5 Smart Ways to Use Google Analytics

If you’re looking to track the effectiveness of your pay per click campaign, Google Analytics has you covered, no question. However, there’s much more to Google Analytics than just checking PPC management or your website visits. That is just the tip of the iceberg.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how you can effectively use Google Analytics’ goal setting tool.

Ask yourself these five key questions and let Google Analytics guide you to an evergreen path.

1. Do My Visitors Actually Read Stuff On My Site? – Track Visitor Engagement

“Are my users engaged with my site?” This is probably the single most important question you can ask. Google Analytics will not magically tell you that “Your visitors love your site because they are very engaged in it.” No. To determine whether your visitors are engaged, you can track how long they stay on your site. Longer stay = engaged users.

To set this goal, click on your ‘Admin’ section and hover over the ‘Goals’ tab. Type in the name of your goal, something like “Visitor Engagement”. The type of goal is ‘Visit Duration’ then on ‘Goal Details’, set the condition to greater than three minutes. Google Analytics will then do its thing and you can visit your results in the Goals Overview page. Whatever the result may be, you can and must continue to improve on it.

 

1. What Are Visitors Looking For In My Site? – Enable Site Search Tracking

Site search is very important in tracking keywords because these keywords tell you what visitors are looking for on your site. Remember, Google Analytics helps you in your never-ending saga of learning about your target market’s needs and wants, which is why we must take in all that we can. To enable site search tracking, go to your website settings. On the ‘Main Website Profile Information’ box, click ‘edit’. On the site search option, select ‘Do Track Site Search”. To view your data results, go to ‘View Reports’, click on ‘Content’ and lastly ‘Site Search’. Found it? Great!

1. Where Are You Going? – Track Outbound Links

After visitors land on your site, where do they go? Sniffing out your visitors’ tracks is important because it gives you an idea of their thinking. To track your outbound links, copy the outbound links tracking code below your Google Analytics tracking code. Clicked outbound links are then converted to an onclick function and you can then view your results in the events page.

1. How Long Does My Site Take To Load? – Check Site Speed

Site speed is often an overlooked element in SEO. If you’re unconvinced that site speed is important, you should know that Google considers your site speed in your page rank. More importantly, site speed is crucial for user experience. If your site is loading slowly, you can expect visitors to just bounce out. To track site speed with Google Analytics, go to ‘View Reports’ then ‘Content’ and click on ‘Site Speed’. If there is a high bounce rate in pages that take a longer time to load, then there is a need to optimize these pages. Site speed gives very useful data because you can measure how load speed affects conversion rates. You can also find out data like on which browser your site loads the fastest.

1. Did I Reach My Goals? – Track Your Goals

Goals aren’t there to just look at. Check your reports regularly to see if you are anywhere near your goals. If you aren’t, use the data you have collected in Google Analytics to make improvements. A very useful feature here is adding annotations in results to indicate which actions you have taken that greatly improved your results. You can do this by clicking on the down arrow under the visual graph, then click ‘Create New Annotation’.

There is so much data you can harvest from Google Analytics, but let’s keep it simple. Bear in mind that Google Analytics is there for two prime reasons. First, to help you learn about your target market, and second, to help you learn more about your site – what works, what doesn’t.

The job of Google Analytics stops there. The data you gather is naturally very important, but not as important as what you then do with it. Invest as much time as you can afford in learning how to decode the raw data in Google Analytics to maximize how you can give your site an enormous boost.

There’s lots more to consider in using Google Analytics effectively, but asking these five questions–and answering them by configuring Analytics to suit your needs–is a great way to get started.

Top 5 Tips to Take Advantage of Social SEO

2013 has seen a huge shift in search engines using social media when gauging a website’s rankings in search results. As search goes social, there is a new concept of social SEO that has been emerging, albeit gradually. With the competition to grab webspace growing by the day, search engines have started looking at ‘holistic’ ways of determining a website’s popularity, and social signals seem to be a pretty good indication.

