Search Engine Optimisation - Let's Talk About Links By: AlterSage Consultants | - If you were to think of Search Engine Optimisation rankings as being the top of a three-legged stool, the three considerations (or legs) that would support the seat are: technical considerations(such as keyword density, meta-tags, mark-up), content considerations (keyword strategy, structure of content, synonyms, readability) and finally "expertness."
Because search engines are all about delivering the most relevant results for specific search queries, they all look for sign ... Tags:AlterSage, online marketing, SEO, link building
The Location Game By: AlterSage Consultants | - While Twitter asks, "What are you doing?", location-based apps like Foursquare and Gowalla ask users to "check in" wherever it is they're doing it. They show users' friends where they are, provide venue information, and integrate "gaming" elements - users can earn both virtual and tangible incentives for particular actions. Because of their social qualities, checking in to a location is also a new way for users to make recommendations to their friends.
Location-based apps have opened up a ... Tags:AlterSage, online marketing, mobile marketing
Is Your Website Optimised For Mobile Visitors? By: AlterSage Consultants | - More and more people are accessing the Internet via their mobile phones. Have you recently checked your website on a mobile phone to see how it renders? Is the mobile version of your website easy to navigate and can it be used to find information related to your brand, or does it look all jumbled and distorted?
How do you know if people are using mobile devices to view your website?
Mobile Marketing: I Want It Now By: AlterSage Consultants | - If you're out in an unfamiliar city, desperately craving a particular food, what's the logical next step? For most people, it's consulting a mobile device. You might use a general app to browse reviews of area restaurants, use a particular chain restaurant's app to find their nearest location, or simply search for what you want on Google.
Whichever approach you take, though, you're seeking a specific thing (a particular type of restaurant), in a specific place (wherever you ... Tags:AlterSage, online marketing, mobile marketing, SEO
Five Effective Link Building Strategies By: AlterSage Consultants | - Link building is, without a doubt, the most tedious and time-consuming task facing any SEO or webmaster. Like it or not though, link building is a fundamental and important part of the Search Engine Optimisation process. Search engine algorithms do take links into consideration when ranking sites, and there is no substitute for high-quality backlinks when trying to show a sites authority or expert status.
Social Media - Where Less Can Be More By: AlterSage Consultants | - Nowadays it seems as if virtually every brand is engaging with social media in some way or another. Many get it right, others are doing okay, and some are doing it in all the wrong ways.
Engaging on social media platforms can be easier said than done. A social media strategy takes a lot of thought, planning and tweaking--not only at the outset, but continuously. Some brands want to have a presence on ALL social media platforms regardless of whether or not the network is ... Tags:AlterSage, online marketing, social media marketing
How Do You Measure Roi In Social Media Marketing? By: AlterSage Consultants | - One of digital marketing's big selling points is that it is completely measurable. The same is true for social media, although calculating ROI can be a little more challenging in this channel than in others.
On channels like pay per click, search engine optimisation and email marketing, for example, the metrics to track and measure your goals are a little more obvious. In many instances, these goals are defined by clicks, sign-ups or purchases. This is more of a hard-sell and d ... Tags:AlterSage, online marketing, social media marketing, ROI
Seo For Dummies By: AlterSage Consultants | - I was recently invited to speak at an event orchestrated to give small business owners an overview of the e-marketing landscape. I thought Id go in, give an overview of SEO, and provide some practical SEO tips for those delegates who possibly didnt have the budget for a full-blown campaign.
I was met with a few blank stares, which made me realise that a lot of SEO still goes over the heads of most people. Thats not to say that they dont know what it is, and most pe ... Tags:altersage, online marketing, seo, search engine optimisation
Twitter Tips: Make Yourself Heard By: AlterSage Consultants | - 50 million tweets are created each day. This has several implications for business owners who participate (or are considering participating) in social media marketing. First, it means that a lot of people, and a lot of companies, are tweeting. Your competitors are likely among them. If using Twitter as a means of communicating with customers has practical potential for your company and industry, join in now. It's a valuable means of liaising with consumers, and you don't want your competitors t ... Tags:AlterSage, online marketing, social media marketing, twitter
Results From A Seo Campaign By: AlterSage Consultants | - I received an email earlier this week in which someone asked for how many keywords and key-phrases would AlterSage be able to guarantee number one rankings for a particular website? My response? We (or any other agency!) cannot guarantee that your website will rank number one for particular keywords and key-phrases on search engine result pages (SERPs).
