Tuesday 24 October 2017

7 SEO tips for better Google Image search results


The present day SEO has been on a roller coaster ride. From the enthralling excitement to the utmost fear; this field is full of varied experiences. Being a digital marketer, you have to play the game carefully in order to gain maximum.
This field is undergoing a change. One has to observe clearly and follow smart tactics in order to gain maximum out of SEO practices.
Well,

Talking about SEO in a nutshell – it includes content and that too optimized one. Be it text, image, gif or anything, it has to be according to the SEO guidelines. You might be surprised to know that:

Google Image Search is one of the prominent search criteria that searchers use to search for the content they are looking for.

We have come up with some of the SEO tips for Google Image Search Results. Here you go:

1.     Choice of image
While including image to your content, you should take care of the quality of your images. Images look more appealing than the text.

Also, finding the right type of image for your content is vital. Nowadays, a lot of online platforms are there where you can find your taste.

Therefore, adding quality image will increase product or service ranking on search engine results page.

2.     Optimize chosen images for the web

We all are aware that large-sized image overloads web page, thereby increasing the loading time of the page. Are you thinking of compromising with the quality of the image by reducing the size? Don’t do this. There are a lot of online image resize tools available.  You can easily reduce the size of the images without compromising on the quality.

You can also use file format converters to reduce the size of the images. For example, JPEG format to PNG format. JPEG format is heavier than PNG format. It is recommended most of the time to use the images in PNG format. Some of the tools that can be used are TinyPNG, CompressJPEG, etc.

3.     Informative names of image

When you download an image from your camera, give a new, descriptive name to your downloaded image.


For example, the above image could be named as: IMG_ RoseBlossom_2017_01.

When search engine will crawl the image, it will include the description of the image while indexing the website.

4.     Use of Alt text

Alt text, short form for alternative text, is used to highlight the identity of an image when the mouse cursor is hovered over it. It shows the text to all users when there is problem rendering the image. It is also very helpful for screen readers who help the visually impaired to navigate the web.  Also, in the alt text you can add brief description of what the picture is about.

Well, you can add other properties to your image; but alt text is enough to rank better in the SERPs.

5.     Segregate thumbnails and main images:

As preferred, the thumbnails have to be possibly very small in order to reduce the page loading time. You have to compress the images to be used as thumbnails. In doing so, you might have to sacrifice a little bit of picture quality to ensure increased speed. You can make use of online picture editing tools like Pixlr, PicMonkey etc. which can do most of the things that Photoshop can do.

6.     Image sitemaps:

A sitemap consist of list of pages that are accessible to crawlers or users. Google encourages using image sitemaps. This gives the search engine required information about your image that is available on your website. Also, it allows search engines to find even those images loaded by JavaScript code like in slider galleries.

7.     Social media integration:

Social media plays a vital role in the overall SEO process. Therefore, you should integrate your images to social media platforms. The handiest way is to add social media buttons to your website. Also, you can use the image sharing platforms like Pinterest and ask your users to share your images.

Further, you can use ImageSharer by SumoME. It allows visitors to share the images on your site and give link back to you.

Over to you

I hope you found the above tips really helpful for better Google Image search results. search engine results page.

I would like you to share your views in the comments below.

Monday 28 August 2017

5 Software Testing Trends to watch out in 2017

So far, we have done half way through the year 2017. Along with drastic changes and improvements in the trends of designing and development, software testing trends have also seen major movements. With a structured design and increase in virtualization, multiple new aspects and elements require a detailed consideration. Consequently, software testing has become a challenge for quality analysts. 


These are the top 5 software trending trends which you need to watch out in the year 2017:

1. Improved Focus on Security Testing

Mobile users have surpassed the desktop users. Since mobile app security testing has become the headliner, quality analysts need to equally focus on mobile app testing. 

Trends show that ordinary users do not click on the links that appear either strange or spam to them. They have become more cautious in downloading files too because of threat of viruses and cyber attacks. Here, quality analysts from software testing team look through the small print to get an apparent understanding of the app’s permissions and usage of safety protocols. Such protocols comprise of two-factor authentication. 

