Keyword research is one of the first steps in the content development process and for the non-SEO, it's a task that's usually dreaded. After all, with all of that writing on your plate, it can be hard to find the time and the energy to spend hours researching keywords. If you're not a full-time SEO and you're expected to be a keyword whiz, don't worry. Here are a few tips to help you save time (and frustration) when it comes to keyword research.

Use a System

Keyword research works best when you have a system for getting it done.

For most writers, keyword research doesn't come as naturally, since we tend to be more focused on the content itself, rather than how readers arrive to it. However, in today's world, keywords can maximize the impact of your content. Remember – great content is still great content, but it's even better when it's able to be found.

When setting up a system, first figure out how much time you'd like to spend (or have to spend) on finding the right keywords.

If you have a lot of time, great! Go keyword crazy!

But if you don't, think about a set number of keywords you'd like to research and decide your maximum allotment of time. For example, five keywords in 45 minutes.

Follow A Set Process

Next, you'll need to come up with an actual process. Here's a solid way to research keywords without having to worry about crazy competitor analysis or other exhausting metrics:

Step 1: First, take a closer look at the core values, services, and value propositions of your organization or business.

Get a clear understanding of what you're hoping to communicate to your audience and how someone might search for or arrive at your site.

Step 2: Make a list of potential search phrases that you, as a searcher, would use to find your company.

Also make a list of other keyword ideas based on language you use on your website, customer feedback or customer inquiries, etc.

Basically, you create a list of possible phrases to research. This doesn't have to be an exhaustive list. Just a few phrases to get you started.

Step 3: Next, take that list and think of different variations.

Are there different ways to say the same thing? Different names for a particular service or product? Pluralizations of the phrases?

Add variations to the list. Also, while you're at it, open up a spreadsheet. Add three columns: one for "keywords", one for "search volume", and one for "competition volume".

Step 4: Take your list of keywords and put them into the Google Adwords Keyword Research Tool (this one is my favorite keyword research tool). Click "Search". (P.S. – if you're worried about non-related terms cluttering up your results, select the box that only shows ideas close to your search terms.)

Step 5: The Google Adwords Keyword Research Tool will give you a report on your keywords.

Ignore the competition column. Instead, pay attention to "Global Monthly Search Volume" and "Local Monthly Search Volume".

Global monthly search volume is the average number of times that particular keyword phrase is searched worldwide in a month. Local just pertains to the average searched in your country each month.

Depending on the direction of your SEO campaign (localized or global), choose the average search volume number that best pertains to that phrase. Paste the keyword and that average search volume into your spreadsheet under the appropriate columns.

Step6: Now it's time to get the competition volume. Start out by logging out of any Google products (it'll skew the results).

Then, run one of your prospective keywords through Google search and look for the number of results that come up. That's the number of sites you're competing against for that term.

Add the number of sites under the competition volume column on your spreadsheet. Rinse and repeat.

Step 7: In general, select keywords that have the best ratio of low competition volume to high search volume.

After you've chosen the keywords, start moving forward with content development or work with your client/manager/keyword-approver on making sure these are the terms you want to focus on.

Rejoice that the task is complete!

Build Up Reserves

Another way to cut back on time spent on keyword research is to build up keyword reserves.

Essentially, you spend a huge chunk of time doing only keyword research, but in the long run, it can save you a lot of time and hassle. Set aside a few hours each month to build up your keyword reserves.

Speaking of reserves, you can also look back at past keywords you've used in your copywriting efforts. Don't be afraid to work with these keywords again or to play around with variations of past phrases. When you're stuck, looking back at past copywriting can be a great way to gain perspective and maybe, get some new keyword ideas. For example, do you see

Check your Analytics

Analytics programs like Google Analytics give you a great glimpse into keywords to use when building your SEO campaign.

See what's driving traffic and work from there as a baseline for your keyword research.

You'd be surprised on what drives traffic and hey, maybe you'll find a phrase or a variation you never would have thought of before. (Bonus: Check the internal search history of your site if you have the ability. That's a goldmine for keyword ideas.)

Throw the Rules Out the Window

Another thing you can do is just throw all of the keyword research tools and rules I've described above and go with your gut.

