What do you do now, as these negative reviews attract a lot of traffic and at times, these negative reviews rank better than your own website…

This is where Online Reputation Management helps out. It takes ages to build up a good image but it would take few seconds to destroy it.

Definition:

Online reputation management in a lay man’s term refers to creating and maintaining a positive image of the company, organization, its products or the services through the web on the minds of the people.

Maintaining a good image for oneself or for one’s company/organization on the Internet is a big challenge because of the interactive and dynamic nature of the medium. More than a billion users login to the online medium for varied purposes.

Also, with the introduction of the User Generated Content (UGC), the Internet has given a platform to the visitors to speak their mind freely. Hence, the web advertisers and marketers have to make consistent and ardent efforts to build up a positive image on the web.

How to track the negative reviews against our company/brand?

It is true that the unsatisfied customers are bound to give a negative feedback but the problem arises when your competitors spread negativity about you or your company on the Internet. It is important to list out names of the websites that carry negative reviews about your company/brand, products or services. Search your company’s name on different search engines like: - Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. Once you are able to figure out such websites, then try and analyze whether it is a complaint from an unsatisfied client or perhaps a competitor.

This is the stage when you need to manage and maintain the online reputation of your company. This can only be done by writing influential content.

What do we do as a part of our reputation/online PR management?

In order to overshadow the negative image of your brand or company, it is important to spread the positive word all around the Internet. Write the key word rich content and integrate all positive things about the company.

Ok great, we have prepared a list of such websites, what is the next step? How to monitor the online reputation of our company/organization?

In order to monitor the online reputation of your company, sign up for Google alerts. Google alerts provide you regular e-mail notifications whenever any user search for your company’s name or your products/services. This is an easy way to monitor your online reputation.

Now, what are the tools used in the online reputation management?

• Social Media
  Use all your social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook etc. to try and instill the trust and confidence amongst one and all in your network. This would also help in the positive mouth publicity for you.

  Social media is an informal platform to stay in touch with everyone in your connection. You can promote your products/services and create a positive brand identity by interacting with your contacts.

• Blogs
  Write unique and effective blog articles and keep updating your blogs on a regular basis. Share the knowledge about your industry and let the readers share their thoughts.
• Link building
  Exchange your website link with as many websites as possible having good page ranks. For example: - there are some negative reviews about a website named as www.example.com and to eradicate all negativity, it is advisable to exchange the website’s link targeting the keyword/s that has been used in the negative reviews.
• Press Releases
  Write press releases about the new services, products, brands, offers etc. Your prospects should know about the new launches in your organization.
• Latest News
  Let your target public know what’s new in your company/organization. By doing this, you can update your prospects of new developments in your company/organization and try and eradicate the negative buzz about your company/organization.
• Newsletters
  Send newsletters to all your contacts. Make them learn good things about your company. This is one of the most personal mediums to reach out to your prospects and inform them more about yourself.
• Directory submissions
  Drive traffic to your site by submitting articles on directories and let others know more about you or the services you provide. You can attract the interest of the readers from across the borders.
• Discussion Forums
  Participate in the independent discussion forums. There are several advantages of participating in discussion forums:-
  • You can earn back links for your website.
  • Once your signature gets approved in the forums, your discussion gets more weight-age and is regarded as authentic.
  • You can do viral marketing here.
  • You can create a group and then interact with your group mates.
  • You can also discuss about several issues that you may be find doubtful. You can get expert comments.
• Add Comments
  Let the positive comments and reviews pour in. Develop trust amongst your customers so that they help you earn or maintain a better reputation by writing positive comments for the articles you write.
• Wikipedia profile
  Create your company profile on Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia wherein the registered members can add and edit articles free of cost. The content is non promotional. It is the most read source of information.
• Testimonials
  A positive testimonial written by satisfied clients can help you build positive image about your company/brand. This can also attract other prospects in search for the services you provide. Third party recommendation always grabs the attention.

All these are the basic tools that are used on the web for building a good reputation for the company but the crux is to write positive content and promote and optimize it on the web as much as you can…

-By Neha Gulati

There are a number of tools that you can use to optimize your PPC ads viz.:-

• Keyword Tool
  In order to earn maximum profit from your PPC advertising, it is advisable to review your PPC ad’s performance. Your ad’s performance depends on the kind of keywords you choose and the performance of your keywords depends on:-
  • Search pattern of your keywords
  • Keywords used by your competitors

• Search based Keyword Tool
  This tool can be used to find out the exact keyword/s for a particular web page/s depending on the actual search by the users.
• Placement Tool
  This tool can be used to find out the placements in combination like a website/URL, category or a keyword. With the help of the advanced options, you can filter your placements as per a particular country or language, included ad sizes, impressions per day and demography.
• Edit Campaign Negative Keywords
  Using negative keywords like free, cheap etc. can prove to be very harmful in case you are not providing anything for free or in cheap rate. Using such words can increase the number of clicks/impressions on your PPC ad but may not be fruitful to your business as these clicks go waste.With the help of this tool, you can restrict the use of negative keywords in your entire campaign.

  For using negative keywords, you need to use a dash (-) in front of your negative keyword. For example: - if you use –cheap, then your PPC ad will not be displayed when the word cheap is searched.

  This will help you target your specific audience, decrease unnecessary impressions and increase the ROI.

• Site and Category Exclusion
  With the help of this tool you can avert your ads from being displayed on individual websites and different categories of the web pages.
• IP Exclusion
  You can restrict your specific IP addresses to view your ad/s. This can help you target specific regions/countries.
• Traffic Estimator
  By entering your desired keyword in traffic estimator you can get an estimate of the performance of a particular keyword.
• Insights for Search
  You can find out about the search volume of a particular keyword/s in different categories, timeframes and regions.

The aforesaid are some of the important tools for managing a PPC campaign effectively.

-By Neha Gulati

But, how can the mobile phone websites benefit the automobile sector?

• Stay ahead of your competitors
  Adopt all mediums of communication to promote your products or services and stay ahead of your competitors. As we know that mobile marketing is still in its growth stage, advertising here gives you an advantage of expanding your market horizon and ensures better brand recall.

  It is easier for the prospects to search for lucrative automobile deals on mobile websites.

• Improved site traffic = More leads
  A prospect in search for latest model of a car, motor bike etc. can quickly extract the required information by browsing a mobile website for the automobile sector. The easy access to the automobile mobile website can increase the website user traffic which means more leads.

• Communicate well
  Automobile dealers can improve their sales with the help of mobile websites by enhancing the user experience of the mobile web browsers. As an automobile dealer, it is advisable to present all important information that might interest your prospects.

  For example:- a car manufacturing company having mobile website portal can list the names and other important details of all their car dealers so that it is convenient for the customers to cross check whether a particular automobile dealer is registered with the company or not.

  Also, it would be very easy for your prospects to do the price comparisons. The better you communicate, the better are your chances of lead conversion which means more sales.

