Digital Innovation

4 main design points for attracting international clients - Digital Strategy.

2013-06-06T06:20:00.004-07:00

Geographical boundaries have been greatly reduced thanks to the internet. By having a Digital and Online Marketing Strategy - your brand or product can reach a global audience easily.

Of course, for companies with, or seeking, an international client base this is ideal but consideration must be given to cultural nuances. As any designer will tell you, colour plays a very significant part of design and whilst we in the West readily associate colours like blue as calming or professional (think IBM), and red as angry or exciting, in other cultures these colours have different meanings. For example, in China red symbolises good fortune and joy, so whilst a designer may shy away from using red as a dominant colour in a website design, if creating the Chinese version of the company website it may be an intelligent selection for the overall aesthetic.

Outside of the obvious requirement for the correct spoken language to be used for an international site - here are some more key points to cater for:-

1. Do not skimp on written translations

Automatic translation tools don’t quite cut it yet – it is still fairly easy to spot text that has not been human translated; grammatical errors, localisations, colloquialisms are missing or erroneous. If you are going to do it, do it properly and invest in having a proper translation done.

2. Research the common interests of that region and lend your website to them

Take the time to research other websites in that locality. What is of interest to the typical viewer? Such as news and weather, statistics and data, stock market fluctuations and indexes. It is not enough to get visitors to your site – you have to keep them there by keeping them interested with relevant topics and information.

3. Select the correct technology

Many developing countries do not yet have high speed broadband. Their infrastructure may be poor and 3G is not available. If this is the case, give preference to a lightweight, responsive web design and avoid using mobile apps.

4. Colours and Imagery

Essentially, be respectful to a nation’s customs and beliefs. Do thorough research - use colour themes that are favourable in their country. Take care not to use imagery that, whilst perfectly acceptable in the West, may be offensive elsewhere such as clothing (or lack of it!), sacred themes or animals, avoid anything with religious connotations unless that is specific to your business.

Whilst the above has been intended for international digital and online strategies, the points can be validly applied to most online projects – consider that even if you are not pursuing international clients – they may be pursuing you at your local website.

Author Rank

2013-05-27T02:13:00.006-07:00

It’s no secret that content creation continues to have significant impact on page rank results but neglecting this from your SEO and Digital Marketing Strategy, at this stage, is fool hardy.

Author Rank has been included in Google Search Engine Rank Algorithms for some time now - there is no excuse for content creators not to have their google authorship setup and tags on every bit of content they create.

So what is AuthorRank?

It’s a quality recognition measurement for Google search engine ranking system. Grading factors include credibility, reputation and quality of content produced.

Other factors include positive mention counts; likes, shares, retweets and also how long a user remains on a page or website that has shown up in Google search results. All these factors are deemed to indicate how interested a visitor was and also a measurement of user engagement. Both of which suggest the website is a quality site offering a good user experience and thus worth of higher placement in search engine result pages (SERP).

By setting up your own google authorship (a google plus account is mandatory) and using the relevant html tag in your content; you will then start to see search results being influenced by Author Rank; your name and picture will appear in a small tab next to the weblink. This not only makes the link standout in the results page but also shows the person behind the content – remember people communicate with people not businesses – and, as proven by statistics, will encourage more clicks.

So what does this mean to businesses?

If you are contracting out your content creation – look for those authors who have Author Rank and the higher the better, as this will only help to improve your site or page rank.

By Christine Kinch.

Matt Cutts, Google, speaks of the new Penguin Search Engine algorith update that will be inforce this summer, 2013

2013-05-15T00:24:00.002-07:00

Here's the video from Matt Cutt'

Matt Cutts on Penguin 2013 SEO updates himself...

Turn your great business idea into an even better App.

2013-05-10T06:14:00.000-07:00

Progressive businesses are realising the advantages of turning a great business idea into a profitable and customer friendly app., whether as a downloadable or web based application.

Primary focus is often most for benefit of Customers but app’s also provide useful features allowing employees and business professionals to handle many different tasks - a variety of different things that could not have been possible before.

Countless off the shelf products and downloads are already available for multitudinous purposes. Where do our Clients benefit most? Custom built app’s.

Not just tailored to exact requirements but, with the Vidappt approach, are flexible and adaptive to future enhancements. We are experts in mobilisation; all our solutions are mobilised. Our expertise in software integration means we are not restricted by either third party or in-house product integration.

A recent example; Zurich Risk Profile - Fund Platform Application

Vidappt were tasked to provide a feature rich user interface which facilitated a great UX (User Experience), allowing them to quickly and easily work through a set of questions eventually leading to the build of their own custom investment portfolio.

