Google Analytics is a Free Service

Friday, March 7, 2008

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. It is specifically useful for optimization of AdWords advertisements and marketing campaigns. Here is the site,http://www.google.com/analytics/ Google Analytics had been redesigned to include better features and is free to all advertisers, publishers, and site owners. Recently, Google Analytics has integrated the Google Audio Ads also into the program.

And the official Google Analytics blog is,http://analytics.blogspot.com/

Features include,
  • Fast Implementation
  • Keyword and Campaign Comparison
  • Custom Dashboards
  • AdWords Integration
  • Trend and Date Slider
  • Ecommerce Tracking
  • Funnel Visualization
  • Site Overlay
  • Email reports
  • GeoTargeting

Industry benchmarking is a newly added feature with Google Analytics. Sharing of google analytics data with Google is yet another option that we can choose. Here is an FAQ on that option;http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?answer=87515&topic=13910#0.1.1_1

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers services in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising and more to clients in the US and also globally... ...

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posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 11:28 PM Go to Google Analytics is a Free Service



SEO and Deep Link Ratio (DLR)

SEO or search engine optimization has always been mostly about developing good links. Getting more links means getting more people to get into the site and increasing the website's popularity. This is directly related to business success as it gets us more sales and fulfills business objectives. However developing links has to be gradual process and every link should be useful with a purpose.

Ok now what is DLR or deep link ratio? Well, first let us define a deep link. Deep links are incoming back-links to any specific page within the website other than the home page or root links. And DLR or deep link ratio is the ratio of deep-links to website root links. Thus the deep links divided by the total number of incoming links will give us the DLR that is expressed as a percentage. There are many free online DLR calculator tools on the web to calculate any website's DLR.

Here is a DLR calculator that you can try,
http://ekstreme.com/deeplinkratio/?domain=www.outsourcestrategies.com/

There is no defined standard for DLR. But websites can have a high or a low DLR ratio depending on the type of content that they have. However generally speaking a higher deep link ratio is considered to be better especially if you have an SEO based link development program. Yes make it look natural and blend it well.

There are many websites that are like a just online store where everyone just gets into the home page and find their way to all other categories and departments. Probably such sites have a lower DLR as it does not have any great content on deeper pages and so maybe not having a high DLR does not matter much for such sites. However a high DLR has been known to be associated with a higher page rank and thus is a major factor for search engine optimization.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers highly professional services in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising and more for clients globally.

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posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 6:44 PM Go to SEO and Deep Link Ratio (DLR)



2008 Web 2.0 Summit in November

Thursday, March 6, 2008

The 2008 Web 2.0 Summit will take place from November 5-7, 2008 in San Francisco, California. One can sign up for the Web 2.0 Summit newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest Web 2.0 Summit news and announcements.

Here is the official website:
http://www.web2con.com/

You might require an O'Reilly registration at,
https://members.oreilly.com/account/members/register?x-url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oreillynet.com%2Fcs%2Fnl%2Flogin

Web 2.0 Expo is a companion event to the Web 2 Summit and happens at Moscone West, San Francisco April 22-25, 2008.
More details at http://en.oreilly.com/webexsf2008/public/content/about/

Other O' Reilly conference details are listed at,
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is based in Oklahoma and is a total web based outsourcing solution provider in Search marketing/ optimization and more.

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posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 11:28 PM Go to 2008 Web 2.0 Summit in November



Website Assessment Questions

Every website is created with an objective in mind. There are thousands of websites on the Internet. If one is not competitive with regards to the quality of our website we could just get lost among the zillions of sites. The website's web visibility can become so poor with almost trickling or zero traffic. Therefore care must be taken to properly design and maintain the website well, right from the beginning. And at every stage the website should be assessed. Web assessment is an art and good experience only can make one to judge and assess well a website.

What are the different things that we assess in a website? What are the different questions that we may have to ask during the web assessment of a website? Here are some of the questions:

  • Is it easy to navigate the website?
  • Is the website enough useful for the business
  • Is the web site appealing to the eye?
  • How good is the content of the website?
  • Do the web pages load soon?
  • Is the content relevant to your target audience?
  • Can the visitors easily contact the site authorities?
  • Is everything functional? (forms /animation etc)
  • Is the website search friendly?
  • Is it easy to find information on the site?
  • Does the site appear on the top listings on a SERP?
  • Is the site ready to face other online competition?
  • Is the site built according to the SE /W3C guidelines?
  • What is the conversion rate for the site?