• Web page design
  Automobile dealers get a profound platform to talk about their services, inventory, offers etc. It is because only specific information is communicated to the prospects; mobile websites downloads faster as compared to the website for desktop or laptop. This enables the prospects to verify the authenticity the automobile dealer and ensure that the product is genuine.

  By providing the user specific information, the chances of flipping from one website to another are very grim.

• Website navigation
  Easy navigation of the mobile websites helps the mobile web browsers to search for a particular model of a car, particular color, company, design, price etc.

  The integration of necessary call-to-action on every page helps the prospects to ask for more details from the automobile dealers.

To conclude we can say that mobile websites can augment the online web presence of the automobile sector followed by increased sales.

So, ready to unleash the potential of the mobile medium? Please let us know if we can provide any assistance to you.

-By Neha Gulati

Property buying and selling used to be a tedious and time consuming affair until the advent of the internet which provides quick information to the web browsers. Now, you can get in touch with the real estate agents on the internet and need not wait for long hours to search for a property.

The recent development in technology has led to the evolution of mobile web marketing which is an endeavor to capture the mobile friendly audience by providing instant information to the users on their mobile sets only.

A website is designed keeping in mind the interests of the target audience. Similarly a website designed for real estate industry has to serve the interests of its target audience viz.:-

• Property buyers/property rentals
• Property sellers and
• Brokers/property agents

Now, let’s delve deeper and understand how mobile website for real estate can benefit each of its target public: -

Property buyers/ Property rentals

• Speedy information
  It is easier to get information from a mobile website as compared to a website built for desktop or laptop. As the mobile website loads faster, you can get quick details about a property or house on rent.For example: - property location, its dimensions, the cost, areas in the vicinity, contact details, road map etc.
• Easy access
  With the evolution of mobile web marketing, the web browsers now prefer to surf the internet on their mobile phones rather than on a desktop or a laptop. So, if in case you need urgent information about a property or need details about the rental cost of various houses/rooms put on rent in your locality, mobile phone websites can be very useful to you.

Property sellers

-Individual sellers/Construction companies

• First mover advantage
  Mobile web marketing is fairly a new and growing medium to maintain your brand identity and have a good brand recall amongst your audience.It is an effective platform to reach out to the mobile friendly target group.
• Portable device
  You can surf the internet while on the move with the help of a laptop as well but it is more convenient to carry a mobile phone and browse the web. As a mobi site property seller, you can stay connected to your buyers even when they are on the move.
• Wide exposure
  The expenditure on mobile marketing and advertising is increasing drastically. From approximately US$3.6 billion spent in 2009, it is expected that the mobile phone advertising expenditure will rise to around US$38 billion in 2015.Mobile phone advertising can prove to be very profitable for the property sellers who aspire to advertise their products/services effectively to a large group in a shorter span of time.
• Focused web marketing
  You can browse more than one website on a desktop or a laptop computer by opening different tabs on our computer whereas you cannot open more than one tab on your mobile handset.In other words we can say that there are more chances of lead conversion through a mobile site as compared to a website for desktop or laptop.

  Make your web page as simple as possible and present only the relevant information on your mobi site.

Property agents

• Effortless marketing
  You need not put in a lot of efforts to market about your services on a mobile website. Within seconds you can update about your latest offers and respond to the enquiries (if any).
• Dictate the market
  If you have the zeal to dominate your market and expand your business further, entering the mobile web era is need of the hour. Ensure that your buyers get the maximum exposure to your property listings in a minimum possible time.
• Get more leads
  Integrate a lead management system on your mobile phone website. Once a mobile web browser opens your mobile site, with the help of your lead management system you track the users’ contacts and catch more leads.

The aforesaid are some of the basic advantages of creating a mobile website for the real estate sector, however there can be numerous other points that may prove fruitful to your business. Please let us know if we can provide any assistance to you.

-By Neha Gulati

Till the end of 2009, around 530 million users used their mobile phones to surf the internet. Also, there were more than 450 million mobile internet users globally.

So how does all of this affect me?

We will start with focusing on the hospitality sector (we will also cover other business sectors too subsequently).

The hospitality sector is regarded as a billion dollar industry, basically consists of restaurants, hotels, food and beverage, entertainment and recreation, travel and tour industry etc.

In today’s fast paced economy when everybody is on the move, it is important for web marketers to provide relevant and quick information to their audience as the users may not necessarily be in front of a computer to book a ticket/room/table/meal.

Hence, the development of mobile websites is inevitable. The following points explain the advantages of developing mobile websites to plan your hospitality e-business strategies:-

• Quick browsing

  Mobile websites involves speedy navigation. Flipping from one web page to another is very fast. Also, these websites are light and easier to download, giving a quicker web browsing experience to the visitors.

• Quick information access

  Only relevant and important information is given on the mobile websites. Hence, you need not wait for a long time to get the desired information.

• Quick searching

  Information provided on mobile websites can prove to be handy when you are on the move and do not have time to book a ticket, reserve a table etc. In this case, you can easily search for a related website and get your reservation done.

• Quick results

  As soon as you book/reserve a room, ticket, table etc. you can expect an instant confirmation of your reservation through SMS or via e-mail.

Hope the above mentioned points help you plan an effective mobile marketing strategy for your hospitality e-business, mobile website for restaurants, mobile website for hotels etc.

As we know that mobile marketing is the emerging trend, it is predicted that, till 2017, there will be around 150 million mobile websites, which means that a new platform for the businesses to promote more about their services and create a brand identity.

Interested in getting mobile version of your website? Please let us know if we can provide any assistance to you.

-By Neha Gulati

• Search box
  Inserting a search box on your web pages provides convenience to the visitors to find the required information with ease. Merely incorporating the keywords in the text will not serve the purpose. It is also important to add useful information related to the key words/ key phrases that the visitors are searching for.

• Live chat box
  Integrating a live chat box on the website is gradually becoming need of the hour. It is an innovative way to enable interactivity between the website visitors and the site owners. This means that a website visitor can directly get in touch with the company in case of a query, to gather details about a product/service etc.

• Bookmark
  If a visitor likes some information on your site, he/she should be able to bookmark that particular page or may be bookmark your website for future reference. Also, your website visitors should be able to share that content on several platforms with the help of ‘Share With’ button.

• Latest news
  Updating the latest news about your company, new products/services, upcoming event, launch of a new product line etc. is able to retain the interests of the prospects.

• Images
  Adding images, illustrations, animation, Flash based elements and other such things, catches the attention of one and all.

• Discussion forums
  Depending on which sector you operate, your business objectives and the kind of target audience you have; you can include discussion forums on your website. With the help of discussion forums, your website visitors can share their thoughts and views on subjects of their choice.

• Other tools to attract visitors
  Other tools such as games, advertisements etc. keeps the visitors engaged. Social networking websites like: - Facebook allows its website visitors to play games, to advertise about themselves, their company, product/service etc.

• Special offers
  Depending on the past purchase record, some website owners provide special offers, discounts etc. to their regular customers.

• Grievances box
  Grievances/complaint box is an attempt to let the customers speak their mind. In this way, you provide a fair chance to all your customers to complaint against an unsatisfactory service, defected product, delayed delivery of the product/project etc. by just inserting name of the purchased item, receipt number and then filing the complaint.

