Take a deep dive on search and social. Attend a workshop at SMX Advanced.

Choose from six in-depth workshops that will sharpen your internet marketing skills SMX Advanced pre-conference workshops are conducted by the world’s leading subject matter experts in SEO, SEM, social and digital. All workshops will be held on Monday, June 12 at the Bell Harbor Convention Center in Seattle. You’ll pick one workshop for a full day of actionable tactics you can use to improve your campaigns right away! Keep reading for workshop previews. Each workshop provides: In-depth instruction from respected search and social media marketing leaders; Intimate learning and networking experience with like-minded professionals; Actionable takeaways that you’ll put to use immediately. BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! Advanced AdWords Training with Brad Geddes: AdWords is at the core of many companies’ digital campaigns. Inefficient PPC campaigns can have a drastic impact on your bottom line. This intensive AdWords course will teach you best practices and advanced concepts and strategies that are based upon a decade of research and testing. Mastering Social Media Advertising with Search Engine Land’s Ginny Marvin and guest presenters: Designed for paid social media marketing practitioners and managers, you’ll take a deep dive into getting more out of paid social — from advanced-level learning on creative strategies to efficiently managing all your paid campaigns. Learn more. Search-engine Friendly Mobile Design & Development with Shari Thurow and Bryson Meunier: Gain insights on how to establish and develop a “natural” mobile SEO strategy — increasing your mobile search engine visibility and conversions. Advanced SEO Training with Bruce Clay: Get a detailed overview of critical ranking and placement techniques to overcome competition for top search engine rankings for desired keywords. Mastering Google Analytics with Andrew Garberson: Leverage Google Analytics as a powerful analysis and reporting tool for search marketing. Gain more meaningful data and insights to accelerate your performance. Content Marketing Mastery with Casie Gillette: Specifically designed for in-house marketers and consultants, this workshop helps you create better content marketing programs by identifying content gaps, utilizing data to make more informed decisions, and hearing how experts create effective promotion strategies. SMX workshop participants rave about their experiences: “Honestly, much better than any conference I have attended as it provided a full eight hours on a single topic that I value – instructed by a very credible player in the PPC/SEM world (Brad Geddes).” – Sam, First Bank Holding Customize your SMX Advanced experience AND save: All Access and Workshop combo: Get the complete package for only $2,795, a savings of $600 compared to on-site rates. Or, if you’ve registered for an All Access Pass and would like to upgrade with a workshop, just pay an additional $900. Workshop Pass: Just looking for a one day workshop intensive? You can do that too for just $995, a $200 savings compared to on-site rates. If you’re just interested in attending the SMX Advanced conference June 12-14, that’s fine too! For only $1,895, you’ll get full access to all conference sessions, keynotes, clinics, networking activities, WiFi and hot meals.

