BlogSearch Engine Optimization (SEO)

Core SEO Tips for Beginners to Boost Website Traffic

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New to the world of SEO? Looking for a magic wand to get your website ranked as No. 1? There are definitely some SEO tips and tricks even if there is no route to get your site to rank as the first page on search engines such as Google, Yahoo,…

New to the world of SEO? Looking for a magic wand to get your website ranked as No. 1? There are definitely some SEO tips and tricks even if there is no route to get your site to rank as the first page on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing. The net has vast amounts of information with SEO tips and tricks to promote websites. But a closer look reveals that most of the articles and blog posts talk about SEO in a suppositional or academic manner and not a practical fashion as to how to best employ SEO. So struggle no more to get visitors to your website because we are here to reveal SEO tips that will boost your organic traffic. We would like to believe that SEO is no longer just a basic set of rules but rather needs you to make your entire website a well-oiled machine. With a few best practices, you can vastly improve your SEO efforts and take the first few steps toward a higher ranking.

There are many tips and tricks to enhance your websites’ SEO performance:

Content

The main strategy of effective SEO is keyword research. Primary and Secondary keyword research is important for effective content. Having an idea of how to use them strategically will lead to engagement. The main focus on your landing page should be the primary keyword, that is, what is your brand about and its connection. Primary keywords are important for your content. Secondary keywords support the primary keywords, and by including them in your content, you can rank higher by making your content unique and relevant. You need to make a mental note and realise that you create content for humans and not search engines. As much as it is imperative to include keywords on your pages, your content should most importantly be informative and meaningful.

Page title

Keep it short and simple. Listen to the digital gurus when they tell you that the page title should be under 70 characters and contain no more than three long-tail keywords. Also, make sure that your page title is something out of the ordinary and descriptive of the content that it caters to.

Meta description

In case you’re rolling your eyes at this new word, let us inform you that a meta-description is that little bit of information below the link of a search result. It should be as short as 150 characters and include at least two of the keywords being used in the page’s title.

Header tags

Nobody likes too many words followed by more words. So use header tags to break up your content into sections. This makes reading easier and pleasurable. Also, the good formatting of your content helps enhance the user experience of your website tremendously.

Use descriptive URL

Let’s do it right – put the most important keywords – that is, the page title at the beginning of the URL. Make sure that you always use hyphens to separate words – Google considers hyphens to be word separators. Structuring URLs for your content can improve your SEO rankings.

An effective URL should:

  1. Include keywords - To make your URL effective, include two or more keywords.
  2. Be easy to understand - Making it easy for the readers to comprehend your website.
  3. Be compact - Having shorter URLs will help to push you down the results page.

Use the right keywords

Images used on the page should have keywords included in the file name. Images play an important role in SEO. Use the right keyword in your image. As the URL structure is separated by hyphens, so should the words be in this case. Also, ensure that an alt-text, a word, or phrase is included to describe the image.

Internal links

Once your content is ready, you can link to your website and blogs. This will help to boost your search rankings. Use this great opportunity to point people to more relevant material on your site and keep them moving through it.

Meta keywords

Although search engine algorithms have stopped entertaining meta keywords, adding 3-5 keywords to your page is still important to optimise your content. Smaller search engines may still use them, and you may benefit from this SEO tip.

Page load speed

Page speed is a measurement of how quickly your page's content loads. It is mistaken with "site speed," which is the page speed. A site's page speed is measured in "page load time", which is the time it takes for a page to show its content fully.

Different multimedia

Usage of images, videos, and audio can help augment the user experience and allow you to deliver information in a way that is most suited to your visitors. It also shows that you have put in the work to make your content interactive and appealing.

What SEO tips does 2022 have in store for us?

Mobile App Optimisation

The mobile market is expanding, and how? It’s become so big that even Google is still trying to get answers on how to provide mobile users with a better search experience. So site owners should aim to optimise if they want that coveted rank.

Add Value

As easy as this seems, it’s really important to create content that adds value while still being relevant to the target audience. Apart from creating quality content, it is also about knowing your audience to the extent that the content is useful.

Optimise Visual Content

Ignore visual content at your own peril. In the current scenario, visual content has become more important than ever. It supplements the text in the best possible way (or even manages to replace it), and it certainly can affect SEO.

Keep Your Online Footprint Up-to-Date

Never forget that your online presence goes way beyond your site. It’s definitely a splendid idea to experiment with new platforms to let the world know of your presence, but make sure you keep them up-to-date even if you stop using them.

Optimise for Rich Answers

Although it is still important to aim for the top positions in Google search with your target keywords, it’s now time to optimise for other ‘Rich Answers’ too. These are the results that emerge from the top organic search results.

Hybridisation

On the internet, users have become more knowledgeable. Mobile users check their email on the go, desktop users redeem social media coupons, and individuals who click on your PPC advertisements want a similar experience to what they experienced when they arrived on your site via organic search. Using social media networks to promote your content is one of the most effective strategies to drive traffic to your website.

Google SEO tips

Attaining a coveted rank in Google in 2022 is about the delivery of a satisfying end product to users. And a clear direction is what is required on what you need to do to your website to get more traffic from Google.

Pick a good keyword

The very first thing to do is to pick the search term or phrase you want the post to show. If I am writing about travel destinations or the best places in the world, I’ll want to find out what people are actually searching for. The coolest way to do this is to use Google Keyword Planner. It is a free tool that will guide you along the path and show you an estimate for any search phrase.

Keyword Density

In simple terms, this means the number of times the keyword appears in the article that you are writing. Generally, people use it up to 2-3 %. Focusing too much on the keywords can also lead to bad SEO. So use this tool in a proper manner.

Figure out the competition

You are now ready and armed with a term that you want to try to rank for. So now you need to know the competition and do a bit of research on them. Time to go undercover and do some recon! Get, set, and go over to your “private browsing” mode on your web browser (“Incognito” in Chrome, “Private” in Safari and Firefox, “InPrivate” on Internet Explorer) and head to the beloved Google.com. Once you’ve had a look, ask yourself if you can do better?

Write Unique Content

You know what your competition looks like now, so it’s time to create content that is going to be mind-blowingly unique and amazing. It's not just about the words you use, but it's also about how unique your information is. While you want your material to be useful, easy to comprehend, and user-friendly, you also need to think about how to arrange it for search engines.

Make sure your keyword is in your URL

Your keyword needs to be part of the page title, but that doesn’t mean it has to be exact (though it can be). Moreover, the title must also be exciting and attention-grabbing enough that people will actually want to click on it!

Another important place for your keyword is your header

A large title at the top followed by several sub-headers throughout the page, and there! You’re all sorted! This organization not only helps people in skimming through your blog-post articles, but it’s also helpful in showing Google exactly what your blog post is about. Therefore, make sure you use your exact keyword phrase at least once in your sub-headers.

