Thursday, August 27, 2020

5 Methods To Convert Website Visitors

 Every website owner wants to build organic search results and convert website visitors. Honing your content creation and content marketing skills are fundamental to establishing and expanding your sphere of influence.

5 Methods To Convert Website Visitors
 

Make it easy for your visitors to opt in as a subscriber to your content. 

Supply a simple subscribe box when a user clicks an image or button. Place a subscribe box in multiple locations on your web page.

More and more people are becoming subscribers at major retailers, which shows a level of comfort with connecting using subscription services. Put this new trend to work for you on your website. Are you selling a subscription service to your viewers?

A recommendation, including word of mouth and positive online reviews, is a key trigger for consumers to sign up with a subscription service. Subscribers report they want something new and innovative. Replenishment subscribers are more motivated by financial incentives, such as discounts, and by a strong need for the product.

.... read more

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

7 Website Hosting Features To Fortify Your Online Business

 

Website Hosting Company

To run a professional website you need these seven basic features from your website hosting company or hosting service. Without these, it does not matter how little you pay for your website to be hosted, because you have no real power in managing your content.

Website hosting features give you tools to manage content and the functions that publish your content to the world and the search engines.

 ... read more

Friday, August 21, 2020

Online Marketing: 3 Silos You Must Include In Your Arsenal

 

Online Marketing: 3 Silos You Must Include  In Your Arsenal

 

Managing your online reputation requires digital marketing, a comprehensive approach to creating and publishing media about your business.

 As you evolve and expand your online presence, mature your website owner strategy, you will find new methods to juice these silos. Be sure to begin collecting testimonials showing  positive feedback.

Website media includes the content that you publish in marketing channels to create inbound links.

In the first phase you are showcase your products and services to create website traffic, that is hopefully your target audience.  You are also working on an approach to successfully convert website visitors become a subscriber or a buyer.

The media in this first phase is geared to creating organic search results to show links to your website in Google search results.

"Nearly 50% of the world's population uses social media. That's over 3 billion users worldwide.
~ Statista

As you have the time and money you will create more long term media strategies.

 ... read more

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

SEO: Is It Necessary?

 

Website Owners Guide

Over 90% of websites never receive any organic search listings displays in Google search results because they fail on quality content and few to zero inbound links to their site.

Every website owner wants to achieve success, and the key indicator to being a successful website owner, is having organic search results without using your business name.

... read more

Monday, August 17, 2020

Website Owners: Do You Own Your Website?

Website Owner Ideas
 

You own you business. Do you own your website? It's all about the longevity of your business presence. There are a number of factors to consider including website builder, domain, website design, your databases, and more.

When I talk about owning your website, I am talking about, you have in your possession the native files (html, PHP, asp) that are the architecture of your website, and that you can deliver those files to any website host company to publish your website on the internet.

CMS - Content Management System You do not own the CMS if you are using one. For example, Wordpress is a CMS. Most website hosting services provide Wordpress that can be used freely.

Web Design The design and format of your page are owned by you when you are building a website. If you do the design work yourself, or pay someone to do it, in either case you own it.

Domain Name Domains are registered with ICANN. Technically, you own your domain, and pay an annual registration fee for it.

Database(s) You own the database that is populated with content you placed there or that your website placed in the databases as it processes website functions.

... read more

Friday, August 14, 2020

Website Owners: 3 Essential Characteristics Required For Success

 Are you looking to improve your website owners skills?

 Are you looking to improve your website owners skills?

Over the years I have at a masterful conclusion, I want to share with you. I think it will help you build a better website and improve your online marketing too. With this information you can better prepare yourself for the work ahead to be a leader in your community of online businesses. When people visit your site they will remember it, they may even bookmark it to return later for more information.

One distinction, when I refer to when I say website owner. That term is pointing to the person creating the website. As an example, I work with many business owners to build their websites and do their online marketing. In reality, I am the website owner. Yes, the business owners own the content and media i create. But, it's my reputation on the line for the presentation ,functionality, and marketing that the website site incurs.

This article is about the three most essential, the foundation qualities of a successful website owner. The landscape for website technology has shifted ins the last five years, I expect that cage will continue. The three very essential qualities are nerd, innovator, and artist.