• Blog
  Writing blog posts is an effective way of providing useful information to the target audience. As and when you update your blog posts, those who are interested in your write ups will keep reverting to your website. To ensure regular traffic to your website, integrate a blog subscription form on your website.

• Articles
  Article writing also aids in lead conversion as you can target the long tail key phrases in your articles. Short tail key words are targeted on all other pages of your website but long tail key phrases can be targeted here.

To sustain in this competitive world, it is necessary that the website owners invent new ways to engage the visitors to their website. The aforementioned are some of the useful tips that must be borne in mind to uphold the visitors’ interests.

-By Neha Gulati

Let’s have a quick glance at some of the recent findings and why we need a mobile friendly site:

• There are approximately over 700 million mobile users who surf the internet using their mobile phones.
• Mobile web surfing is increasing exponentially, and marketers now have to start focusing on their mobile web presence to build their brand image and brand preference amongst the prospects.
• According to another research, it has been observed that with the help of mobile phone web, now the customers like to research about a particular product before purchasing it.
• With the m-commerce (mobile commerce) on the rise, the in-store retailers are now expected to offer price comparisons to their customers on their handsets only.
• Also, the m-commerce customers can receive product reviews on their mobile devices.
• These mobile customers can also get discounts and promotions based on their purchases in the past.
• It is also noticed that banner ads on mobile phones are able to produce highest click-through rates and fairly good ad recall.
• Mobile display ads have more impact on the prospects than using other communication mediums like mobile videos and SMS.
• In a recent survey conducted, it has been found out that with the fast expansion of the mobile phones in Asian countries like India and China, 5 billionth mobile phone connections was made successful. And 50 million mobile users are from India and China alone.

With thousands of mobile users increasing everyday, the need for a mobile website design is on the rise.

However it should be noted that a website designed for mobile phones and the one designed for desktop computers vary. This is because of the following reasons:-

• Variation in dimensions
  The screen size of the mobile phones vary from one phone to another like 128 x 160 pixels, 176 x 220 pixels, 240 x 320 pixels and 320 x 480 pixels. Hence, it becomes difficult to develop a mobile website design that is flexible to run on different mobile handsets.

• Page Scroll
  Another important issue for a mobile websites design is that a mobile phone does not involve the use of mouse. So, it becomes difficult for the user to flip from one page to another. Since, the user can only scroll up and down so only the most important information should be displayed on the screen. And the site should be designed in a manner that it fits to all screen sizes. (A mobile page has the maximum limit of 20 kb)

• Target audience’s web browsing habits
  Web design for mobile devices is a challenge for the web developers. This is because; a mobile website design includes very crisp and essential information. You need to understand the psychology and the browsing habits of your mobile websites users and accordingly design your mobile website. The reason behind this is that the mobile websites users are mostly on the move when they surf the Internet.

• Provide radio buttons on your mobile websites design
  A user cannot write text in the mobile websites. Therefore, the provision of radio buttons in the mobile websites design is a must.

• Images used
  Only jpeg or gif format images should be used in mobile websites, if at all need be, else they should be avoided to keep the page light.

• Navigation
  Several mobile devices are not equipped with back buttons, so for the convenience of the users back buttons and other essential links must be provided.

Below is a screenshot of Magnon International’s web design for mobiles, an example to better understand how a mobile website looks like:

Having understood the difference between a website designed for the web and for a mobile device, let us find out how to create a web design for mobile devices:-

• What markup language is to be used?
  • WML
    WML or Wireless Markup Language is an XML markup language that was used to surf the WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) sites. If your target group comprises of people possessing low-end mobile devices, then WML is the best option.

  • XHTML
    Mobile phones these days can understand both XHTML and XHTML-MP; here MP refers to Mobile Profile. To suit the mobile screen dimensions, XHTML-MP involves fewer elements as compared to XHTML used for desktop websites. Though there may not be any highlighting difference in writing XHTML and XHTML-MP.

• Selecting a domain name
  Choose a sub-domain name for your mobile website design so as to distinguish between your mobile website and your desktop site. You can use the word ‘mobile’ or the letter ‘m’ in the beginning or at the end of your website’s URL like- the mobile version of a website http://example.org can be created by writing- http://example.org/mobile or http://m.example.org

From the aforesaid we conclude that the ever-increasing mobile web surfing has given a new platform to the web marketers to expand their market niche and thus widen their profit sharing margins…

Though you can convert your existing website to run on mobile phones but mobile website development requires professional expertise. At Magnon International, we offer mobile website design service as well. Please let us know if we can provide any assistance to you…

-By Neha Gulati

Logo design is one of the most important elements in website designing. It is more like establishing the visual identity of the company in front of both the internal as well as the external public which aids in brand building.

Let us try and understand some of the essential points while deciding the kind of a logo design a website should have:-

• The web logo is very different from a print logo - you can have an animated logo for your website by adding graphics and movement to it.
  For example, a rotating globe, a twinkling star etc. are all examples of graphics and animation designs which is a possibility on the web, not on print.

• The color combination is also an important aspect of creating your website logo since every color conveys a specific meaning.
  (You can read about this on a previously covered topic called Significance of Colors in Website Designing)

Though we can incorporate Flash based elements and animation to the website logo design but it is observed that most of the web marketers prefer to keep their website logo simple so that the prospects can easily recall and identify the company by looking at it and it is amongst the first things to download on the site.

As we know that the basic purpose of every design is to build a brand image, so there are mainly two kinds of designs elements to establish the brand identity:-

• Graphical logo design
  Besides using graphics and animations, a graphical logo design of a website may include text with the company’s name, an alphabet or any kind of symbol that best establishes the brand image.

  Below is the screen shot of a graphical logo design:

This is the logo for Magnon International. The two circles positioned after the words Magnon International represent the ever evolving and fast paced IT sector. Here, Red color used in the word ‘International’ signifies passion, power, strength and speed; Orange color used in the two circles signify enthusiasm, balance and energy.

• Favicon
  Favicon is basically a short form of favorite icon. It is also called a website icon, bookmark icon, URL icon or shortcut icon. Favicons are generally placed on a webpage or on a website in the address bar. It can also be installed besides the website’s name in the bookmark list.

  A favicon is usually available in 16×16 pixel square icon.

  The screen shot below is an example of a favicon and how we can use it:

In this screen shot you can see how we have used our favicon i.e. ‘MI’ just next to the address bar.

Therefore, we can say that a logo is designed so that the target public can identify your company better. The decision on the nature of the logo largely depends on what the logo will communicate.

However, a lot of time, research and thought is required to select the best logo design that best communicates your aspirations and branding.

Do let us know if we can help you design your web logo…

-By Neha Gulati

Due to the difference in the dimensions, a website compatible with desktop computers/mobiles is not compatible with an iPad. This means that you would need to get yourself an iPad version of the website.

Meant for the consumption media, the iPad helps you access your emails, surf the web, play games, watch movies, listen to songs, read books or periodicals etc. It uses Safari (Mac OS X or Windows) as its main browser and Wi-Fi or 3G mobile data connection to browse the Internet.