The name and alt-tag of your image also deserve some keyword attention

Someone rightly said a picture is worth a thousand words. So prove them right with images in your blog post, you can use those images to cement the idea to Google about your post’s topic. There are two ways to do this:
  1. The image name
  2. The image alt tag
Just change the name of the image on your computer before uploading. So a vastly uninteresting file called “2831274.jpg” can be renamed with something like “a place divine 1.jpg.” Without using the regular mumbo-jumbo or getting too technical, the alt tag is simply the text that the web browser will show if the photo can’t load for some reason.

Make sure your keyword is in your URL

The keyword you include in your webpage should also be included in your URL. We're describing what comes after the ".com" in your web address (or .net, .org, or whatever you use). Which of the following URLs do you think Google will prefer when selecting whether or not to show a given page? www.TravelWell.com/9124824834-1
  • www.TravelWell.com/the-world’s-best-places
You’re bang on if you guessed the second one. While the former might not totally ruin your SEO efforts, the latter definitely helps show Google exactly what the post is about.

Add internal links

The process of linking to other useful pages on your website is known as internal linking. Internal links are vital for on-page SEO because they direct visitors to other pages, keeping them on your site longer, and signalling to Google that your site is worthwhile.

Page loading speed

Page speed refers to the time it takes for a single webpage to load. It is determined by a variety of factors, including server quality, file sizes, picture compression, and more. This is considered by both Google and Bing. Their preference lies with those websites, which have a very high page loading speed. You can check page speed and loading time with:
  • Gtmetrix.com
  • tools.pingdom.com
Core Web Vitals – Core Web Vitals are used to measure the user experience. Google announced three metrics: Loading, Interactivity, and Visual Stability. All three are aligned with one thing which is Page Speed.

To be or not to be - ask your readers

Just ask your readers what they want you to write. You could conduct open polls to know their opinions, or you could e-mail them to know about their questions or interests about specific topics.

Last but not at all least – update the content

This matters a lot because if you have not updated your outdated content and links, then search engines will send you far down in the ranking. So, update your content regularly. We could go on and on with our suggestions and SEO tips and techniques. But it’s time you paid heed to the ones we’ve mentioned above and get going. We’ll keep you updated even as you update your stuff.

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    BlogSearch Engine Optimization (SEO)

    On-Page Optimisation – A Complete Walkthrough to Rank on Top

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    Attaining nirvana, or in other words, grabbing a good ranking in a search engine, hasn’t been a cakewalk for a lot of people. Search engines have upped their game and are getting smarter & cleverer every day, so now it takes more than just good content to beat your competitors.…

    Attaining nirvana, or in other words, grabbing a good ranking in a search engine, hasn’t been a cakewalk for a lot of people. Search engines have upped their game and are getting smarter & cleverer every day, so now it takes more than just good content to beat your competitors. And On-page optimization is one of the first steps every Webmaster should look into. It is rightly regarded as one of the most important aspects of SEO and will help you with your on-page ranking factors. Learn more about the Top 6 SEO Trends that will Dominate 2022. On-page, tell google about your website and how you provide services to your customers. It helps in siting both optimisation and search engine. To attract more traffic and visitors, you need to optimise your website for google. On-page optimisation techniques are crucial as changes you make affects your website. It is critical as every part of on-page SEO depends on you.

    What do you understand by On-page optimisation?

    It’s simply a process in which various components of a single web page for a given keyword or a phrase start getting noticed by the search engines. As mentioned above, On-page optimisation is one of the basic steps to search engine optimisation. So what do you do with this information? All that you need to do is act upon a simple on page SEO checklist that will bring in more search engine traffic from every piece of content that you publish. Making it easy for you, we are summarising some of the most important on-page optimisation techniques here. You can apply some of these, if not all. This is sure to give your site a better standing where search engines are concerned, as well as increase your overall CTR (Click-Through-Rate) ratio.

    Publish High Quality -

    Unique content can do well with or without on-page SEO factors. Few characteristics of quality content are as follows -
    • Exclusive Content
    • Originality
    • Content including text element
    • Well Researched Content
    Before starting your SEO, make sure your content is unique and relevant to the target audience.

    Title Optimization

    A no-brainer, it’s a known fact that a site’s title tag lends itself to one of the most important website optimisation elements. A short but effective and descriptive title tag should be just right for your visitors to know you and your business. The first thing to be showcased and indexed is, you’ve guessed it right – the title tag. So obviously, it is to give utmost importance. Out of a gazillion results that a searcher sees, your site’s title has to be interesting enough for them to want to find out more information. At the same time, your title also has to be appealing enough to the search engine in order to rank you above thousands of other similar websites like yours.

    Important things that need to be considered while thinking of the title:

    1. Your Name/ Business Name / Site Name: Shakespeare does not hold good here – this is a very important aspect. If you think that your customers may look for you by your brand name, then it will also help to put it somewhere in your title.
    2. Keywords: These are definitely the key to success. If you want to rank for a certain set of keywords, it will only help to place some of them in your title tag. A title tag symbolizes the whole feel & content of your website. So if you are selling clothes online, you could consider including keywords like – fabric for the season, dresses, etc., in your title tag. Don’t add too many keywords in your title. Write a title that is interesting to the users & also good for the search engine.
    3. Write short-length descriptions: Make sure your page titles are short. To be sure of your website rank, make sure you include all the keywords. As per google update’s the suggested character is 70, make sure to keep it below. Make your titles relevant and short.
    4. Meta Tags Optimization: It's a chance to promote your page and persuade users to visit your website rather than one of the others by clicking your link. A Meta Description is something you can’t and shouldn’t ignore. A site’s Meta description should comprise a short description of your website, letting the users know of the areas and services that your business specializes in. This small piece of information can prove to be a selling snippet. And if it is interesting enough, the searcher can choose to go for more information. But remember to make the Meta Description exceptionally unique. If it is too generic and written shoddily, then there is a good chance that your site will simply not make the mark and be royally ignored.
    5. Keyword Optimization & Synonyms: You need to think of the readers first and then the search engine while writing the content. It needs to be optimised, keeping both these factors in mind. Cramming up your site with too many keywords can make your site uninteresting and dull. So it is imperative to have a balance between your keywords & your content.
    Important elements of Keyword Optimization:
    • Research: A thorough research should be done before you decide on your keywords. There are many free tools available that can help you to do keyword research. Some of the famous ones out there are Google Adwords Keyword Tool, SEO book Keyword Suggestion tool & Uber suggest.
    • Keyword Density: Try to keep an adequate keyword density so that it can help the search engine figure out whether your page is indeed related & appropriate for the keyword that you are targeting.
    • Synonyms & Related Keywords: You could go for synonyms instead of having a high keyword density. This helps to make the content sound natural but still helps in SEO.
    • Long Tail Keywords: It’s often a very good idea to focus on some long-tail keywords, as they are fairly easier to rank for.

    Link Optimization

    It makes perfect sense to optimise your internal & external outbound links for search engines as well as to lead your visitors down a better path.

