Set aside 10 minutes of your time to read the latest cutting-edge news in SEO, Tech and Social Media that happened this Spring.

Google News

Google has greatly improved its Analytics service. Dated March 9, Google announced a new report in Beta, called User Explorer, which can be found in the Audience section. It provides detailed insight of the number of sessions, bounce rate, revenue, transactions, and your specific goals conversion rate associated with an individual Client or User ID. Once you click a User or Client ID, you get an individual timeline view of this client behavior, including acquisition date, channel and device category, along with the history of activities and interactions with your site or service. The report is a goldmine for those who want to analyze prospects’ behavior and improve an overall customers’ user experience on a website. Learn from Google about use cases of the User Explorer report.

In May, Google made another change in the Google Analytics reporting features. Google made a deep  integration of its Analytics and Search Console services. Now, if you log into your Google Analytics account, you can find the Google Search Console metrics under the Acquisition tab, as the substitution of the Search Engine Optimization. There are 4 sections in the newly added Search Console report: Landing Pages, Countries, Devices, Queries. The Search Console reports are complemented by additional acquisition metrics like Impressions, Clicks, CTR and Average Position which help to analyze your organic traffic performance more effectively.

At the end of May, Google announced the expansion of ad texts and the ability to bid by device, which will be coming to AdWords platform in the next several months. In the new ad format campaigns advertisers will be allowed to compose:

–  2 headlines with up to 30-character limit for each title (instead of one 25-character limit headline);

–  A 80-character description line (instead of two 35-character description lines).

Will this update result in a higher click-through-rate? Yes! Early figures indicate a 20% increase in CTR.

Mobile Search News

A year ago, on April 21^st, Google rolled out its Mobile-Friendly Update, aka Mobile Apocalypse (targeted to the websites which don’t give due consideration of such things like responsiveness, mobile-friendly URLs,). One year on, Google announced that starting from May, they will boost the effect of the mobile specific ranking signal in order to bring more relevant mobile-friendly search results.  But this is not the last change made to the Mobile-Friendly Ranking algorithm. According to Gary Illyes, Google will add page speed as a mobile-friendly ranking signal.

Tip for SEO beginners: If you are a mobile device geek and in search for “FREE SEO tools” for your website from your smartphone, be sure to find our mobile-friendly website and service on the 1^st page of Google and sign up for a FREE forever plan:). Moreover, you can use our Website Audit Tool to check how well your website is optimized for mobile devices.

Bing News

Bing showed dramatic increase of the search market share in April. According to ComScore explicit numbers, desktop searches on Google sites dropped by 0,2%, while searches on Microsoft sites rose by 0,2%. The reason for the change in search market share may be the increase of Windows 10 usage with its Hey Cortana voice search feature. This means that those who bet money mainly on Google should reconsider their marketing strategy and include Bing advertising into their website search engine promotion.

LinkedIn will be integrated into the Microsoft Office ecosystem. The breaking news on Microsoft acquiring LinkedIn for $26,2 billion has caused a lot of discussions. But one thing is clear for sure, Microsoft wants to start positioning itself as a cloud-based software as a service.  In the joint presentation, Microsoft and LinkedIn reveal the following advantages of the acquisition which will make Microsoft users more productive:

• Access to an individual user’s profile data across all apps and programs, like Outlook, Skype, Office etc.
• Intelligent newsfeed that will help users to stay connected with their professional network, industry news and trends.
• More intelligent digital assistant (Cortana) at your disposal that will be help you connect the dots between your professional network connections and help you effectively manage your daily tasks and meetings.
• Deep integration of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM and LinkedIn Sales Navigator for effective sales management on LinkedIn.
• Integration of the LinkedIn Learning hub into the Office programs that will enable users to learn new skills at the right time without having to leave the Office workplace.

Facebook News

Facebook has reinvented itself from a non-profit Social Media network to eCommerce Digital Marketing platform by collecting 500 terabytes of personal data a day and juggling it to commercial ends. Facebook already provides comprehensive targeting options for advertisers, enabling publishers to hit local-specific audiences, retarget website visitor traffic, show ads to lookalike audiences etc. That’s seems not good enough for Mark Zuckerberg & Co.

On May 26, the company officially set Facebook ads float freely across the web. It means that if you are not a Facebook user, you will also be shown Facebook ads anywhere on the internet and 3d party websites. It’s a game changer for those advertisers who have non-Facebook users and want to retarget them outside Facebook.

Facebook introduced Facebook 360, a new option for publishers to upload 360 photo and videos. Moreover, Facebook allows running 360 photo and video campaigns.

We are done! Now it’s up to you to start exploiting the new trends we have shared with you in this post:)

The post Get Reading: Top 8 Internet Marketing Updates for Spring ‘16 appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

“Anything less than instant represents a decline in engagement”

 Richard Gingras, Head of News at Google

Today it’s crucial for your brand to go mobile. If your website is mobile, chances are you will be found in the right place at the right time. In this mobile optimization chase, time and speed are the key advantages. Delivering content in the most accessible and user-friendly way is the number one priority for content publishers who don’t want to lose impatient mobile searchers. Industry giants like Facebook and Apple have already jumped on the bandwagon by providing solutions for mobile-friendly content delivery platforms like Facebook Instant Articles and Apple News.

Google has catered to the trend by providing the alternative to Facebook Instant Articles and Apple News which is the AMP project. “Accelerated Mobile Pages” is an open-source framework initiative designed to reduce burdensome dynamic JS elements of web pages in order to speed up their loading time in mobile search. Unlike Instant Articles and Apple News which technically are closed RSS feed aggregators available only to the platforms’ in-app users, the Google AMP Pages is an open web streamline framework designed for creating instant mobile pages. Put it simply, the Google AMP pages are alternative versions of desktop pages which have separate URLs. The project is now live and works for newsworthy posts which are displayed in the Google News carousel in the prime real estate of mobile SERPs. You can have a quick view of how AMP pages look like on your mobile device by browsing at g.co/amp or emulate the mobile device mode from your desktop using Chrome Developer Tools.

