As users have changed the way they search, both Google and Bing have kept pace and changed the way their search engines work.  As a result SEO has changed and old SEO metrics are no longer as meaningful or relevant as they once were.  

Google Searches Drop by over 60%

How and Why Search is Changing

While simple two word searches are dropping, overall use of search engines is growing steadily. There were 1.2 trillion searches in 146 languages in 2012 and over 20 billion searches in March 2013. 

So what’s going on with search queries? You may have already guessed it, people are using Google differently. Broad two word searches deliver too many results, most of which aren’t exactly what you’re looking for. So people are entering very detailed queries to get more specific search results.  In fact, one out of six daily searches on Google have never been seen before, that’s about 100 million brand new searches every month! 

Google saw this change as it was evolving and changed the way their search engine works. The new Google search uses a knowledge base they call Knowledge Graph which was introduced in 2012. In short, Knowledge Graph gathers information from an enormous range of resources and indexes the data according to relevance.  The goal is to deliver search results that are highly relevant to what your are actually looking for. Other changes in Google search that track your past searches and web browsing habits work with Knowledge Graph to tailor search results to what is most relevant to you – essentially personalized search results. 

What does this mean for SEO and SEO Metrics?

 When broad two word searches were the primary way people did searches it was easy to gauge where your website stood by tracking search rankings for the relevant keywords. The favorite report for tracking search rankings was, and still is for many, the SERP (Search Engine Rank Position) report. The inherent problem with tracking keyword rankings now is that you are tracking searches that are less common and not necessarily the most relevant to your website. 

Likewise, when two word phrases were how we searched SEO focused on targeting a few high volume keywords. It was much simpler then, target the most common keywords, show the client the SERP report with their search rankings and everyone was happy since the results were tangible and easily measured.  

Does this mean SEO is dead? On the contrary it has never been more important or more difficult to do.  In the past cheap and poorly done SEO actually could produce results, but with the Google Panda and Penguin updates the old Black Hat SEO gamesmanship no longer works and in fact absolutely will get your site penalized.  Today only high quality link building, combined with excellent content on a properly built site and an active social media campaign will deliver results (yes social media is a factor now).  Some Black Hat and low budget techniques may slip through but they usually get busted in a future Google update which will deliver a nasty Panda Slap (penalty) to the site.

Stop Focusing on Keywords and Search Rankings

Now that users search with longer and more specific phrases and Google has changed how search works this strategy is no longer effective. It’s also almost impossible to track all of the  possible keyword variations and where your site ranks for them. To get a more accurate and meaningful view of how your site is performing look at the big picture.   

What to Measure; Website and SEO Metrics that matter now

Here are some basic metrics to track your website performance and a Sample Client Website Metrics-SEO Report from an actual client (redacted of course to maintain confidentiality). We picked this client report because it is a typical report, with modest traffic but highly targeted traffic so it is a good example of a typical small business SEO report.   

1. Percentage of traffic from search engines
2. Traffic from Keywords (Top 50 or 100 keywords – are they relevant?)
3. Current traffic vs last year or previous period (what is the trend?)
4. Referring sites (where is traffic coming from?)
5. Engagement (bounce rate, time on site, pages per visit) 

Business Related KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)

Watching your website traffic increase may be satisfying but it doesn’t pay the bills. In the end the only most important metrics are how your business is doing. Below are some basic KPIs that you can track along with your website metrics to see how the campaign is affecting your business and if it is delivering the results you want.  

1.  Track inquiries (both submissions from site and phone calls) – it it vital to track this consistently and accurately over a long period of time.  
2. Sales revenue – track overall sales and sales by specific products/services. 
3. New business – track sales to new clients, number of new customers created, number of new orders. 

The post Google Searches Plummet by over 60 Percent appeared first on Esotech Inc..

Do’s and Dont’s

1. Don’t create multiple PSD files that distinguish the front page from an inside page or customized templated page.

- Do, group each page design in the same document as a separate layer. This way every page can be viewed by just turning the eye off and on. ( Better a 10MB PSD file than 5x 2MB PSD files)

2. Don’t leave layers untitled (Layer 1, Layer 2).

- Do name them exactly what they are using the colors and areas of the design as description. (ex. Yellow Footer Bar, Right side content image). This gives the developer a better understanding of what they are selecting and looking at when attempting to deconstruct your design to transform into web code.

3. Don’t just use whatever font you think looks best. Remember, most fonts require a  license to be used on the internet, excluding text inside images or logos.

- Do research what fonts are open sourced, or see if the client is willing to pay for the license of a particular font. Otherwise, download the Google Web Font Library, there are a ton of good fonts and they are all open sourced. 