A Few Seo Tips By: AlterSage Consultants | - With approximately 34 000 searches per second taking place on Google it makes sense that marketers would want your brands websites to rank well on search engine result pages (SERPs). This is where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes into the picture. To summarise, SEO is an ongoing marketing activity that ensures your website is well-optimised for both search engines and human visitors.
Mission Control And Integrated Marketing By: AlterSage Consultants | - The emergence of online marketing as the hot new thing doesnt necessarily mean that traditional methods of marketing (print ads, billboards, commercials, etc.) are falling by the wayside. In fact, many major companies are rolling out integrated campaigns that combine traditional and online marketing in strategic, clever and innovative ways.
The Pepsi-owned sports drink Gatorade, for example, recently added a Mission Control Center to its headquarters so that members o ... Tags:AlterSage, online marketing, social media, SEO, SEM
Marketing Results Through Organic Search By: AlterSage Consultants | - Google handles approximately 34,000 search queries per second. Think about that for a minute that is 2,040,000 searches per minute and 122,400,000 searches per hour. Consumers are looking for information and they want relevant, informative content.
As an online marketing tool, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) forms the foundation of a digital strategy. Have you ever considered how easily current and potential clients are able to find you via search engines? If they ... Tags:AlterSage, online marketing, SEO, search engine optimization
Four Seo Myths Debunked By: AlterSage Consultants | - There have been numerous conversations online about the real value of SEO and whether or not it is worth investing time and money in an SEO campaign. As an online marketing agency specialising in SEO we are often faced with difficult SEO-related questions, hence this blog post. :) Below are four of the most common (non-technical) SEO myths that we hear most often.
1. SEO is only needed as a once-off or short-term campaign
When It Comes To Seo, Content Is Still King By: AlterSage Consultants | - Is a websites content really that important? If you want to rank well on search engines, yes. Search engines are all about content. When searchers type in a query on a search engine, it produces search results that show the most relevant content in its repository based on the keywords in the query.
Quality website content is king. Google handles about 34 000 searches per second. Think about that for a minute that is 2 040 000 searches per minute and 122 400 000 sea ... Tags:AlterSage, online marketing, SEO, search engine optimization
Email Marketing Best Practises By: AlterSage Consultants | - We've been talking a lot about Email Marketing this month on the AlterSage blog. We've covered a diverse number of topics including using Email Marketing as an effective customer relationship management tool, how to drive ROI from Email Marketing and the importance of segmenting subscribers.
Now to round off this series of blog posts we thought it'd be a good idea to get back to basics and talk a little more generally about Email Marketing best practises and etiquette. Here ar ... Tags:AlterSage, online marketing, email marketing
The Benefits Of Analytics By: AlterSage Consultants | - The importance of having a well-designed and user-friendly website has been highlighted many times, yet once the website design and development processes are complete, thats really only the beginning! Maintaining a website requires a constant investment of time and effort and in our opinion a website should always be regarded as "a work in progress".
It is important to measure what happens on your website; for instance how visitors find it, where they enter the website and h ... Tags:AlterSage, online marketing, SEO, website analytics
Benchmarking With Google Analytics By: AlterSage Consultants | - Last year Google announced a nifty new feature to Google Analytics called Benchmarking. Benchmarking allows you to compare your website to similar-sized websites in the same industry vertical. Websites are grouped based on the number of visitors they receive and are classified as small, medium or large.
You can only view statistics for websites of a similar size to yours, for instance if you have a medium-sized website you can only view benchmarking data for medium-sized we ... Tags:AlterSage, online marketing, SEO, website analytics
Advanced Segments With Google Analytics By: AlterSage Consultants | - Google Analytics is a fantastic, enterprise grade analytics programme that features great advanced functionality. We've already explored the importance of using analytics to understand how your visitors are interacting with your website and how you can use this information to improve your sites usability and maximise conversion. Today, we'd like to look at this in a little more detail.
Social Media Strategies And Tools By: AlterSage Consultants | - Everyone seems to be jumping on the social media bandwagon, although not everyone understands the time investment needed to run a successful social media campaign. Social media is not a once-off activity and interaction needs to be consistent and happen almost instantly.