There are plenty of keywords that occur naturally throughout content as you develop it, so you can always just write first and work in keywords afterward.

There are different opinions and strategies on the subject, but the best advice I can give is to find a keyword research and copywriting method that works for you so that you don't dread opening up the Google Adwords Keyword Tool from time to time.

How do you complete keyword research in a pinch?

• How To Optimize A Web Page For A Keyword
• Abandon The One True Keyword & Live In The Real World
• Keyword Specific Ranking with Internal Linking

Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog

Keyword Research For Those Who Have Something Else to Do

So, you have your product and now you need to come up with a price.

Product pricing is perhaps one of the hardest endeavors out there for the small online business.

If the price is too much, you risk losing a customer but if it is too little, the perceived value could hurt sales as well. One option is to use decision field theory to give what appears to be options when, in actuality, you are driving the majority of sales through the price point you want them to pay.

The benefit of this is that you are essentially testing price point with 3 prices- one that is low with limited features, priced just below your target price; a second that is priced at your target price with more features and a third that is priced much higher.

If you price the first two points close enough together, you will find most consumers gravitating to your original price point.

Decision field theory focuses around 3 concept effects.

1. Similarity.
2. Compromise.
3. Attraction.

The key to understanding this is based more on psychology; when we make purchasing decisions, we don't think in absolute terms but relative advantages to us. A practical example (although now much maligned) would be deciding to purchase fries and a burger at McDonald's for $4.00 or making it a "meal deal" with a coke for .40 more. From the consumer's point of view, the meal deal is a better value although in all likelihood, from the business's perspective, the price was set to influence the consumer make that choice.

In short, the lower price may very well be appealing to the consumer but compared to the meal deal, it pales in comparison. More bang for your buck, anyone?

A illustrative example of decision field theory can be found in a study that Dan Arielly, writer of predictably irrational, did with ad copy that he found curious from the economist magazine.

In the original copy, the economist offered up 3 choices for the subscriber-

1. They could purchase online access for $59.
2. They could purchase a magazine subscription for $125.
3. They could get both the magazine and online access for $125.

The question Dan asked was why on earth would anyone want to purchase a magazine only subscription when they could get both the magazine and online access for the same price?

The answer was in understanding relative advantages. In all likelihood, the magazine produced the most revenues from magazine subscriptions and therefore ultimately wanted people to subscribe to their magazine rather than simply pay for online content only. Relatively speaking, when given the choice between the three options above, choice #3 offered the most advantageous price point for both the consumer and the economist.

Dan wanted to test this though.

In the first test, Dan took 100 of his students and gave them 2 choices-

1. They could purchase online access for $59.
2. They could could purchase the magazine for $125.

In the first test, his students overwhelming chose the first, cheaper option.

In the second test, he gave them an additional option; they could purchase the magazine and have access to online content for $125.

The second test was the complete opposite of the first; 84% of the students picked the third option, while only 16% chose online access only.

By adding the third option, his students overwhelmingly chose the third option which increased revenue by 42%.

Relatively speaking, the students found that when given a choice between the 3 options, the third new option was the one that had the most value, relatively speaking that is.

Relative is the keyword here….

* Image by Stuck in Customs

Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog

Easily Establish The Best Price Point With Decoy Pricing [Decision Field Theory]

Having a website is easy; driving traffic can be difficult and few manage to generate consistent amounts of traffic.

When asked about the best source of traffic, the majority of social media marketing "guru's" said Twitter is the best source of traffic.

But you can't drive traffic by just having a Twitter account and tweeting once in a while only. Here are the some of the best practices to become a Twitter power user.