4. Don’t leave layers with layer filters, clipping masks or fills. Some parts of the design comps have to be separated and saved as individual images to be placed by coding. If there are added parts to the layer, it can not always be cut out while saving the effect.

- Do instead try to flatten the layer with the style or mask on it. Remember, most web developers don’t really understand how photoshop works, and can be confused as to how you got a certain layer to look a certain way. This will result in the coder cutting the layer out and implementing it into the site as an image, which is not always the best practice.

5. Don’t leave unused layers randomly throughout the comp. This can get confusing when searching for a particular layer. It also adds extra weight to the final comp size.

- Do go through the final layout and eliminate any unnecessary layers and items.

6. Do use guide lines to separate parts of the site comp. This helps determine widths, heights, and spacing are perfectly set. 

7. Do use 72dpi resolution. The web only displays in 72dpi resolution. Anything higher or lower will result in disproportionate web layout.

When designing keep in mind the that the site has to be broken down into smaller parts and then reassembled on the web. The days of cutting designs up into smaller images are over. No more totally tabled layouts. Most of what you design can be recreated by coding. Lets make the designer and coders relationship better.

The post Graphic Designers Guide to Creating Website Comps appeared first on Esotech Inc..

Subtle assumptions based on your  own personal preferences are often very misleading.  For example, a few years ago I had lots of discussions with clients about using social media and Facebook for marketing campaigns targeting Boomers (people over 45).  Many, in fact the majority, were unconvinced that social media was of any interest to anyone other than teenagers.  This opinion was based on their own use, or lack of use, of social media.  It is now commonly accepted that social media is highly effective across a wide range of demographics, including Boomers.  

Today the debate is often about mobile use, how important mobile is for marketing today, and whether people use mobile devices for viewing websites and the effect and reach mobile has on consumers.  Again, while all of our clients have smart phones, most only use a small fraction of the features available and few use the internet via their phone or at best only very limited.  Thus their view and opinion of mobile use is based on their own use and not representative of the overall market, especially people under 40.  

One last example of  getting out of “your mind”.  I am not a fan of the iPad, in fact I coined an acronym for them, I am Prisoner of Apple Design.  I find them slow, locked down like a federal prison, and they just don’t have the power to do any real work.  We have one at Esotech that we use for testing website compatibility and it works great with Pandora, and yes, I do use it when traveling, but that’s it.  My point is that my view of the iPad is clearly in the minority as their are tens of millions of loyal iPad fans that are madly in love with them.  If we based our website design and marketing strategies on my opinion of the iPad we would be missing a huge market that has now emerged into a wide range of other tablets.  I recognize that my opinion of the iPad is based solely on my personal preferences and is not representative of the general market.  

The same applies for much more simple assumptions about your customer’s behavior, likes-dislikes, even who your customers are.  Many organizations make these assumptions about their customers and then base their marketing strategy on these assumptions, resulting in an ineffective marketing strategy.  The first step to creating a great marketing strategy is to get out of your mind and into your customer’s.  

5 Steps for Out of Your Mind Marketing

1. Get out of “your mind”, accept that you are not representative of your customer demographic, and open your mind.  Start the process with no opinions and no assumptions.  
2. Define your target demographic.  Be as specific as possible and if necessary define multiple groups.  
3. Do some research on these groups.  It’s pretty easy to do a few Google searches and get some great data and excellent blogs/articles.  
4. Do some surveys.  Yes, ask your customers what they think, the results may surprise you, and even if they don’t at least you know for sure!  
5. Develop your marketing strategy. 
   • Creative Brief 
     • Define the persona of your customer, be specific. 
     • Define the writing style and tone for your website, blogs, and social media posts. 
     • Define the look of your marketing materials.  Consider what will touch and resonate with your customers. 
   • Marketing Plan 
     • Establish your goals and objectives. 
     • What is the most effective media to reach your customers?  Choose your media and how you will reach your customers.
     • Create outline of how you will use each media.
     • Define your budget. 
     • Implementation plan – develop a specific plan to with a timeline.  

The post You Have To Be Out of Your Mind to Create Great Marketing Strategies appeared first on Esotech Inc..

For those that want to know how EdgeRank works we explain the details at the end of this blog post, and for those that just want to know how to get your Page posts ranking higher we explain that below.  

Optimize Your Facebook Posts to Increase Your EdgeRank

 Like the infamous Panda and Penguin updates by Google, EdgeRank is intended to improve the user experience by delivering more relevant content and reducing spam.  As with Panda and Penguin, there are steps you can take to optimize your Facebook Page and posts; likewise poor practices can make your EdgeRank plummet.  SEO is used to improve search rankings of websites, SMO is the social media equivalent to improve the performance social networks.  