5 ways your merchandising strategy is affecting SEO performance

How does your merchandising strategy affect SEO? Columnist Stephanie LeVonne describes the various challenges that can arise if you overlook the importance of communicating your merchandising strategy with your SEO team. When optimizing an e-commerce website for SEO performance, you’ll often notice that the product being sold (i.e., the bread and butter of the business) is generally not a focal point in the SEO discussion. After all, SEO recommendations aren’t necessarily based on a brand’s product mix, but rather a strategy is developed based on the holistic needs of the website. While it’s important to understand the product and how it’s positioned in the marketplace (luxury product, discount product or something else), that’s typically where the conversation ends. Often SEOs liaise directly with marketing managers, and because of this, there’s generally little discussion around the merchandising strategy and how it can affect SEO. Below are five common, yet overlooked, scenarios which detail the importance of communicating your merchandising strategy. Challenge 1: Inventory issues & negative reviews What does inventory management have to do with SEO? Turns out, a lot. While I think it’s safe to say that most brands use a live inventory system, meaning that stock-status is updated in real time, some companies haven’t yet adopted this technology. And for this reason, order fulfillment can become a real challenge. One consequence of having loosely managed inventory is overselling merchandise. While this is undoubtedly a huge problem, it may not seem like one that affects SEO, until of course, we examine the trickle-down effect. Essentially, orders that cannot be fulfilled will need to be refunded in a timely manner. While this might not seem like a criminal offense, telling someone that the sweater they ordered for Christmas is now on back-order probably isn’t going to make them a brand advocate any time soon — especially if this is their first interaction with the brand. While some customers might call to voice their concern, many will likely take to social media or Yelp to air their grievances. What was once a problem with fulfillment has now turned into a full-fledged issue of reputation management. Challenge 2: Out-of-stock products & schema markup Perhaps your brand has implemented “stock” schema markup which allows you to display whether products are in stock or out of stock directly in the SERPs. This nifty little enhancement gives consumers information at the tips of their fingers, without ever interacting with your landing page. Going back to the inventory management discussion, the real problem begins when products that are frequently going out of stock aren’t updating their stock status on the back end as they are replenished. This can result in incorrect “out of stock” messaging appearing in the SERPs. In the most extreme cases, depending on how your products are set up in your CMS, one color variation going out of stock could trigger all instances of the product to appear completely out of stock. Not only will you lose sales, but your traffic will likely take a hit as well. As a best practice, continually check the appearance of your schema markup on a regular basis. If worse comes to worst, you can always temporarily disable the schema until you get a handle on the situation. Challenge 3: Product variants & canonical tags One common issue that many websites face is URL confusion (i.e., multiple products or pages competing against each other in the SERPs). In the case of many e-commerce sites, these are often products which are identical but differ in color. An easy way to mitigate this issue is to use color swatches on each page and ensure that when a color is selected, it does not generate a dynamic parameter in the URL. Color swatches allow for consumers to browse all variants of a product — and since only one URL is created, you reduce the chance of duplicate content. Source: Nordstrom.com While this would be deemed a “best practice” rather than a strategy, there are still some websites that create individual URLs for each different color of a product and each different size. For instance, if you offer the same shoe in red, gray and black, and it’s available in six different sizes, imagine the number of pages that would generate! (Hint: It’s a lot) Another common scenario that can have major implications is the following: Product goes out of stock and page is taken down, and product comes back in stock and new page is created. Firstly, let’s address the fact that taking down a page or removing it from your navigation does NOT mean it’s gone. In fact, that page is likely still live and being indexed, especially if it’s in your XML sitemap. Without a solid canonical tag strategy in place, you will inevitably create pages and pages of duplicate content. If this is an issue for your brand, it’s essential to make sure you have canonical tags in place. Ideally, you should try to have one product page where users can select multiple colors. In the event that the product goes out of stock, you could change the on-page messaging to say something like, “This product is temporarily unavailable — check back soon” rather than remove the page in its entirety, especially if there is a slim chance you will remember to reinstate it. Challenge 4: Never-ending sales Whether your brand plays in the luxury space or targets the bargain-savvy shopper, you understand the power of a good promotion. Sales generate a sense of urgency which entices consumers to buy now. With many retailers trying to take advantage of unofficial holidays (think “national ice cream cone day”) it’s easy to get overzealous with your promotional calendar. Running promotions too frequently can cause consumers to become immune to your messaging and tune you out. Rather than take out their credit cards, consumers are more apt to debate the necessity of the purchase — and even delay the sale if they know they can expect another in a few