So, how does the iPad impact us?

• The iPad has seen some ground breaking sales ever since its launch, essentially implying an huge increase in the number of people who may probably use the handy device for web browsing.
• Also, it has been said that by July 2010, iPads will be sold in nine more countries – again an increase in the number if probably users who will browse the web using the iPad.
• It has been observed that till date Apple is selling more iPads than the Macs. And the sale of the iPads is expected to rise.
• Last but not the least if your target public comprises of the tech savvy affluent class, then getting your website compatible with the iPad is a must.

Interested in getting your site iPad compatible? Consider the following points:-

• Optimize your mobile website to be compatible with the iPad:

  A website designed particularly for a mobile is unable to provide the same user experience. This is due to the fact that the iPad’s screen is much larger in size as compared to that of a mobile.

• Page Layout and Formatting:

  As we know that the iPad has the characteristic of landscape and portrait mode, do not use fixed elements on a web page as in the case of a website built for desktop computers. You cannot re-size your browser window in the iPad.

• Navigation of web pages on the iPad:

  Page navigation is an important aspect to be kept in mind while optimizing your website for the iPad. This is because of the finger touch feature of the iPad wherein for a simple copy-paste function; you just need to hold your finger and drag in the downward direction of the screen.

• iPads do not support Flash:

  To make your site compatible with the iPad, avoid using Flash as it does not support Flash instead use HTML5 and CSS3. This implies that either you will have to alter the Flash based elements into HTML5 or delete such elements manually.

We do hope that this gives you a broad idea of how to go about it, however, please feel free to connect with us if you would like us to assist you on this.

-By Neha Gulati

Recently the beta version of HTML5 has been launched. The full version is due in late 2010.

What is HTML5?

HTML5 is the latest version of HTML and XHTML. It comes up with a number of features like drag and drop, multimedia, video playback, APIs, form control etc.

What are the benefits of HTML5?

• HTML5 brings in new elements to structure the web pages as compared to HTML4 which uses common structures such as: - header, columns etc.

• These new elements are: header, nav, section, article, aside, and footer.

• Now, each of these elements serves a unique purpose:-
  • ‘header’ denotes the inclusion of heading, sub headings etc. which is more specific.
  • ‘nav’ signifies both the website navigation as well as the navigation of the table of contents.
  • ‘section’ element corresponds to a broad category of a web page.
  • ‘article’ element symbolizes a particular section of web page such as: blog, news, testimonials etc.
  • ‘aside’ element is used to include the content that may relate to a specific section of a document or a web page.
  • ‘footer’ element is used to indicate important information like copyright data, the author’s name, links to other pages etc.
• HTML5 brings a whole new dimension to web world. It can embed video on web-pages without using any special software like Flash.

• Not only videos, HTML5 is said to be capable of playing video games on the browser itself (8-bit games have been tried on it).

• Besides this, HTML5 is considered to be flexible to handle inaccurate syntax. HTML5 specifies the rules related to the parsing and lexing as compared to HTML4. This means that even if there is an incorrect syntax, similar result is produced by various complaint browsers.

• Furthermore, HTML5 denotes to scripting of API (application programming interfaces) including new APIs like:-
  • Drag and drop
  • Database storage offline
  • Editing of the document
  • Canvas 2D APIs, etc.

Now, let us understand the basic differences between HTML4 and HTML5:-

• HTML4 supports the ‘tag soup’ i.e. the ability to inscribe malformed code and get them accurately on the document. But there are no written rules or guidelines for doing this. This implies that malformed documents are to be tested on various browsers.

• To tackle this issue, HTML5 is being developed in such a way so that the developers need not waste their time and efforts in creating an error free web page.

• Unlike its predecessor, HTML5 also includes many new tags and also new names for older tags with extra features like: local storage wherein a lot of information can be stored, JS-based hacks or Flash, validation form etc. so as to make the applications easy for the developers and speedier for the users.

There are always two sides of a coin and this is one side of it…

-By Neha Gulati

Sometimes referred to as the landing page, the homepage of a website is like the preface of a book. There are some attributes that the homepage needs to have, however, what is more important, and what we would like to focus on in this article, is some of the important parameters that you need to keep in mind while visualizing the homepage of your own business.

What should be on your homepage?

- It should show your visitors who you are.
- It should show what your visitors can find useful on your site.
- It should inspire your visitors to read more on your site or to buy your product.
- It should also allow your visitors navigate to other sections of your site easily.

This can be answered by a couple of very simple questions:

1. What does the company do?
2. How many different sets of people are going to view the website?
3. What are the different sections of my homepage?

So, let’s start by analyzing each of those questions and getting answers:

1. What does the company do?
Here, you need to define whether it is a product selling or service providing company.

For example:-
- If it’s a service providing company, then the basic aim is to promote the services.

- If it’s an e-commerce website, then the products are your main highlights.

- If it’s a manufacturing firm, then it would like to showcase the products, services, delivery capacity, quality standards etc.

2. How many different sets of people are going to view the website?
This question largely depends on:

- The geographical location of the target audience.
- The demography of the target audience.
- The age group to which your target group belongs.
- And their psychology.

This segregation will also help you define several other things such as:
- Which colors to use?
- The preferred arrangement of different sections on the homepage.
- Component of flash on the homepage.
- The selection of the relevant content on the homepage etc.

For example: -
- Based on your industry, you need to identify your target group like:  customers, prospective customers, vendors, employees, prospective employees, etc. Once you have identified such categories of people, it will be easier for you to understand what needs to be shown on the homepage first.

- Also, according to the age group, the geographic location, demography etc. select the colors for your website like: a person belonging to an age group of 50-60 settled in the USA may prefer subtle colors like shades of grey, white etc. vis-à-vis an individual belonging to an age group of 18-25 who would like more vibrant colors like: red, yellow, blue, orange etc.

- Furthermore, color scheme also depends on your company objectives as well as the design and the color of the company logo. (For detailed information on this, please refer- http://blog.magnoninternational.com/significance-of-colors-in-website-designing/)

- If your target audience ranges from 18-25, then there should be infotainment based content.

- The decision regarding the different sections on the homepage is based on your sphere of working and then on the preference of your TA.

3. What are the different sections of my homepage?
Depending on your area of working and keeping in mind the objectives of your website, jot down the essential points that should be considered as the important sections of your homepage.

For example: - if you are service provider, then the main sections of your homepage are: About Us, Services, Clients, Testimonials, Contact Us form, Portfolio and Site Map.

These are the three most crucial questions that you must answer to figure out the perfect ingredients for your website homepage. Hence, we can say that the success of your business depends on your website and the success of your website is directly proportional to ability of your homepage in lead/s conversion.

-By Neha Gulati

Well, here are some important points that we have gathered together to help in making our Google AdWords campaign more successful.