How Do I AMPlify My Website Content?

The Google AMP project’s goal is to simplify and minimize the requests your browser has to make for loading website pages. When you create an AMP page it contains only the specific AMP HTML file which restricts author-written scripts and other third-party slow JavaScript libraries used in ads, subscription forms and call-to-action buttons.

If we break down the boilerplate, we’ll see that an AMP page is wrapped up into 3 layer components:

• AMP HTML is the markup language based on an HTML framework that includes custom tags and a subset of restrictions for reliable and fast performance.
• AMP JavaScript library helps with the fast and reliable rendering of HTML page components and tags
• AMP Content Delivery Network (Cache) fetches the AMP pages, caches them in the cloud and improves their performance automatically via the Google hosted Content Delivery Network (or your own cache).

Here are some learning resources, setup guides, CMS plugins, check-and-fix tools which make AMP optimization a piece of cake.

How AMP Works:

The primer guide How AMP Works highlights the key points of what AMP is, why it is needed and how it works.

The AMP Project Official Blog will keep you updated about the latest news and updates of the Google AMP project.

Setup Guides:

The guide Get Started with Google AMP  will help you get through all the stages, from creating your first AMP HTML page and its validation to its publication and distribution

The Github Repository will provide hands-on information on AMP HTML source code, samples and documentation for webmasters.

Automatic CMS Plugins:

WordPress AMP plugin provided by Automattic enables AMP content on your blog, which makes it a powerful tool for WordPress SEO.

Drupal AMP Module provided by Acquia will help you convert your Drupal pages into pages that comply with the AMP standard.

Check-and-Fix Tools and Recommendations:

AMP Test is Google’s AMP tool which tests the validity of the AMP markup and structured data on the page related to AMP in real time.

The AMP Validator is an AMP tester and editor that comes bundled with the AMP JS library and is available on every AMPed page.

Google Search Console AMP Error Report will point to the most common issues in your site’s AMP page implementation.

What Are the Effects of Content Optimization for AMP Pages?

Google assures that, after wrapping your content into AMP pages, they will be loaded four times faster and render with eight times less encoded data than average mobile pages. According to Google, it reduced the AMP page load time by 85%. Not bad! But taking into account that AMP is a pilot project and there are still a lot of unexplored facets, consider both positive and negative effects of AMP project:

Advantages:

+ Lower bounce rate and higher Time on Site and Pageview rate.

+ Content is displayed in an above-the-fold area of mobile SERPs.

+ Increased click-through rate to the above-the-fold mobile AMP carousel results.

+ Improved user experience.

+ Competitors who do not use AMP will suffer a decrease in impressions and clicks as their entries in the SERPs are pushed below the fold.

Disadvantages:

– The AMP version of a regular page can cause duplicate content issues. It is recommended to declare an AMP version as canonical vis a vis a regular HTML page, by putting a canonical tag <link rel=”amphtml” href=”_AMP_URL_”>.

– Content monetization is hard to execute in AMP content. There are 5 ad platforms allowed on the Google AMP pages which are Google AdSense and DoubleClick, OpenX, AOL Advertising and Outbrain.

What About Other News Unworthy Pages of Your Website?

Before the AMP era becomes a new mobile search reality and AMP is designated an official ranking factor, traditional mobile search optimization techniques will still be in place. Google doesn’t punish pages for not being AMPtimized, but they will still punish you for being mobile-unfriendly.  Thes AMP project is aimed at article content which means that regular landing pages of your site are on the sidelines for this.

If you haven’t heard yet, Google announced another “Mobile May” Update that will boost the effects of the mobile-friendly algorithm that was rolled out last year on April 21st.

This means that if your pages are still non-mobile friendly to users and to Google, your competitors are probably outranking you and this won’t change until you get with the program and qualify your pages as mobile-friendly. Now answer a gut check question: “Is your website mobile-friendly?”  Check it now by following the recommendations generated in the WebCEO Mobile Optimization tool report that will guide you through the issues of your website’s mobile SEO.  The Mobile Issues Checklist will give you detailed info on what Google considers a non-mobile-friendly design and content accompanied by Google-proof recommendations.

Just a Matter of Time…

At the moment the Google AMP project works only with breaking news publishers like BuzzFeed, the Washington Post, The Verge, etc. Google has persuaded us, however, that the project is aimed at:

“…all published content, from news stories to videos and from blogs to photographs and GIFs, which should work using Accelerated Mobile Pages.”

Let’s see how fast the AMP project expands to more types of content providers and websites. We will keep you updated once the Google AMP project provides more opportunities for regular publishers on its AMP dedicated blog.

The post Amp It Up: Is Your Site In Need for Google AMP Pages? appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

Happy Thanksgiving to all those of you, who regularly check your sites for issues and fix them, keep your backlinks clear and make customers happy. Here’s a brief recap of the latest SEO news so you can get back to enjoying family and friends.

Google News

Google has confirmed that a new Penguin Update 4.0 will go live by the end of 2015. Luckily for many webmasters, the upcoming Penguin iteration will process all the toxic and low quality links that you removed or disavowed after the previous manual penalty in real time. Do you remember that it took months to recover from the manual penalties of the previous Penguin updates? If you have not yet refined your backlink profile for the upcoming Google Penguin 4.0, be sure to check your backlinks for domains with a low trust level (0.30 or less) and then submit them in a list to the Google Disavow tool through the Web CEO Backlink Quality Check tool.

Google has officially rolled out its new artificial intelligence algorithm RankBrain. This new machine learning system is a part of the Google Hummingbird algorithm and the third-most important Google search ranking signal that helps to interpret and better understand non-exact match search queries on the level of an individual searcher’s intent. This means that SEO will see a shift from keywords to topic-focused research and optimization.