Social media activity is therefore being seen as genuine measure of a business’s online reputation – it’s hard to fake Shares, and Re-posts on social networks. Though one can buy Followers and Likes, with new tools emerging to detect fake/inactive followers on Twitter, it won’t be long before search engines start getting more discerning, too. Needless to say, fake likes and followers don’t help your brand’s social engagement cause much.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="223"] Blog SEO Social Media[/caption]

So, what your business needs are effective social media strategies that can help you with your SEO:

1. Brand your posts: Don’t just restrict yourself to having an account on each of the major social networking sites – share information on them too. And when you post stuff on these networks, make sure you feature your brand name on as many posts as possible. It helps build a better brand identity among your fans and also makes Google’s search algorithms recognize your brand name as keywords when deciding your website’s rank.

For instance, whenever you post anything new on Twitter, make sure you use the hashtag (#) followed by your brand name.

2. Feature your social accounts on your website’s homepage: Google needs to recognize the interconnecting of your website and your social accounts. You can make Google’s job easier by including links to your social accounts on your homepage, which it can recognize when crawling. This way, Google can associate your social activity with your website and help you improve your rankings. It also lends credibility to your social accounts.

3. Be present on Google+: This may sound a tad bit selfish on Google’s part, but if the most popular search engine has its own social network, you have no choice but to focus some of your social SEO efforts on building a Google+ profile for your company. Google has been found to give higher rankings to businesses that have an active presence on their social network, so if you haven’t already, please get started!

4. Get indexed faster by being active on Twitter: Twitter profiles and posts tend to get indexed faster by search engines than most website pages. So, if you want your blog posts and new pages to get indexed faster, make sure you share their links in the form of tweets through your Twitter account. Tweet about your most recent PR event or the latest product you have launched, and feature links to your website in these tweets for faster indexing.

5. Build your followers: More is definitely merrier and this works in the case of social networks, too. Having a large fan base on your social accounts just helps build your brand’s credibility. It’s not surprising then that Google will rank your site higher if you have more Facebook fans or Twitter followers. Also, a higher number of followers would just increase the likelihood of your content being shared and re-posted across social networks to a greater extent!

These tips should help you gain maximum leverage from social SEO in 2013! Good Luck!

Original Article

Facebook Marketing Tips For Beginners

Everyone, absolutely everyone, seems to be using Facebook now. According to Facebook's own statistics, people spend more than 700 billion minutes monthly on the platform. Wow!  Therefore, it's essential that your company explore ways that your audience segments are using the social networking platform and develop a corresponding plan. Too many companies merely configure a Facebook Page, randomly post to it until they get bored, and then leave it to gather dust for months at a time.

What would it mean to your business if you instead developed a clear Facebook Marketing strategy and then executed on it with precision? What would it mean to your business if you thrilled your prospective clients on Facebook? The potential marketing opportunity on Facebook is tremendous for many businesses, and quite possibly for yours!

It's not that Facebook replaces your other forms of marketing. But your prospective customers ARE spending time somewhere. And you want to connect with them and increase the time they spend with your brand. And so if they are on Facebook, and if they are on Facebook A LOT, it behooves you to develop a plan to interact with them on Facebook in a way that adds value to their experience.

To that end, here are 15 ways to better Facebook Marketing for your business:

1. Decide Why You Have a Facebook Page

As with any marketing vehicle, to maximize returns for your business you want to understand why you are doing the marketing in the first place, define your marketing goals, and develop a corresponding strategy. Your audience may value Facebook as a customer service vehicle for your business. In other cases, it might be an appropriate content or news source. In other cases, an appropriate sales source. In other cases, your fans may just want to "talk" with you and feel a part of it all. Align your Page to your strategy, and define associated success metrics.

[caption id="attachment_279" align="aligncenter" width="498"] Serious Numbers = Serious Exposure[/caption]

2. Create Custom Tabs

When you start your Facebook Page for your business, your Page has a standard set of "tabs," including a Wall where posts and comments are published and an Info tab with general information about your company. You can extend the capabilities of your Facebook Page by creating custom tabs. For example, the A.B. Edward Enterprises, Inc page includes a "Coupon, Twitter, Newsletter" tabs etc. with links to various types of content and products, and with a promotion giveaway tab. This is great for capturing interest right on your page. If you need tabs built for your company, just give shoot me an email. I can do help you with your Facebook marketing.