• Keywords
  Keywords are the crux around which your entire ad campaign revolves. The success of your ad depends on the quality of keywords/phrases selected.
  • Make an initial keywords list
    Categorize the products and services you offer and then list out some of the important keywords under each category. Use singular and plurals as well. For example: - for internet marketing service, you can use keywords like internet marketing promotion, search engine marketing etc.; for web designing service, you can use keywords like affordable web design, web designing company etc.

  • Avoid using generic keywords/phrases
    Do not use generic keywords as far as possible. In case of unavoidable circumstances, combine the keywords to make a key phrase relevant to your business/ad. Try using theme based keywords like: - for a web designing service, you can use web designing company, business web design, Flash web design etc.

  • Category based keywords
    Make a separate ad for each category of product/service. And thus, choose keywords that represent each category individually.

• Landing Page
  The ultimate aim of every ad campaign is lead conversion to increase sales. However, to capture the interest of the user, it is essential to have a carefully designed landing page that gives the user the relevant information – a poorly constructed landing page hampers the success of your ad campaign.Below mentioned are some basic guidelines for a good landing page:
  • Your landing page should relate to the keywords used in the ad.
  • The landing page has to provide the relevant information only as per the ad campaign.
  • The page should have some call-to-action like: - contact us form, subscription form etc. so that the prospects get various options to follow up.

• Cost-per-click (CPC)
  CPC bid is basically the amount that you decide to pay for every click on your ad. You will need to bid for the keyword/s chosen and also select the position that you would want to be on. Generally, the higher CPC bid you have the better is the positioning of ad. The maximum amount that you decide to pay for every click is termed as maximum CPC.

• Click-through rate (CTR)
  Click-through rate (CTR) is measured as the number of clicks you receive on your AdWords ad. The higher the CTR, the better is the ROI (provided that you have a successful ad campaign). In simple terms, CTR is the number of times a visitor clicks a particular ad. CTR is calculated as-

  CTR=Number of clicks/ Number of times a visitor is exposed to that ad

  Apart from your ad CTR, there is a need to measure your keyword CTR as well. Keyword CTR signify the importance of the chosen keyword/s used in the ad.

• Return on Investment (ROI)
  To measure the effectiveness of your ad campaign, it is essential to evaluate its Return on Investment (ROI). ROI is the ratio of the money spent on advertising and the profits earned in return. ROI depends on your specific advertising objectives such as: - more user traffic on the website, increase in the subscription requests, purchase of a product/service etc. You can enhance your ROI by bidding for those keywords that help you earn more revenue.

There are numerous points that should be considered for a powerful Google AdWords campaign, the abovementioned are some of the most basic ones that should be kept in mind.

-By Neha Gulati

Let us have a quick glance at some of the important points to be kept in mind while planning a basic Quality Assurance (QA) process/ Quality Policy.

• Before commencing a web project, ask yourself four very important questions:
  
  • What are the features of the website?
  • How to design a website so that it highlights the features in an effective way?
  • How to code every feature and test every unit?
  • How to test the website before delivering it to the end customer?

• Develop a successful System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) process. SDLC basically means a process which is used to build an information system which includes the validation, requirements, user ownership and training. Your SDLC process should include the following steps:
  • Figure out your budget and evaluate whether the project is feasible or not?
  • Analyze and design the website according to the business requirements of the company.
  • Translate the design into coding using a number of programming tools like Pascal, C, C++ etc.
  • Next step is to test the website coding like unit testing, user acceptance testing, system testing etc.
  • The project should be well equipped to accommodate any changes after it is delivered to the customer.

• Some of the major features of quality testing consists of:-
  • Testing Functionality:
    Functionality testing ensures that the project correctly conform the required functions. This means checking and testing the project for its accuracy.

  • Compatibility Testing:
    The web project should comply with W3C standards, should be compatible to work on different search engines and should be able to work on various Operating Systems, browsers and hardware.

  • Testing for Performance:
    Performance testing involves testing the project on the basis of its response time, loading speed, availability etc.

  • Testing for Usability:
    User Acceptance Testing (UAT) ensures that the project is tested according to the business requirement/s of the customer.

In order to identify any limitation or weakness, it is necessary to incorporate the QA processes during the performance testing stage. Once the product (website) is launched, it sets an image in the minds of the customers. And if there is any defect in it, then all the efforts go waste which leads to dearth in revenue and loss of customers. Also, a bigger project calls for a systematized process of quality testing.

The aforesaid are some of the essential points to be considered as a part of your quality testing policy that can boost the overall competence of your project.

-By Neha Gulati

Here we try and dwell deeper into what one way links are, their importance and impacts on the rankings on a website.

To clarify and get a dictionary definition in place, one way links are the links placed on your website without any reciprocal link (or links linking back to a site) from your website. It is also termed as inbound or incoming link.

On the other hand, reciprocal link exchange means two or a three way link exchange wherein two or more parties mutually agree to place each other’s website links on their respective websites. This will also help you boost the number of back links.

Both one way links and reciprocal links have their own pros and cons but on the whole one way link exchange is considered as a better option. This is because:-

• One way links related to your business, is one of the most important factors to improve the link popularity – an important ranking parameter.
• You can get direct traffic to your site.
• Usually it is observed that if you write an informational content that attracts the people, they link back to your website. It implies that the people have found your website helpful and valuable so much so that they decide to spread a word around.

So having understood the relevant importance of one way links, how do we go about getting one way links to our websites?

• People can only link back your website to their site if they find the content on your site relevant to their area of interest.
• If your website is linked back to those websites that have good page rank, then it also affects your page rank positively.
• Look for the websites that are related to your business area and get your articles published there. For example: - if you are a web solutions provider and you notice something interesting and noteworthy on other related sites like www.magnoninternational.com, you can link www.magnoninternational.com on your company’s website.
• Share your articles with other websites. Encourage other websites to publish your articles linking back to your own site.
• Develop your blog and submit it on different blog directories.
• Before contributing to any forum, make sure that the forum does not have ‘nofollow’ tag in the HTML coding of the page. The sites that are earmarked as nofollow are not applicable to get any page rank.For example: - if you wish to put the nofollow tag on www.example.com, you first need to find out a key word from that site and then use the below mentioned HTML tag. No search engine crawler would neither crawl that key word (in this case the chosen key word is SEO) nor the website. There are several conditions that the search engines consider with regards to the nofollow tag.

  <a href=”http://www.example.com” rel=”nofollow”>seo</a>

• Beware of the bad neighborhood attribute. (Bad neighborhood means when your site link is placed on unrelated websites. For example:- if you are a web solutions company and your website link is placed on manufacturing site, then this is referred to bad neighborhood.)
• Write news releases on a regular basis and submit them to the online news wires and the sites which are related to the subject matter.
• You can also become a part of some business associations that enlist its members’ websites on the Internet.
• Do the directory submissions on directories like Yahoo etc.

Therefore, one way links can really boost user traffic on your website and hence, improved page rank.

However, there are some inherent drawbacks to access one way link exchange programs. What we have mentioned here are some of the broad guidelines that need to be kept in mind. For further details on this, it is always advisable to consult an expert.

-By Neha Gulati

So, what is a bounce rate?

