Posts tagged Finding
Local SEO finding favor among mobile users – Brafton
Aug 17th
 Brafton |
Local SEO finding favor among mobile users
Brafton Highlighting the growing importance of local SEO and mobile marketing, a new study from mobile media company JiWire found that mobile consumers are becoming more comfortable sharing their location information to gain access to relevant content. … |
View full post on SEO – Google News
Business Insight: Tips for finding customers online – Salt Lake Tribune
Aug 16th
 Bikya Masr |
Business Insight: Tips for finding customers online
Salt Lake Tribune Pay-per-click advertising can be useful for testing keywords and finding out what phrases the search engine optimization (SEO) efforts should focus on. Social media can help build links and improve the SEO efforts. SEO also affects maps optimization, … SS Enterprise: Venturing Into SEO And Social Media Strategies SEO Expert for You Offers Search Engine Optimization Services New Jersey Internet Marketing Agency Improves SEO Ranking |
View full post on SEO – Google News
Microsoft Launches Tools for Finding iPhone Apps
Jun 11th
Just because Microsoft has its own mobile operating system called Windows Phone 7, that doesn’t mean it’s above using the popularity of Apple’s iPhone to attract new users to its up-and-coming Bing search engine. For example, this week, the company highlighted a recently added Bing feature called “auto app discovery” by way of a company blog post that describes how the Microsoft search engine is a great tool for finding new iPhone applications.
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Apps in Your Search Results
With Bing’s app discovery feature, normal Web searches will also return results for popular iPhone applications, even if you don’t specifically say “iPhone app” or “mobile app” or something similar in the text of your query.
That means a search for Facebook, for instance, will return the Facebook iPhone app, while a search for a movie may return apps like IMDb or Fandango.
When you explicitly search for iPhone apps, like a search for “top apps,” a category search or a search for a particular app name, the results will also include direct links to the app’s download page.
Not Just Integration with Bing Search Results, Search Within Apps, Too
The most interesting aspect of this new feature is Bing’s ability to actually launch your iPhone apps for you, from the search results. If you have the app installed on your iPhone already, in some cases, Bing will be able to launch the app and take you directly to the search results within the app itself.
In the example posted on Microsoft’s Bing Search blog, a query for “Thor 3D” provides a link to IMDb, as usual. But for those with IMDb installed, clicking “download” opens up the app on your iPhone, with a “Thor 3D” query already in place.
This is a unique use case for Bing, where it’s positioned as an app that aims to replace or augment the more basic app search options built right into the iPhone itself.
Microsoft Building for iPhone Users
It’s not unusual these days to see Microsoft build specifically for the iPhone. It’s already the maker of several iOS applications including OneNote, Windows Live Messenger, Photosynth, Tag Reader Bing and others. Notably, though, it has yet to launch a native Office for iPhone app.
This is also not the first time Microsoft has attempted to leverage the iPhone’s popularity for its own ends: in 2009, Microsoft promoted its new Visual Search feature, which lets you search by flipping through pictures, as yet another tool for iPhone app discovery.
But Bing builds for other mobile devices, too, besides iPhone. For example, this week Bing also launched an update to its mobile browser website at m.bing.com, which supports iPhone, Android and RIM devices running HTML5-compatible browsers. The update brings new features like Facebook sharing options, a news section for U.S. users, split views for maps, search history and trends and more.
In other words, why it initially may be attention grabbing to say “Microsoft” and “iPhone” in the same sentence – (How did this headline work for you, by the way? We had a little fun with that.) – it’s not odd, nor is it even a new move by Microsoft to build things for iPhone users. It’s just business as usual.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
Finding Your Online Customer Base
May 17th
It’s amazing; with the vastness of the Information Highway, there are still potholes to fill. An article on finding your online customer base is one of them. In the SERPs, you get answers like, “add a credit card” or “accept checks online”. Completely useless, so I won’t even get into that. Hopefully this article will provide a better answer.
You can start a Facebook Fan page, a Twitter account, a Quora account, and wait for your customer base to find you. On the other hand, you can go where your customers are.
Where are they, though? Not everybody hangs out at the FB or Twitter water cooler, no matter what the reports say. So what’s a business professional to do? Where can you find your online customer base?
It’s all in the competition
Competitive research can really help you find your customers.
Competitors
“Competitors” for this exercise aren’t necessarily those selling your product or service. Instead, the competitors can be more thought of “topical discussers” – i.e. those talking about the same or relevant things you might talk about.
Once you start the social process, many of these people and businesses could end up being the same ones you friend, follow, poke, prod and otherwise befriend. Also, remember social competition isn’t necessarily the same as your online business competition.
Your social competitors can be considered as:
- Informational/Educational sites about your industry
- Product/Service review sites (if your industry is listed)
- Offline competitors with an online presence
- Top ten results in the SERPs for your targeted terms
That narrows things down a bit, doesn’t it? Let’s filter the results a little more, because you might end up with 30, 40 or even more to start with.
Stay with me. Just a few more things, then we can put it all together…
Socializing
Gather your list, whether you just put it in a Word document, Excel or a piece of paper (we prefer Excel). Start visiting these sites. What you’re looking for are sites with blogs and/or social accounts. Remove the sites in your list without these social aspects.
It’s important to note that, even if your competitors are on a specific social platform doesn’t mean you should do the same. They may not have done research to find their customer base, and just followed the crowd. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with socializing and positioning yourself with these “competitors”. With social, there are enough various approaches that partnering may not be a bad thing.
Researching Your Findings
Now that you have a list, it’s time to spend some of your time checking blogs, seeing the type of communication they have with their readers, etc.
