Tuesday 30 July 2013

How to Implement a 301 Redirect

'301 redirect' is the most efficient and search engine friendly way of moving your website. There could be many reasons why your website has changed:
  • Redirecting an old website to a new domain address.
  • Your website design has changed and has been recoded to adapt to the changes
  • Implementing canonical redirect which involves redirecting from one website version to another version of the same website
  • You own multiple domains and host duplicate copies of the same site
The most important thing to remember is that 301 redirects is used for permanent redirects i.e it should be used only when you are migrating permanently and not ever coming back. Moreover, 301 redirects have to be implemented properly to ensure that your site can maintain high search engine page ranking (SERP). In fact, not having proper redirects can result in your disappearance from SERPs! So let’s look at some important tips for implementing 301 redirects properly.

Implementation of 301 Redirects Properly

Check the new URLs
- Before you start redirecting, make sure that the new URLs for 301 redirects have been configured properly and are live on the internet. If you don’t do this, you would end up redirecting people to error pages.

Use the Right Strategy - The next step is to point the old domain to the new one with proper 301 Redirects. In a Youtube video, Matt Cutts says that the common practice is to put 301 redirects to go to the root of the domain when you are moving from one site to another. Cutts points out this will not help people who are looking for a specific page. He recommends performing the redirect from the old page location to the new page location on the new site.

If you are redirecting to the root domain, you can redirect the entire website at once. But if there are changes to other URL parts such as a new folder structure, you would have to do the redirects one by one. If your site has a massive size, choose the pages you want to redirect. Running a report in Google Analytics or any other relevant platform would help you find all the landing pages that take people directly to your site. If these URLs have changed, use '301 redirect'.

Another way is to look for the pages that Google has indexed. If their URLs have changed, you should 301 redirect them as Google has to know where to find these pages. Google’s Webmaster tools can give you accurate results for Google Indexed pages.

Check Whether the Redirects Are Working - Test whether the old URLs are automatically redirecting to new URLs after implementing 301 redirects. Take a sample of URLs from old sites and put each one in HTTP or HTTPS Header Check tool. The tool will tell you whether there is a '301 redirect' from the old page to the new one. You can also do a Google search and see if each link is going to the right place. For example, enter 'www.viralseoservices.com' into Google and you can find the indexed pages as shown below.


If MOS SEO Services is migrating permanently, then these pages should be 301 redirected. Google’s Webmaster tools can give you accurate results for Google Indexed pages.

Create Sitemaps and Inform Search Engines - After testing, create a XML sitemap with all new URLs for the new site. You should then inform the search engines about the sitemap. Use Google Webmaster Tools such as Fetch as Google with Googlebot or tools from Yahoo Site Explorer and Bing Webmaster Center for this.

Wait for some time to see the results. The '301 redirect' will transfer 85%-90% of authority from old URL to new one and this process takes time.

301 Redirects Limits


Is there any limit of using 301 redirects, you may wonder. Cutts says it’s fine – and even advisable - to do redirects from every old page to every new page on your new website. Google will crawl all these pages. However, there are some limits you should know about: multiple redirects can be a problem. If you start with redirecting one page and then keep performing redirects so that you get five or six, in a row, the chances are high that Googlebot would soon stop following these redirects. So Cutts recommends that the best way is to do it in one step because you won’t leave people confused.

Implementing 301 redirects can be somewhat complicated. So the best way to gain maximum search engine optimization benefits from your new URLs is to seek help of a professional SEO company for a smooth transition to your new site.

Sunday 21 July 2013

4 Facebook Marketing Techniques

In the modern world, marketing is a crucial part of any company's success. Most of the businesses are marketing their products and services through a wide range of modern modes of marketing such as email marketing and telemarketing, social media marketing. The most popular social networking sites that are constantly used by businesses are Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn and YouTube. Facebook marketing has become an essential part of entrepreneurs' marketing plans.

There are many reasons why business should use Facebook as their main marketing platform. Facebook marketing services give you an opportunity to directly engage with your customers. The prospect of communicating with your customers not only helps you establish positive image of your business in the minds of existing and prospective customers but also lets you to receive the reviews and complaints about products or services you offer.