Bounce Rate is defined as the percentage of visitor/s who navigates away from the website. It is a calculation of the number of people who visited only the landing page of the website without exploring it further.

Hence, a bounce rate is calculated as:-

Bounce Rate = Number of visitors visiting a single page (landing page)  / Total number of website visits

This means the lower the bounce rate of a website, the better the conversion rate.

The bounce rate of a website needs to be kept as low as possible. There is no defined parameter of ‘what a good bounce rate is’, but the inherent understanding is that the higher the bounce rate, the lower the ability of the website to sustain the interest of the users.

How can we reduce the bounce rate?

• Content quality
  The content should be unique, relevant and keyword rich. Also, the length of the content should not be too long as it will distract the visitors’ attention.
• Website loading time
  There is no defined standard for a website loading time. However, it needs to be kept to the minimum as we all understand that a visitor would navigate away from a website that takes time to download.
• Appealing page designs
  Design the page keeping in mind the target audience as well as the objectives to be achieved.
• Interlinking
  Interlink each keyword and every page internally so that the users need not look for information on other sites.
• Use the key words with caution
  In order to make your website SEO friendly, do not use the keywords in excess.

Therefore, it can be concluded that lowering the bounce rate of a website is an important criterion to maximize the conversion rate.

-By Neha Gulati

In such a situation, the best option is to replace the existing site or the current web pages with the new ones while maintaining the existing search engine ranking.

The 301 redirect exactly do this.

Now, what is 301 redirect?

Well, the 301 redirect is a permanent redirect option that basically redirects the search engines as well as the users from the old pages to the new pages.

When 301 redirect is needed?

• When you have a number of domain names of your website, the search engine ranking gets divided between all these pages. So, it is always wise to use 301 redirect to redirect the old web pages or the previous domain names with the new ones.
• When you want to remove any sort of confusion caused as a result of two similar looking web pages.
• When you decide to use the latest technology like upgrading the site to .net (ASPX) or to WordPress.

Is 301 redirect beneficial from SEO point of view?

Once you redirect your old page with the new one, you get the benefit of reduced bounce rate which means that you’ll get better conversion rates. This is because your new web page gets the search engine ranking of the old page followed by enhanced user experience.

Hence, the 301 redirect helps you to boost your search engine rankings by replacing the present web pages with the improved and modified pages.

-By Neha Gulati

Social Influence Marketing basically means targeting the entire community in your social network. It involves using different social platforms to develop healthy relationship between you and your potential audience.

It is noticed that the target public is exposed to the advertising clutter and the consumers are bombarded with numerous advertisements. This is the stage where customers have to decide what brand of a particular product line they should go for. In such cases, word-of-mouth acts like a catalyst to woo these targets.

As a web marketer you may come across various customers who purchase your products and are happy using it. Now, out of all these satisfied customers there may be some customers who are spreading a word of appreciation for your brand, product or service.

You need to identify those few customers and use them as your key influencers to create a buzz for your product or service.

Social Media Influencers also known as the Opinion Leaders are the key people who have great ability to influence the buying habits of your potential targets.

These social media influencers can be the satisfied or unsatisfied customers who prefer to share their experience of using a product or service with their peers, family etc. You need to identify them on the basis of their behavior rather than their demography. This means that these people have an attractive social networking behavior like that of the college students, the teens etc.

It is a common tendency that before purchasing a particular product, we tend to know its reviews. These reviews help us make the decision of buying or not buying that product.

Can the Social Media Influencers really affect your sales?

• Yes, the social media influencers can really affect your sales. It is because these people have a knack of participating in a number of conversations on various platforms like blogs, various discussion forums, direct mails, Twitter, Facebook etc.
• Personal interaction works. Social media influencer act as a marketing person for the company (in disguise) and a well wisher for the general target audience of the company.

Also, the web marketers use several tactics to retain these social media influencers. For example: - discounted rates, coupons, vouchers, free trips etc.

Therefore, to conclude we can say that personal interaction and human touch can really help you boost your sales. Thus, the use of social media influencers as a part of your social influence marketing strategy is the need of the hour.

-By Neha Gulati

As the name suggests, microsite is a mini website meant to support the main website.

Purpose

The basic purpose of creating a microsite is that you can provide detailed information about a product or a service that may not be present in the content page of the website.

Benefits and Use

• Using specific keywords in the microsites can help you promoting your website on search engines.
• The microsites can also be used to carry the PPC campaigns as you can focus on a particular product or service.
• If a company has a website developed in English language and in order to expand its market, it decides to reach out to the potential target speaking a language other than English, then that company can compile all the important details of their main website in a few pages in the form of microsite. Company can develop a microsite in different languages for example Spanish, Italian, French, etc. These pages would be linked to the home page of the main website.

Multiple domains

Hosting of many websites on one account only is known as multiple domain hosting.

Purpose

The web marketers purchase several domain names by paying a single time fees to the web hosting companies. The main aim is to have different domain names for each of the microsite created by you. The reason behind this is that the microsites are able to attract more users followed by more sales.

Benefits and Use

• There is only one time investment.
• Multiple domains like .uk, .com, .co.in etc. help you to market your goods or services in the specific countries where you want to expand your business.

Single website

The third option is to develop a single website which is your prime website. Here, you can add a few pages giving an in depth information about the new products, services etc.

Purpose

By designing a single website, you will be able to attract the quality traffic on your main website.

Benefits and Use

• The more links that you’ll have in your main website, the more helpful it will be, in terms of the search engine rankings.
• You can add a few pages describing the USPs of your products and services, details about the country specific products or services etc.

Therefore, depending upon your budget and the requirement you can create microsites or purchase several domain names or you can even endorse about the area specific products/services on the main website of your company.

-By Neha Gulati

It is observed that most of the email marketers waste a lot of their precious time thinking only about the things such as:-

• The length of the email
• Effective words that should not be considered SPAM
• The most relevant time to shoot the email etc.

It is time to think beyond these things and use more efficient tactics of email marketing 2.0 for growth of your business.

Now, what is email marketing 2.0?

Well, email marketing 2.0 is basically an extension of the basic email marketing. The email marketing 2.0 uses the best opt-in list, CAN-SPAM compliance etc., combined with the appropriate content to give a touch of personalization to its users.

In other words, email marketing 2.0 is all about personalized emails, trust and sending relevant messages to the right people.

This can be done by:-

• Automatic follow up
  Automate the process of sending the emails to a plethora of contacts.

• Multi media campaign
  Launch multi media campaigns like sending a post card to the customers accompanied by an email to inform your contacts about an upcoming event, sending gifts and letters or may be a voice message to the new customers to thank them for buying your product or availing a service.

• Use customer database (CRM) in your email marketing 2.0
  This technique helps you to extract the data that you might have gathered about all your contacts. It is the best alternative to the manual search of the contacts’ data.

Apart from all these methods, the email marketers should consider the following points in mind for a successful email marketing campaign:-

• Send the email only to the interested target group
  Do not send the email to every person in your contact list. Analyze the interests of your target public depending on factors such as name, age, marital status, location, gender etc.

