How to use background image in your own web site?

Now a day’s all website makers use mostly background images some fancy and repeating one shape, this will attract users easily. This is very simple to make draw your shape or put image in photo shop tool and slice your image store one location write a CSS style like give as image as background and call repeat option. Here is a given example which illustrates the functionality with code:

 Design an image in photo shop slice image shape correct repeat method like blow:

HTML:

Write html code like below:

Output:

Why Favorite Icon

Favorite Icons are one of the ways to attract visitors to your website.
Icons  implemented near the link in the address bar. This picture is called as Favorite icon, or favicon

How to Implement Favorite icon in your Website:

Step 1: Create a image of 16px X 16px. This image might be in gif, bmp, jpg extension.

Step2: Convert the image to icon format with extension ico

Step3: move the fav icon (ico) to root directory

Step4: Paste the below coding inside head tag

That’s it your page is ready with Favicon.

Thanks,

Good luck!

Google Analytics – New Version

Google Analytics is the web analytics solution that gives us detailed insights to website traffic and marketing effectiveness. It is a very powerful and effective tool to track the websites traffic, see and analyse in a very easy way.

For the basics of google analytics please refer to the url below:

http://support.google.com/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55591

Google has come up with the new version of google analytics with 3 significant enhancements:

• A redesigned Google Analytics platform to enable major new functionality
• A streamlined interface to make it easier to get to the information you want
• Improved report performance for faster reports

The overview is shown in home page with the current visitors on your site which changes every now and then when visitors come and go. As a website owner this feature of tracking online visitors currently on our site is very useful. Apart from that it shows the top active pages, referrals and pageviews.

The reporting tool has 2 categories :
Standard Reporting – the reports which google analytics gives us by default
Custom Reporting – the reports we can create as per our requirement and save it

There are a plenty number of useful features in the new version of google analytics when explored. You can browse around for help in the below url:

http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1230973

Tracking changes in the consumer decision making process

Marketing has changed tremendously since the earlier days of the last century. At Pipon Solutions, our think-tank has been working furiously at the core conceptual level, trying to understand how the whole consumer decision making process has changed over the years. Each of the services we provide is geared towards providing you the best bespoke solutions within the framework of our conceptual understanding.

Google has recently released an eBook called ‘Winning the Zero Moment of Truth’ (ZMOT in short) that provides tremendous insights into how technology has changed the decision making process and, in effect, changed marketing. The phrase first originated as the ‘First Moment of Truth – FMoT’, which refers to the moment when a potential buyer is exposed to the product on the shelf – the first seven second time frame wherein the product will either be purchased or abandoned. Researchers at Google posit that the ‘Zero Moment’ may happen in a plethora of ways – a potential consumer using a smart phone to check out reviews on Amazon.com or a TV viewer browsing the web for details of a product they just saw on a TV spot.

The eBook is a valuable source of information and conceptual knowledge for those looking to sharpen their understanding of the digital marketing space. Feel free to share your comments on the eBook with us in this blog.

Google introduces ‘Me on the Web’

Google has taken a giant leap towards providing more power to the average user by introducing the ‘Me on the Web’ feature.  The feature (a component of Google Dashboard) enables users to monitor details of their complete identity on the web. It also serves to alert the individual when new information about him/her pops up elsewhere on the internet. Google users are also allowed to set up Google Alerts for their names, email addresses and other personal data that appears on the web – in either news stories or social media. These features are only available to users that have a Google account and public profile – which requires the user to submit their personal data to Google. The only issue here is that Google profiles are publicly visible – anyone with a user’s email address can discover them.

Google product manager Andreas Tuerk wrote:

“Savvy web users may already have used Google Alerts to set up notifications for mentions of their name or email address in websites and news stories. If you haven’t set up alerts yet, Me on the Web makes it even easier to do so and even automatically suggests some search terms you may want to monitor.

“Me on the Web also provides links to resources offering information on how to control what third-party information is posted about you on the web. These include common tips like reaching out to the webmaster of a site to ask for the content to be taken down, or publishing additional information on your own to help make less relevant websites appear farther down in search results.

This is just one of our first steps in continuing to explore ways to help make managing your identity online simpler.”

In essence, ‘Me on the Web’ brings together all information about you on the internet and helps you manage your personal online identity. At Pipon Solutions, we believe that this is a step in the right direction. Personal brand identity on the internet is perhaps the next big thing. Have a look at our services and get in touch with us to manage your brand's identity on the internet.

Comscore releases monthly report

Comscore Inc, a leader in measuring the digital world, has announced its monthly report on the US search marketplace. Google led the core search market with 65.4% of the search queries that were conducted during April 2011. The above mentioned time period reflected the impact of Yahoo’s Search Direct feature (real-time results for search queries). Yahoo’s share was up by 0.2% from 15.7% in March 2011.