    Vital features of Link Optimization:

    • Make an earnest attempt to use good Anchor Text when you are trying to link to other people. Include a fitting keyword in the Anchor Text, which lends the outbound link the right meaning and value.
    • A proper Internal Link Structure with the correct usage of Anchor Text will definitely help. E.g. “Home delivery of pizzas” is a better anchor text than “click here”.

    Image Optimization

    If you intend to use many images, you need to look at optimising them, too, as they can’t be read by the search engines. It might be an easy task for the user to interpret the image into its meaning. However, it’s a totally new ball game for a Web crawler because the whole interpreting process is completely different in its case. So you need to add special tags to your images for them to attain some kind of meaning.

    Some Important Image Optimization Elements:

    • Alt-text: ALT text or Alternate Text is the text that describes your image. The text should be short but meaningful. You can use your relevant keywords as ALT text.
    • Filename: Always remember to use the meaningful file name for your images, use names like “homes-for-dogs.jpg” instead of meaningless “DSC24045.jpg”. Try to keep the image file name the same or similar to the ALT text.
    • Image Title: Using the title tag in images is an important aspect because it will show the title as a tooltip when a user moves his mouse over the image.
    • Image Linking: Whenever you wish to link to your image, use the image keywords in your link text. For example: use “view the world’s most beautiful destination” instead of “Click here to view” as the anchor text.

    URL Optimization -

    It's critical to optimise your URLs for maximum SEO. It is divided into two sections. The first step is to optimise the URL, and the second is to organise the URL. An SEO-friendly URL is brief, descriptive, and incorporates your goal term, just like the page title. Best techniques for improving the structure of your URLs:
    • Use categories to your advantage - Sort your pages into categories to make it easier for users and search engines to locate what they're looking for.
    • Add Breadcrumb menu - A breadcrumb menu is beneficial since it allows people to explore your website systematically because they always know where they are and how far away they are from the home page.

    Page Loading Speed -

    Site speed is classified as technical SEO. When it comes to on-page SEO factors, page speed is quite important. First and foremost, Google is concerned about the user experience. Conversions and ROI can be affected by site speed. Fast-loading websites are beneficial not only for SEO but also for retention and revenues.

    Mobile Friendless -

    Mobile devices now account for nearly all of Google's searches. As a result, if your website isn't mobile-friendly, you're already missing half of your prospective visitors. Your website must be mobile responsive, so make sure it is. In general, mobile-friendliness is not an issue for websites with a responsive design. These techniques are just some of the many ways that you can improve your on-page SEO. Anyone used independently of the others won’t make much of a difference to your site ranking. However, when used together, they can definitely help to improve your site traffic. They will work in the direction of getting your pages to work better, they will assist in getting your entire site crawled by search engine spiders, they will help augment the value of internal pages, and they will build the relevancy of internal pages to specific keyword phrases.

    What does 2022 have in store for us?

    The world of SEO is transforming at lightning speed. And like everyone else, you’re still thinking about how you can magically materialise relevantly and organically on Google’s SERPs. Well, whether you’re doing SEO in 2022 or planning for it for any other year, it’s important to pay tribute to the components of trust. The user’s expectations, not to mention Google’s algorithm updates, keep us marketers on our toes all the time. We are continuously making adjustments. 200+ factors attribute to your rank in Google’s current algorithm. You can find out about those 200+ algorithm factors in any of the SEO books. However, on a more general note, there are some rules you should be following.

    Always work towards winning Google’s trust

    If you want to do exceedingly well in SEO, you need Google’s trust. This is not a newly discovered fact, it has been true for years now, but too many people overlook this guiding principle.

    Old is gold

    Your website’s age has more importance than its beauty. No matter how gorgeous your site looks, what Google is really looking for is link consistency over time. How much time? We’re talking years here.

    Quality over quantity

    When it comes to getting noticed on the Web, one of the unwavering rules is that quality beats quantity every single time. For example, don’t worry about pushing out a certain amount of content every day; worry about pushing out good content every single week. That’s what Google cares about – quality.

    Content will always rule

    If the content fails to impress, so will the SERP rankings. Google aims to deliver the most relevant results in the quickest manner possible. If the content is no good, how can it be relevant?

    Size really does matter

    Google has been battling against something called thin content. Thin content is a bony structure without much meat. Not only is it short on length, but also it’s short on value because of it.

    Keywords are mostly everything but don’t overdo it

    Coming up with great SEO content in 2022 has an amazing amount of stuff to do with keywords. Google wants content made for humans. But you also need to customise the content for search engines like Google. So think well and write better!

    Go mobile In the current scenario, if your site doesn’t have a mobile design and it’s enormously difficult to navigate or load the content on mobile devices, you’re basically shooting yourself in the foot. Remember, Google is furiously focused on mobile.

    Location of your links

    When it comes to SEO, just like real estate, it’s all about location, when talking about your links, of course. You want people from all over the world linking to you, but you also want to ensure that relevant, high-quality content is linking to you.

    Improve user engagement

    Marketers have almost always conjectured user engagement as a possible ranking factor. This covers the average time on site; bounce rate, pogo-sticking, and others. This can determine the effectiveness of page elements that add to the chances of visitors committing to your call to action.

    A content marketing plan that wins hands down

    Since content is one of the top two Google ranking factors, it’s really important to get it right. Getting a content marketing plan that is way better than competition presents a huge opportunity for those willing to invest the time and make that happen.

    Structured Markup

    The process of "marking up" your website code to make it much easier for Google to identify and comprehend different aspects of your content is known as structured markup or structured data. When you search for something on Google, you see highlighted snippets, knowledge panels, and other content elements that use structured markup. The above rules will definitely aid you in dominating SEO in 2022. And even if Google makes amendments moving forward, these guidelines will still help you make great progress on those all-encompassing, ubiquitous SERPs.

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      Off Page vs On Page SEO: Techniques and Trends 2021

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      Whoever said life was unfair must have certainly gone through the ever-changing Google algorithm updates. Because with every update that Google releases, SEO gets seems to get a little more complex. But, here are the Top 6 SEO Trends that will Dominate 2018 to make your lives easier. There is…

      Whoever said life was unfair must have certainly gone through the ever-changing Google algorithm updates. Because with every update that Google releases, SEO gets seems to get a little more complex. But, here are the Top 6 SEO Trends that will Dominate 2018 to make your lives easier. There is not just one but two main buckets that search engines look at when assessing your site compared to other sites on the web.
      1. On-page: What is your site all about?
      2. Off-page: How convincing is your site? How popular is it?
      Gone are the days when on-page SEO was essentially synonymous with keyword stuffing, while off-page SEO involved a bit more than getting as many links as possible to your pages, that too as quickly as possible. In other words, what you rank for is largely determined by on-page factors, while how high you rank in the search results is largely determined by off-page factors. But now, both on and off-page SEO have advanced and evolved significantly. Each element of search engine optimisation now entails its own components to cater to, and each one offers its own potential for ROI. Now we are sure you definitely want to know some important differences between on-page and off-page search engine optimisation so that you can prioritise your SEO tasks effectively. As crucial as both on-page and off-page are to the success of an SEO campaign, they’re on completely different sides of the fence when it comes to enhancing your search engine rankings.

