Learn About Advanced Google Operators

There are many helpful advanced search engine operators that can be of great value and importance to the webmasters if they are used properly. Read below about them and how they can be useful:

Cache Command Operator- This operator tells you about whether your site has been indexed and when it was indexed.All you have to do is type the url of your website after the word "cache:" (for e.g "cache:www.segnant.com)into the Google search engine and you will know when your site was last indexed. This operator also displays the web page that was indexed last time so that you get the latest version of the page that was indexed. The cache operator can be really helpful in case you have lost your website and backup data due to some major computer failure. With this operator, you can get all lost data back in the form that Google last indexed it. The only problem may be the amount of time it will take to retrieve the web pages depending upon how big or small the website is. Not only to the webmasters, the cache command can be and has been a great help to the forensic experts also in retrieving incriminating evidence against criminals. And those webmasters who think that by using a "no cache" tag they can block Google from caching their sites should better know that doing this does not affect web rankings.

Link Command Operator-This operator, used along with the domain name informs you about the number of links pointing to your site. By using the syntax "“link:http://www.segnant.com/", with your website's url mentioned, you get to see the total number of links indexed by Google that are linking to you.

Inurl Operator-This operator restricts your search to one site only. Like if I type the url of my company "inurl:www.segnant.com guaranteed SEO", it will show you the guaranteed SEO webpage only. This can be especially helpful in case when you are looking for a specific phrase on one site.

Intitle Operator-This operator helps you find out websites that have a particular keyword in their title tag. So by typing "intitle:web design" or any other search term you are looking for, you can find the website having that keyword in it's title tag.

Allinurl and Allintitle Operators-These operators help in finding out for a string of keywords in either a title or site. So starting a query with allinurl operator command will restrict your results to those pages that have all the query words in the url. For e.g by typing "allinurl:www.segnant.com segnant" will give you only documents that have segnant word in them.

http://www.segnant.com/

Don't Forget The Cs of Web Marketing

In order to have a powerful web presence and while optimizing your website, it is important to keep in mind the following "Cs" to ensure that you are not missing out anything in your web marketing campaign:

1. Control- It means to ensure that all systems to monitor current activity and to make any consequent changes are put in their right places. This will help you to measure the effects of intervention and whether you are moving in the right direction.

2. Compatibility-This means to ensure that your website is compatible with what the search engines are looking for so that your website is crawled and indexed easily and quickly and you are able to achieve high rankings in the search engines.

3. Content-This refers to the content used in the webpages of your site. The content in the website should represent the products or services sold by the company. The keywords used have to be relevant and customer specific.

4. Culture-This means targeting the webpages to the intended audience and not wasting time and energy on the whole of the world. Your website must target the right people, geographically as well as demographically.

5. Connectivity-Your website has to be connected to related websites in order to improve its ranking in the search engines.

6. Conversion-You have created a website to make profits and get return on investment. So conversion refers to targeting the right visitors so that you can convert them into customers by making your site easily navigable.

7. Cost per Click-In order to make your website visible to prospective clients and ensure visibility in lesser time, cost per click is a good option where the webmasters pay some amount to have their websites appear on search result pages (SERPS).

http://www.segnant.com/

Changes In Google's AdWords Program

In order to become more advertiser friendly, Google is making changes to its AdWords program which will also improve relevance for users along with giving more control to advertisers. Till now, it was the maximum bid by the advertiser and the relevance of the advertisement (measured by the number of clicks by users) that was the determining factor for the position and frequency of the ads. So ads appeared or disappeared on the basis of this calculation on the search result pages (SERPs). The ads performing well used to come on top of the ones having a higher bid but not being very relevant. As a result the ads that didn't perform well were either penalized or accounts were slowed if they didn't meet the search engine's requirements. And bringing them back on the SERPs meant improvement in the quality of the ads by the advertisers.

But there is good news for the advertisers now. Google has simplified the whole process by making the ads as active or inactive. The advertisers need not worry about their ads being on hold, in trial, disabled, etc. They just have to think in terms of two states-active or inactive. This will help them considerably to manage their campaigns. Along with this, Google has also introduced a quality based minimum bidding system with the help of which the advertisers can show the ads to the visitors if they meet the minimum bid requirements of the system without the fear of being penalized as used to happen earlier for not meeting adequate quality levels based on Google's automated predictive modeling system.