Does that seem plausible to you?

We look forward to speaking with you about your website project.

Too much of one quality will lock down the other quality. For example, too much nerd will reduce the artist to ashes and the site may be a techno wonderland but absolutely boring to website users.

Or, how about this scenario. Innovation is important, but without the nerd skills to think through the functions of a website site, there is stagnation in marketing. For example, the website is using the latest and created techniques but not producing organic displays in the search engine results.

One more to consider without the vision of an artist, in terms of color and layout, your site is techno correct and using the latest techniques, yet your website users find it the content so boring your analytics show an extremely high bounce rate.

If you are looking for support to be a improve your website owners skills, check out our website owner program.

 

Read more....  website owner skills

 

Monday, August 10, 2020

Website Owners: 3 Tips and 2 Audits Tools To Optimize Your Content


There are three significant measurements to building a website with quality content which are length, speed, and relevance.  These are not new, however the specifics on them morph so, as a prudent website owner, you want to keep up to speed those modifications.

This article will explain those three characteristics and review a free audit tool, provided by Google Developers, to evaluate your page speed and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This is a “how to” of your website maintenance for all you DIY folks.  If these topics cause confusion to you, or you just want some professional guidance, check out our website owner training program.

1. PAGE FORMAT AND DESIGN

According to the buzz at this writing, a quality page, according to Google Search Standards, is at least 1,500 words and 2,500 is better. The content on that page is unique and relevant to the topic that relates to the web site at where the article is posted. For example, if your web site is a bakery, then maybe your home pages discusses your services in general with specific links to each section of your site. One section is catering services. Another section is breads and pasties. One more section could be cakes. Still another section is your cafe.

It is never, ever, a good idea to make a link, on the top of your we page(s), to another website.

When considering the long term effort to sustain your site content, a base rule is 50 pages. When you have 50 pages or more, you have reached a real milestone and earned some additional credibility in search engine bot land.. This level of content tells Google and Bing that this web site is here to stay and, more importantly, has something to say.

FORMAT

When you are not sure how your web page design is being interrupted by the search bots, run a free check. This is the first fee audit tool in this article, from Google Developers, to see if your web page design is mobile friendly. You will find this link below in the Summary section of this article.

As a standard procedure, design your page for mobile devices first and then do the design for laptop or desktop viewers. This has been said over and over again for the last three years. Always use your website analytics to see what devices your website visitors are using.

Are you using landing pages with your target audience? New research is showing that people are moving away from that type of format.

”Only 17% of marketers use landing page A/B tests to improve conversion rates.”

~ HubSpot, 2020

A landing page offers a prospective customer a resource, such as an ebook or webinar signup, in exchange for their basic contact information. The goal of these pages is to generate leads, build your base, and it’s an ongoing effort.

From my research landing pages are being used on larger accounts and website ones using a platform, like Shopify, to produce their website. Smaller merchants and sellers are relying a simpler approach to connecting with their target audience. I am finding that most smaller business use their website as a showcase, and to establish/sustain a presence in organic Google search results.

This is old news by now, so probably the last time I will bring it up. You should always protect all of your websites with HTTPS, even if they don't handle sensitive communications. Aside from providing critical security and data integrity for both your websites and your users' personal information, HTTPS is a requirement for many new browser features.

Last week I was redesigning a website and the existing photos, when placed on the Webster architecture, would not appear in any browser until i switch HTTP to HTTPS. Just saying, the tech giants are serious about using HTTP. You can place a free SSL, secure sockets layer, certificate on your website from almost every website host these days. Don’t have a website host. Be sure to check out CloudFlare.

HTTPS makes safer internet by reducing the ways intruders intercept communications between websites and users' browsers. IT Here are loads of intentionally malicious attackers, and legitimate, but over zealous companies, such as advertising firms or hotels that want to place ads into pages, which they can do on HTTP.

Let's discuss how to optimize your structured data project to improve your website performance.

 

2. PAGE SPEED

Speed is has been brought into the mix of algorithms several years ago, today it plays a more predominant role as a ranking factor for websites in mobile searches.

