14 Ways to Spot a Bad SEO Agency [infographic]

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Ben Acheson

There are some truly excellent Search Engine Optimisation agencies out there, delivering strong and sustainable growth in search engine traffic and sales for their clients. But unfortunately there are also some very bad SEO agencies – and they can be extremely dangerous. If you’re a marketing head and think you could spot a bad agency, you may be in for a nasty shock. Bad SEO agencies know how to make the most visible results of their inferior work – temporary rankings for a small number of mostly low-value keywords – appear not just legitimate but excellent to people without in-depth knowledge of SEO.

There are 14 ways to identify a bad search engine optimisation agency – an agency that could do serious and lasting damage to your website’s presence in search engine results. Any one of the 14 warning signs should be grounds for scepticism and caution. More than one sign means you’re almost certainly talking to a bad agency.

When choosing a search engine optimisation agency, use this infographic to help you avoid bad agencies.

14 Ways to Spot a Bad or Good SEO Agency

The cheap-and-dirty tactics of bad SEO agencies usually deliver only temporarily results – after which they can do lasting damage to your business. Bad agencies exploit clients’ lack of knowledge, making claims that sound impressive but are in fact nonsensical and dangerous. Specialist link-building agencies can be even worse. Building links in isolation from on-site optimisation and broader marketing strategy means failing to harness your business’ strengths in search campaigns. More importantly, it means missing many important weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Bad agencies typically blast one or two easy-to-rank keywords with a huge volume of web spam – gaining temporary high rankings for a client (or sometimes for themselves). Those rankings are then used in the sales pitch to win the next client – and to the uninitiated they look very impressive.

Most clients don’t realise that the majority of SEO value is usually in a much larger number of achievable, profitable keywords. It looks good to rank number 1 for two or three keywords – but it’s much more powerful and cost-effective to target more keywords – with less competition and higher conversion rates. Bad SEO agencies don’t usually bother to work out which keywords could drive the most traffic – let alone which could generate the most sales. They target easy rankings that look good but have no business case behind them.

We see an increasing number of bad agencies. Often we have to warn clients, which can take a lot of time and effort: a bad agency can just show off one or two easy rankings they’ve achieved with large but cheap throw-away campaigns. By contrast, we have to explain in painstaking detail why the bad agency’s claims are misleading. Sometimes we are too late and can only try to pick up the pieces when things go badly wrong. In the worst cases, websites may be removed from Google’s index – buried under a mountain of web spam and link schemes – with no realistic prospect of ever recovering.

Before hiring an agency ask for several examples of links they’ve built for their clients. Better still, use the Open Site Explorer provided by SEOmoz to look at more of their clients’ links yourself. Hiring an agency is an important strategic decision. Don’t take it lightly.

In particular, look for these disturbing signs of bad SEO campaigns:

Links from irrelevant websites – about completely different topics to the site they’re linking to
Links from pages written in poor English
Multiple duplicate linking pages – on different websites but with exactly the same copy
A significant number of links from comments on blogs
Links on pages with a large number of obviously promotional links to other websites
Links on pages that also link to sites about gambling, medicines, or porn
A significant number of links from .gov or .edu websites – or foreign domains
Link building being outsourced – especially if it’s sourced abroad

Ask your SEO agency what proportion of link building is done in-house – and what proportion is outsourced. Exactly what proportion of links will be built by people in your country – and what proportion will be built offshore by a third party? Look your sales rep in the eye very carefully when you ask these questions. Many SEO agencies now outsource the entire management of your account – very cheaply – to places like India. When that happens your account is really being serviced by people who have no relationship with you – people who don’t care about your business and have no idea how to manage a professional campaign for a reputable brand. They are amateurs who use dangerous, quick-and-dirty tactics. They produce bulk link spam schemes to build huge quantities of poor quality links. That’s all they do. That’s not SEO – it’s just spam.

If your website accumulates link spam then it’s out there on the web for all the world to see. You wouldn’t want your clients or investors to it – you’d feel very uncomfortable if you had to explain it to them or defend it. Customers and influential people in your industry may to come across embarrassing web spam posted in your name and ostensibly by your organisation – because spammers target vulnerable blogs forums that are relevant to your industry.