• Stay in touch with your target group
  Once you convert a lead into a customer, make efforts to build long term relationships with such customers. Send email on a regular basis, send newsletters, offer them free reports and make all efforts to follow up with all your customers.

• Use multi media along with the emails
  Make your customers feel wanted. Treat them in a way so that they find themselves very special. Send e-cards, discount coupons etc. to your customers so as to give them special treatment.

Therefore to conclude we can say that the concepts used in email marketing 2.0 can prove to be very helpful for the significant growth of your business.

-By Neha Gulati

Hence, it is imperative to use various modes of communication other than your basic one. In this article, we shall be discussing about the various tools that can be used to optimize the digital sales network.

• Offer special discounts

  Offering special discounts is a great way to lure the customers. Generally, this practice is followed to arouse the interest and curiosity of the buyers towards the products or the services. The voucher codes used during the check out process is a commonly used tool. It’s like giving an incentive to your buyers and to hold your customers for the future. Also, it is noticed that the companies have started using cookies to keep a tab on the display of the voucher code box. A cookie is basically a small amount of information, stored by a web browser on a user’s computer.This helps the companies to track the traffic, the sale of the products etc. And if you feel that at a particular stage, there is a dearth in the user traffic, then you can give the discounts accordingly.

• The Landing Pages

  The landing page basically evaluates how effective an advertising campaign is depending on the click through rate. In order to optimize the conversion, make sure that the user need not navigate from one page to another to know about your services and other relevant details.The better your website’s conversion rates, the more efficiently you would be able to monetize the traffic that the search engines provide to you.

• The Payment Models

  In order to avail the full value of your money, you have to closely monitor the payment models that you adopt.

  1. Cost Per Action (CPA)
     The Cost Per Action (CPA), Cost Per Acquisition or the Pay Per Action (PPA) tracking is directly related to your sales. It basically means that when the advertiser gets the desired action for his advertisement like sale of a product/service, submission of a form etc., the advertiser has to pay the search engines for that particular action. To be precise, if your target public reacts to advertisement in a way that you wanted, then only you are required to pay the search engines.
  2. Post Impression (PI) sales tracking
     The Post Impression sales add a long term conversion value to your entire sales process. When the advertisement is shown and the buyer purchases a product or avail a service without clicking your advertisement, then only the PI sale is calculated.This method helps you expose the USP of your product/service to the potential buyers and enhance the user traffic to your website.

Therefore, the above mentioned tools if used correctly can become a very important medium to reach out to the potential audience and can help you optimize your sales distribution network.

-By Neha Gulati

The following is a list of some of the major types of hacking that can harm the security of the website:-

1. Trojan Horses
   Trojan Horses are basically the hacked softwares that are attached to the other programs and once these programs are downloaded, the Trojan Horse gets activated. The hacker can control the computer with the help of this software.

2. Internal Hacking
   Often the companies have to face problems when some of the employees of that company pose serious threat to the security of their website by hacking it. These password thefts can damage the company’s site.

3. Rogue Access Points
   Rogue access points are the wireless access points that can damage the company’s secure network. This means that any employee can install the rouge access points and can enter the company’s secure network.

4. Bugs and Viruses
   The bugs, viruses and worms interrupt the smooth running of the system with the help of uncontrolled and fake traffic through the e-mails.

5. Denial of Service
   The Denial of Service (DoS) spreads bogus traffic in the form of e-mails or the Transmission Control Protocols and can destruct the network without having any internal access.

In addition to this, the Distributed DoSs (DDoS5) are basically the DoS attacks which use multiple and changing IP address sources.

It is very difficult to prevent the website hacking especially if a company does have enough resources to invest in the security of its website. But on the other hand, there can be some essential things that can help you prevent website hacking.

Below, you will find a check list that may prove to be very useful to prevent your website from being hacked:-

• Well trained staff
  The employees should be trained properly to prevent hacking. Those employees who are engaged in hacking should be liable to strict punishments.This cannot really help you in protecting your website from the external threats; still you can protect your website internally to a far extent.
  
  
• Advanced website scripts
  In order to shut the security holes, the latest and the most secured version of softwares should be used. Thus, it is advisable to stay up to date and invent the possible ways to prevent the website hacking.

• Use strong passwords
  For ensuring the security of your system, make sure that you use strong passwords and change them on a regular basis.

• Use the Anti Virus
  Make sure that you use the Anti Virus Software and scan your computer for viruses frequently.

• Software from unknown sites
  It is dangerous to download and install softwares from unknown websites.

At the end we can say that, the more there are technological developments, the more there will be security threats to your websites. It is always better to prevent the hackers to hamper the security of your websites than to wait for them to damage your websites completely.

-By Neha Gulati

This is obviously a very relevant question you ask. With loads of companies offering (or claiming to offer) guaranteed results, it becomes very difficult to choose the right SEO/SEM consultant.

Let me try and give you a quick checklist -

1. SEO (Organic Listings) has to have a long term strategy. Acting on impulse or making quick changes here and there or having the feeling that you are a few days behind means you are being misled. Any company talking you through a long term strategy is a good company to work with. Delve deeper with this company on the entire strategy, say an annual plan of action.
2. A company giving you a plan for the next 3 months only, is a big no no.. Your site being on top, is only going to be there because of a whole lot of work that goes into the site constantly. The constant activities include a whole bunch of off page work as well.
3. Somebody who comes to you promising the best keywords (say from your PPC campaigns) within a short duration of time is jumping the gun. Usually a site has to be on top on Long Tail keywords first, which grows organic traffic on the site which helps the site to further move up on Short tail keywords.
4. There are a host of companies just offering link building or link exchange services. Remember these don’t work in isolation. An ideal blend of the service has to be the right website optimization (called On Page Optimization) and healthy (read moderate) increase of back links month over month.
5. Know if the company has html and programming skills in-house. You will otherwise be caught in the crossfire between your web designer/developer and the SEO consultant. Ideally the company undertaking the SEO service should be able to modify and optimize code themselves. The chances of getting sandwiched between two sets of people, is very high which can end up being very painful.
6. A company not linking payments to performances is obviously a big no. There are some fixed costs that are incurred initially, but after that make sure your payment plan is linked with clear performance parameters which should be pre-decided.
7. A consultant or an organization that is claiming to give you a certain ROI right from the beginning is hiding something. You need to be careful about being misled, as SEO has to be planned on a long term basis and should not be treated equivalent to running a pay per click campaign.

All the very best for your ‘search’!

-By Vivek Merani

Every individual has a distinct personality; likewise every website is unique in its own way. These websites reflects the identity of a corporate entity or any other company or an organization.

Hence, it is very important to design the company’s website in a way that is not only able to grab the viewers’ attention but is also able to evolve and hold the viewers’ interest and persuade the viewers to at least try the product or service once.

In this whole process, colors play an essential role. Colors are a very powerful weapon.

• Colors can effectively communicate the message of the sender to the receiver
• Colors can provoke
• Colors can tranquilize
• Colors can antagonize
• Colors can cheer you
• Colors have a strong retention power on the viewer’s mind etc.