Google+ just recently updated its design with a heavy focus on Communities of Interests and Collections. Now the “ugly duckling” of the social media family strongly resembles the look of Reddit and Pinterest. With the new design, folks were saying that Google+ local pages forgot to add business reviews. Google then officially confirmed that business reviews will no longer be displayed on Google+ local pages, but they will be accessible when doing search via Google and Maps.

Yet again G+ received an enthusiastic response from users, but maybe not the response they had hoped for:

Yandex News

Yandex has announced that they will start to crawl CSS and JavaScript content, as a test in order to better understand the content of web pages. They are now informing webmasters to stop blocking their CSS and JavaScript files and resources. In the long-run, this will have an effect on Yandex SEO processes. Yandex has also added a mobile-friendly label to mobile search results and released a supporting mobile-friendly diagnostic tool for webmasters to make sure that their website pages meet mobile-friendly guidelines.

Facebook news

Facebook has launched lead ads! Yes, you heard right. Facebook now allows running lead generation ads (similar to Twitter lead generation cards) which collect user information, share lead capture content and make prospects complete a desired action without actual leaving Facebook. Read more on how to configure your lead generation program on Facebook here>> .

Now local businesses can promote their products on Facebook more effectively with local awareness ads. The new ad feature allows you to target groups of people who reside near your business neighborhoods.  Furthermore, Facebook has made the Instagram Ad Platform available to all marketers around the world. Now you can launch a photo or video ad campaign right from your Facebook ad management tools (Power Editor).

Twitter news

Twitter has suffered a lot of quality changes recently. One of the major updates of Twitter has been the change of the shape of its Favorite icon from a star to a heart.

Not long after this redesign trick, Twitter officially shut down its API that provides data on Tweet Share Count. Now you can’t see the number of your article Twitter shares in your social share button bar. This may have a negative impact on user interaction and social proof factors for your content.

For those of you who want to drive more user engagement and learn what followers think on this or that topic, you can now create polls on Twitter!

The post Happy SEO-News-Giving Day! appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

Social media is an effective tool for B2B marketers and has played useful roles in increasing brand awareness, establishing companies as thought leaders and growing lead conversion rates.

Broadcast media used to be the go-to place when it came to advertising. There are many benefits to be gained from broadcast media just as there are many benefits from social media. People are able to make really great strides in marketing using these platforms.

The likes of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube need no introduction. Marketing on any of these platforms can bring some amazing returns. You just need to ask companies like Air Asia, Taco Bell and Safaricom (the most profitable telecommunications company in East and Central Africa).

Air Asia’s story

A well-managed company loves to have a strong brand.

The problem – small budget for massive advertisement

Air Asia is now probably one of the best known airlines. However, previously, it was just another airline from Malaysia that few people had any idea existed. What the company wanted to do is launch a new flight from Australia.

As you probably know by now, the competition in the airline business is stiff, what with the likes of Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. Such a small airline would not normally stand a chance against these major corporations because they lacked the budget to run an effective traditional advertising campaign. Air Asia still needed to raise brand awareness and they needed to do it very fast. They wanted to get the brand out there to the millions of potential customers while squeezing into a very tight budget.

How they solved the issue –> Facebook

The marketing team chose to run a Facebook campaign. They launched the campaign giving away – wait for it – a free airplane. Well, it was almost a free plane. The company created a competition on Facebook where the winner had the chance to select 302 of their Facebook friends to fly for free. The flight would be from Australia to Malaysia, absolutely free.

What you would do on Facebook is choose the friends that you want to take along with you on a hypothetical flight and then tag them in the seating plan. Take a snapshot and then share it with all the tagged friends. It was as simple as that. Did the plan succeed? Massively!

Outcome – a brand that everyone knows

Perhaps the biggest benefit was the doubling of the number of flights. The company wanted attention; it got the attention in doubles. This is on top of generating PR that was worth an approximate $1.5 million. The company was able to reach out to over 2 million people on Facebook so effortlessly. The Facebook fan base grew by a staggering 30% during the period that the campaign was running.

Why it worked – viral potential

When creating a social media marketing campaign, the goal is to make sure that it goes viral. It does not matter whether you are creating awareness about something specific or you are building a brand. It just needs to go viral for you to get the results you want and even more. A campaign with massive viral potential like Air Asia’s was set to be a great success right from the beginning. The campaign was highly social which made people want to get involved. It also harnessed the principle of reciprocity.

Taco Bell’s Story

Admittedly, if you are so accustomed to using Facebook, Twitter might be a bit of a challenge to begin with. Taco Bell, however, did not have a problem getting their social media channels engaged using Twitter. The company was suffering low engagement and fewer followers than larger brands. This did not work so well for the brand image. So, Taco Bell had to re-engage and they did this by beginning conversations with Twitter users who ad more than 10,000 followers (Twitter influencers). This increases the potential for brand mentions. The whole campaign resulted into a reach of over 600,000 Twitter followers.

Safaricom’s  Story

Social media marketing does not work in America and Asia alone; Safaricom proved this. This company based in Kenya (East Africa) is one of the most profitable corporations in Africa.

The company is famous for having some awesome advertisements on TV and radio. The same is true online. A number of the Safaricom adverts have made it to YouTube and they have great viewership. The company is known for using YouTube, Twitter and Facebook a lot.

They offer customer support on Twitter and while in the business of solving customer problems, they advertise their products. Everyone who uses Safaricom knows that if they want fast customer care, they should go to Twitter. This popularizes their Twitter handle and their hashtags.

They once gave away free smartphones on Facebook. You have probably noticed by now that Facebook users have a thing for free giveaways. Back on YouTube, they place their ads on the channels of influencers. Before you can play the latest video from your favorite artist, you will probably be watching a Safaricom advert (depending on where you are).

How will you gain from social media yourself?

The answer to this question is pretty difficult to give because it all depends on how your campaign is set up. You will need to get someone who has a good understanding of the dynamics of using social media for marketing in order to make the most of it.

