Content marketing and Google Panda

Content marketing has long been the driving force to get targeted traffic and quality links for yourinternet marketing strategy. In 2011, Google started rolling out a new update to their algorithm called “Panda” which focused on removing all the websites with black hat SEO to remove irrelevant content from their search result pages. The Panda update hit the content marketing industry very hard.

Many content marketers and agencies used the duplicate article approach where they would write a single content item, and then use a n article spinning service to create different variants of the same content piece. Using this method, you can create hundred versions of the same content item, all with slight variations. These “spinned” articles were then placed on thousands of directories across the web and each one had a link pointing back to the website that was targeted.

Fooling Google

For a very long time they used this method by fooling Google to get good results, until the first version of the Google Panda update was released. This turned their world upside down. The duplicated and spinned versions of their content were de-indexed and thrown into the Google Sandbox. The links that the content generated were stopped counting and most of the traffic to these content directories that featured the duplicated content were knocked down. Many internet marketers stated that this was the end of content marketing.

To be honest, it wasn’t the end of content marketing, and content is still king, just don’t duplicate versions of your content. Content marketing after the Panda update is different. Your web content needs to be informative, relevant, original, interesting, and it should be unique. Content marketing is no longer a simple numbers game. It is all about writing and publishing quality content and placing them from high authority web properties.

Content marketing after the Panda update

What should you focus on when writing new content? Have a look below on a few tips that will help you with this.

• Always focus on content quality over quantity
• Publish and submit relevant, unique, and interesting content on trusted article directories
• Use only original content
• Submit your content to directories that can pass link popularity to your website

Creating optimized landing pages

A landing page is a dedicated website page that a visitor will reach after they have clicked on a link or an online ad. Landing pages are usually used with optimized pay per click (PPC) campaigns. With a landing page, you can display your ultimate sales pitch to the visitor. It provides detailed information on what you are offering and a landing page should always be designed to get your visitor to take an action.

An optimized landing page can convert a higher percentage of your visitors into buyers or leads. What makes a great landing page so powerful? It answers these questions; Who is this for? What problem are you solving? What is your offer? What solution will work? How am I going to get started?

Here’s a couple of tips to help you create the best landing pages

Landing page optimization tips

Highly relevant: Your landing page should always be highly relevant. Repeat the text in your ad in the headline and content of the page. What you are offering should match your online ad. Avoid using different content in your ad and your landing page as this will confuse the visitor.

Simplify: Make it easy for the visitor to take an action on the landing page. Don’t provide them with multiple options that will confuse them. Eliminate all the irrelevant page navigation and optimize it towards the action you want them to take. You can organize your content into a simple visual format that is very quick to read and understand.

Action: Always make the call to action on the page clear and visible. Provide an easy path for the visitors to request information or buy. Make sure your CTA button stands out from the rest of the content.

Minimum information: For the forms you are using, request only minimum information that you require. If you require too much inforamtion that isn’t necessary, many people will abandon the form and leave the landing page.

Trust: Offer guarantees and information on your landing pages. Have a returns policy and include client testimonials from your current customers. Also include trust logos from the organizations that you belong to. Reassure your landing page visitors that their information will not be shared and always be private. Include your address and telephone number on the landing page.

Using the mobile web for internet marketing

Everyday you will find more people accessing the web from mobile devices such as cellphones and tablets, but sometimes the overall user experience can be frustrating. Most websites were not designed to display correctly on mobile browsers with no keyboard and no mouse. There are billions of phones in the world far exceeding the number of PC’s, so the potential for internet marketing on the mobile web is not just big, it is huge.

Most cellphones (excluding smartphones) are now released to be web enabled, and all the new smartphones popping up with standard web browsers are quickly beginning to dominate the market such as iPhones, Android, and Blackberry. These smartphones offer computer like functionality and are growing in popularity everyday. New “flat rate” mobile 3G plans have made web access on mobile devices more affordable.

The value in mobile marketing

Many businesses are beginning to see the value in the mobile web and they are beginning to take advantage of this growing market. If you are interested to tap into this mobile trend and start marketing to mobile users, creating a mobile friendly website is an absolute must. The same search engine optimization rules apply to the mobile web where you have to optimize your website to be search engine friendly, and build a couple of quality backlinks to your mobile website.

If you are interested in getting a mobile friendly version of your website search for a website development agency that focuses on mobile website development or if you are using a 3rd party CMS system such as WordPress, Drupal or Joombla, search for a plugin that you can convert your website to a mobile version.

When you are busy creating your mobile friendly website, structure and design your website around mobile visitors. These people are looking for quick answers and not pages and pages of content. Use short and to the point content to get your message accross. Use optimizal navigation to make it easy to browse your website.

What not to do with keyword research

With any internet marketingmarketing strategy, keyword research should be the first thing you do before you kick off your campaign. Doing proper keyword research will help you boost your search engine optimization (SEO) organic rankings higher on the search engine result pages.

Keyword research is very important, but the same as with most internet marketing activities, there’s a few pitfalls that you should avoid at all costs. Find below a short explanation on the don’ts of keyword research to avoid so that you get the best results with your campaign.

Keyword research don’ts

Always look at your competition: Even though it is very important to target popular keywords with high search volume, it is just as important to consider the competition that is also targeting the same keywords. The more competition you have, the harder it will be to get a ranking for that keyword. You can use the free tool of Google Adwords to analyze the best keywords that are being search for but aren’t targeted by other businesses.

Don’t focus only single keywords: Single keywords such as “pizza” are extremely competitive and not very specific enough. People commonly start their search with a question and include longer keyword phrases such as “Take away pizza in Bloemfontein”. Instead of  going after the highly competitive single keywords, try using a couple of long tail keywords as well that targets your audience more specifically.

Don’t start your campaign without tracking measures: If you are measuring and analyzing the results you are currently getting from the current keywords that you are targeting for, you will never know if they are successful. There are many free tools such as Google Analytics that you can use to measure the results of your campaign. By measuring the results, you can can analyze which keywords are actually sending visitors to your website and blog and which ones you should exclude.

Internet marketing strategies

For an internet marketer, having the proper experience and strategies is very important to determine the success of your internet marketingcampaign. There are many ways to go about online marketing, all of which plays an important role and can have a huge effect on the success and profitability of your business as a whole.

Use catchy blog post titles to grab attention

A corporate business blog really doesn’t have to boring. To get targeted readers to your blog, you need quality and relevant content that will satisfy their need, and the only way that you can quickly grab their attention is with a great blog post title. With millions of blogs being updated everyday, how are you going to stand out with your blog posts? What makes you different?

Small business blog marketing

Business blog marketing is a trusted and true way of marketing the services and products that you offer to world. Business blogging is not just for big corporate brands, and small business blogs can also be a real benefit for many small business owners. You can use your blog to support your search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing campaigns.

Why you should optimize your meta description tags

Meta description tags does not target search engine optimization(SEO) directly, but the message in them can attract interested visitors to your website or blog. Meta description tags are used as the descriptions on the Google search engine result pages, so they have to be compelling. These tags should be relevant and unique for every page on your website and blog.

Blogging mistakes to be aware of

In our hectic digital lifestyles at work, business blogging is not a simple “nice to have”, but a “must have”. A good business blog can bring in all the required attention to your business, attract targeted visitors, and can be the center point of yourinternet marketing strategy.