You certainly wouldn’t want Google’s Web Spam team to notice manipulative link schemes being mass-produced in your name – in contravention of Google’s terms of service. Your website could be penalised, or even banned by Google – which would be catastrophic for your business.

So don’t hire a bad SEO agency and accumulate bad links. They will damage your campaigns and your reputation in the long-term. Reputable agencies service clients themselves. They don’t secretly outsource to offshore link spammers who can’t write copy in proper English.

Are your agency’s link-building campaigns ethical and safe? Does your agency integrate search with other marketing channels – so they work together and complement each other? Most agencies don’t bother with integration. They just build links. Some agencies wouldn’t even know where to begin an integrated campaign. Talk to your agency today. Ask them about their link building campaigns and how they integrate with on-site factors and other digital and offline marketing channels.

Good SEO Agencies

A good SEO agency regards SEO holistically – and specifically, as it relates to your business. This is a complex matter and good agencies look at your strategy as a whole, undertaking extensive research before discussing the unique strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats within your business and its environment.

There are 7 ways to spot a good SEO agency - one that you can trust to manage your campaigns professionally, ethically and in line with the long-term interests of your business.

There are 7 ways to spot a good SEO agency (See the infographic) A good agency is one that you can trust to manage your campaigns professionally, ethically and in line with the long-term interests of your business.

Before hiring an agency ask for several examples of links they’ve built for their clients. Better still, use the Open Site Explorer provided by SEOmoz to look at more of their clients’ links yourself. Especially the websites whose rankings they boast about. Hiring an agency is an important strategic decision. Don’t take it lightly.

If you’re seeking a good SEO agency in London or the UK then you might consider Digivate. We manage integrated SEO campaigns in-house. We use legitimate methods like PR and outreach to build links that deliver sustainable value. We understand the technical on-site issues that help maximise the value of your campaigns. We integrate SEO with your other marketing activities – as any good agency should.

Proper SEO is broad and highly technical. It’s integrated. It’s hard work compared with offshore link spam – but it’s safe for your business. And in the long term it’s far more effective than spam.

In the light of these tips, you might carefully consider the things an SEO agency says (or fails to say) either in their marketing materials or in their discussions with you.

If you care about ethical and sustainable marketing then please share this post.

Is PPC the Right Channel For You?

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Rocco Alessandro Noviello

Do you have a transactional website that could benefit from more exposure through Paid Search Marketing (PPC)? If so, the good news is that everyone can do PPC. It doesn’t require a huge initial investment, it’s a very flexible channel (a campaign can be paused in a matter of seconds) and you have full control over every penny spent. The bad news is that unfortunately PPC doesn’t work for everyone. Bidding on keywords related to your business doesn’t guarantee searchers clicking on your ads and becoming customers.

Here’s what you need if you want PPC to meet your expectations and provide a positive contribution to your ROI:

1) A user-friendly website

A user friendly website includes a hassle-free checkout process and specific category or product landing pages featuring rich and unique content.

2) Products people are interested in

It doesn’t matter how big your business is, whether niche or more generic, your products must always have an audience actively looking for them.

3) Competitive prices

63% of people conduct research on multiple websites before completing their purchase online (Econsultancy, 2011). If customers find that a product you’re selling is cheaper on another website, it is very unlikely they will return to your site and complete the purchase.

If your business is missing one of the above elements, you may wish to ask yourself the following questions before jumping into PPC:

1) Is my website user-friendly, easy to navigate and rich in quality content?

If not, your business may not yet be ready to get the most out of PPC. Analyze your traffic data, bounce rate and the average time users spend on site, and pay greater attention to the Google Analytics In-Page Analytics Report, which is a goldmine of useful information.

Identify and remove all the obstacles that make the user’s experience complicated. Make use of A/B split testing to understand which layout visitors find easier to use. Isolating the checkout process is one proven method of reducing abandonment.