1. Manual Posts:  Facebook can detect which posts are automated and which have been posted manually.  Automated posts are devalued because many of these posts are automated news feeds and some are outright spam.  Many websites use plugins or apps to automatically post blogs to Facebook and while this is convenient and saves time; we no longer recommend doing this due to the inherent reduction in rank.  We know recommend that Facebook posts be done manually with a comment tailored to the post (more on this later). 
2. Content:  posts with comments generally have a get higher EdgeRank than posts with just a link to an article, picture or blog.  These posts tend to get more Likes from Fans which also increases your rank.  It is equally important that the content immediately grabs the interest of your Fans (see tips for content below). 
3. Post Frequency:  while this is not part of the rank equation it indirectly affects your rank as a result of Fan interaction and comments.  If you post very infrequently Fans have little reason to follow your Page and no opportunity to interact with you which will reduce your overall ranking.  If you post too frequently Fans will either un-Like your page or simply ignore your posts.  It is important post regularly and at a frequency that will engage your Fans, but not annoy them.  For most B2B and b2C clients we recommend no more than once a day, and for some 2 to 3 times a week may be optimum depending on your content.  For entertainment and news related pages we recommend once a day with the option to post more frequently when major events are happening.  
4. Interacting with Fans:  this is perhaps the most important action you can take.  Interaction with Fans drives more comments and shares which in turn increases your rank thereby increasing your Reach further.  Facebook is very personal, even for brands and the converstation with your Fans is very important to a successful Page. 

Tips for Content that will Increase EdgeRank and Engagement

Content is the key to engagement, which results in Likes, Shares, comments, and more visits to your Facebook Page.  All of these will increase your EdgeRank, which in turn results in your posts showing up on more Fan’s feeds, thus propelling your engagement even higher.  

1. A Great Picture:  in monitoring data from our client Facebook Pages and Facebook ads we found that just changing a picture and double, even more than triple click throughs.  We have found that images that are fun, cute, and immediately engaging are the most successful.  
2. A Captivating Title:  again from studying client Facebook data we found that the first few words can also significantly increase click throughs.  Users glance at the picture and first few words and decide if they are going to Like or Share a post.  
3. Topic and Content:  with a great image and title you have their attention, there’s one final ingredient, great content.  In general Facebook users are looking for posts that are light, fun, and interesting.  Write your content in a light and personal style.  Do not overtly sell or talk about your products as this falls flat.  We have tracked both light and fun posts vs posts written in a highly “professional” style and found without fail that the light-fun posts do exceptionally well, while the corporate posts always fall flat.  Make it fun, light and interesting, boring and Advertorials don’t work on Facebook. 

Why is it called EdgeRank?  

“Frictionless sharing” is part of the Facebook Open Graph social sharing platform.  Frictionless sharing is a concept where social interactions on a variety of networks including Foursquare, Pandora, Spotify, and games are shared in the timeline (hence frictionless).  This is obviously too much information to feed onto a users timeline and it could over saturate users with a bunch of posts they really don’t care about.   Every object shared, posted, Liked, or Commented on, including objects in other social networks has what Facebook calls an Edge.  The EdgeRank of each interaction determines where it will show up in timelines.  

Three Factors Determine EdgeRank

Simply put EdgeRank is the product of Affinity, U_e, Weight, W_e, and Decay, D_e (these three terms multiplied together).  Facebook published the formula, what is not known is exactly how each of these factors are calculated.  

1.  Affinity: this is a measure of the relationship between a particular fan and your page.  Fans that have visited your frequently and posted comments will have a high affinity score while fans that liked your page months ago and have not returned will have a very low affinity score.  
2. Weight: perhaps a better description for this is value or relevance.  The goal of this factor is to measure how important the post is.   While you have little control over Affinity and Decay, you have a great deal of control over Weight.  While no one has specifics on how Weight is calculated we do have an idea of how it works based on empirical evidence.  We know that manual posts are given more weight than auto posts, shares more than likes, and comments more than likes.  A post with text and a picture has more weight that just a picture.  In general the more interaction and effort involved the higher the weight assigned is.  
3. Decay: this is perhaps the easiest factor to understand, a fresh post or share is more relevant and of interest to users than one from say a month ago or a year ago.  As time passes the importance of a post decays and has less value.  

More on EdgeRank – Some Great Resources

Facebook EdgeRank: What marketers need to know; econsultantcy.com – great blog with lots of details for those that want to know more. 

Facebook EdgeRank: The Truth About Page Feed Reach and Promoted Posts ; searchenginejournal.com – another excellent blog explaining how it works with suggestions to improve performance. 

