Social Louise: 2013

Wednesday, 24 July 2013

How to verify your Google+ business page

These steps will help to get your page verified but are not certain; the final verification is still up to Google.

- Your Google+ page must already have a meaningful number of followers

- Business website linked and containing the G+ badge

- Email verified

G+ badge or code snippet

You must link your website to your G+ page. This not only helps you build relationships with friends and followers, but also gives Google information they can use to determine the relevancy of your site to a user query in Google Web Search. It also makes your site eligible for Google+ Direct Connect.

Google+ Direct Connect

Google+ Direct Connect lets you quickly navigate to a Google+ page (and even add that page to your circles) when using Google Search. For example, if you searched for the query '+youtube' or '+pepsi,' you could be immediately taken to the YouTube Google+ page, or the Pepsi Google+ page, and given the option to add the page to your circles.

Link your Google+ page and your website

1.    Update your site's home page by adding a link to your Google+ page, like this:

<a href="https://plus.google.com/[yourpageID]"

rel="publisher">Find us on Google+</a>

To find your page URL, open your page and copy the web address from the browser address bar.

It's best to add the link to your most significant page. Usually but not always this is your home page; for example, if you’ve created a page for a product, you can add the link to the product description page.

It is recommended you add a Google+ Badge to your site. You create this here: https://developers.google.com/+/web/badge/. Be sure to insert the required code, found at the bottom of the page into the site.

Add the following code to the <head> section of the site

<link “href=https://plus.google.com/YOUR G+ PAGE NUMBER” rel=”publisher” />

2.    Link to your website from your Google+ page's profile.

To edit your page profile:

       1.    Make sure you're on the Google+ page you'd like to edit.

        2.    Click the profile icon .

        3.    Click Edit Profile.

        4.    Click Website. You'll know it's editable when the color of the section changes to blue.

        5.    Type your homepage URL. This should match exactly the URL of the page to which you added your Google+ page link in step 1.

        Click Save.

3.         If your Google Webmaster Tools email address is the same as your Google Plus email address, Google will recognise it and verify your Google Plus page automatically.

4.    Once the above steps are complete you can submit a Google+ page verification request.

5.    Use the rich snippets testing tool to check your markup and make sure that Google can extract your page information from your content. This tool will display the markup found on a specific web page, as well as a preview of how that page might appear in Google search results.

Saturday, 6 July 2013

My Top Social Media Marketing Tips

Today I thought I would write about my social media marketing tips.

Although social media marketing has become mainstream many people are still making big mistakes.

Tip one

The first thing to remember is you need to build credibility before you sell via social media. Think of it this way, you wouldn't walk into a room of people and start trying to sell your products without first introducing yourself or engaging with them in some way.

Tip two

Make sure you include a call to action in all of your social media messaging. Your social activity will have a much better success rate if it contains a call to action.

Tip three

Ensure that you create really exciting content that people want to share. Make sure your content is insightful, engaging and interesting. This will make it more likely that people will share it with their network. Don't just create written content, use all different types of media from videos to podcasts, as well as infographics and images.

image credit: http://www.intellistart.co.uk

Tip four

Now that you're creating great content that people want to share keep the content flowing, make sure that you regularly post to your channels.

Tip five

Make sure you connect your social media channels up to your website. Ensure that your social media icons are present on your website and make sure the content on your website is easy to share on the social networks you want to have a presence on.

Tip six

Be sure to engage with people who engage with you. If somebody mentions you or retweets something you say be sure to thank them. If you have an opinion on something respond to posts made by other users. This will give you greater visibility amongst your target audience and help to increase your followers.

Tip seven

Social media metrics are becoming increasingly important to SEO activity. The more followers, shares and retweets your activity has indicates to the search engines you are credible in the subject you are talking about. This can translate into higher search engine rankings. In order to take advantage of the full SEO benefit from social media be sure to optimise your social media channels including the keywords you would like to appear for in the search engines.

Tip eight

Be sure to measure everything. The beauty of online advertising is that you can measure up all activity. Make sure you track all of the links which you share so you can measure the reach this will allow you to work out your ROI from your social media activity. You can also use this information to work out what works best for you and how you can improve this and replicate success.

Thursday, 28 February 2013

The Benefits of Google Analytics

There are so many benefits to using +Google Analytics it is one of my favourite tools and guides the strategy behind why I decide to perform certain tasks. Here are some of my thoughts on the subject:

Benefits of Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a valuable tool for monitoring and tracking the efficiency of online activity and assists the process of getting the best results for the least cost from your website and marketing efforts.

One of the major benefits of using Google Analytics is to gain complete control in managing website content. If the performance of the website is unsatisfactory, changes can be made to content, as and when required to achieve the desired results.

Additionally, this tracking tool can be used to drive targeted traffic to the website and improve conversion rates for greater success at a lower investment. Google Analytics will assist the you in achieving a high ranking on search engines and also boosts the productivity of online business.

Google Analytics will enable you to attract targeted visits.

Google Analytics provides efficient reporting tools and helps in providing customised data that is useful in formulating marketing strategies. Social reporting tools will enable the you to discover the effectiveness of social media strategies on online business and the impact on website conversion rates.

Google Analytics also provides data on paid search activity which is key to reducing costs and improving efficiency.

I know there are probably more reasons than this to love Analytics feel free to share them with me!

Wednesday, 2 January 2013

Happy 2013 - What is to come?

I wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year.

2012 was a great year with a lot of things changing in he world of online marketing.

I was so busy towards the end of the year I did not have time to keep up my blog writing. So my New Years resolution is to keep blogging.

So what happened in 2012 that was exciting in the world of online marketing?

We all became more social. Those of you not tweeting, Like-ing, Plus-ing and Linking are being well and truly left behind as people, brands and businesses continue to grow their networks.

For me the big thing which appears to be changing the way SEO works is Author Rank. It's still new for many people and some sectors are not utilising it at all, IMO it is something you should be participating in.

Another thing I like from 2012 is TwitterCards. With Twitter now at 200 million active users you need something to make your tweets stand out.

Mobile is big, its been big for a while but the sheer volume of smartphones and tablets on the market means you need to stand up and pay attention to the mobile web. This could be by making your site mobile friendly, creating an app or performing mobile SEO.

Content, Content, Content. This has always been an important part of any digital marketing strategy, but with so many Google animals flying around this needs to become the epicentre of your strategy. Content is becoming more diverse too, it's not just the written word which is being shared. Infographics, slideshows, podcasts, videos, images, tag clouds and lists are all being used to increase online exposure and generate backlinks.

So I can't wait to see what 2013 will bring. It will surely involve more social media tactics and more innovative content ideas.