Also try adding unique content optimized for product related keywords. An SEO friendly website will have a positive impact on PPC campaigns. Adwords Quality Score (QS) is, in fact, influenced by the quality of the landing page. A poor QS means a higher cost-per-click.

Don’t ever stop the process of improvement. Always analyze your data, test new solutions and make changes when necessary.

2) Are people interested in my products?

If not, you need to rethink your marketing strategy. Google Trends and Google Keyword Tool are free tools that provide an insight into what is popular, giving you an estimate of the monthly search volume for your keywords. If the search volume for keywords related to your products is too low, you might be able to expand your range of products or explore other channels like affiliate marketing that will enable you to “push” your products in the places where your targeted audience is likely to be.

3) Are my prices competitive?

If the answer is yes, then what have you been waiting for?? PPC can drive more relevant traffic to your website and boost ROI significantly. Integrate PPC with other marketing channels and start building your account gradually. If your brand is well known, don’t hesitate to bid on your brand terms after first registering them with the search engines to prevent other advertisers from doing so.

If your prices are not competitive or don’t represent good value, PPC (and I’m afraid any online marketing channel) is not going to work for you. You need to look at your competitors and align your prices with theirs.

Be Smart. Big players like Amazon and Ebay cannot be beaten on price. Don’t try to fight a price war that cannot be won, or as Sun-Tzu said: “Every battle is won before it is ever fought”. Explore opportunities, find your niche and start growing. Use temporary killer offers (known by the supermarkets as loss leaders) to attract customers to your website. If your website and the overall ecommerce experience is good, you may be able to encourage repeat purchases, brand loyalty and most importantly, brand advocacy. After all, those who advocate your brand will talk about it too, and word of mouth is the most effective marketing tool of all!

Social Media Domination: 10 Essential Tips

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Josh Nicholas

Every business knows they should be more active on social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, but few know exactly how to go about it. Companies who have built their business through traditional advertising mediums like print and television, have grown accustomed to having total control over the way they present their brand to the public. These forms of advertising effectively only allow for a one-way conversation, rarely giving the customer a chance to voice their opinion on a brand or product. Herein lies the reason many businesses are nervous about using social media. All of a sudden their customers have a voice—a voice that can be used just as easily to complain as to compliment.

While opening up a two-way dialogue with customers might seem like a frightening proposition to many business owners, it is important to realise that social media is not going away any time soon, and those who are choosing to embrace it are reaping enormous benefits.

Social media is now being used by some of the world’s biggest brands to generate levels of brand awareness and engagement that are simply not possible with traditional forms of advertising. By introducing a human and interactive element to their brand, these businesses are able to cultivate deeper levels of engagement and loyalty that ultimately results in more people staying informed about their brand, talking about their brand and ultimately, buying from their brand.

If you think it’s time your business jumped on the social media bandwagon or you would simply like to use social media more effectively, here are 10 tips to help you get more out of arguably the most important marketing channel of the 21^st Century:

1/ Be a Real Person (Not a Soulless Corporate Machine)

Gone are the days of the faceless corporation. Customers in this day and age expect to deal with real people, both in person and on the web. When you create your social media profiles, be sure to include your full name, some personal information about your interests, and photos of you and your team.

Also don’t make the mistake of believing you should only write about your industry. It is perfectly acceptable to include a 10-20% ratio of off-topic updates about anything you find interesting—whether it be a hot topic in the media, news about your favourite sporting team or exciting personal news related to your co-workers, even your customers.

2/ Be Social (Duh!)

When it comes to online marketing, it’s very easy to fall victim to over-analysis paralysis. Many people would have a lot more success in engaging with their followers if they would just lighten up, be friendly, helpful, humorous and most of all, social. You should also not make the mistake of just sitting and waiting for other people to interact with you. This is the equivalent of sitting in a darkened corner at a party with a glum look on your face. You can interact with others in your industry by:

- Leaving blog comments

- Re-tweeting great posts

- Sharing, “Liking”, “+1-ing”, “Stumbling” and “Digging” great content from people in your niche

- Linking out to other people

- Responding to emails and messages

- Contributing great blog posts, tweets, updates and media content

Always remember, the same things that make you likeable in person will also make you likeable online. Which brings me to my next point…

3/ Don’t Worry About Whether People Like You

Don’t be too self-conscious or calculating, instead allow your true personality to shine through. People can tell when you’re trying too hard to make them like you or your product. Don’t come from a scarcity mindset. If you truly believe in your product or service, your natural enthusiasm will help to sell it better than any kind of contrived convincing or persuasion.