Facebook EdgeRank Changes; Make Sure Your Content Comes Out on Top; socialmediatoay.com – suggestions on how to improve posts and using promoted posts. 

The post Increase Your Facebook EdgeRank, Reach and Engagement appeared first on Esotech Inc..

In 2012 Google rolled out their Knowledge Graph which is leading the way for a change from simple keyword based search to semantic search which uses an enormous range of data to anticipate what you are likely looking for.  The goal is to provide more intelligent search results that are more relevant to what you are actually looking for.  In addition, most users seldom type in a single or even two keyword phrase anymore when they are search for something because there are too many search results.  Most users have figured out that if they type in a very specific query they get much better results.  The SEO term for these longer phrase type search queries is “long tail search” which is actually a statistical term referring to the results outside the middle of the curve or on the tail of it.  

What does this all mean?  

Search has changed, the way people use it and the way it works.  Doing SEO for a obvious two word keyword phrases is no longer a tactic that will deliver good results and tracking your SEO results this way is no longer a good measure of how your are doing.  In fact, SERPs can be gamed with an uninformed client.  Firstly, the results could be false, and secondly, real SERP results could be presented for words that have little if any search demand.  For more information on how SEO results can be rigged see our blog on SEO Scams.  So while SERP reports were the be all and end all measure of SEO success, they no longer tell the entire story and can be outright misleading.  

So what do I measure for SEO results? 

The most reliable source of data is Google Analytics, but there is a lot of data in there and it’s easy to get lost in it.  By focusing on a few simple metrics you can easily track the progress of your SEO campaign.  We suggest that you track the following as baseline data for your SEO metrics.  And by the way, if you don’t have Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools installed on your website you are flying blind and getting both installed is step1 and priority one! 

1. Website Unique Visits: compare your current traffic to traffic from a previous period or the previous year.  If your campaign is working well your traffic should be increasing, but don’t jump to conclusions if it is flat or even down there is a problem.  In some cases traffic can go down BUT the inquiries are more specific and better leads.  So don’t stop here. 
2. Search Engine Traffic: in Google Analytics click on Traffic Sources, Overview and look at the percentage of visits from Search (pie chart).  If your SEO is working you should be getting search traffic from it.  If traffic from search queries is less than 50% you should take a hard look at what is going on, or more accurately, what is not going on.  
3. Keyword Traffic: again in your Google Analytics click on Traffic Sources, Search, Organic and look at your top 25 or 50 keywords.  Are they relevant and the right kind of traffic?  If you have good SEO the keyword visits to your site will make sense.  If you have poor SEO it will be random words and it will be obvious that you have a problem.  Likewise look at how many visits from search you are getting.  Good SEO = lots of good visits.  Bad SEO, well you figure it out.  
4. Referrals: no this is referral from friends and business contacts, well maybe in a way it is.  Referrals are traffic that is sent from related sites like your Facebook Page, Twitter, and sometimes industry websites that link directly to your site.  Analytics shows your referrals on the Overview pie chart and you can look directly at the referral details if you like.  Referrals from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus and other social media sites can run from 5% to as high as 25% of you traffic each.  At Esotech we include social media as part of our SEO strategy and this traffic is often a significant part of the traffic to our client websites.  
5. Conversions: this is not someting you can measure on Google Analytics without doing a little bit of setup work.  Google Analytics has what they call Funnels and Goals (I hate the funnels name).  Goals are obvious, when a user clicks on a specified url that is counted as completing a “Goal”.  This could be completing a submission form or perhaps a purchase transaction.  The Funnels track users entering your sales or lead funnel and allows you to track their path.  With Goals and Funnels you can track actual conversions on your website, but it requires setup on your part and it can be a bit confusing to get it right.

Examples

 Here’s a  some of examples actual Google Analytics graphs from one of our SEO campaigns.  These are great examples of what you should be looking for and measuring.  We wish we could share the Keyword visit data details, but unfortunately that is confidential and sensitive to the client so this is all we can show.  

You can click on the images to see the full size graph.  

Google Analytics Traffic Overview Graph

The graph below is a great example of excellent SEO (yes that’s our handy work).  Note that 64% of the traffic is from search results and while we can’t show you the keywords, they are very targeted and very specific to this clients market and products.  Also note that 11% of the traffic is Referral traffic, this is nearly all from social media.  

Google Analytics Traffic Year to Year Comparison

This is another great example of where SEO is working and is delivering more traffic than the previous year.  So in this case it is easy to see that yes, the SEO campaign is clearly working.  Note that overall visits increased 84%, unique visits up 70% and engagement metrics improved too!  Bounce rate down 23% and visit duration up 35%.  

