If you suffered a setback with Google’s Panda update, then you are going to have to make some changes to your SEO strategy.
Panda is an update to Google’s search algorithm that ranks websites.
It is designed to promote high quality websites, and remove low quality ones from top positions.
This update will affect the ranking of many websites.
If there are errors in your content or website which clash with Panda, then you may not recover from the update.
This article takes a look at possible errors and how to fix them.
Quality Counts
If you happen to have a low quality website, then be warned; you are likely to be adversely affected by Panda.
The sites that Google’s Panda considers low quality will be pushed even further down the results page.
In some cases, staying in the cyber race may mean having to start all over again, and cleaning your entire website to make it compatible with Google.
As daunting a prospect as that may seem, the alternative is even worse, being doomed to a lifetime of low Google rankings.
Let’s take a look at some of the errors that may cause a clash with Panda:
Duplicate/ Low-quality Content:
If you have duplicate or low quality content, then that will not make you a friend of Google.
Google dislikes duplicate content, so if you have 2 web addresses with the same content, then you will be overlooked.
Also, avoid having multiple pages with the same keyword.
Duplicate content may often be remedied by checking the names of your page files and categories, chances are this is where the problem is.
Having poor quality content will also put you at odds with Panda.
As a result, you will have to revise content to improve quality.
Take another look at heading tags, and keywords, as when these are not used correctly, it will lower your SEO score.
Poor Internal Linking structure:
Internal linking is not often understood during website building, and therefore designers build sites with incorrect structure.
Good internal linking structure will reduce your bounce rate.
The bounce rate is the percentage of persons that visit the site and then leave without visiting other pages.
In order to correct this problem, you have to take a look at the links between web pages.
Make certain that the links to other sections of the site are clean and streamlined.
Too many Affiliate Ads or Links:
Panda is also put off by sites that have an excessive amount of affiliate ads.
Since the latest update gives a low rating to websites with too many ads, it’s best to tone down the ads.
These are three of the most common errors that are on websites, which are likely to cause a clash with Panda. But as we have seen, it is possible to counteract Panda, by making some simple changes.
Backlinks are incoming links to a website or webpage. They allow you to keep track of other pages on the web that link to your posts.
The more backlinks you have to your site, the higher your search engine ranking will be.
Search engines consider some backlinks more effective than others, and will give those a higher ranking.
If you are not sure what backlinking is all about, then this article gives you some basic information, as well as three effective approaches to build them.
Backlinking Basics
When someone creates a link to your site, it represents a positive sign, because it suggests that there is something on your site worth seeing.
Backlinks are an inbound link to your website or blog, and search engines consider them very significant.
As a result, search engines will give a higher ranking to web pages with a high number of backlinks.
How to Build Backlinks
1. Create a Website with Great Content
If you have a website that is appealing and attractive to users then they will be inclined to visit it often. Be sure to add relevant content that users will find valuable.
You can find out what it is your customers are most interested in and then post content that will engage them.
In addition, if you monitor social media sites like Twitter you will be able to find out what’s trending, and include that on your website.
When you are able to provide solutions and ideas, customers will flock to your site, and inbound links will increase. If visitors like what they see, then they will freely offer links by sharing with others.
2. Use Social Media
With its millions of users, social media platforms like Facebook, offer a wonderful opportunity for you to create links and improve market exposure.
Building backlinks to Facebook will help to increase traffic to your site, and also improve your ranking on the search engine results page.
Facebook has a very easy process that allows you to create a fan page for a local business. Once you have created this link, you can get your friends to like your page, and you can make more links from there.
3. Comment on Blogs
Posting comments on blogs is another way to create backlinks to your website. You can seek out the blogs that relate to your niche market and write a comment.
You can check blog directories like Technorati to find a list of relevant blogs. Most of these blogs allow you to post your name and website when you write a comment, thereby offering a link back to the website.
The more blogs you comment on, the more backlinks you are going to create that lead back to your website or web page.
You can also build backlinks by partnering with other websites in your niche area, and you can also use press releases for backlinks.
Linking to different sites will increase your online exposure, and lead to more traffic for your website.
Interactive, engaging, and enjoyable! These are just some of the words often used to describe well-made videos that have taken the internet by storm and gone viral.
Video marketing is fast becoming a popular e-marketing tool. If you want to know how to make video marketing work for you now, then make sure to apply the tips in this article.
Some of the top video sharing sites include YouTube, Hulu, and Dailymotion. There are endless possibilities when it comes to the types of videos you can produce. However, be sure to stick to videos that will appeal to your target audience, and will show off your product/service the best.