Here is a brief summary of the results:

• ·         Google’s market share surprisingly fell by 0.3%, down from 65.7% in March 2011
• ·         Microsoft’s Bing continued to grow in strength, with an increase of 0.2%, up from 13.9%
• ·         The AOL and Ask networks fell 0.1% respectively

Here is a complete snapshot of the results:

Source: www.comscore.com

Out of the 16.2 billion searches conducted overall in April (down 4% from 16.9 billion in March), Google ranked first with 10.7 billion searches, followed by Yahoo – 2.6 billion and Bing – 2.3 billion. An interesting inference that follows from the results of the report is that Google has lost both market share and its total number of search queries, while Yahoo and Bing have capitalised on this fall by Google.

What do you think about the recent results report? Pipon Solutions invites your views on this blog. If you are looking to improve your website’s position on any of these search websites, please do get in touch with us.

Adwords includes click count

Google has included yet another innovative feature in its Adwords offering – a click count feature that shows the number of clicks the advertiser has garnered. The experiment was officially confirmed by a Google spokesperson.

What is still unclear though, is the method of calculation of these clicks. Is the count shown a sum of clicks for the entire campaign, ad, or over the advertiser’s account history?

The impact of this experiment could be far reaching – higher click counts could end up boosting click-through rates (CTR), since viewers would definitely be inclined to click on ‘established’ ads. In this case, the advantages of long term advertising come back to the fore. Advertisers and agencies will have to rethink their strategies. Further, this measure could end up increasing the importance of click-through rates (CTR) over cost-per acquisition (CPA).

Pam of Search Engine Land rightly said "it's not clear whether advertisers are aware that they’ve agreed to allow public display of what most likely consider proprietary information." Advertisers would definitely not want competitors to know important statistics such as this one.

At Pipon Solutions, we try to keep a track of changes in the search landscape. What do you make of this particular feature? Should Google make it a standard feature?

How Google + will aid your marketing strategies

Google + has been often described as combining the best of Facebook, Twitter and added functionalities. For international search marketers, Google + offers a key benefit – it supports 42 different international languages, which range from Arabic to Vietnamese. This feature will prove vital if Google + is to uproot Orkut in India and Brazil and Ren Ren in China. In fact, shortly after launching Google +, the company warned businesses not to create brand pages as they are working on a unique, customised experience for corporations.

‘Circles’ has been identified as one of the main differentiators of Google’s social media offering over the other players in the fray. With Circles, you may target your specialised content and promotions towards your employees, suppliers and clients. Further, Circles allows you to create and send content based on language. So you may send personalised content for your Chinese clients as well as for your Arabian clients.

‘+1’ is very similar to Facebook’s ‘like’. Hence all searches on Google + will throw up results featuring recommendations of friends on circles. ‘Sparks’ is a search function that suggests categories that may be of interest to you. It also allows you to search for any particular phrases you want. Search Engine Watch reports that the Sparks algorithm seems to be different from the usual SERP algorithm and the Google News algorithm. The Sparks feature will be keenly watched by marketers and advertisers alike.

At Pipon Solutions, we’ve traced the growth of Google + from its very inception. Our social media analysts posit that the next few months are crucial as far as the battle for the social media crown is concerned. Who will win it – Google, Facebook or Twitter? 

Twitter usage lags awareness

Earlier this month, the Pew Internet and American Life Project announced that Twitter usage had risen from 8% of US internet users in fall 2010 to 13% in May 2011, an increase in usage of 62.5%! In spite of being the phenomenon that it has been, actual Twitter usage only constitutes a small percentage of the overall awareness of the brand. A recent study by eMarketer shows the huge yawning gap between awareness and usage. Analysts have pointed out to the fact that the gap has actually been increasing over the years.

Analysts at Pipon Solutions have posited the possible inferences from these results:

1.      Since the actual Twitter usage is low when compared to the awareness of the brand, there is more room for Twitter to grow.

2.      Twitter’s official usage statistics state it has 200 million user accounts. Nobody knows how many accounts are actual unique users. Even otherwise, Twitter is still way behind the real Social Media behemoth Facebook – with its mammoth 500 million user accounts.

3.      Twitter has to quickly devise strategies to cover up the gap of potential accounts. Otherwise, it risks remaining all hype and no substance.

4.      Twitter has to find ways to monetise the large user base, or else its hopes of joining the other Social Media firms such as Groupon, Linkedin and Zynga in becoming a publicly traded company will remain a dream.

At Pipon Solutions, we’ve always looked at Social Media as a phenomenon that needs to be carefully watched and analysed. Indeed, Social Media has changed the way we communicate with each other and with brands. However, we believe that marketers need to quickly assess which components of Social Media to use in order to stay ahead of the game. This is precisely what we aim to do in our endeavour to attain excellence in digital marketing. 

Google Realtime search goes offline

Google’s two-year agreement with Twitter to show tweet results has expired, taking realtime search results offline. A spokesperson at Google confirmed the news with Search Engine Land.

