Don’t let SEO intimidate you!

The term Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a commonly used term among marketers. But what exactly does it do and how does it work?

As the name suggests, SEO in marketing focuses on the online visibility of a website or web page in a search engine’s unpaid results. In simpler terms, SEO determines the results users get when they enter a search on a search engine.

It is really important to improve one’s SEO ranking as only less than 10% of web traffic makes it past the first page on Google. So how can we get our website to be on the first page on google’s search engine? Here are some tips that can help you improve your ranking and drive traffic to your website.

Focus on content

SEO ranking is affected by “dwell time” which is amount of time visitors spend on your site. The content on your website determines the duration that visitors stay on your site before they bounce. While having longer content does not directly affect SEO, there is more opportunity to increase value by including keywords and increasing dwell time. The content should also include trending topics to attract the attention of viewers.

Page load speed

Having the most amazing content will not matter if you have a slow page load speed. If users have to wait an extra few seconds for the page to load, chances are that they would not stay on the page for long and that would affect your dwell time. Optimizing images have shown to help reduce file size and improve load speed.

Use different types of media

Using a variety of media such as images, videos, and audio will increase the user’s experience and attract them to stay on your site.

http://17production.com/services/video-increases-engagement-website-conversions/

Mobile Optimization

With mobile searches surpassing desktop searches, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Google prefers websites that are mobile optimized. If your site is not optimized for mobile devices, Google will bump your SEO ranking down as it can affect the user experience of mobile users.

Invest in a SEO tool

To provide the best information for a user, Search engines look for keywords that are found in websites that are relevant. With 5.6 billion searches happening on Google every day, it’s really hard to guess what these users are searching for. SEO tools can help you cut down on your keyword research and give you precise figures and data that can aid in improving your website’s ranking.

In Conclusion

FYI, taking these steps will not show instant results for your SEO rankings. Many other factors will come in place to be at the top of the game. Just bear in mind that user experience is the key to help bump your rankings, so remember to be innovative and user-centered in your website design.

What they don’t want you to know about IoT

Internet of things (IoT) is an uprising technology that is foreseeable to be part of every households in the future. Our homes, cars and wearables are no longer the way it used to be. They are now able to interact with us through capturing and utilizing data from our everyday life.

But how secure is it? To tackle this question, it is important that we first understand how it truly works.

Any object or item around us could be “smart”. These objects are equipped with some sensors that are able to collect data from its environment such as temperature, location, and many more. Once the data is collected, it is sent to the cloud where processing is done using some software. This is where the data is made into useful information for the user.

One example of IoT is CloudPets where Bluetooth is used to connect to a parent’s smartphone to allow distant family members to send voice messages to their children and vice versa through the adorable stuffed toy.

Who would’ve thought that a harmless looking toy would lead to a data leak of over half a million users. Data which include email addresses and passwords, were leaked along with more than 2 million voice recordings of children and adults who had used the CloudPets stuffed toys.

It is ironic that the biggest flaw of IoT lies in its name, and users should bear in mind that any information that is connected to the internet has some risks involved. That is probably what the innovators don’t want users like us to know.

Undeniably, IoT is able to make our lives easier and let users be more productive in their everyday life. What users need to know is that when purchasing and enabling an IoT device, data that is collected on the device is never 100% safe. What businesses need to do is to take protect and secure the networks where data processing is done. By constantly improving security features, users will have a greater ease of mind and it will also build the trust for consumers.

The most powerful device in the world

As technology continues to makes new breakthroughs, our mobile devices has become more than just a tool for making calls and receiving messages. The question is, can we actually survive on this all-in-one device? Here is a comparison of how our mobile devices have changed our way of life.

1.Communication

Then: Our mobile devices could only make one way phone calls or send SMS to our friends and family. Did i mention that most of us had a limit on our calls and SMS and it was never enough…

Now: With our devices all connected to the internet, we can now choose from a plethora of applications such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and WeChat that can serve our basic communications needs and even more. We can also make video calls to our loved ones on the other side of the world.

2.Food Delivery

Then: When hunger strikes, we could call for food delivery through a hotline (Does anyone remember 6777 3777?). However, choices were limited as there were mostly only fast food places who offered delivery services.

Now: Food delivery applications have became a hit for the lazy citizens in Singapore, me included. These apps make it too easy for consumers to order food and don’t get me started on the choices we can get. You name it, they got it.

3.Entertainment

Then: Let’s face it, we all committed crime when we hit that download button on the MP3 music file or the latest cinema movie.

Now: With everybody’s favorite applications, Netflix and Spotify, we can now enjoy much more entertainment on the go without searching frantically for hours to find the song or movie on the internet.

4.Gaming

Then: The gaming industry had shown great success when personal computers became a part of everybody’s home. LAN shops enjoyed the bloom on the industry as many gamers flocked over to play alongside their friends with a stable internet connection.

Now: Gamers can now play their favorite games anywhere, anytime and connect with anyone globally. Mobile games such as Mobile Legends and PUBg, has become more than just a leisure activity as we see more Esports competitions being organized.