Essential Search and Social Media Promotion Tips for News Content

Essential Search and Social Media Promotion Tips for News Content Lee Odden on Apr 17th, 2017 Content Marketing, Online PR, Social Media Serena Ehrlich BusinessWire Marketing and PR greatness must include equal parts intelligence, creativity and a focus on results. But there’s one more important ingredient necessary to help you stand out: enthusiasm. Serena Ehrlich from BusinessWire has all of these characteristics and at the Digital Summit LA conference, she shared a cornucopia of practical advice about media relations and promotion of news content with zest and gusto. Here are a few highlights. Serena EhrlichIt’s common sense and supported by research that industry media is a source of news and trusted information for buyers of every kind. Consumers and journalists have changed right along with the technology used to discover, consume and engage with content. Therefore, it’s essential that marketing and communications professionals empathize with their audience to understand their preferences and give them what they want. Because newsrooms have shrunk and journalists are overwhelmed with bad pitches along with a news cycle that runs 24/7 it’s a challenge to stand out. But no fear, you can really increase your chances of successful media pickups by following a few news release tips from Serena: Include usable support data Be interesting Be relevant to target audience Be catchy Include quotes Include multimedia Of course, outbound media pitching isn’t the only way journalists can be exposed to your news content. Search engines and social networks can deliver thousands of additional readers that are actively looking for information that your brand has to give. That means making sure news releases and newsroom content is optimized for the right keywords and promoted through social media. Serena suggested using Google Trends to find keywords to add to your release headlines to increase opens, which is great. You can also use tools like keywordtool.io, Moz Keyword Explorer or if you have a Google AdWords account, their Keyword Planner. (we’ve covered press release optimization extensively here in the past in case you want to venture that way) Serena brought up that since journalists are increasingly judged on the traffic or page view performance of the articles they write, be sure to let them know when they cover your story, that you will share what they write across your social networks. If they know you’ll help promote the article, they might be more inclined to use you for the story and again in the future. When it comes to social media promotion, Serena stressed the importance of earning trust. How do you do that? Here are her tips: Share smart content: – News releases and coverage – New ideas – Stats and data – Ask provocative questions Share happy content: – Case studies – User generated content shares – CSR content – Employee life Share negative-fix content: – How can you solve this pain point? – Share consequences Social networks are where people spend their time, period. And to engage with customers, brands need to be where the customers are. To help you promote your news content where people are actually spending time, Serena shared these tips for LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and YouTube: LinkedIn Tips: Professional Competition – Link with coworkers: Trigger LinkedIn’s algorithm by sharing updates simultaneously – Include contact information in your release: LinkedIn promotes people mentioned in news releases – Use LinkedIn blog opportunities to reach new audiences and drive traffic via company blog teaser – Write content that includes the 6 Ws, you, lists, hacks, psychology, careers, talent and multimedia Twitter Tips: Smart, Clever, First – Format: 118-character count – include a headline, link, comments – News content types to post on Twitter: Stats, releases, coverage – Don’t forget to use relevant hashtags – up to 3 – Include up to 4 images, GIF or video – Join hashtag chats – Add Influencers to Twitter lists – Create RT DMs groups – people you can reach out to for mutual sharing of content Facebook Tips: Personal, Smart, Visual – Increase Your Reach – Facebook parses content by type – Facebook matches word use in updates – Use free audience targeting – Upload video in early afternoon Use Facebook Live for reach: – 10 minutes in length – Include surprise material – Comment pinning pending Be sure to try Facebook Notes for the SEO value Reddit Tips: Passionate, Smart, Informed – Reddit has a large audience with 45,000 targeted communities – Share links to drive traffic, but be sure to participate with the Reddit community first to build relationships (don’t just dump your links) – Only share relevant information Instagram Tips: Fame, Recognition – Instagram is a visual social network, so be sure to use high quality or interesting imagery – Showcase behind the scenes, physical products, physical locations – Highlight employee engagement On Instagram, be sure to: – Sign up for a business page – Drive traffic via URL in profile or Stories – Be descriptive – Use hashtags (up to 30) – Like other people’s images to increase interactivity Pinterest Tips: Showing off + Smart – Pinterest is the most aspirational network – It is very focused on B2C, but there are opportunities for B2B – Extremely high CTR On Pinterest, be sure to: – Fuel the smart board – Be hyper-targeted – Be descriptive – Use hashtags Snapchat Tips: Unvarnished Truth – 71% of Snapchat users are 18-34 years old. – Users have an average of 15 friends – To maximize your impact on Snapchat, buy a geofilter! On Snapchat, be sure to: – Provide VIP/exclusive access to content – Be highly relevant with real time discussion – Include offers and coupons – Consider takeovers YouTube + BizWireTV Tips: Video News – 33% of YouTube searches are for news – YouTube TV is launching in 2017 On YouTube, be sure to: – Create content for all sales funnel steps – Determine what your audience watches in long form and shorten it – Create a video of text

Online Business Marketing Strategy For The Holidays – 5 Must-Dos

Are you prepared for the most difficult online vacation marketing season to date? Online shopkeepers with a bulletproof marketing strategy stand to triumph large-scale. As a good Internet Marketing coach, here at JoseFrancOnline, we’ve been preparing our clients to rise above the competition and get the results that they want this season. So, there are five tips-off to make sure that you cross the Q4 finishing line in splendor. Make adaptations for increased costs and competition while selling your makes in quarter four. Assess past historic trends on a commodity by commodity basis and optimize for future commodity inclusions. Render specials such as free ship for early vacations such as Black Friday and Thanksgiving. All kinds of patrons use all kinds of machines to find what they are looking for. So, you want to residence yourself in as many of those as possible. Then you want to optimize your makes so that you can be found for the keywords they are sought for. On pinnacle of that you wish to allocate enough fund make room for a seasonal CPC growths so you aren’t left behind contestants. Policies in compliance. Make assured that your up to date with all the current plans of the engines in the mart never submitted epitomes that have graphics, watermarks, or expression in them. The pricing that is submitted in your data feed has to befit perfectly with the pricing on your page. And make sure that you’re not utilizing any unauthorized expression including health or medical says or things like free ship in the language of your commodity datafeed. Take care the content and the SEO on any website and take care of the contents that’s in your datafeed. Now, when you optimize for those slice you want to pay attention to the commodity, the gathering, and the application. How’s the commodity use, who uses the commodity, and what is the product. Those are five tips-off for success this vacation season. Do you have a tip-off you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you.   Purchase helping products here!   As found on Youtube