Since October of 2009, we have had an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results through a special feed, and that agreement expired on July 2.

While we will not have access to this special feed from Twitter, information on Twitter that’s publicly available to our crawlers will still be searchable and discoverable on Google.

The actual deal with Twitter in late 2009 envisaged realtime results providing minute-by-minute news to searchers. Marissa Mayer, Google’s Vice President then wrote on the blog, "We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months."

The search behemoth seems to be planning to incorporate results from its own newly launched Google + instead of Twitter posts. Google + is Google’s attempt at bringing out a full service social media website, much on the lines of Facebook and Myspace. Google’s previous attempts at social media were futile, with Buzz and Wave not catching up with social media users. Social media analysts at Pipon Solutions believe that this move could pave the way for Google + to seriously challenge Facebook and Twitter. We welcome your comments on the latest developments.

Resources that will help you learn the art of paid search

In the dynamic world of paid search, you either keep up-to-date with the latest happenings in the arena or get left behind. This blog outlines some of the resources and help available to equip yourself with the necessary knowledge required.

PPC blogs: You may look at Google’s official blog on adwords and the Google Analytics blog. Another useful resource is the Inside Search blog. The Agency Blog and the Merchant Blog are two more informative blogs that you might find handy. You may also subscribe to updates on Twitter and Facebook to stay up-to-date.

PPC videos: Google runs a number of official Youtube channels to help you gain an understanding of Adwords and Analytics. The Business Channel covers Google analytics, adwords and other related topics. Two other official channels on Youtube are the Google analytics channel and Think with Google.

Learning Centre: The Learning Centre is a fantastic resource for you to study adwords. The analytics education page helps you to get familiar with Google analytics.

Other online resources: In its press section, Google runs a directory of its official presence on Twitter, Facebook, blog and Youtube. Google also offers online webinars in its classroom and a number of support pages -  AdWords Help including a beginner’s guide, known issues with adwords and help pages for Merchant Centre.

Of course, you can always keep referring to our blog or look at our pages on paid search management. If you need further professional help, get in touch with us. At Pipon Solutions, we always endeavour to provide the best professional help to our clients.

Market research – your pathway to ethical link building

By starting your own market research department, you may open up a world of ethical link building opportunities. Research is usually cited because of a variety of reasons:

·         Even large corporate houses need facts based on research to back up their marketing claims.

·         Sites featuring industry news need research snippets to base news on.

·         Research provides a great framework to devise unique, compelling and interesting content.

Once you build the research content, what do you do to get those links?

·         Partner with reputed research firms: Partnering with reputed research firms adds to the brand value and trustworthiness of your results. It also increases the possibilities of media attention.

·         Be proactive: Send out scoops of the results to PR newsletters and industry specific news sites.

·         Include visuals to strengthen the chances of getting linked.

·         Do not put in excessive copyright laws as this could discourage sharing.

·         Put up the results and summary of your research on leading social media websites such as Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and Google plus. Social media sites present fantastic opportunities to share your content naturally.

At Pipon Solutions, we’ve already discussed the importance of ethical link building. In the coming months, we will put forth strategies to optimise your SEO, link building, paid search and social media efforts.

Top myths about SEO

Many myths about SEO keep floating around the internet. SEO experts at Pipon Solutions leave no stone unturned to ensure only genuine knowledge is used to serve the best interests of our clients. As a step in this regard, we’ve tried to highlight the two first steps to creating an SEO strategy.  This will be followed by a further post later on this week detailing the next steps needed to create a successful SEO strategy. 

The first bit of advice for anyone beginning an SEO campaign is to make good use of Google tools such as Analytics and Adsense.  Without using such tools it is difficult to ascertain how well your campaign is doing and where you can improve your SEO strategy.  Through monitoring and following the advice contained in such tools one can find some quick fixes that will aid your SEO strategy. 

Link building is the next most important aspect of an SEO campaign.  Although some webmasters believe that external links are harmful for a website’s rankings, arguing that you ideally should not want visitors to leave your website, data actually shows that there is a positive correlation between the number of external links and higher rankings. The key to this is making sure that you are linking out to high-quality, relevant sites to help Google better understand the content of your page and thus improve rankings.

To learn more about the different SEO strategies one can put in place please visit our website or get in touch with us.  We will be posting our next SEO tips and techniques later on this week so stay glued to this blog and watch this space!

Important ranking factors affecting SEO

SEO Moz hosted a Search Ranking Factors Seminar last week that discussed the important ranking factors affecting SEO at the moment.  As you may be well aware, the world of SEO is constantly changing and failing to notice improved methods to optimise your website can result in poor search engine rankings.  At Pipon Solutions, we’ve highlighted the main talking points of the discussion below:

·          More than 75% of SEO experts believe that social signals impact search results.  This is not surprising, particularly with the introduction of Google’s new +1 feature.  It is therefore important that any well structured SEO strategy at the moment should seek to incorporate and utilise different social media platforms. 