      What is On-Page SEO?

      On-page SEO helps in optimising diverse parts of your website that affect your search engine rankings. It’s something that you have control over and can change on your own. Some of the biggest factors are:

      TITLE TAGS

      Your title tags should include your keywords on each page of your site. You could look at the many best practices that go into writing an effective title tag.

      HEADINGS (H1)

      They are called headings for a reason. And are usually the biggest words on the page. Any wonder then, search engines give them a little more weight than your other page copy. It would be a super idea to work your target keywords into the headings of each web page.

      METADATA

      Metadata is a well-written description summarising the content of a particular webpage. It used to be one of the most important factors affecting search engine optimisation once upon a time. Meta descriptions should be created within a limit of 155- 160 characters, which effectively should not have anything but alphanumeric characters. Though in the current scenario, it can’t influence search engine rankings, but Meta Data does help in getting a high click-through rate.

      URL STRUCTURE

      Add keywords into your URLs if that can be done easily. However, you do not have to change the current URLs just so they have keywords in them. Don’t alter old URLs unless you plan on redirecting your old ones to your new ones. Consult someone who knows about this before you set out to do this.

      ALT TEXT FOR IMAGES

      Alt text should be added to all images on your website. The average visitor can’t see this text. The screen reader software uses alt text to help blind internet users understand the content of your images. Search engines crawl images in more or less the same way, so introducing some appropriate keywords while accurately describing the image will help search engines understand your page’s content.

      FAST-LOADING PAGES, OR PAGE LOAD SPEED

      In a world where everything seems to revolve around speed, we can’t blame Google for wanting to help its users find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible. It does this to provide the best user experience. Thus, optimising your pages to load faster helps your site rank higher in the search results.

      PAGE CONTENT

      Fresh, relevant, and useful – the content on your pages needs to be all this and more. If the users are looking for something specific on your page, they need to be able to find what they’re looking for. It needs to be easy to read and provide value to the end-user. Search engines, especially Google, have several ways to measure if your content is useful.

      INTERLINKING

      It is but common sense to link pages. Linking one of your website pages to other similar pages on your website offers context to the search engine and to the readers as well. Some of the known best practices are:
      1. Include links in the main content of each page.
      2. Paragraph links carry the most weight.
      3. Use keyword-rich anchor text in links.
      4. Avoid using non-descriptive anchor text (for example, read more, click here, etc.).
      5. Link to relevant, deep pages.
      6. Use breadcrumb navigation on every page.
      7. Monitor your inbound links through Google Webmaster Tools.
      8. Avoid multiple links to the same page from a single page.
      9. Less links= More authority per link.
      The most common practice of showing “related links” or “tags” at the end of a page or in a sidebar is done to thematically relate one page to another.

      SCHEMA MARKUP

      Google's understanding of a page's content is improved by adding structured data. In addition, structured data is used by Google to display "rich results" in SERPs. There are a variety of ways to add structured data to your website (plugins, Google Tag Manager, and so on), but it's always better to employ a professional if you're not comfortable writing code.

      SOCIAL TAGS

      It shows Google that your material is interesting, informative, and trustworthy when people share it on social media. Although not all of your website's pages are shareable, you can make the ones that are with these recommendations - ensure you have Open Graph tags and Cards installed, and provide links or social sharing buttons to make it easy for visitors to share your material.

      PAGE EXPERIENCE

      According to Google, "optimising for these qualities makes the web more pleasurable for users across all web browsers and surfaces, as well as helps sites progress toward user expectations on mobile." Google is working on a new ranking indicator that will favour websites that give positive user experiences (coming out in 2021). The 'page experience signal' will include core Web Vitals, as well as mobile-friendliness, safe browsing, HTTPS security, and obtrusive interstitial guidelines.

      CORE WEB VITALS

      The long-term success of a website is determined by the user experience. Google introduced Core Web Vitals in April 2020, that is, a set of signals that the company considers "essential" to all users' web experiences. These signals are used to quantify a website's user experience - from page visual stability and load speed to interactions.
      • Largest Contentful Paint - Indicates when the majority of the page content has been downloaded and gauges perceived page loading speed.
      • First Input Delay - Measures how long it takes a user to engage with a page for the first time.
      • Cumulative Layout Shift – Assesses the visual stability of a page by quantifying the amount of layout shift on the visible page content.

      What is Off-Page SEO?

      Off-page SEO concentrates on increasing the ability as well as the authority of your domain through the act of getting links from other websites. There’s something called “Domain Authority” that calculates how authoritative your website is compared to other sites.

      Characteristics of Off-Page SEO Work

      Managing an off-page SEO initiative is typically a larger responsibility and a harder task to undertake because you’ve got to start trying to affect the big wide search world, not just your corner of it. Done accurately and precisely, you can get some big bumps from off-page work. The most important and by far the biggest off-page SEO factor is the number and quality of backlinks to your website. Some examples of ways you can build good links to your website are:
      • Create mind-blowing content that interests people and they want to link to it because of its value.
      • Be active on social media, as the shares of your content there will ultimately generate links.

      Facebook

      • With 1.23 billion active users, you can and should share your content on Facebook. But don’t use a promotional tone; rather keep it light and not intrusive. Please keep in mind that interesting and light topics with pictures get more attention in the form of Likes and Share on Facebook.

      Twitter and LinkedIn

      • You can look at distributing your content on both these platforms. Content here can be in the form of an article, video, image, or even in the form of a simple update. If you have content of amazing quality you’ll surely be able to create a buzz around it.

      Pinterest

      • Pinterest is an image-sharing website that allows you to share pictures from your post to appeal to your target audience. The site can help you drive your sales.

      Quora

      • A question & answer platform, Quora can help you establish yourself as a subject matter expert in your field.

      Video Sharing

      • You can create entertaining as well as informational videos on topics like pet-care tips or different retail strategies to share them on free video hosting sites like Vimeo, YouTube, etc., generating billions of unique viewers every month.

      Leveraging social interaction with your site

      These days, the use of social metrics or social engagement as a ranking factor is an increasing trend. Apart from backlinks, Google now gives particular importance to social signals around your content. Whether it’s the number of people who tweet, ‘Like’, social bookmark, or “vote” via Google +1 for your content, your site’s social footprints have a direct relation with your rankings. SEO has now evolved into social.

      Guest Blogging

      Another way of gaining strong backlinks is guest blogging. All you need to do is create relevant and high-quality content and submit it to blogs with higher page ranks. If your article reads really well and impresses all, it will get published. But remember; don’t just take it up for the sake of getting backlinks. Also submitting articles to substandard blog sites is not going to fetch you the advantages you are looking for. And while size does matter, please remember that quality supersedes quantity. And the truth is just that creating excellent, shareable content is the first step to earning valuable links and improving your off-page SEO. So how many links is a good number of links for good off-page SEO? That is a mean one to answer and the solution will be based on the Domain Authority of your contenders, as you want to make sure you’re playing on the same field.