Here are some video marketing tips that you can use now to generate more traffic, and increase conversions:
1. Make Content Appealing
If you want to get more traffic to your website with videos, then your video must be an attention grabber. If it’s not entertaining, then you won’t get a lot of views. How can you make your video appealing?
Make it short. If the video is too long, viewers might not view it all the way through.
Make sure that it is has a high resolution, and is also very clear.
Include screenshots and live demonstrations for products.
Include keywords that will attract your target audience.
Use a professional voice.
These are just some of the things you can do to make your videos more marketable.
2. Include a Call to Action
A call to action tells users what to do next. You can ask them to share the video, like it, comment on it, or visit your website. This interplay will give added exposure to your video, and ensure that it gets more views on the internet.
The call to action can be posted in various places on your video, and should be included at the end, so that it is the last thing that viewers see. In addition, there are tools that will allow you to embed a link to your website, or subscription link on the video.
3. Pay Attention to Comments
If you ignore the comments by viewers, you are missing out on a golden opportunity to improve the impact and reach of your videos.
The feedback you receive can go a long way in helping to determine how you may need to adjust your video marketing campaign, as well as the improvements you may need to incorporate.
This will be extremely beneficial going forward, as it can positively impact the quality of videos you do in the future. Many persons who leave comments are also potential customers that you can interact with and convert.
4. Submit Videos to Different Sites
While YouTube is the most obvious choice; there are other video sharing sites such as Metacafe, Dailymotion, and Vimeo, that you can submit your videos to. The more sites you submit to, the more exposure your business will get.
These are just a few simple tips you can include in your video marketing strategy.
There’s an old saying in marketing and sales, “You can’t please everyone.”
Truer words have never been spoken.
Having customers who aren’t happy with our products, our services, or our efforts is a fact of life in business.
The way you respond to those customers will determine whether or not your customer comes back.
Or whether he or she goes on to rant about your poor service to every friend, relative and social media site in the world.
That is not to say that some people won’t do those things anyway. Despite your best efforts, you will not defuse every situation.
Along the business path, you will sadly meet people who are completely unreasonable despite your best efforts to help.
The customer isn’t always right and there are times when you will not be able to please them. The following post doesn’t claim to help with these “problem children”.
It will help you to defuse certain situations and to help otherwise reasonable people to get over their ire with your business. Here are ten ways to help you to defuse customer anger.
1. Decide that your customer has a perfect right to be angry.
This does not mean they are right or that you’ve done something wrong.
Accidents happen.
When things go wrong, it’s easy to start determining whose to blame and whether of not the customer has a right to be angry.
Curb this impulse to judge and instead decide out of hand that everyone has the right to be upset. They may be partly to blame, but that doesn’t erase their right to be upset by what’s happened to them.
2. Hear the Emotion without Mirroring It.
Listening to the emphasis and the tone of the customer can help you identify what is causing the emotion.
Also listen to their words. The goal is to identify the root cause of their anger.
While you can’t always resolve the problem, you can acknowledge it and let the customer know you understand how frustrating it is.
Responding to the emotion with emotion is going to be totally counterproductive. It’s not personal, so don’t take it personally.
The customer’s anger isn’t about you. They are upset at the company or the situation. Very often customers can be borderline abusive while not truly meaning to be.
The frustration is carrying the situation and the level of anger can be an indication of their desire to be heard, acknowledged, and not placated.
3. Try to respond patiently.
The conversation will flow in waves. Expressing their anger, rage, and distress isn’t going to take place all at once.
Wait for the emotion to recede and then use that moment to try to reassure them you will correct the problem.
It doesn’t matter whose fault it is, how it happened or that they’ve not been reasonable or polite to you.
Solving the problem is going to resolve the situation. Wait for them to run out of gas and then fix their problem.
4. Don’t raise your voice too.
Speak softly IF (or perhaps WHEN would be more realistic) you find a customer becoming loud and abusive. Keep a steady and low tone and continue to speak to them.
Don’t try to shout over the customer as it simply won’t work for you. If you want them to get the message, speak softly and wait for a pause.
Your customer will want to hear what you have to say and will strive to hear that. Very often they will concentrate on you, rather than keeping up a verbal tirade that isn’t getting them anywhere.
This person came to you for a solution. Give them one. When there is a lull in the conversation, that’s your cue to offer it.
5. Reiterate and repeat.
Make sure you’re covering all the bases of the customer’s issue. Address everything administrative, technical, and emotional about the customer concerns.