Practically, there are still considerable security loopholes for mobile app testing. So, quality analysts need to develop a sight while testing the threats that can potentially result loss of personal and financial information. 

84% of cyber-attacks aimed to penetrate the application layer.  Checkmarx, 2016

2. Independent software testing

It might sound strange, but this trend is in high demand. Software testing is gaining more attention. And hence, many organizations exclusively depend on professional QA companies to hire testing services. Such expert services from skilled QA resources help businesses in terms of both technology and process. As awareness also, it is advisable to have a well built and futuristic quality assurance process to maintain their edge in the industry.

3. Test automation growth

Increasing test automation coverage is the front line of the immensely growing use of continuous testing and incessant deployment for software companies desiring to stay competitive. It implies that quality analysts need to identify bugs quicker and consequently overall test turnaround gets quicker. Especially, during each cycle of development automated integration testing needs to be executed flawlessly. 

4. Test design automation is gaining position

Automated testing design has become a talk of the town since the past two years. Based on the anticipations of many experts, there will be a significant progress in automated test authoring and its design. Because testing design is still mostly done manually, engineers are diverting their core focus from how to automate process of execution to designing programs; and from manual designing to automating test generation. In the nearest future, the entire testing process might completely get automated, all thanks to Artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, machine learning, etc..

5. Payments through Mobile phone 

When it comes on Mobile e-commerce, till now traditional payment methods were popular; like online card payment or PayPal. The year 2017 has shown diverting trends in payment alternatives such as, Samsung Pay, Apply Pay, Microsoft Wallet, and Apple pay among others on the basis of the internal proprietary protocols. Hence, as a quality analyst, you need to know this gradual shift. 

Conclusion

The above mentioned top 5 software testing trends are must to know for each and every quality analyst. Staying updated with the trends will help you to excel your skills of software testing.

Wednesday 9 August 2017

How to exercise Social Media to build your personal brand?



Social media is an impressive platform where you can build your personal identity, establish a social reputation, and mark your presence in your industry. Building a personal brand on social media is one of the best ways to become a thought leader in your industry.


Your personal brand is what others tell about you when you leave the room. It’s your professional reputation.
Dorie Clark

Brands often work vigorously to influence social media with the intention to boost online visibility and revenue. They want more clicks, more likes, and they want to create a positive user experience.

But what happens when a brand is a person instead of a company? When it’s just you, you need to take a different approach to growing your brand through social media. Since over 90% of customers trust information from people they know when making a purchase decision, building personal connections might be the most effective way to develop trust and authority with your audience.

Here are nine ways you can use social media to make that happen.

1. Find the Right Groups
Facebook and LinkedIn both offer great opportunities to join groups focused on specific topics or industries. If you can find groups that line up with your area of expertise, then you’ll be able to share that experience and build authority around your personal brand.

Industry groups are good bets, but they might already be overcrowded with your competitors. Instead, think outside the box and find other groups where you’re likely to find your audience.

2. Keep the Image Consistent
Across all of your social profiles, you have to maintain a certain consistency with your brand. When people want to learn more about you, they may search for you on a number of social outlets. Presenting yourself in a consistent manner helps you control their perception of your personal brand. You can damage an otherwise impeccable reputation if one of your profiles shows up with content or images that don’t represent you well.

3. Engage Regularly
Building a brand takes a lot of effort, and it should be treated like a job. Every day, you should be sharing and producing content. Adjust the frequency and types of content based on the audience presence.

We already post a lot on the social accounts for Web Profits, but I still make time to post on each of my personal social profiles.

“A once-weekly Twitter post or monthly Instagram photo are not going to accomplish much, if anything,” writes Michael Noice, founder of Entrepreneur Coach. “For this reason, it’s best to focus on two or three carefully chosen social networks and try to be active on them, rather than posting sporadically to a half-dozen.”

4. Diversify Your Content
I recommend crafting a communications strategy for your personal brand that includes an editorial calendar and a diverse content plan so that you won’t resort to publishing the same types of articles every single day.

Be sure to include images, videos, articles, and even questions. I see a lot more reciprocal engagement when I change up the type of content that I post daily.