Users want to find answers to their questions quickly and data is telling us that people really care about how quickly their pages load. The Google Search team announced speed would be a ranking signal for in ranking search results ablate two years ago.

Page speed is all about the software or platform you are using to publish your website. Two factors contribute to that which are page design and content optimization. For example, if your images are not compressed you are not going to like your page load score.

Three common mistakes include thinking if your page loads fast for you it loads fast for everyone. Second one is that a single point in time does not represent the ultimate measure meant of how fast your point loads. In other words, the speed measurement is constant. Third, along the same lines of constant measurement, no one action on your site represents an overall measure meant of page speed score.

What we are being told is that your entire site is measured that will then output a page speed score. Clear to see that faster is better.

”77% of smartphone shoppers are more likely to purchase from companies whose mobile sites or apps allow them to make purchases quickly.”
~ Think with Google

Our expertise will reduce your learning curve in your website design project for mobile devices.

To continue reading click here.

Friday, August 7, 2020

Five Tips To Tune Up Your Website in 2020

 

Five Tips To Tune Up Your Website in 2020
#1 A successful online business requires quality content to reach the correct target audience.

#2  Permanent media such as video marketing, is an excellent method to create and sustain SEO organic listings in the search engines.

#3  Your potential customers find you from your marketing campaigns  and your embedded Google search results related to your products and services.

#4 What is an easy way to reduce labor in your sales cycle while also increasing the value of every sale you make in your online business? This is accomplished by website automation. A Type of automation that does not require a robot or artificial intelligence. It requires tools and should cost you a one time fee to set up and then it runs automatically. The process is connecting your existing tools: 1) payment processor with 2) your mail client software.

A payment processor is something like Paypal or Stripe. There are many to choose from and all charge the same processing fees.<br><br>

Your mail client is an account at Mailchimp or Constant Contact.  There are many mail client programs out there to choose from.


Once you have connected those two, then every the name and email of each buyer are saved in your mail client account.


An email is automatically sent to the new buyer to let them know they will receive newsletters from you. If they want to unsubscribe there is a button for them to click to unsubscribe.<br><br>

After that, they are eligible to receive your newsletters. Congratulations!  You now have a qualified new subscriber.


If you have any questions, or need some help, use our contact page to send an email.

80% of business professionals believe that email marketing increases customer retention. (Emarsys)

59% of respondents say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions. (SaleCycle)

59% of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI. (Emma)

 

#5  What should SEO cost? There are three steps in the SEO life cycle. Each of these steps integrate the keywords and key phrases discovered by qualified SEO research. The two key questions everyone asks about SEO .....

1. How much is the SEO going to cost?  Nearly every business today must decide how much to spend on search engine optimization (SEO).

2.  Do I really need SEO ... to have to pay for SEO, or can I do it myself?  Robust online marketing is imperative for survival in a web-driven world.

This post will answer those questions in detail and I' will be using a 2012 SEO research plus my 10+ years of experience working successfully with clients to accomplish quality SEO.


10 Common Website You Want To Avoid

 

Website design is constantly being refreshed with improved technology and also enhancements to platforms.

Whatever platform you use for your website(s) be sure to keep the platform updated with security updated to reduce the threat from hacks.

What percentage of small businesses have a website?
71% have a website
79% of businesses with a website say it's mobile friendly
92% of businesses without a website say they will have one by end of 2018
Source:  2017 Clutch Small Business Survey


Reasons why businesses don’t have websites...
31% use a social media profile instead
25% lack of technical skills
23% think its not necessary
23% lack the time or money to procure a website
 

Source:  2017 Clutch Small Business Survey

 

<h3>Who Uses The Internet In 2018 & What Do They Surf?</h3>20% of American adults are "smartphone-only” internet users – meaning they own a smartphone, but do not have traditional home broadband service.

About 25% of USA adults say they are ‘almost constantly’ online.

42% of adults ages 65 and older now report owning smartphones, up from just 18% in 2013.

67% of seniors use the internet – a 55-percentage-point increase in just under two decades.