As part of a business' integrated marketing strategy, social media plays a valuable role. To make sure you get it right, you need to create a social media strategy. Determine where your target audience are sp ... Tags:AlterSage, online marketing, social media, social marketing
Custom Reporting In Google Analytics By: AlterSage Consultants | - Back in late 2008, Google announced several enterprise-class features that were added to Google Analytics. These served to further enhance Analytics' customisation and functionality for power-users. One of these new features was Custom Reporting.
Custom Reports essentially enable you to create your own metrics dashboard, quickly and easily. This allows for meaningful and customised analysis. They are most useful when you want to combine metrics with dimensions that are not alr ... Tags:AlterSage, online marketing, SEO, website analytics
E-commerce Tracking In Google Analytics By: AlterSage Consultants | - The purpose of website conversion analytics is to track activity on your site, to analyse this data and then to optimise the site for better performance. One of the (many) great features in Google Analytics is that it allows you to accurately track and measure e-commerce transactions. This not only allows you to calculate the ROI of your various marketing campaigns quickly, but also allows you greater insights into how visitors are interacting with your site and your products.
Website Analytics - Make Your Emarketing Matter By: AlterSage Consultants | - With the Reserve Bank reducing interest rates by another 50 basis points in South Africa this week, it seems that the country is officially out of its financial slump. While this may free up a bit of extra cash for consumers, and will hopefully boost spending and consumer confidence, lessons have undoubtedly been learnt during the lean times we experienced during 2009.
Online Reputation Management And Social Media By: AlterSage Consultants | - Customer relationship management is an important activity for any brand or business. As the new word-of-mouth, social media generates many conversations online and many of them revolve around consumers' brand experiences. Are you monitoring what is being said about your brand online and do you have an online reputation management strategy in place?
Invite Your Customers To Bring Their Friends With Them By: AlterSage Consultants | - By integrating social media data into your website or blog, you're not only able to build niche communities quickly and easily (without your members having to complete a whole new signup process) but you're also allowing them to bring their friends with them. This is powerful as it allows you greater penetration to other networks of potential new customers. Best of all, if executed correctly, this interaction with potential new customers comes via a referral from a "friend" rather than being an ... Tags:AlterSage, online marketing, social marketing, social media
Social Media And Seo's Love Affair By: AlterSage Consultants | - There are many benefits of combining social media and SEO, the main advantage being increased visibility for your brand's social network profiles on search engines. How? By using the analytics data derived from your website (gathered by an analytics package like Google Analytics) you can optimise your social media outputs with the SEO campaign's most popular keywords and key-phrases.
The Social Media Secret By: AlterSage Consultants | - I am going to put you all out of your misery right now and tell you the most profound truth about social media marketing. I plan to reveal the very source of its power. What is it, you ask? Putting people in touch with other people. There, I said it.
So, now you have it. Theres no mystical power behind this new method of marketing. Social media simply presents new ways to do an old thing talk to people.
How To Really Fail At Social Media By: AlterSage Consultants | - Want to know what not to do on social media platforms? Below are few points to keep in mind if you are in charge of your brand's social media campaign.
Use your Twitter profile and Facebook fan page to push out marketing messages
Social media thrive on conversation and engagement. Brands that don't engage with followers and offer content of value will not succeed with their social media campaign. Implement a content strategy that will help to determine what type of co ... Tags:AlterSage, online marketing, social media, social marketing
The Mobile Web Is Closing The Digital Divide By: AlterSage Consultants | - A recent study published by the Pew Research Center in the United States shows that American teenagers from historically less-affluent communities are increasingly using the mobile web to access the internet.
While it's well-established that teenagers love their cell phones, with text messaging probably being the predominant method of communication, globally, the mobile web has been slightly slower to penetrate among teenagers aged 12 to 17.
Why You Should Invest In Ppc By: AlterSage Consultants | - Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising is a valuable online marketing channel that can not only drive traffic to your website quickly, but can also be a great lead generation tool. PPC can be used in conjunction with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to ensure that a website receives traffic whilst the SEO campaign is still acquiring rankings for the website on search engines. PPC is the best way to see immediate and targeted traffic.