Nikkei Asian Review: ‘Mobile esports’ shine on Asian Games debut

THE VERDICT

I imagine that after reading this post you suddenly feel a surge of power running through your veins. You feel ready to take on the world with nothing but you and your phone. All’s good until you receive a notification from phone. “Low Battery: 20% of battery remaining” Just don’t forget to bring along a portable charger next time.

Here’s a little food for thought, do you think that you can survive with just your phone for one entire day?

Getting famous with marketing

Do you remember this video? Today, this video has gotten 63 million views since it was uploaded on April last year. You may be wondering how did this kid singing at an aisle in Walmart get this viral?

Beats me too! But that just demonstrates the power of viral news and media. Marketers do try to take advantage of this and use viral marketing to promote the brand and its products. But how exactly do they do it?

When it comes to viral marketing, emotions and feelings play a big part.

If the content is able make the viewer laugh or even cry, the more likely he/she will be inclined to share and like, thus creating word of mouth.

Due to its humorous nature, Michael Dubin, the face of Dollar Shave Club (and the video) captured the attention of millions of viewers. The company spent just US$4500 in production costs, and received about 12,000 sign ups in the first 48 hours after releasing the video. Talk about return on investment!

Coincidentally, their competitor, Gillette released an advert which also went viral and received almost 3 million more views than Dollar Shave Club’s, considering that it was only released in January 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koPmuEyP3a0

Despite the great number of views, the short film made by Gillette may not be as successful as we thought. The video received 1.4 million dislikes almost double to the 775 thousand likes it got.

The short film challenges toxic masculinity which encourages men to be the best they can be. However, the outcome was different from the original message that Gillette had intended. The video depicts boys and men to be involved in bullying, sexual harassment, and not showing respect to women. It received backlash because it made viewers feel offended as the video made men seem to be such monsters

As a result, many viewers also swore to boycott Gillette’s products after watching the video.

CONCLUSION:

Viral marketing will often end up in extremes, whether favorable or unfavorable. While the goal is to create as much controversy as possible, the last thing you would want to see is your consumers boycotting your products.

So what are some of your favorite viral marketing videos? Did it have a positive or negative impact on the viewers?

Grow your business with this simple trick

Have you realized that sales figures have been stagnant or even decreasing over the years? You then start to question yourself what went wrong, but can’t seem to find any problems with your products or services. Depressing isn’t it?

If you ever felt like Leonardo DiCaprio, chances are that you have not been fully utilizing digital marketing in your business.

Here are three reasons why you should be using digital marketing to grow your business.

1.Higher Exposure with social media

There are so many applications out there that businesses can use, namely Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and they are also business friendly. You can use advertisements on these social media sites. Have you ever experienced those advertisements while watching a YouTube video? That could be you too. These social media sites know how much time are spent on their sites and therefore provide this service to benefit businesses who want to reach out to a larger audience.

2.Know your audience better

No matter which digital marketing platform you are using, you can learn about your consumers better with an analytics tool. Without racking your brains, you now have access to greater insights like how many clicks, likes and shares you gotten this month. You are even able to find out the demographics of your consumers like their age and interests. All this information can help you better position your business or your products.

3.More cost effective

The best part of digital marketing is that it actually helps you to be more cost efficient. Not everyone has the capability to place an advert on the billboard, even if you had, it might not be the best option considering that your consumers may be millennials. Social media sites offer businesses to place online advertisements as low as $5-10 a day.

Summary

As consumers are being more digital these days, it would be only beneficial if your business is on the same platforms where the consumers frequent. Even though social media is just a fraction of digital marketing, it is a good place to start for any business. After knowing your consumers better, other strategies like email marketing can be used to grow your brand even more in the future.

Has social media changed the way we socialize?

“Hey!, do you have Instagram?” Probably the most common question I get these days. In fact, these days we exchange our social media usernames instead of exchanging numbers with our friends

We all know that a lot of time is spent on social media, and i mean A LOT. but exactly how much time does the average person spend on social media? According to Social Media Today, Teens can spend up to nine hours a day on social media sites and it can add up to a whopping 5 years, 4 months in a lifetime. In case you were wondering, here’s what you can do with that amount of time on your hands.

I’m sure that we can all agree that the answer to the question above is a clear “yes”. A Forbes article explains that it is now socially acceptable to talk to seven other people while in a real-life conversation with just one. I won’t deny that was me at one point in time.

While we all had our own horror stories of how social media have betrayed us, (Yes, I have my own too) it is undeniable how efficient it has made us become.

As someone who doesn’t read the news (I blame my short attention span) I am still able to relate to most conversations pertaining to global events and local news by just spending my bus ride scrolling through twitter and occasionally reading headlines that speak to me.

Even the president of the United States of America uses Twitter. If you haven’t realized, he’s a popular figure on twitter.

In this tweet, He garnered a whooping 117 thousand comments, 54 thousand retweets and 230 thousand likes. Just imagine the impact he has on every tweet he makes. But let’s not go into politics now shall we.

With social media around, we may communicate less verbally, but we now know more about each other’s life than before. You may not have met someone personally before but you know all about their last holiday and what they ate for their meals. Sounds scary when you think about it like that.

While social media does not come with any bad intentions, it all boils down to how we utilize the platforms. If used right, it is an excellent tool for us to socialize, improve the world we are living in, and ultimately bring all of us closer together even if we were 2715 miles apart.