1. Complete your profile
2. Use a good profile picture
3. Tweet at least 5 to 10 times a day until you find your own sweet spot
4. Use links in your tweets
5. Use different type of content in your tweets like quotes, links, pictures etc.
6. Consistent tweeting matters
7. If you are tweeting regarding an event use a # tag
8. Give credits whenever possible by adding a user's Twitter handle
9. Use Twitter's search to find questions regarding your niche and answer them
10. Twitter is a conversion; connect with like minded people using @ replies
11. Don't over promote yourself, most recommend using a 1:9 ratio
12. Ask questions
13. Use tools like www.wefollow.com to find new followers
14. Engage with people; more engagement more followers
15. Promote your Twitter account on your blog, website and other social networks
16. Follow Twitter power users in your niche and learn the best practices
17. Retweet other people; every one likes to be pampered
18. There are plenty of tools and apps to enhance your Twitter experience; I like Hootsuite and Buffer

What is your best source of social media marketing traffic? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog

18 Best Practices To A Traffic Driving Twitter Account

Social media use in business is rampant. In fact, the growth of social media use is as viral as the campaigns that flow over the networking platforms. Yet, even though use has spread, understanding of this marketing medium hasn't. In a world where solid numbers define success or failure, the act of measuring social media simply doesn't add up.

How do you turn friends and fans, followers and views, into growth? How does it directly relate to business sales? You can look at your activities and see that you're investing something, yet, the way most use social media, there doesn't really seem to be a return for all that work.

These and other questions are why social media is such an enigma, and has such an aura of ?. Its ethereal, ambiguous, and bewildering. At least, it appears to be

Beyond Social Engagement

Although I often talk about social engagement, and engaging more with your target market, I know that " to the hard liners, number crunchers and so on -, engagement isn't quantifiable.

So I engaged (said with complete lack of enthusiasm). What now?

Well, now that you're communicating, its time to find out whether its actually helping and, if so, how much.

The Path To True Social Tracking

Social efforts can take quite an amount of time precious time you could be using to run your business. Therefore, it doesn't make much sense to throw yourself at social networking and marketing without having a realistic expectation of results.

With that in mind, Im giving you a homework assignment today. If youve been implementing a social campaign for awhile and youre wondering (as in, you aren't sure and cant tell) whether its paying off, stop. Read this article, follow the steps, and then apply them.

Goals " Just Do It " Doesn't Work

There's something to be said for jumping in with both feet, but when it comes to social marketing, what can be said isn't very nice. You wouldn't hop into placing an ad on television, would you? Of course not. In this instance just do it isn't a good mentality to have.

Your homework assignment – Look at your current social efforts and answer these questions:

1. Do I have goals in mind that I want to achieve for my current social efforts? (If yes, go on to question 2. If no, stop and create goals.)
2. Are my goals specific? (If yes, go on to question 3. If no, stop, and make your goals more specific.) Goals such as make a lot of money and get a lot of traffic are, to be blunt, useless. Social marketing goals need a high amount of specificity, such as gain 600 new followers within 3 months. This is a specific goal, which makes it much easier to find out whether your social efforts are actually succeeding.
3. Are my goals realistic? (If yes, advance forward. If no, stop and connect with reality.) If your goal is to reach 600 followers in 30 days or less but 1) you don't have a large following already and 2) you're not famous (Katy Perry, vocal performer) or infamous (Anonymous, Internet hacktivists), this is not a realistic goal. As well, consider what your goals will do for you. While a high number of followers sounds nice, how does that actually help your business growth? The reality is that it doesn't help. What helps is what those followers do once they're following you " what you want them to do is a much better goal to focus on than how many.
4. Have I defined how I'll track the success or failure of my goals? (If yes, advance forward. If no, stop and think this question through until you can say yes.) What good does it do to have goals if you cant track their success or failure? "And, what good does it do to track, if you don't track the right indicators? KPI's (Key Performance Indicators) are metrics that directly tie in to the success/failure equation. For example, if your goal is to raise sales through social media, a good KPI to track would be average sales (hint: how much traffic you get is seldom a good KPI in terms of business success. Having 200,000 visits a year, or even a quarter, does not (necessarily) mean a successful business).

Through "The Looking Glass" Realistic Social Marketing Analytics

When you measure, these measurements can turn into a jumbling mess of data. For numbers to mean anything beyond, well numbers they have to have meaning. You have to put them in the right context if they're going to make sense to your campaign. For example, what does 5,000 new visitors in 30 days actually mean? It could mean several things, including:

• People are visiting your site because they found you on social and are curious about you
• People are visiting your site because someone wrote about you, and the visitors wanted to know more
• You're ranking in the top 3 for a high search term, and visitors are interested in what you have to say/sell
• You're promoting yourself through guest blogging (and doing a good job of it)

In other words, there are several reasons more traffic could be coming to your site. Most of these reasons wont fit into the context of sales. For a social marketing campaign to work it has to be realistic and able to be tracked; for the numbers to provide realistic measurement, you have to put them in the right context.