 Google Analytics Traffic Year to Year Comparison – Second example

This is a more modest example of improved traffic.  At a quick glance it doesn’t look like traffic improved that much, but look at the figures.  Visits increased by 27% and 70% where new visitors.  

The post Measuring SEO Results, Time to Ditch SERPs, Focus on Results appeared first on Esotech Inc..

Vine is specifically developed for mobile and social media, but wait, there’s more (or actually less), the videos are only 6 seconds long and run in a continuous loop like animated GIFs.  6 seconds, really, what can you show in 6 seconds?  It turns out a lot can be conveyed in a 6 second clip.  Vine video clips are perfect for sharing short clips from your phone, much like a tweet, and remember, no one believed anything meaningful could be said in 140 characters or less and look where that went!

Vine’s introductory blog post explains their vision along with an example of a Vine post. 

Vine is still embryonic and right now only available on iOS devices, iPhones and iPads, and sharing is limited to Twitter and Facebook.  Obviously this will change and Twitter has indicated that work is underway to make Vine available on other mobile devices as well as other social networks.   

How Businesses are Using Vine

Vine is brand new and new to brands, but a few have already started experimenting with it.  Hubspot wrote a great blog about Vine with 15 examples of how businesses are using Vine and a story by Mashable illustrates how Vine was used at London Fashion Week to post video right from the show, capturing the event live and unedited.  The Hubspot examples range from Gumby style animation clips to video collages and straightforward product promotions.  What is interesting is the variety of styles used and how much really can be conveyed in a 6 second clip with no audio.  

Ideas for Using Vine

The nature of this platform is very social and the short format lends itself to sharing.  A social network for sharing videos (sound familiar) can be a great marketing media channel, but, as with YouTube, not every video is going to go viral and in fact very few will.  I think the 6 second limit will actually be a benefit.  As with the 140 character limit on Tweets, the 6 second limit forces the clips to hit the ground running, be succinct, and most importantly entertaining and interesting, all in 6 seconds!   

 Here’s some ideas for using Vine

• Video collage style clips of customers using products or services – but it better be fun and interesting
• Animation style clips of new products
• product demo in 6 seconds
• funny clips or outtakes from your office
• trade show and event clips
• News releases and PR; while this is an obvious choice and temptation, traditional news releases and PR will likely flop here. 

For more information check Vine FAQs  

The post You’ve Got 6 Seconds… Vine video sharing appeared first on Esotech Inc..

Figures Don’t Lie but Liars Can Figure!

 During the sales pitch they promise X keywords on page one of Google within an amazing time frame, maybe 30 to 60 days, even 24 hours!  Impressed by their confidence and “promise” you sign up, I mean hey, page one of Google, who would say no to that!  30 days goes by, you get your report, and behold, you have X keywords on Google!  Did you get what you paid for and are these results of any value?  In short, NO.

Here’s the trick… The keywords they delivered, at least every instance I have seen, always include your company name (will duh, that was an easy mark) and other words that are very specific to your business.  One might think well that’s great, but wait a minute, does anyone search for these words?  The answer is generally no.  These keywords have pretty much zero competition and zero search volume.  Frankly you probably would have ranked for these words without any off-site SEO (in fact I wonder if they even do any real SEO).  Here’s the SEO Snake Oil; while it is technically true that you do rank on page one for those keywords, nobody ever searches for them!  

Many clients don’t catch on to this and proudly look at their report showing their page one results, but then several months later they get irritated that they aren’t getting any inquiries.  So they fire that SEO company and hire another one that is promising page one results and the process starts over again.  Eventually they become disillusioned with SEO and convinced that all SEO is a scam.  Sadly firms like this are poisoning the well and giving the entire industry a terrible reputation resulting in a common opinion that no SEO company can be trusted.

How to Spot an SEO Scam and SEO Snake Oil

Here’s a short list of how to spot a SEO scam: 