Another benefit is that this diversity prevents you from oversharing your own content. Even if your own content is fantastic, your followers will appreciate when you source and share authoritative content from other people.

5. Study Influencers
Connecting with and even collaborating with influencers is a smart way to build your personal brand and get yourself seen, but it takes time. You have to develop a relationship with influencers before they’ll want to work with you.

To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You
Tom Peters

Tuesday 18 July 2017

Digital marketing trends that are expected to impact social media

Digital marketing is a constantly evolving field. Each day lot many discoveries and researches happen. Daily new things pop up and adds something new and exciting element to your existing digital marketing strategies. Evolution in digital marketing trends takes place like a wildfire that change the entire existing scenario into something completely different picture.

We are also a digital marketing agency based in Perth. And we are also not an exception here; we have to keep making changes in strategies to stay updated with the latest trends. In this article, let us focus on how changing and evolving digital marketing trends can have impact on the way social media works for search marketers.

Here we present the Top 5 digital marketing trends that will change social media:

 Digital Marketing Trends impacting Social Media

1.  Increasing fever of video content


Let us imagine an advertisement of garments, a plain textual format advertisement in newspaper and the same advertisement in the form of audio and video on television – which one will you like more? The answer is obvious – you will surely like and understand more the advertisement which is in audio-video format. Likewise, all brands are now focusing on video content. It is one of the most anticipated SEO trends for the year 2017 and beyond. This will also impact social media marketers and their strategies. There will be more focus on Instagram stories, Facebook LIVE, and Snapchat stories considering the importance of video content.

2.    Booming mobile advertisements


The entire world is moving to mobile from desktop. Mobile devices are booming. All online businesses are taking care of responsive website designs that can be well operated from mobiles.  According to Forbes, “the effectiveness of mobile video content and advertising is set to reach new heights in the year ahead—particularly now that mobile video is also rising up to take a central role in influencing and enhancing the purchasing process.”

3.    Rising usage of mobile messaging apps


To grab the advantage of mobile marketing, marketers are taking huge benefits of mobile messaging apps. It being convenient to access from any place and at any time, there are higher chances of conversions. Mobile messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WeChat, WhatsApp, Viber, and Google Hangouts are used by social media marketers these days. And, this usage is going to increase in the near future.

4.   Changing market place for buyers – Social Media eCommerce


As mentioned in the above point, traditional market places are rapidly replaced by social media ecommerce and online sites. People have more preferences of online shopping or offline shopping.  Even prior to making any purchase decision, most of the people prefer to surf online world (including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and Google Plus) to check reviews and experiences shared by other users.

5.  Others – Virtual reality, Short life Content, and Shift towards Instagram platform


Virtual reality (VR) paves new way for marketers. It allows experiencing and feeling a product/service, theme or scenario without any sort of direct physical impact. Online marketers can dig huge opportunities with the help of VR since it can improve consumer engagement experiences. 

In addition, along with growing attraction of Snapchat stories, Facebook LIVE and Instagram stories, there will be a trend of short life content which will disappear after a certain time on achievement of its content marketing goal. Not just visual content, but it might also apply to textual content.

Last but not the least, an interesting shift has been experienced and that is a gradual switch from Snapchat platform to Instagram platform. This will also pushes major brands to shift their focus towards growing social media platform.

Closing thoughts


There are some interesting statistics fetched from most popular articles. Have a look at few eye-grabbing social media marketing statistics:
  •  A report on TechCrunch found that Snapchat Stories view counts dipped by 15-40 percent after Instagram Stories launched, and posting volume declined as well.
  • As per Verge, there are approx 11,000 active Facebook Messenger Bots and over 300 million people actively use audio video calling features on Facebook Messenger.
  • As per IAMwire, 31% of online shoppers responded they are using social media specifically to look for new products to purchase
  • As per Shopify, an average of 85% of all orders from social media comes from Facebook
  • WhatsApp has a 70% opening rate that implies you are almost guaranteed exposure of your message if your customer is in your WhatsApp list.
  •  78% of local-mobile searches result in offline purchases. (Search Engine Land, 2014)
  •  20% of search queries on Google's mobile app and on Android devices are voice searches. (Search Engine Land, 2016)
  • 72% of marketers say relevant content creation was the most effective SEO tactic. (Ascend2, 2015).