78% of 18- to 24-year-olds use Snapchat, and a sizable majority of these users (71%) visit the platform multiple times per day. Similarly, 71% of Americans in this age group now use Instagram and close to half (45%) are Twitter users.

68% of adults in USA now report that they are Facebook users, and roughly three-quarters of those users access Facebook on a daily basis; with the exception of those 65 and older.

YouTube users include almost 75% of USA adults and 94% of 18- to 24-year-olds.

Pinterest remains substantially more popular with women (41% of whom say they use the site) than with men (16%).

LinkedIn remains especially popular among college graduates and those in high-income households. Some 50% of Americans with a college degree use LinkedIn.

<i>Source:  PEW, March, 2018</i>




Friday, September 28, 2018

Tool: How To Easily Edit Vector Images (video)

Great learning video that covers using Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer to work with images. She covers capturing a certain piece of a image, saving that to a new file or clipboard, and then using that "saved material" in a new image.

My challenge was I buy these vector images (EPS files) from a stock photo sites and then cannot figure out how to use part of the image. Those vector images have hundred ot thousands of layers in an image. Her video is a simple, quick solution to that challenge. Plus, she carry it out a tad more with some other ideas on using the tools for creating cool images. Well done video.

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Privacy: 5 Amazon obscure settings you should change now


Online Prviacy - 5 Amazon Settings To ChangeThe items we buy say a lot about our lifestyles, our finances, and our domestic lives. If you have an Amazon account, the amount of data that the retail giant collects is astonishing. Many people don’t know you get much more just free two-day shipping with a Prime account.

With these different areas collecting data about you, if you are trying to maintain some semblance of your privacy, you’ll definitely want to check these five not-so-obvious settings.


1. Remove your Amazon public profile

We don't often think of our "Amazon profile." However, that's precisely what it is. Your profile is created automatically, whether you want it or not, and it contains comments, ratings, public Wish Lists, biographical information, and other site interaction. This profile doesn't include your purchases or your browsing history, but it's very informative.

If you want to control what activity is visible on your public profile, do the following:

1. Put your cursor on the "Account & Lists," button and then click on "Your Account."

2. Scroll down to the "Ordering and shopping preferences" section. Click the "Profile" link, which is right above the social media preferences link.

3. Click on the link in the orange box to the right that says, "Edit your profile." Click the Edit privacy settings tab.

4. You can select or deselect items like Reviews, Questions, Who You Follow, Public Wish Lists, Baby Registry, and others. To simplify this, there's also a handy option to "Hide all activity on your profile," which turns everything off at once.

It’s sometimes hard to tell what other people can see. If you want a quick look at what information you're sharing publicly, click "View your profile as a visitor." You can tell at a glance if you're sharing anything you don't want to out in the public arena.

If your profile is showing your real name, or other biographical information you don't want, go back to the profile settings page and click the Edit profile tab. It’s located right next to the Edit Privacy settings tab.

You can edit or delete any information like your Bio, Occupation, Location, and more. You can even change the "public name" on your profile and post reviews anonymously.


2. Listen and delete your Alexa recordings

If you own an Amazon Echo, you probably know its strange secret: the device records a lot of what you say. On the upside, Echo uses this voice data to improve its functionality and obey your command.

Still asking Alexa only for the weather and music? Tap or click here for 21 Alexa commands you’ll use over and over. The downside: Echo doesn't store these recordings in the device itself but on Amazon's servers.

Many people don't realize you can review your voice log with the Alexa app on iOS and Android. The app allows you to scroll through your activity and listen to each recording.

It's a bit tedious, but it's possible to go back and listen to the very first command you've ever uttered to Alexa. There's nothing like hearing your two-year-younger child say "What's the weather?"

Whenever I check my settings, I am always surprised what Alexa saves that does not have the wake word in the snippet. Tap or click here for step-by-step instruction on how to listen and delete your Alexa recordings.

Keep in mind that Amazon warns, “Deleting voice recordings may degrade your Alexa experience.”

Related: You can enable Alexa to call 911. Tap or click here for the steps so that you or your family can ask Alexa to summon help when you need it.


