Rather than moving along with them, itâ€s best to begin with the notion that not every site will suit you. So, the best thing for you to do is to find out what these social media sites are used for and whether it will work for your business.

So here is a list of social media networks that you read up on to decide from:

#1: Facebook

The biggest advantage of using Facebook is that the conversation is all in one place, and customers get the chance to feel that way. This social media site is very visual, unlike Twitter, so making use of that would work well.

#2: Twitter

In short, Twitter is about projecting what you company is doing to a large audience, much like being given a megaphone. You can not only communicate with customers but also create a brand with consistent updates.

#3: Pinterest

This social network is not ideal for self-promotion but might be useful to small businesses for the ability to create pinboards that might win the plaudits of customers if you are able to able to build visuals for the purposes of branding.

#4: FourSquare

Location-based social media services might not work for every small business as it requires people to physically visit your store or an event. This social media network is actually good for restaurants, retail stores and venues. Of course, as for online businesses, this site will be useful only if you are hosting an event.

One of the sad realities of selling products online is that in order to succeed at e-commerce, you need to be good at or have good SEO. According to Wesley Virgin, approximately 80% of e-commerce stores fail. There are varied reasons for this, from poor marketing to poor image quality but one of the standout reasons is a lack of traffic. This is where a lack of SEO comes in. Here are a few of the SEO related reasons that your e-commerce store is lacking traffic:

Architecture

There is a general rule that every page on your store should be within three clicks of the homepage. In fact, the fewer the better. Some stores place product pages too deep within the structure to get any link value or clicks.

URL

Another issue is URL structure. Long and nonsensical URLâ€s should be avoided. They should be readable and not too long. An example of a bad URL would be http://www.site.com/en-gb/productid/a/144534 while a good page URL would look like http://www.site.com/phones/galaxys7. The same goes for category pages which should look like http://www.site.com/phones.

Duplicate Content

This is one of the easiest SEO concepts to understand but is something nobody seems to take seriously. Most e-commerce stores have plenty of duplicate pages. A prime example would be getting to the same product page with more than one link. These should be checked and cleaned up as soon as possible.

Not Enough Back Links

“With no doubt one of the biggest SEO factors is having quality backlinks,” say Wesley Virgin.  You need to try to get as many backlinks as possible. One of the easiest and most effective ways to get backlinks is to write articles and submit them to different publications and bloggers. Many sites like to get free content and you will get a free link in return. Win-win for both parties.

Breadcrumbs

The Breadcrumbs display at the top of the page shows where the current page falls in the hierarchy of the site’s content. The first levels before the current page could be other pages or categories. Either way, it gives the user a sense of where they are. It is also one of the easiest elements to add. On some themes, it is a single option.

Categories

A list of categories on the sidebar is another important element. These categories are another form of navigation. A visitor can browse through the entire history of the site’s posts in a particular category until they find something of interest. Too many websites categorize posts, only to bury that category link somewhere on the page.

Search

Too many blogs have no search bar or one that does not work very well. When it does work, the results lack formatting, cannot be filtered by category or not descriptive enough. Some sites have simply pointed to Google Site Search instead. A good site-wide or blog-wide search is very important and is common point location for high bounce rates.

About the Author:
Pierre Zarokian is the CEO of iClimber and an expert in SEO and social media marketing services. iClimber is a social media marketing company in Burbank, Ca.  They do instagram marketing, facebook marketing and social media profile creation services.

Most companies have a distinct online presence for a definite reason – to manage an online reputation.

Considering the importance of a companyâ€s reputation to its growth, thereâ€s no doubt that being able to manage its reputation in times of crises is indeed an imperative activity. So here are three tips that can add perspective to maintaining your companyâ€s online reputation:

#1: Establish a strong online presence

When someone googles your brand name, it is important to ensure that itâ€s not just your website that should pop up on the first page. Consider using the numerous social media sites that are available, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, which will establish a solid online presence.

