Monday, February 4, 2013

What is Responsive Web design?


In the modern era, every website should have web & mobile design versions to reach max audience. From 2011 onwards usage of tablets has increased a lot. If a design isn’t compatible with tablets or netbooks then another version should be designed to reach tablet visitors. 
Instead of having different website designs for web, mobile & tablets, we can have one design which is compatible with all devices and browsers i.e. Responsive Web Design. Responsive Design itself changes automatically based on the width and height of the visitors screen. Irrespective of design, it majorly depends on screen resolution. 
Following are couple of valuable resources for Responsive Web design:
Most of organizations and professional blogs already started to have responsive designs for their sites. In future every website owner will prefer to have responsive design. It’s time for designers to learn responsive design tips to have a bright career.
Few Responsive Design Examples:

How to measure SEO Effectiveness?


Every website SEO performance and results can be measured through following three factors.
1.       Monitor Keyword Rankings
2.       Analyze Monthly Visitors
3.       Track Leads & Conversions

1) Monitor Keyword Rankings
Initially every website will be targeted to few keywords which are relevant to respective website niche. SEO Professionals should make sure that “respective landing pages of the website should be indexed & ranked for targeted keywords”. If your website is started ranking for few long tail keywords in the first month itself, it means “your SEO team is doing the right job”. Also month over month keyword rankings positions should be improved. With the help of following kind of report everybody can measure their SEO effectiveness.   
Note: This will not happen in all cases, because few of the niches are highly competitive, so it will take little more time to get results.
2) Analyze Monthly Visitors
Every website visits can be tracked through Google Analytics. It’s free tool offered by Google, also simple to install & activate on website. Usually for a new website minimum two months’ time required to receive traffic from search engines. From 3rd month onwards every website will start receiving little traffic and it should be gradually increased month over month. Of course, traffic increase in every month is a difficult task, so at least existing minimum traffic shouldn’t be decreased.
If your SEO team is continuously adding new content pages then the traffic should be improved. So keep an eye on website traffic and measure your SEO team efforts. Ask your SEO team to provide monthly improvement stats and reports for your reference.
3) Track Leads & Conversions
Your website should have Phone number, Email ID and Inquiry box if you are offering services. If your site is an eCommerce portal then it’s important to have online payment facility, so that visitors will purchase your products through online. 
Compare month over month stats whether you are receiving any inquiries or sales from your website or not and calculate ROI. Sometimes cannot expect immediate ROI through SEO efforts as SEO will give good results in longer run. However make sure to push and keep little pressure on your SEO team to have max output. 

Google Local Listings with Zagat Rating in Google Plus


Google made some changes to Local Business Listings from May 30th 2012 onwards.

What are the changes?

  1. Google Local Business Listings has a new look i.e Local listings are integrated in Google Plus.
  2. Each local business listing rating system has been improved using “Zagat Rating” system.


What is Zagat Rating?

Zagat Rating system will have 30 point scale. Mostly this system used for hotels where customers will rate food, décor and service. It seems that Google has applied the same rating system to all of the local business listings in Google Places. However Google is displaying only the total score instead of individual Zagat Score of each service. Refer following screenshot for a better idea.
Following is the example of a restaurant along with Zagat Rating Scrores:


Difference between Old & New Local Listings:


Friday, June 15, 2012

4 Health Tips for Professional Bloggers

gym. Or spandex. Exercise is just movement, and it’s up to you how to move. I think group fitness classes are really fun and motivational.

You might not. How about a peaceful walk through the park? Or riding a bike to pick up a few groceries? Exercise doesn’t need to feel like exercise. Pick something that you enjoy doing and do it as often as you can. Aim to do a movement activity at least 30 minutes a day for at least four days a week. You’ll end up feeling happier, sleeping better and writing with more enthusiasm.

4. Practice breathing and relaxation

Sounds silly, right? When we get stressed, we sometimes actually forget to breathe. Our breaths become short and shallow, just stressing out our bodies even more. Stress then contributes to weight gain or more of a struggle in weight loss.

When you feel yourself tense up at a project or client, just sit up straight in your chair, close your eyes, and breathe. Count to five on your inhale, then count to five on your exhale. Breathe like this for at least 10 breaths, or until you feel more calm.

