SEO strategy

One of the main marketing strategies that can help online retailers build a successful Internet business is search engine optimization (SEO), the process of tailoring your website to the algorithms that search engines use to rank websites based on “signals” that the site emits. However, search engine algorithms continue to change with time as the Web evolves, so online retailers need to evolve with the engines. We must make sure we keep up-to-date with best practices to claim the best possible rankings for relevant keywords. If you want your website to rank well in 2012, here are 6 components of SEO that online retailers should know about when optimizing their e-commerce website to rank well in top search engines.

Keywords.

 1. Keyword research is the first step to a successful SEO strategy. Those successful with SEO understand what people are searching for when discovering their business in a search engine. These are the keywords they use to drive targeted traffic to their products. Start brainstorming potential keywords, and see how the competition looks by using Google AdWords Keyword Tool. If you notice that some keywords are too competitive in your niche, go with long-tail keywords (between two and five words) which will be easier for you to rank. The longer the keyword, the less competition you will have for that phrase in the engines.

Meta tags. 

2. Meta tags still play a vital role in SEO. If you type any keyword into a search engine, you’ll see how that keyword is reflected in the title for that page. Google GOOG -0.02% looks at your page title as a signal of relevance for that keyword. The same holds true for the description of that page. (Don’t worry about the keyword title tag — Google has publicly said that it doesn’t pay attention to that tag, since it has been abused by webmasters and all those trying to rank for certain keywords.)

Content.

 3.It’s true, content is king. Search engines have stated that creating quality content is the best way to not only rank for keywords, but also create positive user experiences. It will also go a long way with making sure you’re educating your consumer, and being an authority in your niche will leads to boosts in sales.

Backlinks.

4.If content is king, then backlinks are queen. Remember, it’s not about which site has the most links, but who has the most quality links pointing back to their website. Build backlinks by submitting monthly or bi-monthly press releases on any exciting company, and contacting popular blogs in your niche to see how you can work together to get a backlink from their website. Create the best possible product site you can, so people talking about the products you sell will link back. Try creating graphics or newsworthy content that will influence bloggers and news websites to link that content.

Social media.

5.The algorithms have truly changed since social media first emerged. Many content websites are community-oriented — Digg began allowing users to vote which stories make the front page, and YouTube factors views and user ratings into their front page rankings. Therefore, e-commerce stores must establish a strong social media presence on sites like Facebook FB -0.18%, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. These social media sites send search engines signals of influence and authority.

Product images.

6. If you think images don’t play a role, think again. When many consumers search for products in the search engines, not only are they looking at the “Web” results, but they’re also looking at the “images” results. If you have quality images of that product on your site — and the files’ names contain relevant keywords — these images will rank well in search engines. This avenue will drive a lot of traffic to your site, as potential customers will click on that image to find your store.

In addition to optimizing these six areas of your site, analyse your competitors and see what they are doing in terms of on-page optimization, off-page optimization (competitive link analysis) and social media. While you may be doing a lot of the same things they are, it’s incredibly important to think outside the box to get a leg up over the competition.

SEO Software

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• SEO Software Tools for Search Optimization
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• SEO Techniques and Tips

SEO Software That Works for You

SEO Software can be a great aid in your search engine marketing efforts. An effective SEO strategy requires extensive keyword research and organization that can be difficult to manage on your own. Fast Forward Marketing’s SEO Software will make your SEO work much easier. Our software incorporates both search engine optimization and search engine marketing to improve the overall search performance of your website.

SEO Software Tools for Search Engine Optimization

Fast Forward Marketing’s SEO Software contains comprehensive tools that help you perform ongoing keyword research as well as organize, analyse, and act on your SEO keywords to get improved ranking on Google and other search engines. Our effective SEO software includes keyword discovery tools, keyword grouping tools, long-tail keyword tools, and SEO content creation tools. Fast Forward Marketing’s complete SEO package gives you access to a deep database with more than 1 trillion unique search queries, offering suggestions based on relevance and popularity. You’ll also be provided with content ideas, making sure that your SEO website is always in sync with the market and has an increased likelihood of being displayed in organic search engine results.

SEO Keywords

What Are SEO Keywords?

Your SEO keywords are the key words and phrases in your web content that make it possible for people to find your site via search engines. A website that is well optimized for search engines “speaks the same language” as its potential visitor base with keywords for SEO that help connect searchers to your site. Keywords are one of the main elements of SEO. In other words, you need to know how people are looking for the products, services or information that you offer, in order to make it easy for them to find you—otherwise, they’ll land on one of the many other pages in the Google results. Implementing keyword SEO will help your site rank above your competitors. This is why developing a list of keywords is one of the first and most important steps in any search engine optimization initiative. Keywords and SEO are directly connected when it comes to running a winning search marketing campaign. Because keywords are foundational for all your other SEO efforts, it’s well worth the time and investment to ensure your SEO keywords are highly relevant to your audience and effectively organized for action. Settling on the right SEO keywords is a delicate process involving both trial and error, but the basics are easy to understand. Here we’ll walk you through researching what your customers are looking for, discovering those keywords that will help you rank on a search engine results page (SERP), and putting them to work in to your online content.