1. Promises of “Google Page One Results”: in every instance I have seen this is either an outright lie or at best the page one results are useless.  If this is the opening pitch stop right there.
2. Fast Results:  It takes time to rank for any keywords that are meaningful and have any significant search volume and competition.  If they promise results in 30 to 60 days, or may favorite 24 or 48 hours! this is snake oil.  Again the results will either be useless or fake.
3. Lame Keywords: if the targeted keywords are yourbrandname and city or yourbrandname and location or the specific products you make or other words that are unique to you this is a redflag.  Of course it is important to do SEO for your brand and products, but this should not be the full extent of the campaign and ranking on page one for your company name certainly is not a big deal or a claim of SEO success.  You can check keyword search volume and see suggested keywords with the Google Keyword Tool.  It is easy to use, free, and a great way to verify if the targeted keywords are of any value or significance.  
4. Results on a Spreadsheet or Word Doc:  If your monthly report from the SEO firm is on a spreadsheet clearly created manually this is an immediate and huge red flag.  You should only trust results from Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools and a reliable SERP (Search Engine Rank Position) program.  
5. Really Cheap SEO: as the old adage says, “if it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t”, or the other one, “good work ain’t cheap and cheap work ain’t good”.  SEO firms promising “page one results” for a few hundred dollars are clearly charlatans selling SEO snake oil.  
6. Silver Bullets:  if they offer a couple of quick fixes for your website like your title is too long or your title is not right, your  H1 headers need to be fixed, or your meta keywords need work and go on to say that this will fix everything this is Snake Oil.  There are no silver bullets that will fix all of your SEO problems with a single shot or two.  SEO is doing a lot of little things right and it is a lot of work to do it right.  
7. SEO Spam emails: I love these because they are such obvious SPAM and BS, but wait… someone must be buying this because they still send them and I get them all the time!  The email will start with
   • I reviewed your site and it only has 68 backlinks…
   • I reviewed your website and it has very low traffic
   • actually any claim in the email that they have “reviewed” your website, even with some fake metrics/stats – they use the same figures for every email.  
   • the email has a gmail or yahoo address – enough said… 
   • No SEO company website or name shown in the email
   • and finally one of my favorites, the email is from Steve, or Kate, or whoever, and you call the US phone number, the person that answers the phone is clearly not from or even in the US and they either claim they are Steve or say that Steve isn’t here right now and they can help you.  Go ahead, call, press them for details about the review of your website, it is hilarious, I’ve done it a couple of times!
8. We’ve cracked the Google Algorithm or we have an inside man at Google… – enough said, this is an obvious scam. 
9. Search Engine Submissions: We will submit your website to hundreds or thousands of search engines!  Today there is really only Google and Bing and while each has country specific search engines they use the same  algorithm.  Long ago it was a practice with marginal benefits to “submit” websites  to search engines, today it is a waste of time and unnecessary as the search engines continuously crawl the entire web and will crawl your site in time.  In fact, most of these charlatans use automated software to submit your website and guess what, Google and Bing and can spot this (yes they are fairly smart) and will ignore spam submissions.   You can speed up the crawl rate through Google Webmaster tools which is the proper way to do it.  
10. X Directory Submissions or hundreds of Directory Submissions:  a few years ago this was an acceptable practice with marginal benefits and it did no harm.  Post Google Panda and Penguin updates directories have very little benefit and many have been delisted by Google which means they have zero benefit.  Some in the SEO community even believe that poor directory listings could have a negative impact.  

What to Look for in an SEO Company

 OK, so the above was how to spot a scam, here’s what to look for in a quality SEO company you might also consider SMO (social media optimization).  At Esotech we now include both SEO and SMO in our Search Engine Optimization programs as we consider the two inseparable and equally important.  

1. What will they do?: ask for a scope of work and make sure they will be addressing both On-Site SEO (work on your website) and Off-Site SEO (link building). 
2. SEO Analysis: An SEO analysis or keyword analysis should be done before they start and this should be reviewed with you.  
3. Content and blogging: don’t lead them on this, but see if they talk about the importance of quality content and blogging (on your site).  If it is not part of their plan and recommendations enough said.  
4. Sample Reports: ask for a copy of a sample Sample Client SEO Report or website metrics report that you will receive.  Make sure that data is from Google Analytics and if it is search rankings it is from a verifiable SERP program – and then check some sample results to make sure it is real. 
5. Case Studies: ask for a copy of SEO Case studies and when you review them look for actual data.  Many case studies have a few paragraphs about the client, the situation, and then what they claimed they accomplished which is fine, but ask for the data – show me the graph from Google Analytics or the actual search results.  
6. Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools: make sure the firm is using both Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools and ask that you be added to both accounts so you can check the numbers for yourself.  
7. References: at the end of the day the best way to confirm any company’s claim is by talking to a couple of real customers.  Nothing can replace the honesty of an actual customer.  

The post SEO Scams: Promising Page One Results and Fake Page One Results appeared first on Esotech Inc..

There are many things to expect with this new version, but I am here to discuss the new media gallery and how to use the updated version. Read here for how to add media in version 3.0. 

Adding media to your WordPress posts are essential for high quality, well designed blogs/posts and is strongly encouraged. It makes your post pleasing to the eyes, all while keeping your readers interested. This brings us back to our elementary school days where we only read books that had pictures in it, am I right?

Here is an easy step by step guide to bring you up to speed with the new Elvin roll outs. 

