5 Basic WordPress Plugins to Launch Website
If you are starting a new website, WordPress is the way to go. It is an easy way to launch a website and manage it for the future. Many companies want to be able to make basic changes to their site on the fly. They do not want to wait days for their webmaster to make changes or set things up. WordPress is great because the ease of use.
Another great reason to use WordPress is for SEO. If you want to get ranked on the first page of Google for your important keywords, then WordPress is by far the best way to go. There are 2 ways to use WordPress, allow WordPress.com to host the site for you or download the software from WordPress.org and use your own hosting company. I use bluehost.com for my WordPress hosting. You can host 200 websites on the same account for less than $10/mo.
How to Increase Email Marketing Click Through Rate (CTR)
I have worked with many companies that are bad at email marketing. Even some large brands have issues, so do not think the larger a company is the better off they are. As I write this one of the largest email companies can’t get emails into the inbox. Problems will always present themselves, but this post is about trying to increase your CTR rate so you can increase your conversions and sales from email.
11 Ways to Increase Email CTR
1.) Test your subject lines. CTR is often used in email marketing to refer specifically to the CTR of an offer in the body of your email. But you first need to get recipients to click into the email. Once you figured out how to deliver the email, start A/B testing the subject lines you are using. You have to stand out in your subject lines so make sure whatever you write about will “wow” people.
11 Product Page Conversion Optimization Strategies
Shoppers come to a website not only with an intention to buy something, but to also learn, research and compare what you offer against what your competitors offer.
When landing on a product page, shoppers need to have their informational needs met before they’ll even consider pulling the trigger on a purchase.
This is where your product pages come in. Not only can your product pages provide this information, they can also serve to help buyers find relevant pricing information, delivery costs, warranty and/or return policies, and a lot more.
Effective product pages are able to satisfy the various needs of each of your visitors. Raw product information isn’t enough! Your product pages must be designed with usability and conversions in mind. Effective product pages convert visitors on an intellectual and emotional level (content) as well as on a sub-conscious level (usability).
Tips and Tricks for Google Adwords
Here are some tips and tricks for Adwords. If you are just starting out these simple steps can help get over the initial learning curve. Adwords is a beast and you can certainly spend a lot of money quickly. So always walk before you run, do not jump in with 2 feet.
- Don’t use broad keyword matching — At least not to start off with. What’s broad matching? “If you include general keyword or keyword phrases-such as tennis shoes-in your keyword list, your adverts will appear when users search for tennis and shoes, in any order, and possibly along with other terms.” With expanded matching it becomes even harder to know when your keywords will show, because Google will pick them algorithmically. Broad match is usually used by experienced advertisers looking to save time (usually with a long list of negative keywords) or by lazy advertisers, who may not have the time or the inclination to target their campaigns. Broad matching can also be the right way to go for parts of certain kinds of campaign, but wading straight into it can be dangerous.
Recovering From Google Panda & Penguin Case Study
Flexiscreens.com is an Australia business based in Tasmania, producing flexible insect screens from premium-grade materials and delivering them world-wide. They’ve been plagiarized and targeted by copycat competitors but have always enjoyed good rankings and resoundingly good client testimonials due to exemplary products and services. The past year has been a roller coaster ride. First they were rewarded by Google, and then they were punished.
• Monthly “Visits” grew rapidly from 12,800 visits in Aug 2011 to 36,000 in Nov 2011.
• From Dec 2011 traffic declined to 17,000 visitors by May 2012.
It was the same content, basically unchanged in that time and its initial wild variations seem to predate the Panda release. In contrast, over the year, the primary copycat competitor now ranks higher than they do, despite having inferior products made from lower-grade components.
7 Ways to Decrease Bounce Rate on Landing Page
1: Reiterate Your Main Drivers
There’s nothing worse than clicking on a specific offer (20% off for Cyber Monday, for example), and seeing only the generic website with no mention of the special offer that drew you there. Pages should reiterate the original reason people were drawn to your page. Pages should also reiterate the keyword that drove people to your page.
For example, if a PPC ad drove visitors to the page, specific keyword term(s) from the ad should appear in the headline to provide good keyword scent (from ad to landing page) and boost conversions. In general, continuity is #1 in terms of lift.
Google Panda Timeline
Google Panda updates have been wreaking havoc for a while now. I figured a timeline would be good to provide because if your website had problems in the past with its rankings, you can try to match up the timeline. Once you figure out what update caused your problems, then you can attempt to start fixing your website.
Google Panda Exact Match Domain (EMD) Update
Google recently announced the EMD Update, a algorithm change that attempts to get rid of low-quality sites. EMD sites have always been much easier to reach the top of Google. I have seen many real brands have problems reaching number 1 on Google because of these types of sites. So what happens is, EMD sites become very valuable. A client recently spent almost $2,000 on an EMD domain.
If you have an EMD site and haven’t had any changes in your rankings this time, you could see some changes in the future.
How The EMD Update Works
One common misconception with this update is that these domains will no longer rank as well. I’ve not seen evidence of this so far, and it’s certainly not what Google said.
How to Rank #1 After Panda and Penguin
Panda and Penguin updates hit over the past year and most people are still scratching their heads from it. Makes sense, after many took a big hit from their Google rankings you almost become scared to make any drastic changes.
Lets take a step backwards and actually look at what Google did with each of these updates. After Panda was launched in April, 2011… Google targeted link farms or websites with a lot of spam type content. Meaning, there are many websites that are built for the sole purpose to build backlinks and these sites helped other website rank higher on Google. The problem is, many sites that weren’t link farms got hit as well. These are the people that are hurting the most. There are many theories on what can “fix” the Panda update changes, but we don’t have to worry about them right now.
My name is Phil Smith and I have 14+ years experience in Internet marketing and as a business executive.