Finding Your Best Keywords for SEO

Most beginning search marketers make the same mistakes when it comes to SEO keyword research:

• Only doing SEO keyword research once,
• Not bothering to update and expand their SEO keyword list, or
• Targeting keywords that are too popular, meaning they’re way too competitive.

Basically, SEO keyword research should be an ongoing and ever-evolving part of your job as a marketer. Old keywords need to be revaluated periodically, and high-volume, competitive keywords (or “head” keywords, as opposed to long-tailed keywords) can often be usefully replaced or augmented with longer, more specific phrases designed not to bring in just any visitor but exactly the right visitors. (Who visits your site – particularly if they’re people who are actively looking for your services – is at least as important as how many people visit.) And you’ve got to diversify. Here’s a tongue-twister that’s absolutely true: diversity is a key word in the keyword world. You’re not going to stand out if you find yourself using all of the same keywords as your competitors. Not only should you try new keyword search tools and keep track of the results, but you should feel free to experiment based on your own research – who else uses your keywords? And how do you make yourself stand out? By providing content that truly answers the questions your prospective customers are asking with their keyword searches.

SEO Copywriting

Wondering what SEO copywriting is — and if it’s important for your site?

SEO copywriting is a specialized form of online writing that:

1. Contains key phrases — words your target reader types into a search box to find the information s/he wants.
2. Helps online content rank higher in search results (such as Google.)
3. Drives qualified traffic.

SEO copywriting is quality writing. Period. The key phrases shouldn’t make the writing hard-to-read, sound repetitive, or lose its conversion focus.

How is SEO writing different from traditional copywriting?

The main difference is, SEO writing contains key phrases. For instance [blue cashmere sweaters] is a key phrase. Typing key phrases into Google is what we do every day, right? We type words into Google’s search box to get answers to our questions. But the thing is, SEO copywriting is much more than just inserting key phrases into content: Google also wants to see authoritative content that fully answers your readers’ questions and stands out from competing content. Some people believe you can shove a bunch of key phrases into the content and still get a high ranking (commonly known as “key phrase stuffing.”) Not anymore.

SEO copywriting serves two masters

Google has gotten smarter, and things have changed. Now your content needs to be high-quality content for Google to position it in the top spots. So in actuality, your content satisfies two masters. On the one hand, your readers need to love it. Your content needs to be relevant and a resource your readers enjoy — something that educates, entertains or enlightens them. On the other hand, Google needs to see the content written in a certain way to understand what the page is about. Understanding how to make this happen helps your content “compete” with other pages for rankings. This is where SEO copywriting best practices come into play.

Search Engine Optimization Tools

What is Search Engine Optimization Tools?

1. Google Page Speed Insights

Check the speed and usability of your site on multiple devices. Enter a URL, and this tool will test the loading time and performance for desktop and for mobile, plus identify opportunities to improve (and pat you on the back for what you’re doing well). The mobile results also come with a user experience score, grading areas like tap targets and font sizes.

2. Moz Local Listing Score

See how your local business looks online. Moz crunches data from more than 15 different sources—including Google, Foursquare, and Facebook—to score your brick-and-mortar business on how it looks online. Results come complete with actionable fixes for inconsistent or incomplete listings.

3. Keyword Tool

700+ keyword ideas based on a single keyword. Enter a keyword, and the Keyword Tool provides a huge handful of long-tail keyword opportunities, organized alphabetically.

4. Google Analytics

Complete web stats and search insights. In addition to tracking pretty much every bit of traffic you could imagine on your website, Analytics also surfaces many keyword insights as to which terms people use to land on your pages.

5. Google Webmaster Tools + Bing Webmaster Tools

Constant website analysis, alerts, and error reports. These webmaster tools help give you a taste of what the two top search engines think of your site. It’s helpful to see any bugs, alerts, and indexing issues. Pro tip: Each of these two tools requires a bit of installation on your site. If you’ve got a WordPress website, you can add the webmaster code automatically through a plugin like Jetpack or Yoast.

6. Open Site Explorer

Comprehensive link analysis. The free version of Open Site Explorer gives you a quick look a full range of link analysis, including a look at the most impactful links coming your way and your most linked-to pages.

7. Google Keyword Planner

Know what people search for. Enter a keyword or group of keywords into the tool, and Google will return all sorts of helpful stats to guide your keyword strategy: monthly search volume, competition, and even suggested terms you might not have considered.

8. Google.com in an Incognito Window

Discover auto-fill opportunities. Searching Google.com in an incognito window will bring up that all-familiar list of autofill options, many of which can help guide your keyword research. The incognito ensures that any customized search data Google stores when you’re signed in gets left out. Incognito may also be helpful to see where you truly rank on a results page for a certain term.

9. Google Trends

Changes in search volume for key terms. A quick browse or search through Google Trends can show you the hockey-stick rise of potential terms and SEO opportunities for your content.