Tips For Writing Effective Ppc Ad Copy By: AlterSage Consultants | - If you're running a PPC campaign, your ad copy is what will entice Internet users to click on your advertisement. Of course, PPC Adverts are ranked by two factors, namely your Cost-Per-Click (CPC) bid and your ads Quality Score. Ranking well ensures that the advert enjoys the maximum number of impressions. Once you've got eyes on the ads, the next step is to ensure targeted clicks on the ad itself.
Ppc - Where To Start? By: AlterSage Consultants | - Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is a good method of driving targeted visitors to your site immediately. Its application is probably most effective for specific promotions or when advertising specific products or services.
Note that I used the word "specific" twice. This is because when you're paying for clicks, it makes sense to target your campaigns as acutely as possible to maximise your conversions and keep your cost per acquisition as low as possible. This is what really boosts t ... Tags:AlterSage, online marketing, PPC, pay per click
Tips For Effective Landing Pages By: AlterSage Consultants | - In a previous post we discussed the importance of landing pages in a PPC campaign and why it is necessary for a PPC advert to link to the most relevant page on your website. To recap, a landing page is the page visitors are directed to after they have clicked on a link or an advert. The aim of a landing page should be to convert the lead, and the landing page should contain content or products relevant to the advertisements copy.
Add Search Muscle To Your Marketing Strategy By: AlterSage Consultants | - Very few marketers consider Search Engine Marketing (SEM) when they plan or revise their marketing strategies. SEM comprises Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising and when these two online channels are combined your website can enjoy increased visibility on search engines and an increased percentage of successful lead acquisitions.
How Website Analytics Can Improve Your Business By: AlterSage Consultants | - Every business needs a website where current and potential clients can find more information about their business and service offering, but merely having a website is not enough. This is just the first step in reaching and converting your visitors into customers.
A website provides another channel through which you can promote your business and increase leads and sales. In most cases, if a website doesn't provide leads or new clients it is of little value to the business. Th ... Tags:AlterSage, online marketing, SEO, website analytics
What's So Hard About Being Social? By: AlterSage Consultants | - For a long time now, I've felt that the most effective way to market a business or brand was to target customers with a "through the line" approach. To me this is the integration of all marketing channels where every channel compliments the other in such a way as to ensure maximum penetration and engagement with customers and potential clients.
Ppc Offers Improved Roi And Quick Results By: AlterSage Consultants | - Marketers are constantly on the look-out for new ways to improve their customer acquisition process, yet few companies consider online channels. Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising (also known as paid or sponsored search) is a valuable online marketing channel that works well to drive immediate and targeted traffic to your website. Return on investment (ROI) is the name of the game with PPC, as cost per acquisition can be calculated easily.
Convert Your Website Visitors Into Customers By: AlterSage Consultants | - As a marketing tool, a website provides businesses with an additional avenue to reach potential customers. A well-designed and user-friendly website is only the beginning of your web strategy. To ensure that you reach visitors and convert them into customers, you need to maintain your website and this requires continuous work and adjustment.
In order to ensure your visitors have an optimal experience it is important to measure how visitors engage with your website. Usability pla ... Tags:altersage, website, conversions, leads, sales, roi, strategy
Make The Most Of A Social Media Campaign By: AlterSage Consultants | - Social medias popularity is ever-increasing and not just among consumers. Progressively more brands are seeing the value of social media too and everyone is trying to get their piece of the action. That being said, very few brands have produced unique, mind-blowing social media campaigns.
One reason for this might be that most brands still see social media as a free platform which translates into brands not being prepared to spend money on creating a proper social media ... Tags:altersage, social media, marketing, strategy, platforms, fac
Improve Your Results With Email Marketing By: AlterSage Consultants | - Many of us log into our inboxes several times a day to check our email. This has become an integral part of most peoples working and private lives. Email Marketing capitalises on this prolific touch-point (some may call it obsession) with the online world by placing brands right in front of their customers in their inboxes.
As one of the oldest forms of digital marketing, today Email Marketing is still a primary tool businesses use to promote special offers and to stay in contac ... Tags:altersage, email marketing, crm, newsletters
The Benefits Of Analytics By: AlterSage Consultants | - The importance of having a well-designed and user-friendly website has been highlighted many times, yet once the website design and development processes are complete, thats really only the beginning! Maintaining a website requires a constant investment of time and effort and in our opinion a website should always be regarded as a work in progress.