3. Edit Your Tab Order

Your Facebook tabs appear in vertical order on the left side of your Page. Right under the list of tabs is a small "Edit" option. You can use this to customize the order of your tabs (outside of the Wall and Info tabs). This is useful especially if you want a certain tab towards the top, or all the way at the bottom of the list so that it stands out more.

4. Post More Than Once a Century

We've all seen them. Facebook Pages where the business was overly excited when setting up their Page, with 7 posts the first day, and then no more posts the following three months. Just as with any marketing for your business, if you are going to do it, then do it well. By ignoring your Facebook Page for months at a time, you send a message to your audience that you just don't care. So decide if a Facebook Page is something your business needs, and if the answer is yes then at least stick to some type of posting schedule. It's a must to engage your followers daily and also respond to their interactions.

5. Use Facebook Ads

Paid advertising in Facebook is a great opportunity for your business in that Facebook enables you to target your audience for your ads in many ways. You can specify the age group, gender, and geographic area of those that will see your ads. Not only that, you can specify the specific interests of your audience as broadly or as narrowly as you'd like. You can set your bid price and campaign budget, and test as many ad images, headlines and ad copy as your heart desires. And if you decide that your campaign is just not working, you can stop the campaign immediately, thus lowering your risk of overspending on your campaign.

6. Get 'Em to Sign Up

Giving your audience something of value in exchange for a registration or sign-up can be valuable to your business, as it enables you to have an ongoing conversation with those who have expressed interest. So, hold a competition or sweepstakes, or simply offer a sign-up form for something of value in return.

7. Send an Update

Facebook Page Administrators are able to send messages to everyone who "Likes" their Page. So when you have something of value to let your fans know about, send out an update and make them aware. Just be very prudent with the frequency of this technique. Send stuff to your fans only when it really matters.

8. Have Dialogue

If someone takes the time to comment on your Facebook Wall, answer them. Think about it, if someone calls your business, you answer the phone and you answer their questions. Same with email. Same with a form submission from your website. And it's the same with Facebook.

9. Go Beyond Your Page

Facebook now enables you to navigate through Facebook "as a Page." Therefore, you can post to other Facebook Pages that you "Like." (Note, this is only for Pages for which permissions have been configured to allow third-party posts.) Just be extra careful with this, as you should post to another Facebook Page ONLY when you have something of true value to add. And be very respectful of the Page owner. DO NOT SPAM. It's just bad marketing.

10. Use It as a Content Platform

Use Facebook as a publishing platform and as a channel for extending the reach of your content. If you write a blog post, update your Facebook Page and let the world know about it and have access to it. Not everyone is going to visit your blog everyday. The more that you can write once and publish in multiple locations, the more likely that your valuable content is going to reach your audience.

11. Make it "Shareable"

What can you offer your audience that's of value? That they would want to tell their colleagues about? Facebook is all about sharing and interacting with others. If you truly focus on giving as much value to your prospective customers as possible, they will return the favor by letting others know and providing their own network with the opportunity to experience such value. For example, this could be an eBook, an exclusive offer, a cool competition, etc. It can even be just deliciously awesome content.

12. Make Some Stuff Exclusive

We humans are funny. We often want what's just out of reach. (Heck, it makes life more fun that way!) So dangle something of value to your prospective audience but make them "Like" your Page in order to get it. They win. You win. Everyone wins.

13. Turn Fan Activity into Advertising

With Facebook Sponsored Stories, a business can essentially turn fan activity into advertising. Sponsored Stories, available in the Facebook self-serve ad tool, enables you to promote your business by displaying positive fan updates that specifically mention your business, or to promote news feed stories about a viewer's friends "Liking" your Page.