WordPress Photo Gallery

 Galleries are photos grouped together on your post, but when your reader clicks on a photo it becomes zoomed and optimized for a closer viewing pleasure. It can easily be scrolled through like a slideshow. It is a wonderful feature if you have many photos to showcase, but do not want your blog to be cluttered. 

Here is a preview of how a gallery works. Click the photos to see the optimized showcase. 

Now, adding a gallery is simple. 

You would:

• Hit “Add Media”

• On the left hand side select “Create Gallery”

• You can then either upload new photos, or scroll through your media library.
• Individually select each photo you would like for your gallery showcase. You know they are selected when there is a check-mark in the upper right hand corner of the photo.

• Hit “Create a new gallery” once you have selected the photos you would like to use. Note: at the bottom you will see a preview of all the photos you have selected.
• Edit your gallery to the order, link tos, and columns of your liking. 
• Insert your Gallery.

 On the editing side of your WordPress post, you will not be able to see the actual gallery formed. It will show once your post is saved/published on the preview/published page. 

 Add Media

Now I’m sure you have already noticed that even the icon button for “Add Media” looks a little different. Reason being, well, it is different. I have highlighted the “Add Media” option in yellow. The location of the button is in the same spot as it was in the past version. 

Drop / Upload Files

In order to upload files you can either drag and drop them into this field, or you can simply hit “Select Files.” This will bring you to a dialog box where you select files on your computer you would like to upload. 

Media Library

Once you have uploaded your photo you will notice that you are immediately brought to your media library. You are no longer brought to the editing page or where you decide how you would like to use it. The new editing field will be on your right hand side. 

 Here you can edit the name, caption, alternative text, description, alignment, link to, and of course, size. Once you have finalized how you would like your photo to be customized, you can now chose to “Insert into Post.” 

Now that we have brought you up to speed on how to simply add your photo to your post, here is the fun part, adding a gallery!

The post WordPress 3.5: Using the New Media Library & Photo Gallery Feature appeared first on Esotech Inc..

Most lists start with Set Goals, we our started list with a SWOT analysis and Analytics, why?  Before setting goals it is imperative that you know your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats as well as the real numbers for your organization’s performance.  In conducting a frank self assessment and reviewing performance data goals will come to mind and when you set them you will have baseline of actual data to base them on. 

13 New Years Digital Marketing Resolutions for 2013

Before you charge off to conquer the world and create a list of how you are going to do it take sometime to reflect on how 2012 turned out, what went well, what didn’t work out so well, and most importantly take a look at the real numbers to see how you really did.  Below we are focused on digital marketing, your website and social media; but you can apply this to the financial and operational side of your business as well.  