And remember that being in the first search engine results is vital to your brandâ€s success, especially if itâ€s a common name.

#2: Controlling responses during a crisis

Considering the highly publicized failures of the past, thereâ€s no doubt that there are severe consequences in not being able to handle a crisis online effectively. Whether it is handling customer complaints or even dealing with a lawsuit, it is of utmost importance to monitor online conversations at all times with the intent of defusing the situation as soon as possible.

#3: Monitor Conversations

Most businesses understand how important it is to stay up to date with whatâ€s being said about the company. In fact, the best way to do this is by using social media tools which make the overwhelming process of monitoring several social media accounts much easier.

Better still, these social media tools will help you respond in real-time and turn negative situations into positive opportunities.

About the Author:
Pierre Zarokian is the CEO of Reputation Stars, an online reputation management company.  If you have negative reviews or articles online, visit their website to see how they can help you.

Does your websiteâ€s type of hosting have an impact on its search engine rankings? Based on the data, hosting has a significant, measurable impact on several factors that contribute to a siteâ€s search engine rankings. When it comes to cloud hosting, there are several advantages to hosting your website on a cloud.

First, cloud hosting can lead to faster website loading speeds. Itâ€s a well-known fact that Googleâ€s ranking algorithms consider site speed when deciding which sites will be at the top of web searches. Keeping your websiteâ€s data in the cloud eliminates many of the problems associated with sharing space with other websites in a single hosting server, resulting in quicker, more efficient loading times.

Second, youâ€ll have an easier time being competitive in local search rankings. Search engines give precedence to websites located in the same geographical location as the people making web searches. Since cloud hosting servers are located all around the world, you wonâ€t have to create several international versions of your site to host on multiple different local servers.

Third, cloud hosting provides some online security benefits to protect your website and data. Cloud hosting services have effective countermeasures against harmful bots that can hack into your website and negatively influence your SEO rankings. These bots can also reduce your websiteâ€s uptime, which is another important component of SEO.

If youâ€d like to switch to a cloud hosting provider to stay competitive in the constantly changing world of SEO, contact Rack Alley. Their Los Angeles data center provides solutions for all your entire web hosting needs.

Every company believes that they are immune to such reputation issues. Unfortunately, they do not realize the damage an attack can cause until it is too late. The good news is that with proactive reputation management, you can protect your company against any future reputation issue.

Here is a checklist for proactive reputation management

Website – The first and most important item on the list is to have a website. Without a website that is the official home of your brand, negative items will rank freely. Optimize the site and content for search engines and get as many links from businesses that can convey a sense of authority.

Business presence – Establish a presence on all social media platforms. It helps to register early and prevent any other party from taking the official name. Cross promote the content on your website on the social media platforms and engage with customers as much as possible. The list of social media properties includes LinkedIn.

Setting up the above recommendations isnâ€t a guarantee that you will not fall prey to negative content online. However, it does give you the tools and authority to combat attacks on your reputation online.

The Google search ranking algorithm has changed many times over the years. Recent changes have seen machine learning used to distinguish better looking websites. Despite all these advances, most SEO experts still agree that the backlink is still the most important signal for ranking. The backlink and the corresponding anchor text are still as sought after as ever. Here are a few tips for getting more backlinks for your blog:

Blog comments

Commenting on other blogs that have do follow links allowed is still an effective method for getting backlinks. While these have been supposedly reduced in importance, it still counts as a backlink. One way to easily find sites that allow dofollow comments is to look for sites in your niche that have the commentluv plugin. These give both a link back to your site and a link to your latest post at the time of posting.

Directories

For a long time most webmasters abandoned directories as a source of backlinks due to the spammy nature of many. In a recent update the Google search team mentioned that links from directories were deemphasized further. Most read that to mean that directories still counted for some weight in the algorithm.

Press releases

Although an old tool, press releases can be a source of backlinks. Especially to the general domain. These domain directed links are still important as a ranking signal. However, you will need some form of announcement to be able to commision a press release.