·         A large number of SEO experts think exact keyword match domains will not necessarily mean better results – thereby reigniting the debate over whether to stuff your domain with necessary keywords. 

• More Adsense slots have historically meant lower ranks. This might mean that the data could be due to low quality sites only focusing on advertising.
• Building links seem to directly impact results.
• Title tags have a major say in search relevance.

·         Top ranking sites possess an active social presence

The general consensus from the discussion was that, for any SEO strategy to succeed, three factors had to be present.  These were an easy to use website, engaging content and a great brand.  The world of SEO remains dynamic and ever-changing, with search engines constantly improving search algorithms in order to speed up the search process.

At Pipon Solutions we aim to keep on top of all the latest developments in the SEO industry and have come up with successful, results based strategies that have helped the SEO campaigns of both small and large businesses.  Contact us today for more details on our SEO strategies or visit our blog regularly for more tips from the SEO industry.  

Top tips to encourage users to share your content on Social Media

At Pipon Solutions, we’ve laid tremendous stress on optimising your marketing in social media. Sanjay Dholakia of Crowd Factory has written an article on Mashable that provides a few practical tips on encouraging sharing on social media. This blog post aims to summarise the whole article into a few key points.

• ·         Sweeten the deal when people share more: Do-it-yourself group deals allow people to create campaigns with the idea of collective benefit – the more people share among themselves, the more they save. Such deals will encourage people to share and mobilise numbers.
• ·         Give people personalised gifts: Personalising your gifts to customers can mean a lot to the customer. Furthermore, in the virtual space personalising your gifts does not cost much. For example, you may provide customers early access to content in return for sharing.
• ·         Allow fans to formulate the deal: When you give fans the ability to help create the offer in the first place, you make things a lot more exciting. For example, HarperCollins lets members select which books should be offered at a discount. Once chosen, deals can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• ·          Recognise ‘superfans’: Dholakia defines ‘superfans’ as enthusiastic individuals who are not necessarily motivated by incentives but are interested in promoting for the sake of it. Marketers need to identify such individuals and reward them with preferential access or recognition. The key is to include them in your marketing mix.

Need further help in optimising your social media campaigns? Get in touch with our experts who will be glad to help you.

Deal-a-day websites change marketing strategies

Sceptics of deal-a-day websites such as Groupon and LivingSocial often predicted that these websites would see their sales decline once the economy recovered and people weren’t as concerned about saving every dollar or pound.  Surprisingly, however, these deal-a-day websites have grown from strength to strength. Chicago based Groupon, the leading deal-a-day website, has grown from 2 million subscribers to over 85 million over the past year. Similarly, LivingSocial grew from a paltry 120,000 users to over 28 million over the same period. In just three years this particular business model has changed local advertising, delivering faster results than other traditional marketing methods. Store owners get immediate access to revenue and can observe exactly how many customers each offer manages to bring in. Analysts say these websites thrive because they help both merchants and consumers without requiring any specific technical expertise from the former. They see this as a new category of commerce that has changed the way companies market their products. Some companies though, complain that Groupon forces upon them an unfair cut in prices and the sudden influx of the huge numbers of customers overwhelms them. However, employees at Groupon respond that companies always have the option to cap the number of coupons sold. Some companies view deal-a-day coupons as promotional expenses and are willing to take losses on them. Others don’t do the precise calculations and end up getting their fingers burnt. Nevertheless, deal-a-day websites are expected to generate as much as $ 2.7 billion in revenues this year. That figure is expected to go up to $ 4 billion by 2015. Although that is still only a small slice of the $ 142 billion that is generated by the total online retail sales, revenues from daily-deals are growing faster than overall e-commerce revenues. Small businesses have adopted the model as a way to hook new customers in this digital age. Traditional methods of advertising are either too expensive or no longer provide attractive returns on investment. Google search results, though measurable, do not provide the immediate results that small businesses need. This is where Groupon and LivingSocial step in and work their magic. Analysts at Pipon Solutions invite your views on such deal-a-day websites.

Foursquare Hits 500,000 Merchant Accounts

The location based check-in service Foursquare has reached yet another milestone – over 500,000 merchant accounts. Merchant accounts allow businesses to offer discounts, update information and also gain useful insights on check-in data. They get complete management rights on their pages, hence pages may be customised as per needs. Foursquare does not charge for its merchant accounts.

Foursquare’s service is aimed towards GPS-enabled mobile devices. Users ‘check-in’ at different venues using the website, application or SMS. Check-ins award users points and badges. A recently introduced feature is ‘notifications’ – alerts on comments, sign-ups, tips, swarming, etc.