The entire above numbers cumulatively suggests that changing digital marketing trends are going to have thrilling impact on your social media marketing.

Friday 30 June 2017

Booming Market of Affordable SEO services in Perth

Day by day online world is expanding its foothold in each and every industry, each and every segment – be it commercial or non-commercial. However, big or small your business is, you must be having at least a website to demonstrate your online presence. And once you create a good, aesthetic and informative website providing details of your business, you tend to promote in on the internet.

You need the help of various social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google plus, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and others. Open an account on all possible and relevant social media platforms and keep your profile active with relevant and consistent posts to spread awareness of your business in front of target audience.

Do you think it is enough? No, simply not. You need to put in extra efforts to get listed your website on top of search engine page results. And for this, you need to have an SEO in place.



Demand of affordable SEO services in Perth

Due to the solid competition in the field of internet marketing, professional SEO services are gaining popularity among the companies at a global level. Each and every business will definitely want to get noticed for their offerings and affordability. Perth is also not behind in this race. According to recent stats of Government of Western Australia, by virtue of its population and role as the administrative centre for business and government, Perth dominates the Western Australian economy, despite the major mining, petroleum and agricultural export industries located elsewhere in the state.

Why businesses need SEO services in Perth?

It is obvious that any online business can boost its chances of sales and profits by directing traffic (both organic and paid) on its website. However, not all companies can always afford paid search traffic. It is costly! In addition, PPC results are though instant, they are for short-term. PPC can give you run time customers and boost your sales for specific time period, for which you have run your campaign.

However, to drive traffic organically is difficult and takes a good amount of time as well as patience. This is only possible by hiring a professional SEO company who provides SEO services at affordable rates. You need such companies since they hold expertise in search engine optimization.

How SEO services in Perth are proved as affordable?

Perth has a good amount of start-ups. And one of the biggest challenges faced by start-ups is the budget of digital marketing activities. Not all can afford PPC at the very first place. But of the companies can invest in data driven marketing i.e. SEO. The major reason behind the success of SEO services providing companies in Perth is the low operational cost.

Hiring a profession SEO company or a team for promoting your online business and optimising your website will eventually increase the visibility of your site on SERPs. You will start getting organic and real traffic. By hiring a professional SEO company for promotion of the website, clients can get the visibility of their site increased. SEO companies in Perth use several techniques, which include:
·         Database of a keyword rich content with a right placement of keywords
·         Optimization of meta tags
·         Optimization of H-tags
·         Quality link building
·         Excellent content creation

All these activities result in high ranking of the website on SERPs.  Most of the SEO companies in Perth also provide website designing and developing services along with entire digital marketing package.

Conclusion

SEO is, though slow, a consistent and dedicated process of optimization. It provides long-term results. Once you are in top of SERPs, though your keyword ranking fluctuates, you will not slide down to the bottom on SERPs. This is the biggest benefit of SEO over PPC. Apart from this, the return on investment is accelerated and long-term position in the search engine is gained.

Without SEO, your website existence is of no use. Similarly, without website visitors, your online presence is of no use. So, you definitely need SEO services. 

Monday 12 June 2017

Content marketing trends that are dominating the year 2017

In the world of digital marketing, content marketing and SEO are the two most significant elements. Both the activities act as a backbone to each other. SEO is incomplete without content marketing and vice-versa. Lot many articles have focused on SEO Trends of 2017. In this article, let us talk about the content marketing trends that are ruling the year 2017.

content marketing agency perth


Most prominent content marketing trends

Content marketing is not a new phenomenon; however, in this fast-paced contemporary world, it has gained much more importance. Certain trends have continued same as the past year and new have emerged which are predictably going to stay for years and years.

1. Personalized content experiences


Personalization here means attention on one-to-one.

survey by Forrester revealed that 92% of marketers said that interest in personalization had increased in their companies.