4/ Don’t Be Afraid To Polarise People

As Tim Ferriss says in his book The Four Hour Workweek, “People can dislike you—and you often sell more by offending some—but they should never misunderstand you”. Never be afraid to state strong opinions, regardless of whether some people might not like it. If you try and please everyone, your voice will become inauthentic and diluted. Besides, we all know that controversy draws attention and as many social media experts say “where attention goes, money follows”.

5/ Show a Genuine Interest in Other People’s Work (Even Competitors)

Give credit where credit is due. If other people are doing great things in your industry, why not spread the word? Showing that you are capable of identifying excellence also implies that you are capable of creating it. Not only will giving due praise make you seem more humble and likeable, it will also make others more likely to praise your company when you are contributing great things.

6/ Don’t Just Focus Your Attention on the Big Guns

Everybody started at the same place as everyone else—at the bottom. Rather than spending all of your time trying to attract the attention of high value people in your industry, consider that there are a lot of rising stars out there who may one day be just as prominent. Develop relationships with people who are doing great work, regardless of how popular they are.

7/ Offer People Your Very Best Advice—For Free!

Even if you’re in the consulting biz—offering people a taste of the very best advice and information you can offer will often wet their appetite enough to turn them into a paying customer. Afterall, if you’re giving away such good quality information for free, imagine how good your paid services must be?

8/ Talk About What’s Hot

Even if it’s unrelated to your industry (remember, 10-20% of your updates can be off-topic), initiating conversation on hot-topics will always draw attention. Aside from general news sites, there are lots of other great resources for finding out about the latest trending topics. Here are a few of them:

- AOL Hotsearch

- Google Trends – Hot Trends

- Alltop

- Tweetmeme

- Twitter - view trends in side bar

- Reddit

- Topsy

- StumbleUpon (marketing category as example)

- Delicious

9/ Share Mind-Boggling Images and Video

In this age of unlimited media content and short-attention spans, people often don’t have the time or patience to digest long slabs of text. Image and video content often has far more viral potential than an article or blog post, especially if the content is shocking/surprising/interesting/humorous or otherwise mind-boggling. Obviously creating your own content is the best option, but feel free to share other people’s content too—it will still draw attention to your profile/page.

Some great places to find awesome content to share via social media include:

- Know Your Meme (Cheezburger Network)

- Reddit

- Alltop

10/ Don’t Bother Reading This Point (It’s about Reverse Psychology)

People are tired of big companies telling them what to think and do. The empty rhetoric and brazen sloganeering used in traditional advertising simply doesn’t work on the tech savvy, banner-blind social media users of today – but you can still lure them in with reverse psychology!

Using lines like “99% of people will be too lazy to read this potentially life-changing post”, will still trigger people’s curiosity if done right. It works even better if you can target their egos too. Try using statements like: “don’t bother looking at this unless you are of above-average intelligence”. Slightly evil maybe, but watch your click-through rate soar!

Thanks for reading!

Josh

Using email marketing to create brand awareness

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Digivate

Perhaps at some stage in the past you will have heard the jingle ‘I’m Loving It’ on Television/Radio or seen the instantly recognisable log of a golden arch on a red background? Yes you guessed right, this is the branding for McDonald’s food chain.

Having heard a business’s jingle or seen their logo you may instantly have certain feeling(s) or an emotion towards the brand, you may either love it or you absolutely loathe it!

In today’s society, brand awareness is important, not only so your brand is remembered but also so it reaches out to as many customers as possible!