Founded in 2009 and based in New York with an engineering office at San Francisco, Foursquare raised more than $ 20 million in start-up capital. Foursquare has recently closed a deal on funding for $ 50 million and has reached yet another milestone of more than 10 million users.

At Pipon Solutions, we’ve been following the growth of leading social media firms such as Foursquare. As social media analysts, we believe it is our job to indentify paradigm shifts and trends in the industry. If you need help with your social media campaigns, feel free to get in touch with us. Our experts will be glad to help you.

Twitter reaches landmark figure of 200 million tweets a day

Fast growing micro-blogging site Twitter continues to post impressive figures of growth, reaching more than 200 million tweets a day. There are plenty of reasons behind this growth – including an increase in mobile use of more than 182%. Overall, Twitter’s growth is said to be around 10,000 per cent over the course of the last two and a half years, officials proudly announced.

What has been particularly impressive is the way in which Twitter is being used. Tweeting is now seen as an accepted means of communication of both comical and serious topics. For instance, during the earthquake in Japan, more than 5,000 tweets were sent each second and the day saw more than 177 million tweets. Twitter officials have posted this exciting graphic showing the flow of direct messages, tweets and re-tweets to and from Japan. For the year 2011, the topics that were discussed the most were Swine Flu, Hosni Mubarak and the Libyan civil war crisis.

Twitter has already announced its acquisition of Tweetdeck and its plans to file for an IPO. Social media analysts at Pipon Solutions believe that this may be the right time for Twitter’s IPO ambitions, considering the fact that a drop in valuations in the IT sector is a serious possibility in the near future.  What this also means is that, if you are a business looking to expand your digital marketing options, twitter is now the place to be to engage and contact your customers.  For more information and tips on how to optimise your presence on Twitter please read through our previous posts, or for a more detailed guide please feel free to contact us.  

How to optimise your social presence

The growth in social media activity has grown exponentially. The number of unique visitors has increased more than 80 percent since 2007, while total visits to websites in this category grew 136 per cent to 6.2 billion. Specific social media brand searches (Facebook, Linkedin, etc) and people searches appear to be the primary growth drivers of search clicks. The top 20 brand names in retail, finance and travel accounted for 1.6 million clicks directly to Facebook, an increase of 1300 per cent.

So how do you improve the rankings of your social pages?

Provide direct links from your home page: Search algorithms value links from home pages. Most top brands miss this opportunity to link their social media directly from their home pages. It is important to use your brand name in the link to have immediate impact.

While posting, mention brand names: URLs that match search terms rank higher in natural search results. Social media posts work in a similar fashion too. Make sure you use the brand names of your company and/or products when you post on social media.

Get likes: Search engine algorithms value likes, +1’s, follows, etc. This will push up your rankings as well. Getting your customers to ‘like’ you on Facebook can be tricky, and may require clever use of marketing tactics.

Provide sharing tools: Make the content on your website/social media/blogs easy to share. That way, you will attract more eye balls while befriending search engine algorithms.

These are only some of the ways in which you may optimise your prominence in social media. At Pipon Solutions, we provide a range of social media optimisation services. Get in touch with us or leave your comments/suggestions in this blog.

Google+ takes aim at Facebook

Social media has seen a few very successful newer entrants – Zynga, Fousquare and so on. Not intent on being left out of the fray, Google has started giving out invites for its brand new social network, Google+, which is directly positioned to take on Facebook. This is in effect Google’s third attempt at entering the social networking space after two failed attempts – Google Buzz and Google Wave. Analysts around the world have been coming up with initial reviews of the search behemoth’s social endeavour.

At the centre of it all lays the concept of ‘circles’. Engineers at Google have apparently spent hours and hours getting this just right. Circles are supposed to be the correct system of grouping people together for the purpose of sharing content online. Savvy internet users point out to the fact that the concept of circles has to gain popularity if Google+ is to succeed. Several leading technology newspapers and journals have lauded the intuitive and aesthetic interface. The user interface is built in a way that the average internet user will immediately pick up on.

At Pipon Solutions, we keep track of all the happenings in the world of social media. Take a look at our blog to learn more or get in touch with us.

Google introduces ‘+1’ buttons on paid and organic search results

The world of search marketing and social media is constantly changing.  Google has recently announced that it is now attempting to make search more social by introducing ‘+1’ buttons on both paid and organic search results. The ‘+1’ button has already been in operation in the US for several months now. The feature goes global today.

Analysts have predicted that the Google ‘+1’ will eventually be merged into Google’s larger social project - Google +. Google ‘+1’ will become the equivalent of Facebook ‘like’ buttons. The ‘+1’ project began in March and released the button for webmasters to add to their website earlier this month. Since then, Google has added ‘+1’ button to product pages and blogger widgets. The ‘+1’ counts have also been localised in some instances and have appeared in search results. With the introduction of ‘+1’, Google and Facebook are turning direct rivals. Recent reports from ComScore state that Google now has a whopping one billion users every month! Facebook is not far behind with over 700 million active users globally.

