Social Media & SEO

Social Media is a power online marketing strategy that can not only strengthen brand loyalty, improve customer relations but also bring traffic to your website. Any company that wants to have a strong web presence needs to make sure they incorporate social media into their online marketing campaign.

A few tips on Social Media:

Identify audience – Find out who they are, what they do, the type of sites they visit etc. This will give you a better idea of which social media platforms you are going to target. For example if your target market are teenagers, then Facebook would be a good option.

Set out your goals – Why are you engaging in a particular social media platform?

-          Increase brand awareness

-          Strengthen customer relations

-          Drive traffic to your company website

-          Promote products/services you have to offer

A few points to remember:

1.      There is no point having social content if nobody can find it. Make sure you optimise your content. E.g. If your company has a blog, make sure its ranking on the search engines. This can be done through internal linking of your primary keywords. If you have released a viral video on You Tube, make sure there is a link to it from your website.

2.      Connect your social media profiles to each other – By linking all these platforms you will send users from one site to another.

3.      Use social media to build a targeted community that you can market to. Social media is all about people with shared interests coming together online and sharing information, ideas and resources.

4.      Social media is very useful for online reputation management – It is an instant response, engaging with the customer in their on space on a platform they are comfortable in.

Search engine optimisation and social media marketing are now inseparable. You just need to make sure you have a clear strategy of how to incorporate one into the other. When executed seamlessly you can increase traffic as well as actively engage your target market and improve customer relations.

For more information on social media and SEO give ROI Media a call today.  We offer services ranging from online business development, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Pay Per Click (PPC).

URL Structure

Approximately 67,566 new websites or domains enter the online arena every day. Sure, some of them are here for a brief stay. Others might be your next fierce competitor however and are here to stay. Online competition gets more intense by the day. In such a highly competitive market, every element counts. The URL and its structure is often overlooked as an SEO element, nonetheless it holds many benefits.

URL and Information Architecture

Many designers don’t realise that the URL is an integral part of a site’s design. It’s right there at the top! Even more importantly, browsing often starts with glancing at the URL, either on search engine result pages or typing it into the address bar. Because it’s right there at the top, users see the URL evolve as they browse through a website. As a consequence, the URL should validate the user’s expectations and reassure him or her of the relevancy of the page. A good URL should contain a lot of information for the user as well.

e.g. http://www.bookcapetown.com/accommodation/hotels
This URL tells you that you are browsing a list of hotels within the category accommodation (which means there are other types) in Cape Town. The URL emphasises that you can book the hotel too.

URL as SEO element

While the impact of a URL on search engine rankings is still highly debated, most SEO experts believe that it’s an important element for search engines to determine the relevancy of your page for certain keywords. Even though it won’t make or break your SEO campaign, in a market of fierce competition, every element counts. Simply perform a search on any keyword phrase and you will see that the keyword-rich URLs dominate the top listings. Notice how the keywords in the URL are bolded.

URL issues

The issue is that URLs are often considered only late in the process of a website development. IT or web developers are focused on making a database work. A successful website returns the right information on a visitor’s query. Developers aren’t worried about search engines or findability, but you should be. We see a lot of database driven websites that require a query or search action to find information. This technique poses a direct threat to search engines reaching your content, while they need links and static content to crawl and index a site.

More and more dynamic URLs are rewritten nowadays, as awareness on the topic grows. Nonetheless you still see URLs containing strange character such as % = ? & out there.

e.g. NY Times Article

Bad URL

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/technology/27google.html?_r=3&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=business&adxnnlx

Good URL
http://www.nytimes.com/technology/finance/how-to-create-a-daily-budget

 In the NY Times example above, the dynamic URL contains hardly any information for the user or search engine spider. The new rewritten URL on the other hand includes the category and sub-category. It offers a hint to the user and provides a keyword-rich URL to search engines. Don’t worry if you’re using a Content Management System (CMS) that creates unfriendly URLs. Almost any popular CMS out there has a SEO plug-in that will assist you. Large database driven websites can use algorithms to automatically create SEO-friendly URLs using article categories and sub-categories.

Think before you act. 301.

