Responsive Web Design: The New Frontier in Online Business 2015

If you are currently not on responsive web design you are losing big time.  With responsive design, your website simply adapts itself to whatever device it is being viewed on.  If on a PC it fits the large screen perfectly and on a mobile device, such as your phone, iPad or Tablet, it fits that smaller screen perfectly as well. The idea is to make the viewing experience the absolute best it can be making it easy for visitors to your website to navigate easily with little to no need to pan, resize or scroll.  It also makes for easy reading which means that visitors are most likely to stay on your site longer.

Image courtesy of 2nix at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It’s safe to say that just about everyone with a computer or phone has access to the internet.  In fact, statistics show that most people enjoy reading magazines and newspapers online among other things.  Having a resposive website means that anyone looking to find your company online can easily switch from a desktop or laptop to a mobile device without losing the experience they were enjoying on the larger screen.  Let’s take for instance, a busy businessman who needs to look you up in transit from one business meeting to the other.  A great viewing experience of your site will give a much better impression of your company than if he had a difficult time scrolling, panning and resizing just to read what you have on your site.

So why is responsive web design working so well? There are several reasons:

• It is very flexible.  You do not have to build a regular site and then build a mobile site.  You build just the one website and it works like magic on every other device.  This is a great benefit because you only have to maintain the one site which can be viewed on thousands of screens, all different sizes, seamlessly, for a better user experience.

• Another reason why responsive web design is doing so well today is that it does not need much adjustment or maintenance in order to work with other browsers that may be coming up in the future  . 

• With responsive website, you can also get a response on time, location of the person and whether or not they have read the particular article or viewed the said website. For more informationa about resposive website design, you can read it more from Huffington Post about, "The Importance of Responsive Design for New Websites", by Eric Fischgrund.

Any smart business person will note the exponential growth of Smartphone’s and mobile devices in the last 5 or so years.  In fact, it is said that by the year 2015, desktop internet traffic will be overtaken by mobile traffic.  Getting yourself strategically placed for this mobile takeover is essential for future success and having a responsive website is just the beginning.

Whereas, many business owners have focused on getting their desktop experience to the height of perfection, it has been found that most people tend to have an enhanced view of those brands that give them a great mobile experience.  You can use wordpress ThriveThemes Content Builder to make the creation of your responsive web design much easier. 

Who Says Guest Blogging is Dead? Guest Blogging is not Dead

This is the first time I have updated my blog since May of 2013. Well, it’s time for me to share what I have learned with you guys!Before I jump into the main topic, why “Guest Blogging is not dead” ! I will explain first why this issue has been widespread to many of us SEO’s. It is indeed pretty alarming to us, that’s why I decided to write this article to clear it out that there’s no need to panic!

I think most of us knows that Matt Cutts stated on his twitter account in his latest blog post regarding, "The decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO."

Matt Cutts stated the decay and fall of guest blogging.

It was surprising that Matt Cutts stated this on his blog:

Okay, I'm calling it: if you're using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop. Why? Because over time it's become a more and more spammy practice, and if you're doing a lot of guest blogging then you're hanging out with really bad company.

It was actually a warning to us SEO’s that we need to think beyond guest blogging as an SEO link building method because many online marketers nowadays are opting to guest blog posting as their number 1 link building method. They don't mind that they are producing low quality articles or duplicate content, posted to unrelated and low authority sites, just for the sake of link building, to improve their Google rankings that could lead their website penalized by Google.

Warning! Stop Guest Spamming! :D

He also added: It seems like most people are getting the spirit of what I was trying to say, but I’ll add a bit more context. I’m not trying to throw the baby out with the bath water. There are still many good reasons to do some guest blogging (exposure, branding, increased reach, community, etc.). Those reasons existed way before Google and they’ll continue into the future.  

The Downfall of the Large Guest Blogging Network

In the recent blog post of Barry Schwartz from SearchEngineLand regarding, “Google’sMatt Cutts: We’ve Taken Action On A Large Guest Blog Network”.

As Matt Cutts previous blog post warned the SEO community that, “guest blogging is dead” in the previous statement above. He actually took down the largest guest blogging network (MyBlogGuest.com). But he did not specify which network was hit by the update.

He warned us but you did not follow! LOL!

Here’s the screenshot of  what Matt Cutts says on his Tweeter Account:

Matt Cutts took down a large guest blog network.

Think Beyond SEO Link Building

 

Matt Cutts was clear enough with his statements that we should not abuse Guest Blogging as an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy instead, we need to focus more on creating blogs for guest posts as a means of:

• Branding
• Increase your relevant traffic
• Build credibility in a specific niche
• Exposure to new audience
• Authorship
• Community Building

You can check more about guest blogging with purpose here.

Come to think of it! When you write write yor own article for guest blog posting campaign, just don’t think of it as an SEO link building method, just think beyond SEO as what I have mentioned above, and what Matt Cutts really want us to do when it comes to guest blogging. 