Developers and webmasters interested in adding the ‘+1’ button to their websites may refer to Google’s online guide. If you still need further help, you may choose to contact us. At Pipon Solutions, we endeavour to stay on top of the latest happenings in the world of paid search and SEO.

UK Online Spending Increases Again

For those of us in the digital marketing world, it is no secret that online is the place to be to sell your products.  This view has, once again, been supported by a latest report on trends in the online industry.

In latest figures released in a report by the Interactive Media in Retail group, online spending increased by 18% in the month of May compared to the same time a year before.  Much of this has been credited to the retail and alcohol industries, both of whom saw significant gains during the month in question.  According to the study, £5.3 billion was spent alone on the retail industry whilst online liquor sales increased by 25% in May compared to the previous year.

It is therefore clear that online sales continue to dominate certain industries and that it is ever more important for businesses, in particular retailers, to take advantage of this trend whilst it is at its peak.  It should be noted, however, that marketing and selling products online is not always as easy as it seems and that a few golden rules should always be followed to ensure that you are getting a return on your online investment.

Firstly, it is important that you have a basic search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy in place in order to increase natural traffic to your website.  With the majority of internet users using search engines such as Google to find their products it is imperative that your online campaign addresses this.

To coincide with your SEO campaign it is also important that a pay per click advertising campaign, however small, is conducted.  PPC will help you get quick leads, particularly since SEO is a long term strategy that can take months to generate a suitable ROI.

And lastly, to build trust with your online customers you have to ensure that as much product information as possible is provided on your website.  Due to the fact that your customers do not get to interact with you as much as they could if they were buying your products in person, it is important to give them as much detail as possible about what your product offers and the benefits it will give. This can be achieved through image and video marketing for your products.

At Pipon Solutions we are experts in conducting online marketing campaigns to ensure that your business does not miss out on the increases in online sales.  For more information about our digital marketing packages or for more information about how to optimise your online campaigns, feel free to contact us or visit or blog.

Youtube gives bloggers a boost

Youtube is the world’s largest video sharing website, with more than 2 billion views a day and 24 hours of videos uploaded every minute.  It is now offering its loyal users three new features – a logoless player, HD preview images and a new segment – ‘As seen on’.  This post will highlight these new features and assess what it means for the digital marketing world.  

Logoless player: Now you can remove that Youtube logo at the bottom-right of embedded videos. This move will definitely benefit digital marketers and corporate users who may wish to use Youtube videos on presentations and blogs. You just need to add this code (without quotes) at the end of the video – “?modestbranding=1”.

HD Preview: Currently, the preview image displayed shows only a snapshot of the low quality video. No matter how high quality the video was when you uploaded it, the preview image remained the same. From now on, anyone who uploads a video with 480p or higher resolution will have their HD image as a preview.  

“As seen on” pages: Youtube is coming out with “As seen on” pages – pages that show a playlist compiled out of the content that has been posted on a given site over a period of time. This feature will definitely be a boost for dedicated bloggers, whose loyal readers might prefer previewing videos posted on the Youtube website itself.


It will come as no surprise that these three new features will be seen as an advantage by the large numbers of businesses and digital marketers who, like Pipon, have been using YouTube extensively to market products and interact with customers.  For more information on these features and the social media marketing packages that we can offer at Pipon Solutions please feel free to contact us.  

PPC tips you need to know

As a marketer looking to promote your products through paid search, you will need to understand the workings on Pay-per-click (PPC) first. At Pipon Solutions, we’ve always focused on getting our paid search strategies right. As a step in this direction, we’ve outlined some key pointers for you to fine tune your PPC strategy.

Don’t bid on broad keywords: Broad keywords are not only too generic, they are also too competitive. In paid search, you will be much better off setting narrow or targeted keywords such as ‘XYZ tubeless tyres’ (including brand names) or ‘clear glass computer desks’ (being very specific).

Test your ad copy: PPC advertising is very similar to traditional advertising wherein you have to compete for eyeballs with other competitors. Hence it is very essential that you use the right ad copy to attract your potential customers. Use at least two variations within each ad group. When you perform such experiments, you will learn which ad copy works better. You will then be able to optimise your future ad campaigns better.

Don’t use advanced settings without adequate data: Analyse data before using advanced settings such as display network, enhanced CPC and so on. Do not use these features unless you understand their workings correctly.

At Pipon Solutions we have experience in building successful PPC campaigns that generate a solid ROI for small to medium sized businesses.  For more information about our PPC strategies please feel free to contact us, or keep visiting this blog for more PPC tips and techniques.  

Tips on landing page optimisation

You generally have less than six seconds to sell your services to potential customers on your landing page. This is especially true for PPC campaigns where the end user clicks on your link looking for something specific. So, how do you ensure you present the best possible design?