Ok, so having understood the importance of colors and what they stand for, let’s try and understand the relevance to the online medium.

• Define the demography and psychology of the target audience and communicate this to the designer.
• Too many colors on a single page must be avoided, unless it is the need of the hour and is an unavoidable circumstance.
• The color of the logo and the background color should be balanced.
• The web designers must also maintain the rhythm and harmony of all the elements of the website.
• Generally the background should be white and the text should be black in color as it easy to read on a light background.

Moreover, due to the technological advancements, a website designer is now able create millions of color shades (hues) on his/her computer screen.

Every color has something to say. For example:-

• White color signifies purity, truthfulness etc.
• Red color signifies passion, energy, confidence etc.
• Blue color signifies loyalty, wisdom etc.

Take for an instance, colors generally used in the Real Estate websites are brown, green, white and blue.

Here, White denotes the corporate identity.

Green denotes the greenery on the earth.

And since the house/property is over the earth and under the sky, so Brown and Blue colors are respectively used to justify the mood.

For education based websites, generally white and blue colors are used. It is because white is a sign of purity and blue is a very soothing color and it also signifies wisdom.

Very light colors are used in e-commerce websites. The reason for this is that since there are a number of visitors to these sites everyday, so simple and soothing colors are used to relax the mood and the focal length of the visitor’s eyes. This implies that harsh colors that may strain the eyes are normally avoided.

To understand this better, take a look at the screen shots below:

This is a screen shot of our own company’s website. As you can see that there is a tremendous use of red color in our website, this is because the logo contains the red color, so we have used this color in whole website. Also, since the color red signifies passion, confidence, energy and strength; so we have incorporated this color in our website.

This is a screen shot of a website we have done. Since, the company’s logo is orange, so we have used orange and green colors because orange resembles the fruit and green signifies the color of its leaves. The color white and the hue of grey color are used to highlight the corporate identity of the company.

Therefore, we can conclude that colors have a lasting impression on the minds of the people and are one of the most significant elements of website designing.

-By Neha Gulati

Recently, I was just learning about the different approaches used by the web marketers to woo the customers and it was then that I realized that there is a lot of buzz about the personalization and customization on the web.

Now, what is personalization?

Personalization basically means providing user specific data or information. The websites can be personalized depending upon two things:-

• Implicit personalization wherein the customers’ likes, dislikes, behavior, habits, time spent in viewing a particular type of page etc. is the main factor. This means that based on these factors, the web marketers serve the desired information platter to their customers.
• Explicit personalization, where the information is collected from the forms and questionnaires filled by the customers during the registration process.

This is a screen shot of iGoogle. When you sign in your gmail account and search for news, apart from the general news, Google recommends specific news to its gmail users based on the web search history of each and every user i.e. the genre of news that the user reads like sports news, sci-fi etc.

What is customization?

Customization means the ability with which the users can make some amendments in the page layout or change the look of the web page as per their needs.

This screen shot is an example of customizing the web where Facebook users can customize their business pages according to their choice.

From the above mentioned explanation, we can derive that:-

• Personalization depends on the interests and behavior of a single individual.
• Whereas, customization is based on the interests of a group of people or we can say that it depends on behavior, attitudes etc. of like minded people.

Thus, both personalization and customization go hand in hand. Since, the marketers are stressing on both personalizing as well as customizing the web, there is only a hair line difference between the two terms. The basic motive is to involve the users and to enhance their online experience.

I am sure you too have something to say, please feel free to share your thoughts on this.

-By Neha Gulati

You would notice that we have been speaking and writing about Social Media Optimisation, its importance in the present business scenario, how to go about it etc. But we have not addressed some of the most important questions that crop up in the minds of a marketer; how do I calculate the return on investment from a Social Media Optimisation campaign?

Before we do that though, let’s do a quick recap on what SMO is all about.

Below is a Wiki definition of SMO: Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for attracting visitors to website content by promoting and publicizing it through social media.

And Social Media is thereafter defined as:

Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques.

Activities part of SMO:

• Social media features added to the content itself, including: RSS feeds, social news and sharing buttons, user rating and polling tools, and incorporating third-party community functionalities like images and videos.

• Promotional activities in social media aside from the content being promoted, including: blogging, commenting on other blogs, participating in discussion groups, and posting status updates on social networking profiles.

Ok, so now having that in perspective, let’s try understand some parameters to help assess the impact of SMO on your web presence. You would realize that making an SMO activity tangible is fairly straight forward, since we can define numbers for each activity e.g. the number of blog submissions, the number of group creations, the number of updates on groups, the number of discussions and comments, etc. But how do we calculate the results?

We have put some points together as below:

1. Traffic on the site: There are several tools available that can help you understand the traffic coming to the site. Our personal preference goes to the Google Analytics tool that helps understand the source of traffic coming to your website. Take a look at the screen shot below. Here is an analysis of the above screen:
   • Total Traffic on the site = 852 Visitors
   • Total Traffic from referring sites (sites which bring users to our site) = 330 Visitors
   • Total % of traffic from referring sites = 48% of total traffic
   • Total traffic from SMO (Linkedin, Facebook) = 226 Visitors
   • Total % of traffic from SMO = 26%

2. Number of Unique Visitors: This would perhaps be one of the most important factors in defining the effectiveness of the campaign. The more the number of unique visitors on your site, the more effective is the campaign.Lets again take an example below:From the screen shot, you would see that 80% of the total visitors are absolute new visitors. It is quite safe to assume that this increase is because of the ongoing SMO activity that we perform as the period for analysis is the same.
3. Number of Enquiries: Following a general progression, an increase in the number of visitors on a site would imply an inherent increase the number of people enquiring about products/services. Now these enquiries could be in several ways i.e. through contact form submissions, through phone calls, by email or even in walk in customers for showrooms and shops.Taking an example of our blog, we notice that every time we create a new discussion on various social networks, the number of visitors on it increase drastically, and then comes down to the regular number (See the screen shot below). Then we do a new post, and the number again increases, hence it is safe to assume if we the number of enquiries is directly proportional to the number of visitors on the site, which can be increased by SMO.
   
4. Conversion or sales: Aha… so now we talk about it and I am sure every marketer would love this the most. Again, this is the natural progression of a user, however, you would need to also appreciate that the website plays the pivotal role in this. SMO can bring traffic to the site, it can increase the number of unique visitors, it might just be able to generate enquiries or leads, but if the website itself is not captivating enough, or does not provide sufficient information or has a functional error, the entire exercise goes waste.

So at the end of it all, we would just like to bring forth that a well planned SMO and a well created website can surely enhance your web presence and also boost your sales. Several large corporations use this today to not only increase sales but also take immediate feedback and increase interactivity with their intended target audience.

Also since all of the above mentioned parameters are directly proportional to the time spent on social networking, it is safe to assume that the more time you spend on productive networking, the more response you are likely to get.

You can read a little more about how to Expand your business using SMO and Top Social Media Trends on our blog.

-By Naved Aqueel