Minimum bids are now determined by a Quality Score that predicts the relevance of an ad for a specific keyword. Minimum bids to a quality score wipes out completely the previous de facto minimum bids. Now, an ad with a high quality score can have as minimum a bid as a penny and for low quality score ads, the minimum bid can be as high as the previous minimum of 10 cents.

Thus the minimum bids could change over time as the Quality Score gets updated time and again. Ads doing well will find the minimum bid decreasing and the ones that are not performing well will find an increase in minimum bids.

According to Salar Kamangar, director of product management, Google, this change might benefit the advertisers and users both.

http://www.segnant.com/

Understanding Search Engine Marketing

Many people confuse search engine marketing (SEM) with search engine optimization (SEO), whereas both are totally different concepts. SEM is not optimization of the site for getting higher rankings in search engines as happens in SEO. SEM is the ability of the advertisers, ad agencies, marketing firms, web owners, to pay for sponsored listings on a cost per click (cpc) or pay per click (ppc) basis, provided they have a budget for search engine marketing. It is one of the fastest as well most expensive method of getting targeted traffic to your website. It is a costly affair because you have to pay for every visitor that comes to your site from the search engines. Overture and Google AdWords are examples of the SEM programs.

In fact, SEM started with the launch of Overture (the first ppc search engine) in 2001. It took shape out of the imagination of internet and search engine savvy professionals who realized that there could be a quicker and easier way of getting the websites listed. This gave birth to PPC. In PPC campaign, different interested parties bid for a particular keyword or phrase for the top position in search engines. The highest bidder gets the top position. Though an expensive proposition, this was happily taken up by advertisers as a quick and easy alternative to natural search engine optimization.

Advantages of Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

1.The Search engine marketing listings are as good as immediate, hence making it possible for bidders to determine their most profitable keywords in days, not months.
2.The control of the copy that appears in the listing is in the bidder's hands.
3.All you need is resources and money in order to remain always the first listing for a keyword.
4.You don't have to worry about the On page factors associated with search engine optimization.
5.Keeping track of the search engine marketing campaigns is pretty simple and straight.
6.You can keep track of conversion ratios on each keyword phrase easily.
7.Which landing page the visitor goes to after clicking on your sponsored link is also in your control.
8.With SEM you don't need to submit your web site to the search engines.

All good things come at a price and so does SEM. If you have the budget and are in a hurry to get your site listed in the search engines, nothing like search engine marketing. Otherwise, SEO is an inexpensive, but time consuming process that you can make use of for getting targeted traffic to your site.

http://www.segnant.com/

Hey Marketers Have You Planned For Holiday Marketing?

Marketers all over the globe are very well aware of the importance of holiday marketing that can bring upto 40 percent of annual revenue and more than half of annual profit. To make the most of the festive season, a savvy marketer will always keep in mind the checklist for that holiday season so that no opportunity to encash upon this time is missed out. To freshen your memories, here is a list of things that you need to plan and execute for that all very important holiday season:

Always start the holiday planning with review of last year's performance, results, outcomes, challenges,etc. This will also give you an insight into the present and future trends in the market and merchandise related industry. You should also calculate the ROI for all of your previous promotions and customer categories to know what worked and what didn't.

Clean up and update your database so that you work with the latest and most valuable customers and all your promotional campaigns are garnered towards the most recent/active and valuable customers.

Always go through the calender to see all the important dates and the time gap or interval between different festivals or major holidays. After all you would want to encash upon every occassion. Also check which occassions demand more attention and accordingly make plans, solidify your team, and keep the stock in order.

It is always good to remember your old customers during holiday season and send them at least one communication from your side, even if they are dormant now. Holiday season is a good time to remind them and apprise them of the things you have added in your store or company.

Keep in mind the unexpected always. Life is unpredictable, so is everything else. You must keep an alternative marketing plan ready in case of any changes in the weather, or some other unforseen events.

Always create a comprehensive promotion calender devoted completely to holiday season so that you can keep it updated and make adjustments accordingly. This will also help reduce the complexity involved in the promotional plans.

In the holiday season, there is generally what is called the last minute rush. Encash upon this by offering people some really cool and aggressive shopping offers as the shopping deadlines draw near.

If you want to minimize risk, optimize response, and maximize ROI, you must restrain from any testing during the holiday season.

Never forget that the next year is round the corner, so start making your New year's plan well in advance by learning and taking feedback from your present ones. This will save a lot of time and energy for the planning of the next year.

http://www.segnant.com/