4 Successful Facebook Marketing Techniques

There are many Facebook marketing techniques that you can use for launching your new products, finding prospective clients from all over the world and staying connected to your customers? Here are some Facebook marketing techniques that can help business owners stay in connected with their customers and gain global exposure for their products and services.
  • Target audience Facebook profile: Your Facebook profile is the very first thing that your potential visitor sees. This is why you have to spend considerable time on your profile. Your profile should have maximum information about your business products, services, specialization, advantages and effectiveness of your products, company history and other relevant details. Providing complete details about your company is the key to create your audience targeted Facebook profile.
  • Post highly likable and sharable content: Posting sharable contents will grab the attention of your targeted customers. There are so many ways to get your posts shared. For instance, if you are involved in selling cake baking supplies, talking about cake recipes, celebrity bakers and baking tips will probably be something that your followers can appreciate. Offering discount codes, freebies, contests or sales is an excellent idea to keep them more excited about engaging with your Facebook page. High quality, witty or funny images and quotes, infographics and videos are favorites for followers which encourages them to share the content with their own followers.
  • Join groups and create events: If you connect your Facebook account to similar groups, then it will help you find the target audience that may be interested in your products and services. Also, joining various Facebook groups will allow you to increase customers from all over the world. You can also participate in various group discussions which will help you to spread awareness about your business via pictures and videos. Creating events can be helpful for sales promotions, product launches and event-based operations.
  • Facebook Ad campaign: Running a Facebook campaign is a great way to show your potential customers what services you have to offer. Create an ad regarding your product using Facebook interface. This provides much faster results and also gets to experience high ROI.
Hire a professional SEO company that provides social media optimization services to boost your search engine page rankings and attract targeted traffic to your website. And also Stay connected with Facebook marketing services to reap the benefits of social media marketing.

Thursday 18 July 2013

Local SEO Strategies for Business

If you want to grow your business in your local area, you need specific SEO strategies to be found easily by potential customers in that area. Local SEO combines the best practices of general search engine optimization with special techniques to help your business get noticed in your local area.

Growing Importance of SEO for Local Business

Local searches have assumed increasing importance in recent years and are critical if you sell your services or products to local customers. More people are searching for local products and services online. For example, if someone wants to find a Chinese restaurant in their area, they would turn to the Internet rather than a phone book to find it. Moreover, with the increasing usage of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets, people are searching for what they need even when they are on the go. That’s why it’s important that they can find you online.

It pays to target customers who are searching locally. For instance, someone who types just “Chinese restaurants” in a search bar is simply looking for general information on such restaurants. However, if the search is conducted with specific local terms added, such as “Chinese restaurant Brooklyn area’, it means the potential customer has advanced along the buying cycle and is more likely to make the decision to visit one.

Search engines provide great local SEO services for promoting your local searches. For instance, Google has Google Maps and Google Places. Local search services can guess where searchers are and provide them with results based on that location. Leading search engines have two indexes that provide data for a local search – regular organic search results and local results which provide information from an entirely different place. If you do well in Google’s local results for instance, your site will appear high on the page next to Google Maps.

Professional Local SEO Services for Promoting Local Searches

Getting your website optimized on leading search engines for greater visibility is not child’s play. Google is constantly changing its algorithms. Moreover, there are lots of competitions out there and only the right SEO strategies can help you rank well on the search engines and attract targeted traffic.  A local SEO company will evaluate your website and business goals to fix on what specific steps have to be taken to optimize your site for locally based search.

A competent SEO service provider would first conduct an effective needs analysis to
  • calculate your site’s ranking for business type and your geographical location
  • calculate ranking for each web page
  • see where is your search traffic coming from
  • know the type of visitors you need to attract
  • achieve your business goals
  • look at your competition to see what phrases they use to rank high.
The SEO specialists would also have to know if you have more than one location and where you typically do business. All this information is then used to optimize your local presence in local search results and business listings using the right combination of on-page and off-page SEO techniques,

On Page Optimization

On page optimization techniques for local SEO would include:
  • Choosing the right business-specific and geo-targeted keywords using the free Google Adword tool, Wordtracker, and find the best keywords, including long-tail keywords
  • Improving your website’s page titles, geo-specific META tags, title tags, citations, and more: META tags on every page of your website gives search engines a summary of page’s content and also appear in the search results to induce users to click on it.  A title tag with the following structure can get the results you are looking for:
main keyword/city and location first, your business name, and then an additional supporting keyword or information