For an example, let’s take a busy day at work where your colleagues and customers have questions which may include work for you they have sent and your mailbox is getting full! That you have no time to open all these emails therefore you end up fast scanning your inbox and looking for emails which look important or interesting to you. What’s the first thing you do when you look for important or interesting emails? You look at both the ‘From’ and the ‘Subject lines’! Did you know this is a very important element of your email? People reading emails are selective about which emails they choose to open hence if your business has instant recognisable branding the chances are your target audience will open up and read your emails increase.

Did you know Email Marketing can help you create brand awareness? It is relatively low cost compared with other channels of online marketing, an effective way to getting that all important customer awareness, results are almost immediate when compared with offline marketing and your email campaigns results are fully trackable.

Here are a couple of email marketing tips which can help you create brand awareness:

From Line:

Add your company name as this differentiates your email from others. I.e. personal email addresses;
Always be consistent and stay with using the same name so the recipient knows who the email comes from and what they can expect;
Make your From Line as short and meaningful as possible so the recipient can fast read and identify your brand and knowing who it is from in as short a time as possible.

Subject Line:

Do not use spam words in your Subject Line such as Free/Offer/Sale/Discount otherwise your email might find its way into the junk folder;
Try to make your subject line short and concise. Get to the point. Certain email clients can only display XX number of letters;
Create some urgency so people get curious and want to open your email to read
Definitely don’t over-promise on what you cannot deliver otherwise your audience won’t believe you next time. It is critically important the recipient trusts your brand!

Benefits of Negative Keywords in Paid Search (PPC) and Useful Tips

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Rocco Alessandro Noviello

“Negative Keywords” are customer search queries you DO NOT want your business to be found for in the search engines. For example, let’s say you are bidding on the key-phrase “james bond” to advertise a DVD collection. You opt for a “phrase match” bid to capture more traffic but you don’t want your ads to be shown if someone searches for “james bond blue ray”. By adding “blue ray” as a Negative Keyword, you can prevent your ad appearing in the search results pages every time “blue ray” is part of a search query. Negative Keywords are precious weapon in any online marketer’s hands and when used properly they can substantially boost a campaign’s performance.

Negative Keywords can be added at campaign or ad group level. The main benefits for online marketers are:

Exclusion of irrelevant traffic

Reduction of the Average Cost per Click (Av. CPC) and, consequentially, improvement of the ROI

Improvement of the overall click-through rate (CTR) of the account, which will have a long term positive impact on the keyword Quality Score (QS). (To find out how CTR influences the QS, check out this post on the Quality Score )

Adding Negative Keywords is an important task in PPC strategy and should be scheduled at least once a month, and even more regularly for larger campaigns. Google AdWords allows users to see the actual searches that trigger your ad and lead to a click. To see the report click on the “keyword” tab, select one or more keywords and then click on “see search term” (see picture below). Choose a wide date range, so you’ll have more data available to base your decisions on.

You’ll see a list of the actual search queries that have triggered your ads. It is this useful data that helps marketers to identify keywords that they don’t want their brand to be associated with and those that are driving irrelevant visits to the website. Negative Keywords can be added with the same match types as regular keywords (broad, phrase and exact).

To Add a new Negative Keyword just click on the “Keyword” Tab, scroll down, expand “Negative Keywords” and then click on Add (See picture below).

Advertisers, unfortunately, can’t have full control on the search queries. AdWords only displays search terms that have generated at least a click in the last 30 days and have been entered by, a none specified, significant number of users. All the other search terms fall under “other” and if you select large use of “broad” match keywords, this figure could be quite significant.

Campaigns that have been running for a while are easier to optimize due to the large quantity of data available. Nevertheless, there are some rules that can be applied to ad groups related to specific categories before they go live and will help advertisers to save precious pennies.

The list below is not exhaustive and needs to be further expanded once further traffic data is obtained. They are, however, a good starting point, especially for new campaigns with no history.