If satisfactory answers are not received for any of the above questions one must work to improve the situation. The process starts with a proper assessment by professionals. Problem areas have to be first identified before recommendations are made.

This can also be done using many different types of online tools and web analytics like Google analytics. Only when all the different parameters like site's performance like reports of phone leads, unique visitors, conversion ratios, search engine referral trends and details on incoming traffic etc have been looked into can we be sure that the initial web assessment is complete. Successive assessments are made periodically after the recommendations have been implemented.

OSI (Outsource Strategies International) is a US based company that offers professional services like web assessment SEO, SEM and PPC advertising to clients in all the States.

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posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 10:02 PM Go to Website Assessment Questions



PPC Management Tool

PPC or Pay per Click management services are about advertisers bidding on keywords which they think the potential customers will use while doing online search. Whenever an online user uses the same keyword that matches with the advertiser's keyword, the advertisement (also called a sponsored link) gets displayed on the SERP (search engine results page).

What is the PPC management tool/software used for? Well to understand that one must first know about PPC bidding and its management. One must first identify as to how much CPC or (cost per click) can be paid by us. The maximum CPC varies with search engines and over time. Can this process be automated using a PPC management tool? Yes there are PPC bid management tools that are fully automated and does rules-based bidding and lets us manage keyword buys to achieve specific goals. A good PPC bid management tool or software can be very convenient and will almost free us from the hassles of bid management.

The PPC management tools/software can be quite effective and its performance will depend upon the differently available software brands with varying features and possible upgrades. Standalone software can be downloaded from the Internet and can be run from one's own computer. Such PPC management tools considers many technical factors in a more perfected and better way than is possible manually. These include many features and management of related factors including,
  • Conversion rate
  • Profit margin/account management
  • Support multiple search engine
  • Advertising budget
  • Paid traffic getting into the site
  • Multiple campaign management
  • Keyword management
  • Taking advantage of bid gaps
  • Different strategies for Google /Overture etc
  • Customization of rank range
  • Bids can be updated from a few seconds to many hours.
  • Analysis of ranking position
  • Automatic notification of bids
  • ROI tracking/ management
  • Bidding reports.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based company that offers services in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising and more for clients in the US and also globally.

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posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 7:33 PM Go to PPC Management Tool



Gold Mine of SEO Blogs (Links to the Best)

Monday, March 3, 2008

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Blogs are indeed a gold mine of SEO/SEM knowledge. Both professionals and aspirants can learn all they want by just making it a point to read the blog posts regularily. It will not only help to keep in touch with what is happening but also learn a lot. It is specifically a must for those who don't get to attend the various SEO/SEM Summits and Conferences. Please find below links to few of the best SEO blogs available on the Internet.

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based BPO company that offers various outsourcing solutions in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising, content development and much more.

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posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 10:51 PM Go to Gold Mine of SEO Blogs (Links to the Best)



SEO and Keyword Research

SEO or search engine optimization of a website must start with a proper keyword research. Keyword here refers to the words or phrases that a web searcher types into the Google or any other search engine box. What has to be researched here? Well keyword research is defined as the act of determining those keywords/phrases by which people search for a topic of interest on the Internet. SEO professionals have to thus develop the art of choosing the apt keyword that will be used by the potential customer and then optimize the website/ webpage for such a search. When a particular keyword is used to search our website must be ranked high on the SERP (search engine results page).

Keyword research is a technique that one can master by experience. There are many free and paid keyword research tools available online that can be used. Here are some important points during keyword research that must be kept in mind:

  • Get familiar with the target audience
  • Select keywords that have high search volume
  • Familiarize with the specific industry terms
  • General terms are more competitive
  • Low volume but very specific keyword can get quality traffic
  • Reach a balance with regards to volume and quality
  • Better to focus on the specific long tail keyword (those with more than three words)
Here is a link to the list of some of the best keyword research and suggestion tools at,http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/

Outsource Strategies International (OSI) is a US based BPO company that offers services in SEO, SEM, PPC advertising, viral marketing and more for clients globally.

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posted by Outsource Strategies International @ 9:32 PM Go to SEO and Keyword Research