3. Make your lists private

There are two main "lists" on Amazon, the Shopping List, and the Wish List. Many people use their Wish Lists for gift ideas, but we often use Wish Lists as a log of items we don't want to forget.

The trouble is, anyone in the world can find your Wish List by searching your name. Granted, if your name is “John Smith,” you may not be easy to pinpoint. But if strangers find out where you live, they may be able to deduce and identify your profile.

To check the privacy settings of your Amazon Lists:

1. Click on the "Accounts & Lists" drop-down box then select "Shopping List" or "Wish List."

2. Now on this "Your Lists" page, click on three dots (next to "Share List") then select "Manage List."

3. Here, you can change your list details like your list name, the name of the recipient, email, birthday and most of all, its privacy.

4. To change the list's privacy, simply click on and select "Private" on the drop-down box.


4. Stop Amazon from tracking your browsing

Like almost any search engine, Amazon also tracks all your browsing activity by default. The company saves your searches, including items you recently viewed and product categories you browsed. All of this information helps Amazon create targeted ads. Although your browsing history is hidden from the public, you may find this habit unsettling.

Here's how to stop Amazon from tracking your browsing activity:

1. Log in to your account at Amazon.com

2. On the upper menu, click on "Your Browsing History."

3. On the next page, click on the "Manage history" drop-down arrow.

4. Toggle "Turn Browsing History on/off" to Off

Note: You can also clear your entire browsing history here by clicking the "Remove all items" button

Meanwhile, you can also turn off personalized ads, which many customers find eerie and exasperating. Here's how to turn off targeted ads on your browser:

1. Go to "Your Account" page.

2. Under "Email alerts, messages, and ads," click "Advertising preferences"

3. On this page, select "Do Not Personalize Ads from Amazon for this Internet Browser"

4. Hit "Submit"


5. Set a PIN on Alexa purchases

“Alexa, order more shampoo.” It’s convenient to purchase items from Amazon Echo using only your voice.

But I'd rather turn off my Echo's Voice Purchasing option altogether and use Amazon's app or website to shop. This process is much more direct and secure, and you reduce the odds of making a mistake.

To turn it off:

1. Open your Alexa app.

2. Tap Settings and scroll down.

3. Tap Voice Purchasing and toggle "Purchase by voice" to Off.

If you still want the convenience (and the sci-fi vibe) of Echo voice purchasing, you should set up a PIN code to avoid unauthorized purchases.

To set it up:

1. Go to the same Voice Purchasing settings page on your Alexa app.

2. Toggle "Purchase by voice" to On.

3. Toggle "Voice code" to On as well.

4. This will prompt you to enter your 4-digit PIN code.

Once you have a Voice Code configured, the 4-digit code has to be spoken out to complete a purchase on your Echo.

Of course, anyone can listen in and reuse your code. A voice-purchasing PIN adds a veneer of security, but it's hardly foolproof. As I said, I'd rather have Voice Purchasing set to off entirely.

What digital lifestyle questions do you have? Call my national radio show and click here to find it on your local radio station. You can listen to the Kim Komando Show on your phone, tablet or computer. From buying advice to digital life issues, click here for my free podcasts.

Copyright 2018, WestStar Multimedia Entertainment. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Online Business: Three Free Tools From Google In 2018

Online Business: Three Free Tools From Google In 2018
With these three, free, tools you are upgrading your website technology and online marketing to easily receive important benefits: 1) producing robust organic listings in search engine results; 2) using the most advanced security; and 3) taking advantage of an easy marketing tool .... in the busiest search engine in your community and the world.


 #1 Data Structure Information - Search Engine Tool
Adding this tool provides explicit clues to search bots about how to classify and categorize the meaning of your page in the Google mother lode.  Google uses structured data that it finds on the web to understand the content of the page, as well as to gather information about your business services - features and benefits.  This is a top-shelf SEO (search engine optimization) tool.

This is an introduction to this search engine tool: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/intro-structured-data


#2  Google My Business Profile - Marketing Tool
Google has offered the free local business directory for a few years now. Two months ago they released a new version of this digital marketing tool that allows for new information about your business. This revised profile format includes multiple, comprehensive search engine tags that describe your business.  The caveat to use this tool is you must receive mail at a street address used in your profile.