      Which one is more important?

      You simply can’t choose between on and off-page SEO. That would be almost like choosing between a foundation and a roof if you had to decide which to use for your house. On-page and off-page SEO work together in tandem to improve your search engine rankings. They complement each other. But putting the house in order would require you to focus firstly on On-page SEO and then looking at off-page SEO. Much like a foundation, you may be required to come back and do some touch-ups to your on-page SEO from time to time. Striking the right balance between the two will help make your website “bilingual” so that your users can understand it as well as the search engine robots- and that’s how your rankings start to improve. Both are extremely important and fundamental to the success of an online business. Though the world of SEO has changed over the years, it is very critical for online businesses to understand that both on-page and off-page SEOs are needed to get organic traffic from search engines. So while Off-Page SEO gets you at the top of the search engine rankings, On-Page SEO keeps you there. Consider a scenario wher e Google is considering your site’s ranking based on bounce rate, time on site, and other search engine ranking metrics. In this case, Off-Page SEO will have to push you to the top spot first. Only On-Page SEO cannot do it, except on a niche with low competition. Your site’s authority comes from the number of links pointing back to it. If you check top ranking sites for any keyword on search engine results, you will notice that most top-ranked sites have a good number of backlinks. So does it mean that Off-Page SEO is more important? According to us, On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO are both important, if you have a well-optimized post, fewer backlinks can shoot you into the top spot compared to when you have a poorly optimised site with the same number of backlinks. You can’t use one without the other, each simply supports the other. Learn both and use both to create a balance in your ranking technique and see your site succeed easily. We believe that on-page SEO and off-page SEO are like “Ying and Yang,” you just simply need both to fully flourish and enjoy maximum results. So we hope we are on the same page when we say that both on-page and off-page SEO are fundamental components of modern digital marketing. While one could go on and on that on-page is more critical since you need on-page content to have a web presence at all, off-page SEO is where much of your content promotion comes from. Off-page SEO drives extra viewers to your site. And if it sounds like we’re saying you need to promote your content, yes, that is basically what it actually comes down to. The more awareness you can build of the quality content on your web page, the more leads you’ll generate.

      Conclusion

      Practising both on-page and off-page SEO marketing strategies can be a tall order, and in order to utilise these strategies in an appropriate manner it’s highly recommended that you avail the services of #ARM Worldwide, the leading provider of SEO services in India. Contact us now to know more!

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        Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

        Create your Google My Business Page in 5 simple steps

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        In today’s digital age, no matter how small or big your business is, having an online presence is undeniable. You can start with developing a website, interact on social media networks, embrace SEO strategies and create awareness using digital marketing techniques for your business. But that’s not sufficient, as for…

        In today’s digital age, no matter how small or big your business is, having an online presence is undeniable. You can start with developing a website, interact on social media networks, embrace SEO strategies and create awareness using digital marketing techniques for your business. But that’s not sufficient, as for any business to survive and do well in the digital world requires “visibility and accessibility” that helps target visitors to your site. Making your business accessible and visible can increase the customer base. Aspects such as dynamic search algorithms help customers locate different businesses, places, shops, etc., online. A business with an online presence yet not accessible to users is understood as non-existent in today’s contemporary and competitive business environment. Thanks to the “Google My Business” (GMB) account that’s allowing small and local business owners to promote their product and service in the fastest and most effective way! Keep ahead by following these Best SEO Techniques to Rank #1 in Search Engines.

        What is Google Business Account?

        Google My Business is the top local business listing platform for owners and potential customers. It’s an online directory that helps business owners to streamline the basic yet essential information such as phone number, open hours, and address across Google Search, Google+, and Google Maps. If you have a physical office, opening a Google My Business account is a must, especially when there are multiple centres and the customer wants to locate the nearest. Google Business Account is a new interactive communication channel with your target customer, audience, and existing clients. Formerly known as Google Places, the Google My Business account is free to create and easy to update. The account also allows adding images, reviews, virtual tours, and videos of past customers to make that first quality impression. Further, Google My Business Account incorporates useful analytics on how a customer searched for your place, where they come from, and then track the performance of your work. To make the most out of your business, creating a Google Business Account is highly recommended.

        How to Create a Google My Business Account?

        You can create a Google My Business Account in 5 simple steps: Step 1 – Select a Gmail Account – To get started, you first need to select a Gmail Account. It is better to choose a Gmail account for marketing instead of any personal Gmail account. It will allow multiple contributors to have access to the hosting account. However, if you don't have one, it's okay to create a new Gmail just for marketing/business purposes. Step 2 – Sign up with Google My Business – Go to https://www.google.com/business/ and sign in with your Gmail Account. Now click on the main menu of "Google My Business" on the top left of the page. Step 3 – Add Business Name – Select the second option, "Create business account". It will prompt you to choose a short account name that identifies your business. Step 4 – Add Your Business Information – You need to go back to the main menu to select "Add Your Business" and create a Google Business account profile. You need to fill in your basic company name, address, website URL, business category, phone number, etc. Make sure you fill as relevant information as possible and click continue. Step 5 – Verify – You need to verify your business and go through the verification process that Google asks for; you need to agree to the terms and conditions. Make sure you follow the verification process as your Google My Business account won't go live until Google verifies your business.

        You get three options to verify your business -

        1. Postcard verification - Is one of the most used methods to verify business and is available to all businesses. A verification postcard is sent to the address you register in this process. On receiving the code, enter it into your GMB account to verify your business.
        2. Phone verification - This option is limited to a few businesses only. You get to know if you get the option of ‘verify by phone. In this, you get an automated message to verify, and you can enter the code in your GMB account Setup.
        3. Email verification - In this, you receive a code in your mail account, which is linked to your GMB account, and you enter the verification stage.
        The other options include instant verification, which is available if your business’s website is verified with Google Search Console. Bulk verification is for managing the business from more than one location.

        How to make the most out of Google Business Account?

        Google My Business account can benefit any company/firm/shop regardless of its size and location. Once you have a verified Google business account, your customer can directly connect with you. While you are free to add or delete your product and services, the key is to include more persistent information. More relevant information will lead to higher ranking and convenience for a potential customer to reach you. Here are a few things you can do to make the most out of a Google Business Account:
        • Apart from basic information make sure you have an introduction about your business, driving and parking directions, landmark, promotional offers, clear photos (nothing less than 1080×608 pixels), engaging videos and your location on Google Map updated to attract more audience.
        • Never miss out on reading and responding to customers’ reviews. Nearly, 70% of customers rely on online review as much as a personal recommendation.
        • Review insights and analyze analytics about your business performance and learn how to improve.
        • Encourage your customers to show their appreciation with ratings, and ask them to click on the Plus One button that can endorse your product/service.
        • Always keep Google happy by adhering its quality guidelines – https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?visit_id=1-636260687911278346-718463157&rd=1
        As a business owner you are bound to get many benefits by using Google My Business. So try out this fun and easy way to build engagement today!