For optimizing your social media marketing campaigns and tracking their success, use WebCEO’s Social Media Analytics Tools. WebCEO provides a comprehensive suite of tools designed to enhance your digital marketing strategy, improve your SEO, and streamline your social media efforts, ensuring your campaigns are effective and impactful.

The post 3 Social Media Marketing Success Stories appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

The first thing every marketer learns is to listen to his audience. Remember Google Glass? On January 15, 2015, Google announced that it would stop producing the Google Glass. What had happened? A genius team worked on the great idea, they invented the technology of the feature, but there was no audience for it. To know what your audience wants is the most basic part of marketing.

Facebook is the best place to listen to your audience.

Hundreds of years ago people gathered on market places to talk about everything. Now they gather on Facebook. You should be there to:

• Find out what hurts your audience and what it is interested in.
• Know the exact language your prospects use to describe their issues.
• Learn the words they use to describe the success they’re having with your product.

How can I monitor Facebook discussions effectively?

The easiest way to keep track of your audience on Facebook is to use the new Web CEO Niche Popular Posts report. This report is part of the Facebook Insights tool.

All you need is to add up to 5 Facebook pages that are popular in your niche. Tip: you can add 4 your competitors and your own Facebook page to compare their popularity.

As a result you will see what posts were discussed and shared most often. You can be sure: the topics discussed and shared represent what your audience needs.

What should I do now?

• Now you can jump into discussions anywhere and get noticed by people who are your prospects.
• Or you can discuss the same topics on your social media platforms and in your blog. Bring a new point of view, say something controversial, show your expertise.
• Become a spy. Investigate what your audience wants and do it for them!
• Listen to the words people use. Facebook is the best play for fieldwork…for keyword research. You can work out a great list of long tail keywords just from Facebook comments.

Another great thing about the Web CEO Niche Popular Posts report is that it is absolutely free and has no limitations. Start hearing your audience now.

The post Use Your Crystal Ball or Monitor Facebook Discussions Like a Fox appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

It’s almost time for summer vacation and all you can think about are beaches, forested mountains and cold beverages. But, there are also events in the digital marketing world you’ll want to think about before you hit the trails.

What’s new in SEO?

The search space has been lately engaged in an algorithm updates race.

On April 21^st Google hit mobile search with its long-awaited Google Mobile-Friendly Update and only the mice in the fields remain ignorant of this. The experts from Google pointed that Mobilegeddon was even larger than Penguin or Panda: twice as many non-mobile friendly pages lost rankings as gained after the Mobile Update. If you have not yet re-optimized your website to meet mobile-friendly guidelines, you’d better start working on it before you take that vacation.

Here is the Mobile SEO Issues Checklist you will need to check your website pages for in order to gain the rankings you may perhaps have lost.

But this is not the last Mobile-Friendly Update that comes into our view. At SMX Sydney, Garry Illyes (Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google) just said there will be another update called Platypus targeting slow page speed and app download interstitials usage.

In addition to all this noise, Google has confirmed that it is now official that there are more searches on mobile devices than on desktops. This is big news and, if you want to dominate on Google search, then the mobile search optimization strategy is in your first-rate priority do-to list.

On May 6^th, Google officially updated and renamed the Search Queries report in its Webmaster Tools. Now, in your Webmaster Tools you can find the Search Analytics report with more accurate data and filtering options.

On May 20^th, Google Webmaster Tools was rebranded into Google Search Console. Google decided to changes the ten year old name of the tool to a more universal because it is used not only by webmasters but also by website owners, SEO experts, marketing specialists, designers, web developers etc.

At the beginning of June, the Google team announced that they are going to rework the Penguin algorithm so it runs on a permanent basis. It means that there won’t be any manual actions toward ranking changes because the data will be refreshed all the time. It doesn’t mean that you can sit and relax because individual websites can still be hit with huge overnight ranking losses. This means that you will need to work towards keeping your backlink profile ever clean and genuine in the eyes of Google.

According to Search Engine Land this year the SEO Success Factors Table has been immensely updated and complemented by new factors such as the availability of Vertical Search, HTTPS and Direct Answers results. Greater Importance has been given to Mobile Friendliness and Structured Data etc.

To keeping up with Google’s updates, use WebCEO’s Online SEO tools to analyze your site’s SEO performance and ensure it aligns with the latest Google algorithms.

What is new in Social Media?

The fact that Social and Search have become more integrated and interlinked is proven by the latest Google-Twitter deal. Starting on May 19, users in the U.S. can see relevant and real-time tweets in their search results when using the Google search app on iOS and Android. That’s good news for search giants, users and for brands. Twitter promises to bring its real-time content on to desktop search and to more countries in the upcoming months.

Unlike with Twitter, Facebook doesn’t want to rely on Google and decided to build its own in-app search engine. Thanks to its own search team, Facebook is already testing the ability to crawl and return content for users without the need for them to search Google directly.

At the beginning of June, Instagram announced plans to launch InstaAds which will be labeled as “Sponsored.”

We wish you a happy summer and be sure to enjoy nature and the little extras summer brings.

The post The SEO News Recap You Should Read Before Your Vacation appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

Have you ever had the pleasure of watching Mad Men? I am a huge fan of this TV drama series that describes the structure and code of the marketing world of the 1960s and uncovers the concepts of TV, radio and newspaper advertising campaigns and commercials in a fascinating, sticky way. This drama is full of inimitable genius characters. Here we have Don Draper with his hidden split personality, full of secrets, feminism-driven Peggy Olson with her keen desire to rule in a man’s world and many other characters we, marketers, can drive inspiration from. But what I like the most is their feel for marketing, I love the way they put teeth into effective advertising campaigns. Those guys and gals, in real life, wrote a major chapter in the history of modern marketing. I think, every marketer should watch the episode with Don’s Kodak slide projector ad pitch called “Carousel”. Isn’t it brilliant? He pulls on human sentiments but bases it all on his own experience. This helped to add a personal touch to the ad which is essential for today’s marketing approach.