When should the URL structure be determined? The sooner the better! Preferably right after you have established your keywords and information architecture. If you have a site that is already live, don’t just rewrite your URLs. Remember, Google has already indexed your current URLs. You’ll have to 301 (permanently) redirect all your old URLs to your new ones to avoid canonicalization (duplicate content) and spilling your valuable link juice. 301 redirecting will pass your link juice on to your new pages. Be advised however that you might experience a temporary drop in rankings as Google needs to re-index your site.

A directory style URL structure benefits your search engine optimisation efforts, enhances the user experience and logically shares your information architecture with both humans and search engines. So why not start today?

Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg Join Forces with R.O.I.

As any online marketer worth their salt can attest, conversion is quite possibly one of the most fundamental aspects of any campaign. These days, with so much competition and so many developments on the technological front, it is not enough just to get users to your website – you need to get them to convert too. This is why we are so excited to announce that leading conversion specialists Bryan Eisenberg and Jeffrey Eisenberg are joining forces with R.O.I. Media to advise on conversion strategies. As one of the top internet marketing companies across the globe, R.O.I. are already leading the pack when it comes to SEO and online marketing, and with the formidable Eisenberg brothers offering their invaluable input, there will be no stopping us!

So who are Bryan and Jeffery Eisenberg, and what makes them the highly regaled experts that they are? The Eisenberg brothers are New York Times bestselling authors and conversion specialists who have written a number of highly acclaimed books, including as ‘Call to Action’, ‘Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?’ and ‘Always Be Testing’. In addition to this, Bryan Eisenberg is also a renowned keynote marketing speaker for Search Engine Strategies, Shop.org, Direct Marketing Association, MarketingSherpa, E-consultancy, Webcom, SEM Konferansen Norway as well as the Canadian Marketing Association, and along with his brother Jeffery he has also developed the ground-breaking Persuasion Architecture® framework. Read more about their many more accomplishments at BryanEisenberg.com.

 As the world’s leading conversion experts, there is simply no doubt that Bryan and Jeffery Eisenberg are the best of the best in the conversion field, and this is why R.O.I. Media are thrilled to bring this powerful duo on board to advise on conversion strategies. Clients will gain from their extensive experience and expertise, and with the powerful combination of R.O.I. Media’s solid online marketing skills and the Eisenbergs’ renowned conversion expertise, results are sure to skyrocket to infinity and beyond!

Almost Famous

Fame is a deceptive beast. The allure of money, popularity and renown cannot be beat. Writing fills this aching gap with pages upon pages of well-constructed content that will hopefully live forever in the minds of your audience. SEO copywriting, unlike above-the-line copywriting, may not rocket my name into a glittering pantheon of stardom, but it will elevate any standard website, causing it to climb up the search engine rankings faster than my friend would climb up an oak tree to avoid the police. And like a drunken miscreant, this process takes times.

Writing is an art, SEO copywriting is a skill – sometimes you are painting a wall, other times you are designing a ten foot mural with ghosts and ninjas, or ninja ghosts. In essence, the search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com want decent content. They crave it and the absence of engaging, typo free, grammatically correct content will cause your rankings to plummet, if you are investing in an SEO strategy. Did you ever wonder how a website such as Google remains the king of the hill? Relevant content that people can use keeps the punters coming back for more, every time. If there as an answer, Google can find a solution. Its fame is its relevance.

You can’t copy a great artist either. One of the biggest crimes for any website (SEO-wise) is to include duplicate content on your site. This includes stealing two fabulous lines from one site. Plagiarism in any form must be avoided, or risk your work sinking to the bottom of the rankings faster than Jennifer Lopez’s film career.

You can’t put a price on fame – so research the very best keywords before you begin ranking for arbitrary keywords that make little sense. If you own a car rental site, look towards the holy union of ‘car rental’ plus whatever city you live in. In time, your understanding of the keywords in correlation to your websites will improve – this is a priceless skill; for everything else, there’s Google AdWords Keyword tool. Keep your writing to the point, filled with the correct amount of keywords and relish in improved rankings and a steady growth. Your personal fame is a measurement of your creativity; continue writing and find success in your growth as an SEO writer.

Cyberworld without Search Engines

Imagine a world where there was no order; a world where everything goes and nothing needs any type of organisation. Like a University class list filled with names in non-alphabetical order, it would be chaos! Think of duplicate street names in one suburban area, think of houses all constructed in the exact same manner, how would you at the end of the day pick up that special package you got for a bargain deal through a classified ads bulletin? This is what Cyberlife would have been like without search engines. Through their rules and regulations, they ensure that all website owners implement Search Engine Optimisation practices on their sites to make the web a much better place to roam through.