Visit your competitors’ social accounts:
- Do they have followers, fans, etc.?
- What are they talking about?
- Are people responding?
- What hashtags (Twitter) or terms are they using with their accounts, if any?
- What lists (Twitter) have they been listed under by followers?
- How active is their Fan page (FB)?
*Bonus Tips:
- If you already have a Twitter account, you can compare how your tweets are doing against a competitor by using Twitter Counter.
- You can speed up the time by using Tweet Stats to analyze your competitors’ accounts.
- You can find a whole slew of Twitter tools and addons (some work with Facebook and other social) at One Forty. Many might be useful in your researching.
Visit your competitors’ blogs:
- Are people commenting on these blogs?
- What topics do the blogs cover?
- Does the blog allow sharing on social networks? Which ones?
- Are people sharing these blogs on social networks? Which ones?
Overall, you want to find out if the social accounts your competitors are using can also be used as your customer base. As well, you want to find out if blogs are working for your competitors, because keeping up with blogging is a full time operation; you want to make sure it will be worth it for your company.
Search
If any of your competitors are using Twitter and non-branded hashtags, record those hashtags (example: #SEO) on your Excel or Word document. Then, go to Google Real Time Search and search for each hashtag. What you’re looking for here is:
- Relevant tags to your business and
- Which ones bring the highest RTs, comments, etc. from others
For example, a GRT search for #real estate italy will bring back few results. This indicates that, if you’re in Italian real estate, Twitter may not be the best place for you.
As well, visit the Videos search:
- Search for competitors’ names
- Search for the same words they used with Twitter hashtags
- Record the terms with 1) the most video results and 2) the most comments/views
Finally, use the Discussions search, using the same criteria.
* Bonus tip: If they’re using hashtags, look at tweetreach.com and see how far their hashtags reach is actually going. You would be amazed at how much power some of these RT’s have. Nothing wrong with positioning yourself with them.
Putting It All Together
By the time you’re done with all the research, you should have a pretty good idea of where your online customer base is hiding. Just in case, here’s a good checklist to follow for each potential place (download the large version here or by clicking the image below):
- Are my competitors using [social platform]?
- Have they gained a strong following?
- Are followers actively RTing, commenting, responding?
- Is this a good place, based on all the information, for me to put my time?
- If yes, how long will I test [social platform]?
- What metrics will I use to decide whether I should continue using [social platform] after [testing period]?
If you take notes during this exercise, you should also have:
- A list of hashtags you can use for a Twitter campaign
- A list of potential topics to cover/post/broadcast on Facebook
- A list of potential forums or discussion groups to join
- A list of potential topics for your own blog
- A list of potential social platforms to target
Taking It Offline
If you have an offline presence, don’t forget to include your social accounts (once you know which ones you’ll be using) on your business papers. Sometimes, a business begins building an online customer base by starting with the one they already have – offline. As well, depending on your industry, you might be able to ask your customers/clients what social accounts they use.
Conclusion
This isn’t a small undertaking. You may be saying, “This will take hours! I don’t have time for this!” My question to you is, do you have time to build a customer base? How about, do you have time to reach out to your target market, get better conversions, provide better customer service and build your business?
No matter how long this type of research takes, don’t give up. Keep in mind that, what you’re ultimately doing is building your business on real results, rather than wasting your time with efforts that go nowhere. This is something you can track with hard data, no guessing. How many of us think we know only to find out we had no clue? We’d love to hear your thoughts!
Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.
Finding Your Online Customer Base
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Tax Attorney in Pittsburgh, PA, Uses SEO Firm to Make Finding Back Tax Help on … – PR.com (press release)
Apr 3rd
 openPR (press release) |
Tax Attorney in Pittsburgh, PA, Uses SEO Firm to Make Finding Back Tax Help on …
PR.com (press release) By using SEO, Prospect Genius has created a Web site for Internal Tax Resolution in a way that raises their company's prominence on search engine results pages. This not only helps the company but it also makes it easier for customers to find local … Appliance Pros in Alvin, TX, Hire Web Marketing Company to Serve Clients … Tax Attorney in Minneapolis, MN, Hires Web Marketing Pro to Help Area Clients … |
View full post on SEO – Google News
AOL Has Algorithm For Finding Content Topics For Reporters
Feb 10th
The Columbia Journalism Review mentioned AOL’s Demand/ROI tool and how it is being used to find topics that will generate pageviews and ROI – along with the news that AOL is hiring reporters.
Demand/ROI is “used to suggest to writers topics that they should write about, either on a seasonal demand basis, or on a trending topic basis. While journalists aren’t restricted to only write about demand topics, they are a good keyword / topic source of data for them,” Simon Heseltine, AOL’s Head of Search, said.
Click to read the rest of this post…
View full post on Search Engine Watch Blog
How Link Building Has Helped In Finding the Right SEO Company – PowerHomeBiz.com (press release)
Jan 25th
 StuckOn |
How Link Building Has Helped In Finding the Right SEO Company
PowerHomeBiz.com (press release) January 25, 2011 (PowerHomeBiz.com) – It is important that a SEO company knows how it will be able to provide correct SEO practices. … How To Use Twitter To Boost Your Google Rankings What's going on in 2011 Link schemes are like a leprechaun's gold |
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89% Find Search Engines Do Good Job Finding Information, But “Noise” Is Issue
Jan 15th
Has Google’s relevancy gotten worse? A recent opinion poll suggests not, while at the same time confirming a concern that’s been rising in anecdotal accounts — there’s too much “noise” surrounding the “signal.” Rasmussen Reports surveyed 740 adult…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
View full post on Search Engine Land: News About Search Engines & Search Marketing