• ·        Add assurances: This is especially true if you have ‘call to action’ buttons in your landing page. It is also important to put trust icons next to your call to action buttons so that customers feel assured. These trust icons could be anything ranging from industry awards to Norton Security logos.
• ·        Keep it simple: The old adage ‘the simpler the better’ still stands good today. You will be much better off keeping only a single call to action button on your landing page. All the other information should focus on leading the user to click on that button.
• ·         Pre-populate the first field in your form: If your landing page has a form to be filled up, pre-populating the first field can work wonders. Studies have shown that this does tend to increase the conversion rates.
• ·         Ensure your subject image looks at the call to action: Research has shown that eyeballs usually tend to follow where the subject image looks at. So make sure the person in the image looks directly at the call to action text.
• ·         Include important testimonials: Testimonials present a great way to build trust in the mind of the potential consumer. So, why not use the landing page itself to build trust.  

At Pipon Solutions we’ve endeavoured to help our customers optimise their PPC campaigns to ensure higher ROI. Take a look at our services and get in touch with us if you would like to learn more.

Google launches Instant Pages

Digital marketers last week waited in anticipation of recent innovations to Google at the Inside Search event in Mountain View, California.  What we received was yet another innovative feature to the Google repertoire – Google Instant Pages. 


Executives at Google claim that this new Chrome-only feature will possibly reduce search times by 2 to 5 seconds. This will work by pre-loading the top two search results. Engineers at Google are becoming more confident of Google’s ability to answer queries exactly. With the launch of this feature, the company in fact is actually betting on its ability to predict what you are looking for.

Analysts point out to the fact that in an attempt to speed up search by pre-loading the top results, the other results in the page could take longer to load. Pre-rendering pages will also waste precious bandwidth if the user goes on to click links at the bottom of the page.

So how will this news affect web site owners who want to know how many times their webpage has actually been viewed? This new feature will definitely affect web analytics data. Google is actually advising web developers to look into the page visibility API, a draft specification that provides developers with a way to determine the visibility of a specific web page.

At Pipon Solutions, we have always made it a point to stay on top of the latest happenings in the world of Search. We’ve made it a point to incorporate necessary changes to our SEO strategy in order to accommodate this structural change in search.

Measure your social media influence on Empire Avenue

When a business begins to embark on a social media campaign, it can difficult to look for niche and exciting social media avenues through which to engage with your clientele.  


For this reason some of the world's top brands are starting to invest time on the social media exchange Empire Avenue. Empire Avenue allows players to buy and sell virtual money (eaves) in another person or brand. Empire Avenue’s user base is growing rapidly and the game helps players monitor their social influence and possibly make business connections that boost their bottom line profits.

Some of the world’s top brands such as Intel, AT&T, Microsoft, Ford, Audi and Toyota have already invested time in Empire Avenue and are quickly rising up on the leader board – a list that compares the muscle power of the account holders on social media as a whole. 


So how does Empire Avenue determine its scoring? According to executives at the company, your score depends on activity, audience and interaction. In other words, your score on Empire Avenue is a function of what you do on social media, how much you do of it, who is listening and how are people engaging with you.

So what are the potential benefits of joining Empire Avenue? It definitely provides you the opportunity to interact with businesses, brands and potential consumers around the world. Furthermore, on Empire Avenue, all that matters is the value of your virtual stock. As long as you keep your ‘shareholders’ happy, they would probably recommend your stock to others. Hence, your brand equity would rise and so would brand recall.

At Pipon Solutions we are constantly on the lookout for ways to better our clients’ social media presence and identity and we have been impressed with what Empire Avenue has to offer. We are still, however, interested in seeing how others have found this service.  Do you use Empire Avenue?  And how have you found it? 


For further information about Pipon Solutions social media packages, or our SEO/PPC strategies, please feel free to contact us.  

Link building skills you need

As every established digital marketer knows, link building is one of the most essential components of effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  As a leading SEO company, we here at Pipon Solutions have outlined some of the most vital skills that are needed in order to polish up your link building techniques, some which have been outlined below:

Familiarity of internet culture: Link building is made a lot easier if you are consistently up to date with what is happening in the digital world.  For example the daily reading of social media sites such as reddit, and engaging with people on twitter, helps you keep familiar with internet culture and keep your eye on the best places on the net to establish contacts and post/request links.  

Selling skills: Reaching out to people through the internet is not very different from cold calling or business development. Hence, sharpen your selling skills to become more effective at link building.

Analytical skills: A link builder should have the basic understanding of data analysis to conduct competitive link analysis, perform research and break down large sets of complex data into simpler forms.

Creative skills: SEO is gradually moving closer to traditional marketing, where creativity is an essential requirement. Creativity cannot be taught, but every person is creative to a certain extent. Hence, it is important that you bring out those inherent creative skills to help you build links.