Vidappt’s feature rich solution delivered an interface enabling the user to, quickly, and easily, proceed through a series of initial questions completing with the creation of their own custom investment portfolio. Integration with Zurich’s Life’s fund back office systems and applications is essential to provide the input to the resultant customised investment portfolio and allowing the user to engage with Zurich Life's brokers directly.

This slick and responsive design facilitates high readability, UX and performance, from mobile, tablet, desktop devices and platforms alike.

Our web application development and custom software development services include everything from a simple content web site application to the most complex web-based internet applications, electronic business applications, and social network services.
Don’t let your competitors get ahead – get an app!

First published Software and Mobile Development company: Vidappt

How to construct a persuasive headline...

2013-05-07T00:57:00.001-07:00

Persuasive headlines: The real structure to use

Impactful headlines, that compel viewers to read the content, have three parts...

Pre-head.
Position: Very top
Target: Readers you are aiming at
e.g. "Get rid of Fat thighs"
Main headline.
The part that advertises for your ad and makes the viewers want to read more
Decks.
Bullet points listing the additional benefits.

This structure must be employed to create the most powerful headlines.

Handy Facebook Shortcuts cheat sheet from makeuseof.com

2013-05-02T14:09:00.001-07:00

Don't know the difference? Shame on you! Static / Mobile / Responsive website or downloadable app

2013-04-30T03:24:00.001-07:00

Here follows a simplistic breakdown of the differences:-

Static website

This is the traditional and earlier form of website. It displays the same on whatever device accesses it. The website is re-sized when viewed from a mobile device; smartphone (e.g. iPhone) or tablet (e.g. iPad) but the resizing is simply the device displaying it to fit its particular screen dimensions and as such, readability will be poor. It will have a standard URL (web address) such as www.iRevitalise.com.

Mobile App

This is a free-standing and downloadable piece of software designed to run on the android or ios platform. They can offer specific functionality, information or a streamlined version of utilities available on the main website. When installed on a mobile device they have their own icon and do not require use of browser software.

Mobile website

A mobile website is a separate website to the static website and is normally prefaced by the letter ‘m’ e.g. m.iRevitalise.com. It generally doesn’t have the complete functionality of the main website but is a scaled down version to incorporate the key elements such as product list or pertinent information. The design should have the flexibility to render well on all mobile devices without loss of the aesthetic or degradation of the UI (user interface).

Responsive website

An ‘all encompassing’ website that is designed to adjust its display and features to the mobile device properties and platform accessing it. These types of site are becoming more and more popular and some schools of thought believe they are ‘favoured’ by google – indicating they may rank higher in search engine results.

You can check whether a website is static or responsive by accessing it from a desktop pc and using the ‘CTRL’ and ‘-‘ buttons. This will minimise the display of the website – if it changes it is responsive, if it remains the same but just smaller it is static. If you access a website from a mobile device and you are redirected to a site beginning with ‘m.’ then you have been redirected to the mobile site.

The different types of Social Media...

2013-04-28T03:24:00.001-07:00

Different types of Social Media:

Social Networking
The popular social media term including Internet sites; Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn.
Social Content
Includes YouTube, Wikipedia, Craigslist, FlickR, and eBay.
Social Recommendation
Includes StumbleUpon, Digg, and others. They give users opportunity to recommend Internet content to others, who can then vote on the quality of that content.
Social Bookmarking Such as; delicious.com, Digg, Newsvine, and Reddit Technorati, Google Bookmarks and to a certain degree Twitter and Facebook. Users have the opportunity to share their bookmarks with others.

Choosing the RIGHT KEYWORDS - essential information for your PPC / Adword campaigns...

2013-04-22T03:29:00.003-07:00

As I work my way slowly through the Google Adwords Certification Program (and I recommend this to anyone who is either looking for to specialise in PPC or as part of their Digital Marketing skillset), I will be adding relevant point to this Digital Marketing blog.

Google sums up choosing the right keywords as follows:-

Get the right balance in your keywords; not too generic, not overly specific (2-4 words)
Make good use of negative keywords; those keywords that may be associated with your own but are not relevant e.g. 'books' but not 'ebooks'
Use keyword tools (google keyword tool is free & comprehensive)

Click on the image link below to watch Google's short video on this:-

The problem with Legacy Systems…

2013-04-19T06:56:00.002-07:00

'Legacy System' generally refers to a computer system, technology or application that has continued after vendor support has expired. It does not necessarily refer to age or size of the system e.g. it is not uncommon for mainframe computers to run COBOL applications from the 1980’s alongside Linux and Java.