With right kind of title tag optimization, your business would show up on the first page of search results easily as in this search for “hi definition liposuction New York City”
  • Improving your website’s pages and creating search engine friendly content is another important on-page optimization strategy. A search engine optimization company provides you with fresh, informative content that uses local keywords. Several informative content pages are included to your site to create relevancy between your site and your keyword terms. For instance, a healthcare center that hosts a page title “Gerristen Beach Pain Management Services” and uses the right keyword strategically on it is sure to attract prospective patients from that area.
  • Put contact info on all pages of your site. Build your local SEO pages and gets traffic to the right pages of your website with your address, phone number and a map. Putting searchers on a page that includes contact information is very useful especially if they are using a mobile device to get information in their local area.
  • Other strategies include submitting an XML sitemap to Google and Bing Webmaster tools, insertion of social media buttons on site pages for sharing, and more.
Off Page Optimization

Off-page opt techniques for local SEO would include conventional techniques such as registering your site with top search engines, listing your products in product directories, getting local business listings, article and blog marketing, getting local reviews, and more. Blog commenting, guest blogging, testimonials and forum discussions are great link building strategies. Google+ local is a great place to push for reviews.

Social networking is one of the most significant ways to optimize your website and boost the authority of your business. Being active on Google+ offers many advantages for local businesses:
  • Using local tab with personalized and social recommendations for specific Google+ Local pages
  • Creating valuable backlinks to their business
  • Zagat review data to get your business ratings
  • Google+ Local business pages are being integrated to Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Mobile.

Finally, a professional SEO company would provide you with ongoing reports to measure visitors, traffic source overview, landing pages and conversion tracking. This will help keep track of how well you are faring and if necessary, revision of your local SEO strategies for the best outcome.

Friday 12 July 2013

Choose the Best SEO Package

It is crucial to make your website easily visible to your targeted visitors. There are many professional SEO firms which offer variety of SEO packages that suits different kinds of businesses. Choose the right package to promote your business online. For SEO to be effective, your website needs to be user friendly with relevant search keywords and quality content.

Choose the Right SEO Package for Your Business

A professional SEO company offers different kinds of versatile SEO packages that can boost your website’s search engine rankings and help you achieve more conversions for higher sales and revenue. Whether your business is small, medium sized or large, customized SEO packages are available to suit your budget and online marketing goals. To choose the right package, you need to be aware of the long run benefits that SEO can provide your website such as strong web presence, high rankings, more targeted traffic and increased conversion rates.

SEO Packages: Factors to Consider

SEO packages include different types of strategies. To choose the suitable one for your business, consider the following factors
  • Size of business
  • Business goals and target market
  • Primary competitive keywords
  • Niche and competition
  • Budget
  • Social media goals and other factors.
The affordable SEO packages that a professional search engine optimization company offers would feature strategies such as
  • Link building
  • Keyword research
  • Content development
  • Website promotion via press
  • Social media optimization
  • Conversion rate optimization
  • On-domain optimization
Different Types of SEO Packages

A professional SEO company would offer different types of packages to its clients. Every industry is different and has unique goals and challenges. So you need to choose an SEO package that can resolve the challenges of your type of business. For instance, if you are in healthcare, see if you can get medical SEO services. These would include strategies that are specifically designed to meet the goals of a healthcare website. If you think that your retail business can benefit from social media exposure, see if the SEO Company offers social media packages that you can choose from. This would include strategies such as Facebook marketing, Twitter marketing, Linkedin marketing, local marketing, off-page optimization with directory and article submissions, and more. You can also get a link building package to increase your traffic, providing quality back links from relevant sites. If you want to improve your reach within a specific geographic area, you should choose a package that features SEO strategies that can build your competitiveness in a local market.

Your main consideration in choosing an SEO package should be your marketing goals and the strategy required to attain that goal.

Finding the Right SEO Company

A professional SEO firm with a team of SEO specialists can provide businesses with a wide choice of SEO packages. Based on a thorough understanding of the nature of various businesses and their specific goals, these specialists would formulate customized packages to help their clients achieve these goals, secure a strong and assertive web presence, and overcome competition. 

Thursday 11 July 2013

Social Media Marketing for Business

Social media marketing is one of the most important means of marketing for modern businesses. As the name suggests, this kind of marketing leverages the power of social media for businesses to gain traffic for their website and popularity for their products in, and through, the various social networks. The most common means of achieving these goals is by creating attractive content pieces and sharing them online through Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Twitter and other popular social networking platforms. Though it may sound easy, social media marketing demands single-minded effort and requires considerable experience.