Crm Is The Secret To Increased Roi From Email Marketing By: AlterSage Consultants | - Email Marketing is one of the most effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) marketing tools and can be used very effectively to improve customer perception of, and engagement with, your brand. Wikipedia defines Customer Relationship Management as:
a broadly recognized, widely-implemented strategy for managing and nurturing a companys interactions with customers and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes ... Tags:altersage, email marketing, newsletters, customer relationsh
Email Marketing Mistakes To Avoid By: AlterSage Consultants | - As part of customer relationship management (CRM), Email Marketing is a notable yet delicate tool that should be used with great care. As a general rule, there are a few well-known email marketing mistakes to avoid including:
- Sending marketing emails and newsletters to individuals that have not opted to receive marketing communications from you
- Selling your subscribers" details to third parties
- Making it difficult for your readers to unsubscribe or update ... Tags:altersage, email marketing, newsletters, customer relationsh
Tips For Effective Email Newsletters By: AlterSage Consultants | - Email Marketing is a direct marketing method and customer relationship management (CRM) device which, if executed correctly, enjoys some of the best returns on investment out of any of the other tools in the eMarketers kit. Email Marketing can be tremendously effective as its power lies in its ability both to broadcast, and also to target individuals with personalised content simultaneously. This ability to customise on a mass scale, combined with low costs per contact and total measura ... Tags:altersage, email marketing, newsletters, customer relationsh
How To Grow Your Email Marketing Subscriber Lists By: AlterSage Consultants | - Email Marketing is a very effective way to speak directly to your customers and clients, ultimately driving engagement which increases leads and sales. But of course, in order for Email Marketing to be successful, targeted messages need to reach the right people. Part of what makes email marketing unique and so effective is its ability both to broadcast, and also to target individuals with personalised content simultaneously.
Tips For More Effective Email Marketing By: AlterSage Consultants | - Email Marketing should form an integral part of your marketing strategy, as its a great tool for establishing relationships, loyalty and ongoing communication with customers. Every brand, no matter how big or small, can benefit from Email Marketing.
Below we have listed a few tips to help you make the most of your Email Marketing campaign.
Ask for permission
Never send an email message or newsletter to recipients who did not opt to receive your marketing commun ... Tags:altersage, crm, customers, email, tips, engage, list
Customer Engagement "€" The Best Way To Get More Out Of Email Marketing By: AlterSage Consultants | - Email marketing is still one of the most powerful (proverbial) arrows in the eMarketers quiver. Email marketing is so effective because it puts your brand and message directly into your customers inboxes many peoples most frequent touch-point with the Internet.
Fundamentally, email marketing is a customer relationship management tool and, when used effectively, this direct marketing method can be used to directly drive customer engagement with your business.
Three Reasons Why Seo Campaigns Fail By: AlterSage Consultants | - For an SEO campaign to be successful, there are many factors that have to be considered. Its important to note that a successful SEO campaign needs constant attention, tweaking and nurturing and is definitely not a once-off process. As a digital marketing agency specialising in SEO, AlterSage has had a lot of experience planning, implementing and managing SEO campaigns for a variety of clients. Below weve identified three reasons why many SEO campaigns fail.
Tips For Achieving Your Marketing Goals In 2010 By: AlterSage | - 2009 is drawing to a close and in terms of marketing, businesses are reflecting on the year that has past and brainstorming new plans and strategies for 2010. Marketing is an essential ingredient for ensuring the success of any business.
When defined, marketing is described as the process of creating awareness for a product or service, influencing consumer purchasing behaviour and encouraging sales. Every marketing manager is constantly aiming to determine the best mix of marketing ... Tags:seo, ppc, altersage, online marketing, digital strategy
Have Your Brand Where Customers Can See It By: AlterSage | - If you need qualified traffic fast, Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is still the easiest and most efficient way to target the right audience. PPC goes hand in hand with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as the foundation of search engine marketing (SEM).
We all know that the internet is big. According to Internetworldstats.com, there are an estimated 1.6-billion people online representing just under a quarter of the worlds population. And people are pretty passionate about ... Tags:online marketing, pay per click advertising, AlterSage