DVDs: streaming, download, torrent, CD, book, blue ray

Music CDs: mp3, download, itunes, video, dvd

Books: film, movie, cd, dvd, ebook, kindle, audiobook

B2B Software: cd, dvd, download (if you don’t provide it), torrent, tutorial, video

Manifacturing: used, second hand, rent, hire, repair

Clothing: competitor’s brand terms (not always, base your decision on performance! If your competitors’ brand terms are generating conversions, there is no reason to label them as Negative Keywords)

All categories (Only use the following keywords when strictly necessary and constantly monitor the conversion rate): free, cheap, discount, bargain

SEO: A Hierarchy of Needs [infographic]

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Ben Acheson

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is revealed below as a hierarchy of needs - a pyramid of inter-dependent and complimentary fundamental requirements.

SEO: A Hierarchy of Needs

Like Maslow’s (1954) hierarchy of psychologicalneeds, it is helpful to view the SEO campaigns fundamentals as a pyramid.

Referring to SEO’s hierarchy of needs can be of enormous practical use. It can form the basis of planning - each level constituting a project milestone. And in the implementation phase, the structure can serve as a simple but powerful checklist - ensuring that the key strategic priorities of the campaign are delivered by the plan.

The most fundamental elements of all - analytics and research - are represented as the foundation or base of the pyramid. These elements are vital. They must be addressed first and should be revisited continually throughout a properly organised search campaign.

Next in the planning (or implementation) cycle, content, keywords, architecture and design are delivered - their composition carefully based on intelligence gained from analytics and research - ensuring that campaigns are properly targeted to achieve results and deliver ROI (return on investment).

Then the site is ‘optimised’ for users and search engines. Page elements are checked, ensuring they are in line with the original analytics and research undertaken at the outset.

Finally, links are built - representing in many ways the culmination (and theoretically the most powerful) element of the SEO campaign. It is important to remember that on-site optimisation and link-building are only effective if they are built upon intelligence gained through analytics and research – the foundation of the campaign.

Social media signals are increasingly important in Search Engine Optimization. Thus the final, crowning component, perfecting the campaign, is the implementation of social media campaigns. These should be designed to yield maximum engagement and implemented so as to generate the types of signals search engines increasingly use to help determine the topic and importance of every page on a website.

Like the marketing process as a whole, SEO is cyclical and continuous in nature. Effective campaigns do not end - they evolve. Every layer in the SEO pyramid needs to be continually addressed and revisited, often simultaneously, alongside all the others.

But more importantly, SEO must be properly integrated into broader marketing strategy - ensuring that every channel, every plan and every tactic supports and compliments all the others - contributing effectively and strategically to the campaign and the brand as a whole.

For a London SEO Agency delivering properly integrated, strategic search campaigns, look no further.

Online reputation: negative search results

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Ben Acheson

Have you Googled your brand name recently? Why not try it now? Take a good look at what’s on pages one and two!

Prominent customer complaints can harm your business by turning off customers before they even arrive on your website. That means managing reputation forms a key part of your online strategy. In particular, achieving clean brand-search results should not be neglected if you’re serious about maximising clicks and sales – not to mention managing your brand’s image and reputation. Imagine if the results for a search including your brand terms looked like this one for SCS:

It’s not fair!

It’s not unusual – especially for large businesses – to provide an excellent customer experience and still suffer from negative comments in brand-term search results. There will always be some unhappy customers, no matter how hard you work to please everybody. Unfortunately, unhappy customers are much more likely to speak up than happy ones – and it only takes one or two negative comments to spoil your search results, frightening potential customers and causing serious harm to your business.

Case-study

Our client Damart UK is a clothing retailer taking customer satisfaction extremely seriously – they are proud to have a large number of very happy customers. So imagine their disappointment when negative, unrepresentative comments began consistently featuring in search results for “damart” and “damart uk”. Fortunately Digivate was able to cleanse their search results – completely clearing page one results in plenty time for Christmas and their key winter trading period (Damart specialises in thermal clothing). In addition to displacing or completely removing negative comments, we were also able to raise the profile of positive, complimentary content.

What to do?

Managing the reputations of our clients is a major priority here at Digivate and we’re fortunate to have the skills and experience required to detect and respond decisively to problems. But not every business has access to professional reputation management experts. The hints below will help you understand the basics of online reputation strategy in order to prepare an initial response.