14. Leverage Facebook Insights

Facebook Insights is a set of analytics that tracks usage and interaction with your Facebook Page. It's available free to every Page administrator. Leverage the Insights data by seeing how people are using your Page. What content is of most interest? What is just not resonating? And then adjust your Page activities accordingly.

15. Integrate, Integrate, Integrate

As with any marketing, individual efforts in a silo are rarely the most effective way to go. Instead, integrate your marketing wherever possible. Make sure your content stays consistent across the website, Twitter feed, email newsletters and Facebook Page. Your campaign is sure to be more successful, the more integrated you make it.

So, figure out how your Facebook Page can best serve your audience, and then knock 'em out with amazingly valuable stuff. Be crazy good!!! Your customers and prospective customers are sure to appreciate the enhanced experience, and your business is sure to benefit.

 

How To Create A Google Business Page

Creating a local Google+ page

I get this question all the time because it seems a bit confusing to many. Below I have listed the detailed instructions on how to create your Google + Business page. Having a Google + page is key for SEO and getting your business exposed online. Always use Google products...

Local Google+ pages are unique from other categories of pages because they have features that allow customers to easily connect with that business’s physical location. For example, local pages include a map of the business’s location and feature its address, phone number, and hours of operation. Local pages also share the functionality of other Google+ pages -- you can create and manage circles, start and join hangouts, and share content like posts and photos.

To make a local page for your business:

1. Sign in to Google+  (you’ll have to create a Google+ profile if you don’t already have one).


2. Click  Pages under Home on the left.


3. Click the Create a page button in the upper right.


4. Select the Local Business or Place category.


5. Type in your business’s phone number and click Locate. Make sure that the phone number you use is a business line and not a personal or cell phone number.


6. If you see your business listed, click on your business’s name. You’ll be able to edit the address later if anything is incorrect. If the name of your business doesn’t appear, click Add your business to Google or Look up a different number to try again.


7. Enter or edit basic information about your business, including business name, phone number, and address. If Google already has information about your business, you’ll be asked to confirm it. You can also edit any information that’s incorrect.


8. Choose at least one category from the list that depicts what your business is (e.g. Hospital), not what it does (e.g. Vaccinations) or products it sells (e.g. Sony products or printer paper).


9. Select an age requirement that’s appropriate for your business.


10. Click Create, and you’re done! Now you can visit your page and add even more details about your business, like hours, your website, and more contact information. Learn more.

WordPress SEO How to Optimize Your Blog Posts for Beginners

Getting high search engine rankings for your blog takes work. A lot of work. While we all know the benefits of SEO, sometimes there just isn’t enough time to focus on both SEO and developing a quality product or business.

What can you do? You could hire a SEO consulting firm like DEFCON13.com, but if you lack a budget, this article is perfect for you.

Everyone knows that creating fresh, engaging content helps build a loyal following and attract links. However, if you’re looking to improve your SEO with no budget, you can tweak your existing articles to prime it for high search engine rankings.

Now I’m not saying that your website will shoot up into Google’s top 3. I’m also not going to tell you to stuff as many keywords into your post as possible. If I did, that would be cheesy and I would be lying.

Instead, I will say this: if you focus on these 7 key areas of on-page SEO, you can improve your search engine rankings. How do I know this? Because it worked for me.

Conduct Keyword Research

You could try and guess what what people type when they use a search engine, but with free Keyword Research tools available, it’s wasted effort.

What are some of the best, free keyword tools? You could use the Google tool, or one that I like is Wordtracker. In addition, you can use this tool from Google to research trends in search phrases.

If you’re looking for a premium keyword research tool, look no further than SEObook.com, SEOmoz.org, or Raven Tools.

Focus on Low-Competition Keyphrases

Don’t waste your time going after highly competitive keywords with on-site optimization because you won’t be able to nab them.

So, how do you know if a keyword or keyphrase is competitive?

Take one of the phrases you found while conducting keyword research, type it into Google search using quotations (ex. “how to install Thesis Theme Framework”), and then look at the number that appears below the search box.