Personalization largely depends upon the data you have. You should know more about your customers to provide them personal touch. If you know them by their names, emails or company URLs, you can send them more personalized emails. You can gather such data by offering freebies like an ebook. On downloading this ebook, they will fill out all the necessary details which you want. Accordingly, you can build your database and can start a lead nurturing campaign.

2. User generated content


According to a research, 85% of the people have trust in the content generated by other users.

Nowadays, all content marketers are highly focused to incorporate user-generated content in their digital marketing campaigns as part of their content marketing strategy.

User generated content is essentially any content created by unpaid contributors.
- Curata

Such action has so far helped them in many ways. Few of the benefits comprise of: strengthening brand/customer relationships, building SEO value, intensifying social reach and increasing followers on social networks, building customer trust, increasing sales, and boosting brand authenticity. As a conclusion, user generated content is more trusted over brand created content.

3.  More creative with the format of content


Gone are the days when people used to read plain and bland content. This is fast-paced world; nobody actually has a time to read even long emails. More and more focus is emphasized on variety of content like visual content and voice content. Content marketers are trying numerous varied formats including Infographics, videos, webinars, and others for story telling to their target audience.

According to a CMI research, 65% of senior marketers believe visual content is a core means for transmitting the brand’s story.

4.  More focus on value by considering length


As discussed in the earlier point, none really likes plain textual content. Content should be enough pleasing to eyes. Other than visual content, one more focus has been brought into limelight i.e. long-form blogs composed of lots of headings, sub-headings, images and important statistics. This not only provides them value but also help your SEO. Such sort of content will make your visitor stay on your site for little longer time.

Closing thoughts on content marketing trends


These are not the end of trends list. There are many more trends in practice. However, we have curated the most prominent trends for you. Incorporating these content marketing trends will surely boost your SEO and increase your brand value. Remember, as Lee Odden has said, content is not just king, its kingdom.

Friday 19 May 2017

Know how to deal with Google updates and their Impact on SEO

Many SEO updates were declared by Google in the year 2016. The entire updates have a significant impact on your SEO in the year 2017. Search marketers have to ensure which update significantly affect their SEO strategy. These updates can help a user in understanding changes in rankings and organic website traffic, and ultimately improve SEO.

These are the SEO Updates that published by Google in 2016.

 SEO Updates 2016

How to Deal with Google’s Algorithm Changes:

In the world of SEO, the only constant thing is “change”. Each year, in various SEO communities, SEO strategists discuss the updates and its probable impact on the various sites.

Alike you all, I am also going through a lot of the changes and they do affect my site. Meanwhile, let us have a look on what the basic strategies and common tips are, for the every webmaster, once a big update is announced.

1.     Don’t Take Stress:

As we know, every algorithm update is stressful in terms of their impact on the website. However, here I want to advise that do not take too much stress and not to feel panic about the Google SEO updates. Though Google do inform about the update through the Google Webmaster Central Blog, it never provides a detailed list of changes. Panicking about something, we know little about, is hard to work on it.

2.     Impact of the Update:

Once the Google release an update, you have to keep a tight eye on the update. Analyze what the update is, how it affects your sites now, and what impact it can have in future. It may be tempting to instantly act upon the update and make changes to either your site or your process, but that could be a mere wastage of your time and work. The smart way out is to wait and watch if your site has really been impacted and if yes, till what extent.           

3.     Research the Resources:

Once the analysis part is over, you have to make a note on the basis of the entire researches what you want from the Google and how Google can offer it in a better way. Research a lot on the entire possible changes, their possible best solutions as required improvements, and accordingly craft your SEO strategy. 

4.     Let’s start:

When you have done all the things then you can start your work as per Algorithm changes. However, while making amendments to your site after an update, ensure you make one change at a time. That way, you can see the impact of the amendment and have a better idea of what is actually going on.

Conclusions

All the Major search algorithm updates can be scary. However, if you are doing SEO in a right way— e.g. creating good quality and user-focused content, earning links from credible and niche-specific sites, and others — you should not be in a worried state. Conversely, if you are doing some unethical or incorrect activities which are subjected to penalize by Google, Google is following you!