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          BlogPR

          Best 5 Things to Keep in Mind while Writing an Effective Digital PR

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          With an ever increasing focus on content creation and hence marketing that content effectively, a large focus is on the distribution channels and effectively disseminating that content to the people who can not just consume it but also effectively pass it on forward for the layman to consume the content…

          With an ever increasing focus on content creation and hence marketing that content effectively, a large focus is on the distribution channels and effectively disseminating that content to the people who can not just consume it but also effectively pass it on forward for the layman to consume the content and hence influence his actions. PR or newswires, among others like social media marketing or investing in search, are an excellent way to ensure that your brand gets a coverage or is spoken about without enforcing your ideas or being too pushy on an influencer, media personnel or a blogger.

          Irrespective of the channel that you pick up, it is absolutely a must that you get your approach right and you target the people who are in synergy with the Target Audience of the brand which is communicating. It is also a must that if you want to effectively reach out to your audience that you do not stop at one mantra for success and keep exploring paths while keeping what's working for you in the mix. However, there are a few things that act as a golden rule which you must always keep in mind while drafting a digital PR that you are about to send, they are:

          Digital PR 5 things

          1) Make sure that the headline is Engaging and Tweetable

          Just like any piece of content on the internet, make sure that the PR you release has a headline that is catchy and can be tweeted as it is by the influencer who reads the PR for the first time. Using a question, metaphor or even sarcasm in the headline which is poking could be a good way of writing a headline on the PR. Make sure you do not give away all the information in the PR alone so that the people actually care to go through what is written.

          2) Use everyday language in the content of your PR

          It is imperative to remember that not everybody is proficient in the English language equally and therefore you need to make sure that what is written is simple enough and straightforward enough for everyone to grasp it in one go. The language needs to be crisp and to the point without any ambiguity.

          3) Include interesting graphics, images or even infographics in the PR

          It is very important that you give full value and best chance for the blogger or journalist to cover your wire when sending it to them in the form of a PR. For this, you need to ensure that you include a good high-resolution product image, a supporting video, maybe even an infographic to support or highlight the data that is being alluded to in the release that is going out.

          4) Ensure that the PR is mobile consumable

          The world is going mobile and if you are approaching a blogger or an influencer, there is a very high chance he is on the move and will consume your PR on mobile. Therefore, you need to check that the PR is perfectly readable on mobile. To facilitate this, you must keep formatting simple, use universal fonts, avoid adding images or content like a gif in the body of the E-Mail.

          5) Include relevant links and excerpts from Social Networks if they are active

          In your digital PR, it is always a good idea to include the links of a forum or a place where the reader can either view or participate in the conversation. You should ideally also include the links as well as some chatter to all the social network accounts so that the one consuming the PR will be able to follow you for regular updates. Make sure that all the links that you include in the PR are working perfectly fine as there is nothing more embarrassing than a 404 error bein thrown on one of the links that you included in PR.

          Those were some of the things that you got to keep in mind when shooting out any Digital PR. Which of the points above do you think is the most critical, or is there something that we missed out on? Let us know in the section below or on the Social Media platforms where the post has been shared.

          The content of the blog post has been inspired by a newsletter issued by PRNewswire. We would like to go on record to acknowledging their work and give the due credits. You can read the entire newsletter here.

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            BlogPR

            Scoring Ahead: Venturing into Professional Training with SCoRe

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            We at ARM Worldwide are super excited to announce our collaborative effort with Indian School of Communications and Reputation (SCoRe) towards providing training in the Digital PR sector, establishing it further as a critical mandate in Digital Marketing. We would be providing training for one of our expertise services, Digital…

            tw-2 We at ARM Worldwide are super excited to announce our collaborative effort with Indian School of Communications and Reputation (SCoRe) towards providing training in the Digital PR sector, establishing it further as a critical mandate in Digital Marketing. We would be providing training for one of our expertise services, Digital PR and Communications under SCoRe's Ace Digital programme. The objective towards this collaboration is to help upcoming marketers understand the newly introduced concept of PR when it meets the Digital multiverse. Following will be our prime arenas of focus towards this initiative: On this auspicious announcement, industry veteran and SCoRe's founding dean Amith Prabhu shared his thoughts on our efforts ahead with SCoRe:
            "We are creating learning modules with like-minded partners who bring a wealth of experience and solid expertise in a specific domain. These partner organisations are led by leaders of repute who want to share knowledge with a new generation of communicators. By collaborating with ARM Digital we have ensured that PR professionals get exposed to new tools in digital communications beyond social and content. We are confident this will greatly benefit client servicing abilities of participants." -- Amith Prabhu, founding dean at SCoRe
            On similar note, Ritesh Singh, our CEO shared his statement of endeavour and excitement of this initiative:
            When we see the traditional PR industry, we see a lot of talent, amazingly crafted communication and wisdom. But the only gap that needs to be bridged is the knowledge of Digital. With that in place, PR professionals will not only be equipped to engage an converse with the brand's audience but, will also be able to contribute towards converting them into consumers. One of our company's core value is Ecosystem++; that is giving back to the ecosystem. This association reflects the same ideology. When we endeavour to develop a robust industry acumen, the industry grows at both, micro and macro levels. -- Ritesh Singh, CEO at ARM Worldwide
            To learn more about Ace Digital and SCoRe, check out their website. You can also apply for the said training.

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              BlogDesigning

              Google’s New Logo: A Typography Check on Its History

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              “Google magic is working for you, even on the tiniest screens." Google stated it by unveiling their new logo which meant to reflect above lines. Believing to be updated with the modern style of working and needs, Google has also tried to make its look trendier. From being static to…

              Google New Logo Change GIF “Google magic is working for you, even on the tiniest screens." Google stated it by unveiling their new logo which meant to reflect above lines. Believing to be updated with the modern style of working and needs, Google has also tried to make its look trendier. From being static to only desktop browser Google has now walked along to be in the race with Digital world. The main theme of this change is to be part of huge collection of sites, apps, and services that you visit on PCs, Chromebooks, smartphones, and anywhere you can find a web browser. Since 17 years, it had followed the tradition of putting same colours with changes either in its typography or putting shadow effects making the text bold or light. But this time Google has introduced a new logo and brought more reality to it through animation that wipes away the old logo and draws in the new one. The wordmark has been evolving since 1998 but this new one is the most creative and best from all. Though it has used same colour theme but the feel and style is different. With bidding adieu to “g” and signing in to “G” on browser tabs enclosed within Google colours makes it more appealing.