Perseverance: This in often an understated and underestimated characteristic that people tend to overlook. Link building is often hard manual labour and it helps if you are the sort of person that never gives up.

Technical skills: Some of the best link builders are those with web development experience.  Although we all cannot have these IT skills, some of the basic technical skills that you can develop are –

• ·         Intermediate knowledge of (X)HTML/CSS
• ·         A very basic understanding of at least one modern programming language
• ·         How to build agile tools in Google Docs
• ·         Ability to upload files via FTP

Pipon Solutions, has, over the years, built effective link building strategies as part of our SEO packages and services. We have taken the time to develop an effective link building strategy designed to make your website more accessible.  Contact us for more information about our link building strategies or check our blog for further updates on effective link building skills.    

Facebook set for $ 100 billion IPO?

The world’s largest social network, Facebook, is all set to file for its IPO. The surprising news, however, is that it is supposed to be valued at over $100 billion, CNBC reports.

Goldman Sachs is supposed to be the frontrunner to lead the listing, which is supposed to be completed in the early months of 2012. Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs invested $450 million, valuing the company at $50 billion.

Facebook is the largest social media network of its kind with over 700 million user accounts globally. But sceptical financial analysts point out to the fact that, in May, Facebook lost around 6 million users in North America and 100,000 users in Britain. Even globally, it only grew by around 12 million user accounts in May, as opposed to 14 million in April. Add to this the fact that Facebook hasn’t been able to penetrate into Chinese markets, with the Chinese internet user base touching 450 million.

Earlier this year, social networks Linkedin and Zynga successfully pulled off their IPOs and Groupon has recently sought a valuation of over $20 billion. Which brings us back to the question – is Facebook really worth $100 billion? As savvy digital marketers, what do you think? Is this the next tech bubble?

At Pipon Solutions, we keenly watch the dynamic Social Media space because we want to provide the best possible social media management service to our clients. Have a look at our services and do get in touch with us.

The Rise in Local and Mobile Search

Over the past few years, the world of digital marketing has undergone some significant changes.  With breakthroughs in technology allowing advertisers to better target their audiences on the platforms they feel most comfortable in using, it is no surprise that more and more advertisers are increasing their search budgets.  The key question, however, is where are they spending this money?

According to a recent study, the answer to this question is local and mobile search.  The 5th annual Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report has found that the proportion of paid search marketers who say that they are investing in mobile search has doubled from 8% to 16% over the past year.  A further 45% have said that they are planning to invest in mobile search in the future.  The report was based on a survey of more than 600 advertisers and agencies and also found an increase in the use of local search, up from 27% last year.

With mobile and local search therefore witnessing more widespread use it is becoming more important than ever that businesses begin to tap into the market.  The benefits of spending more money on both are clearly evident.  With local search, for example, businesses are not only given a greater chance to better target their audiences but also the chance to offer a more personalised service for their dedicated clientele.

Furthermore, with the worldwide use of smartphones increasing rapidly, the potential to reach customers through their mobile phones is one that cannot be ignored.  While a search on a desktop might indicate an interest in a business or product, those searching on their mobiles are more than likely out and about and looking for immediate information - such as store information.

With technology around local and mobile search improving by the minute, the findings in the report are not that surprising.  What is potentially more surprising is the continued nervousness by some about utilizing both options.

For more information about the use of local and mobile search please feel free to visit our website and read some of our earlier posts.  If you would like more detailed guidance on your local and mobile search campaigns please contact Pipon Solutions.

Tips to get more natural links

Do you need more ‘natural’ links to your website to promote your search engine rankings? Link building is an essential component of any SEO campaign and through using the following simple techniques you can ensure that your website is fully optimised for natural search engine rankings.  

Email signatures are a great way to naturally show people your website and promote the unique content in it. Most of the people you usually converse with through emails may not even know that you have a website. You may choose to send a friendly and helpful email to your friends and acquaintances with a signature linking to your website. You can do this with html code or you may also choose to use wisestamp – a plugin that allows you to create a graphical signature including your social media icons as well as links to your website. It works with a variety of email clients such as gmail, yahoo, AOL and hotmail in Chrome, Firefox and Safari web browsers.

Use links on your social media profiles. Many users forget to add links to their websites on their social media pages such as Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and other networks. Twitter and Facebook allow you to add URLs to your pages and Linkedin allows you to add anchor text. Make sure to add links on other social networks too and watch incoming traffic to your website increase from these avenues.

Use a badge for your website. Create a nice little badge to help fans of your website share it with others. 

Furthermore, you should make it easy to link to specific pieces of content by using html embeded code for infographics or videos and simple links at the end of each article that call on readers to "like" your posts and share the content with others.  

Search engine optimization is a difficult task without a solid accompanying link building strategy.  As a leading SEO company Pipon Solutions uses a number of advanced link building methods to help you get on the right books search engines that value natural links to your website. For more information on link building why not view our earlier posts on the topic or contact us for more details.