Ad Tracking Success

It’s no secret that there’s a lot of money involved with affiliate marketing. This is only true however, for those who are serious and hard working on their affiliate program. The biggest part of succeeding depends on your perseverance and determination. Even the best of affiliate programs won’t prosper if you don’t build the business on a solid foundation. Nothing happens if the banners and links you place on a website just decorates the pages. The affiliate must convince visitors to click on the banner or link then proceed to the program to buy products. Affiliate marketing can be easy if you have planned your campaign well and have taken the right steps towards success. Choosing the right product and designing your website with banners and the right material are keys to making things happen. An ad tracker is a software program that will allow you to trace and monitor every click that is made by visitors through your referral link. To make things even better, you know exactly where you placed the link. You can either use a service provider or purchase ad tracking software. With ad trackers, you can monitor the progress of your campaigns, even advertising offline. If you have several affiliate accounts, this tool can be very good to have. Each and every decision about Affiliate Marketing you make should be well grounded in facts. By using an ad tracker, you’ll be able to generate traffic reports for your personal sales page. Armed with the proper knowledge and an ad tracking software program, you’ll have no problems succeeding in the affiliate marketing world. It can be tough to get started – although once you start making money you’ll be glad you took the chance! My Best Wishes José Franc Admin of josefranconline.com

Selling through your Home Business Online

Consider Opening an Online Home Business. It is easy to open an online store just sell through the more trusted websites. Online shopping is becoming a mainstay of American commerce and more people are comfortable with making purchases from Internet Home Business. If you have something that you are passionate about selling, Before you start an online home business, do some research online and check out your potential competition. If you have a business idea in mind, it is worth the time and effort to see what else is being sold in your category of products. If you have no idea what you want to sell, you’ll also want to head online to search out what would be most profitable to sell. When you make the selection of what you are going to sell, remember to think a niche. A niche is a small category of products that meet the needs of a specific group of people. Your online home business shouldn’t have a “Wal-mart” approach where there is a little bit of everything for everyone. Online commerce is all about small categories of interest. There are so many things to choose from, you have more success when you cater to a small and specific group of people. The best place to start with finding a niche is thinking about your own interests. When you sell to a niche that you know well, you are more likely to know what products will be of interest to those people. You can sell to your clientele based on your own experience. Moms Working in a Home Business Many Wahms start an online home business because they have homemade products to offer. One example is handmade baby clothes and cloth diapers. Many Wahms have found success with putting their sewing skills to work and selling their wares online. Other popular handmade online stores include bath and body products, candles and gift baskets. This does not mean that you can’t have online store success if you don’t make your own products. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of Wahms who have success by opening stores stocked with store-bought inventory. Whatever your choice, whether handmade or store bought, there are many options for hosting your online store. These options depend on how comfortable you are with web design. Many companies, like Yahoo, offer store websites that are very user friendly and simple to set up. They can cost anywhere from $30 to $200 per month for the storefront services. Many Wahms also find success with eBay stores, which allow them to sell in auctions or in a fixed price format. Look At All Of Your Options Before You Choose Your Online Home Business Hosting Remember that the quality of your hosting will reflect the quality of your business. The last thing you need is your entire website going down due to cheap hosting. The best choice is to find a reputable host that will provide you with a storefront and hosting for a reasonable price. Don’t try to pinch pennies on this aspect of your business. You could end up out of business in no time. Once you’ve found a place to host your online home business, you’ll need to drive internet traffic to the home business. One of the easiest ways is to trade banners with other Wahm online home business. Many Wahms support each other in their online efforts. This form of networking is a great way to introduce your products to customers who already look to support Wahms. You can also advertise using pay per click advertising and work on your website so that it increases in page ranking for certain search terms. Keep your customers coming back with an easy to navigate website, simple ordering techniques and good customer service. Even though most of your business will be done online, it’s a good idea to get a business phone line and put that number on your website. This way customers can feel confident in purchasing from you because they know they can speak to a real person if there is a problem with their order. If you follow these tips you will be successful selling online no matter what type of online home business that you open. My Best Wishes José Franc Admin of josefranconline.com