              The story of Typography

              According to an interview, back in 2014 Ruth Kedar, the graphic designer who developed the logo there were a lot of different colour iterations. He said that we ended up with the primary colour, but instead of having the pattern go in order, we put a secondary colour on the L, which brought back the idea that Google doesn't follow the rules of being primary. With its first logo in the year 1998 Google has used a serif word-mark (serifs are the filigree on the ends of traditional print typefaces like Times New Roman). With passing years the company has played not much with the typography but involved letter spacing and removing drop shadow. But the latest buzz about the 2015 logo is not about its typography but landing first time in the animation world. Though it has used the typeface geometric san-serif from serif that was in the last millennium.

              Conclusion

              Google love to play with colours, but during its reign it has also used logo without colours on a local homepage in recognition with the tragedy of several days. The favourite from its different style was Google Doodle which believed in new innovations. The first Google Doodle was in honour of the Burning Man Festival in the year 1998. Since then it has followed a trend to create new with every occasion. With this new logo we believe the Doodle also gets more interesting and innovating. We look forward to see more beautiful creations and ideation under the supervision of CEO, Sundar Pichai.

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                BlogDesigning

                Discovering Your “Language” To Brand Design

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                The trend in design changes frequently. At times, between a gap of 10 years and, rest until a company like Google decides to disrupt the concept of design, eg. the recent material approach to mobile-first designs. But in between all fuss, there is always a "language" to how a brand…

                brand The trend in design changes frequently. At times, between a gap of 10 years and, rest until a company like Google decides to disrupt the concept of design, eg. the recent material approach to mobile-first designs. But in between all fuss, there is always a "language" to how a brand adapts a new face. This "language" is the mark of consistency and original face of a brand. Everything else comes on top of it. This consistent portion of translative design is what empowers a brand. Windows Logo through Time The above image shows seven iterations of the Windows logo from Microsoft. They all are different in broad design. Windows 3.1 logo from 1992 is a basic artwork of a glass window. Between Windows 95 and XP, the design saw a tilt in its orientation. From Vista, Microsoft adopted this glossy-emboss approach to its design. Windows 8 became a lot simpler, flater - given the flat design trend in late 2012. It took 25 years of design evolution to get Windows 8 logo from Windows 1; a gap between 1985 and 2012. But if you look closely, Windows logo has always been about the "+" shaped separators, while the four glass panes kept changing. This was Microsoft's "language" for Windows. A person knows it is a Windows logo when he sees one - this is Microsoft Windows' brand power.
                A company’s brand is consumers’ perception of that company.
                Similarly, BMW would be a great example of design consistency over a really long time. They have managed to change their car designs from vintage boxes to right-out-of-sketchbooks hybrids like BMW i8. Yet, keeping their signature front grill and logo same. For over 50 years, people have recognised a BMW without failing, thanks for their "language" atop modern design. BMW Series 5 Cars - Vintage to Modern We will not go short of examples for this phenomenon of consistency in design. There is Apple, UPS, Mercedes-Benz and Pepsi to name the popular ones. But how do a brand find their "language" to design?

                Breakdown Your Existing Design Philosophy

                Apparently, the best way to discover your most important element of brand in design is to break it down. Start by ripping of colors. Then, shapes. Tear down everything unless you are left with that irremovable element after which you will lose your brand identity. That element, sire, is the most basic and first component to your "language".

                Make a Framework For Your Design

                A framework is called itself because everything else is build on top of it. A brand's design framework should define the pillars to its approach with design. It has to be future-proof, ready to tear down walls and be still against winds of change. A good framework is adaptive - to colors, shapes and angles. The above mentioned change in Windows logo is the best example to this framework. The "+" borderline between each of the four window panes is Windows' framework. It is adaptive to color, shapes and angles. It will welcome change without losing its brand significance.

                Don't Change; Adapt

                This is the bitter truth. A consumer can only percept about your brand when he recognises it well. Distinguishing comes later. It is recommended to be less prone to overhaul change. Instead, adapt, without losing the consistency. A brand should resist overhauling their philosophy to design at small intervals. To not be left behind in trends, they should consider adapting few pros of it and test on feedbacks. This will add clarity to your brand without losing on the juices of brand recall. For example, the current trend is flat and colorful. Instead of redesigning themselves, a brand should first consider losing the skeuomorphic elements from their current set. Flat will follow.

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                  BlogSocial Media Marketing | Content Marketing

                  How are bloggers and influencers being leveraged by brands?

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                  A few days ago, I was interviewed for the Ernst & Young (EY) Social Media Marketing India Trend Study. The report is very insightful if you are looking to explore questions like: "What are the key challenges that digital marketers are facing?" or "How do companies evaluate, strategize & invest…

                  A few days ago, I was interviewed for the Ernst & Young (EY) Social Media Marketing India Trend Study. The report is very insightful if you are looking to explore questions like: "What are the key challenges that digital marketers are facing?" or "How do companies evaluate, strategize & invest in social". Some of my thoughts were also published in the study and I also shared my thoughts on "How bloggers & influencers being leveraged by brands". The key highlights of the report as follows:
                  Influencers & bloggers are early adopters , they have high online following/reach and always stay ahead of mass for testing new technology/product or services, this is major reason brands have started leveraging them for marketing.
                  Ey-Social-Media-Report
                  Following are some of the ways, in which brands leverage these influencers:
                  1. Review of new products, services & offering by offering them early access. (Example: Sending mobile devices way before launch or giving fashion accessories for testing)
                  2. Outreach using their assets (blogs/Instagram/youtube/twitter/vine) or by sending them regular content (PR) or inviting them over events.(Example: CitiBank did #HappierDiwali & #OMGSale campaign purely using influencers & observed nearly 200% increase in sales)
                  3. As a content creator for creating content that can be use as marketing for influencing normal audience. (Example: Gionee creating content with bloggers & doing digital media push to amplify it)
                  4. Brand Evangelists & Guardian: Helps in feedback, research & also acts as beta testers for the future product of a brand & suggest add-on features that can be included in future releases. (Example: all major mobile OEM's, automobile & FnB brands).
                  5. As ORM (online reputation management) custodians by creating positive sentiments.
                  6. Brand Ambassadors/Hosts as a face of the company, this helps in creating trust among audience & helps in uplifting the brand image.
                  7. Brand giveaway hosted on bloggers/influencers platforms(can be blog/Instagram/twitter/youtube or others) to giveaway products.
                  Today, consumers act like ROBO (Research Online & Buy Offline). Influencers have large loyal audience; they can shape opinion of people and are usually ones whom people look up to, for advice while making big purchasing decisions. An authentic review or feedback of online influencers plays a major role in the purchase behavior of users. Brands are clearly seeing ROI out of this & keen in developing more avenues of native advertising by utilising bloggers.
                  You can download the complete report published by EY and use it to benchmark your key objectives, campaigns and media plans. It helps you to optimize digital strategies for your brand. Download EY Social Media Marketing India Trend Study

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                    BlogDigital Marketing / Inbound Marketing

                    Judging a Twitter Contest by Juggling the Big Data Effectively

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                    Twitter contests have become an intrinsic element in the complex compound to boost brand engagement today. Big or small alike, every brand looking for digital engagement is skewing or has skewed in the past towards a twitter contest. While some brands do it through their own handles, the rest pick…

                    Twitter contests have become an intrinsic element in the complex compound to boost brand engagement today. Big or small alike, every brand looking for digital engagement is skewing or has skewed in the past towards a twitter contest. While some brands do it through their own handles, the rest pick a person with more than 3000 Twitter followers, commonly called the Twel-eb or Twitter Celeb to do it on their behalf. The major aim of these contests is to flood the twitter timelines of users so that brand awareness is achieved without burning a hole in your advertising budget. Usually a grand prize followed by some goodies or vouchers are on offer during these contests and if done right with the correct visual attractions and influencers, Twitter contests generally end up finding a space in the trending column which calls for a pat on the back of the digital marketing team. Twitter-Contest-Results-1

                    Why the need for evaluation?