What secret tools and special skills did the old marketing mad men have at hand in the Golden Age of the advertising world of the 1960s?

In a nutshell: guts, experience, creativeness and an office kit. These unalloyed salesmen brought a top flight creative mindset and genius to copywriting. Unlike today’s Internet marketers, they worked in most cases with the real products. They tested them in special test groups, where ordinary people tried, tasted, wore and slept with the products in order to spot the real pros and cons of the product in question. No special technologies were invented or used for an ad creative. The old marketing school required less analytical work and a lot of guesswork. All you needed to provide was one great idea approved by a positive nod of a client. It was the era of superiority of creativeness over accountability.

Fortunately (or unfortunately for particular reasons) we, millennials live in a totally different cyber world where the TV/Radio/Print mass media channels have been largely replaced by digital media. Blogs, Email, Paid Search, YouTube and Social Media are all new ways of driving audience attention and getting them to buy any type of product or service. With an infinite stream of information and big data, digital media has turned out to be a huge challenge for today’s marketers.  With access to more robust data, the Mad Marketing Men have evolved into Math Marketing Men. Data integration, automation, evaluation and optimization play decisive roles on the way to successful digital marketing. The only thing that has not really changed much in marketing is the vision of a customer persona profile. Сatering to what your audience needs has been crucial ever since products turned into brands and buyers turned into nearby consumers. But the methods, tools and skills used to understand, analyze, satisfy and convert people into loyal consumers has become more holistic and tangled. If Donald Draper were to work in a modern digital marketing world, he would have to sign up for multiple digital marketing tool accounts in order to find shortcuts for syncing SEO, Social Media and Paid Advertising campaigns in order to optimize digital marketing ROI.

The helping hand of Web CEO is here to direct you to the most useful and actionable digital marketing tools, most of which are recommended by experts and well tried by some of our in-house marketers.

Project Management Tools

Properly organized workflow and wisely assigned duties will benefit your final digital marketing ROI to a great extent. Try some of these cloud-based project management tools which are basically free.

Redmine is an open source (basic version) bug/task/feature tracking tool for effective digital task teamwork. Read more about the nuances of Redmine usage for project management here.

Asana is free for up to 15 team members. This project management tool is full of useful features for collaborative work under one roof. Multiple projects, task management and tracking, third-party tools integration, individual workplaces, calendars and project dashboards are all available within this one single platform.

Podio is available for free for up to 5 team members. It is an all-in-one collaboration tool that makes project progress transparent and flexible with all content and conversations integrated smoothly.

Pro tip: Don Draper would have greatly elevated his productivity level if he used a simple Kanban productivity system. The Kanban method (board) allows you to simplify project progress by splitting and visualizing it all into upcoming, current and complete tasks.

Market Research Tools

No one can tell you more about your target audience than your potential and current users. Nothing works better here than online questionnaires and surveys. Here are some industry-trusted DIY online tools that can provide you with interactive customizable consumer panel surveys, a huge database of easy-to-target respondents and interpretive reports.

SurveyGizmo is one of the most powerful and affordable survey tools available. With the help of the Survey Build tool you can create 40+ survey question types, which can be customized with your brand, and then sent to respondents via email, social media or embedded in your own site. The pricing is lower than other providers’. The basic membership charge is as low as $25/month.

SurveyMonkey is another leading survey platform that provides you with in-depth real-time market research results. A freemium version is available with 10 questions and 100 responses as the limit.

Samplify is a free market research tool that has a clean and user-friendly interface with easy-to-customize targeting and insightful reports about survey results.

Search Engine Optimization Tools

Every digital marketer should have fundamental SEO tools, which are important for keyword research and analysis, backlink checking, link acquisition, rank tracking, social engagement analysis and competitive benchmarks. All of these integral SEO tasks form the bottom line of a cohesive digital marketing strategy. If you miss any of these tasks, you won’t be able to see the forest for the trees.

Alexa is a great source of digital marketing data with comprehensive visitor traffic analysis, mobile insights, competitor metrics and basic social engagement insights. Membership pricing varies from $9.99 to $799 per month.

Compete is one of the digital industry’s old timers. They provide digital marketing experts with in depth information about your target market and your business rivals. Note that the data provided by Compete is tailored around the U.S market. The most popular solution from Compete is the Compete Pro that allows you to dive deep into your competition research, discover new proven keywords, analyze your website and check your competitors’ referral traffic. The account pricing starts at $249/month (higher than other SEO tool platforms).

Ahrefs is the most powerful and trusted link research platform with the largest index of live backlinks refreshed every 30 minutes (powered by its own search bot!). Ahrefs provides a detailed analysis of the link profile of your site compared to your competitors’ sites, plus data on new link acquisition and lost link tracking.

Google PageSpeed Insights is an open source web page testing tool powered by Google. The tool runs a number of tests regarding your site page performance in order to eliminate issues related to resource caching, assets upload/download size, JavaScript and CSS codes etc. The pagespeed insights of your pages are supplied with DIY SEO recommendations and advice, the successful implementation of which can significantly shorten your page load time and reduce your bounce rate (the page load time should not exceed 3 sec).

The Google Mobile-Friendly Testing tool is coupled with the PageSpeed Insights web page testing tool. It checks your site to see if it is eligible to be included in Google’s mobile search results in accordance with the new Google Mobile-Friendly algorithm factors. This tool is also open source and absolutely free.

KeywordTool.io is a free keyword research tool that provides up to 750+ relevant long-tail keyword suggestions based on the autocompletes of Google, YouTube, Bing and App Store search. Additional data parameters like search volume, CPC and bid competition are available in Keyword Tool Pro accounts (starting at $48/month).

