Many businesses think that online review sites only benefit the customer, but online review sites can actually be extremely beneficial to businesses too. Not only can they allow you to learn what your customers think about your business, which is valuable information in itself, but you can also use these sites to improve your search engine optimization (SEO), and here’s how.

It can serve as your web presence.

Having a website is extremely important in today’s world, but some start-up companies know that the initial expense of a website can may not fit within their small budget. Instead of going website-less, your business can use online review sites to serve as your website and use that to improve SEO. Customers are always using search engines like Google and Bing to search for what they want, and if you don’t have a website, you’re going to lose out on this business. But if you have a detailed profile on popular online review sites, you will not need your own website to improve your visibility. Instead, these online review sites will be rich with keywords and information about your company, which means that they’ll appear in the search engine results pages (SERP) to give your company a chance at earning business. Now, you have a web presence without spending a fortune on a website.

It can increase your keyword reach.

Your online review profile can include a variety of information, and this information can be described using keywords. Search engines crawl websites in search of these keywords, and this is how they decide the ranking of websites on their SERPs. If your online review profiles are filled with keywords, these sites will appear in the SERPs along with your own personal website when a customer is using your keywords in their search query. The more links that appear on the SERPs for your business means that there is less space for the links of your competitors. This not only improves your visibility, but it also makes your company stand out over the competition.

It can give you an inside look at your competition.

It’s likely that your competitors are also using online review sites to increase their reach and visibility, but they may not realize that they can use these sites to get a leg up on the competition. Check out your competitor’s pages on online review sites and see what keywords they’re using, what backlinks they’re adding and what they’re offering. You can then use this information to tailor your own keywords or information to create better keywords or more detailed information that will give your online review pages better reach than the pages of your competition. The more unique and detailed your keywords, the more beneficial they are to your SEO.

Instead of assuming that online review sites will not help your business, use them to improve your SEO. By adding detailed information to these pages that is rich in keywords, you will easily add more visibility to your pages, which is better for your overall SEO success.

Garrett Payne is an expert reviews tracker and avid blogger.  He enjoys sharing advice on review management and online review monitoring tactics.

Below are some of the tools that really stand out in the SEO community and give you the best bang for buck when it comes to analysing your links.

Open Site Explorer

Open site explorer is currently one of the most popular tools within the market. This is due to the fact you can see many key metrics which can actually affect your campaign. This includes in-depth link analysis, competitor analysis, your top pages and the anchor text that is coming to the site.

All these aspects are important to any SEO campaign and should be used to properly utilise opportunities. For example if your ranking is good on a few pages but poor on others you can find exactly why through the top pages tab. From there you can then assess the links and see where the sources are coming from.

There is a free version of this, however it only allows you to analyse a maximum of three links per day. This is not a recommended option if you are a professional SEO or if you run your own business. However it can be useful if you want to check up on your websites every now and then. The paid version starts at around $99 per month.

Majestic

Majestic is another SEO tool that has a free basic option. This option allows you to do basic analysis and see things such as the backlinks you have, your historic index of links, anchor text and referring domains. You used to be able to just go on the website and track your website with the free version. However, you now have to login to see your website stats.

Typical plans vary greatly ranging from £29.99 per month for SEO freelancers, £99.99 per month for SEO professionals and £249.99 per month for large use agencies. This is something to consider. However if you run a successful freelance business it may be beneficial to try out the larger packages.

Advanced Link Manager

Advanced link manager is a bit different to Majestic and Open Site Explorer as its main use it to track rankings. It has some very sophisticated software that enables you to see all of your rankings within a large spread sheet. It also tracks this change over time which is extremely important if you are looking to continually asses the progress of your campaign.

All of these tools are great for SEO purposes and should be heavily considered when it comes to assessing your campaign. Depending on your budget and resources you should always look to get the edge when it comes to doing SEO. However one benefit of hiring an agency to do this for you means they will often have all of these tools at their disposal.

By Kev Massey from seo3D. Kev is the CEO at seo 3d and offers free advice on how to optimise your website on the search engines.

Question & Answer websites are ideal when you can’t find the answer you are looking for in search engines or when you don’t know the right keywords to use for your problem. When you post on a Q&A website you will be answered by real people who are usually volunteer users that have knowledge on that particular subject or topic.

Popular Q&A websites include the following:

·         Yahoo answers

With an existing Yahoo you will be able to post and answer questions on Yahoo questions. This is currently the largest and most popular Q&A website at the moment.

·         Stack Overflow

For tech-related questions Stack Overflow is the best Q&A website for it.

·         Quora

There are more options to sign up to Quora as you can use your Facebook, Twitter and Google accounts.

·         Answers

Answers is a great Q&A website because of its self explanatory name.

·         Rediff India

The best place to find answers to questions that relate to India.

There are a lot of interesting questions that can be found on Q&A websites and below is a list of some of the highest viewed interesting questions on Quora.

1. 797749 views: Which are some of the most epic pictures ever taken?

2. 414862 views: What is it like o be a drug dealer?

3. 403887 views: How does a programmer become a Brogammer?

4. 384027 views: What are some interesting examples of photographs which show historical figures in unexpected places or company?