[caption id="attachment_15" align="alignnone" width="592"] FIGURE 1: See the 12,900 results below the Search Box? That’s the number you’re looking for[/caption]

If the number is large (over 75,000), I’d avoid it because it’s highly competitive. If it’s small, I’d focus on it because it should be much easier to score a top ranking.

Note, just because a keyword or phrase isn’t competitive doesn’t mean it won’t send traffic. And if it doesn’t send much traffic, that doesn’t matter either because the traffic it does send is highly targeted. For example, I once optimized a post that landed the #1 position in Google and it helped me make a $1500 sale.

Choose One Keyword or Phrase, and then Write or Tweak Your Article

While you want a keyphrase with little competition, you’ll also want it to have some search traffic (greater than zero). Then, either write a post that targets that keyphrase or go back through some of your older articles and tweak them for a specific phrase.

I’m not saying that you should let that keyphrases dictate what you write about. Instead, find a phrase that relates to your topic, and craft a helpful article around it. Remember, quality content matters. The higher the quality, the better chance it will garner links and then rank in search engines.

For example, if you run a blog about Kangaroos, and one of your researched keyphrases is “what do kangaroos eat”, then you might want to write a blog post about that.

Use Your Keyphrase In Your Post Title and Title Tags

Yep, simple as that. Use the keyphrase in the title of your post and in your title tags.

Repeat the Keyphrase in Your Article.

You want to build a loyal following, so don’t go crazy with this. Instead, what I mean is, if you want to rank for your keyphrase, you must use it. Avoid creating nicknames or trying to be clever. In the end, clear and concise wins. As a rule of thumb, try to include your keyphrase early on in your article or in a H2 tag. While this may have little impact on your rankings, it will help show your readers that they’re reading the right piece of content.

Use the Keyphrase in your Meta Description tags

Using keywords in your meta description tags does not help you rank higher. However, when you include them, when people search on Google for a specific keyword, Google bolds the keyphrase in the search results. So, while it may not help you rank higher, it will encourage people to click on your search results.

Find Images Related to Your Keyphrase

Think about it. If you were looking for information on Kangaroos, when you visited a website, would it make sense to have a picture of a Kanagaroo on it? Absolutely.

So, when you publish your articles, ensure that you find related images and use your keyphrase in the alt description of your image. This is beneficial for two reasons: first, it helps search engines see that you’re trying to create a complete piece of content, and second, it’s great for accessibility.

Other SEO Factors

There are, of course, other factors that influence your search engine rankings that I don’t talk about here. However, if you want to focus on building your business and creating great content, these 7 areas can help kick-start your SEO without becoming a full-time job. If you have any other quick hints that you think people will find useful, feel free to leave a comment.

We LOVE helping business GROW using SEO!

YOU FOUND US, NOW LET US HELP YOUR CUSTOMERS FIND YOU!

The search engine optimization (SEO) industry is saturated with an abundance of SEO companies claiming to provide the best services. However, there is a major difference between promises and actual results. At DEFCON13, our track record speaks for itself. Working with the best SEO Company is vital to the financial success of your business.

Since the livelihood of your business is on the line, we know that hiring the best SEO team is of the utmost importance to you. DEFCON13 is a valuable, no obligation resource that only provides optimal results.

WHAT MAKES OUR SEO FIRM THE BEST?

There are multiple characteristics that are considered to qualify an SEO firm as the best. First and foremost, ethics plays a major role, and set the top 5% of SEO firms apart from all the rest. While other firms may practice black hat SEO, we diligently follow the terms of service and best practices set forth by Google and other major search engines. Our company is human-based and does not use software to automatically generate search rankings.

DEFCON13 goes to great lengths to evaluate each client’s website and ensure that we deliver a custom made gameplan that delivers the most impact in the least amount of time.

DEFCON13 has been providing the best results, and pointing companies in the right direction, since its inception. We have worked with many existing and start-up based companies and have a multitude of first page rankings. We let our results speak for themselves – with DEFCON13, there are no contracts and no obligations. If you are looking for the best SEO firm in the business, call DEFCON13 for your free consultation.