Web CEO is the all-in-one SEO solution. For Don Draper it would be like a universal office toolkit that can be useful for anyone in the office. With this SEO oriented digital marketing platform you can cross out all of the above mentioned tools. If you really know the value of your time and want to run the bridge of your battleship, then Web CEO is what you need. You can conduct industry-level keyword research, technical and content SEO audits with in depth reporting and recommendations on mobile optimization. From there you can do a backlink analysis showing low quality links that you can then detox, after which you can track new link acquisition and spy on the best links your competitors have earned so you can maybe get the same ones from the same places. Add to that deep SERP tracking on 350+ global, local and social search engines (such as YouTube). Then there is the Content Submission Tool, the Site Audit tools, the Internal Links Optimization Tool and other SEO related features. 12 of 14 SEO tools are available for free (no time limits and no credit card required).  One of the unique free features that every digital marketing geek would love about Web CEO would be the ability to brand your SEO reports with your company or clients’ logo and color scheme. You can even host your own white label SEO tools or read-only SEO reports on your own website (via API or CNAME to a sub-domain)! With automatic report mailing, scheduled scanning of multiple projects and batch operation management, Web CEO can keep a modern web agency humming with progress reports that bring in hard cash. Customizable task lists can also be used as a project management tool and reporting system. There is even a great Social Media Metrics tool which will do most of the functions mentioned in the next section. Take this shortcut and start monetizing your SEO with Web CEO.

Social Media Marketing Tools

Google Social Analytics (Acquisition reports) is the first account you should sign up for in order to be socially plugged in! By tracking your social traffic you will be able to measure the progress of your organic social media campaigns. Here you’ll find some critical data on social network referrals, landing page engagement, social conversions etc. This data will help you keep the pulse on the social media performance of your site and identify your most viral content.

Buffer is a content curation and distribution tool that will save you a lot of time. It is a must-have tool for those digital marketers who have multiple accounts and a huge base of followers whom they want to keep updated with the latest information about company updates and industry news.

Hootsuite is a powerful social media management and marketing tool that Don Draper would fall in love with. Use it for the efficient management of your multiple social assets and workflow, collaboration with your marketing fellows and to bring your social media marketing campaigns in line with the time you have to spend on them. At the time of this writing, Hootsuite’s retweets did not include a presentation of the Twitter image of original Twitter posts, but that is a minor issue they should clear up quickly. The tool can be a real social media time-saver.

ManageFlitter is one of a number of nifty tools to use when you are following more people on Twitter than are following you back. Twitter only lets you follow 2000 people before it sets a limit of not allowing you to follow more than 20% more people than follow you back. No matter how popular you become, you may have to use a tool like this to unfollow enough people to keep following those new people who are really interested in your business. For Google+, there is a similar service called Cycloscope that lets you know whom you’re circling but who are not circling you back.

Facebook Page Insights is for the social analytics of your Facebook page. Analyze the engagement, likes and shares and other metrics of your page posts alongside your competitors’ page performance in order to improve your organic facebook reach and outperform the competiton.

Facebook Ads Manager is the essential tool for multiple Facebook ad campaigns management. With the help of Ads Manager you can optimize your ads for better conversion and customize your targeted audience. You can also use pixel tracking to reach the people who are most likely to take action on your ads (retargeting).

Content Marketing Tools

Content is the way to drive peoples’ attention to the product you offer. Statistics show that 90% of all online companies market with content. Don’t become one of the 10% who pull up the rear.

Google Alerts is the best free alert email notifier about the latest news around the web. All you need to do is specify targeted keywords and the frequency of the individual alerts you want to receive in your email. With Google Alerts you can be the first to elaborate around an issue regarding a hot topic, thus increasing the odds of a blog or social media post going viral which can then help you win first page rankings for your keywords.

BuzzSumo is one of the best content generation tools that can help you get new ideas for your future posts, examine what kind of content works best and find new influencers in your niche. Be sure to follow these influencers from your active and now-popular social media accounts.

Quora is certainly the most authoritative Q&A platform showing crowed-sourced expert answers for any topic. You can use Quora as both a content alert forum, a content distribution channel (write answers to questions that relate to your business) as well as a lead generation tool (if someone is asking about where they can find a product that can do what yours does, you may want to pounce). Create a profile, follow all the topics and questions you are interested in + get alerts to your email box about the latest answers. You can use Quora as a content distribution tool by sharing links to your website and blog posts within your relevant and helpful answers.

MailChimp is an email marketing tool that automatically sends regular newsletters and reminders to your customers about industry news, company updates as well as your latest blog posts, special offers etc. With this leading email marketing provider you can easily personalize email templates and send them to the right people at the right time. MailChimp is also great for mobile email marketing.  Remember that keeping in touch with current and prospective users is the easiest and most savvy way to retain active users and stir up inactive ones.

PPC/Advertising Tools

Google AdWords is a paid advertising platform powered by Google. It is a traditional online advertising scheme that makes your ads visible to searchers when they enter relevant queries on Google search. The process of an ad campaign setup is simple. You launch an ad that is attached to your branded or other targeted keywords, set a budget for your campaign and pay Google for every click on your ad.

AdRoll is a cross-platform and cross-device retargeting provider that will help you run multiple retargeting campaigns on the Web, Social Media, Desktop and Mobile. It is a more effective type of advertising than Google AdWords since it reaches the people who have already visited your site and follows them with your retargeting ads onto other websites and platforms.

Taboola is the new word in the search engine marketing world. This tool is the perfect combination of Native Advertising and Content Marketing tools. Instead of spending your budget on less effective paid banners, you’re better off spending your time and money on the monetization of your branded content. Taboola will help you bring targeted highly engaged traffic to your dedicated landing pages, blog posts, infographics or other viral content via third party publisher sites where your content will be featured as sponsored, relevant material. Simillar approaches are offered by Zemanta and Outbrain.

Conversion Rate Optimization Tools

Conversion is at the top of the digital marketing funnel. If you master the subtleties of conversion rate optimization, you will benefit from well converted traffic and high rankings. Your landing pages are the first content assets on which to run A/B optimization tests in order to make changes that can boost your website conversion rate. Here are some tools that will help you.