Here are just a few examples to keep in mind as you set up your goals and KPIs, and track the success of your campaign:

There's traffic, and then theres traffic " A visitor to your site doesn't mean a sale, or even interest. How many times have you clicked on a link only to hit the back button when you dont find what you want? If you're looking at traffic as a KPI, include things such as:

• Pages per visit " needs to be more than one
• Where they came from " for the purposes of this exercise, dig into your referrals. You'll want to see higher traffic coming from your social networks

Links are an added benefit of strong social efforts " If you're sharing links to quality, informative articles (or quality funny ones or quality helpful ones or okay, its all about quality), your social network will eventually start talking about it. They'll say things like, I came across this article, and give you a link. For this reason, you'll want to monitor the number of links you have pointing to your site from other domains (you can do this through Google Webmaster Tools, or any number of tools that provide backlink profiles).

If you're tracking social, track social " If you look at the overall results of your site compared to before you started tracking, your conclusions wont be accurate. You see, the overall results don't show you a detailed view of your social efforts, which is what you need.

You can achieve detailed views by narrowing down your web analytics to the social level, such as looking at Facebook as a referrer and seeing what visitors did from the Facebook link. You can use Facebook Insights to see how well your page is doing.

As well, you can use social to provide a special coupon, QR code, promotional FB/Twitter code or other action you can track. If someone orders with that coupon, they're more than likely a result of your social efforts. (Example: In infomercials, they often say something like, Say you saw it here and receive 10% off your order. You're doing much the same thing, only you're saying, let us know you found out about us on Twitter and get 10% off your order, or whatever your campaign is.

Whichever KPI's you choose to track, make sure you take other venues of traffic and sales out of the equation as much as possible.

Social Marketing Homework Assignment

Now that you've read the article, take a serious look at your current social efforts. I wont ask you to raise your hands, but how many of you are guilty of jumping on the social marketing bandwagon without actually planning anything?

Before you do anything else with your social networks, create a plan of action. Listen, look, learn. Understand that social is just another marketing medium, with its own peculiarities, and treat it with the careful planning it deserves!

See also:

• 4 Advanced Segments For Tracking Social Media in Google Analytics
• Use (Free) Traditional Conversion Tracking For Detailed Social Media Analytics
• Measuring Results and Utilizing Social Media for Maximum Impact

Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog

Tracking Social Efforts – Analytics Beyond the Link Shortener

Google Search, despite its dominance, is anything but perfect. In fact, the results it presents can get pretty stale over time.

For instance, a user searching for email marketing trends is probably looking for the most recent information on the subject, but may be presented with results from years ago.

Realizing that the freshness of results was starting to become a problem, Google decided to make some adjustments to its algorithm that address the issue. This latest update is a huge deal, so lets take a closer at the details and what it all means.

• Assessing Your Freshness Factor

Trending Topics

Trending topics is terminology that is frequently associated with Twitter, but is now an approach Google is applying to search results.

According to Google, searches for hot topics that a lot of people are talking about, and recent events will now automatically produce results with updated information.

So, for example, a sports fan searching for the latest details on the ongoing NBA lockout will receive results that are at the very least, a few hours old, opposed to days, weeks, or months old.

Regular Updates

In order to provide users with fresher search results, Google has tweaked its algorithm to give prevalence to sites that publish regular updates.

The details on this particular aspect of the update are not exactly clear, but it appears as if sites with the most recent information on a specific topic will rank higher than those with information that is outdated.

From what we have been able to gather, this means that someone looking for reviews on say, GoDaddys web hosting service, will see reviews posted last week, before they see those published last month, months ago, and so forth.

This is a pretty significant change with huge implications from an SEO standpoint.

Recurring Events

Be it in the sporting field or entertainment industry, there are quite a few events that occur on a regular basis.