5. 347966 views: Who is the yellow suit guy in the Gangnam style video?

6. 27045 views: Why did Steve Jobs choose not to effectively treat his caner?

7. 237943 views: Why are software development task estimations regularly off by a factor of 2-3?

8. 211913 views: What is the worst piece of design ever?

9. 189700 views: Given our current technology and with proper training, could it be possible for someone to become Batman?

10.185883 views: Law Enforcement and the Police: What’s the best way to escape the police in a high-speed car chase?

Tatenda Makayi works for the popular digital and content marketing company in South Africa, Karma Digital Media.

Once your business got a website up, the next step you probably went through was increasing traffic to it. There’s a good chance that you experimented with a variety of different techniques. From creating a blog to trying PPC advertising, there are lots of different ways to drive traffic. However, as you may have discovered, the quality of traffic can vary greatly. And with options like PPC, it can be quite challenging to keep a budget under control.

Now that you’ve had a chance to experiment with different channels, you’re probably wondering the best way to actually increase your conersions. While increasing traffic can be satisfying, if that traffic isn’t converting into actual customers, it’s really not worth all that much. The need to convert traffic into real customers is why email marketing is the best way to increase online sales.

One of the big strengths of email marketing is it’s not something that exists in isolation. Instead, it’s a strategy that can enhance your other online efforts. When you add email marketing to your arsenal of tools, you increase the likelihood of capturing individual visitors and eventually converting them into paying customers. In order to accomplish that goal, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind:

Give Visitors a Reason to Sign Up

You want to give visitors a compelling reason to join your email list. You also want to make it clear that signing up doesn’t obligate them to purchase anything. In terms of enticing visitors, depending on your specific business, a free report or coupon are both examples of incentives that can work well. And to communicate that signing up doesn’t involve any obligations or complications, be sure to use the word “free” near your signup box.

Start Slow

The last thing you want to do is bombard new subscribers with messages telling them to buy. Taking that approach will send your unsubscribe rate through the roof. Instead, you want to start slow and build a relationship by providing them with useful information. As you build trust, you can gradually transition to including a direct pitch for them to make a purchase.

Analyze and Refine

The email marketing platform you use will provide lots of data about how well each email you send performs. You can use this data as feedback to help guide your approach for crafting future emails. By taking an iterative approach to your email marketing efforts, you’ll be able to maximize engagement and ultimately conversion!

Craig Klein is the president of online sales CRM company Sales Nexus. Follow Craig on Twitter and Google+ to learn more.

Infographics are visual tools used to present data in a clear, comprehensible, and concise method. This form of communication involves the use of pictures, tables, charts, symbols, and words. Over the past few years, this visual tool is becoming really popular, especially in social media platforms and blogging communities. Unfortunately, not all infographics are successful in communicating the information they want to share. There are some infographics that are very unappealing and even confusing for its readers. So, how do you make an effective infographic design?

The Basic Rules Of Designing Infographics

1. Provide Enough Space: The amount of information you want to present will determine how large your infographic should be. As a basic rule, you can present data vertically since it will fit on most monitors- whether the user is viewing it on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile.
2. Present Data Visually: The main point of making infographics is to present graphic data. This means that you need to turn pieces of information into a visually motivating, solid design that clearly communicates the information you want to share. In doing so, your reader can look at the infographic and understand what’s going on.
3. Use Percentage To Visualize Data: Since the main goal of this visual tool is to make data comprehensible, you need to use percentages to present data and facts. Remember to keep redundant content out of the mix; however, avoid using standard charts and graphs. This will make your infographic look like an excel chart; thus, it will not look very appealing at all.
4. Use Contrasting Colors: The use of appropriate colors is essential in creating an effective infographics design. For instance, you may have used the best visuals to present your content, but if your colors look unappealing, bland, and lack contrast, then your viewers won’t even bother looking at it. As a tip, you need to use colors that stand out and pick contrasting tones to differentiate information; thus, making it easy for your viewers to go through your infographics.
5. Share It On Blogs And Social Media: To make the most out of your infographics, you need to promote it. You can take advantage of social media communities such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Tumblr. You can also promote it through blogs and other websites.

Common Mistakes In Infographic Design

The basic rules listed above are designed to create very effective infographics. Unfortunately, there are some common mistakes made by infographic designers when turning pieces of information to visual data. Here are a few of them:

1. Making huge infographic: An overly large infographic won’t attract viewers. You have to focus on the main goal of the infographic and showcase only the important information.
2. Using too many words: The infographics need to tell a story using images, charts, and tables. Using too many words will defeat the purpose of presenting data visually.
3. Using the wrong colors: The wrong colors can ruin an otherwise excellent infographic. The colors might prevent your audience from viewing and understanding the data properly.
4. Failure to promote the infographics: Simply posting your visual data on your website is not enough. You need to be proactive in promoting your infographics by sharing it in various online platforms, communities, and websites.

You can use these rules as a guide when creating infographics. Remember though to use your own techniques and apply your own style to make your visual data unique and interesting.

Kris Hopkins is a marketing consultant and she has been using infographics to promote brands and products. She is also a writer at www.designerinfographics.com, which is a leading infographic company.

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