Clicktale is designed specifically for the analysis of user behavior on your website. Features provided by the platform include Conversion Analytics, Experience Center and Session Replays. The pricing is based on the solution you buy.

Crazy Egg is a great and easy-to-use heat map tracking tool. You will love it because it gives you a view of what areas of your landing pages are more and less clickable. This can help to maximize your optimization of valuable spots with call-to-actions in order to generate more conversions.

Tip: Try to keep your list of essential digital marketing tools to a minimum in order to avoid a tool overload. If you spend more time trying to master a tool than on getting results from it, then dump it like Don Draper would have done.

The post 30 Digital Marketing Tools the Real Mad Men Would Have Wanted appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

Are you the one who wants to change or the one who wants to fall behind?

It’s time for our quarterly SEO news recap.  WebCEO has carefully picked for you the hottest news and updates that happened in the fields of SEO, PPC and Social Media.

What’s new in SEO and PPC?

Starting from January 23rd, Google made it easier for advertisers to compare the cost of Google Adwords data with other data in Google Analytics with the help of automatic currency conversion.

The Bing Ads platform continues to improve its competitive ad analysis. On February 18^th, Bing Ads released the Competitive Bid Opportunities feature in its ad optimization toolbox for U.S. advertisers. With this new feature, Bing marketers will be able to see the number of keywords that their ads could show up more often for in comparison to their competitors’ ads.

On March 11^th, Google announced a new report in the Google Webmaster tools called the Blocked Resources report. Now, every webmaster can see the list of CSS, image or JavaScript resources that are not accessible for GoogleBots because of being blocked. Besides, now, when you use the Google Fetch and Render tool you are provided two side-by-side screenshots of how your page is seen by Googlebots and by a typical user.

At the beginning of March an SEO rumor started to run that Google is working on a new ranking algorithm based on a site’s truth score instead of its popularity score. This means that in the near future websites that host contradictory or “false” information will be ranked lower than those that have established trust with Google.

On March 16^th, Google announced the release of a new ranking adjustment aimed at better handling of doorway pages in search results. It is considered to be a red flag for website owners and webmasters to build multiple doorway pages in order to maximize their search footprint.

During the last three months, Google has been strongly advising webmasters and website owners to make their sites mobile-friendly for the sake of a better mobile user experience. They have pointed to an upcoming Google Mobile-Friendly Algorithm release. To make mobile optimization easier for us, the Google team keeps on developing its Mobile-Friendly Testing tool, Mobile Usability report and step-by-step webmaster guides. Before it is too late, jump to the WebCEO Mobile Optimization reporting tool and fix all the mobile usability issues you have in order to get your website ready for a mobile-friendly ranking boost.

What’s new in Social Media?  

Facebook is considered to be the most powerful social media platform for communication and business promotion. It continues to walk the talk by adding new features and tools for a better user experience from both personal and business page owners.

One of the latest updates (January 7th) on Facebook, for marketers and business owners, was the incorporation of additional call-to-action buttons at the bottom of business page covers. At the moment, 7 call-to-action options are available:

On January 27^th, Facebook updated its advertising platform by adding conversion lift. Conversion lift works as a kind of A/B testing and helps to measure the impact of Facebook ads on the bottom line of your business. Then, in the middle of February, the ad relevance score and product ads were added to the Facebook Ads.

On March 13^th Facebook informed us about acquiring the top shopping search engine, the Find. Facebook explained that the goal of the acquisition was to improve the quality and relevance of ads for users.

On March 17^th it was announced that those who use Facebook for communication or freelance soon will be able to send or receive money via Facebook Messenger in an easy, no-cost and secure way. Speculations are that the payment system within Facebook won’t become popular among users because of a potential lack of trust of users in the social network. Learn about how marketers can use some of the newly added features on Facebook.

On March 2, Google declared the official death of Google+, sorry, its reorganization (LOL).  Google+ will never be the same again. It will roll into Google’s Photos and Streams product.

Another major event in the social media world is the announcement about a Google-Twitter partnership. On March 20^th, it became known that Google and Twitter reached an agreement about providing the search engine giant with access to Twitter’s stream, Firehose. This means that Google will now be able to index the huge number of tweets (9,000) per second in order to provide users with timely global information. In the past (2009), Google and Twitter used to work together and started the so-called Real-Time search on Google, but the partnership ended in 2011. Let’s see how long their partnership will last this time.

These are the biggest updates of the first quarter of 2015. Remeber, the best way to improve your marketing strategy is to keep up with the changes digital marketing brings.

The post Digital Marketing News Recap: What Is New in SEO, PPC and Social Media? appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

Where would Dorothy be without her fictional friends on that memorable journey down the Yellow Brick Road? There would be no book and forget about the many adaptations that followed.

She never would have navigated her trek to the magical land of Oz without a great deal of help from Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, and Dorothy overcame many challenges from the evil sister, the wicked one from the West. This is a perfect analogy for a successful social media marketing strategy. Think of it this way, we can be Glinda and guide our friends Dorothy, the scarecrow, the tin woodsman and lion down their path. We will learn from the obstacles that the Wicked Witch tosses at Dorothy’s feet to throw her off her trek to buying success.

Just as Dorothy learned to adapt to the magic and wonderment within the world of Oz, gathering friends along the way, brands need to continue their journey and learn how to master social media. To effectively manage this, utilizing WebCEO’s Social Metrics tool can help you track and analyze your social media performance, ensuring you meet your end goals.

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME – The Comfort Zone

 Even though she wasn’t in the market for a new pair of ruby red shoes, Dorothy got them nonetheless, because she needed them. While she didn’t know that she needed them in the beginning, she ultimately understood the importance of them. Likewise, users feel comfortable on the social sites they like to follow and will often consider an item that they didn’t know they wanted or needed until it was effectively presented to them.