Some that come to mind are the NFLs Super Bowl, the annual Daytona 500, and the Coachella Music and Arts Festival.

Realizing this, Google made the decision to update its algorithm accordingly by tweaking it to put a special focus on such events.

With the recent changes in effect, users searching for information on a specific event will be presented with the most recent details opposed to results with information on older events.

Again, this follows the theme of giving prevalence to sites with the freshest content on a given topic.

SEO Implications

According to Google itself, the recent tweaks will impact about 35% of the searches conducted through its search platform. This is substantial in comparison to the controversial Panda update, which was estimated to impact roughly only 12% of searches.

The biggest implications here may apply to content publishers and marketers, the entities who optimize their sites for Google traffic.

If you are a website owner who has been enjoying high rankings and traffic on the strength of your content, that could all change now that the freshness and recency of your content is more important than ever.

Content Reads:

• The 5 Point Checklist To Quality Content
• 10 Ways To Beat The Panda Update
• 10 Reasons For Editing Your Published Blog Posts

Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog

What Is The Importance Of Freshness And Recency To Google’s Latest Algorithm Tweaks?

* article updated: see bottom of article

Josh Davis reported on how Pinterest, the web's new this is going to change everything" social site, seems to make its money; by stealthily inserting affiliate codes into your links.

If you post a pin to Pinterest, and it links to an ecommerce site that happens to have an affiliate program, Pinterest modifies the link to add their own affiliate tracking code. [...] They dont have any disclosure of this link modification on their site [...]
– Josh Davis, Pinterest is quietly generating revenue by modifying user submitted pins

Thats not cool.

Its totally OK to make money with a site. Really, were all for it! And if you want to do that by doing the we modify links so they become affiliate links for our benefit – more power to you.

IF there is is clear, upfront disclosure, that is.

If not, well, then it becomes as sneaky and backhanded as ISPs hijacking search sessions to inject moolah inducing content (another reason why Google going HTTPS is cool).

Clear, upfront disclosure is key.

Like the +1 button as fake spam blocker earlier this week, this may all very well fit just between the lines — but it feels wrong.

And talking about wrong, how is Google going to balance their intense dislike of affiliate-driven sites and Pinterest's 36+ million indexed pages?

Of course there are two sides to everything with those that are all for disclosure and those that don't really see the point; some calling it outright the  hypocrisy of affiliate disclosure rules.

Their House, Their Rules

Of course if it can be done, if it's fully allowed, then it's their house, their rules. As long as we're not throwing that out there to simply cut off any discussion I'm fine with that. But the question how we want our Internet to be is one in flux and not a bad one to discuss.

How do you feel about this? Would it matter to you if Twitter were to start modifying it's t.co links to add Twitter-benefiting affiliate code?

* Update: Skimlinks, the company powering the link injection, informally responds via its blog, distancing itself every so slightly from Pinterest's non-disclosure :

Pinterests use of Skimlinks technology is nothing new, nor is it secretive. Skimlinks has been around for almost 4 years now [...] Creating a beautiful, user-friendly site, as Pinterest has done, mandates a non-intrusive way to make money. [...]

While we fully encourage transparency and disclosure, at the very least because it is a nice thing to do, many sites choose not to be blatant about their monetization techniques [...]

Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog

Pinterest Changing Your Links Into Their Affiliate Ones

Think again my friend! I would consider myself fairly new to Pinterest, but already I've gathered a solid following, and I use it to find ideas to decorate my home, to plan my seasonal wardrobe, and to find ideas on what to cook for dinner.
Which, to you, probably sounds fun and great – but what does it have to do with marketing your business? A lot, actually.

What Is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a visual social media outlet. It allows users to upload photos into various categories, and also 'pin' other user's photos and organize them. The idea is to create a virtual bulletin board. For example, if you recently got engaged and wanted to look for ideas for your wedding, you could create a board called 'wedding ideas' and pin different pictures onto that board. (Below is a screenshot of some of the boards I have. I keep boards on fashion, food, travel, and things I'd like to have one day)

The trick is to follow, and be followed (like Twitter, and Facebook, and every other social media outlet). The more followers you have, and the more people you follow – the more photos you are exposed to. Depending on your purpose for using Pinterest, you'll have more opportunity to find great ideas and photos for your project, store, business, wedding, dinner, house… (I could keep going)

This being said – if you own a business or company, you can also use the boards and tactics on Pinterest to market your products / services. Photos are a great place to start when trying to draw attention to something specific.