1. SWOT Analysis (template here):  Review Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) for your organization.  Be honest in your assessment, don’t sugarcoat it and glaze over your real weaknesses or threats and likewise, don’t sell your self short on strengths and opportunities.  An honest and concise self assessment will make your goal setting in #3 easier and more meaningful.      
2. Analytics and Metrics:  It may be tempting to jump straight to goals, but wait a minute, first you need to have a very clear understanding of what your actual performance was; then you can set goals based on what actually happened and where the organization is actually at.  We have gone into a lot of detail here and it may be more than what many care to review.  We encourage you to at least review the basic top level data so you clearly understand what is really going on with your website and social media.  
   To fully understand how your website is performing you need to have Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools installed on your site.  Without these too tools you are flying blind.  If you don’t have Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools installed on your site then this is your first To Do for the new year.  If you have it installed but don’t know how to get this data ask your Webmaster or SEO consultant to create a year end report with this data.  Esotech provides bi-weekly metrics to all of our clients, however the list below is  more comprehensive than most monthly reports and is really more of a website analysis-review.  
   Here are the essential metrics we recommend you review.  
   • Website Traffic Comparison:  We created this simple tool to compare the Alexa and Compete Traffic Rank of your website to your competitors along with the Google Page rank.  
   • Google Analytics: 
     • Traffic Sources Overview: what are your traffic trends, where is your traffic coming from? 
     • Search Engine Optimization Queries: what are the keywords driving traffic to your site? Are they the right ones, are important words/phrases missing? 
     • In Page Analytics: this is a great tool that shows how visitors are interacting on each page and what they are clicking on. In case you are familiar with this tool we wrote a blog on How to Use Google In Page Analytics with examples.  
     • Visitor Flow: Visitor Flow is the companion to In Page Analytics.  This tool shows how users flow through your website and what paths they take.  It is a great way to see how users surf through your site.  We also wrote a blog on How to Use Google Visitor Flow with examples of good flow and poor flow.  
   • Webmaster Tools: This tool is often overlooked in favor of Google Analytics but there is different data here and it provides a lot of insight as to how your website is performing. 
     •  Optimization, Content Keywords: This tells you what Google thinks your website is about and what keywords Google thinks are most relevant on your site. This can be very insightful. 
     • Traffic, Search Queries: This shows actual search queries that drove traffic to your site, how many clicks, your CTR (click through ratio) and average position.  This is how people are finding your site in search.  
     • Traffic, Links to Site, more (shows all): This lists the external links to your website along with how many domains are linking to each page shown.  If you want to rank well this is still a vital metric. 
     • Health, Index Status: this shows how many pages have been indexed by Google. If a page is not indexed then as far as Google is concerned it either does not exist or it is not relevant. Content is absolutely vital to the success of your website.  
   • Social Media: 
     • Facebook Insights: from your Facebook Page click on Insights, then See All.  Review the demographics, and Likes trend for your page. 
     • Google Plus: there aren’t really any metrics available for Google Plus yet, so review the following on your personal profile and organization page: Profile/About, posts, Circles, +1′s.   
     • Twitter: Sadly Twitter does not offer any metrics directly unless you are an advertiser. You can get Twitter metrics from third party apps if you are using one. If you don’t have a third party app then take a look at your Friends and Followers, Mentions, and messages and do a self assessment. 
     • LinkedIn: No real meaningful metrics on LinkedIn either, so take a look at your personal profile and company page and do a self assessment of your content, posts, and activity. 
3. Set Goals: Now that you have gone through the painful but enlightening process of the SWOT Analysis and reviewing all that data you are ready to set goals.  Use this handy Digital Marketing Goal Setting Template to get started and change it to suit your needs. 
4. Start a Blog or Improve your Blog: If you don’t have a blog for your organization then this should be at top of your list, ditto if you have a blog and it has been idle and ignored.  Your blog is 
5. Review CTAs (Call to Action):  Review the CTA on your website and subpages, are you asking the visitors to do anything?  Are you providing an easy way for visitors to contact you, order, ask questions, subscribe?  Is your phone number prominent and easy to read and find? 
6. Update Mail Lists and CRM:  Now is a great time to clean up your email list and CRM system.  Review your list; add people that are missing and update records.  Don’t have an email list or CRM, well now is a great time to resolve to set them up!  We recommend and use Constant Contact for our mass email campaign solution.  
7. Social Communities:  Do you have an active presence on the major social networks?  Again, we have a blog to help you develop a n effective social media campaign.  
   At a minimum you should have company pages on:
   • Facebook Page for your organization
   • Google Plus Page for your organization
   • LinkedIn profile for ALL key staff members 
   • LinkedIn Company Page for your organization (make sure it is complete)
   • Twitter for your organization and possibly for key staff
     Other Social Networks to Consider:
   • Pinterest
   • Tumblr
   • Squiddo
   • Digg
8. Update Social Networks and Participate - Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, LinkedIn:  In case you skipped over the previous suggestion because you already have a strong social network presence, visit your social pages and make sure they are up to date, consider updating your banners and page graphics, and most importantly make sure your organization is actively involved and participating not just posting and running.  Check out our blog on Simple and Effective Community Management for tips on how to manage your social networks.  
9. Great Content:  Great content is vital to the success of your digital marketing campaign.  Review your website, blog, and social network posts – are you delivering useful and informative content that your users want?  Is your content interesting and engaging or is it a veiled or worse direct sales pitch to hawk your goods and services.  Take an honest look at your content and then resolve to do it bigger and better this year! 
10. Mobile Friendly:  In case you missed the memo, it’s all about mobile now!  Is your site mobile friendly?  Can visitors navigate your site easily on a Droid, iPhone, iPad or tablet?  Take a look for yourself, visit your site via several mobile devices and you decide how the experience is.  
11. Website Face-lift:  When was the last time you updated your website?  Is it time for a new look or new content?  A new website or face-lift for is a great idea, BUT make sure you keep SEO in mind and don’t inadvertently hurt the search rankings you worked so hard for by doing it wrong.  
12. Lead Nurturing:  This is an area most organization fall short, cultivating leads after the initial inquiry.  The most common practice is a single contact or perhaps an automated response and then wait for an order.  Oddly many companies also say they want to improve the lead capture rate.  Lead nurturing involves setting up a stream of follow up emails to deliver useful information and develop a relationship over the long term.  Constant Contact has a Auto-Response feature (poorly named, it is much more that just auto-response if used right) that will deliver a stream of emails (drip campaign) on a predetermined schedule.  
13. Have Fun! – OK this may seem trite, but resolve to have fun and make it fun for everyone, you will get better results, you will enjoy it more and so will your staff and customers. 

The post 13 Digital Marketing resolutions that will make 2013 your best year ever! appeared first on Esotech Inc..