WE’RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE – Emotional connection is key

Dorothy connected with her strange, new friends by sharing with them how much she missed her Auntie Em and life on the farm in Kansas. Connect with your new social media friends this way, on an emotional level, before you try to cram a product down their throat.

Walt Disney World, for example, is one of the most popular brands on Facebook. Boasting over 45 million fans, the key to their following is that they understand and know their target audience. At first, you would think Disney would target kids, teenagers and young adults, but according to statistics, the highest percentage of their Facebook followers is within the 34-54 year-old age bracket. After all, it’s the parents who want to book and plan Disney vacations with their families.

When taking a look at their Facebook fan page, Disney connects with their audience by sharing a mixture of nostalgia-inducing images, exciting videos and updates from around the resorts — all to entice families around the world to book their next trip.

FOLLOW, FOLLOW, FOLLOW, FOLLOW – Consistent versus Persistent

Those cute little Munchkins repeated their follow advice over and over again, but showing persistence is better than consistency in this case. If no one is listening to your message, change the angle! Consider taking a different approach with your content and see how your audience responds. Once they do, be sure to engage with them appropriately and follow them on their journey.

CLICK YOUR HEELS TOGETHER – Show them the way

Once you have engaged a potential customer, show them precisely and concisely, neatly and sweetly, and ever so completely, exactly what they need to do and where they should go. Dorothy wasn’t aware she already had the tools and ability to go home the entire time she was in Oz. Unfortunately, customers won’t nearly have as much patience, and they will often prefer the quick trip to the Wizard and skip the Dorothy drama.

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW – Unfamiliar territory

Consumers won’t last long in a tornado — a twisting, swirling ride to an unknown place — but once they leave their “home” social site, they are in unfamiliar territory just like when Dorothy emerged from her shaken-up house in Munchkinland. Odds are there will be no cute, little friendly advisors available on your websitee, so explain their destination to them before and after they arrive. Your landing page should have a clear-cut route aimed directly at their purchase.

BACK TO KANSAS – Bring them back home

Dorothy awoke back home after completing her fantastical journey, learning from her mistakes, and conquering the Wicked Witch. By avoiding unnecessary social media challenges, you can give your social media traveler the quickest route to your product and let them feel at home using it and praising you on their social media platforms. Just as Dorothy’s family and friends were there to greet her, remember your buyer and thank them for their adventure. If you aren’t already following them on social media, do so then and there.

There’s no place like home, and there’s nothing better than a successful journey that brings us a new friend and customer.

The post Follow the Yellow Brick Road to Fit the Buyer’s Journey by Customizing Your Social Media appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

Welcome to Fright Night (also known as All Hallows Eve which comes before All Saint’s Day)! We are all anxiously awaiting the second most commercially successful holiday in the United States. Social media explodes during this time of year, whether they are posting pictures of their cutely costumed kids or showcasing their ornately carved pumpkins, the social network platforms light up like a Jack O’ Lantern in October.

Americans spend over 7 billion dollars a year on Halloween related items with the average consumer bleeding around $77 dollars from their wallets. How can we cast a spell on all our social media trick or treaters and have them coming to our haunted house for Halloween? What sort of tools do we need to carve out our niche on these pumpkin filled platforms for some screaming success?

Here are five, eerily effective and uniquely unmasked ways to watch your online cauldron boil over with devilish delight:

#1 – SCARY SWAP

Facebook has a site for National Costume Swap Day, which is a relatively new trend online. See if there is already one in your area and if not, start one up. Whether you are promoting your own event or sharing one with others, you can still have a ghoulishly good time connecting with your freaky new friends.

#2 – TERRIFYING TWEETS

Consider challenging your audience to a “most terrifying tweet” contest or perhaps a “cutest costume” campaign for kids or pets (kids, cats and dogs rule social media).

To get your hashtag really moving, think about turning your brand or company into something more Halloween relevant just for the spooky season. For example, Mary’s Pizza could become #scarymaryspizza or Ted’s Auto Repair might be termed #terribletedsauto. Search for Halloween terms online and you’ll see a whole vocabulary of frightening words and phrases to use.

Even if you don’t promote an actual contest or event, you can still Tweet, post and pin your Halloween themed messages and ask that others do the same. You will connect positively with your audience, engaging them to share their own macabre messages.

#3 – FREAKY FREEBIES

Everyone loves free stuff, especially around the holidays. Offer your audience a variety of different Halloween themed items, for example you can upload pumpkin carving templates, party planning tips, alternative pumpkin recipes, any other unique or original ideas you may have. When you post these on a social media site, give a partial intro for your item and then link it back to your website or blog.

#4 – ZOMBIE ZONE

Using a specific theme or popular character, like zombies, sponsor a new local event that you can repeat annually. You could have a Zombie Zone at a neighborhood park, play Zombie football, baseball, basketball or go golfing with Ghosts and Ghouls. Start a new charity, a Witches Walk for Wildlife Preservation or a costumed run for disease research. Promote your event on various platforms, link registration and other details back to your website or blog. These types of get-togethers are growing in popularity and give your brand a positive image.

#5 – PULVERIZING PUMPKINS

Smashing pumpkins (not the defunct rock band) is a popular Halloween pastime. Start a campaign or contest inviting users to upload their photos and videos of them doing so. Ask for original ways that they are pulverizing their Jack O’ Lanterns, carved or whole. Offer your own unique method with which you destroyed your Halloween fruit. Don’t just drop one off a rooftop, try something different, a sledge hammer perhaps, maybe drive over one with your pickup truck. You’ll see a lot of traffic and attention for viewing these images.

Now that Halloween is almost here, before long we will be ringing in the New Year. Get your spook on and be ready to ramp up your marketing strategies for the holiday season. Make sure to analyze your social media marketing effectiveness using the social media monitoring tools from Web CEO.

The post 5 Spookily Effective Social Media Tactics to Drive Your Marketing This Halloween appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.