The 6 purposes of guest blogging (above mentioned), are the true meaning of Guest Posting not link building, for your information. 

Therefore, if we simply follow the the rules of guest blogging, then you have no reasons to worry about because I’m sure you will be successful with you marketing campaign as well as, improve your website and brand reputation.

If you enjoyed reading my post please feel free to leave a comment below…

Learn More About Social Media Marketing by Checking Out These Tips!

Do you already understand the power of social media marketing, but you are still unsure how can you implement it into your business plan? Social media is always opening doors for new companies, but if you approach it incorrectly it won't be as advantageous as you would like. You can follow this social media marketing tips and learn the proper way to create a standing company via quality media.

Let all of your existing customers know if you are going to start being active in social media. When your existing customers follow you on most social media websites, all of their followers will know about it. You should not underestimate the power of this free advertising. This is basically a referral which can really help your business. To help a new business get accustomed to social media marketing, you should start out small. Starting out small will give you the opportunity to target the customers that are looking to purchase the products you sell. You don't want to promote your site in too many places at first because you need to know what works and what does not.

Understand that Technology is Driving Social Media and Vice Versa

Every day that social media becomes more popular, technology races to catch up, which prompts social media to become more popular. Know what the technology is offering your customers in their social needs so that you can take part in talking WITH them, as opposed to talking AT them.

Sign up for Twitter. Get as many followers as you can, by signing up for blogging sites like Tweepi.com. Using a site like this makes it easier for people to find you on Twitter. Tweet regularly about other bloggers. You should also automate your tweets so they aren't forgotten about by your followers.

When working with social media marketing, you should always remember that you are speaking to individual people, and not the masses. The tone of your postings should be directed towards personal level for maximum success. It takes some practice to develop the right voice, but over time and with practice you will be able to communicate effectively.

Answer any Comments and Questions on your Social Networking Websites

Log into your sites multiple times per day, and be sure to review all notifications. You can also elect to receive emails each time you have a new notification. Keep in mind that everything you are writing as a comment or a response to one person can be viewed by anyone who goes to your site.

Tools such as Tweepi and Twellow are integral for social media marketing. Using these tools, you can more easily identify users in your target audience as well as those users with the most influence. You should be able to establish a list of people you should follow, hoping that they will subscribe to your updates too.

Remember that this will take time. It takes time to create a truly winning social media campaign. Prior to announcing major social media efforts, take the time to get as many people as possible signed up to your Facebook and Twitter account. Always mention the social media websites in any marketing that you do for your business.

Attract More Followers by Offering Coupons and Special Offers

Your consumers can feel like they're in a special club where they get discounts from their profiles, and that can boost your profits with extra sales. Do some research with regard to social networking. You may have a profile on Facebook already, but keep in mind that professional use of social media differs from personal use of these sites. There are many resources available on the Internet to help you.

It is important to be involved in the newer large social media sites for effective marketing, but do not forget about the older sites. Social websites like MySpace and Craigslist have huge followings, and you will be missing out on a large market if you ignore them. Social media is extremely competitive and the older established sites still have market share

When writing a social media blog for your business, remember to add Twitter. You can easily place a re-tweet button at the top of your blog. This will allow Twitter users to easily share your blog on their site. Think of all the potential that one button can have on your marketing efforts.

Comment on other social media bloggers' posts frequently. The term social media implies interaction and communication. A great way to promote yourself is to engage others in dialogue that blog within your niche. This can quickly turn into a great networking opportunity.

Social media is an extremely vast and powerful tool. It should be something that all business owners squeeze into their marketing plans, despite their other advertising routes. It will work perfectly with any options you have already started developing and won't require an entire rework of your core scheme. However, it is important that you follow the advice given and always focus on reaching a better future.

P.S. Feel free to leave a comment below if you enjoyed reading my blog. Thanks!

Evaluating Your Guest Blogging Opportunity

Indeed, that guest blogging is a very effective method to acquire high traffic and leads to your website because it will give your links more exposure if the blog has an enormous amount of traffic. But most of the guest bloggers are abusing this kind of technique, by submitting to hundreds of low authority blog sites. You might end up of wasting your time and efforts that could lead to your site get penalize by Google, if you get caught doing this kind of practice.

So, the best thing you should do when submitting a guest post, is to check the over all value of that specific blog. The traffic, social media activity, the number of subscribers, etc. Also, make sure you will create a unique and engaging content before submitting it so that, your article will never get disapprove by the owner of that specific blog as well as it could give more interest to your readers to comment on your guest post. One of the benefits of guest blogging is to help increase your domain authority.

So, you must act right now and start submitting your articles that are related to your niche, and see the info-graphic below as your guide on how to evaluate your guest blogging opportunity.

This info-graphic originally appeared at BuddingGeek - Where to submit your guest posts?

P.S. Please feel free to leave a comment below if you enjoyed reading my blog. Thanks!