Blog - SEO Consultant Specialist

Who are Social Customers and What they Want from Businesses?

admin — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:14:36 +0000

Social Media can be a blessing or a curse for businesses depending upon the customers or consumer experience (CX). Enhanced customer experience results in a stronger and deeper relationship with customers and, thus, increases their loyalty and trust, whereas a bad customer experience can result into a negative word-of-mouth. So, customers are in the heart of any successful social media programs and, therefore, need special attention and care if one wants to get most of the benefits through social media.

Considering the worldwide explosion of Social Media, it looks a tempting channel for businesses. However, they need to understand social customers better before they can take its real advantage. Social customers are dramatically different from traditional customers as they are not passive consumers of informative anymore. Social customers are much more involved and engaged than the traditional media viewers i.e. TV watchers and magazine readers etc.

Customers are real people and people always want to talk with real people – not with brands – and Social Media has provided the perfect platform for just that. Social Media has also given a platform to customers to communicate at C2C (Consumer-Consumer) level, but there is an opportunity for businesses in the form of access to huge C2C data. Businesses can use that information to much more informed decisions and tailor their product according to customers need. The best way to learn about the customers is to interact with them.

In this social media age, customers are much more connected, informed, outspoken, creative, often uncensored and unscheduled. They freely share their experiences with other consumers, even without the involvement of businesses. Now, customers are the people with megaphones and, therefore, not listening to them can cost businesses a lot.

Social customers do not like marketing and sales tones; rather they want businesses to collaborate and engage with them. They want to be the co-owner and co-create the products or services with the business. Hence, businesses should interact in an attractive rather than interruptive way to entitle and delight them. Social customers want real-time customer support and a solution to their problems. They also want to be the part of the company rather the prey. Businesses can’t get all the benefits over social media without giving customers the benefits that they want!

Understanding the social customers better would allow businesses to go well beyond the transactional models and focus on engagement models. Knowing to customers better helps businesses to serve them better. Businesses need to embrace this shift with a new strategy in which the role of the business is to collaborate and create dialogue with the customers.

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Website Usability and Accessibility for SEO – Top 10 Tips

admin — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:11:37 +0000

Search engine optimization (SEO), website accessibility and usability go hand in hand. Accessibility refers to making a website approachable for a wider range of users including those with special needs. Whereas, website usability refers to making a website easy to browse for an improved User Experience (UX) and, hence, to increase engagement and conversion. A website which is easily accessible and relevant for users or searchers is also going to be more accessible and relevant for search engines as well and, therefore, is good from an SEO perspective.

Here are top 10 tips to improve the accessibility and usability of websites which affect SEO.

Purpose, Keywords Selection and Contents: Make the purpose of the website clear; carefully select the keywords and build quality contents around those keywords in order to deliver a consistent message.
Load Time: Web pages should be able to load quickly. It becomes even more important with the increasing use of mobile devices for browsing purposes.
Enough Text: Though there is no limit of minimum and maximum text on the page. But, every page should have at least couple of paragraphs of unique quality content.
Appropriate Front to Background Color Contrast: The same font and background colour can create problems for SEO and users (especially for those with special needs).
Limit the use of Nested Tables, Flash and Javascript: These types of technology/ methods can create problems in terms of accessibility of the website for users and search engines. If excessive use of these technologies is a ‘must’, also offer a text-only version of the website.
Navigation: Use clear and consistent Navigation; Descriptive and User Friendly URLs; Suitable internal linking; Avoid unnecessary deep pages.
Meta Data and Image Alt Tags: Intelligently use Meta description and other metadata necessary for smooth and meaningful indexing of the website; Image alt tags are important from optimization as well as user experience purpose.
Search, Headings and Keyboard Short-cuts: ‘Search’ option should be given for the website and be prominently displayed. Headings: Headings and sub-headings should be clear and descriptive for visually impaired persons (and for search engines). Appropriate keyboard-friendly shortcuts should be given.
Error Handling: Both users and search engines simply hate page not found error message. A sitemap or any other appropriate page (e.g. search page) can be shown in case this error occurs.
Fewer Steps: Avoid trying to get detailed user data by offering detailed sign-up forms.

These are just ten tips, there can be many more usability and accessibility issues. A true SEO Specialist takes all accessibility and usability issues into account when recommending ‘on-page’ changes. In other words, he helps to make the site equally valuable not only for search engines but for users, as well.

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Will SEO be Dead in 2012? Or, Is SEO Already Dead?

admin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:10:28 +0000

‘SEO is Dead’ or ‘SEO will be dead soon’ these are the most common statements I have been hearing since first adopting SEO as a hobby and later on as a profession. I hear these phrases at a greater frequency at the start of a new year – not to mention many times within the year as well.

Is SEO really dead? Well it’s not and it will never be as long as there is a need to search. It is almost impossible to find results without the help of an ‘engine’ from the huge amount of information available online.