Reiterate and repeat the things you believe are the most important to the customer so you can get feedback.
You want them to know you are focused on what is most important to them.
6. Make the problem your own.
Regardless of what ever happened prior to the customer coming to you, now that they have your attention, you need to own the issue.
You can resolve the issue and correct the problems, but before you do that, you need to own it.
You are going to be the one person who honestly cares about what they are going through and is going to fix it for them.
7. Put your customer first and the problem second.
There are going to be conflicting issues when you’re working with angry customers. They are going to be irritated and probably not very kind to you.
The customer’s distress needs to come first and the technical issues should come second.
You want to attend to both of them. Finding a way past the first and to a resolution of the second is the goal.
Keep in mind that you need to acknowledge the customer distress first and then handle it by dealing with the other technical issues.
8. Perform triage on the customer’s issue.
Once you’re able to focus your energy on the technical and the administrative problems, you’ll need to do triage.
Look for the biggest problem you can solve with the least resources. Then look for the next biggest problem and so on.
Go over the problem forward and back and find out what happened and pinpoint where it went wrong.
Sometimes solving the problem causing the most emotional discomfort for the customer is the easiest to solve. Don’t overlook this possibility.
For example, maybe they are concerned about missing another appointment. Solve this problem first and the technical problems later.
Then you can focus on other problems that are more complicated, but are less agitating to the customer.
9. Correct the problem once and for all.
Take care of the problem for this customer, but also consider how to correct the problem permanently and prevent it from happening to another customer.
If this is something you’ve had to deal with before, it’s important to prevent it from taking place again.
Show the customer that you’ve made corrections and that you are committed to making sure that this issue doesn’t happen again.
Reiterate their original concerns and ask if you have alleviated their problem or corrected all of their issues.
10. Follow up with the customer.
Let an appropriate amount of time pass to be sure that the problem is corrected and then follow up with your customer.
It’s important that they understand that your company does not have an attitude of “out of sight and out of mind.”
Find out if the problem is fully resolved and if not, how they feel you can address it.
This final step in taking an irate customer to a happy one can serve to cement customer loyalty for your company.
Not every customer will respond to these steps, but most will. Taking your customers from an angry voice on the phone to a loyal customer of your company will make it time well spent.
This is from an old riff from Dan Kennedy, but it’s more valid today than ever.
Today people will go to great lengths to avoid advertising, like paying for premium content and ad blockers.
However, there is always room for a welcome guest and there are so many ways to be that welcome guest.
Here are my two favorite ways:
1. Be human on social media.
What happens when humans meet humans? They make friends, not with everyone, but even those become important.
As a group of friendly folk grow, they stand in contrast to those who don’t share their values and, for lack of a better word, style.
Once this happens a community begins to form. It’s natural!
There is a feeling among community members to help each other out and stick together.
One person’s annoying offer is another person’s salvation. This happens all the time in hobby niches.
I like aquariums. I always have, since I was a kid.
Now there is a thriving aquarist community on YouTube. I love it!
I learn way more than I could by myself and even though the communication is one way, I feel like I know and trust the content makers.
For this phenomenon benefit businesses, it doesn’t need to be complete. It’s just the hint of this that gives you an unbeatable edge over your competitors.
People only shop price when that is the only perceived difference.
That you have feelings of like and trust towards one brand complicate the decision making process… in your favor!
My second favorite way is the method Dan Kennedy was alluding to 30 years ago (and it was an old concept when he started touting it).
2. Irresistible Offers!
They’re irresistible! They take away, or significantly reduce, the risk on the part of the customer/client.
Before there were Sales Funnels, there was Product Mix.
There have always been a class of products, services… OFFERS, that were specifically designed to bring people “in the door” or “on the lot.” They were designed to “make the phone ring.”
Now did 20% of the people take the irresistible offer and run for the hills? Yes.
But did 80% of the people that came in on the irresistible offer upgrade their order with something extra, bigger, better, nicer, more luxurious, or more complete? Yes!
The problem with most advertising boils down to brand recognition and value proposition.
I’ll leave off with two parting shots:
1. In a social media world, even the smallest companies can start playing a sophisticated game of branding without spend huge resources.
2. Creating offers that provide an irresistible value proposition requires owners who have the courage and confidence in the value proposition of the remainder of their offerings.
Take care of the problem for this customer, but also consider how to correct the problem permanently and prevent it from happening to another customer.
Let an appropriate amount of time pass to be sure that the problem is corrected and then follow up with your customer.
