the sandwich, then SEO is the mayonnaise. It touches… everything and enhances the… flavor of the sandwich, but on its own, it’s not very appetizing.” Search optimization focuses on:

• Tactics, such as more quality content generating more search presence
• Topics emanating from actual search demand
• Behind-the-scenes technical optimization, including meta details
• Content and social promotion
• Link building
• Performance that is tied to keyword-managed content and focuses on search KPIs and conversions

4 Search and Social Media Tactics

Optimization is an intimidating word. It doesn’t have to be, though. Kick starting your social SEO and search optimization doesn’t have to be rocket science. In fact, I promise you don’t need to be a math or science major to do it and do it well. Just apply these four simple tactics:
Tactic 1: Know Your Business Model Backwards and Forwards
Our first method comes from one of the most credible optimization sources on the net: Search Engine Watch. If any company knows the importance of this tactic, it’s SEW. Knowing your business model sounds like a no-brainer, but too many businesses make this rookie mistake. They fail to sit down and focus on their main goals. Your goals will influence every aspect of optimization. So take a minute and answer these questions honestly:

• What are your goals?
• What are your assets and liabilities?
• How do you define a conversion?
• Are you selling impressions or the things people click on?

Tactic 2: Optimize for Search and Share
Balance is everything. Yes, it is important to optimize your web pages and media. TopRankBlog.com says you need to optimize your topics and specific keywords based on what customers are actually searching for, but you also need to make social sharing compelling and simple. How? Let’s take a look:

• Master the art of crafting catchy titles, headings and subheadings
• Include search phrases; for example, “8 Indispensable [keyword/phrase] Tips For [keyword/phrase]“
• Your content should always include social sharing widgets so that it can be seamlessly shared with a single click

Tactic 3: Nail the Things Search Engines Want
Search engines are tasked with supplying users with the most relevant and high quality websites and content that meets their search criteria. According to Search Engine Watch, engines determine which sites meet quality and relevancy requirements by weighing four primary criteria:

1. Authority: Authority is built; you won’t have it right out of the gate. You can build it through exceptional content. Your goal is to craft the kind of content others want to link to as a reference or a citation.
2. Content: It must be relevant to your theme, fresh and engaging. Good grammar, spelling and natural use of keywords are musts.
3. Performance: How fast is your site? Is it full of broken links or does it work properly?
4. User Experience: Is your site attractive and easy to navigate?

Tactic 4: Focus on your Meta
Your website content should have built-in title tags and Meta descriptions. Yes, we’re talking about a little coding, but it’s far from complex. All you need is:

• Unique title tags: Think of these as 4 to 8 word ads. The goal is to pique interest and make people want to click.
• Unique Meta descriptions: Avoid duplicate descriptions. They should be as unique as your titles, and they should speak to the specific page they describe.

Nowadays, social and search optimization go hand-in-hand. The key to success is balance and persistence. With just a little effort, you can achieve a lot.

Source: http://www.sitepronews.com/2014/07/02/optimize-content-social-search/