10. QuickSprout Website Analyzer

Full analysis of your website. The QuickSprout tool does a comprehensive look at just about everything: SEO optimization, speed, tags, keywords, social, links, and even competitor comparisons.

Meta Tags SEO

What are Meta Tags and why are they important?

Meta Tags have been one of the most basic elements of SEO. It is a must know for every SEO practitioner. Are Meta tags a factor in Google page rank? Is it important? What effect does it have in your site’s SEO? Meta tags have been around since… Since I can remember. They have been a big part in search engine history. They were valued as a factor in rankings before – until people started abusing their use in getting on top of the SERPs. After that, Google opted Meta tags out of the ranking factors. But that doesn’t mean they’re not important anymore. Meta tags still play quite a big role in your site’s SEO. Meta tags are the words that are hidden in your code. People browsing your site will just not be able to see them. It is, as Danny Sullivan puts it, a ‘legal’ way of hiding words in your webpages for search engines. The search engines still read them for it to have a simple, summarized idea of what your site is about and what exactly your keywords are. Meta tags are located inside your html’s head area.

There are three important parts of Meta tags that you can use:

1. Title– The title tag is the title text that is shown in search engine listings. I know that this is not necessarily a Meta tag, but it similarly functions like one.
2. Description– The Meta description tag is where you would want to put your site’s summary. This is where you put what your site is all about and what you are offering people. It should not be too long because the search engines only read up to a certain number of words.
3. Keywords– The Meta keywords tag is where you put all of the keywords you use in your site. This is basically where you want the words which will take you to the top of the SERPs page to be. Your keywords are important – even if you take away all of the other words, the user should be able to know what your site is all about when they read your keywords.

These three things make up your Meta tags. The importance of Meta tags is that the search engines read them in order to compare if these keywords and the description are related with the visible content. Are your keywords present in your webpage? Is your Meta description related with your content and your site’s niche? There is certain weight in your Meta tags that the search engines see, that being the reason, wouldn’t you want to do everything in order to bring your page a little bit higher in the SERPs? That’s exactly the reason why Meta tags is important. Tips for Keeps: Even if Meta tags do not hold much water when it comes to page ranking, their importance is still present as the search engine robots validate their relativity to your content and site niche.

Meta Search Engine

What is a Meta Search Engine?

To understand what a Meta search engine is, first you have to understand how a search engine works. The search engine visits billions of websites and creates a database or repository of sorts of the various sites. This is known as the index. Then whenever a user enters the search query, something magical happens (algorithms if you are a computer geek) and the pages that are deemed relevant to what you asked for are returned. Pretty simple, huh?  If only you could improve those magical algorithms you could create the next Google (although Google is smart enough to hire you instead!).

So now back to how a Meta search engine works. Meta search engines don’t have a repository or index of their own, they take advantage of indices created by other search engines. In fact they present this as their strong point. A typical Meta search engine pulls off the results from a number of search engines, say Google and Bing, and then apply their own algorithms in some cases to re-order the results.

Are Meta Search Engines Better?

The obvious thought that comes to mind is that meta search engines get their results from multiple search engines and since two is better than one the results must also be better. The truth however is different, in fact let me put it this way – it is a matter of personal preference. Let me explain with an example. First off, you need to keep one thing in mind that no search engine can index the entire Internet. Yes, not even Google. Now, suppose you are looking for something that is on website ‘Z’ and say you search for the term in your favourite search engine and you get no results. So now the only way a Meta search engine is going to be able to respond with a result is if any other search engine has indexed website ‘Z’. If other search engines have indexed website ‘Z’ then of course a Meta search engine is better than the one you are using. But then are you using a good search engine in the first place that doesn’t index website ‘Z’? I say so because the index of search engines are more or less the same. It’s the algorithms they use to create and search the index and the algorithms they use to order the results that make one search engine better than the other. So if something is missing from a search engine altogether than perhaps you need to switch. But hey, if it works for you, it is the best for you. So if a Meta search engine gives you what you need then it is better. Viewed logically, you shouldn’t expect huge differences in results except for ups and downs in the ranks.

Building Link

What is building Link?

Building Link is an online communications and management system for residential, commercial and mixed-use developments that is enhancing the way we live and work in communities, globally. Make daily occurrences seamless with effortless communication, easy record keeping, clear maintenance and task tracking, incident reports and building event tracking between occupants, building staff, contractors & strata managers. By providing an internationally accredited, secure platform for connectivity, Building Link has proven to be a cost and time-saving technology that has benefits for every stakeholder.

Owners – create the community you want to live in.

Developers – reduce costs while adding value to your development.

Managers – it’s time to be smarter and more efficient.

Here are facts you should know about Fast Forward Marketing. We’re assisting in the creation of excellent communities in Johannesburg!

We’re committed to helping communities grow, connect, maintain, record, function and live more harmoniously. That is our aim. We are here for the development of our country’s future and the sustainability of our cities. Most importantly, we’re here for the long run! So, we know a little bit about the industry! We’ve also implemented Building Link in many communities in South Africa, since 2003. Whatever your need or requirement, we’ll help you find a solution and implement Building Link in your community or even across your whole portfolio.