                    However, there are a few observations we made while conducting some of these contests which is why we decided to write this post on judging twitter contests effectively:
                    1. Twitter contests usually appeal to a large set of the audience, therefore it becomes a bit of a pain to decide the right winner due to the sheer volume of participation.
                    2. While Twitter contests sure bring engagement, not a lot of this engagement is positive engagement as tweeps spam the time lines in order to get the maximum entries.
                    3. There is always a cry after a Twitter Contest that the winners were stitched or fixed.
                    4. There is no set of rules by which a contest could be played. Each brand makes its own set of rules so there is usually a lack of transparency in the results.
                    5. No matter how fairly you conduct the contest, there always will be backlash from those who did not win it. It is a must therefore to ensure that only the fair and deserving candidates win.
                    6. Most people make a secondary twitter account, which is used only to play such contests, and after winning they end up selling off what they won to gain monetary profits.
                    Twitter-Contest-Results-2 Post observing all of the points above, we went to our drawing board to design a mechanism on how to judge a Twitter contest which involves simple question and answer format, the most popular way of doing this, by far. We deviced a set of rules for ourselves and list the parameters, which we would judge the contest on and set it as a goalpost within which we shall play. Our focus at all times was quality engagement and interaction rather than just encouraging those who spam the brand for the sake of numbers. While we were devising our set of rules, we kept the following in mind:
                    1. The system must be fair to all the users so that everyone has an equal chance to win.
                    2. Spammers and those who are flooding the TL with mindless tweets must be ignored.
                    3. Quality content at all times must be encouraged.
                    4. Only those that follow the instructions correctly should be considered for prizes.

                    The Drill to select a deserving winner

                    After a bit of brainstorming with our team and experimenting with a couple of contests, we wrote the rules the down, and this is what we did. Social ORM   1) We used our in-house Social Media tracking tool, Social ORM to monitor and record all the tweets that came in. We inserted the keyword, which was the mandatory hashtag to record all the tweets. Twitter-Contest-Results-3 2) Once the contest was over, we extracted the Social ORM report and the data obviously only contained the tweets that contained the used hashtag. 3) We offset the time, so that only those tweets, which were within the stipulated time of contest, are considered. Twitter-Contest-Results-4 4) We ran a duplicity test in the tweet field, and any user found making the same tweet more than thrice was immediately red listed as a spammer. We obviously removed the brand tweets too. Twitter-Contest-Results-5 5) After doing this, we converted the whole data to a pivot table. This table had the twitter contest’s user name in the rows while the columns contained, the total number of tweets made, total number of followers, total numbers of people following, Klout score (calculated from klout.com as an influence parameter). total-score   6) Once we had this data in the excel sheet filled, we applied the formula: Total score= No. of tweets *10 + Number of followers+ Number of following+ Klout score*10+ 25*number of tweets with media attachment. Twitter-Contest-Results-6 7) Using this comprehensive data we got a unique score for every contestant. Since the score takes all the important parameters into account and is a good balance between those who tweeted a lot and those who tweeted less but have a higher reach. We arranged the score in the descending order and the winners were declared fair and square.

                    Rating the Twitter Contest for gauging performances

                    After you have declared the winners and dust of excitement has settled, it is imperative to judge your own team and evaluate the contest. Obviously there is the qualitative versus the quantitative way of looking at things. While the former is subjective and often variable based on the sentiment analysis tool you use, the latter is absolute. Hence we prefer the quantitative approach. There are two metrics to judge the performance quantitatively:

                    Judging the contest by the growth of Hashtag:

                    This is a relatively simple exercise and can be done by counting the ratio between the tweets made by the brand versus the mention of the hashtag within the stipulated hours of the contest. The larger the ratio is, the better the contest has been executed. For example, if the brand made 5 tweets with the hashtag #ThisPost and received a mention with 50 entries with #ThisPost, the ratio would read 5:50 or 1:10. A wide ratio indicates a successfully run contest. Whether the hashtag trended or not, is another indication of the overall success of the content.

                    Judging the contest with an absolute number:

                    The other way of judging the performance is by evaluating a real number and using that as a matrix or a benchmark to judge your future contest. Twitter-Contest-Results-7 Again there are a couple of ways of doing this:

                    1: Evaluating the value of one participant:

                    value-of-engagement   To do this is pretty straight forward: Value of 1 engagement= Value of the giveaway+ Value of the hours of the team involved in planning and executing the contest divided by the total number of unique participants. The value should be low for a good contest. Let’s take an example: Giveaway value= 3* INR 500 worth coupons= INR 1500 Total team members=2, their wages per hour= Rs 300, total hours= 7. Total team investment= 300*7*2= INR 4200 Hence, total investment= Rs 4200+ 1500= INR 5,700. Total unique participants= 10 Value of 1 unique participant= 5700/10 = Rs 570.

                    2: Evaluating the absolute number of the contest:

                    contest-no   A unitless contest scale could be designed to evaluate your performance. To do this, simply follow the formula: Contest Number= (No. of impressions generated/ 1 Million)+ (Followers gained+ Total tweets received)/1000. You will arrive at a solid number that becomes the evaluating line for your future contests. By using this method, you simplify things and take into account the quality of engagement too by bringing in the factor of impressions.

                    Key Take Away

                    As a complete digital consulting firm, we have been the faces behind several successful twitter contests in the past and, we feel we have the right nous and the experience of using the platform to place down markers. Also, since the methods above encompass each and every important sub variable, which contributes towards a higher brand engagement and presence, we feel our methods work down the till for us. Obviously, there are other markers that work and you may well have one that is just as unique. However, the major objective of writing down the post was to argue the importance of having a structure or a clear mechanism when declaring Twitter winners, as well as having a reference line to judge your own performance and how exactly did the contest perform as an activity. Do let us know what your mechanism is whole judging contests on Social Media platforms such as Twitter. You can reach us via E-Mail or our Social Media Networks. >>To know about great Marketing Tools for SMB’s.    

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