How to remove negative search results?

Online reputation management is a highly specialised field best left to professionals like the team here at Digivate. But if you don’t have access to the experts there are some tactics you can use to begin improving your reputation in search results and help keep it clean in future. Here are some examples:

1. Dominate the search results with company profiles. For example, Microsoft’s Crunchbase profile ranks in the top 10 for “Microsoft”. That’s a key position denied to complaints or negative comments

2. Bring reviews and ratings onto your domain (we can help with this)

3. Actively seek positive reviews and ratings from happy customers (we can help with this too)

4. Act swiftly and decisively. Respond honestly and helpfully to negative comments as early as possible

5. Begin implementing a proper reputation management strategy now – before problems arise. You’ll then be in a much stronger position to respond swiftly and effectively when they do.

In isolation these tactics are unlikely to yield a significant impact. But as part of a wider, integrated and proactive strategy, encompassing search, social media and other channels, it is possible to minimise, eliminate or better still help prevent damage from negative online comments.
If you would like professional help from our experts, please get in touch. The sooner you act, the sooner we can begin to resolve the problem and the easier it will be to keep your reputation clean going forward. (It’s best to begin before problems arise).

SEO Strategy For Video

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Richard Hanrahan

Utilising video is a great way to gain exposure and expand your reach further. It is also a great way to drive traffic to your site, build links, own more real-estate in the SERPs and gain video postings within the blended search results.

You can post videos onsite, offsite or both. In respect to SEO, it can sometimes be better to have the video onsite so that any links gained will benefit you and not YouTube or any other video hosting site you decide to use. That said, every situation is different and depending on your goals, best practice differs.

Good sites to use:

YouTube
MetaCafe
DailyMotion
Vimeo

Advantages of video sharing sites include:

Vast amounts of traffic
Easy to share
Easy to upload video

On the flip side, disadvantages include:

Videos aren’t watched on your site
Ads appear on your content

Although there are some disadvantages, the advantages are plenty and there are ways to drive people to your site and lessen the negatives of hosting video on a third party site.

Tactics for driving viewers to your site:

Putting smaller versions of your videos on video sharing sites, and longer or ‘full’ versions on your own site will act as an incentive and encourage viewers to visit your site to watch the whole video.

Offering high definition videos can also help draw people to your site. Video sharing sites often compress video to a lower quality format and hence offering high definition versions on your own site will act as another incentive.
Having complementary materials to your video on-site also helps draw viewers in.

Best practice for video:

Always watermark the video with your brand name and URL so the audience can easily click through to your site.
A call to action placed in the video can also be positive and can help to steer the audience to your site.
When using a YouTube channel, be sure to upload video regularly as inactive accounts do not carry the same benefits and can present a negative image.
Use descriptive file names to give the viewers and search engines a better understanding of what the video is about.
Avoid duplicate titles when distributing the same video to various sources, as the search engines will consider this as duplicate content and be unable to determine which video to provide in the SERPs. Using different titles and variations can help you to avoid this issue.

Best practice for video metadata:

Provide as much information as possible to the third party sites hosting your video. Fields such as the title and description are a good opportunity to use targeted keywords and descriptions. The more information you’re giving these sites the better, as this is how they understand the content and determine where and when to show it.
A catchy title is a great way to draw the audience in, letting them know immediately what the video is about and if it will be relevant to them.
A good thumbnail is important to help draw people in. Choose a thumbnail that you feel complements your video and will encourage a good click-through rate.
Using transcripts for videos that contain spoken word can be a powerful tool for getting a lot of keyword rich content indexed and also allows the search engines to understand in greater detail what the video is about.
Be sure to submit a video sitemap to Google. This is the best way to improve the chances of your video appearing in the SERPs.

For more information on video SEO, contact the Digivate team at hello@digivate.com

Tips On How to Avoid Spam

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Digivate

Do you have a crowded inbox? Are you tired of receiving emails in broken English from dubious contacts like getrichintwoseconds@akljfk.com and hawtgirlxxx@sfda.ru, pushing all kinds of delightfully sketchy once-in-a-lifetime offers? Yep…spam can be pretty annoying.