 

Twitter Marketing – How To Grow Your Small Business By Leveraging Twitter

Can Twitter actually be used to bring in leads, opportunities and sales to your small business? YES! My clients and I do it every day.

You can’t use Twitter for your business the same way you use it for your personal life – you need a clear social strategy in place before you’ll see results. This isn’t hard to do, and can easily be achieved in 10 minute sessions a few times per week. Automate your status updates, then go to your Twitter page to stimulate discussions and answer questions.

Here are some of the most common questions my clients ask me about Twitter marketing:

What are your favorite Twitter marketing tools?
Two of my favorite marketing tools are Hootsuite.com and Tweetdeck.com. These tools allow you to schedule updates, post your social media messages across several social media sites, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn at the same time and organize your Twitter accounts and activity.

What are some easy Twitter marketing tips?
Always make your Twitter photo a picture of you. When you use your logo people feel like they are talking to a corporate 1-800 number. When you use your picture they feel like they are talking to a person. Another tip is to think carefully about your Twitter bio, it’s short but not much to go on when choosing to follow you on Twitter. Your bio is a huge deciding factor if somebody decides to follow you or move along to someone else.

How can I create a professional Twitter presence?
Keep your tweets appropriate but don’t be scared of small talk either. Most people err on the side of being too corporate which creates a boring Twitter account that no one wants to follow.

How can I automate Twitter marketing?
Use Hootsuite to schedule tweets ahead of time for free. Sometimes it’s hard to be on Twitter consistently, we tend to be more active one day and then off Twitter entirely for several days or weeks at a time. Instead, it’s better to use Hootsuite to schedule out a tweet whenever you have an idea or come across a link or resource that you want to tweet about.

How many times a day should I update Twitter?
There’s no “perfect” answer for how many tweets you should send out every day. Your volume could seem high or low depending on the other people that your followers are reading. In general, you can never send out too many @mentions. Mentions are the main tool for conversation on Twitter, and the more conversation the better. As far as regular tweets or status updates, 1-3 times per weekday is great. If you can’t sign on to Twitter every day, use a tool like Hootsuite to load up tweets in advance.

Should I have separate business and personal Twitter accounts?
No! Just create one Twitter account. I see so many entrepreneurs make the mistake of having multiple Twitter accounts, then struggling to keep up or figure out which update to post to which account. Double the Twitter accounts is double the work. Start out with one account, and then if you feel that you have the time and energy to upkeep a second account you can always add that in. But remember, on Twitter you’ll generally have a much easier time amassing followers as a person not a brand.

How can a B2B business use Twitter?
For B2B, Twitter is most useful for staying in touch with prospects, previous clients, and referral sources. In most B2B scenarios, you don’t need to amass tons of Twitter followers so you can stop stressing about that right now! Instead, use Twitter to stay on the radar of those that refer your work or potential partners.

What does it mean to follow someone on Twitter?
Following someone means that their tweets show up in your “tweetstream” (the feed of updates that you see when you login to Twitter.com) New tweets from the people you follow are added to your Twitter.com home page as they are posted in real time. On Twitter following is not mutual – meaning anyone can follow you, and you can follow anyone. You just follow who you want, you don’t agree to follow each other.

How do I know who I’m following?
When you follow someone, the follow button will change to a green check mark next to the word “Following” with an actions button on the right when you view their Twitter account. (The option to un-follow a person is in that “following” menu if you no longer want to see their updates.) You can also see a list of who you’re following by clicking on the number of people you’re following on the right side of the Twitter homepage.

How do I know who is following me?
Click on the “followers” number on your Twitter homepage to see a list of everyone who follows you. Twitter automatically sends you an email when someone new follows you, which you can modify in your email preferences. I would suggest that you either turn this feature off, or filter all the emails into a special folder that you only check weekly so that your workday isn’t continuously interrupted by Twitter follow notifications.

What’s the difference between an @mention (also called a @reply or “at reply”) and a direct message?
A @mention is a public message that you can send to anyone, whether or not you are following them or they are following you. Mentions are public and you can include as many mentions as you’d like in a tweet. A direct message is completely private, and can only be sent to those that follow you.