Is My Business a Good Fit?

Your business will need to be visual. I.e. an aspect of your business you can share in a photo that will prompt consumers to dig deeper into your business. Retail businesses are prime candidates for marketing on Pinterest. However, you can be the judge of that! Maybe your business is not a good fit, but you have a special project you are working on that will allow you to share photos with users that may drive traffic to your website.

I'm a Good Fit. Now What?

Below I will outline how to use Pinterest as a social marketing tool using a specific example.

Example: Clothing Retail Store
You sell clothes. You sell to a specific demographic. You have access to a camera. You want to generate brand awareness, and more consumers (online / offline Pinterest can work for both)

1.Create an account under your business name. If you use your business name, consumers will start to recognize you both offline and online.
2.Play nice and pin other user's photos that are related to your business. Social media's purpose is to be social, and if you're constantly boasting about your own products-your following will fade, and you're less likely to attract other Pinners to pin (that's a mouthful!).
3.Post some of your own photos that are related to your business. Such as new styles that have arrived and are in store. Add your website's URL to your photo so users can link back to your website.
4.If you uploaded a photo that relates to your business, it's a good idea to add your business / company logo to your photo. That way, no matter how many times your photo has been pinned users know where it's from. (From a user's point of view – I find it frustrating when I see a photo of something I love, but I don't know where I can buy it) Adding your logo will make it easy for consumers to find you.
5.Create boards that are appealing to your demographic and business, and also neatly organized. This will make it simple for users to take a look various photos of exactly what they are looking for.
6.Use other user's photos to show ideas of what consumers can expect to see in the coming season (examples), or what's hot now. Maybe you don't have that exact item available but you're helping your consumer.
There are plenty of other ways you can use Pinterest as a marketing tool. People who pariticpate in social media are drawn to photos, it's very easy to draw attention to your business using photos, which is why Pinterest is so great.

But-what if…

I don't think my business is a good fit to market my products on Pinterest, but I still want to use it for my company

No problem. Not every business sells clothing, or home decor. If your products or services are not a good fit for marketing on Pinterest your company certainly is. Use Pinterest to show your clients, fans, users, or consumers what goes on at your company. Upload photos of your office environment, special events your company participated in, and so on. You still may draw some people to your website, and create some awareness. Wouldn't you love to see some behind the scene photos of a day-at-the-office at Facebook, or Google? I'd Pin that. (Did I just create a viral slogan?)

Test It:

Take advantage of the mass amounts of social media users out there, and apply some simple marketing skills to create brand awareness and traffic to your website.
Social media is often understood as a way to create brand awareness – not capital. And that's true. It generally does not provide direct income. But, if you can literally show a user (on Pinterest) that you have what they want-you might just get yourself a sale!

Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog

Pinterest: Your Latest Social Media Marketing Tool

CEOs require empirical data indicating the effectiveness of social media applications. With social media metrics, employees can always be prepared with reports that will show the return on investment. Though social media metrics appear difficult, they are not always as difficult as one might anticipate.

How Social Media Metrics Are Measured

Social media marketers must determine which key performance indicators (KPI) to use to measure performance. Social media marketing metrics should include measurement for growth, momentum, engagement and results. Applications are available to help marketers measure the four pillars effectively.

To develop a successful marketing campaign include the following metrics: Overall net increase in sales, number of new customers acquired, number of new leads generated, increase in customer retention, increase in awareness, increase in brand perception and increase in purchase intent. Nearly 62 percent of marketers measure increase in sales and 57 percent measure the number of new customers acquired. Only 39 percent of marketers measure the number of new leads generated.

Social accounts summary measures the traffic generated by Facebook and Twitter. The number of fans and followers are also tracked by this type of analytic. Information about re-tweets and likes are also common. The graphical data and representations help employees communicate the results to key players within the organization.