One new important piece of this update, your profile can display videos. Videos marketing is the red hot trend and every business needs videos about your features and benefits.


#3 Spam Catcher - Security Tool
Hopefully, your website is designed with a contact form page that lets your site visitors send you a secure message. This is an contact form excellent technology versus the old way of just posting an email address on your web page.  Plus, it gives your website a professional characteristic. 

The best, and free, technology available is Google reCaptcha. This service protects your site from spam and abuse. It uses advanced risk analysis techniques to tell humans and bots apart.

You can read more about this security tool upgrade here: https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/v3beta.html


To receive technology assistance to complete these updates,  contact us today.


NewsletterTune your Digital Intelligence 

Online Marketing Tips 10 Content Marketing Facts (video)





Wednesday, July 4, 2018

SEO: 3 Steps To Buying SEO

# Step To Know Before Purchasing SEO Services In 2018
What Is The #1 Goal of Any SEO Effort?

We always hear about SEO will get us more website visitors, but what is the best measurable result of SEO dollars?

The first goal os any SEO effort is creating sustainable organic listings on the first page of search results (FPSR).

Today, in 2018, Google/Bing have made great strides to display local businesses on search results pages to improve local results. Those local results are produced at the whims of algorithms. Being an organic results on the first page of search results (FPSR), using proper SEO techniques, is a highly sought after achievement and considered a marketing success.

For example, the Google Local Business maps and the Bing Local Business maps display local business results at top of FPSR. But, we know that those maps do not show all local businesses today, And, Google/Bing continues to make efforts to improve those local business results.

On a national basis, when searching for a product or service, the websites that have the optimized SEO are the ones displayed on the FPSR. Time will tell if Google introduces algorithms to manage those search results.


Three Steps Of Purchasing SEO

There are three steps in the SEO life cycle. Each of these steps integrate the keywords and key phrases discovered by qualified SEO research.

Content
In this step is the designing and producing the content, creating the platform of your business reputation, and each content piece must be SEO'd with proper techniques. This content comprises several types of media. For example, website pages, graphic images, videos, and podcasts to name a few.

Technical
The focus in this phase relates to the engine algorithms regarding data structure. For example, the architecture of a website, the naming of files, meta tags, adding keywords to a video and so forth.

Frequency
When you have the content completed and the technical aspects installed, you are ready to publish your material. Search engine algorithms consider many variables, one of which is the frequency at which content is published. For example, it is a well known fact that Youtube channels who publish consistent new videos will be displayed more often on the "referring" section in pages of videos being viewed. Successful YouTubers have stated 3 videos a week is optimum. I have seen results with publishing one video a week.

Always remember, SEO does not happen over night. Depending on the SEO goal, results can takes months to appear. Overall, the foundation of seeing success in SEO is finding the right chemistry in you business marketing of these three phases.







Tuesday, July 3, 2018

GMAIL USERS BEWARE Developers Read Your Email Reports An Investigation


GMAIL USERS BEWARE Developers Read Your Email Reports An InvestigationYour private emails are being read by third-party Gmail app developers, an investigation into data privacy has revealed.

Developers behind a number of popular online services designed to work with Gmail trawl through private messages sent and received from your email address, it claims.

It is common practice for some of these third-party app creators to instruct employees to read personal emails.

One app, which is designed to help users manage their Gmail inbox, lets employees read 'thousands' of emails, the Wall Street Journal investigation found.

According to experts, this 'dirty secret' is now common practice among some firms.

The revelation comes just a few months after it was revealed political data firm Cambridge Analytica had siphoned private data from third-party apps on Facebook.

According to the investigation into Gmail, the hugely-successful Google email client allows third-party developers to scan the inbox of anyone who installs their app.

These apps can provide additional functionality to the Gmail inbox, like the ability to compare prices from different online retailers, or quickly unsubscribe from any marketing emails sent to your address.

The Wall Street Journal report was based on the testimonies of more than two dozen employees of companies who create services around Gmail – the most popular email service in the world, with 1.2 active monthly users.

One company involved in this practice is New York-based firm Return Path, which helps marketers drive revenue through email.