However, Legacy systems continue to have an impact on large companies and organisations and have many problems associated with them. If a legacy system is no longer in use it may well be retained for historical records. There are many legislative dictates that require data to be kept for a fixed amount of years, in which case the data may remain only in a data warehouse.

A new system may be in place but the data has not been converted to the new format. This impacts intelligence within the organisation and limits reporting. Alternatively, a data bridge may be in place between the legacy and new system known as a schema crosswalk; enabling different databases to share information and create data unions (also used by search engines when executing queries over multiple databases simultaneously). Why are legacy systems retained? • The system may be continued with as it still has some use within business processes; on occasions an older system may be more efficient at executing a particular task compared to the newer system. • Budget restrictions may influence the retention of legacy systems especially if the predicted return on investment is not favourable. • Management may have concerns over the cross over period and downtime may not be permissible. • Vendor Lock-In – the company may be obligated to the same hardware or software provider.

The problems…
• Replacement parts may not be available for the hardware and over time maintenance of the system will eventually exceed the cost or implementing a new system (platform or technology)..
• Implementing backward compatibility (the software is facilitated to run on new hardware) has its own expense and support issues. Emulation with a newer technology is the better option (and Vidappt’s preferred approach).
• Documentation may be sparse, badly written or non-existent for the legacy system – this makes it an incredible challenge for software architects and designers to produce accurate specifications. CEO’s have been fired for legacy systems running into limitations (e.g. Comair airline company, 2004). • When vendor support is absent – support and maintenance challenges are revealed. Internal staff may not have the relevant skills to take on the support function or have moved on.
• Printing systems may have no formatting overlays and require a specialised printer. They may not lend well to modern PC/Mac/Windows environments.
• Recruitment of suitable employees with experience of the relevant technology or programming language may be hard to find or expensive to hire.
• Security patches (updates) are no longer happening – this exposes the company and its data to internal breaches from knowledgeable staff and a strong risk of being compromised by hackers.

It is not a hopeless situation; legacy modernization and integration offer sensible solutions. Contact a reputable software development company and discuss your concerns with their Consultants.

Having a mobile website is NOT enough!

2013-04-19T06:54:00.000-07:00

The first impression a potential customer has of your business is increasingly likely to be from their phone or tablet – so how does your business look?

Declining sales in desktops, increasing sales in mobile devices, Google and other leviathans extending their ad market to mobile devices… if your business isn’t mobile friendly make sure you have some justifiable reasons why.

Unfortunately, purely having a mobilised website or downloadable app isn’t enough. Your mobile presence must cater for essential design considerations.

Here are a few for quick and easy digestion:-

Speed is of the essence

Mobile users want instant information; a slow loading mobile site will encourage early abandonment and also, is not good for your SEO. Optimize everything that will increase loading time.

Navigation!
Make browsing the site easy for the user and not a maze of confusion - give them key navigation buttons at every point. Don’t forget how important a landing page or ‘contact us’ is and with clear, assertive calls to action especially if you are using paid ad campaigns (PPC, adwords etc.).

Don’t forget to link to your full website
Your mobile site or app will be a functionally refined version of your full site but it may happen that mobile visitors want further details and by providing a link, you have made this option readily available in one click.
Touchscreen friendly
Consider mobile user habits; many use their thumbs for pressing links and dropdowns. Ensure buttons and icons are well placed for fingers and thumb pushing alike – nobody likes to be thrown all over the place because the button they thought they were pushing was actually ‘next door’.
Label placement
If you are using forms, it’s generally better for the user to have the text box label on top of the box. It flows better with how the viewer interprets what text is required and where to insert it.
Social Media
To increase your internet presence make sure your users can easily engage socially with your brand. Encourage feedback and engagement not just from your contact form but on all your key pages.
To use pop-ups or not?
Pop-ups are handy for displaying links but often have a ‘spammy’ feel to them and they also don’t work on mobile phones. Any reputable software company will remove pop-ups from your mobile site.

There are many other design features that are hugely relevant to mobile sites and which need to cater for the diversity of screen sizes with due consideration to brands and models.

To really ensure you get the most from your mobile websitedesign and performance, have a chat with one of our expert Consultants, especially if you want to take your business to the next level!

First published on www.vidappt.com

Worried if your site or content is being copied elsewhere on the web?

2013-04-18T08:39:00.001-07:00

There are a few good tools freely available for checking if you are being copied.