Just as the real world needs proper organisation to function, the World Wide Web needs proper structure. More than 80% of all web users hunt for information on the internet using search engines. Like the legal laws of a country, so are the ranking algorithms of Search Engines, and without them being in place, it simply would have been a really massive pile of useless information. You can just imagine that if search engines displayed information that was not at all related to search queries, more than 80% of web users would have nowhere to go, no means to find the end to a heated debate between two mates regarding who won the 1992 Soccer World Cup. Oh the disaster! Cyberworld activity would diminish rapidly, and like dinosaurs, would only be referred to as a previously existent fossilized entity.

That is why being on the coveted 1st page of search engines is all that matters. Putting your time, effort and finances into constructing a website that is buried deep in the search engine results, will be like constructing a huge billboard for your business and then placing it in the middle of the desert. Unlike politicians making empty promises to win your trust, search engines will ensure that you reap the benefits if you ‘follow ‘them. In layman’s terms, follow their rules and you will be sure to benefit from the exposure of your top rankings.

There is a saying that goes ‘You are who Google says you are’ and that simply translates to the following fact: If search engines do not rank you in the top 10 for you industry related keywords, they do not see you as a formidable force in your industry (and web users will use the same analogy).

Ask yourself this, ‘Will you pick up and read a newspaper dated 1999 or one which was printed last night?’ The answer is quite simple. So say NO to copying content from other websites and receive fresh, never before crawled content. Say NO to meta data spamming and non-friendly search engine optimization practices. Say NO to harmful elements on your site that can give you a quick boost but will ultimately affect your site negatively. Say NO to digging your own site’s grave!

Be part of the online revolution! We offer services ranging from online business development, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Pay Per Click (PPC). We will secure your ‘billboard’ on a spot next to a busy freeway, which is the only pathway to all major cities. Ensure your online success and say YES to R.O.I Media!

Google Adwords Ad Review

There has been a little bit of controversy in the land of Google PPC recently, as Adwords users around the world are complaining that Google is taking too long to approve their PPC ads.

If you have been using Google Adwords for a few years you might have noticed that the time taken for new or edited ads to be approved is becoming increasingly longer. This is especially the case when creating image ads and ads focused on content networks. Why is this happening, that is the PPC question that everyone is asking?

The answer is simple, and it boils down to the sheer number of people and businesses (as well as spammers) using Adwords. The number of ads being created by current and new Adwords users is growing daily, and while Google has some strict policy guidelines about what is and isn’t allowed in ads, all ads that have been created still have to be reviewed and approve/disapproved. It seems that some ads get reviewed by computer systems and algorithms, but image ads and those targeting content network seemingly has to be viewed by a physical person. This method, unlike a computer system, is time consuming and causes a delay when waiting to get ads approved, but it does allows for more accuracy in the reviewing process.

Some PPC users have stated that Google may take up to 46 working hours to approve ads. That means that ads could be approved after approximately 7 working days. If you happen to submit an ad for approval on a Friday afternoon then you better be prepared to wait a little longer, as over weekends there is less man-power to review ads so the process is delayed even further. Google is, however, double-checking the ads. This means that all ads are being reviewed twice ever since the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has taken a firm stance and Google was forced to become extremely strict with regard to ads.

I already hear everyone crying, “What is Google doing about increasing the speed of the review process?” Well, the answer is simple – at this moment, based on my exhaustive research into the subject, I surmise that Google is not doing anything it is telling anyone about! In all likelihood Google is working behind the scenes on an ingenious way to speed up the process, or perhaps they already have a solution. The fact of the matter is that we just don’t know yet and we will have to wait and see what Google has in store for us mere mortals.

Importance of Internal Linking

We all know that links are extremely important when it comes to SEO and to get your site ranking for all those top industry keywords. We are so obsessed with acquiring those inbound links every month that many of us forget that the links you create internally between the pages of your site are also an extremely important element in Onsite SEO.

Internal linking is right up there as one of the most important Onsite SEO elements in my book. It’s amazing what a good internal linking structure can do for your website and individual page rankings. So let’s first have a look at why internal linking is so important.