Momentum is simply a measure of how fast the numbers increase based upon the exposure. This is important to determine how the website traffic influences sales conversion and revenue. If the social media marketing campaign is effective, numbers will increase.

Other Important Social Media Metrics

Social media metrics inform people about leads, brand impact or product trials. Lead generation is important in increasing sales. Followers and fans are a built-in group of pre-qualified leads that have expressed an interest in the product or service that the company is offering. Coupons and social purchasing often increase the awareness of the brand and thus, the sales may also increase. Sampling also contributes to generating leads of people interested in a product or service.

Surveys test customer sentiment and determine how to improve the product or service to generate more traffic and revenue for the company. Metrics measure how well employees are performing their jobs. Through surveys, C-level executives can determine how well employees are performing in their jobs and how they can improve. The performance of employees can make a significant difference in how well the products sell.

Difficulty Of Measuring The Results Of Keyword Use

Search engine optimization (SEO) is measurable, but the analytics are slightly more difficult than others. Nearly 15 percent of marketers find the online advertisements are difficult to track. The marketers challenge is to determine how the clicks translate into sales conversions and what may influence the buyer to purchase a product or service. Surveys may help marketers determine how this happens.

Web analytics tools and social media monitoring are a part of the measurement process and the determination of the success of social media. The lead counts are also important. Ineffective marketing tools will not help companies improve. Apparently, marketing tools are effective if used properly. Nearly 58 percent of marketers are pleased with their marketing tools. Over 60 percent of marketers track sales increases and 57 percent track new customers with these tools.

How To Improve Visibility

According to a study conducted by Lenksold Group, nearly 75 percent of marketers rely on social media marketing. Most of these marketers do not know which of these metrics will improve ROI. Only 20 percent of the marketers had an effective method of quantifying the campaigns success. When the pressure comes from the CEO, marketers need to have a report prepared to share with the CEO.

Conclusion

Social media metrics may not be as difficult as once imagined with use of analytical tools. The tools automatically generate reports so that executives can evaluate them to improve business practices. Companies should integrate web analytics applications into their weekly routines to ensure that the business is constantly improving and generating new revenue.

Related Reads:

• Use Google Analytics to Develop Social Media Strategy
• Social Networks and the New Challenge for Ranking in Search
• Use (Free) Traditional Conversion Tracking For Detailed Social Media Analytics

Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog

Social Media Metrics: Not as Difficult as You Thought

I must admit that one of the biggest perks of my job as a full time freelance copywriter is that I am able to roll out of bed in the morning and start working at my desk while snuggled in my pajamas and cradling a warm cup of coffee. My work uniform in the past has consisted of a pair of plaid Hello Kitty pajamas and a super-fuzzy pink robe with hearts on it. Ive had many days on the job when my boyfriend comes home from his job in the evenings and I havent even gotten dressed yet.

However, I have recently been noticing that working in your pajamas can sometimes have a negative effect on your productivity as a freelance writer, and that dressing for success can be important even if no one can see you!

Dont Get Too Comfortable

Of course, its very nice and cozy to work in your sweatpants and fluffy bunny slippers, but it is a slippery slope to getting too cosy with your writing. Soon you will take the laptop with you and curl up on the couch or the bed to write. Then its very hard to resist turning on the television for some background noise, or laying your head down for a nap. If you get too comfortable, you can end up snoozing your day away and not getting any work done!

Wearing your pajamas all day long can have the effect of blurring the line between working and leisure. You will never really feel like you are at work, but you also will never really have the satisfying feeling of finishing work either. If you lollygag through the day, its easy to stretch a few hours work into a full day. Its best to get your freelance copywriting work done as efficiently as possible, and then use the rest of your time to enjoy yourself.

Getting In The Right Mind-set

If you get dressed every morning as if you are going to leave the house and go to an actual job, it can have a surprising subconscious effect on your productivity. By changing into your work clothes, you are telling yourself that its not time for relaxing anymore, its time to get down to business.

Im not saying that you have to wear high heels, pantyhose, or a suit jacket and tie every day! A simple casual outfit of jeans and a t-shirt or a jumper is fine. As a rule of thumb, try to wear something that you wouldnt be embarrassed to wear around the corner to the shop to pick up a loaf of bread!