Here are two of the best:-

plagium.com.
Simply copy & paste your text into the blank text box and click on 'Quick Search' and off it will go searching for duplication of your content. If only your own site or page are returned but you feel there may be a copy out there - click on the 'deep search' button - it takes a lot longer but is more thorough.

copyscape.com
Enter the url of the page you want to check, tap the search button and off it goes to quickly return links to sites that contain duplication of your pages text. Simply double click on the links to be taken to the 'offending' page and you will see the duplicated text highlighted. Couldn't be easier!

4 novel ideas for innovative link building

2013-04-17T09:53:00.002-07:00

This guy, Brian Dean of backlinko.com, has some great ideas for a new approach to link building. Check it out here

Sick of Link Building!! Try using photos and images aswell...

2013-04-10T03:52:00.001-07:00

Anyone who has touched on the fine art of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) will no doubt have come across much ado about 'link building' - the craft of creating and nurturing external links back to your own website or landing page. The search engines use links as their road maps, and the more roads leading to one destination indicate it's relevance (and relevance is a weighty word in the SEO arena).

So very much has been written on link building and I have suffered through a lot of it. However, if you are still hungry and would like a pointer to more info... the following article, by Andy Morely, is well balanced and hits on the key points:

A good article on link building

BUT another consideration is the use of photos and images which have active (clickable) links back to your website - People love great photos, sharing them is a natural process. Don't forget that infographics, vectors and PDF's can also be used for link building.

The following article tells you more:-

The low down on using images for link building

Link Building is still part of SEO which falls within your Digital Strategy - You do have one don't you?

Where to find your google authorship analytics...

2013-04-08T10:14:00.001-07:00

OK, so you've got your google authorship setup and your headshot is showing up next to your content meta description in relevant search results. Consider adding a regular check of your authorship analytics to your schedule - it will show you all the usual stats such as clicks, impressions and Click Through Rate (CTR).

To find your google authorship stats you must first have a Google Webmaster Tools account (you do not need to own, or be a webmaster, to have one).

Create, or sign into, your account and on the LHS - click on the 'Labs' heading to expand it and there you will see 'Author Stats'. Click on it and have a look at the insights on the content you have authorship for.

Please be aware that the 'Labs' tools are a Google Testing ground.
"Webmaster Tools Labs is a testing ground for experimental features that aren't quite ready for primetime. They may change, break or disappear at any time." source: Google

1 really good reason to get your google authorship setup...

2013-04-08T03:04:00.003-07:00

it gives your content better placement in search results!

It's quick and easy to do and you can read the few quick steps necessary here from google themselves...

How to set up your google authorship

and...

a little more on google authorship

How much can a digital marketer earn?

2013-04-03T04:17:00.001-07:00

Well, quite a lot according to a new report from Crandall Associates Inc. - A firm specialising in digital and direct marketing.

This is the essence of the report:

VP of e-commerce: $179,900.
Director of e-commerce: $140,600.
Director of digital marketing: $110,100.
Manager of digital marketing: $82,600.
Director of digital media: $97,100.
Manager of digital media: $65,700.
Manager of SEO: $77,800.
Manager of SEM: $80,200.
Director of web analytics: $131,600.
Manager of web analytics: $80,100.
Director of social media: $98,400.
Manager of social media: $76,900.

Next blog post will define the skills most recruiters are looking for from online and digital markters.
Subscribe or join me on Google+ so you don't miss it!

Thinking about Digital and Online Marketing as a Career or Job?

2013-04-02T01:36:00.000-07:00

There's a lot of buzz around the job roles 'Digital Marketer', 'Online Marketing' and various other permutations of the title. It's said to be a wise career move in times when so many other industries and professions are in turmoil and distress.

So if you are thinking about it - what do you need to know?

Firstly, you need to enjoy the internet experience as this is where most of your work is performed.
So if you don't like spending a lot of time in front of your device, or only enjoy it for downloading music, social sites and such like - it may not be right for you.

Are you genuinely interested in the digital medium?
Can you learn and adapt quickly?
Are you proficient in the English (or your target audience's) language and able to write in it?
Does creating online (written / graphic / video) content appeal to you or seem like an interesting challenge?

In my experience, if you answer 'Yes' to the above questions then you should start to seriously consider this career path as an option. The above questions indicate if you have the personality suited to the role (and even more importantly will enjoy it!). Everything else you need to know can be taught or self-learned.

Digital Marketing is fun, challenging, exciting and in growth!

Do you want to know more - sign up to my blog; next post will be on what specific skills employers are looking for in Online Marketers and Digital Marketers.

Please comment and ask questions freely!