Internal Linking serves multiple purposes:

1. To increase Page Rank of internal or ‘deep’ pages.
2. To build relevancy of a page to a keyword or key phrase.
3. To ensure that your site in its entirety is spidered, even those pages that are not referenced in your main navigation.

Increasing Page Rank of Internal Pages

Google allocates a value to every page of your site. For this they use Page Rank. Many refer to Page Rank as the “juice” allocated to each page and the website as a whole. Your homepage is seen as the most important page of your site and therefore the Homepage will always have the highest Page Rank value.  This Page Rank is then distributed between the lower pages of your site as illustrated in the image below:

The links that point from your home page to internal pages are usually found in the Main navigation of the site. This allows your Homepage Page Rank to flow naturally to the internal pages that are being linked to. The ‘juice’ gets distributed evenly across the pages that are being linked to.

Building Relevancy of a Page to a Keyword

The first and most important step of any successful SEO campaign is without a doubt Keyword Research.
You have to have a very clear objective of which pages you want to rank for and for which keywords or phrases. When creating your internal linking structure you cannot just link to pages using any random text you feel like. You need to use the targeted keyword of the page you are linking to in your anchor text.

Links act like votes for the pages that they link to. So, if you link to a page using “click here” enough times, that page will start to rank for the keyword “click here” in the Search Engines. Go ahead and do a search for the poor guy who ranks NO 1 for “Click Here”!

Ensuring your whole site gets spidered and indexed

Making sure your website and all its pages are spidered by the search engines is in all probability the easiest thing you can do to increase your rankings. You see, the more pages of your site are indexed in the Search Engines the more content you have to offer the user. The more content you have on your site, the more keywords you will inevitably have in this content. And the more keywords you have the better the chances of ranking for those keywords.

So why would Search Engines not be able to spider all your pages without internal linking? Pages can be hidden from search engine spiders when linking is done in a way that the spider cannot read to follow those links. This would happen if your site uses a script-based navigation system for example. Also, image-based navigation may be crawlable or spiderable by search engines, but the search engines can’t see images and therefore can’t assign any relevancy from the image to the page that is being linked to.

Well that’s all I have for now. I hope you got all of that, but if you didn’t, don’t despair! Just give ROI Media a call and we’ll sort you out.

Web Design and Conversion

One of the most important yardsticks to measure the success of any web-based venture is its online conversion rate. Getting people to your site is all good and well, but the real measure of your website’s design and content is whether you are able to turn the casual browser into a paying customer.

Those who endeavour to increase conversion and do research on the topic will find a slew of online references that tout everything from eye-tracking to hover-to-click-ratio as the ultimate answer to conversion-related worries. Sifting through this heap of information can be confusing and frustrating to say the least. So, before you throw out the baby with the proverbial bathwater and shell out your hard-earned cash for a complete website redesign, we recommend that you take a good, hard look at your current website to see if there are simple adjustments you can make.

Ask yourself: where do I lose my customer? At which point along the browsing-to-purchase timeline does my potential customer become so frustrated/disinterested that they abandon their shopping cart rather than proceeding to the checkout point? The very first thing you should be looking at is your Call to Action buttons. When you look at these buttons there are two very important questions you should be asking yourself:

1.    When a visitor clicks on this link, what exactly will they see next?
2.    Will what they see encourage/discourage them to take the action I want them to take (i.e. make a purchase)?

Here are a few examples of buttons that will have your potential customer heading for the hills:

• The ‘empty cart’ button. How often have you filled your real life shopping cart with groceries only to be tackled by a store assistant who grabs the contents of your cart and puts it back on the shelves? Never? Well, why then do we assume that putting an ‘empty cart’ (identical in every conceivable way to the ‘place order’ or ‘proceed to checkout’ button) next to the button we really want the customer to click is a good idea? Time is money, and if you waste your customers’ they will take their business elsewhere.

• The completely irrelevant link. A good example of an irrelevant link is the distracting (and actually extremely irritating) banner advertisements that some sites put on their shopping cart pages. You have just gotten your potential customer to the very place you wanted them from the start, why break their concentration now?

• The ‘reset form’ button. How many times have you gone through the time-consuming rigmarole of filling out an online  form with all your personal details only to find that you have accidentally filled out those of your deceased grandmother? If indeed you have you will be one of very few people on the planet who have found the ‘reset form’ button useful. Placing this button next to a ‘submit application’ button has the potential to cause confusion, evoke swearing and even lose you a customer.