There you have it. The healthier you are, the better you can conduct your daily blogging chores with confidence and less stress. How about you? Do you have any practical tips you can add to the list?

8 Cool Tips for New Bloggers

New Bloggers in 2011 have got their job cut out for them! The Internet is a crazy place and there are people out there saying crazy things. How do you know who to believe? All the scams, schemes, and push button software that have promised to make you a millionaire.

Luckily most people are now coming to the conclusion that the only true way to make money blogging is through hard work and dedication.

Here are some important tips that I have gathered on my journey.

Tips for New Bloggers

Limit your learning

New Webmasters often get caught up in learning how to build websites and how to make money blogging. The best learning experience that I can recommend to you is to get in there and do it! Do not try learning how to blog in theory when you can simply start a blog or a website today!

The first thing I would do is create a free blog and write about my learning experiences for the day.

Do not buy Internet marketing course after IM course. If you failed at the first course then go back and finish it.

Scrap that attitude

If you want to be successful at blogging you will need to get rid of a few built-in attitudes that might be hindering your performance.

  • I will do it tomorrow
  • I don’t know how to do it
  • I am not smart like you
  • I do not have time
  • I have a degree, I am better than you
  • I am an expert on every subject
  • No one is making money online

A bloggers attitude is sharing, caring, networking, and cool. Be that person.


Create a schedule

Working on a computer on the Internet can be very distracting as there are e-mails coming in, comments to answer, and interesting articles posted every second. These distractions can delay your success and productivity time by possibly years. This is why I recommend that you create a timetable or schedule when participating in this business.

I have a timetable for each day. It starts with opening emails and answering comments and moves on to other particular tasks. If I have committed my self to working I need to accomplish my set tasks for the day.

Use a paid WordPress theme

You can build a website on practically zero dollars but buying a paid WordPress theme is something that I do recommend for new bloggers. The reason I say this is because you can get free support with your purchase.

It can be hard choosing the best WordPress theme for your website but if your theme comes with backup support this will save you hours of frustration. Most new bloggers can spend weeks and weeks customizing their blog theme. However if you purchase a WordPress theme you can simply go and ask a question in their forum and they will help you.

I have experience in HTML, PHP, and CSS, but why would I rack my brain when I can get the solution to any problem using my WordPress theme support.

Do not wait for the traffic

Website traffic does not simply appear on your blog. You have to get out there and work very hard to get website traffic. I could narrow the two main traffic sources down:

  1. Hard slog promotions to get traffic
  2. Search engine optimization to get traffic

The both these ways a great, but in essence, you will need both to succeed. For example when you have a new blog you will need to go build back links to your content via guest posting, article marketing, commenting, forums, and so on.

Some back linking brings traffic, but most back linking does count the search engine optimization. Therefore while you were generating traffic, you are also performing search engine optimization.

Never stop promoting

There will come a time when you have done so much promotion; you will see traffic coming for free from the search engines. People see this as a sign to relax, however you need to keep going and build the momentum. You need to keep the ball rolling when your website is in the growing stages.

Do not neglect SEO

Webmasters often get onto a new promotion method and run with it. This could be guest posting or article submission, which all eventually leads to search engine optimization. However you need to finish the job, by performing onpage search engine optimization at your website.

A simple explanation of Onpage SEO is:

  1. Target a keyword for each page or post
  2. Make a list of related keywords (LSI keywords)
  3. Find some good longtail keywords
  4. Create a killer title using your main keyword
  5. Use the keyword and LSI keywords in the tags, description
  6. Use the main keyword in the first and last line of your article
  7. Use H1,H2,H3 tags using the keyword and some LSI mixed in
  8. Have the main keyword density around 2% (some say more)
  9. Use LSI keywords throughout the article
  10. Add longtail phrases scattered in only in appropriate places

If you follow all of these instructions above, I guarantee that you will have a post that is full of information and really covers your subject. This will also make your posts longer an easy to read.

Never pretend

Never pretend that you are successful and making money when you in fact are not! Don’t be a know it all when you actually know nothing at all.

How will you ever become successful if you are already pretending to be successful?

New bloggers have 100% more to learn, 100% more distractions, but still have a 100% chance to succeed. It’s all up to YOU!