Social Media Marketing Outsourcing

Every business needs to have a definite social media marketing strategy. Marketing through the social networks though takes some time for the results to start coming. It demands a comprehensive understanding of user trends and how social networking works, as well as loads of dedication if you wish to successfully handle this and get the desired results. This makes it necessary for businesses to outsource social media marketing to SEO/SMO firms. There are many benefits provided by an Internet marketing company:
  • Helping you establish a strong online presence.
  • Delicately working to familiarize your brand among your targeted audience in the social network.
  • Bringing in traffic to your website from the social networking platforms and acquiring links from prominent blogs, portals and sites for increasing your website’s page rank.
  • Helping develop really strong customer relationship and generating long period link traffic.
  • Ensuring cost-effectiveness of the outsourcing process, because you wouldn’t need to hire employees to market in the social networks and bear the associated costs.
  • Ensuring productivity of your business as outsourcing helps you focus more on your core business activities and significantly reduce business risk.
  • Helping you save precious time and attain greater efficiency by generating greater sales and revenue.
Discover the Impact of SMM

Social media optimization services offered by a search engine optimization firm will ensure your business image is enhanced and you receive more traffic to your site and more customers for your business. Reliable and experienced SEO companies identify SMM methodologies that will suit your business the most and bring maximum popularity for your website through their services such as:
  • Social media management
  • Content development
  • Twitter marketing
  • Facebook marketing, etc.

Though outsourcing search engine optimization and social media optimization is hugely beneficial, you need to ensure that the SEO company you select is right for you. The SEO firm must function as a virtual extension of your business office, providing dedicated social media marketing solutions.

Effective social media marketing has the power to propel your business to greater sales, and thereby revenue growth. It is also a really quick and easy way for reaching your potential customers from all over the world. Social media marketing outsourcing is quite a practical and successful option for businesses that have limited financial and HR resources as well as social media expertise.

Thursday 4 July 2013

Importance of SEO Content Writing

These days, it’s very difficult for web owners to achieve top rankings in search engines and attain success in the online marketing business. Search engine optimization is a key factor that makes things possible. There are various techniques needed for effective search engine optimization, but strategically developed web content writing services the most powerful procedures among all to uplift your business. Let us now discuss the importance of SEO content writing.

Why is Content Writing So Important?

SEO content writing is an art of writing clear and quality contents for various websites to earn a better exposure. Regardless of the chosen subject, the content developed should have the right potential to grab the attention of your t
targeted audience.

Wide range of web content writing services are now available. Among them includes,
  • Technical writing
  • Article writing
  • Website content writing
  • Ghost writing
  • E-newsletter writing
  • Creative writing
  • Travel writing
  • Press release writing
Tips on SEO Content Writing

To reap maximum business benefits from web content writing services, it is vital to follow certain basic rules.
  • Prior to content development, the writer needs to do keyword research. Always keep in mind that these are the keywords used by customers to search your product or service.
  • Once selected, include these keywords appropriately in a meaningful and unique content. Most recommended keyword frequency is 3 to 5%.
  • Make sure that the developed content is distinctive and original. To achieve this, affordable SEO copywriting services can be utilized. One of the important criteria is that the content should be relevant and informative.
  • To gain high rankings in leading search engines, your keywords should be positioned in right places. Certain ideal places to insert keyword phrases are titles, headings, meta descriptions, bullet points, file names, and internal links.
  • Include relevant images. Having eye-catching images that are relevant to the content will grab reader’s attention. However, it is important to optimize the image for better ranking. 
  • When the content development task is finished, you can add backlinks in your page to gain maximum exposure. Social media marketing can be very helpful, as it makes possible to form trusted relationship with your potential customers through various social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter.
  • You can also rely on other popular marketing areas such as blog creation, press release development, and article submission. All of them ensures a large amount of traffic to your website and also enhances the credibility of your brand.
Ways to Get Quality SEO Services

No matter what type of business you hold, measurable benefits are guaranteed if you hire cost effective SEO services from a trusted search engine optimization company. Such professionals have the expertise and skill set to recognize custom SEO packages for your need. They also give proper tips and suggestions regarding importance of SEO content writing to benefit you the most.