Head into your office, sit upright at your desk, turn a bright light on and focus on the task at hand. Set yourself a goal of how many articles or blog posts you need to finish by the end of the day, and keep yourself at a steady pace to get them done. Stop for a quick coffee and stretch break every hour or so to keep yourself fresh, but stay on task.

Once you have finished your full day of focused work, you can log out of your email, shut down the laptop, and walk away from the office. Now your work day is over, and its officially you time so go ahead and wear whatever you want!

Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog

Dress for Success Even When You Work From Home

So yeah, the Daily Mail is now the world's most read online newspaper. If that gives you a "so what" moment consider what was left behind to reach that spot; top properties like the New York Times, The Guardian, The L.A. Times, and the Boston Globe, to name a few.

That's an impressive feat especially considering what the Daily Mail is.

What's The Daily Mail All About?

The Daily Mail is to news and newspapers what Cosmopolitan is to feminism and women literature. For our US readers: the Daily Mail is the text-version of Fox News, sorta.

That's what beat the New York Times and I can assure you much hand wringing will follow. Woe us, the Internets are making us dumb(er), "I'm above all this and don't even watch TV", and likely someone will yell "first!" somewhere. That kind of thing.

But — they did it. And that's what counts.

How Did They Do It?

First, their home page takes cues from the long sales letter. Their home page is long. I mean, it's huge. Just how huge is it, Ruud?

The Daily Mail home page is 22,000 pixels long. More than 5 times longer than the New York Times' measly 3900 pixels (amateurs!).

I tell you; if you go there now, there's no way you'll make it to end of the page without having clicked at least one headline. Yes, even those that are far beneath you… Go, I'll wait. <10 minutes later> See, that was scary, wasn't it? That's what a black hole feels like…

The long sales letter works and the Daily Mail's home page is proof of it.

Always Be Selling

Not counting the celebrity news headlines in the sidebar, the Daily Mail sports roughly 100 headlines on its front page. The New York Times has roughly as many.

What's different is how those stories are brought to market, how they are sold.

The Daily Mail uses 4 times as many words to sell copy as the New York Times.

To sell its copy, to get its clicks, the Daily Mail uses 7900 words; almost 80 words per story. The New York Times uses a sparse 1900: no more than 19 words per story.

HUGE headlines … Really?

Part of that long copy must come from the Daily Mail's long, run-on headlines. They're famous (infamous?) for their tabloid-style headlines.

30+ words run-on headlines are non uncommon at the Daily Mail online, but the (mean) average is 17 words.

Headlines at the New York times tend to run 11-13 words; 40% of Daily Mail headlines are 15 words or less. About a third are mini stories of 20 words and more.

But yeah, those are some headlines man.

Relentlessly Be Above It All

You can laugh at the Daily Mail, sneer it, look down upon its readers and vilify it in many other ways — some of which may be creative — but the fact of the matter is that they don't look down on their audience.

Neither should you. I know, you were there today for the first time. Or maybe the second time, counting that clickthrough you did from that post your friend shared on Facebook. But to get this many readers at least some of them have to be the highly educated, super intelligent people your site goes for. Right?

The Daily Mail is never "above" getting the click. They're not of the "TV? I don't even have a TV!" crowd. Heck no; they like Damon over Stefan, think Meredith should stop whining, and that Walter is doing awfully good for a regular with this much blood on his hands.

ps: Heba Hosny knows how to write those kind of descriptive headlines too. Stuff like 7 Easy Steps To Turn Your Twitter Account Into A SEO Magnet, From a Mess To Success! 5 Twitter Time Management Tips For The "Twittaholics", or 7 Awesome Twitter Content Curation Tips Inspired By Paper.li

If you want to learn more about writing good headlines, don't miss these:

• Prevent Your Blog Titles From Sabotaging Your Efforts [Headline Writing 101]
• 5 Traits of a Great Headline
• Social Sharing: How To Optimize Page Titles To Generate More Clickable Links To Your Website

Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog

Why The Daily Mail Is The World's #1 Newspaper And You Can't Get A Single Click