About a year back we compiled a list of competitive intelligence tools and it turned out to be one of our most popular posts. Well its a new year now and we thought you deserved an updated list. We went through the old list and threw out a few services that are no longer useful and added a whole bunch of new ones for you to check out. Some of the sites are more convenient than others depending on your needs. Some are free and some our expensive. Some of them directly monitor competitors’ advertising efforts while others track social media channels. Some of them offer several services and others only one or two. Heck, some of them aren’t even meant to be competitive intelligence tools, but we think each has something beneficial to offer. It was by pure coincidence that it came out to be an even 40 tools so let us know if there’s more we need to – Read the full article
Receiving organic traffic via the search engines is a wonderful thing – especially given that it’s free. However, problems can arise if you rely solely on search engine traffic. Your website may rank well today, but what happens if you wake up tomorrow and your site’s rankings have suddenly dropped? What if you suddenly can’t seem to get new visitors? Will you be able to communicate with most of the people who’d previously visited your online business? Stay Connected You would be very wise to diversify your traffic sources for your website and, more importantly, find a way to keep in touch with the visitors that you have attracted in the first place. One way to do that is by offering a free product, such as a report or an exclusive E-newsletter to anyone who visits your site in exchange for his or her E-mail address. Be mindful, though, that a freebie that has little value will only encourage people – Read the full article
Did you know that 20 percent of all searches on the Internet are for specific locations or businesses? Search giant Google did, and that’s why they changed Google Local to Google Places and began to display – for every search query that may be locally or geographically influenced – the local information for businesses, maps, and directions in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Right now, Google displays seven Places results for every search, as well as a map on the right side of the SERP that shows exactly where these seven places are. Obviously, Google Places pages help customers search these maps for local information while finding businesses within their area that are relevant to their search. Meanwhile, for small businesses, mom-and-pops, stores, offices, and other organizations with a physical address, Google Places is a unique local search tool that can drive and direct those who are searching to those who have something to offer or sell. Leverage this – Read the full article
If you’re thinking of starting your online business, then you’re part of a race where millions are striving for successful brand recognition on the Web. To win, you have to build an online brand that stands out in the competition – a brand that has a unique, likeable personality. Online brand building means thinking of ways you can make your Web identity more accessible to your potential customers, all while boosting your sales and building a reputation that engenders trust and credibility. Let me first raise some of the aspects of brand-building across the Internet: Quality Creatively built web identity Customer service Promotion and marketing Consistency Quality of products or services is your niche and is arguably most important. It’s better to have a single product that does well rather than having a hundred that perform really badly. Your product should be more innovative and superior than what the next guy has to offer. To make a product with distinction, – Read the full article
Ordering a pizza is a weekend tradition in many families. Pizza goes along with college football, study sessions, and – and the Internet? Yes, the Internet! These days more of the population are starting to find the advantages of ordering online – and by advantages, we also mean advantages for the pizzerias, restaurants, and other similar delivery businesses. That’s because ordering online offers a new way to market to the individual pizza enthusiast, or the bachelor ordering in for the weekend, or the bored, hungry online surfer or football score watcher. What makes ordering online such a potent marketing tool is the fact that, when ordering, say, a pepperoni thick with fries on the side, the system will normally have to ask for contact information to verify the order. This information typically includes an E-mail address. Once the address is obtained, the pizza company can start to send out specials about two to three times a week straight to the – Read the full article
Article marketing is no doubt one of the quickest and easiest way to promote your website. But most webmasters don’t look into this method of promotion because they think that it is difficult and time-consuming. The fact is, article marketing is probably the cheapest and fastest way to get free targeted visitors to your blog or website. Step 1: Keyword Research To start off your article marketing campaign, effective keyword research is a must. If you are after a specific niche, then the keywords you are after are probably researched already. If you have no idea how to do keyword research, don’t be afraid, here is the perfect place to learn. Some tools to help you get started: Google Keyword Tool (One of the Must-Use of any online marketer) Micro Niche Finder (My personal favorite, because it tells you exactly whether the keyword is good or not) Market Samurai (Another pretty cool market research program, and a bunch of other functions) Make – Read the full article
The Internet has provided many businesses with new exciting opportunities. We know that an increasing number of consumers are turning to the Web when it comes to purchasing products and services. As a business owner, this means that it’s vital that you maintain an online presence. You’ll want to give potential customers the best possible chance to buy your services. The first step on the road to achieving this will be to build a website. Many small business owners take that first step, but too few think about what to do next. The reality is that having a website will be of very little value unless consumers can actually find it. This is what makes search engine optimization (SEO) so vital to any business that’s aiming to succeed online: appearing at the top of the search engine rankings will give you the best chance of being noticed. Hiring a suitable SEO consultant is thus going to be important to your – Read the full article
Now that Google Instant has aged a bit and search professionals have had the opportunity to test its effect on SEM campaigns, the general verdict seems to be that Instant has not had a dramatic effect on SEO. Like Google Caffeine earlier this year, Instant seems to be aimed at improving user experience rather than search results. Indeed, in spite of all the SEO anxiety accompanying each change made by Google, the fact remains that their recent upgrades have focused largely on three main factors: * Greater personalization * Better targeting * Increased efficiency And while these are all things that professional SEOs are already optimizing for, now may be a good time to look beyond search results and consider how Google’s changes are affecting search behavior. With the release of Google Instant, it seems clearer than ever that Google wants to make search as easy and as intuitive as possible – and the way it’s doing that is by – Read the full article