Last year, Return Path employees trawled through 8,000 personal emails as part of an effort to train the company's software, according to anonymous sources.

Employees at Mountain View-based Edison Software also reviewed the emails of hundreds of thousands of users while building a new feature for their mobile app, which is designed to help people organise their emails.

Neither company asked users for permission to read users' messages but say the practice is covered by user agreements.

'Some people might consider that to be a dirty secret,' Thede Loder, the former technology officer at eDataSource, which provides competitive intelligence for email marketing, told the Wall Street Journal.

However, he said this type of behaviour was now 'common practice'.

The question of data privacy has been an increasingly important issue since Facebook's Cambridge Analytica controversy.

The social network allowed third-party apps to request permission to access users' data, as well as data of all their Facebook friends.

This enabled developers to mine the private information of 87 million Facebook users, when only 270,000 people had used the service and granted permission.

Almost anyone can build an app that connects to Gmail accounts using an application programming interface (API).

(C) Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5912763/Gmail-users-beware-party-developers-READING-private-messages.html






Friday, June 29, 2018

7 Steps To Creating Success With Digital Marketing (video)

7 Steps To Creating Success With Digital Marketing (video)
Like it or not, if you want your website to gain traction in search engines, as an organic result, you must apply the seven steps in this video.

These are seven distinct steps and each one has something specific you can do, and then measure the results from that action in Google Analytics.


No use thinking you are going to beat the odds, online marketing is a process that is best accomplished step by step.  Real success is not going to happen overnight or even in weeks.  Be cautious of people promising you instant results to obtain organic results in search engine marketing.

Newsletter:  Video Marketing Research (2018)

NewsletterDigital Marketing - Two Proven Methods (2018)

Techniques: 5 Tips To Build A Better Website





Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Online Marketing Success: 2 Helpful Data Views In Google Analytics - 2018

If you are serious about your online marketing success, then you have to become familiar with Google Analytics.

This free data tool will measure many aspects of your website traffic. It can also be used to understand other channel traffic like your blog,  Facebook and YouTube sites.

In this post we will cover two basic data views you MUST know in order to understand the 1) characteristics of your visitors are and 2) what activity your blog or website visitors accomplish in a visit.

Once you are logged into Google Analytics you can view data or setup a new property.  A propoerty is a website or blog ... any URL you want to measure traffic on.

Google Analytics Admin Screen
ADMIN Screen
To add or edit a property look at bottom left of the screen for the ADMIN icon that shows a gear.

That will display this screen where you can choose the best button to continue your work.

Link to full image of "Google ADMIN Screen".



When you first login to Google Analytics you see the screen below.
Google Analytics Data View
Home Screen



 Link to full image of "Google Analytics Home Screen".










#1 Overview Of Website Activity
Choose "Audience" and then "Overview" from the selection on the left of the screen to see the data view screen below.

Google Analytics Data Overview
Traffic Overview

This data view tells gives you a quick view on your website visitor activity.

To change the date range and display  results for new dates, make modifications to the date bar in top right corner of the screen.

Link to full image of "Traffic Overview".

Users:  the total number of people visiting your property (site).

New Users: number of new users only. not total users.

Sessions: total number of visits to your site.

Pageviews: the total number of pages viewed during all visits.

Bounce Rate: the percentage of visitors that exit your site on the same page that they entered your site.

Pageviews is now, and has been, the recognized measurement of website traffic.

About the Bounce Rate, the smaller that percentage the better. When that percentage is smaller it means more visitors view more than one page of your site.



#2  Website Page Activity
Choose "Behavior" and then "All Pages" from the selection on the left of the screen to see the data view screen below.

Google Analytics Pageviews
Pageview Activity

This data views informs you what pages your website visitors viewed.

To change the date range and display  results for new dates, make modifications to the date bar in top right corner of the screen.


View full image of "Pageview Activity".

Looking the heading of the columns on the table you see the following:

Pageviews: the total number of views on pages at your site.

Unique Pageviews: If a visitor looked at the same page five times, that will be counted as one pageview in this column.

Entrances: This number is increased on the first pageview or screenview hit of a session.