We all know by now that spam isn’t only a canned meat product, but is also a term used to describe the bulk sending of unsolicited email. The “spammers” who engage in this unethical activity not only attempt to sell you shady products, but also frequently use other tactics to obtain your personal information.

You may be asking yourself, what steps can I take to protect myself from the annoyance and security risks associated with spam? Well look no further. Here are seven steps to help you in your fight against this common web enemy:

Step 1. Don’t post your email address on a public forum or website

Spammers will often look for your email address on public websites or forums. They automatically scan websites to obtain huge lists of email addresses. While sometimes it may not be possible for you to hide your email address on public websites, if you have to disclose it, try writing it out in a creative way or make an image from your contact information.

Step 2. Setup different/additional email accounts

Perhaps you already use a few different email accounts? If not, try creating several new ones and then separate your incoming email into different email accounts, which can be used for different purposes: one for your friends, one for entertainment, one for finances etc.

Step 3. Beware of email offers that sound too good to be true i.e. scammers

Scammers are really good at making an email look like it came from an official institution, like your bank for instance. These low-life opportunists try to get your account number and password with lines like “Your credit card has expired. Please confirm your card details again so we can renew it”. Always remember, real companies will never ask you these type of questions. If you receive an email of this sort, exercise caution and delete it immediately or you’ll like end up paying for it (literally!)

Step 4. Don’t reply to spam!

Spammers know they have a valid email address when you reply to their emails. If you do reply, the door is open for the spammer to bombard you with a whole lot more annoying garbage. Also don’t click on any hyperlinks within a potential spam email. Clicking on any address hyperlinks within a spam email may activate the downloading of a virus or spyware without your knowledge!

Step 5. Always read the site’s Privacy Policy before signing up for anything

It is great to receive emails from sites that you like, but always read the privacy terms on the site before registering for any regular communications. It is better to know what you are signing up for first, as the fine print can sometimes grant the site owner the right to sell your email address to others.

Step 6. Avoid downloading pictures in spam emails

Downloading pictures will notify the spammer that their message has been opened. Only download images from emails received by trusted senders.

Step 7. Use privacy controls on social networking sites

Please be careful how much information you share on social networking sites and also be careful who you add to your friends list. Give only trusted friends the opportunity to see your personal details and limit what others can see on your profile.

A Short Guide to LinkedIn PPC Ads

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Rocco Alessandro Noviello

If the goal of your PPC campaigns is to acquire new B2B clients or to build brand awareness targeting key decision makers , LinkedIn, with its 120M worldwide members and 7.9M decision makers, is a valid alternative to Search Engines and Facebook.

Linkedin Ads platform is less sophisticated than AdWords, but nevertheless allows advertisers to have total control over who sees your ads and the performances. Setting up a campaign is similar to Facebook Ads – you refine your audience with demographic filters, including geography, industry, level of seniority, job title, age, gender and income. In this way you ensure the ads are only seen by people who you think are more likely to be interested in your services. Bear in mind that the CTR is generally lower than campaigns on Google and the CPC in highly competitive markets can be as high as $4. Moreover, LinkedIn only displays Ads with a good CTR (some estimate it as 0.025%), therefore if your ads don’t generate enough clicks you’ll notice a drop in the number of impressions, in which case you might think to refine your audience further.

Here’s a step by step guide to create a LinkedIn PPC campaign:

1) Log in to https://www.linkedin.com/ads (Sign up if you’re not a member yet) and click on “Start Now”;

2) Give a name to your campaign, upload an image (50×50 pixel) and create up to 15 ad variations to test. The Ad Destination can be either an external website or a LinkedIn page;

3) Narrow your audience (see image below). As you select specific audiences, you’ll be able to see in real time on the right top corner the Estimated Target Audience. You can also target members of specific LinkedIn groups.

4) Set up payment method (CPC, recommended as it allows advertisers to fully control the costs, or CPM and Daily Budget.

5) Add your billing information and get your campaign live!

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