These are just some of the simple mistakes that website owners make every day. There are a myriad more. Why not contact us and set up a meeting so we may discuss the easiest way of improving your online conversion rate?

In-house SEO VS outsourced SEO

If you are currently using the internet as a marketing tool, then you already know that SEO is one of the most important weapons in your online marketing arsenal. Without it, your business will be virtually invisible to the casual internet browser. The question is, should you outsource a firm to handle your online marketing strategy or should you keep things simple and conduct your SEO business in-house?

It is a common misconception that in-house SEO is the more cost-effective solution. In terms of Rands and cents this might quite frequently be the case, but once you start evaluating the situation from a return on investment standpoint, the picture begins to look a whole lot different. Search engines change their algorithms often, new rules are constantly formulated and to keep up you will need the resources and time to find, understand and implement the necessary changes to keep your website updated and viable.

An in-house SEO expert can become so entangled in the specifics of your company’s particular strategies and implementation processes that they lose sight of what is going on a larger scale. Outsourced SEO firms, on the other hand, are far more likely to be familiar with current SEO trends. The very fact that they ply their trade in a variety of industries means that they have to stay abreast of protocol and techniques if they intend to compete in the marketplace, giving them a definite advantage over someone who only focuses on one site in one industry.

Furthermore, it is ludicrous to assume that a single individual could embody the great variety of skills that it takes to make a marketing strategy work. By employing an SEO firm to handle your online marketing affairs, you are effectively purchasing many years worth of combined knowledge and expertise – all of which will be focused on making your site a lean, mean conversion machine. An SEO firm is able to do in a matter of days when it could take an individual employee (no matter how dedicated and diligent) weeks to achieve. In business time this equates to money and by outsourcing your SEO you will manage to stay ahead of the curve.

To summarise, here is a handy table:

The advantages and disadvantages of both in-house and outsourced SEO are clear to see. In the end it all boils down to this: no matter how good you think you are or how well you think you understand the SEO industry, you will never attain the same results that a dedicated SEO company is able to.

Good SEO pays for itself. After all, you wouldn’t try to fix your own car, remodel your own house or put braces on your own child if you did not have the necessary expertise, so why do it to your website? In these economically challenging times, your website represents the most cost-effective way to promote your business and generate sales – it could very well become the lifeblood of your business.

Let ROI Media perform a free appraisal of your in-house SEO; it’s the easiest way to find out if you are heading in the right direction.

We want your Talent!

Talent cannot be handed down from father to son, neatly wrapped in its golden sheet of promises and successful future endeavours. Talent is fruit, plucked from the gray streets of our cities and devoured with relish by those who need it most. This is where you come in. ROI Media is searching for talented individuals to fill SEO positions that are constantly cropping up in our constantly-burgeoning business. This is your time to take up a position that will expand your mind as much as it will enhance your position in the exhilarating world of online marketing.

A decade ago, these positions did not exist. SEO was in its infancy. The world was not ready for this, the ultimate form of marketing. Now it is a fully-grown entity, with copywriting, SEO, web design and many more factors combining to form successful online ventures – ventures that have silenced the naysayers and dwarfed any preconceived expectations.

There are different SEO positions available at ROI Media. Join us in the frontlines of SEO as a junior apprentice and cut your teeth on the very basics, before delving into the deep-end as it were. Prerequisites; there are a few. As stated in the introduction, we require talent. A keen individual who enjoys the social interaction that the internet provides will be considered, as will those who are motivated to achieve nothing less than the best results through personal accomplishment. This is all it takes (plus a matric diploma or equivalent) to become something of an SEO guru.

For the individual who has experienced the wonders of SEO and has talent to spare, we can provide a home that will nurture your much-needed skills. A step up from the Junior SEO position is the illustrious job of an SEO analyst. If you have worked in the field of SEO before or you have a keen understanding for keyword researching, HTML and the ability to work under a truckload of demanding clientele, then this is a position custom-made for you. Your time is now, escape from the tyranny of oppressive, boring work and join ROI Media; the leaders in breakthrough SEO development. We are the company you have been searching for.

Are you the one that we want at ROI Media?

Email CVs and a concise cover letter to: seocareers@roimedia.co.za