Google Analytics holds a wealth of information about your site. Within a few clicks you’ll have all of the metrics that are important to you: page views, visits, unique views, bounce rates, and conversions, etc. If you want to go a step further you can start to segment this information or create custom reports so you can look deeper into the data. Regardless of whether you are an e-commerce site owner, a marketer, a business owner, or a blogger, if you know how to interpret the data correctly, you will be able to make the right choices more often. The numbers don’t lie and if you can base your decision on what the numbers are telling you, you’ll be able to improve the performance of your website and increase the number of business opportunities you’ll get from it. Site Search: A hidden gold mine One of the most overlooked tools in your analytics arsenal is quite possibly the Internal Site – Read the full article
Google, under fire these last several weeks for allowing webmasters, marketers, and spammers manipulate its search engine, recently made changes to the way it ranks search results. The move, announced and detailed in a blog post Thursday at the official Google blog, signified an effort by the company to push down low-quality websites and pages that appear on its search engine results pages (SERPs), while rewarding sites with original, high-quality content and information as well as “in-depth reports” and “thoughtful” analyses. “In the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries—and we wanted to let people know what’s going on,” wrote Amit Singhal, Google Fellow, and Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer. “This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites, or sites that are just not very useful.” The change in ranking algorithms also supports – Read the full article
No matter what Facebook says, E-mail is not going to go away. And neither will E-mail marketing: in fact, according to a recent survey, more dollars are expected to be spent by businesses and marketers this 2011 on E-mail campaigns. We certainly hope that some money goes toward studying the anatomy of a great E-mail newsletter. Why? Because E-mail is one way – is still one of the best ways – to effectively capture attention in the age of information overload and short attention spans. Oh, and because 94 percent of all Internet users read E-mail. That’s higher than the percentage of Internet users who turn to search engines to find information. Let’s check out the body parts of a sexy, irresistible E-mail newsletter – the kind that doesn’t go straight to a recipient’s trash folder. Your company name. One of the most common mistakes that E-mail marketers make is the assumption that people will remember who they are. Well, – Read the full article
In my experience with Internet Marketing and SEO, I have come across a multitude of Internet marketing and SEO terms. A lot of these terms usually have very vague or technical definitions that leave you confused and frustrated. I know how you feel, trust me, I have been there. Fear not, I have compiled a list of internet marketing and SEO keywords in layman’s terms for you people that are new to SEO and internet marketing. 1. Anchor text , anchor link – When you are reading content, and a word is clickable and contains a link. 2. Backlink, back-link – a link from an outside website (outside source) that points back to a website. (i.e. all the links that connect back to your blog) 3. Broken link – a link that fails to connect to it’s intended destination 4. Cloaking – When a website presents one version of itself to the user and another version to the search engine. – Read the full article
Let’s face it: we post a huge amount of information on Facebook. It doesn’t even matter whether we’re using the hugely popular social network for business or for pleasure. They’re all there: status updates, photos, videos, notes, links, messages, apps, etc. Imagine if we suddenly lose all these tomorrow. So much social data, lost in a digital black hole. It would be like Yahoo! GeoCities all over again. Don’t let any unexpected turn of events mark the end of the world – or the end of your Facebook life. Because it won’t be, not with these great ways to download, store, and back up your Facebook data. (Hey, and while you’re at it, make sure you check out our recent guide on how to create a Twitter archive.) Facebook’s Download Your Information feature Not many users know about it, but Facebook has its own information backup tool, which you can access by going to your “My Account Settings”. (Check out – Read the full article
Let’s face it, online marketing is more than just advertising your company on the internet. Google has evolved into a verb for searching, and your page rank is essential. Be it your personal blog, or your online business, search engine optimization is crucial for securing the top position on a search. Many people underestimate page rank because they do not understand just how important it is to be the top rank. In some cases, the 1st position is clicked 90% more than the 2nd position. With an average click difference of 50-70%, page rank and SEO is not to be taken lightly. There is no perfect formula for SEO. There are literally hundreds of factors that determine your page rank on Google with some factors that weigh heavier than others. Here are 5 plugins for your WordPress that can boost your website in a search engine. 1. Super Cache One big factor is how long your website takes to load. – Read the full article
It’s that time of the year once again: the time to make lists, review what has happened in the last twelve months, and look back at some of the year’s highlights. It’s no different here at Lakeshore Branding. As you probably know by now, we’re very passionate about all things online. And that’s why we work hard to bring you news, trends, tips, tricks, and the occasional top secrets on Internet marketing, social media, technology and apps, etc. So, as 2010 comes to a close and we herald the coming of a new year, we thought it would be a cool idea to check out Lakeshore Branding’s top 5 blog posts of 2010. 60 Awesome Small Business WordPress Themes This blog post was inspired by the small business owners who are dedicated to finding solutions to enhance their visibility online. And since we were getting a lot of questions about where they might find business-oriented WordPress themes, or how they – Read the full article
Tumblr is easy to fall in love with – especially if you’re looking for a light (and awesome) blogging platform. It’s going to be even easier once you’ve read the reasons why you should “Tum-blog” and taken note of the fact that the company has significant plans to expand next year. If you’re big on SEO, however… umm. Okay. So here’s the thing: Tumblr isn’t exactly the best blogging platform to support your SEO (search engine optimization) campaign. Unlike WordPress sites or even blogs hosted by Google’s own product, Blogger, Tumblr sites don’t rank well on search results. Which isn’t to say that Tumblr never ranks well – because with a few tweaks, tips, and tricks, you can position your Tumblr blog in a way that gives you an edge in the search rankings. Optimize your page titles: Here’s one good thing about Tumblr: it allows you to modify the HTML of your posts. HTML! Isn’t that a form of – Read the full article