Google Analytics: Data View Count Example

In this example, a user enters a website and navigates to two pages:

Enter → Home Page → Gallery Page → Exit

You would see the following data for each page:

Home Page: 1 Entrance, 1 Session, 1 Pageview
Gallery Page: 0 Entrances, 0 Sessions, 1 Pageview



Tune Your Digital Intelligence

Newsletter: 2 Proven Digital Marketing Methods (June 2018)

Newsletter: Video Marketing Research (2018)







Monday, June 25, 2018

7 Signs Your Digital Marketing Is Broken And A Fix (2018)

7 Signs Your Digital Marketing Is Broken And A Fix  (2018)

These are the clear signs that your digital marketing needs some tune up attention on any website platform, including Wordpress.


#1 Video Marketing
Your website traffic has not increased visitor traffic and/or your website pagesviews have not increased since you began your YouTube channel.

FIX
Revise the tags on your YouTube video to be more specific.  Or, include name of YouTube channels that are synergistic with your channel, meaning that when the synergistic channel videos play your videos will be displayed as a recommended video.


#2 Voice Search
Your website shows on first page of search results (FPSR) with organic listing using a traditional search - typing into the search field, however; site does not display organically in a search using Siri or Android Voice Command (AVC).  

FIX 
The best resolution is adding more content to flush out more features and benefits of your services/products. Either add more web pages or add more content to existing pages. Google considers one webpage to be an "authority" when it contains over 1,500 words.


#3 Website Visitors Exit Site On Same Web Page They Entered Site
The "Bounce Rate" tells you the count of people who left your website on the same page they entered your site. For example, if the Bounce Rate is 90% and you had 100 visitors, you know that 90 visitors only saw one page.

FIX 
Goose up your engagement strategy. Convert your pages into section of bands. Cover one topic in a section or band and provide button to another web page with more content on that section/topic.

Offer a special promotion and use a button on all web pages to access the web page containing the promotion.

Use more images and link the images to content pages that are the index page of a folder on your web site. Images are great to peak interest. 



#4 Website Does Not Display in Google Search Results With All Directories Displayed.
Below is a photo of a website showing all the directories displayed organically on FPSR.


FPSR Google Organic Result










FIX 
Make sure your top level directories in the website architecture contain a file using index (php or htm or htm). All the other web pages in that directory need to link to that index file - in the content of the index file -preferable as a text link.


#5 Photos On Website Do Not Appear As Organic Results in Google Under Results of "Images"
All images are categorized by the search bots according to thier file name and the "ALT" tag description of the image.

FIX 
To have more of your images displayed in organic search results, examine the text used in the "ALT" tag of the image and the actual file name of the image. Do those two items match or are they very close? If not, make sure they are almost identical or identical.  

Use a hypen to separate words in a file name. For example, the-file-name.png.

Lastly, be sure that the "ALT" tag and file name words are also used in the top header on your web page.


#6 Web Page is Slow To Display
This is best link so far that I use for speed and optimization score: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/. Its an easy location to test your site speed/optimization and receive instant feedback.

FIX
There are many variables that contribute to page speed. It's probably the best step to focus first on making your mobile website the highest performing site. Google favors mobile devices and has a "mobile search tool" in the Apple and Android stored.

There seems to be more SEO juice in using the warehouse method for images rather than inserting - storing the image in your web page of your site. Warehousing images will definitely increase the speed of uploading your website.

For sites loaded with images, like a store catalog, remember to keep thumbnail images small and the actual image not larger that 250 px wide.


#7  Difficult To Measure Marketing Results
Your website is up and running, but you are not sure what your website visitors are doing or what they should be doing.

FIX 
Every website needs a vision to carry out a three step plan ...

1. Inform website visitors about your product/services
2. Educate website visitors about features and benefits of products/services
3. Convert website visitors into a subscriber or a buyer

When it's difficult to measure the progress a website visitor makes in those three steps, take time create/structure your content marketing with the goal of linking those steps.  Those links are known as a "call to action".


Newsletter - Turn Your Digital Intelligence

WordPress - Nine Common Mistakes In Websites - 2018