It is important to understand what really SEO is, otherwise SEO will be dead after every major change in the online world. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is not Google optimization – though at the moment it is very much like this. Basically SEO is about optimizing your digital assets for any search engine. Therefore, even if Google is not the number one choice in the long run, there still will be search engines which consumers will have to use in order to dive through the huge amount of information available. SEO will only be dead, if one dares manually find all the sites!

Actually, the fact is that Google has matured so much over the last 15 years or so that it will not be easy to replace it totally. I can’t see Google going away for at least one more decade, if not longer. It is just unmatchable in speed, accuracy and relevancy when it comes to returning search results. It has huge database of web pages, secure data centers, very user friendly interface, support for variety of languages and geographical areas and is innovating all the time. I feel pity for the people who try to compare Siri of iPhone with Google. Siri is just in the initial stages and is good in doing simple routine jobs. Not only just Siri, any tool which beats Google will have to go a long way.

Technology and online world is changing and every related field is evolving quite rapidly and SEO is no exception. It will evolve too – as it has evolved over the last fifteen years or so. To stay on top of technology and be successful in SEO world, one should take every change as opportunity. Obviously there are few basic elements which are and will always remain among the important elements of SEO such as quality and shareable contents, user-friendly web interface and understanding what people might type in to find you.

SEO is not dead. SEO has huge benefits for the businesses and is best ever pull marketing method. There are many skilful SEO specialists out there who can do magic with their knowledge and experience to bring huge ROI for the business. The only thing is to select the right knowledgeable SEO, otherwise SEO will very likely be dead for you!

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Using Social Media for Business Success and Development – Social CRM

admin — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 21:57:50 +0000

In a recent research done by myself in which some top social media experts participated from across the globe, it was found out that customer experience ( CX ) was the most important element of using social media for business purposes. Customers are in the heart of any successful social media campaign and, thus, need special attention and extra care. A lot has been written about customer engagement, however businesses now have to think further and concentrate on improving customer experience. Obviously customer engagement is important by itself, but it is not enough to get long lasting results and getting loyalty in social business era.

Social media is a double-edged sword and can be a blessing or a curse depending upon the consumer experience. If companies (or any authority) ignore customer experience, they will have to suffer as we already have witnessed it throughout this year (2011) in many countries. Poorly-run companies or businesses have real threats from Social media front so they need to lift their business standards. It is now impossible to hide away poor quality and have unhappy customers and uncompetitive prices. Customer service to delight customers is the real marketing in social media age.

Technology is there to be used but it is important to change the mindset as well. Actually, technology is useless as long as companies are not willing to change their mindset. Now customers are more powerful than ever before and they have more ways to get and share information and make more accurate decision. They have smart phones with cameras to create huge amount of uncensored user generated contents and social media to share all that stuff. They no longer listen to marketing tones and monologue rather than want companies to collaborate with them. So the companies which ignore them will have to pay the penalty and will likely to face reputational issues. Companies can get much out of social media and know about their customers and their needs by active listening, efficient monitoring and responding proactively.

One thing which companies need to understand is that social media is a not a quick fix. Simply joining these channels cannot solve problems at all. Once executed rightly, social media campaigns result into happy loyal customers and improved business designs.

Social Media, Customer Experience and SEO

It is important to keep customers happy from SEO prospective as well, because satisfied customers are likely to share positive experiences with peers. Positive contents regarding brands increase visibility of the companies over search engines and hence help with brand awareness, reputation management and positive words of mouth. Search engines have already started giving weight to number and sentiment of reviews. On-site user experience has always been a core element of SEO!

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How to be a Successful SEO Specialist – 10 Quick Tips

admin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:46:36 +0000

Many people, particularly IT and Marketing graduates, often ask me about how to be a successful SEO specialist. Obviously, there is no short cut solution to this, however, I have put together 10 quick tips to help them find an answer to their query. They are:

Only join the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) field if you really have a passion and a personal interest in it – do not join it for money (yes, it is one of the best paying marketing domain!).
Build a website or blog, experiment with various SEO techniques and try to get top ranking for some competitive keywords through it.
Always keep learning. Even after you have established yourself at top level, try to learn at least one new thing every day regarding SEO. Never think you have learnt ‘all’ about SEO.
Think critically and learn from mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes you learn more from mistakes rather than doing it right first time. Remember, mistake is not really a mistake if you learn from it!
Do not be afraid of changes, rather prepare for changes because you are in an industry related to the Internet– take every change in industry as an opportunity. If you are not prepared for a change, better leave SEO.
Go to top SEO or related conferences and seminars. Also take interest in other related fields, such as, marketing and IT.
Follow at least a couple of SEO industry top blogs for regular updates.
Share knowledge with others through all online and offline channels, especially through social media.
Get relevant education and certifications Only from internationally recognized resources. However, bear in mind that nothing is more important than proven track record in SEO industry!
Have patience. Patience is the ‘keyword’ to many successful SEO projects! Love what you do!!

And the take away: Never think SEO is dead. SEO is dead for those who are afraid of changes! Otherwise, SEO has a very bright future. It is one of the best ever pull marketing tools!

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